Blood Chase (1991)

 

Blood Chase (1991)- * * *

Directed by: Teddy Page 

Starring: Andrew Stevens, Karen Sheperd, John Light, Tony Chang, and Mike Monty

Eddie Nichols (Light) is the lead goon in a tight-knit group of baddies. Five years after committing a payroll heist, they're still looking for a man named Ross Anderson (Monty), because they believe he has stashed away the money. Unfortunately for Ross's daughter Cheryl (Sheperd), the goons have trained their sights on her, believing she knows the whereabouts of the cash. As a police officer highly trained in Martial Arts, she has no trouble fending off the baddies. But, for extra security, she involves her husband John (Stevens), and the two of them join forces to fight the thugs and get to the truth, step by step, about her father's whereabouts. Whether it's dealing with family lineage, or beating up bad guys, will this be the ultimate BLOOD CHASE?



You know you're in for a treat when during the opening heist sequence, the baddies are stealing bags of money with the words "U.S. Government Property" painted on them. Said bags wouldn't be out of place in a McDonald's commercial as they're stolen by the Hamburglar.



You've gotta love Teddy Page. He knows how to open a movie with a bang. Blood Chase is remarkably consistent throughout, and is a lot of fun to watch. To have Karen Sheperd and Andrew Stevens fighting alongside one another was a great choice, and the pairing works very well. Thankfully, Page doesn't skimp on the punching, kicking, shooting, and blow-ups.



Blood Chase has all the faces we know and love from these Philippines-set actioners, such as Jim Moss, David Light, Jerry Beyer, Mike Monty, Nick Nicholson, Eric Hahn, Henry Strzalkowski, and others. During this period of time, these men must have been consistently working in the Philippines film industry, and it's like a stock company of familiar faces that fans of the genre have grown to know and love. The addition of Shepard and Stevens only sweetens the deal.



You know the main baddie is evil because he yells at a waiter about his navy bean soup at the Pink Patio restaurant. He also has a classic evil laugh. There is a lot of funny/silly dialogue that is amusingly dubbed. The fight scenes are energetically done, which is amped up even more when the film is sped up slightly, giving it a Hong Kong-type feel. That's further reinforced with the character of David Hung (Chang), a very mysterious individual who helps out Cheryl and John in their quest.



Also, when something dramatic happens, there is a dun-dun-dun! musical sting on the soundtrack. You know it's not a revelation, just a dramatic moment, because the third note goes down instead of up. In yet another movie highlight, when John and Cheryl seek help from a police captain named Brad Murdoch, he has quite possibly the biggest nameplate on his desk that we've ever seen. He really wants visitors to his office to know that he is Brad Murdoch.


Blood Chase is recommended overall, but especially to fans of Philippines-set action outings, Karen Sheperd, Andrew Stevens, and anyone who enjoys navy bean soup.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Ultimax Force (1987)

 

Ultimax Force (1987)- * * *

Directed by: Willy Milan

Starring: Kermith Simpson, Ray Uhen, Audrey Miller, Vivian Cheung, Eric Hahn, Arnold Nicolas, Henry Strzalkowski, Jeremy Ladd, Vincent Giffin, and Patrick Scott

After an opening onscreen crawl informing us of the sad situation involving POW's in Vietnam, we then cut to the Ninja Society of California, where there is a ninja showdown involving extensive sword battles. After the ninja fight, the sensei, Hiroshi, informs the ninja school that a particular POW, Captain Dave Morgan (Simpson), is being held in 'Nam by the evil Col. Minh (Uhen). Morgan's sister Audrey (Miller) has, in their parlance, "invoked the code". In other words, the unbreakable bond between ninja warriors to never leave a brother behind.




So these 'American Ninjas', led by Chris Burton (Nicholas), but including Dick Foster (Ladd), Mike Dobson (Giffin), and Bill Norton (Scott) - the last of which has a thick New York accent not entirely befitting of a ninja as we know them - fly to Laos to link up with local contact Lloyd Mitchum (Hahn). Then our heroes are off to Vietnam to fight the baddies and rescue the POW's. Along the way, they meet a helpful woman named Phoung (Cheung), the daughter of a local woman and an American serviceman. She wants our ninjas to help her escape the hellhole she's living in now and escape to America. Will our group of heroes - presumably the ULTIMAX FORCE we've been hearing so much about - complete their mission?

Ultimax Force is a film that poses a question to the audience. That question is: what is Ultimax? And, secondarily, how much Ultimax can you stand? It doesn't have to be much, as the film is only about 80 minutes long, as most movies should be.

During that time, we get a lot of jungle action, as this is a solid entry in the Philippines-shot jungle genre. Huts will explode, but the coolest aspect of Ultimax Force is that our heroes are in full ninja regalia as they mow down baddies with Uzis. You don't see that every day. They also make full use of their ninja abilities to hide and remain unseen until just the right moment. And then more baddies wearing triangular rice paddy hats get blown away with ninjas firing their machine guns. It works.

What would a film of this sort be without the time-honored barfight, at least one scene of Prerequisite Torture, and a synth-based soundtrack? Also like a lot of movies of this kind, it slows down right before the climax and there are some doldrums right before the explosive finale. You wouldn't think something with this brief a running time could actually slow down too much, but it does.

Maybe because there's not much plot to speak of, and what plot there is happens to be a "go to Vietnam and rescue the hostages" scenario we've seen countless times before. But we don't watch these movies for new and different plot innovations. We watch them to see huts explode, and, if time allows, to watch white guys in ninja getups blast people with automatic weapons. Which happens in spades here, so we're more than satisfied.

It does have a very cool ending, and, speaking of cool, our ninja team leader Chris Burton (Arnold Nicholas's only screen credit to date) wears a ninja headband in his casual, off hours, even when he's out of ninja uniform. Additionally, you know this is a Philippines-shot film because it features Henry Strzalkowski, and it was written by Joe Mari Avellana.

We weren't familiar with director Willy Milan, but hopefully we'll come across more of his work in the future. However, we should count ourselves as lucky we've seen this movie. It was on our must-see rare movie list for many years, because its release history has been spotty. In America, it was nonexistent, as it never received a VHS or DVD release. Sometime in the early 2000's it received a release on the Pegasus label in Europe, and another release as its German title Ruckus 2.


In the end, despite some slow moments, Ultimax Force is well worth seeing. It mixes the sillier aspects with the more explosive bits in a pleasing way. Fans of the jungle genre will most likely get the most out of it.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty