Blood Debts

Ladies and gentlemen, may we present to you... Mr. Teddy Page! The name doesn't exactly sound like he's a cinematic genius, and you probably won't ever find the films he made on any best-of lists. Still, Teddy Page hasn't disappointed me yet, and the same cannot be said about his more famous compatriots from the Philippines, like Cirio H. Santiago and Eddie Romero.

Teddy non-stop made and released cheap and straightforward action/exploitation flicks during the 80s and early 90s. Obviously none of them reach a half-decent quality level in terms of plotting or continuity, and the acting performances and stunt work are often downright laughable. But our good friend Teddy did one thing extremely well, namely never wasting time on boring introductions or the overlong building up of tension. "Blood Debts", for instance, is basically a blatant imitation of the Charles Bronson classic "Death Wish", only ... faster! Within the first three minutes of the film, a bunch of idiotically laughing rednecks rape and murder the daughter (and her fiancé) of proud mustache-wearing Vietnam veteran Mark Collins. Barely another ten minutes later, Mark already finished avenging his daughter and single-handedly massacred the five culprits responsible. I'm not even sure if he really wanted revenge, or just needed an excuse to shoot up random thugs!

In case you wonder what else can happen throughout the remaining 70 minutes, don't worry! Mark joyously continues to play the angry vigilante and even shoots hoodlums in the head for stealing a miserable $200. The script loses its last little bit of sense when Mark's wife gets kidnapped, and he gets forced to work as a contract killer. Mark enjoys firing bullets into criminals so much that he doesn't realize he's doing the dirty work for a rivaling drug cartel, and he certainly doesn't seem in a hurry to rescue his wife. The police are also doing their part by sipping coffee around a desk and secretly rooting for the anonymous avenger. The climax is fabulous and legendary (within very secluded cult-cinema circles, at least), and involves homemade bazookas, flare guns and the most abrupt freeze-frame ending in history.

In case you and your friends like absurdly over-the-top exploitation from the Philippines, complete with atrocious acting from a washed-up American star (Richard Harrison) and dialogues so preposterous they make your head spin, this is your Saturday night main feature! Completely free of charge, we'll also throw in gratuitous nudity, cheesy romantic montages, musical scores shamelessly stolen from other films, and a goofball golfing incident. Final tip, make it a double-feature with Teddy Page's equally bonkers "Movie in Action"!

A slice of b-movie heaven with ridiculous cheese, 'Blood Debts' is a gem of Philippine cinema. Funny bits come quick & often in an 80's number that looks, feels dated because of it's origins. Wacky sound effects, real ridiculous dialog fueled by crazy dubbing done after the fact. Plus a bare bones story that is equal parts 'Death Wish' & 'The Punisher' on the low end. This is not a good movie, but heck if I didn't have a killer time.

"He's a natural killing machine, Bill!"

A young couple in the park are preyed upon by a gang of "hunters" and shot dead. The father of the girl Mark (Richard Harrison) arrives too late and is shot too, but survives. He tracks down each man relatively easily and takes them out, but doesn't stop there. Kills more random criminals which draws the eye of Bill (Mike Monty) and his right hand man Peter (Jame Gaines) who try to control him. They get Mark to take out their criminal competition and he soon figures it out. Meaning there'll be one last ... Blood Debt ... to settle.

"We've taken over the territory. Recruit more pimps. More pushers."

Mark's skill makes for talk about a "killers instinct" while the actual moments he takes out trash - muggers, rapists, drug dealers - are fun. If you aren't smiling, laughing or grinning due to the action, you will be once the bizarre dubbing, hokey dialog kicks back in. A few scenes highlight the worthless police and more than a few for the Bill & Peter show as things deteriorate in hilarious fashion. Every role here is one note summed up by Mark's wife who's credited as ... "Mark's wife". Plus another lady who's sole reason for existing is too good to give away.

"Well how come he knew that we ... we were after ... his ass!?"

B-movie man "Dick" Harrison gets to be a one man wrecking crew in the Philippines. Short on story, intelligence, high on cheese, I had a great time with 'Blood Debts'. You get a few splashes of blood and one bit of gratuitous female nudity leading up to an ending and title card that has to be seen to be believed. It's somehow the best & worst thing I've ever had the pleasure to lock my eyes on (no joke).

For those who don't get it, it's a 3. But for those who love the so bad it's good genre, you'll be thoroughly entertained by this steaming loaf of a movie. If you like Samurai Cop, Miami Connection and the like, you'll love blood debts. Especially the ending ;)

This is one of Silver Star film productions - a Filipino film company that also released a number of other awful films played by their regular stars (Richard Harrison, Bruce Baron, Romano Kristoff) and their list of regular supporting casts (some familiar faces keep on showing up - Mike Monty, Jim Gaines, Don Gordon Bell). During the mid-eighties, Silver Star churned out quite a lot of low-budget low quality trashy action and war films: Fireback, Hunter's Crossing, Rescue Team, Mad Dog, Ninja's Force and Slash (a Rambo rip- off), to name a few. Watching these films, you may be entertained - for the wrong reasons!

Mark Collins (Richard Harrison), an ex-Vietnam veteran turns into a vigilante after witnessing some low-lives killed his daughter in cold blood. However, unknown to him, a ruthless businessman named Bill (Mike Monty) - who is planning to recruit him to do his dirty work - is having him under surveillance while he is going on his vengeance spree. Unable to force him to comply, Bill dispatches his goons to kidnap his beautiful wife. Realizing that his wife is under the mercy of a ruthless businessman, Collins has no other option but to carry out Bill's orders.

Working under cover with a hit woman, who is under the same predicament as he is, Collins begins wiping out everyone on Bill's hit list only to discover eventually that Bill has something up his sleeve for his hired killers.

There are lots of bad things to see: bad acting, bad script, bad directing, everything is just bad. It's plain to see that the writer or producer was inspired by Death Wish II. The first 30 minutes of the plot resembles that movie while the other half extends the plot about the vigilante being under the gun. This film, like all other Silver Star productions, tries very hard to westernize its production design despite the fact that it was made in the Philippines. Unfortunately, however hard they tried, this is still a clunker.

I was a teen when I saw this at the cinema and could even feel how bad it was. However that didn't stop me from watching more films of Silver Star productions because I was expecting to get a good laugh from seeing something so-bad-it's-good.

If this should make its way to DVD, only lovers of 'so-bad-it's- good' movies need watch it. Others stay away!

While a little unevenly paced, Blood Debts delivers as a trashy, Filipino action flick. It offers many of the hallmarks of such a film: poorly acted death scenes, takes that started before the actor realized he should be speaking, camera work that looks like it was done by adolescents, and dialog that is not only delivered poorly but sounds like it hastily written on napkins minutes before the camera rolled.

The plot is ludicrous and offers up plenty of hilarious moments as seemingly every criminal in the Philippines gets a bullet from Harrison. The music sounds like it belongs to a family friendly, Chuck Norris flick even while Harrison is plugging rapists. Most of the characters move with all the grace and fluidity of a bad video game.

It does lag a bit in the middle but the rest of it more then successful enough to consider this a very solid, trashy, actioner.