Starring - Howard Vernon (The Silence of the Sea, In the Eye of the Snake), Helena Garret (Angel of Death, Revenge in the House of Usher), and Jose Llamas (Slave of Crime, The Last Women in the Phillippines)
Release Date - 1985
Genre - Action/Adventure
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)
Rating (out of 5):
Jesus, or Jess, Franco isa filmmaker that I respect but I'm not the biggest fan. His career is legendary spanning every genre and several decades up until his death. While he was known for his sexploitation and horror efforts, he did take a crack at other genres from time to time. Franco took to Bangkok in the mid-80s where he made a pair of action adventure films that recently found their way into the hands of my friends over at Severin Films. Severin was kind enough to send me a copy of this double feature for review. I was very cruious about this release and threw it on the chopping block as soon as I could with the first film Trip to Bangkok, Coffin Included. I want to thank Severin for sending this one over!
The film follows a British officer who visits Thialand to investigate the murder of an ambassador. He teams up with secret service and uncovers that the murder was carried out by a blind assassin that is part of a cult ran by an evil scientist.
I went into this one completely fucking blind and holy fuck is all I have to say. I was not expecting this one to go the way that it does and a part of me actually enjoyed just how fucking random the movie is. However, it struggles to find any traction which made it difficult for me to finish. I seriously wanted to like it but it wasn't for me. The acting in this one is very inconsistent. Vernon and Garret are solid for most of their scenes but several other scenes were very disappointing and awkward. The same can be said about the supporting cast. Their dialogue delivery was awkward at time and most of them show zero depth. The story for this one is not something I was expecting from Franco but I wish he would have fully embraced the bizare. We have a blind assassin, a cult, and an evil scientist in a mid-80s action adventure film from a filmmaker that I admire due to his work in sexploitation and horror. However, the story doesn't really ermbrace the weird like it could have and feels more like a cheap action flick that doesn't know what to do with the random humor. Finally, don't go into this one expecting memorable kills and a lot of fun effects. The film focuses heavily on the story and not so much on deaths and effects. Overall, Trip to Bangkok, Coffin Included is not the action adventure flick I was expecting. It has a lot of aspects that I liked but they were just thrown away and never fully embraced. Honestly, I would have loved it if it offered up more of the blind assassins and cult aspects. It's worth a watch if you have an edible or some beers.
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