Devil's Express

Yeah, this one is a good ways away from being as awesome as it might have been. Which is not to say that its a complete failure, rather that those enticed by its combination of genres into thinking it might be some trash colossus should substantially downgrade their expectations. It reminded me most of some of the better works of Godfrey Ho, those films in which the cut 'n splice ninja flick maestro actually had an original script and a cast of semi capable performers. Inept, insane and idiotic in roughly equal measures, but conducted with verve and never dull. The inspired story is of martial arts school leader Luke Curtis who goes to visit his sifu in Hong Kong along with his shiftless buddy Roldan (though I preferred the subtitles in which his name was Rodan) who steals a sacred medallion and unleashes a demon, who returns to New York, possesses a Chinese man and sets up shop in a subway, killing at random and contributing to a race war between Chinese and black gangs. Lots of fighting ensues, as well as plenty of laughter. The attitude behind the writing seems to have been to cram the film with incident so that the audience could never relax and process the cinematic shortcomings. So more or less every moment has either fighting, people saying stupid things, the monster dragging people to their doom or spurts of picturesque photography in the Hong Kong section or vintage urban grime in the rest. The fighting isn't especially convincing (plenty of blows fall obviously wide plus some dodgy framing and people moving at unrealistic speeds), but it's a lot better than expected, with a cast that at least know how to move and a shooting style that lets you see whats going on. It helps that much of the fighting involves hero Luke, played by the awesomely named and almost as awesomely afroed War Hawk Tanzania. His character isn't as badass as his name but he has a solid presence and carries the film nicely, delivering his frequently hilarious jive dialogue with aplomb. In fact everyone gives it their all, even extras like a nasty old bag lady, crazy street preacher or clueless cop. Sadly the monster scenes are quite weak and there are only a couple of gore shots, also the dodgy quality of current available prints renders the subway scenes too dark. The climax is too abrupt as well, though when ultimately revealed the monster is kinda cool in a cheap-jack kinda way. Altogether its a likable rather than good film and a bit tricky to fully appreciate until a spruced up DVD appears, but trash junkies could do far worse with 80 minutes of their time. Slightly generous 6/10 from me...

OK. I wasn't expecting much of this film on Amazon, but it was a short blacksploitation/chop-socky film with a lead called Warhawk Tanzania. Let's start with him. 70s machismo kung fu artist, with almost no acting ability, bizarre novelty fight stances, but full of 'I'm going to be the next Jim Kelly' enthusiasm. He isn't. He's actually quite terrible. His Jersey Hispanic sidekick is even worse, at both the acting and fighting. the support actors were similarly poor, with the bizarre exception of the 'educated' jokey detective drafted in to help solve the case. He just seemed to be in the wrong film entirely. As expected, the story moves along in a disjointed fashion. Full of poorly shot fight scenes, where you clearly see that the kicks and punches are missing, but somehow the recipient lurches back in agony. Some of the subway/monster scenes have a genuinely eerie 70s feel, and in parts, the film is not bad. The DP tries some effects in part- slomo/monochrome, etc. I won't spoil the plot, because actually that doesn't matter. Made in a time when New York was genuinely a dangerous place, people wore flares, and production values were less important than the 'vibe'. I happily watched this to the end just to ensure that Warhawk put the fiend 'in the pocket'. If you can wade through the clichés and cheesiness, this is worth a view, if only for the terrible fashion, grubby New York outlook, 70s jazz-hipster dialogue and an actor inspired by decolonisation to change his name so spectacularly. Worth a view. They don't make 'em like this anymore!

