Red Mob is a 1992 Russian action movie. It's a right after the USSR has fallen apart and criminal gangs are running wild. The movie opens with a shoot out at a police station. Jaffar and his gang are interested in the station's armory. The gang then steals a large supply of weapons from the military and Jaffar needs to have them delivered. He puts together a convoy of trucks.
Oleg is an ex-army vet who runs a survivalist boot camp. He has his son Yura come stay with him but the city kid is a bit of pussy. Oleg's war buddy Nicolai is regarded by Yura as an Uncle. Nicolai shares his vodka and cigarettes with Yura but Oleg takes them away. He's rather strict with his son. Yura doesn't like it in the camp, he runs away, planning to get home somehow. Turns out Jaffar lives in the town where Yura plans to get a ride. The man Jaffar had picked out to lead the arm's caravan is hurt and he needs a new driver. Nicolai is picked and captured. He and Jaffar has some sort of history. Nicolai refuses until Yura enters the picture. He'd seen Nicolai and gotten caught by Jaffar's men. Nicolai agrees to lead the convoy if they let Yura go but Jaffar refuses.
After the strong and violent robberies in the opening scenes there's a bit of a lull as the character development and family drama takes over. All the yakkin' takes nearly an hour until we get to the arm's convoy taking off from Jaffar's compound. There's plenty of action after Oleg attacks the arm's convoy. The trailer says there were 17 helicopters and 42 vehicles destroyed. Some of them were well destroyed. I like seeing destruction stats in movie trailers. It's good to be informed.
There were sure a lot of explosions and for several minutes the sound track seemed to be totally made up of machine guns firing. There's no way those soldiers could have been carrying all those bullets. Sadly some of the man on man fights don't come off as well as the pyrotechnics. The explosions were so massive at times it seemed dangerous to be there. Close to the actors too. I'd be shitting my pants. No Health and Safety gone mad in the post collapse USSR.
Generally it was fun but I doubt I would need to see it again. There are plenty of better action films that I can watch instead, ones I already have. Say, some of Arnold's movies from the same period, perhaps. Commando, Raw Deal, Red Heat, you get the idea.
Bloodsuckers From Outer Space is a 1984 movie that was filmed in Enloe Texas. That's north east of Dallas a ways. An alien wind comes to Earth and takes over the town's citizens. All their blood comes shooting out of them, their skin turns grayish blue, and they attack the living. A young guy and a young woman team up to help each other keep safe. They inadvertently find the Alien Repellent to stop the invasion. Good thing, the General investigating the incident wanted to nuke the town. He's a good lesson in overacting.
I know it's a low budget film but it's deficient in some areas. It's a comedy but it's weak on jokes. Occasionally it was unintentionally funny. The script had some issues and there isn't anything too unique about the story. It kind of reminds me of The Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes but better made. This movie has Pat Paulson instead of Professor Irwin Corey. See! That's a step up, not a big step, but still up. Sadly Pat didn't care much for the quality of the film, dissing it after the premiere.
The acting is mixed, some bad, some worse. The make up isn't that interesting on the alien infected humans. The fight scenes were a bit more amateurish than the Russian movie. They shot the fight in small pieces and cut it together. The scenes lack a fluidity that a better action director could have helped with.
Somethings the film can't do anything with, the boring flat vistas of Texas for one. They had better music than the Russian film. All done, it wasn't much better, or worse, than a lot of the low budget horror/SF films of the 80s. I've liked worse and disliked better films from that era. I probably don't need to watch it again, so I don't see picking up a copy, unless it was really cheap, 2-3 bucks, say. It could happen. I'm continuously surprised by what turns up used in the shops.
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