hyped garbage

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Devil's Express was in my recommended Amazon Prime video list for some time. And now that I've just finished watching it, I wish that I could have seen it even sooner. This is the kind of movie that I feel like becoming an apostle for - it's a film that hardly anyone talks about and has probably never seen, but combines all of the elements that make it perfect for culthood - it's the perfect mix of blaxploitation, 1970's occult, tough guy cop and martial arts films, all in one off the rails package.When The Warriors came out, the distributor of this film retitled it as Gang Wars to try and make more money. And sure, it's about gang fights. It's also about so much more.Back in 200 B.C., Chinese monks get rid of an evil medallion by dropping it into a hole. That's where it stays until sometime in the 1970's, when martial arts teacher Luke Curtis (played by a man who has an even better real name, Warhawk Tanzania, who is also in Black Force) and his sidekick Rodan (no, not that Rodan, this guy is played by Wilfredo Roldan, also of Black Force) travel overseas on a spiritual journey. Sadly, Rodan can't erase the revenge in his heart, so when he finds the medallion, instead of resisting its evil, he takes it.When they get back to New York City, a demon possesses a Chinese guy and starts violence everywhere he goes, setting up a feud between the Blackjack and Red Dragon gangs. The cops try and keep things cool, but the martial arts action just can't be stopped.If you're looking for cameos, this one's got 'em, from Brother Theodore (The 'Burbs) to David Durston, the writer and director of I Drink Your Blood as a doomed 9 to 5'er!Also, if you're looking for a funky soundtrack, gold lame outfits, a villain named Lo Pan (yes, really), a final kung fu fighting monster that is wearing tennis shoes, Dolemite-esque chop sockery and the kind of movie that five different writers all making a totally different movie at the same time, then this film is exactly what you're looking for. You've got a hero cool enough to help train the cops, but also street enough to not trust them. You've got romance. And you've got fights with missed cues and nonsensical editing. Writing this review makes me want to watch this movie all over again.There's even a subplot where one of the new cops thinks that all of the murders and gang violence are the result of mutated pets that have been flushed into the sewer. And how does a martial arts instructor so devoted to harmony and bettering himself also let a coke dealer and gang leader learn from him? Why did Warhawk Tanzania do so few films? Why didn't they make ten sequels to this movie? When can I watch it again?

One reviewer described this as like "Black Belt Jones vs. The Galaxy Invader," but that only scratches the surface. Exhumed Films calls it "a Blaxploitation/Horror/Kung-Fu absurdist masterpiece," which they very correctly note "could only exist in the exploitation heyday of the 1970s." This gets a bit closer. You're really getting 3 or 4 different movies in one here. Possibly my favorite plot of all-time: a soul-brother karate instructor travels to Hong Kong to learn and master his art, where his buddy and protégé steals an ancient amulet which (unbeknownst to him) has the power to control a demon. The demon follows them home to NYC where it hides in the subway and begins killing innocent (and not-so-innocent) bystanders. Oh, and by the way? The amulet-stealing buddy is also a drug dealer with an ongoing vendetta against the local Chinese crime gang. That's at least 2 movies right there. The film now shifts gears to another buddy of the karate instructor, who is a cop investigating the subway killings. This portion of the film now plays like a supernatural/creature hunter/police procedural/X-Files kinda thing. Again, this could be a movie in its own right. Everything comes to a head when the black kung-fu-ers and the Chinese gang realize it might not just be their street fights that's killing off their members, and that maybe the cops are on to something when they say something is lurking in the subway, waiting to mutilate its next victim. This all ends with what is the trippiest final fight sequence since Zardoz. I would not have believed such a movie could exist had I not seen it. I *have* seen it. You should too.

From a time when every white kid squinted their eyes, made dying cat howls and broke their legs jumping into the garage wall trying to be Bruce Lee comes a Z-grade blaxploitation zombie kung fu masterpiece that tries - oh, how it tries - to cover all bases, but all it really does is redefine the term "black action". Set mainly in a New York subway, it's so black you can hardly see any action. Can you dig it? Warhawk Tanzania plays kung fu master Luke Curtis, known by his pupils as See-Fu. On a meditation retreat to China, his star pupil Rodan (as in the giant Japanese pterodactyl) unwittingly picks up a silver medallion from the tomb of an ancient demon. Being the Seventies, ugly jewelry is considered the height of fashion, and they return to New York. The demon, meanwhile, bursts out of his tomb, jumps on the first ship to Harlem, possesses a brother-man, and wanders comically through the subway with huge white eyes painted onto his lids with liquid paper, looking for souls to feed on. The trail of murders sparks a gang war between local kung-fu-kicking triads the Red Dragons and ghetto gang the Black Spades (I kid you not). When Rodan has his necklace (and his head) torn off, Warhawk finally has a moment of clarity - see, the meditation finally pays off - and he bravely heads into the subway for a brother-to-brother showdown.Devil's Express was Warhawk's second and final film after Force Four (aka Black Force, 1975). Warhawk spends most of his screen time running down "honkies" and proving he's a Man of the People - saying no to drugs, giving street kids a hi-five, and eating Chinese takeout - with chopsticks - with his wooooman. What he can't do, and it's apparent from the start, is fight for shinola; as a bottom-shelf Jim Kelly, he's all attitude with no acting OR fighting chops to back it up. His punches land six inches from their intended destinations, all with the most inappropriate sound effects. As a distraction to how bad his fighting is, he steps on a Chinese kid's throat and bursts a blood vessel. Dramatic? No. Ludicrous? Of course. And that's the charm of a Warhawk Tanzania film. By the way - ever seen a Chinese kid with an afro? For a no-name cast, there's a surprise sacrilicious street-side ranting by New York eccentric Brother Theodore: "Moses is dead, Mohammed is dead, Buddha is dead... and I'm not feeling so hot myself." Bad acting, ham-fisted fighting and peppered with the most gut-wrenchingly exaggerated jive ("I know where you're coming from, See-Fu. I can DIG it!"), Devil's Express is a film that succeeds in making Huggy Bear look like Humphrey B. Bear. Can YOU dig it?

