The One-Armed Executioner (1983)

The One-Armed Executioner (1983)- * * *

Directed by: Bobby A. Suarez

Starring: Franco Guerrero and Jody Kay













Ramon Ortega (Guerrero) is an Interpol agent living in the Philippines. His professional and personal relationships have never been better, including his marriage to his hot blonde American wife Ann (Kay) - until one day tragedy strikes. A gang of super-evil baddies kill Ann, destroy his life, and, to add insult to injury, cut off one of his arms. Naturally, Ramon then spirals into alcoholism and depression. After threatening to kill all his assailants, his boss Wo-Chen (who can only be described as an Asian Tommy Lee Jones) states “you’re not ready” (and insensitively warning “hands off”), and puts him on a grueling training regimen. Now back in fighting shape, Ramon sets off to make good on his promise of revenge. But will he complete his mission what with his handicap of having, you know, only one arm? Find out today!

In our world, at least, The One Armed Executioner is a video-store classic. Producer/co-writer/director Suarez had previously lit up drive-in screens with gems like Cleopatra Wong (1978), but now he’s firmly in the VHS era. He would follow that up with American Commandos (1986) to further reinforce that. TOAE was originally released on VHS in the U.S. on the great Paragon label. As great as that was, it’s nice to have the Dark Sky DVD which offers a cleaned-up, widescreen version, and it’s paired up with the aforementioned Cleopatra Wong as a double-feature. 

The tone of TOAE is much darker than the sprightly Wong, as befits the revenge movie style. Seeing as how revenge movies are among our personal favorite genres, this can proudly sit with the others in our revenge collections.

The movie gets off to a bang, features plenty of fighting, shooting, and blow-ups, and, of course, a classic, extended training sequence (in the woods, naturally). The music by Gene Kauer is killer and keeps you engaged. Even some guard towers get blown up, and this isn’t even an Exploding Hut movie. As the baddies are attempting to flee in their speedboat towards the end of the movie, we see there’s a swastika emblazoned on it. 

Apropos of nothing, as if the baddies weren’t bad enough, we’re now clearly shown they have a Nazi Boat. What follows is a helicopter-boat chase (Nazi Boat, specifically) - did you expect to chase it with another boat? But this isn’t your average heli. It also has a large logo emblazoned on it, but it’s not a swastika. Oh no, these are the good guys. Naturally, their logo reads “The Small Fry”. It looks like the sign for a restaurant. Presumably all restaurants in the Philippines have their own attack helicopters. At least that’s what we believe based on what we’ve seen of their country.

It truly was a different time, so do check out the Dark Sky DVD. You get two sides of Suarez: the fun side and the dark side. And you can hark back to the days of hunting down revenge movies on VHS, so it’s a win-win.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty 

Deathfight (1994)

Deathfight (1994)-* *1\2

Directed by: Anthony Maharaj

Starring:  Richard Norton, Chuck Jeffreys, Tetchie Agbayani, Cris Aguilar, Joe Mari Avellana, Franco Guerrero, Karen Moncrieff, and Ron Vreeken









 While in Bangkok on business, young Jack Dameron’s (Norton) parents are brutally gunned down. He is then raised by Papa Fung (Avellana) along with Fung’s son, now Dameron’s “step brother”, Chiang (Guerrero). All the while, Dameron immersed himself in the ways of martial arts.

Now, in the present day, Dameron is poised to take control of the lucrative family business, Bangkok Mercantile. He has a successful wife (Moncrieff) who is a lawyer, and things are looking up. But Chiang is an evil, corrupt man who, rather than climb the corporate ladder like his step brother, felt more at home staging illegal underground Deathfights. While the audience for these matches enthusiastically holds their cash in their hands, punchfighting isn’t enough for Chiang. He wants the corporate control as well. So he frames Jack for murder. Jack spends some time in prison, befriending Wiley (Strzalkowski). Once out of jail, Jack is on a search for the truth - but it’s going to involve putting his lifetime of martial arts training to use.

