Fighting Mad (1978)

          Sometimes a bad movie merits an ironic viewing simply because the premise is so absurd that one can happily marvel at the hubris—or insanity—of the filmmakers. Fighting Mad easily meets that criterion. The violent flick was originally released as Death Force, but then it was reissued under the moniker Fighting Mad once two of its costars achieved greater fame—gorgeous starlet Jayne Kennedy became a popular sportscaster, while her husband, DJ-turned-actor Leon Isaac Kennedy, starred in the hit exploitation flick Penitentiary (1979). In other words, never mind the above poster suggesting that Fighting Mad is a straight-up action movie featuring the Kennedys as a couple. Quite to the contrary, Leon plays the main villain, and Jayne plays the long-suffering wife of the actual star, James Iglehart.

          Here’s the humdinger of a plot. In the Vietnam War era, soldiers McGee (Leon Isaac Kennedy), Morelli (Carmen Argenziano), and Russell (Iglehart) smuggle gold out of Indochina, and then sell it to criminals in the Philippines. Yet Russell’s partners get greedy, so they stab him and toss him off a boat in the middle of the Pacific. Russell survives, washing ashore on an island inhabited only by two Japanese soldiers who were never told that World War II ended. The Japanese soldiers train Russell to be a samurai, even giving him his own sword. Meanwhile, McGee and Morelli return to the U.S. and become crime lords. Furthermore, McGee puts the moves on Russell’s wife, Maria (Jayne Kennedy), who believes her husband dead. (This is especially odious because Maria has a young son with Russell.) Next, Filipino soldiers find the island and rescue Russell, who travels back to the States with his samurai sword and a thirst for vengeance.

          Fighting Mad is exactly as silly as this description suggests, but it’s got a certain pulpy energy—exciting things happen, the pace is brisk, and the story never gets mired in troublesome things like characterization or nuance. This is sheer escapist nonsense, combining the genres of blaxploitation, crime, and martial arts into a schlocky smorgasbord. Excepting Argenziano, who’s an acceptable low-rent substitute for swarthy ’70s stalwart Don Gordon, the actors in Fighting Mad are uniformly weak. Nonetheless, each player fits his or her role. Iglehart’s built like a boxer, so he’s quite a sight when flailing his katana, and Leon Isaac Kennedy manages to look like a skeevy pimp even though he’s not actually playing a skeevy pimp—watch the way his Afro always seems slightly unkempt. Plus, since Jayne Kennedy was one of the great beauties of the ’70s, it doesn’t much matter that she lacks dramatic skill; cast as eye candy, she more than justifies her presence in the picture. She also gets the best line in the movie. When McGee offers to help raise Maria’s young son, Maria spits back, “He don’t need a mother like you for a father!” And if that line doesn’t immediately seem awesome, note that in this circumstance, “mother” is an abbreviation. Shut yo’ mouth!

Fighting Mad: FUNKY

Bamboo Gods and Iron Men (1974)

One of several mid-’70s flicks meshing the blaxploitation and martial-arts genres, Bamboo Gods and Iron Men is either mediocre and substandard, depending on your tolerance level. The film has a simplistic storyline that only occasionally lapses into incoherence, so it’s not an outright train wreck, and the sleaze factor isn’t too extreme, so the movie doesn’t represent an assault on good taste. But, man, is Bamboo Gods and Iron Men dull, particularly since it’s purported to be a comedy/action hybrid—the comedy isn’t mostly absent, and the action is underwhelming. Impressively built James Iglehart stars as Cal Jefferson, an American prizefighter honeymooning in the Philippines with his new bride (Shirley Washington). The Jeffersons stumble into two fraught situations. First, Cal saves a local man (played by Filipino comedy star Chiquito) from drowning, thus triggering the man’s unwanted servitude, in accordance with local custom. Second, Cal buys an artifact as a gift for his missus, unaware that gangsters want the item. Chases and fights ensue. The bull-in-a-china-shop possibilities of a towering black boxer brawling his way through the Philippines are largely underused, since the direction and script are unimaginative, so the only novel scene involves Chiquito’s character sparring with his “master”; after Cal tries to teach some sweet-science techniques, the tiny Asian whips off his gloves to display martial-arts acumen. Iglehart’s acting is neither embarrassing nor memorable, and Washington is merely attractive, but Bamboo Gods and Iron Men is filled with anonymous supporting actors of dubious credentials. Playing the main villain, for instance, is a bland white dude named Ken Metcalfe, who also co-wrote the movie; his stilted acting wouldn’t pass muster in a high-school theater production. About the kindest thing one can say about Bamboo Gods and Iron Man is that it might satisfy some undiscriminating viewers with its abundance of brawls, funky music, and lurid nude scenes.

Bamboo Gods and Iron Men: LAME