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Average customer rating:

Want an entertaining Italian Western...look no further!
Mama Mia! Last Charge of the Spaghetti Western
Mannaja Trois!
A sad farewell to a very exciting movie genre
Should have gotten Morricone... PLUS EASTER EGG below

Mannaja - A Man Called Blade
Starring: Maurizio Merli , John Steiner , Sonja Jeannine , Donald O'Brien , and Salvatore Puntillo
Director: Sergio Martino
Manufacturer: Blue Underground
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0001KUE7I
Release Date: 2004-04-27

Amazon.com

They call him Blade (Maurizio Merli) because mostly he lets his hatchet do his talking for him. He's searched 20 years to find the man responsible for his father's death. This is puzzling, since the guy is right where he always was and where Blade started from. The real villain of the piece is not this economic-ecological despoiler (Philippe Leroy), a shrunken husk in a wheelchair, but his lieutenant (John Steiner), a blond fascist who looks like a twit version of Rutger Hauer and sounds like a cross between John Glover and the police chief in Young Frankenstein. (Blade is also blond, with a hairdo reminiscent of Pippi Longstocking's.) Sergio Martino, whose action direction is ludicrous, was obliged to fill many scenes with fog because the last Western town set in Italy was falling down around him. This was, he claims, "the last, or maybe next-to-last" spaghetti Western. None too soon. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews:

Want an entertaining Italian Western...look no further!.......2006-03-02

A man is running through swampy land through mist and trees. Behind him, riding in slow motion comes our "iconic" anti-hero. The man keeps slipping but eventually turns to shoot at the slow motion hero on a horse. He barley raises his hand when our hero throws a hatchet that in turns slices the mans arm right off.

Yes, that is the opening of Mannaja (aka A Man Called Blade), and from that violent opening sequence, you know the film could only come from Italy. Oh Spaghetti films hold a special place in my heart. No other country is this no-holds-barred when it comes to violence and Mannaja is just plum full of Italian film clichés. We get an unlikable anti-hero, bad dubbing, extreme violence, a plot holed story, and a surreal atmosphere. Everything we Italian film fanatics love!

Mannaja, one of the very last Spaghetti Westerns, is actually one of the more entertaining of the genre I have encountered. It actually makes more sense than other films from the Country. Our anti-hero who is known as Blade...yes a man called Blade...travels to a small western town where he gets on the bad side of the towns crooked ruler after betting him in a bet. It ends up this guy tries to kill our antihero.....a bad mistake. Sure it's predictable but what Spaghetti Western isn't other than Leone's? This is just plain and simple Spaghetti Western fun and nothing more. If you like the genre, then you deserve to have Mannaja in your collection.

The major thing is what does the title Mannaja have to do with the movie? The word or name "Mannaja" is never mentioned in the film. How do you even pronounce it? I feel like a fool every time I try to say the name. Also, make sure and check out the theme song to the movie....ifs just hilarious.

Mama Mia! Last Charge of the Spaghetti Western .......2005-11-07

This review refers to "Mannaja - A Man Called Blade"(DVD/Blue Underground)

I am a lover of the Spaghetti Western. They have ranged from graphically violent to campy and comedy.They have a style of filming that makes them distinguishable from any other Western. By 1977 they had seen their day come and go. So "Mannaja", was one of the last of it's kind, and gives the genre one heck of a send off! It's a brutal look at the West,and it's action packed(and even has a little romance,but just a little).

A man called Blade(Maurizio Merli), gets his name because he is an expert with a hatchet. He's a bounty hunter and catches a very valuable outlaw, by tossing his hatchet, quicker and more accurately then any gunman can draw on him. And... relieving the bad guys of body parts while he is at it. With his prisoner in tow, and one hand short, he enters a mining town, that has no lawman. The silver baron runs the show, and he's bad enough, but his foreman is the really bad Hombre in this group.Blade manages to get the better of these corrupt guys, and a bloody battle of revenge begins.

The story is surprising. There are twists and turns that you didn't see coming.The characters are interesting. The filming is wonderful. Not only is there some great vistas to take in, but Director Sergio Martino,pays homage to Sam Peckinpah. His interweavings of two very different scenes is a fascianting view. You will have the merriment of dancing girls, pleasing the crowd, while at the same time, a bloody mass murder is going on in slow-mo outside of town. Martino is superb at cutting these contrasting events together.

