Order of One

Comedy Kung Fu Action Exploitation

Chemical Burn Entertainment

R1 DVD

The latest entry in throwback filmmaking, Order of One spoofs those dreadful 70s kung fu action films, with a passing swipe at the Carnaby Street look. This type of film was popular in the drivein era, and it’s good to see it revived. Sort of. We very soon realise that this is not intended to be a serious film. If you haven’t realised this already, the first fight scene includes those action speech balloons in the Batman style. Instead of “oof” or “splat” we get helpful balloons like “break neck fist” or “drunken pool cue swipe”.

The plot is basic. An escaped prisoner and a newspaper reporter must return the Sword of Destiny, reputed to be made from the spearhead that pierced the side of Jesus, to an unspecified “order”. What exactly they have to do with it we don’t know. The sword has magic powers but we don’t get to see them in the film.

It is being sought by Mr Park, the local Chinese gang leader. As well as his gang he has recruited a group of pneumatic youngish women dressed in the worst of sixties clothing , a group of ex-prison tough guys, and so on. That’s enough plot, now let’s get on with the action.

We now get extended kung Fu battles, fistfights galore, gunfights, and so on. There is plenty of blood for you gorefreaks out there. The kung Fu kill scenes are captioned with those wonderful cheesy balloons previously mentioned. The action is completely over the top and everyone seems to have a good time hamming it up. For a low budget film it’s a great spoof. It does for action films what Christopher Mihm does for science fiction.

The Extras for a change are worth watching. As a documentary on low budget filmmaking it is excellent, and we also see how some of the stunts were done. There are a couple of deleted scenes that are “must see”, as well as the bloopers.

Overall it’s just a good cheap action thriller spoof. I loved every minute of it, cheesy speech balloons and all.

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