8mm Forum: Hawk the Slayer 600FT. Derann

This is topic Hawk the Slayer 600FT. Derann in forum 8mm Print Reviews at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on April 22, 2008, 12:20 PM:

Okay, I champion cheesy films, and this one certianly qualifies!

Please note, this is a review of the 600ft. version.

First off, loved that early 80's Derann logo at the beginning!

To begin, Jack Palance slays his own father, because his father won't give him the "mind sword", (forget the fact that it's just hanging on the wall). But wait, after slaying his father, the younger son comes in, and daddies not quite dead yet.

Daddy takes out the last of the mind stones, which melds with the sword. With this in place, by just thinking about it, the sword comes into his hands.

Now, fast forward to our favorite bad guy, (Palance) going to a nunnery and, having nothing better to do, takes the Mother Superior into custody to hold for ransom. (As well as taking his anger out on defenseless bread). He also throws a dagger into the one man there to protect the nuns.

He survives and goes to a witch who tells him that there is only one man who can take on Palance, and that's Hawk. Hawk, meanwhile, is taking out two naughty boys who are using a fellow for target practice.

Hawk is quickly brought to the witch, and she, thru the magic teleporting hula hoops, finds the other warriors for his quest, (okay, the hula hoop teleporter at least looked a little cool.)

He finds a giant, an elf, a dwarf, and he is off on his merry way after Palance, but not before relating how well he knows how bad his brother is ...

Via flashback, we find that Hawks older brother was going to kill him, but his girlfriend intervenes, burning Palance on the face with a torch, (which is why he wears the wanna be Darth Vader helmet) and for the fine burn, he pays her back with a arrow in her back, thusly killing her.

In between here, we have some fun hacking and chopping up bad guys in little bits, (We could have used the Knights who say "Nee Nee" right about now), and in one of the best parts of the film, (for me), the giant takes a mace and hangs it over the fat bad guys head, with the rope in his teeth. All he has to do is just shut up and he'll survive!

"Some people just don't know when to keep silent"

THUMP/SQUISH!

They are soon after Palance, and back to the Nunnery, (after all, back then, Nun's had the best beer!). A "nun-spy" gets the giant drunk, (wow, that potion takes affect REALLY quick!), and Hawk and his frinds are captured ...

but wait!

The witch intervenes, (it seems like Hawk's main objective is to look pretty, the witch seems to be doing most of the work up to this point), and they are free. They amass a counter-attack with the witch causing a snow storm, as well as the witches killer glowing super bouncy balls! (aw cmon!)

Our hero's are happily hacking everything in sight, and it finally gets down to the two brothers facing each other, with three trussed up nun's hanging in the balance.

Hawk, of course, does away with his brother with his magic mind-sword and all is well in happyland!

The witch informs him that they shall meet again, as the witch in her visions has seen a sequel.

Well, she was wrong on that one!

Okay, I knew what to expect going into this, and it wasn't AS bad as I was expecting. This is one case however, where perhaps a 2X600 would have been in order, as this moves way to quickly, with mostly little snippets of scenes. Really big plus, that Derann early 80's intro, which I hadn't seen before.

Onto print quality.

COLOR
This has very good Eastman L.P.P. color. Fine saturation, not a spot of fade. The shots of daylight, (somewhat rare in this film) with that blue sky are quite impressive.

SHARPNESS
This is another pin sharp release by Derann and is as good as anything we have come to expect from the fine folks at Derann, (note shameless plug! Hear that Adrian and Gary!?) Great focus from side to side and looked outstanding at a very large size, (I project with my EUMIG 926 Stereo)

Which leads to ...

SOUND
I didn't try this in stereo, so I don't know if it is in stereo, but the MONO was very good. Very sharp, and very nice bottom to it. I listened to it just off the speaker on the projector and it was great, no doubt even better through my Dolby system should I do so in the future.

CONTRAST
Being that this film has quite a lot of dark scenes, the contrast was very good. No washed out daylight scenes. There were just a few shots that were muddy and dark, but this was more due to the original print source, of course.

Overall, this was a very nice print. As I said, much better as a 2X600ft. release. It just moved way to quick as a 30 minute digest, though I enjoyed it. This also would have worked better as a scope release, especially in those combat scenes, as you have a number of close-ups that appear to be shot for the scope screen.

If you own the feature version of this from Derann, please add that if you wish.

A fun little piece of cheese from the U.K. I've certianly seen worse!

Posted by Luis Caramelo (Member # 2430) on February 07, 2011, 06:30 AM:

HI! OSI I SCREEN THE HAWK THE SLAYER FULL LENGHT FROM DERANN
RUNING TIME 90 MINUTES IT CAMES IN 3X600FT,AGREE WITH YOUR
COMMENTS,NOT A GREAT PLOT BUT IT,S A FUN MOVIE,I JUST DID,T LIKE
THE WAY HOW THE JACK PALANCE DIED IN THIS MOVIE,IF WE ARE FOLLOW
THE ALL PLOT,WE ARE EXPECTING MORE.
AS YOU SAID OSI,GREAT PIN SHARP,GREAT COLORS.STRONG MONO

LONG LIVE SUPER8... [Smile]

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on February 07, 2011, 08:57 AM:

Luis,

Thanks. I'm happier watching the shorter version!

Doug

Posted by Luis Caramelo (Member # 2430) on February 07, 2011, 09:29 AM:

HI! DOUGLAS,JUST CURIOUS,DOES THE CUTDOWN 600FTSHOWS WHY JACK
PALANCE HIS BLIND IN AN EYE AND THAT,S WHY HE WEARS A MASK?

BIG HUG

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on February 07, 2011, 10:44 AM:

The digest has the flashback where Hawk's fiance shoves a torch in Voltan's face to protect her beloved. She is then mercifully released from having to appear in the rest of the film.

Doug

Posted by Luis Caramelo (Member # 2430) on February 08, 2011, 05:58 AM:

douglas,you got the plot in the digest,very nice digest indeed
the key elements are almost there

regards

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