My Pick Of The Day : Six String Samurai
Release Date: 18 September 1998
MPAA Rating: PG 13 Runtime: 91 Minutes
Director: Lance Mungia
Genre:Action, Comedy, Indie
Stars: Jeffrey Falcon, Justin McGuire and Kim De Angelo
I recently stumbled across this classic piece of rockabilly, kung fu, post nuclear, dystopian cinema purely by accident, and I am so glad I did.
Taking place in an alternate time line to our own, where America was nuked and taken over by Russia in 1957 save for the town of “Lost Vegas” where Elvis was crowned king and freedom still exists, it is now roughly 1997 and the King is dead. Six String Samurai is the story of Buddy and his mission to reach Lost Vegas and become the new king. Along the way Buddy picks up a young ward of the post nuclear wasteland who he aptly names “Kid” after having saved him from some majorly bad dudes. In their travels they encounter some Famous Rock and Roll Royalty look-a-likes, a Cannibalistic family, whats left of the Russian Army, and the embodiment of Death in the form of Slash of Guns ‘n’ Roses with a stratocaster and a skull face, with awesomely choreographed Kung Fu fights and a very campy humorous tone the entire way through. The kid does get a little obnoxious at times because of his tendencies towards acting like a cave child and grunting instead of talking, but a Buddy Holly look-a-like kung fu-ing the hell out of folks more than makes up for it. On a side note, have you noticed how many movies would have been a hundred times better if there wasn’t a child in them? Adding the innocence of a child to movies that should be pure badassery is just garbage. Movies like Time Bandits or more recently Real Steel where the child is used as a moral compass for the surrounding characters really puts a hinderance on showing the audience who that character really is, as opposed to the front they put on around a child. But I digress…
If you enjoy B-movies, Kung Fu movies, rockabilly, and/or post apocalyptic wastelands on your television set then this is definitely a movie for you. And if you don’t, hell you still might dig it. Six String Samurai is just all around fun and is suitable for the whole family, unless you’re one of those “Oh no! My child cant watch anything with violence” parents. You can find it on Amazon for anywhere from 10-15 bux, I’m not too sure if its on one of those VOD services, as I don’t personally have one, but it is available to stream on that super popular video sharing tube website 
ssssshhhhhhhh……. you didn’t hear it from me
About the Author