If you think you may not like this one, because you prefer a six-shooter to a hatchet in a Western, don't worry, Blade is plenty good with guns as well. As he puts it: he speaks more then one language!

A fabulous job by Blue Underground with this one.It is presented in widescreen, has a very nice picture, with good colors and sounds great(Dolby Mono). It may be viewed in either the Italian or English language track,and has optional English subtitles. The director talks about the film(this is a short feature, not as commentary during the film), there is a Still Gallery, and there is a nice booklet with informative notes as well.

Get out the pasta maker, enjoy with some vino, and saddle up for one heck of a going away party for the Spaghetti Western.....Laurie

Mannaja Trois!.......2004-10-30

"Blade" is a hatchet wielding badazz mofo bounty hunter who prances into a town run by a rich tyrant who has the entire town working in his silver mine. Blade's an all around do-gooder but is also looking to settle a score with this tyrant. Blade manages to piss of the villians about two seconds after setting foot in town, and the showdown begins. Needless to say this film is hardly original. When viewing this film I can't stress enough to NOT expect anything remotely like Leone. I think that's where alot of the negative reviews come from-high expectations. I went into this film with the same mindset I'd use going into Death Wish 4: The Crackdown. I expected it to be silly, violent, and most of all, fun. And it is fun! Is this soundtrack as dreadful as the reviews below say? You bet it is! It's terrible! But in my eyes that only added more laughs to the film, and I'm glad the soundtrack is as bad as it is. These lesser Italian westerns have a thing with anachronistic music. Remember Django's Tom Jones-esque theme? Mannaja's might even be funnier than that. And I can't forget mentioning a great performance by Italian film regular John Steiner(my homie Longinus from Caligula) as the villian. Don't expect grade-A entertainment and you'll have a winner with Mannaja. Think of it this way: If The Good, Bad and The Ugly is the Gremlins of westerns, then Mannaja is the Munchies of westerns. Check it out and enjoy those tunes.

A sad farewell to a very exciting movie genre.......2004-04-02

It's commonly said - and with good reason - that the movie 'The Man Called Blade' is the last entry in the interesting genre named 'western spaghetti' that dominated the Italian movies in the sixties and seventies. But, unfortunately, this movie is a very sad farewell to an otherwise exciting genre. This movie has a simple plot - like almost all the other movies of the same kind - but so full of flaws and absurd situations that the viewer - even an addict of spaghetti westerns - will be tired and boring before the middle of the story. In fact, 'A man Called Blade' is quite a rip off of 'Keoma', a huge sucess with Franco Nero, directed by Enzo G. Castellari. Maurizio Merli was picked up by director Sergio Martino to live Blade because of his resemblance with Nero, at these times completely out of westerns movies. A routine and poor imagined story of vengeance and hate, the movie goes on and on until an old fashioned 'finale'. Good performance by John Steiner, as the villain.

Should have gotten Morricone... PLUS EASTER EGG below.......2003-09-06

The music was a real letdown for me. I think that music in a movie can become something like a supporting cast member, but this music (by Guido e Maurizio De Angelis) just didn't fit in most places. Especially when the soloist began singing. Yuck. I mean, double yuck, out of luck, upchuck. I hope they weren't trying to save money by scrimping on the score. Sometimes the very thing that can save a movie is the soundtrack, and this one just didn't cut the mustard. It didn't have any semblance of being a thoughtful composition. If it had been pressed into an album, I wonder how many people would have purchased it? I'm sorry to ramble on, but the music just pinned my emotions down on this one. Just as I would gain some interest, the music shoots it all down. Guido's score (sorry, sir) didn't need a hatchet to kill "A Man Called Blade."

Maybe it was the music, but it definitely didn't help get me into the mood of this movie, which technically is another fine transfer from an original film stock and presented by Blue Underground. Honestly? I'd rather watch the opening FBI warning (a really cool animated revolving red light instead of the plain blue page) than sit through the musical score with the lyrics being sung.

I wish Blue Underground could have given the viewer an option to turn the music off. Maybe that's why I couldn't relate to the characters. Yes it's violent and somewhat surreal, but ask me whether I cared who died? The music made me wish it would hurry and end (with no lyrics, of course). If I had a hatchet in hand while watching this, the lyrics would probably have driven me to throw at the speakers. I wished that I could have gotten past the music, but it just permeated everything.

