Sick Product of a Sick System

Perfect cast and a good story

How sad is this?

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The third film I've seen by Iranian-born action director Amir Shervan, following on from his later-made KILLING American STYLE and SAMURAI COP. Sadly, YOUNG REBELS lacks the so-bad-it's-good quality of those two movies, the inherent entertainment in their cheesiness, although it is very similar in look and feel. Somehow, this one lacks the edge and subsequently is just a poor B-movie.The action-focused storyline is very similar to those of Shervan's two other movies. A group of bad guy criminals go around wasting rivals and innocent people caught up in their crimes. Robert Z'Dar is one again a hulking henchman. The nondescript heroes give chase and attempt to ambush the villains, resulting in plenty of shoot-outs and cheesy action violence. Old-timer Aldo Ray shows up in support.Needless to say this is a film affected by the curse of the B-movie: awful acting, badly scripted dialogue, and just a couple of locations in which to set the action. It's a particularly weak film in terms of story with around half of the running time made up of striptease sequences from various actresses you don't particularly want to see nude in the first place. There are also an inordinate amount of sex scenes included to pad out the running time although most of them get interrupted before anything happens. The action is over the top but not as well staged as in, say, KILLING American STYLE. One other thing I have to criticise is the sound design. The gun fights are accompanied by ridiculously loud cannon booms every time a handgun or shotgun fires, so you have to turn the sound right down and end up missing most of the dialogue, which annoyed me.