Customer Reviews

Hands of Steel [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I had order this movie and got other movie, not Hands of steel (AKA) as you can read from DVD description. So beware - if you order this, you will get "Fugitive lovers" by John Carr, and even if you ask them to resend correct title, you will get same DVD.

A cyborg assassin named Paco (Daniel Green) is confused when he cannot bring himself to kill a political figure. He goes on the run, winding up at a saloon / motel, run by Linda (Janet Agren). Paco's evil creator, Francis Turner (John Saxon), sends other assassins out to find and kill him. Meanwhile, Paco falls in love (?!) w/ Linda and becomes an arm-wrestling champion! Set in some undefined "future", HOS is about as cheap and cheesey as you can possibly get! All the cars are clunky 1980s models w/ dryer duct hoses mounted on them! In fact, this "world of tomorrow" has dryer duct hoses everywhere- in the saloon, in the motel rooms, etc. There's even an early scene where a scientist attempts to save his invention that is made of... you guessed it, dryer duct hoses! Whew! Also, our future seems to be dominated by sweaty truckdrivers and prostitutes. Sort of like one gigantic truck-stop! So, if arm-wrestling and cyborgs do it for ya, look no further! There's even a female cyborg in clear plastic shorts for Paco to battle! Plus, there's a totally gratuitous strip-club scene to boot! Enjoy...

Hands of Steel is an often overlooked Italian scifi movie, from director Sergio Martino, the director of the best Italian post-apocaplyse movie, "After the Fall of New York". It stars Daniel Greene (the truck driver who died from "Falcon Crest"), as a cyborg named Paco Querack. He is ordered by his superiors to kill revolutionary environmentalist Arthur Mosely, but at the last second his conscience kicks in, and Paco lets him live. Paco is now on the run from the men who created him.

With great music from Claudio Simonetti (of Goblin) and featuring the last performance of Claudio Cassinelli (who died in a helicopter crash during the making of this movie), Hands of Steel is an excellent scifi film (although not quite post-apocalypse).

After seeing a clip of "Paco" and "Rauol" on youtube arm wrestling, I knew I HAD to see this movie. It's definitely a good "bad" movie if you know what I mean, but the overall problem with it is the progression of the film is really slow. In a way though, the film doesn't take itself seriously enough to the point where you can't respect it somewhat, and overall I rate it 3 out of 5 stars. But if you like bad action movies from the 80s, buy this movie!!!

I'm sure it seemed cutting edge at the time, with the cyborgs and computers, but this movie is cheeeeeesy. My husband and I gave it the MST3K treatment as we watched it, it was ripe for the picking. Like the scene with Paco driving through the "acid rain", the shooting scenes (no one can hit ANYTHING) and the entire fight scene with the female cyborg. The soundtrack, while low quality is probably the highlight of the movie, with its Miami Vice-like synthesizers.