Devil's Dynamite (1987) User Reviews

Hopping vampires, ninjas, hopping vampire-ninjas and a hero wrapped in tin foil!!!

[HaemovoreRex · 5/10 · 4 October 2008]

Well, if the above sounds confusing to read then believe me, it's nothing compared to the actual film! Great Scott! - This is a completely hat-stand flick to put it as mildly as possible, but with the name Tomas Tang attached, it comes as frankly little surprise.

OK, so let me try to shed some light on what this is broadly about; An evil American working alongside the queen of the underworld (who appears courtesy of a completely different film of course!) hires a possessed Taoist priest to summon vampires in order to wipe out those who presumably oppose them. Okay.....but hold on; there's more! - You see, the forces of good are represented by a chap called Alex who when ever in danger transforms into - Tin Foil Wrapped, Silver Motorbike Helmet Wearing Warrior!......Well, OK, he isn't actually referred to as such, but the description is entirely apt nonetheless! Now throw into this mix a gambling champion called Steven and his buried gold, some ninja.....who are killed and then resurrected as vampire ninja and a completely odd series of scenes featuring a little boy who has an odd proclivity to dress up as a vampire and subsequently scare a little girl ghost (at least I think she was a ghost!). Yes, as you can well imagine, this is one hell of a bloody mess! On the other hand, much like the rest of Tomas Tang's/Filmark International's insane output, it is nonetheless strangely compelling in a manner not entirely dissimilar to that morbid curiosity one feels to have a gawp when passing a road accident in fact.

Hopping vampires and gangsters!

[joeshoe89 · 5/10 · 4 January 2007]

This is another Eastern Horrors DVD from the Brentwood bargain basement (Amazon.com still has some VHS tapes of it and the picture is of that quality - full screen and English dubbed). It seems that Angela Mao is Mary the former lover of Koch (I'm not sure the sound is bad and sometimes it sounds like Kok)who has a treasure chest(!) of gold buried about 10 inches down in the sand on a beach that a hefty gangster with an eye patch wants badly. Mary is actually the boss of the underworld (Angela doesn't do any of her famous kung fu fighting she just stands around with her glitter eye shadow looking mean) and she's about to marry a much younger guy than Koch. There's an English guy with a beard (I think this is Richard Phillips) who has an evil priest using hopping vampires to keep his mob in power (I also think he works for Angela but the connection between the gangsters isn't really made clear. There's also a guy named Alex who has a good priest on his side and he turns into a guy in a cheesy tin foil sort of space suit with a matching silver helmet who battles the hopping vampires. The eye patch gangster gets Koch's gold but is killed soon afterward. The spacesuit guy defeats the hopping vampires. Koch kills Mary in revenge then is trapped in a beach house that is blown up and he appears to die in the flaming house. If this was Super Inframan it would rate an 8 or 9 but as a somewhat juvenile action movie for me it gets a 5. There's also a little chunky boy hopping vampire for the kids. No nudity no sex some fighting but not so great.

Nowhere near as much fun as the first Robo Vampire (and completely unconnected).

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 2 February 2018]

In Robo Vampire 2: Devil's Dynamite, a futuristic warrior (wearing a silver lamé jumpsuit and matching silver motorcycle helmet and boots) rescues a fat kid (dressed as a vampire) and a girl (possibly a ghost) from a trio of hopping vampire ninjas. If you're anything like me, that alone qualifies the film for a viewing, but as crazy as it all gets, it's not half as entertaining as it sounds thanks to an almost entirely incomprehensible plot. As with many a Godfrey Ho movie, footage from at least two martial arts films has been spliced together to make a total mess that jumps from one scene to another with little cohesion. With all the random chopping and changing, it's far too easy to not give a damn.

As far as I could fathom, the film revolves around a gambling king called Steven Cox, who has just been released from prison after 10 years, having been set up by crime boss Madame Mary. Now free, Steven wants to settle the score, but must do battle with Mary's army of hopping vampires, and deal with the chancers who are after his buried horde of gold. Quite how Alex, the silver clad warrior, and the ghostly girl fit into things is beyond me.

3/10 for Alex doing Robot Fu and moonwalking, a brief but bloody knife in an eye, and for featuring attack helicopters on the cover when there aren't any.

Ummmm....what did I just watch?

