3 x Mats Helge + David Carradine DVDs coming in October

[Geten Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Geten]

Fatal Secret (1988)


Animal Protector (1988)


The Mad Bunch (1989)

Don't know the company that is releasing them, but they have a release date set to October 3rd. Swedish releases (region 2, English audio).
Haven't seen any of them myself, but I'm sure as hell going to be picking them up.

I just wish someone would release I dí¶d mans spí¥r (Dead Man's Trail) and Spí¶kligan (Ghost Hunters) on DVD as well.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

I have a bootleg of Dead Man's Trail, it's pretty cool.

Definitely interested in picking these up if they're decent quality. The more Helge on DVD the better!

Animal Protector kind of rules.

[Geten Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Geten]

I used to have the old swedish rental of I dí¶d mans spí¥r, fun movie.
Still have the poster on my wall:


I'll be picking them up, I'll get back on the quality when they have been released.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Please do. If you could chime in on English audio/subs too that'd be keen.

[Geten Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Geten]

They should all have English audio (they where all shot with English/"swenglish" dialogue) and only Swedish subs, at least according to the back covers. But I'll check and get back with info when they are out.

[The Silly Swede Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Silly Swede]

So, I got these three in the mail the other day. I remembered them from the good old days (early 2000s) when they were aired at late nights on TV for Kanal 5.

I remember them as being campy fun.

The first one that I have viewed is Animal Protector, about a mad colonel (Carradine) whom is coducting some kind of secret bio-warfare experiment on his base. This base is to be infiltrated by an animal rights group, The Animal Protectors, which are 3-5 women with very big late 80s hair and makeup. They also speak very strange fake brittish english.
Also trying to get into the base are two CIA agents, Santino and Lomax, played by muscle man A.R. Hellquist and Mats Huddén respecitvely. The first one I know nothing about, but a quick googling reveals that he is a gym owner and once dated swedish pop-musician Carola, and that he has done nothing out of the ordinary since the early 90s. The other though is a swedish character actor whos IMDB credits are many. I also like him in real life, as he has tenure or what one might call it, at the theatre here in my town, and I actually often see him in the neighbourhoods around the theatre itself. He seems like a very nice man.

But back to the film: The plot is, as you have already understood, ludcirus in the good way. The action, whenever it arises, is pretty decent. Good old Mats Helge never ever skimped out on action, no matter how small his working budget was. So blanks are fired and squibs are squibbed. (Also: please notice that all the american soldiers carry M-16s, but whenver they actually have to fire them these whitch to various swedish army ordinance such as the H&K G3 or the FN FNC etc, as the M-16s are obvious plastic toys and cannot really be fired).
The setting of the film is an american base on an island. Here played by some kind of old swedish fortress/bunker with lots of underground tunnels. This leaqds me to the main problem with the film: The murky darkness. The problem is that the film had an extremely low budget and they could not light night scenes properly, so pretty much half the movie is difficult to make out what exactly is going on. It certainly doesnt help that the transfer seems to be from a VHS or Super-VHS master which is pretty grainy.
The other big issue with the film is that the accents are wildly all over the place.

Now the good parts:
Carradine, whom appear to be mildly intoxicated in all his scenes, raises the film to a whole new level with his presence. Also there are lots of explosions and stupidity. The 80s chicks are mildly attractive and Bruno Wintzell makes a cameo appearence. (He was once living in america and dating Goldie Hawn, and in sweden he is still mostly famous for his TV-show "Tutti Frutti" on TV3 where contestants answered questions and women showed their breasts on command)
Also the soundtrack is solid and works, in a cheap, tacky, 80s kind of way.

Next up I will watch The Mad Bunch.

[The Silly Swede Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Silly Swede]

Bonus cult fact: Anders Nilsson AKA Andrew Nelson (most of the crew have fake americanized names in the credits) is today one of the most successfull mainstream directors of bad cop movies for TV, the Johan Falk series of films.

[The Silly Swede Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Silly Swede]

Now, regarding The Mad Bunch, I must conclude this is the worst of the Mats Helge movies, as it lacks the abundance of explosions and gunfire as his earlier work. Overall it just feels extremely cheap and lacklustre, and the fight scenes that replace the gunfights are so poorly choreographed, executed and shot that it feels like a waste of everyones time.

The plot here is something about the CIA, the KGB, a peace activist oplayed by Carradine in sort of a big cameo, and then pretty much the same cast as in Animal Protector, give or take a couple.

The video quality of this one is even worse then Animal Protector and the music is outright bad. The accents are as usual all over the place, and the acting is over the top ludicrous. I cannot help but feel that if these films had been dubbed into proper english, like Godfrey Ho's ninja movies, they would have acutally been a bit better.
Highlights of the film: A reasonably well done car chase with a customary Volvo 740 that is featured in almost all Mats Helge movies, and I'm afraid that is pretty much it.

Next up: Fatal Secret. Expect an update on that sometime this weekend.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Any chance you can post some screen caps? I don't expect them to look perfect...

[The Silly Swede Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Silly Swede]

Sure, I will try to do that this weekend.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Much obliged, Mr. Swede.

[The Silly Swede Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Silly Swede]

Here are a couple of stills from Animal Protector:



as you might be able to see, the well lit indoor scenes are marginally better then the outdoor scenes which are murkier.

As for the Mad Bunch, I was unable to get a single action shot as they all suffered heavily from ghosting in every still I tried. So I give you instead the films badguy whom has very large hair:

[The Silly Swede Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close The Silly Swede]

I also appologize for the size of the pics, but I had to shrink them to upload them onto this here site. So there you go Mr. Jane. Can you make anything out of these small pics?

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

I can tell that they're probably not any better than the versions I already have. Thanks Swedeypie.

[Roderick Butthorn Find all posts View Profile Close Roderick]

As for the Mad Bunch, I was unable to get a single action shot as they all suffered heavily from ghosting in every still I tried. So I give you instead the films badguy whom has very large hair:
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Ah, George Lucas before he turned on to Grecian Formula.