Hands of Steel (1986)

Better Late Then Never

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Francis Turner (John Saxon, who I will opine is my favorite American actor in a foreign genre film ever) has created a cyborg who is 70% robot and 30% human, Paco Queruak. He programs him to kill a scientist with plans to cure acid rain (that was a big problem back in the 80's that, much like killer bees, has just gone away). However, his solution runs afoul of the military/industrial complex that Turner works for. So he must die. And guess who programs him? Donald O'Brien, Doctor Butcher, M.D. himself!However, Paco still has humanity inside and abandons his mission and sets out to discover more of his past in Arizona. There, he finds love with Linda (Janet Agren, City of the Living Dead, Eaten Alive!) in literally ten or twenty seconds of screen time. And he gets into a feud with Paul Morales (George Eastman!), a redneck trucker who don't take too kindly to strangers around these parts.Paul is an arm wrestler, too. It's no coincidence that Hands of Steel was going to come out at the same time as Over the Top (which according to this article, was filming just 50 miles away).Then it's back to the military/industrial complex, who sends a whole bunch of killers after our hero. There are bikers, mafia guys and even a ripoff of Pris from Blade Runner that Paco beats by ripping off her head. Then Paul comes back to try and kill Paco, but our hero literally crushes his head with his cyborg grip.Paco takes down a helicopter and stops Saxon, who has a giant gun, before cops surround the building ala the Rambo: First Blood. Thinking Linda is dead, Paco has gone crazy, but she survives and is able to talk him into surrendering.Directed by Sergio Martino (The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, All the Colors of the Dark, 2019: After the Fall of New York), this movie sadly shows little of the mastery of the form he showed in his giallo work.Even worse, there's a tragedy that happened during the filming, as Claudio Cassinelli (Warriors of the Year 2072, Murder Rock) was killed when the helicopter he was in crashed. The rotor blades struck the underside of the bridge and broke off, sending the helicopter into a canyon, where Cassinelli and the pilot died. It wasn't Martino's fault, as the National Transportation Safety Board reported that there were prescription drugs in the pilot's hotel room that would have impaired his judgment. Because John Saxon was a stickler for Screen Actors Guild rules, he shot all of his scenes in Italy and refused to appear in any of the non-union American shot footage. He believes that the SAG saved his life, as otherwise, he would have been on that helicopter.At least there's a score by Claudio Simonetti of Goblin to liven things up.Hands of Stone is a kind of movie we don't get much of any longer - a movie that found life on the video shelves, a cyborg movie we could rent when Terminator was out of stock. If there's one compliment I can give this film, the art that sells it is awesome.

Hands of Steel (1986) ** (out of 4)Paco (Daniel Greene) is a cyborg who is sent on a mission to kill a scientist who might know too much about the future. He fails in his mission and heads out of town to hide when he meets a diner owner (Janet Agren) who lets him stay with her. Before long the men who sent the cyborg on his mission want him dead and are coming after him.This here is a rather interesting film from director Sergio Martino. It's obviously a rip-off of THE TERMINATOR done on a very low-budget and it does show that Italian cinema was losing its grip a bit. At the same time, the movie also might have influenced another American movie that would be released the next year but more on that in a bit. If you're a fan of Italian no-budget pictures then there's enough here that should keep you entertained, although there's no doubt that it should have been much better.The most interesting thing in this movie is a subplot that happens at the diner. A trucker (George Eastman) shows up and he's the champion arm wrestler and this actually ends up taking a large portion of the running time. Of course, the trucker-arm wrestling thing would be the story of OVER THE TOP, which would be released the following year and it should be noted that Greene and Stallone were friends so did he know about this picture? Did Greene tip him off about the story here? It's rather interesting to see the connections between this film and what would turn up in America the following year.With that said, HANDS OF STEEL has a lot of problems with it including the first thirty-minutes, which are downright boring. The story never makes too much sense but I guess that's to be expected. Another problem is that the action doesn't really start until the final thirty-minutes so there's a lot of dead time early on. Again, the saving grace is the craziness of the arm wrestling scenes and there's no doubt that Eastman is a lot of fun in his role. Both Greene and Agren are good for what they're asked to do and we also get John Saxon in a small bit.HANDS OF STEEL is a really silly movie that doesn't have too much going for it but if you're a fan of these low-budget Italian movies then it's worth watching.

Look, it's not high art, it's a silly B movie about a cyborg punching the bad guys. The effects are pretty bad, the acting is worse, and the so-called future is pretty much just the 80's with a couple of shiny tubes sticking out of things. But it has a goofy charm and any time a dude tears another dude's heart out with his bare hands you've got a good time. And don't forget John Saxon!

A ruthless businessman, Francis Turner(John Saxon) attempts to assassinate a political revolutionary using a human cybernetic killing machine but doesn't expect that his creation would recall his humanity, softening the blows of his hands of steel leaving the target alive. On the lam, Paco Queruak(Daniel Greene) will find a temporary home working for a lonely female bar owner, Linda(Janet Agren) in the Arizona desert as Turner's agents and the FBI search for his whereabouts. Paco also finds an adversary in truck driver Raoul Morales(George Eastman as yet another memorable heavy, this time a sweaty, hostile, conniving aggressor who doesn't appreciate defeat, especially in an arm wrestling match, and often attempts to harm his foe in underhanded attacks)who eventually assists Peter Hallo(Claudio Cassinelli), Hunter's hired assassin, in trying to upend Paco so that he wouldn't leave a trace to his creator's organization.Sergio Martino's Italian imitation of James Cameron's The Terminator lays the melodrama on a bit thick, but Hands of Steel benefits from some exciting action sequences where herculean Greene's Paco crushes skulls and snaps heads of those that threaten him. Saxon's Hunter is as cruel and vicious as they come, having those under his command eliminated if they fail to carry out his orders in either killing or retrieving his creation..Saxon is relegated to a glorified supporting role, mostly ordering his men from a safe distance in his office, only at the end hitching a ride in a helicopter to personally survey the situation from the sky, although he does eventually comes face to face with Paco, as you'd expect.Being a fan of "human cyborg" movies, Hands of Steel was entertaining if cheap(..the attempts to make the weapons futuristic fail, such as a giant laser and a missile launcher) with attempts at building the central relationship, a blossoming love affair between Paco and Linda, a man made mostly of metal and the woman that helps him communicate with that human side that remains, is really cornball. The arm wrestling matches(..perhaps influenced by Stallone's Over the Top)are a bit of fun filler with Paco's battle with portly baldy Anatola Blanco a particular highlight..the loser would set off a trap releasing a rattlesnake! I thought the use of Arizona in this film was rather effective(..I'm quite fond of films in godforsaken destitute sun-drenched settings where most folks avoid due to the miserable climate)and Linda's remote bar, a place parked in the middle of nowhere, exactly the ideal location for someone on the run from the authorities and assassins, works as an isolated hellhole only bar scum would inhabit. Hands of Steel is a far cry from Martino's stylish giallo thrillers in terms of quality, but the film might be appreciated by aficionados who love B-movie low budget action junk. Terrific electronic score from Claudio Simoneti and a cool special fx sequence where Paco is repairing mechanical problems with his arm.