…”…I’m just a bill…yes, I’m only a bill…and someday I’m
gonna be a law-w-w-w…oh, I hope and pray that I will, but today I am still…just
a bill…”…
…no secret that in order to make for a good exploitation
film…and we’re focusing on a pretty wide window, here…from the thrifty ‘30’s,
to today’s torrid toddies…the classic exploitation film…well, it just has to
have something to exploit, right?? A gimmick, for lack of a better word. And
over the almost 100-year span of cult film history, gimmicky exploitation films
have come and gone…the less enduring gimmicks, fading as surely as a film fades
to black, but permanently (…hey, I’m looking at you, ‘Terror of Tiny Town’,
‘Zaat’ and ‘Lambada, the Forbidden Dance’, just to name a scant few of the come,
gone and went’s)…
…however, it also stands to reason, with history having often
dictated…given a well-written rendering, some dynamically memorable visuals
& direction…not to mention, some accompanying performances to play
alongside…well, that lil’ ol’ exploitation gimmick may well unexpectedly find
itself nurtured and transmogrified into a genre…proudly and shamelessly rearing
it’s muck-crusted visage into the sun…or rather onto the flickering screen of countless
anytown cinematic cathedrals, indoor and outdoor…again, and again, and again…
…now, we could spend ages here, b’wees ‘n’ goils, listing
and covering an endless string of cult film genres (…and truth be known, I
almost did, in my own imitable, albeit exhausting fashion…uh, can you say
‘rewrite’??), from dusty grungy biker flicks, to the sex-crazed,
catfight-instilling antics of women behind bars…from the far-northern offerings
of Canuxploitation (…that’s Canada, to you and me), to the deep-southern reaches
of ozploitation (…oh, those Aussies), and as far easterly as the home of the
giallo, the spaghetti western, and the Nazi camp nasties…all of this and more,
as seen from the countless steamy, musky-smelling aisles of the pitch-black
inner-city grindhouse theater balconies…as well as the equally steamy and
musky, albeit cramped confines of a free-wheein’ convertible at the local
drive-in…
…interestingly enough, some of the more obscure and lesser exploitation
genres were based directly upon specific things, specific places…even specific
people and characters. Which might explain why in the ‘spaghetti western’
genre, we had countless, though mostly un-associated films on the Django and
Sartana characters. Chum-chompin’ shark-spoitation, anyone?? Down home,
red-necked, okie single-toothed, Kentucky- fried Hixsploitation?? Can’t get
enough perversely sacrilegious, virginal deflowering Nunspoitation, right?? And
leave us not forget about ass-kickin’, chop-socky Bruce-sploitation, or even
Travolta-sploitation (…the single movie of which I covered herein, some years
ago, with “John Travolto... da un insolito destino”…also known as “The Face
with Two Left Feet”). Or how about…well, this…
…Anna, a young and attractive single mother, having abruptly
moved from the deliberating scourges of inner-city violence, to the seemingly
peaceful, safe and reassuring country outskirts with her invalid,
wheelchair-restricted daughter, is nonetheless made uneasy and cautious, when
she receives mysterious packages in the mail, containing very large sums of money.
As the packages continue to arrive, with no sign of who and where they might be
from, Ana becomes gradually aware of an ever-vigilant and equally mysterious
stranger in the distance, keenly watching the both of them with a certain
elating and seemingly protective satisfaction…
…unbeknownst to Ana, this mysterious stranger…when he’s not
holding a dedicated vigilance over her and her daughter…has ruthlessly staked a
bloody and vengeful claim of private justice over the criminals, thieves and
drug dealers in the neighboring city area, violently gunning them down in retributive
cold blood, and taking their money. In the midst of relentlessly wading through
a seemingly never-ending siege of slimy and grungy criminal element…with guns
a-blazing, this urban terminator, slowly but surely, makes his way through the
city’s crime-driven ranks, to the one nefarious perpetrator who appears to be
in the center of it all…and there’s a very just, harrowing and specific reason
why he’s seeking him out, at all costs…
…now, setting the wayback machine to…say, about early-to-mid
‘80’s, or so…specifically, back in Cannon Pictures reigning golden era of
filmmaking…this budding reviewer and longtime fan of the great Charles Bronson,
at the time, was made flashing privy via televised interviews, pictures and printed
celebrity rags, of the incredible resemblance of Mr. Bronson, and his striking lookalike
stand-in performer. In recalling, it was absolutely uncanny, the resemblance
between the two…but for the time, the startling revelation was alas, a fleeting
moment, and in all honesty, this cult film fan didn’t get a name, to match the
lookalike face…
…some 35 years later…specifically, a couple years ago…along
came well under the radar, a trite albeit competent and engaging lil’
western-themed thriller, called “From Hell to the Wild West”. A notable, though
negligible lil’ sliver of an exploitation flick, the clever storyline of which
speculates what actually happened to Jack the Ripper, once his bloody and
