Deathcheaters
R4 DVD
Madman Entertainment
Brian
Trenchard Smith is a name to conjure with; he made many of the great cult films
which have become the backbone of Australian Cult or what is known as ozploitation
cinema. Deathcheaters is not one of his better efforts yet falls into the
category of being so damn bad it ends up being good. It opens with a disco
theme song which is played at various times throughout the film, enough that it
gets into your head. But that is not the worst of it, Deathcheaters also
features a soundtrack which, to be honest, is truly woeful, at times it sounds
like the same riff played over and over again. It is a B grade extravaganza and
experienced to be believed.
The
storyline is slight and primarily set up to showcase a wide range of stunts
many of which are utterly extraneous and have no value at all within the story,
but what the hell, they look great ! More of these are featured in the second feature
packed with Deathcheater – Danger Freaks which includes 100 stunts in 90
minutes.
Steve
(John Hargreaves) and Rod (Grant Page) are two Australian stuntmen; they have
worked together since running special ops in Vietnam and run a company with the
very Aussie name of “Cunning Stunts”. The
film opens as they are working on a commercial on an unnamed beach and after
seeing a robbery intervene to save the day. After various over the top car chases
as well as stealing a leg of lamb from a butcher to smash a car window and
scaling down the edge of a tall skyscraper to get air into a bank vault, they
return home pleased to have helped the police and the police seem to like their
help. What are these guys ? Stuntmen come superheros ?
However,
all is not as it seems, these events were all staged to see if they still have
what it takes and when they pass with flying colours they are hired by
government agent Culpepper (Noel Ferrier) to infiltrate a power plant in the
Philippines to steal some highly significant papers. It seems that the
Australian government cannot be seen to be interfering in a foreign country’s business
(even if asked) and hence decide to hire two stuntmen come Vietnam Vets to
undertake the task !
This
is truly farcical stuff with terrible acting, constant and unnecessary stunts,
Vietnam War flashbacks and truly embarrassing attempts at humour, ranging from
attempts at slapstick to inane jokes. It also features some of the worst
clothes and interior design even seen in a film !
When
they get down to business and raid the Filipino plant, they use smoke bombs to
avoid killing anyone – never mind that the site has over 150 security guards and
of course get away via a hang-glider, something Trenchard-Smith seems obsessed with
!
Deathcheaters
is a typical ozploitation cult cinema, fuelled by a silly script and packed
with lots of action but not much depth. It was bad in 1976 but now with the
passing of time has achieved “classic status” due to its truly ridiculous storyline.
Madman has released it in a brand new 16:9 transfer and I must say it looks and
sounds great. It is also coupled with Danger Freaks – Trenchard-Smith’s doco
stunt doco. If you like stunts, then this 2 DVD pack will keep you entertained
for quite a while...
This review will appear in Volume 2 No.2
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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