BLIND FURY (1989)

 I wanted to like this movie being a Rutger Hauer fan and all but I shoulda known better since this is basically a remake of the Japanes Zatoichi films all American-ized for big round eyed people to enjoy. It starts out OK with some Vietnam-flashbacks and the story of how our hero gets blinded and then trained to be a superhero-like swordsman. Somewhere along the way though it turns very comedic and stupid like many 80's movie do and this is where I realized this would not be the classic I had hope it might be. Also there's an annoying kid character which is another big minus. technically these elements may exist in some of the original Zatoichi films but I guess I'm able to overlook them there since they seem like much better-made movies to me whereas this seems just like so many other dumb 80's action movies. Still looking for another Rutger Hauer movie besides BLADE RUNNER where his acting talents are not wasted.
 For ninja fans you do get Sho Kosugi showing up for the big finale although he does not don his ninja outfit here.

HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN (2011)

 So this was a pretty cool fake trailer for a fake movie that was created for that fake Hollywood exploitation movie GRINDHOUSE that Tarantino and Rodriguez spewed out a few years ago. That's quite a bit of fakeness going on! The idea to make it into an actual feature seems kinda silly to me so I've put off actually watching it up until now. The movie itself just plays more like a newer Troma film than anything from the 70's or 80's which I assume was the original idea. There is plenty of blood and gore with heads being ripped off and people being ridiculously smashed to bloody pulps over and over which I'm sure will make the little children smile. At a certain point in the film everything starts to feel like some kinda weird fantasy film and then finally these two medieval MONTY PYTHON-esque armored villains show up and the total cartoonisation is complete. Watching Rutger Hauer star in this is also a bit sad considering that he's so above this kinda thing but I guess good for him getting a paycheck to not really act all that much and just be covered in fake blood and gore for a while. While it's OK for one viewing I doubt I'll ever need to re-watch this and like most newer films trying to look like older better cinematic experiences it's fairly forgettable and doesn't come close to reaching that goal.



The best part of this movie is the opening credit sequence because it's the theme from MARK OF THE DEVIL which is a classic!:

This works way better in it's original 2 minute version!: