PLATFORM: BLU-RAY + APPLE + AMAZON + GOOGLE PLAY | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
A diamond so dangerous it burns anyone who dares touch it. Jewel thieves, Fred ‘the Hammer’ Williamson, a chainsaw battle, and a pair of siblings who quite obviously have the hots for each other. This 1980s action movie, shot in Turkey, and directed by a French pornographer, is one of Arrow Video’s more outlandish acquisitions to date.
On the hunt for a priceless diamond, a pair of jewel thieves hatch a bizarre plan to break into (?) a mine and claim it for themselves. Bo’s sister, Ingrid, might die during the movie’s opening hour, but that doesn’t slow his roll – getting lover Olga plastic surgery so as to turn her into his late sister’s doppelgänger. Oh, and Fred Williamson is here too – recent allegations making the sudden re-release of this 40-year-old movie rather ill-timed. Read the room, guys.
As one might suspect, White Fire borders on incoherence, but is no worse off for it. The film hasn’t exactly aged well, but its action sequences still stand up, and the story is so ridiculous that it’s a hard film to dislike. In a time where most action movies star Dwayne Johnson and are made up of 90% green screen, it’s fun to return to an earlier era of budget filmmaking; copious nudity, chainsaw battles and a face-melting MacGuffin straight out of Indiana Jones.
This is not a film that really needed rescuing from the archives, but we’re glad the folks at Arrow did snatch it up, nevertheless.