THUNDER WARRIOR II (1987)
aka THUNDER 2
Directed by Fabrizio De Angelis
Columbia Video VHS
THE FILM
Actually, the screen says Thunder 2 so that should be the other way around. But, Thunder Warrior 2 is a better title. Thunder 2 feels kind of odd.
Thunder lives on a reservation near Santa Fe. He's a strong, relatively silent, Native American gentleman. He has a pregnant wife/girlfriend and a good buddy, who's a lawyer. Thunder becomes a cop, gets framed by the Head Deputy (who hates him from, I think, the previous movie) and ends up returning to the Police Station and tearing it up in the end. (Thunder is played by Mark Gregory of 1990: The Bronx Warriors. Trash! Is now Thunder! And, he's pretty awesome.) Oh yeah, it has a really weird (as in City Of The Living Dead weird) twisteroo at the end. And, it moves at a Very Steady pace.
Sometimes I don't think I understand action movies at all. You'd think they'd be the easiest to pull off. Give us the set-up and then give us the action. Why do so many of them go down such strange avenues? I thought (from the VHS box) that Thunder 2 would be a Rambo: First Blood Part 2 type thing. Surely Thunder 1 would have done First Blood so 2 would cover Rambo 2. But, it's more sort of a revenge-type movie that has the sort of weird structuring I see in a lot of Italian films. The sort of structuring that can work in horror films but leaves me making a strange face with other genres.
Thunder is an excellent deputy. Events go along rather leisurely, Very Steady. Then, in 5 minutes, he's framed and put in a penitentiary doing hard labor for five years. It's a whirlwind spin of story. Exactly what I expected the plot to do…but not quite that fast. And then, other things happen, Very Steady, and then he's driving a stolen car around and using a crossbow to take out the Police. It's Madness but, apart from the Framing To Prison portion, Madness slowed down…Even the big stunt sequence moves calmly. Thunder grabs a rope dangling from a departing helicopter. For about 5 minutes, he hangs from it as the helicopter flies through the mountains in the desert, ending at a body of water. He's hanging from it but he's in no hurry. He'll catch the bad jerks or he won't.
I haven't watched First Blood in a while but was it this calm? I felt like they may have been afraid that they'd lose me so they kept everything slow, even when it was crazy. Yes, as per most Italian films, the film is strangely put together…shifting from bit to bit with little regard for what came before. (Where'd the drug dealers go? What was that transvestite about? Was he about anything?) But, the strange pace kept me watching. I knew what was going to happen but I never knew quite when it would get there.
Oh, some stuff blows up and some guys get shot. That's fun.
AUDIO AND VIDEO
Audio was fine. Japanese subtitles right under (more or less) the black bars. The picture looked OK. A little wobbly here and there but nothing bothers Thunder.
EXTRAS
Thunder will come to your house and punch your Mother.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Confused, slightly. If you have all the elements assembled and it's a sequel, why don't you let your film go crazy? Why does it feel so controlled? I don't expect innovation from Italian action films but I expect crazy action. As I mentioned, all crazy action here is done in a very calm manner. Maybe my Gramma was the Focus Group? "It goes too fast. Why go so fast? Slow it down. And, have some ribbon candy." "You got it, Marie!"
To think that Thunder Warrior 1 may have gotten responses like "Oh yes, make another one. But, calm it down!" makes me smile. I haven't watched the first one and I don't think I will. I've plucked some action out of time and it's more interesting than entertaining. And, no, I'm not going to watch part 3.
But, I will be at Thunder Con in Detroit on August 3-5. Look for me!
— Dan Budnik, 07.07.11 |
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