Ca$h (Region 1 Edition)   Starring: Thom Doty, Jerry Lloyd and Ray Stanton MTI Home Video RRP: $24.95 039414521238 Certificate: R Available 12 January 2010

Having been banged up for the last ten year, following a robbery where he was double cross by his own friends, Ca$h (Thom Doty) is back on the streets and looking for revenge against the one man he blames, his old partner Hector Gonzales (Jerry Lloyd). But, in that time, Hector has been busy and has risen from petty criminal to being a powerful gangland boss...

Ca$h (aka. Bullets, Blood & a Fistful of Ca$h (2006) - 1 hr, 54 min, 01 sec) is an action b movie written and directed by Sam Akina.

The first thing you have to understand is that this is a low budget b movie, so you get what you pay for. That’s not to say that there isn’t some fun to be had out of the movie. The premise of the story is simple and like Kill Bill (2003) is a great excuse to see our hero wading through numerous lackeys on his way to his ultimate goal. Unfortunately the film consists of less of this over-the-top mindless violence and instead gets itself bogged down in an over complicated plot about gang lord rivalry.

Doty is great in the role; I’m not at all sure if his portrayal was supposed to be funny or this added bonus was unintentional but it lifted what would otherwise be a dry cliché ridden film to a better level. Cash, as a character, is over the top, built like a tank, and Doty certainly has the body to carry off this aspect of his character. He talks like a bad narrator and kills anything in his path; yep you’ve already seen this character as Marv (Mickey Rourke) in Sin City (2005). Indeed there is much in this film which will seem familiar.

Disconcertingly, Jerry Lloyd plays Gonzales in a very naturalistic way, making his character all the more threatening. The acting is, shall we say, variable, but then you don’t really watch these things expecting to see Bruce Willis.

What the film lacks in money it makes up for in enthusiasm, it’s just a real shame that there was so little of cash actually appearing in the film, and next time Akina should just write something where Doty is on the screen all the time. The film does have some style and you can see a much better film peeking from beneath the curtain, but budget and variable acting stops the film from realising its full potential

The disc is a pretty bare bones affair only containing the original theatrical trailer.

My best advice is not to take the film too seriously, get in a lot of beer, sit back and lament that Doty doesn’t spend more time on the screen.

5

Charles Packer