[TOMNEL · 1/10 · 2 October 2007]

"Devil Dynamite" looked like it would be a harmless, silly Asian film...but it was much much more, or in this case less. Though this part obviously only pertains to the American dubbed version, the dubbing sounds really bad. Little kids sound like grown men playing cartoon characters, and the other dubbing doesn't fit either.

The action scenes are simply amazing. You really can't top 4 hopping vampires attacking a weird, parachute pants wearing robo-man. Sounds pretty good, huh!? Well the whole movie is pretty much just a bunch of poorly filmed and put together action scenes, where continuity does not exist. Let me try to piece the plot together. There's some guy controlling vampires with pieces of paper and a bell, while an android saves the day. Meanwhile some people are digging for gold because some guy named Cox told them about hidden treasure.

Add many strange subplots, and odd cuts and you have what quite probably is the worst and most bizarre foreign film of all time. It's a perfect example of how not to make a film, and it's quite funny too. Check it out if you like bad cinema, otherwise avoid it at all costs.

If your a Thomas tang fan its disappointing

[matt-bondy-1 · 1/10 · 31 July 2006]

the only review I've seen hailed it as being better than its sister film robovampire. if you loved the hopping vampires, firearms/fireworks madness, gorilla-vampire/ghost love story, crappy explosions, and random storyline of robovampire you will be disappointed by this film. the final scenes are robovampire worthy material but otherwise its just a big melodramatic, badly written film. If your looking for something like robovampire look for catman:lethal track, its almost as good. catman: boxers blow is also a little better than this film but not much. I don't really know what else to say, I just want to warn others that its not worth purchasing. if you were to buy this film, i would suggest watching this film first then robovampire. otherwise this film will just be a big let down.

"Look! Unusual Bites!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 17 February 2020]

DEVIL'S DYNAMITE opens with some Kung Fu and black magic going on. Kangaroo-hopping, karate vampires are revived from their coffins. They are provided with human blood by their criminal bosses, so their narcotics can flow freely.

Ninjas attack!

Alas, they're no match for the jumping undead. A story nearly develops, before the hopping vampires battle a silver-suited spaceman. Apparently, a man named Steve Cox has something to do with this spasmodic cluster-fudge, but god alone knows what that might be! Steve's been released from prison, in order to dress like a fedora-wearing vicar. He also Kung Fu's like nobody's business!

It's best to not attempt to make any sense of this mess, and simply watch it agape, as one would watch an oncoming bus.

WHAM!

Otherwise, the viewer's brain will surely turn into mucilage. Just enjoy the impact, as vampire-ized ninjas fight the silver guy. Fittingly, this alleged "sequel" to ROBO VAMPIRE came out a year before that film.

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND QUERIES: #1- Hey! The spaceman has an anti-sorcery mirror! #2- Woah! What's up with the kid dressed like a clown? #3- Who's the bald guy with the eye patch?

Don't miss the big shootout finale, complete with explosions! Yep, we're just windshield / grill decorations for this bus!...

Godfrey Ho, you're crazy

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 20 December 2020]

Look, there's no such person as Joe Livingstone, the director of this movie. Or William Palmer, its writer. They're both Godfrey Ho, the Hong Kong Ed Wood who made at least eighty movies from 1980 to 1990 and may have used over forty screen names, making him the Asian Aristide Massaccesi.

Ho is the master of a cut and paste style of filmmaking that challenges the notions of art and copyright clearances - or he's a hack out to make a quick buck. He's also famous for dropping footage of ninjas into movies even if the plot doesn't call for it. I take issue with this: movies always call for more ninjas.

His love of the word ninjas also led to making movies that have titles like The Ninja Force, Ninja The Protector, Full Metal Ninja, The Ninja Squad, Thunder Ninja Kids: The Hunt for the Devil Boxer, Ninja Terminator, Zombie vs. Ninja, Thunder Ninja Kids in the Golden Adventure, Ninja Force of Assassins, Ninja Knight Brothers of Blood, Ninja of the Magnificence, Ninja Powerforce, Ninja Strike Force, The Ninja Showdown, Power of Ninjitsu, Ninja's Extreme Weapons, Ninja's Demon Massacre, Cobra vs. Ninja, Death Code: Ninja, Golden Ninja Invasion, Rage of Ninja, Ninja: The Battalion, Empire of the Spiritual Ninja, Ninja Operation 7: Royal Warriors, Ninja Commandments, Ninja In Action, Ninja: American Warrior, Ninja Operation: Licensed to Terminate, Ninja Operation 6: Champion on Fire, Ninja Phantom Heroes, Bionic Ninja, Tough Ninja the Shadow Warrior, Twinkle Ninja Fantasy (that's one I gotta track down), The Blazing Ninja and probably ten movie ninja movies. Seriously, those guys are like cockroaches.