One reviewer described this as like "Black Belt Jones vs. The Galaxy Invader," but that only scratches the surface. Exhumed Films calls it "a Blaxploitation/Horror/Kung-Fu absurdist masterpiece," which they very correctly note "could only exist in the exploitation heyday of the 1970s." This gets a bit closer. You're really getting 3 or 4 different movies in one here. Possibly my favorite plot of all-time: a soul-brother karate instructor travels to Hong Kong to learn and master his art, where his buddy and protégé steals an ancient amulet which (unbeknownst to him) has the power to control a demon. The demon follows them home to NYC where it hides in the subway and begins killing innocent (and not-so-innocent) bystanders. Oh, and by the way? The amulet-stealing buddy is also a drug dealer with an ongoing vendetta against the local Chinese crime gang. That's at least 2 movies right there. The film now shifts gears to another buddy of the karate instructor, who is a cop investigating the subway killings. This portion of the film now plays like a supernatural/creature hunter/police procedural/X-Files kinda thing. Again, this could be a movie in its own right. Everything comes to a head when the black kung-fu-ers and the Chinese gang realize it might not just be their street fights that's killing off their members, and that maybe the cops are on to something when they say something is lurking in the subway, waiting to mutilate its next victim. This all ends with what is the trippiest final fight sequence since Zardoz. I would not have believed such a movie could exist had I not seen it. I *have* seen it. You should too.

An afrocentric martial arts master attends a Karate tournament in China, accompanied by a young student who steals an ancient amulet from a cave, unwittingly freeing a long captive demon. He brings the cursed artifact back to New York City, unaware that the demon has followed him in order to reclaim it. The evil entity possesses and kills people as it hides in the underground subway system, leaving homicide investigators baffled with each brutal murder. Only the aforementioned Karate master has the testicular fortitude needed for a hand-to-hand combat with the ancient evil.

DEVIL'S EXPRESS is emblematic of movies typically screened in "The Deuce" of NYC during the 70s...those little theaters so unendurably squalid that you'd need to bring a plastic garbage bag to cover your seat with. Cast of nobodies is headed by the inimitable WARHAWK TANZANIA, a karate-chopping soul brother forever iconified by this, and just one other Z-grade blaxploitation feature(FORCE FOUR, 1975).

7/10...Eighty-three minutes of sleazy, kickass action. You never had it so good.

This was the second and last of Warhawk Tanzania's only movie appearances, both starring vehicles. I guess he didn't catch on, no doubt because the movies weren't particularly well made and because by then both the blaxploitation and "kung fu" genres had passed their U.S. commercial peak due to oversaturation of the market with cheap knockoffs. He had the right look, and if he wasn't much of an actor, there were worse ones who were successful enough (particularly in martial arts cinema), so I guess it was more a matter of bad timing than anything else.

"Devil's Express" is a bit slicker than "Black Force" (confusingly, both have sometimes been called "Gang Wars"), a little wilder and more fun. WT plays a karate master who goes with his buddy (Wilfredo Roldan as "Rodan," the same name his character had in "Force") to a conference in Hong Kong. Afterward, they see the sites. Problem is, his buddy is a bit of an ***hole, and he steals an amulet from some ancient burial ground (or cave, in this case). So naturally once they get back to NYC, a demon spirit follows them, mostly holing up in the subway system and possessing the bodies of various unfortunate passers-by it's murdered in order to get back its stolen treasure. Police, the heroes' dojo, and a rival Chinese group of fighters all get caught up in the eventual mayhem.

The mix of horror, martial arts and blaxploitation sounds like trash heaven, and "Express" gets about halfway there. It's fairly well-made on a B-pic level, and reasonably fast-paced, but despite the decent premise there's not much colorful idiosyncrasy to the characters or situations. (Apart from Rodan being an entertainingly snotty jerk, that is.) But the real problem is that neither the fighting or horror elements are developed sufficiently. There's a lot of fighting, and clearly most of the participants have at least some training. But the film is edited in a way that is pretty obviously covering for them--we get much kicking and "thwack!" noises but it's not very convincing as anything but faux-fighting. (There are even a couple moments when characters say "Ow!" in pain, even though we've just clearly seen their opponent's kick didn't connect.) The monster is introduced rather late, then kept largely out of sight. So, this is a promising mix of elements, but the fighting isn't very impressive and the horror is likewise also mostly "cheated" (people go "Yaaagh!!!" at something we don't see, then are presumably murdered offscreen).

So, fairly amusing grindhouse action junk from the period, worth seeing once for those who like this sort of thing. But not the guilty-pleasure classic you might hope for.