SPOILERS INCLUDED The only known film in which a would be rapist is dragged into the New York subway system by a Chinese monster who has inadvertently contributed to a race war in the big apple- 'Gang Wars: Devil's Express' was distributed stateside by Howard Mahler Films a small time outfit known for euro pick-ups like Killer Snakes and The Hatchet Murders (Deep Red). Rodan (Wilfredo Roldan) the films Ratso Rizzo is a slimy, hate filled Times Square con-man primarily responsible for instigating violence between street gangs The Black Spades and The Red Dragons (hence gang wars). His friend/kung-fu master See-Fu 'Luke' Curtis (Warhawk Tanzania) recommends 'a week of improvement for the body and soul' in a Hong Kong kung-fu school if only to keep this drug dealing hothead out of trouble. However in Hong Kong (looking suspiciously like 'Hong Kong'- central park) Rodan accidently releases an ancient Chinese monster who had been imprisoned there in 200bc by a bunch of Buddhist monks. The monster follows the duo back on a one-way ticket to New York, murdering and taking over the body of a Chinese businessman before hiding away on a boat. In an implausible but highly amusing twist the zombie chinaman that emerges from the boat is somehow unnoticed on the streets of New York despite having ping-pong ball eyes. The hustle and bustle of NYC proves too much for this zombie monster who hides in the subway- where for the rest of the movie it lures people to their deaths- enjoying such pastimes as pulling a night-watchman's head off. One of many snuffed out is David Durston (director of I Drink Your Blood and many hard-X 'all male cast' movies) who ends up on the tracks after the monster puts on a woman's voice 'please help me! its dark in here!' Rodan's luck runs out too as he and a friend are ambushed by the 'tong' who beat the friend to a bloody pulp and chase Rodan onto the subway tracks where the monster finishes him off -frying his head in a fuse-box. A broken, angry man See-fu takes on the Red Dragons before learning the dreaded truth 'in my mind what you are telling me sounds fantastic, but in my heart i know your telling the truth'. Dressed in an all-in-one gold suit that if nothing else will cause the monster to laugh itself to death, See-Fu heads into the 135th street subway to fight the monster- who disguises itself as members of the cast (and a train) before revealing its trueself as well as the most phoniest monster suit outside of a Larry Buchanan movie. As its multiple titles attest Gang Wars: Devil's Express is revolving parts horror, intercity action and 'blaxploitation' film. Such eclecticism (the work of five writers!) guarantees that Gang Wars never lacks incident whether its several kung- fu fights wherein kicks and punches miss there mark by a mile or the monster spilling its guts on the traintracks. Ultimately though such opportunistic cross marketing only emphasizes the extreme poverty of its skidrow filmmakers- its hard to convey how amateur hour Gang Wars actually is. Technically its a rock bottom catalogue of horrors- bad editing, scenes shot without sound and a dreadful soul song `That's why you and I believe (in each other)' that appears to have been recorded with the microphone in a bucket of water. Such hopelessness should never have the right to be as entertaining as it is here- but against the odds Gang Wars remains just that from beginning to end. Ironically one of the film's most distinctive features also stems from its zero budget roots, albeit almost accidentally. Too cheap for studios, Writer/Director Barry Rosen lets the action play out in some of the most run down, urban places imaginable embossing the film with a genuine sense of street realism somewhat lacking in meddling Chinese monsters and hack dialogue like 'they'd rather fight a gorilla in a phonebooth than mess with us'. The film's star Warhawk Tanzania with his big Afro and disco-era threads at least looks the part of a poor mans Xeroxed blaxploitation hero- but that's about it. As a character See-Fu is sketched out as streetwise, self assertive and righteous but after Warhawk's ham fisted approach to dialogue hes reduced to an arrogant old complainer 'the next time, the next time you try to recruit me into that pigpen of yours is the time i ice you'. Warhawk also secured acting roles for several of his relatives in the production- witness Tamu Tanzania and 'special guest star' Tsikagi- Iron Priest- Tanzania (!) but true scene stealers here are the nasty old baglady who abuses and spits at passengers on the express before discovering a headless torso and Brother Theodore's street preacher 'Moses is dead, Mohammed is dead, Buddha is dead and I'm not feeling so hot myself'. Barry Rosen had one more exploitation film in his system, a softcore sex film called The Yum Yum Girls starring sometime Charlie's Angel Tanya Roberts before resurfacing as a successful television producer- Warhawk Tanzania (and relations) have never been heard from again.