Here we have another Maharaj/Norton vehicle, and judging from the VHS box art, they were trying to make Richard Norton a more noticeable name for video store patrons perusing the shelves. While he certainly deserves it, he somehow never reached the level of the Seagals and Van Dammes in America. 

For Norton’s character, Dameron, shirtlessness is a way of life. His shirt, gratuitously or not, is either off or coming off, and there’s even some pre-Transporter (2002) shirtfighting. Rather than Guerrero’s character Chiang being the real nemesis to Dameron, it is in fact Chuck Jeffreys as I-Ron. Sure, his voice sounds dubbed and his hairstyle is ridiculous,  but the fight between Norton and Jeffreys is by far the high point of the film.

Deathfight needed a bit more energy, and actually it could have used some more punchfighting. Interestingly enough, Chiang calls it “Shoot Boxing”. This as opposed to Shootfighting. I know, it all gets very confusing. That’s why everyone should call it punchfighting. That would make all our lives easier. But there are other action bits as well, such as the classic barfights and fruit-cart style car chases. There’s a shootout at the end with a unique shot of a baddie falling out a building, seen from a unique point of view. That was noteworthy.

The movie is filled with “just bubbling under the radar” names such as Cris Aguilar from Savage Justice (1988), Raw Target (1995), some Bloodfist movies and Blood Ring (1991), Strzalkowski, also from Savage Justice and Raw Target, appeared in the other Norton vehicle Raiders Of The Sun (1992), and Ron Vreeken as Manson, who appears some kind of cut-rate Matthias Hues, was in Norton’s Under the Gun (1995), as well as Hurricane Smith (1992). Avellana and Guerrero are well known to B-movie fans, having been in countless productions, Filipino and otherwise.

Deathfight is so-so in most departments, but the presence of Richard Norton raises the watchability level considerably, and the fights, especially the Norton/Jeffreys brawl, raise it further.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

American Commandos (1985)

American Commandos (1985)-* *

AKA: Back To Hell

Directed by: Bobby A. Suarez

Starring: Christopher Mitchum, Franco Guerrero, Willie Williams and John Phillip Law








"They're in a rage for justice!"

American Commandos is an interesting hybrid of two favorite B-action genres: the revenge movie and the back-to-Vietnam tale (with a bit of the old "ragtag team" thrown in for good measure).

Chris Mitchum plays Dean Mitchell (I know, quite a stretch), the one gas station attendant you don't wanna mess with. He's a taciturn Vietnam vet who doesn't say very much. When some stupid baddies DO decide to mess with him, they end up in a world of hurt. They try robbing his beloved gas station, and then they go after his family. Big mistake. Chandler, Speck and Buck (the evildoers' names) live to regret the day they went after him. So ends the Death Wish (1974) section of the film.



When "The Man" also known as Brady (Ken Metcalfe) who works for the government, gets wise to Mitchell's technically-unlawful revenge methods, he leverages that against him so that he can send Mitchell to the "Golden Triangle" to destroy a drug operation there. He literally asks them to "blow it up". Radical! ("You don't have a license to kill anymore" Brady tells Mitchell. Mitchell disagrees.) So he teams up with his old buddies Kelly (Law), Brutus (Robert Marius), Somsak (Guerrero of the Richard Norton classics Kick Fighter (1987) and Cross Fire (1988)) and Creeper (Williams). They have an awesome tank, much like the one in Bulletproof (1988) (But in this movie no one gets called a "Butthorn" - make of that what you will) that has missile launchers, hidden guns, cool armor and a space for a motorbike to bust out! Will this team survive not just the countless amounts of people shooting at them, but all the twists and turns in the plot as well?

We love Chris Mitchum. He closely resembles his father and also shares his trait of being a man of few words. It's a good antidote to the overly-verbose post-Tarantino movies of today. The character of Creeper dresses in sleeveless beer shirts (Olympia and Budweiser) or no shirt at all. He also has some cool slang ("Why you payin' cool green for a snap job?"). Speaking of cool clothes, John Philip Law - another one we always love seeing - has an extremely awesome T-shirt that simply says "AMERICA RULES!" I guess that's for when he goes to foreign countries so the baddies know who to shoot at.



