The late '70s/1980s was THE decade for cheesy war films. The likes of Stallone and Chuck Norris popularised the 'kill 'em all' likes of the Vietnam war cycle and many a jungle adventure followed in their footsteps. Meanwhile, mainstream filmmakers like Oliver Stone and Francis Ford Coppola were releasing epic war movies and the rip offs and cash-ins inevitably followed. The Philippines was a country whose lush jungle vegetation made it the perfect stand-in for south-east Asia locales and so the decade saw the country pumping out war flick after war flick. Some were pretty good, in a cheesy way, and many were absolutely atrocious, but I'm pleased to say that SLASH is one of the most entertaining I've seen.This is a film where poor dialogue, low budget, bad acting, and sub-standard filmmaking can be forgiven because it's just a fun film to watch. It's packed with action and I wasn't bored for a second as there seems to be a machine gun battle going on every few minutes. The movie is chock full of explosions and battles. The identity of the bad guys isn't really clear, on one hand the Vietcong are involved and later we have traitorous Khmer fighters, but the film treats them as faceless villains anyway so it doesn't really matter.The film kicks off in high gear as good guys battle bad. There's a machine gun post on the top corner of a building (!) and we're introduced to Mike Monty and his men, who eventually take it down. The moustachioed Monty was a regular in Filipino war flicks and he's given his biggest role yet here as a top soldier. Eventually he sends in three guys to find out what's happened to a missing woman who also happens to be his daughter. Two of the guys are equivalent to the STAR TREK red shirts (i.e. they're cannon fodder) but the third is Stallone lookalike Ron Kristoff, essaying Stallone in FIRST BLOOD. Kristoff forged a small career in these Z-movies and he's quite entertaining to watch in a wooden way although he doesn't turn up here until after the first half hour.Every action cliché you can imagine takes place during this film. There are captures, escapes, and the inevitable "taking out the guards" scene. Realism seems out of the window as numerous characters get shot multiple times but show little sign of injury, and sometimes people are killed and come back to life later. There's a jeep chase where the cars are driving about twenty miles an hour and the sound of tyres squealing is dubbed onto the soundtrack in a bid to make the events more exciting. Highlights include a cool 'exploding helicopter' shot at the movie's climax, Kristoff's massive, home-made rocket launcher, tons of random war footage ripped off from other movies (I don't think these guys could afford real tanks, somehow), a decent exploding-car-over-cliff scene and my favourite part, a shoot-out in a hospital where a bunch of hit men are disguised as orderlies.A repetitive theme tune adds to the fun and Gwendolyn Hung adds some glamour, although she isn't in the film much. She ends up becoming a morphine addict and when she begs our 'hero' for some more of the drug, he punches her in the stomach to knock her out! The bad guy looks like Ming the Merciless and Mike Monty seems to have been dressed up to look just like Richard Harrison. The ending sees bare-chested Kristoff oiled up and running amok with his heavy weaponry in a bid to take down every enemy still ending as his acting veers between wooden and completely over the top. SLASH is a great little war flick and I had a good time watching it. I've watched plenty of poor, boring war movies but this isn't one of them – in fact it's a nice surprise to find a film so decent.

Now, whilst I don't generally like to be overly critical of actors, I must confess here straight away that I have never seen a single film in which Romano Kristoff headlines that I have actually liked. Again, I don't want to come down too hard on the guy (after all, he may for all I know be a really nice chap in real life) but in terms of action film performers, off hand I cannot think of a more wooden actor. I'm further saddened to report that the film reviewed here, in no way whatsoever challenges nor changes my opinion of Kristoff's work. To call it mundane would be probably a little on the complimentary side in fact! Basically it's a fairly typical example of Kristoff's output and indeed further similarly typifies the standard of film quality by the production company who are responsible for it, namely Silver Star. Note: Lots of big explosions with extras falling over nearby does NOT a good film make.To be fair, I must admit that the ending wasn't too bad in this when our hero lets rip with his souped up rocket launcher but this action arrives too little too late to remedy what was up until this point a decidedly dull hour and fifteen or so minutes.There is one highlight in this I would like to note for the record however and that is Kristoff's anguished reaction when he realises that the helicopter he was desperately trying to make it to has mysteriously gone missing - priceless! Indeed for such an hilarious sustained outburst I could almost (but not quite) forgive Kristoff for his crappy filmography. Oh well.........

Slash is without a doubt Romano Kristoff's best starring vehicle. A barely mediocre, completely forgettable Rambo ripoff which is just about on the level with the cheapest 80's Italo jungle epics. Which raises it head and shoulders above the average Silver Star fare and the bulk of Romano Kristoff's filmography.Of the regular Silver Star All Stars, Ronnie Patterson, Gwendolyn Hung and Mike Monty (in a larger role than usual) are present. Patterson made a short mini-career of having non-roles in films like this, Fireback, Intrusion Cambodia and so forth.There's nothing particularly distinctive about Slash, except for Gallardo's peculiar infatuation with Mike Monty's bald patch. The film is graced with several scenes of Monty's back and thinning hair talking to Kristoff. If he had been working either in Italy or the US, Kristoff would probably have ended up having a reasonable low-budget, direct-to-video action career. There were certainly other genre actors as bad/far worse than he was who had far more success than he ever did.