Light Blast (1985)

You won't be disappointed!

Memorable, crazy movie

Absolutely the worst movie.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Ahh...my first exposure to an Enzo G. Castellari flick, and I come away sufficiently impressed to keep an eye out for more of his work. LIGHT BLAST is a typical '80s action flick, with a policeman hunting down criminals and blowing them away, but the sheer amount of action and stunts involve make it both memorable and highly enjoyable. Refreshingly free of dialogue and clichéd scenes of suspects being interrogated, LIGHT BLAST offers up raw action at its finest - violent, stylish and slow-motion. Castellari falls somewhere between Sam Peckinpah and John Woo in his depiction of screen violence, making these parts of his films very cool indeed.Although an Italian production, LIGHT BLAST has at least been partially filmed in San Francisco, which gives some of the car chases - down those famous hilly roads - added visual interest. The score is a cheesy '80s one, but the thumping beat gives the action added excitement and fits with it well - I hate films where excitement is sapped by inappropriate music, but that's definitely not the case here. The acting may be weak, but the characters are even weaker - aside from Estrada's hero, there are so many supporting characters and sub plots that nobody else gets much screen time to make an impression. Estrada is quite laughable as the "tough" hero, considering that he looks pretty feeble, but oddly his presence is fitting for a film of this nature.The action comes thick and fast and throws in about a hundred different locations and situations for the shooting to occur in. Beginning with a hostage set-up, the film throws in a stakeout, an assassination attempt, murder at a football game, a handful of car chases, some fighting on the docks, and a fantastic warehouse shootout which would go on to inspire Woo's HARD TARGET. Castellari's film may have been made on the cheap but the action exudes style and sophistication, with many deaths occurring in slow motion and lots of blood flying around.The plot is a rather silly one and more suited to a Bond film, but the introduction of the laser beam of the title means that we get to see some cool effects of people melting (kinda like at the end of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK), which are cheap but cheerful. There's an amusing buggy chase at the end of the film, in which Estrada's vehicle jumps up over cars for no reason, and a disappointing yet fitting ending in which the action is over within a minute. With it's extremely high death rate, some cool explosions (especially liked the thrown petrol can gag) and 60% action, LIGHT BLAST is a force to be reckoned with and an example of how the '80s movie could be cool AND cheesy.

Ah! I've been after this one for years. Nobody's going to accuse Enzo Castellari of being high brow or filling his films with attacks on Roman Catholic dogma or thinly veiled metaphors about the futility of human endeavour, but action wise, this guy's untouchable. Light Blast is no exception. Car chases, gun fights, gore, car chases, explosions, car chases, this film has the lot. Especially car chases.Thomas Moore (aka Ennio Girolami, the now sadly departed brother of Enzo) is a crazy scientist with an even crazier light weapon that he uses a couple of times (causing folk to melt ala the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark), and is now blackmailing the city of San Francisco. Cop Erik Estrada (King Worm from Adventure Time) is on the case, which mainly involves chasing after Moore's hired goons and graphically killing them, or tailing them using various vehicles to buildings and killing them there, or chasing hoaxers in cars causing death and destruction.We first see Estrada during a hostage crisis where he turns up in the buff carrying a turkey with a gun inside it. This was the first indication to me that Enzo wasn't taking this one too seriously. That, and when Estrada jumps on the back of a pick up truck, thrusts his badge into the driver's face and says "Follow that car" and does this several times until we see a motorcyclist dropping him off outside of a henchman's place, which leads to the awesome 'fight in a mortuary scene'.Basically Erik gets into a three way fight with one of Moore's hired goons (hired goons?) and a crazy nurse who kicks him in the knackers about 100 times. Fantastic.Although there's…kind of not much plot to speak of, Light Blast is jam packed full of the stuff brain dead Italian action fans want to see, so you're not going to hear any complaints from me, because I'm a brain dead Italian action fan. As long as people are shooting at each other or things are blowing up, I won't get confused. This is another winner from Enzo – I've still not seen a bad film by him. Good music too, from the De Angelis brothers.Massimo Vanni fans take note: Massimo's cameo lasts long as these words, uttered by me during the film: "Ah, there's Massimo. I wonder how long it will take him to get killed? Well, there he goes."

Things were never quite like this in CHIPS for Erik Estrada who appears in this highly enjoyable action yarn from the ever dependable Enzo G. Castellari.A mad scientist is threatening to blow up the city with his devastating laser cannon unless his ransom demands are met and it's up to our man Ponch- erm, I mean Inspector Ronn to stop him.Some great body melt fx, a number of exciting high speed car chases (with an especially cool one at the climax), plenty of shoot outs and in one scene, a fight in an undertakers with a mad female mortician(!) all combine to make this a fun ride from start to finish. Add to this a cool musical score that backs up all the said action and what more could you ask for in a film? Highly recommended!

A bitchy kung fu nurse raising pain and a bulldozer smashing the bits out of the automobile that Erik ("Ponch") Estrada is stuck in may be the only best parts from LIGHTBLAST. Everything else is pointless all the way through. Cookie-cutter action / car chase elements supersede the flesh-to-bones visuals and a science-fiction theme, making this another in an endless string of "cop versus bad guy" action turkeys! Estrada is terribly miscast here. Enzo Castellari fared much better with the underrated, but gritty cult classic 1990: THE BRONX WARRIORS. A great waste of precious time well spent.