Tech Specs and at least one Easter Egg: Region free, NTSC DVD @ 96 minutes color from an original print in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 (no full frame option) and enhanced for 16X9; English mono, Italian mono; optional English subtitles; trailer; featurette called "A Man Called Sergio (interview with director Sergio Martino); poster and production stills gallery; linear notes; a two- page pamphlet with deeper information about the movie. I found only one Easter Egg (2 previous Blue Underground discs had 3 of them that I found in each). This one is located on the Extras page. Highlight A Man Called Sergio and push RIGHT to reveal a hatchet to access.

Customer Reviews:

funny man is not so funny after all!!!.......2006-06-30

Funny man is an ok way to kill 2 hours. my eyes were not at all glued to the screen. the dvd is packed with extras wich are great if you are a fan of the movie.

By all means i say give this A RENT and if you like buy it.

Ridiculously Twisted Fun !.......2006-06-24

Simon Sprackling's "FUNNY MAN" is a horror/comedy like no other! If you took the movie "Leprechaun" mashed it together with the comedy style of "The Kids In The Hall" add a few buckets of chunky red stuff & then took some lysergic acid diethylamide the outcome would be something like this demented nightmare. This underrated freakshow defines the words cult classic & is a must have for anyone who enjoys the hell out of goofy horror films.

No rest for the bloody wicked, eh?.......2006-05-31

I really had fun watching this film. It is a horror-comedy of a higher standard. The movie varies from hilarious to grotesque. The comedy in this movie is derived from the killer being way over the top. Most you see coming, but some catches you off guard. The plot is very rarely on track, and this movie is VERY confusing. However, it gets 4 stars, because the death scenes in this are BRILLIANT on the budget the movie had.
Cheeky comedy, mixed with horrific violence.
Overall, a good buy.

An Amusing, Slightly Disturbing B Flick That's Sadly Overlooked.......2006-05-29

Basic Plot: A mysterious English man (Christopher Lee) loses his mansion-home in a poker game, passing on not only ownership to the young, naive winner (Benny Young), but something much worse along with it -- a homicidal demon-jester known as the Funny Man (Tim James) who infests the house!

The Funny Man turned out to be pretty much what I expected: A strange, low-budget British horror flick with lots of dark, silly comedy. I can't say it was a masterpiece, or even slightly thought-provoking, but it's definitely a fun way to pass an hour and a half. The humor is pretty over-the-top (which I happen to like), and the story is decently interesting and original. But for the most part, the only reason you should see this is for the scenes with Tim James as the whacky evil jester. It's his witty one-liners and eccentric antics that keep the pace flowing. And that's really all it is -- some guy in a surprisingly impressive suit killing off characters in comedic ways. If you're a fan of B movies, this is certainly not as low as you can go in quality. As a matter of fact, it's above most others of its kind. So go on. Have a nice, sinister laugh with the Funny Man!

Weird little horror/comedy sort of thing............2006-03-11

This is a much overlooked film that has a man winning an old house in England in a poker game and finding out that there's something that comes with the house that he wasn't expecting. The man arrives at the house with his wife and kids (and his nose candy problem, which is played up later in the flick) and also his brother is busily bringing his furniture to him in a van, and picking up strange hitch hikers along the way, one of whom is Pauline Black, the lead singer for British Ska band The Selecter. She brings some hoodoo-voodoo knowledge with her and finds she's up against the real 'man of the house', a strange jester that has a low-key but sadistic way of going about things. Sadisticly funny, that is, as one by one the folks that are at the house are dispatched in strange ways. This is quite the weird little flick and well worth seeing if you like things odd. Christopher Lee plays the original owner of the house but he's not on screen for all that long, just long enough to pass the burden to others and be on his way back to the loony bin. A highly worthwhile film, not exactly sophisticated and suave but definitely a hoot.

Average customer rating:

funny man is not so funny after all!!!
Ridiculously Twisted Fun !
No rest for the bloody wicked, eh?
An Amusing, Slightly Disturbing B Flick That's Sadly Overlooked
Weird little horror/comedy sort of thing.....

