Customer Reviews

Hard As Nails

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Entertaining low budget action/...flick about the russian mob, undercover cops, hookers and strippers with a heart of gold and half japanese samurai dudes with killing on their minds. New Concorde (Roger Corman) produced and distributed effort is isn't as bad as it looks but isn't that good either. What it has going for it is some great editing, surprisingly appealing leads and a whole lot action. ...

Filmed on a budget of 80,000, HARD AS NAILS utilized some nice fight sequences along with some interesting story ideas. The main problem here though that the movie also had some very campy moments, which don't seem to mix well. Although Lorissa McComas and Kim Yates were credited and names on the cover, the motion cover reveals that the true fighter in the film is Chona Jason, as she is on the front cover brandishing her sword.

With the rash of recent films with female warriors such as Resident Evil, it is high time that films be made in a serious tone with women as lead roles. Although Chona actually has no speaking role in the film, her serious tone and expert weapon use allows for a believable bad girl character. Unfortunately she has only a few scenes and much of the other acting is rather unconvincing at best.

HARD AS NAILS is a step in the right direction, but time for low budget films to get a bit serious. Corman needs to do an action film that is just that, action and no camp, and showcase talents of women like Chona who can act AND have fighting skills.

When there are any films that involve Roger Corman, you are going to see low budget film with an excess of nude women with big boobs. The concept of the story of a rebellious young yakuza severs ties with his family in order to form an alliance with the Russian mob only for it to go completely wrong after that same guy tries to rape a dancer that's involved with the nephew of the Russian mob [stupid move]. The yakuza rebel doesn't even look japanese, and his body guards look like bad extras from the matrix. The choreography was cheesy at times, but I do give corman credit for throwing more action into his films. The only two people that I feel did a good job in this movie was the old cop and the hooker. This movie had a good concept, but badly executed.