murderous reign of terror and death in the dark and murky alleys of
Whitechapel, abruptly and mysteriously ceased in the late 1800’s. However,
given the film’s poster art and home video cover art, it wasn’t as much the
interesting storyline that stood out…but the striking-in-appearance casting of
Hungarian-hailed actor Robert Kovacs Bronzi, as a determined old west lawman,
on the hunt for a ruthless and bloodthirsty serial killer, plaguing the local
prairie townships…
…so now, we have a name to a rather strikingly familiar
face…
…2018’s ”Death Kiss”…Robert Bronzi’s second feature film,
and the second of four films to date…despite not having any solid, or even outright
original substance or storyline, save for the typical and stereotyped
‘cold-hearted vigilante’ movie genre standards, similar to those set forth by
the likes and dynamics of late great Charles Bronson, back in his ‘Death Wish’ days…surprisingly
enough, under the able direction of up & coming schlock director Rene Perez, plays out as sort of an offshoot of a Paul Kersey-like character’s
nocturnal and lawless homicidal mayhem…kinda like ol’ Paul was in the midst of one
of his typically ‘blow ‘em away with extreme prejudice’ vigilante rampages,
when something ‘offscreen’ went drastically awry enough to instill the need for
taking care of this lil’ sideline thing, before getting back to business…with
we, the viewers, being fortunate witness privy to that abrupt detour…
…really, in melding movie fantasy with reality…when the final
‘Death Wish’ film credits scrolled down the screen, surely you would think that
Paul Kersey himself couldn’t have taken a breather from his bang-bang, sole
justice driven shenanigans…impatiently waiting until that next sequel flashed
it’s opening title card?? (…uh, I think not…clearly, the man’s got better
things to do, if you know what I mean…with the lasting hint of righteously rampant
blood spray, followed by a flashing whiff of bullet cartridge sulfur)…
…but despite the generic ‘Death Wish’ like, cookie-cutter
action and generic storyline clock works offered herein…well dammit, there’s
just no looking away from how damn freaking ‘is it real or is it Memorex/not
the Beatles, but an incredible simulation’ striking it is, in seeing ‘Charles
Bronson’ back on the screen, even though it’s not actually ‘the man’ himself.
In effect, actor Robert Bronzi has offered up a clearly exploitative opportunist
gimmick, but at the same time, it seems a loving and respectful tribute to an
urban action star, long missed by fans…
…rounding out the cast…Eva Hamilton is quite vulnerable, relatable
and sympathetic as Anna, a perceptive
waif of a gal who not only instigated an abrupt move to the serene countryside,
in a desperate effort to get away from the violently cold, cruel and heartless city
streets, as well as provide a much more stable and loving family life for her
daughter…a tragic victim of those cold and hardened streets…but also in hopes
of finding penance for the tainted life she once led…a life that has instilled overwhelming
guilt in Ana’s heart, in believing that the mistakes and misgivings of this
past life were indirectly responsible for her daughter’s invalid condition…
…cast in the role of an angst radio talk show host (…in a
sort of slightly ironic years-later performance which indirectly reflects back to his
brother Alec’s supporting character play, in 1988’s ‘Talk Radio’), Daniel
Baldwin chimes in, playing a sort of supportive over-the-air mouthpiece to
Robert Bronzi’s/the stranger’s deadly nocturnal vengeance, deftly putting into
words what violently drastic actions this righteously lawless ‘champion’ is engaging
in, and the effects of those actions on the city populous...and truth be known,
he may well have a personally informed connection with this dark instigator of
private justice…
…Richard Tyson…one of the busiest, albeit very underappreciated
character actors working today (…good gawd!! Is that…it that actually Buddy
Revell, from 1987’s “Three o’clock High”??)…completes this associated circle of
characters, retching out a colorful, though typically cold, hard criminal type…perverse
and sadistic…who finds himself the invariable target of an equally cold and
hard vigilante, without knowing in the onset why he’s being targeted…but of
course, if there’s any truth or routine to films of this particular genre…well,
he will know, and he will pay…
…”Death Kiss” may well be short on substance, but it makes
up for it’s stunted fervor, in favor of some nicely standard character play, as well as an
interestingly woven, albeit threadbare storyline, which does attain a moderately
satisfying revelation in the end. It’s a low-rent ‘cliff notes’ variation on
the old Charles Bronson ‘Death Wish’ motif, that’s engaging enough to warrant more than just a
mere curious look, and…yeah, we’re beating a dead horse here…but damn, there’s just
no getting over that freakin’ resemblance of Bronzi’s character…over and above
merely being played by the numbers, using the exploitative Bronson template…
…might there be a respectable amount of sustainable life and staying power in
this gimmick?? Hey, Bronson-sploitation, anyone?? Eh, could be…ah hell, why not, right??.....
TEXT HERE
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