So while the movie is an entertaining time, with the revenge movie section, the Golden Triangle section where they shoot millions of thugs and attempt to dismantle the heroin operation (all this when they're not getting numerous "massages" at the local whorehouse run by one of the heroes), there is one scene in particular that stands out - the one that is REPEATED! Yes, probably by accident, about an hour into the movie we see the same scene twice. Literally. This editing-room mistake makes for some laughs and extends the running time quite unnecessarily. It's really weird.

So if you want some kind of cross between Death Wish and Codename: Wildgeese (1984) starring some familiar faces, you'll surely like American Commandos.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty & Brett

Kick Fighter (1987)

Kick Fighter (1987)- * *1\2

AKA: The Fighter

Directed by: Anthony Maharaj

Starring: Richard Norton, Benny "The Jet" Urquidez,  Franco Guerrero and Steve Rackman











In "Bangkok today", a young, scrappy street kid named Ryan Travers (Norton) accidentally kills a gambler and goes to jail. Five years later, he gets out of Thailand's Tan Pun prison and is a new man (literally - there are rumors that Kick Fighter was stitched together from different sources, which would explain why at the beginning, Norton, supposedly playing a nine year old, DOES look younger and has longer hair, and when he emerges from prison, looks like the Norton we all know and love).

When gangsters blow up his parents' antique store, and his sister (Erica Van Wagener) falls ill with a heart condition, Travers needs money. Unfortunately his skills as a dockworker are no longer needed anywhere around town. So he puts his fighting skills to use in outdoor shipyard brawls. He soon rises through the ranks of boxcar joes thanks to his friend August, a character similar to Punchy from Fist Fighter (1989). Travers is scheduled to fight Jet (Urquidez of Bloodmatch (1991) fame, portraying himself?) in an actual ring. The match is dubbed the "Killer in Manila". Hm. But gangsters kidnapped his sister and want him to throw the fight. Will Travers emerge victorious?

It seems AIP invented "kickfighting". As we all know, they released the classic Night of the Kickfighters (1988), and turned this movie, originally just called "The Fighter" into "Kick Fighter". It seems to have been some sort of branding, but I don't think it took off. No one says "Oh, I saw that great kickfighting movie last night". This particular kickfighter is pretty entertaining, but it just seems like regular fighting, where the fighters use their arms and legs. It's not like Soccer-fighting where you're not allowed to punch.

There are some interesting characters and situations, such as the cage match with the hulking brute Bodo (Rackman), who is similar to the beast from the aforementioned Fist Fighter. This toothless dum-dum's big move is to stand on Travers' chest. Travers also fights in a private match in a closed nightclub to only a few men. Who is the man in the ski mask he must fight? Could it be his friend Chai Wat (Guerrero)?

It's bad enough Travers must endure the locals constantly calling him a "yankee" (are Australians yankees?) but he doesn't really train, he just sits around in a surly mood drinking beer. That is, until the training sequence with the kickfighting master, also a beggar on the streets of Bangkok.

So here we have another team up of Norton with director Maharaj. They must have been buddies, because the later team up of the two, Crossfire (1988), is very similar (it even seems to have some of the same scenes), but Crossfire is more professionally done. Kick Fighter is like a cross between Fist of Glory (1991) (a "yankee" in Bangkok forced to fight; dingy film quality), and Massacre (1985) (basically ditto), and what's interesting about that is that David Heavener is listed as a producer of Kick Fighter in some sources. That might explain the similarity, especially in some chunks of the film that may have been stitched in.

Interesting note about the credits: This one referee must have been pretty famous, because he gets a lot of fanfare: Carlos "Sonny" Padilla, Jr.

And this is a real credit from the end of the film:

"In real life, Benny "The Jet" Urquidez is a true undefeated world champion kickboxer with a ring record of 57-0 with 49 knockouts. The final bout in this film is dedicated to all of his opponents who wished they could have a similar result in their bout with The Jet."

I'm sure his opponents appreciate that.

If you are a fan of Richard Norton or AIP product, you will like this exercise in silliness. If not, you may be really confused.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty