Up first is a Japanese film that hasn't ever been released in the US before. Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope is a 1975 Sonny Chiba film that I read might have been lost for years. It's out in a nice Blu-ray now and we watched that. It looks good but to be all honest it's a bit weak., story wise. The movie is based on a Manga and there are a couple of Wolf Guy OVA's on YouTube.
This movie is directed by Kazuhiko Yamaguchi. He directed Sonny in Sister Street Fighter the year before. I'd seen that and thought it was OK. I'd also seen his film Wandering Ginza Butterfly, and it's sequel, and enjoyed those.
Sonny's the last of his clan of werewolves. Sadly he never turns into a werewolf but he does nearly have a uni-brow. He's a reporter. After he's found at the scene of a grisly murder the police take him in for questioning. They don't believe he could have done the slashing in the time he had and they let him go. More strange murders happen, this time we see that there isn't anyone, or thing, cutting up the men. It's some sort of supernatural force at work. Eventually we find out that it's an abused woman who's behind this, she has been done over by some crooks and this is her revenge. There's a some weird stuff going on, a bit of action here and there, but sadly the script is weak and there is also some dead time scattered through out the film. The middle act seems to drag the worst. The big fight scene at the end doesn't deliver much for all the noise and fury. The whole movie is kind of that way. I kind of understand the mixed feelings about the movie in other reviews and IMDb comments. It certainly doesn't deserve the 7 it scores on the IMDb. I gave it a 6 and I was being generous considering that they made a werewolf movie without anyone turning into a werewolf. It's not really much better than average. Sonny was OK and so was the cast but they just didn't have that good a script to work with. I'd only recommend it to the Sonny fan who wanted to see all his movies.
I'd recommend the 2017 movie Death Race 2050 to all the fans of the original but I have a feeling that a lot of them wouldn't like it much. When I look on the IMDb a lot of people voted, 2566 of them, and 27% gave it a one. It's definitely not that, I gave it a 6 and I wasn't being really generous. I think there's plenty of fun in this remake of the 1975 Paul Bartel film but it just isn't quite up to the original. Director GJ Echternkamp is co-script writer with Matt Yamashita. Neither has worked a lot on feature films. I read people are calling this as a sequel to the original. I don't get sequel from it, the story and action is just like the original. Both end with Frankenstein taking out the leader. Who makes this crap up?
The production looks alright and there's plenty of fun characters. The cars aren't as entertaining but they do bounce around like the original cars did. Mostly they were Dune Buggies that didn't have much weight even dressed up for action. There's plenty of driving around and cars chasing each other. There are some jokes and goofy things in the script. I got a few laughs out of that.
The resistance to the current lack of government has a plan to disrupt the big race. Malcolm McDowell is the Chairman of The United Corporations of America and he's got it in his head that Frankenstein should die and Jed Perfectus should be the new race champion. Neither force can defeat our anti-hero Frankenstein, played by Manu Bennett, as he plows on to the finish. When it was done I didn't feel I'd wasted my time and while I wouldn't recommend it to everyone it was fun to watch.
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