COLD HARVEST

CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS

Hmmm. What to say about a post-apocalypse martial arts thriller set in a permanently midnight dystopia populated by gun-toting gangsters and hopelessly brutalised peasantry, where the tough and macho hero has highlights in his hair? Despite the frequency with which the stunt doubles are knocked through walls and furniture, it's all sadly rather routine and unremarkable yet there are a few halfway decent moments.

Cold Harvest (a meaningless title) features Gary Daniels as a bounty hunter in a frankly horrible future devastated by a plague, where the world has basically become the set of a spaghetti Western version of Mad Max. Daniels also shows up as his wimpy twin brother who has the genetic antidote to the plague in his bloodstream, but the convoy escorting him and five other carriers is attacked by evil Little Ray (Bryan Genesse, who started his career in Loose Screws, a tedious sequel to a Porky's ripoff) and the only survivor is wife Barbara Crampton - not one of the antidote carriers. But Little Ray can track her through the genetic tracker of her unborn child, unless Daniels can get her to the safe zone....

It's part John Woo knockoff (there's even that Face/Off scene where the hero and villain fire guns at each other through the wall between them) and part Western, complete with twangy guitars on the soundtrack. The director is Isaac Florentine, who made the not terribly good Ninja, and whose CV mostly consists of people lamping one another. In no sense is this a must-watch, but some of the bits of fighting are nicely choreographed and put together for maximum "that's gotta hurt" effect. Certainly not the worst thing you'll ever see, but if you don't see it you're not missing anything remarkable.

**

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