He would film footage for one movie, then re-use those shots over and over, which kind of makes him the Asian Roger Corman, but then he'd also find obscure Thai, Filipino and other Asian films, then graft them onto his movies - making him the Asian Bruno Mattei? - and then have several movies made with the budget of one, except no one can even tell where his footage begins and where the other films end.

Ho didn't stop with stealing footage. He has no idea that music is a copyrightable thing either, so his movies are filled with all manner of sonic thievery, including songs from Miami Vice, Star Trek, Star Wars, anime and even music from Wendy Carlos, Chris & Cosey, Tangerine Dream, Clan of Xymox, Vangelis and Pink Floyd.

Other than some rich musicians and the gullible film public, who gets hurt, right? Well, Richard Harrison, for one. He'd worked with Ho in the past at Shaw Brothers and made a deal to be in a few of his films. A few movies ended up being, well, a veritable onslaught of low-level ninjas films with his name above the title, which did damage to his career. Harrison was the unwilling feature actor in almost a dozen different movies, which sent him back to the United States. Yes, a guy who worked for everyone from Alfonso Brescia, Antonio Margheriti and Alberto De Martino to appearing in Bruce Lee ripoffs and Eurospy films had finally had enough.

And then, out of nowhere, Ho was making mainstream movies. Well, as mainstream as a Cynthia Rothrock film would be. After directing her in Honor and Glory and Undefeatable, he also made Laboratory of the Devil, a remake/remix/ripoff/ unauthorized sequel of The Man Behind the Sun. And then, he went back to his old tricks and used all the same footage to make a sequel to that movie, Maruta 3 ... Destroy all Evidence. And then...

Somehow, this movie is 81 minutes and feels like nine hours. It's all about Alex, who we also find out is the Shadow Warrior*, and now, he has to fight a smuggling ring who are all vampires, which as we all know, hop in China. No one at all is surprised that vampires exist. It is just matter of fact. There's also a gambler looking to get even with the mob boss who sent him to jail, in case you get bored.

This is also somehow a sequel to Robo Vampire. Trust me, you have no reason to watch that. Or this. I mean, this movie has a silver lame suited superhero moonwalking against vampires, so really you can do whatever you want. Also, this movie makes so little sense that Robo Vampire could very well be the sequel, for all we know.

The poster is pretty awesome, though. And to be perfectly honest, I love these movies.

If you decide you can handle a director who makes Jess Franco look like Fellini, this is for you.

*Shadow Warrior has the kind of costume that's so horrible, Rat Fink A Boo Boo are both laughing at him.

An amusingly awful piece of chopsocky schlock

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 20 June 2007]

An evil drug cartel uses vampires to ensure that they retain their power. Some guy wearing a motorcycle helmet who looks like he's wrapped in tin foil -- he resembles a poor man's Inframan -- battles said vampires. Meanwhile criminal mastermind Steven Cox gets sprung from the joint and tries to hook back up with wicked duplicitous former moll Mary (the ever lovely and graceful Angela Mao). Got that? Well, I'm still not quite sure I got the insanely incoherent plot right, but this ridiculous rambling mess is nonetheless very entertaining in its nonstop jaw-dropping absurdity. For starters, those aforementioned vampires are clearly a bunch of dudes sporting tacky greasepaint make-up and a mouthful of cheap plastic fangs. Plus they can be controlled by sticking a piece of paper to their foreheads! The wild martial arts fight scenes with these hopping freaks wreaking all kinds of crazy havoc are absolutely sidesplitting. The alarmingly atrocious scenery-gnashing acting provides a wealth of unintentional laughs as well. Ditto the expected hilariously horrendous dubbing. But what really clinches this baby's status as a total schlock hoot is the way it haphazardly tosses together two separate pictures into a single incredibly inane composite feature. It's by no means a good film, but it's definitely a great deal of always enjoyable and often uproarious goofy fun all the same.