Recently, I found out that the local tip has a quasi OP shop section where you can buy someone elses old shit. Normally I wouldn't touch any of it. But when I saw a mountain of old VHS I couldn't help myself. 20 videos and 10 bucks later, I was one filthy, happy chappy.
Normally, when I come across a VHS stockpile I end up choosing either dodgy 80's action films or dodgy 80's horror. To give you an example, I for one, picked up a copy of King Kong Lives that day, basically just so I wouldnt have to hire it out, have it become overdue, and get chastised like Melvin Smiley did.
Another of the VHS I grabbed that day was Band Of The Hand, I looked at the cover, thought, hell Stephen Lang (pre Tombstone), Larry Fishburne (when he still called himself Larry), and James Remar (when we was awesome, wait, he still is, shut up)...thats gonna be a fun dodgy 80's action film!
So come one rainy Friday night, I thought, what the hell, I'll put this bad boy in the oven and watch it explode. What I got was 102 minutes of action packed, vigilante strewn, delinquent laden awesomness!
The movie is basically about a bunch of no hoper teens who are released from jail to be a part of the Joe Tegra (Lang) experience. They have to learn to live off the land, fend for themselve and eachother and most importantly, learn to work together as a team. Once Tegra finds them ready, he takes them back to the mean streets of 80's Miami, to finish their jedi training.
That synopis covers barely one quarter of the film. After watching this, I realised that they pretty much had five movies rolled into a neat little ball here. There was a lot of ground covered. You essentially watch these punks grow into maturity and learn to not only respect each other, but themselves aswell.
It's a hard movie to review, hence why this isnt really a review, more of a reccomendation. Its a hard film to find, with the DVD going for over 80 samolians on ebay at the moment. If I hadn't have found the VHS, I may have never heard of this film, and it would have gone down the path of so many other films, into oblivion.
This raises the question, is downloading bad, when a DVD is out of circulation, or unavailable to the masses? Fortunately for me, my VHS copy is in pristine viewing condition, so I don't have to contemplate this, but it's still an interesting topic, which I know none of you out there give a shit about really.
Band of the Hand is awesome. I watched it, lived it, loved it. I really got into the whole idea of it, and it made me want for more. Remar plays a sicko crime lord who dabbles in the occult, Stephen Lang plays an indian nam vet, and Fishburne plays a pusher called Cream. Even Leon from Cliffhanger (no bullets bitch) is in it, which spun me out.
Think of this movie as The Warriors meets Scarface, with the colour of an old school Red Hot Chili Peppers filmclip.
If you can find it, be sure to check it out.
Spinning me out is the music to this trailer, which is actually part of Tangerine Dream's soundtrack for Flashpoint.
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