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Cold Harvest @ IMDB (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0167832)


Watched this one last night.  Kinda cool.   It's basically a post-apocalyptic martial arts western

Western: Bounty Hunter (Roland) is out gunning for Bad Guy (Little Ray) from his past and is also trying to find  his estranged twin brother to patch things up.  Little Ray then kills Roland's brother (before Roland can find him) and is after Roland's sister-in-law (Christine).  Roland finds Christine, who doesn't like him because he accidentally killed his mother and father and left his brother (Oliver).  However, due to Little Ray (whom he wants to kill anyway) being after her and in honor of his brother, he protects her and tries to rescue her and lead her to a safe place.  Has eventual showdown with Little Ray (in a rather interesting twist on the classic Quick Draw competition).

Post-Apoc: All the above takes place in a world pretty much destroyed  when a coment hit the Earth, which wiped out a lot, throw a dust cloud in the sky and caused a disease that is slowly wiping out humanity.  Christine and Oliver were travelling with a convey of people whom had been discoverd to carry a gene that would cure the disease.  Little Ray's gang ambushed the convey and slaughtered everyone, except Christine, who escaped, and a technician who can track her.  Apparently, Christine is pregant and the unborn child carries the gene as well.  Little Ray wants the cure she carries and the technican can track her electonically due to the gene in her child.  So Little Ray uses the technican to track her down.

Martial Arts:  Little Ray sends various goon squads after Roland and Christine who meet their demise in various Asian-inspired manners.  Little Ray and Roland have a final showdown involving guns and martial arts.  I'm not a fan of martial arts movies so I can't judge with any expertise, but I thought the fight scenes were entertaining and well done.

What's good:
Gary Daniels (Roland/Oliver) is  a suprisingly good actor.  No Peter O'Toole, but he does well in this concept and is easier to watch in the non-action scences then Oliver Grunner or John Claude Van Damme.

They avoid the typical stereotype of having the good guy and the untrusting heroine on the run slowly fall in love.  He remains protective of her, but it never gets emotional or romantic.  He acts like he's protecting his sister-in-law and although she encourages him to come out of his emotional shell and find love, it's not played as her being the object of that love.

The music is very well done and really plays up the western aspects of the film.

Whahuh?:
At one time, the ability to track Christine is said to be accurate within 100 yards to explain why Little Ray can't find her in a salon/hotel that she should be in.  However, later it's able to determine she's in a helicopter and even in a room hiding behind a door.  The script would've been just as well not bringing up that "100 yard" range issue (which is never addressed again) and simply had the technician say "she's there, she must be hiding, look harder!", considering the initial sweep was not that thorough to begin with.

Roland shows some monumentally bad judgement at the end.  He has the upper hand, the girl, the gun, he can shoot Little Ray, or just leave, or whatever.  Instead he lets Little Ray taunt him into a showdown where the odds are much more even.  The problem is, the fate of humanity (in Christine) rests in the balance.  Far too important for some macho showdown on even terms when you've already got all the advantages.  If the bad guy had the upper hand and all the cards, it would make sense to taunt him into a showdown or something, but when good's got the advantage and the fate of the world hangs in the balance, don't throw it away.

Not really good or bad, but they ripped a scene off from Face/Off pretty directly.  Good guy/bad guy on opposite sides of a wall.  Then running along the wall shooting at each other through it.  Only problem is, Roland is using a shotgun, which would put signigficantly larger holes in the wall then shown, not to mention Little Ray.

Bryan Genesse as Little Ray was really not imposing or menacing enough.  He acts well in the role, but doesn't physically come across as powerfully as he should.  He looks a little too boyishly cute  to overcome.  As a fighting adversary for Roland he works out well, as the powerful leader of a mean, bloodthirsrty gang....not quite


All in all, the movie was a fun hour and a half or so.  Good fight scenes, cinemetography and music and sound make this more enjoyable to watch then it could've be.  It still a b-budget post-apocolypticmartial arts movie, but fun to watch

Not bad, Sir Freep. Short and sweet. Just like i like my women. Corse, tall is good too...................