Sunday, November 27, 2011

Action Movie Reviews-Blind Fury(1989)



Starring Rutger Hauer,Terry O'Quinn,Brandon Call,Nick Cassavetes,Meg Foster and Randall"Tex"Cobb


Tagline "Not Bad For A Blind Man"


Ok let me start by saying i'm a big fan of this film every since seeing it when i was a kid...It's one of those movies your either love or hate you can't really be in the middle about this movie.


The story begins with Nick Parker(Rutger Hauer) blindly stumbling around a aftermath of an ambush in Vietnam, he's taken in at a nearby village where he learns how to us a sword.


Fast forward twenty years to Miami where Nick has made his way, he's looking for his old war buddy Devereaux (Terry O'Quinn Pre Lost) he goes to his home where he meets Devereaux's wife(Meg Foster in a cameo) and her son Billy(Brandon Call Pre Step by Step). 


He we get a little bit of a backstory on Devereaux, who at this point has moved to Reno, Nevada and has gotten himself mixed up with some drug dealing Casino Owner, sometime has gone by at the Devereaux house, two cops along with Slag(Badass Randall "Tex"Cobb) show up and all hell breaks loose.


Parker shows off some of his sword play by killing both cops and nearly killing Cobb(of course that would be too soon to do that), who manages to get away and live to fight another day, because this would be the first of 3  face offs that these two would have throughout the movie.


In the mist of everything Mrs. Devereaux is killed, which forces Nick to take Billy(who doesn't know that his mother is dead at this point) across country trip to Reno to meet up with Devereaux, but along the way they are tracked by Cobb and his goons, most notable are Lyle(Nick Cassavetes) and Tector(Rick Overton)  their names are a reference to the Wild Bunch no doubt here, and they add some of the comic relief through the movie whenever they show up.


As things get tougher for Nick and Billy as they narrowly escape harms way a few times, they form an almost father/son relationship, this is where Hauer shows that he's a great actor if he hasn't already shown it many times before, but also these somewhat tender moments hurt the film(which it's speak more on later).


Blind Fury is one of those very entertaining movies that kinda slipped through the cracks back in the late 80s/early 90s. because even though this movie is supposed to be this action/martial arts/samurai type of movie it lacks a few things that sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. its to funny in some spots and not as serious as it should've been in others.


Rutger Hauer gives a great performance(like i said earlier) as the blind swordsman, my only problem with him is that the Nick Parker character should've been alot more serious than what he was.


He had almost a Charlie Chaplin/Jackie Chan approach to one of his earlier fight scenes and his sometimes goofiness takes away from the movie.


The relationship between Nick and Billy was bit of a letdown as well, It came off as if Billy was really Nick's son with how he looked and sometimes acted told Nick as if he really was his father, I don't know if the Filmmakers realized this or not, or if they didn't know exactly where to here or if they really didn't care, which for me made some screen head scratches.


I believe if the Nick and Billy relationship was done a better more believable then it would've made the overall movie better.


Now most people i know have barely if ever heard of this little gem of a film, its very entertaining, as a few pretty good sword fight scenes and it has Rutger Hauer, but what more can you ask for.

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