Try to imagine a Tarantino script not directed, but ANIMATED by Chuck Jones. I don´t know if that´s the effect director Ecarma tried to achieve with LETHAL FORCE, but don´t let the generic film title fool you. Right at the cartoony first sequence we know that this isn´t your average John Woo rip-off. Ecarma knows where he´s coming from, where he´s going and what he´s doing. Shot on film with a budget of 50.000 dollars, LETHAL FORCE blends every pop culture riff ever imagined and compositions taken directly from comic book pages. But he also gives us likeable characters. Some absurd sequences reminds those old Looney Tunes, but the homoerotic relationship between the leads is believable (look at the big cigars they munch during the flashback sequence with the, uh, vietnamese ninjas), and so´s Jack relation with his son (played with gusto by young actor J. Patrick Collins Jr.).
And the best thing is that Ecarma don´t let the "homages" get in the way of storytelling. At little more than 70´s minutes the movie moves REALLY fast and is filled with great low-budged action sequences. All begins with an exciting fight between Jack and "Psycho Bowtie" (a silent karate-fighting goon played by the multi-talented Eric Thornett, who also directed a cool indie film called 23 HOURS), and ends with a long, gore-drenched, over-the-top finale complete with nods to Abel Ferrara´s DRILLER KILLER and every duel-at-sundown western, decapitations, crucifications and exploding heads - not to mention the priceless blood-squirting eyeball.
This movie has only one fault: it´s not yet available on the home video market. But thanks to the success LETHAL FORCE is making in the festivals circuit, that soon will be corrected.
And the best thing is that Ecarma don´t let the "homages" get in the way of storytelling. At little more than 70´s minutes the movie moves REALLY fast and is filled with great low-budged action sequences. All begins with an exciting fight between Jack and "Psycho Bowtie" (a silent karate-fighting goon played by the multi-talented Eric Thornett, who also directed a cool indie film called 23 HOURS), and ends with a long, gore-drenched, over-the-top finale complete with nods to Abel Ferrara´s DRILLER KILLER and every duel-at-sundown western, decapitations, crucifications and exploding heads - not to mention the priceless blood-squirting eyeball.
This movie has only one fault: it´s not yet available on the home video market. But thanks to the success LETHAL FORCE is making in the festivals circuit, that soon will be corrected.