Cheapo DVD Reviews: Wasabi (2001)

  Hubert Fiorentino (Jean Reno) is 6' 4 of badass cop, who gets the job done but tends to punch people in the face more than the Paris police force is comfortable with.
  After hopitalising the wrong person, Hubert is suspended from duty and told to chill out a bit. This does not make Hubert isn't happy since he has zero life outside of policing.

  It's while sitting at home moping that our hero gets a blast from the past. 19 years ago Miko (Yuki Sakai) , the love of his life, abruptly disappeared leaving Hubert devastated.    Now Miko is dead and Hubert is the sole legatee of her will.

  When he arrives in Tokyo he discovers that the main condition of Miko's will is that Hubert take care of her daughter Yumi (Ryoko Hirosue) - an insanely lively 19 year old with a fondness for eyewatering fashion choices and a strong dislike of cops.

Yumi is 19. She doesn't know who her father is. Work it out.

 Now Paris's very own Dirty Harry not only has to play guardian to a manic teenager, he has to find out why the Yakuza are apparently so keen on young Yumi. And at some point he's going to have to tell her who her father is....


  I was headed home with a bag of KFC (Ken's Fried Chicken)  when I decided to nip into a charity shop and pick up a DVD to watch.    Since my tea was growing cold and the middle-aged women browsing for cardigans were beginning to wonder why the shop stank of battered chicken, I was in a bit of a hurry.
 Then I spotted this particular DVD and my mind was made up.

  Jean Reno is one of those actors you can always rely on so I knew that even if "Wasabi" sucked, he'd still be worth watching. I was not disappointed. A character that should come across as a psychotic bully is given extra dimension by Reno's performance as he switches between badass and, bemused at the drop of a hat. During one scene he punches a handcuffed prisoner - then three minutes later a little bit of opening up has got us feeling sympathetic again.

  Co-star Ryoko Hirosue seemingly spends the bulk of the film on a massive sugar-rush, being insanely perky with occasional lapses into bratty. I can see that annoying people who don't watch a lot of anime but personally I liked Yumi and I thought that Hirosue held her own when it came to the more emotional moments. There's some really touching scenes between Hubert and Yumi in this film. I liked that.

   The story is fairly straighforward without many twists but that's Ok. It works just fine.

What doesn't work so well is Hubert's inept sidekick Momo (Michel Muller) who adds little beyond giving Hubert a gofer and some laboured comedy relief. . Luckily it doesn't spoil the movie but I can't see why they needed to make him such a muppet. Maybe it's a Gallic thing

Speaking of comedy, I was honestly not expecting this film to crack me up. My favourite scene has Hubert escorting Yumi on a shopping trip while simultaneously picking off Yakuza. Once again Reno gets to show off how good he is at both comedy and snacking people.

How much did I pay for this: £1
Was It Worth it? An unqualified yes. I enjoyed "Wasabi" a lot.  

Here's the trailer:  

Cheapo DVD Review: Ring Of Steel (1994)

Reviewing the best cheapest DVDs that CEX and Charity Shops have to offer. 

  Champion fencer Alex Freyer (Robert Chapin) seems to have everything going his way.  Not only is he one match away from a guaranteed place on the US Oympic team but he's just met a cute blonde that has a thing for fencers with mullets. 

  But after an unfortunate accident leaves an opponent with a big hole in his face,  Alex is now persona non grata in the fencing world.  

 Luckily a mysterious old guy with a cane offers Alex a job at his exclusive underground swordfighting club. 

 What could possibly go wrong?  

  At one point it seemed like ever film that wasn't about renegade cops was about muscular young men with Hair Metal barnets fighting illegally for the entertainment of rich folk. 

This makes me wonder if producers know something I don't.  Then again, in a world where people paid tramps to batter each other, modern day gladiators aren't so unlikely.

  "Ring Of Steel" is pretty formulaic, to be fair. The story goes exactly the way you expect it to go right down to the "shocking" developments at key points. If you've seen any other movies in this sub-genre, you know what's coming twenty minutes before Alex does. 

  But once "Ring Of Steel" gets up to speed I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. 

  The acting is OK for the most part, with veteran Joe Don Baker turning in the best performance as the genial but increasingly sinister Man In Black. You just know he'd be smiling warmly as he slid the knife into your ribs. 

  What definitely gives "Ring of Steel" the edge over the likes of "Gladiator Cop" is the fight scenes. By 1990s standards the swordplay is pretty good and the best fight is a playful homage to the classic Hollywood days of Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone. Then for the climax the producers pull out all the stops and really ramp up the peril. It works quite well. 

  

 It would have been nice to see Alex's girlfriend Elena (Darlene Vogel) get a bit more active. Considering she's introduced as a fencer herself, it seems a waste to drop Elena into the role of Damsel in Distress. She does manage to rescue herself however, so that's something. 

Alex and Elena are both easy to like as is Alex's newfound mate and comic relief Brian (Jim Pirri). On the other side, big, burly Jack (Gary Kasper) might as well have "I'm a psycho" tattooed on his face and Tanya (Carol Alt) slinks about being all femme fatale-y and stuff. 

 It's not subtle but if you wanted subtle, maybe you shouldn't have picked up a DVD with a half-naked man holding a sword.

How much did I pay for this?  £1.50. 

Was it worth it: A firm Yes.  

 "Ring Of Steel" might not stray too far from the Modern Day Gladiator template but it does what it does  pretty well and if you like films where 80s rockers fight to the death, you're quite likely to enjoy "Ring Of Steel" 

 Here's the trailer: 

 That's all folks.