The Fury of Chiba

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HE FURY WITHIN-(1998)-A made for cable horror movie that unfortunately looks like it.

Ally Sheedy stars as a wife recently separated from her husband (Costas Mandylor) raising their two kids. After a close encounter with a dog who had been locked up with it's dead master for a couple of days (and eating him) weird things ala POLTERGEIST begin to happen. Lights go out, kitchen untensils fly everywhere, etc. It seems her young son is possessed...or is he? Except for the downer ending, this isn't much.



THE BODYGUARD-(1976)-I love Sonny Chiba's STREETFIGHTER movies but this thing is the pits. It's very cheap, badly made and boring. The US version opens with a short tour of NYC's 42nd Street (in the bad old days) and then a shaky hand held camera leads us into a dojo where Karate champs Aaron Banks and Bill Louie beat up some students and debate on who's better, Chiba or Bruce Lee. This scene is really awful and sets the tone for the whole movie even though it was added by US schlockmiester Terry Levene!

After he beats up and kills some assassins on a plane, Chiba (playing himself) holds a press conference and announces his war on drugs. After his sister has a warning carved on her arm (by The Costa Nostra) he has one fight after another while trying to protect another woman who knows more than she's telling. Chiba's real life brother Jiro appears too.

The theme song is really cool though!

Credited director Simon Nuchtern has worked (or re-worked perhaps?) on a lot of crap including the notorius SNUFF, the 3-D SILENT MADNESS, an '80's biker film SAVAGE DAWN and something called THAT MAN IS PREGNANT!

Chiba made STREETFIGHTER'S LAST REVENGE the same year.....

Thanks for reading!