Funny Man (Regular Edition)
Starring: Tim James (II) , Christopher Lee , Benny Young , Matthew Devitt , and Pauline Black
Director: Simon Sprackling
Manufacturer: Arrow Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Release Date: 2001-09-25

Customer Reviews:

funny man is not so funny after all!!!.......2006-06-30

Ridiculously Twisted Fun !.......2006-06-24

No rest for the bloody wicked, eh?.......2006-05-31

An Amusing, Slightly Disturbing B Flick That's Sadly Overlooked.......2006-05-29

Weird little horror/comedy sort of thing............2006-03-11

Average customer rating:

MOVIE MUTILATION
Great Experimental Horror
The Future of Horror
An Amazing, Hellish Journey
The Mutilation Man triumphs

Mutilation Man
Starring: Terek Puckett , Kristy Bowersock , Jim Van Bebber , Jollie Scott , and Wulf Richards
Director: Andrew Copp
Manufacturer: Sub Rosa Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

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Binge & Purge
Deadbeat at Dawn (Special Edition)
Cannibal
Dead Girl on Film/Kitty Killers
Live Feed

ASIN: B00008XRY2
Release Date: 2003-06-01

Description

From Andy Copp, starring Terek Pucket & Jim Van Bebber (Deadbeat at Dawn, Charlie's Family) The Mutilation Man (Terek Pucket) wanders the wasteland of Earth, performing brutal shows of self mutilation for the adoring crowds of survivors. In a land where most fear death, he fears life... and the memory of what happened to his mother and the brutality he endured at the hands of his drunken father (Jim Van Bebber - "Deadbeat at Dawn"). These two acts will forever scar him deeper than any act of torture he enacts on himself. But will he ever shed enough blood to wash away the nightmares of the past?

Customer Reviews:

MOVIE MUTILATION.......2005-08-06

I GOT THIS MOVIE BECAUSE I AM A HUGE JIM VAN BEBBER FAN AND STILL OWN IT FOR THAT FACT BUT BASICLY ITS NOT MUCH OF A MOVIE BUT I GUESS IT IS WORTH SEEING IF YOU ARE A FAN OF HIS ALTHOUGH HE DOESNT CONTRIBUTE MUCH TO IT, TRY TO SEE A COPY BEFORE BUYING IT, IT IS STILL WORTH SEEING FOR THE NOVELTY BUT NOT WORTH THE TWENTY DOLLARS BUYING IT WITH SHIPPING AND ALL THAT INCLUDED I BELIEVE THAT IS ABOUT WHAT IT COST ALTOGETHER

Great Experimental Horror.......2003-11-23

This DVD of Andy Copp's wonderful experimental horror film improves upon the VHS. The extras give new insite in to this amazing but emotionally blasting film. See my review of the VHS for more info on this fine film.

Worth every penny.

The Future of Horror.......2003-10-09

This is the directoral debut of a Mr. Andy Copp, the same Andy Copp who will be doing the lens work on the upcoming major Hollywood release, "The Feast". I was given this tape by a well-placed friend in the industry and I was totally blown away. Mr. Copp is a fan and student of the genre, and this movie proves that he has graduated up to the level of master. Splatter-gore has always been looked down by the masses (myself included), but the way that Mr. Copp approaches the medium is new, fresh, and inventive. At all costs, do not miss this movie. And be on the look out for "The Feast"

An Amazing, Hellish Journey.......2001-05-10

Director Andy Copp has triumphed with this amazing vision of a journey through hell. Copp, in his first major directorial effort, presents an almost experimental tale concerning a man who wanders through a decimated world and performs self-mutilation for the enjoyment of the masses.

Copp uses video and film footage to journey through the mind of the Mutilation Man. His hand held camera work gets up close and personal drawing the viewer in and then emotionally jolting the viewer in to questioning his or her own value system and life style. While shot on a budget, the lack of production money never shows. It is this lack of major studio support that forced Copp to use his creativity to its best advantage.

While not a film for those who can't follow non-linear storytelling, the Mutilation Man is a triumph of the art of self expression through the medium of film and video.

The film leaves the viewer drooling over the prospect of Copp's next film. He is an artist to watch!

The Mutilation Man triumphs.......2001-05-04

While THE MUTILATION MAN had a couple of minor problems, it's a remarkable film from a first-time director. It bears passing resemblance to Jodorosky's SANTE SANGRE, but manages to capture its own darkly brilliant vision of a brutal and bleak world. Director Andy Copp exhudes a sure hand not often seen in newcomers to such a nihilistic subgenre of filmmaking, and one can only ponder what his next venture will be. Hopefully he can eschew the videocamera for actual film, just as his directorial abilities deserve. Great things can only be in store for someone with such an uncompromsing and hostile vision of the world around him. Let's hope that he gives us another entry into his sensibilities sometime in the near future.

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