11/24/09 - Gang Wars

Gang Wars (1976, 82 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073031/

So I finally get around to seeing another "Terror Tuesday" movie this semester. It just didn't work out like our group was expecting, with this being fourth movie we attended this semester (compare that to fourteen attended in the spring of this year, many of which have been written about here).

Anyway, Gang Wars is a blaxploitation film starring Warhawk Tanzania as Luke. Yes, that's right. The character's name is Luke and the actor's name is Warhawk Tanzania. Also, there's some other characters here that have some speaking roles but the acting is overall so bad that I really just feel like mentioning Mr. Tanzania. As for the plot, Warhawk Tanzania is a "karate" instructor when he must go to China for some competition. There, his friend takes a relic which ends up bringing a demon back from the dead. The demon follows the duo to New York City where it sets up residence in the subways, attacking passersby in hopes of recovering the relic. Eventually, a standoff occurs between Luke and the demon with Luke killing the demon and restoring order.

Tanzania's acting is really abysmal. So is everyone else's, for that matter. Also, for a karate movie, I'm pretty sure nobody knows karate at all. To add to this embarrassment, though, the director chose to have lots of fight scenes where this complete lack of skill is put very prominently on display. Specifically, there is one scene where the gangs are fighting (this is a subplot but it's really not that important), and the fighting goes on for about ten minutes. Yet nothing is accomplished. Eventually, the Asian gang sees the relic and just runs off. No one is really hurt - it's just a pointless waste of time for everyone. This is the worst instance of this, but there's a few others throughout. One other complaint is that the exact same "thwack" sound is used for every single punch that lands on anything. It gets really tiresome hearing the same sound over and over like this.

The cheesy special effects are pretty enjoyable though. A man is possessed by the demon and his eyes are bulging out of his head to such ridiculous length that it's actually quite funny. At least on this point, the over-the-top "who cares?" attitude of whoever made this works out for the better.

Overall, I gave this film a 2/10. I mean, it's really really bad and not worth a watch, but at some points the people just put something so stupid on screen that it actually worked. Tanzania's acting is very much hit or miss with his terrible line delivery, but every once in a while, he'll have a hilarious one-liner that makes up for at least some of the (many) bad qualities of this movie.