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the audience applauded

Thanks for the memories!

Memorable, crazy movie

The first must-see film of the year.

One of a series of obscure 80's features released by Team Troma, Blades is a spoof of Jaws with a killer lawnmower(!)replacing the shark, invading a country club golf course, Tall Grass, during tournament time as a Pro Am Invitational is on the horizon. Troubled, melancholy, alcoholic former circuit star, Roy Kent(Robert North), whose career had taken a turn for the worse, is hired by club owner, Norman Osgood(William Towner)whose wife, Bea(Holly Stevenson)talked him into it..mainly because Bea lustfully desires Roy. Roy's hiring truly angers Kelly Lange(Victoria Scott)because she covets the position of Golf Pro and has worked her way up to earn such a role. Working as his assistant, there's immediate friction. Meanwhile, the killer lawnmower is catching victims off guard, leaving their bloody clothes and remains. Norman, of course, wishes for the murders to remain hush hush due to the tournament(..IT'S ON TV!!)and confides in local inept sheriff, Charlie Kimmel(Charlie Quinn)to find the killer, which includes a manhunt involving a mob of locals. Roy is alarmed at his employer's demands for the tourney to continue despite the fact that innocent lives may be in danger. Wandering around the golf course and nearby wilderness, former grounds-keeper, Deke Slade(Jeremy Whelan)knows the identity of the killer, but is considered a lunatic and sent to prison as the one responsible after being caught by hunters in possession of a regular lawnmower. Roy, not persuaded that Deke's the man, convinces Kelly to assist him in catching the killer, who attacks a pro golfer, Squire Evans(Lee Devin)during the tournament, thanks to their boss's decision not to cancel the prestigious event. Joining forces with "Great White Hunter" Deke, after his release, Roy and Kelly will attempt to put an end to this fiend once and for all.The lawnmower is often shot through point-of-view, burrowing through grass in pursuit of it's next victim. Until the attack on Squire, the film remained bloodless, just showing the sparse remains of victims after the lawnmower attacked them out of the range of the camera(..often victims were attacked in the woods with only their screams and shaky bush providing us with an indication of murderous activity. The two goriest murders show victims being pulled into the grinding blades of the machine, their legs being sawed into, as the lawnmower drags their carcass away with them shrieking in terror. There are moments where the film lets go of itself, but director Thomas R. Rondinella really gives the film a rather sedate presentation despite the ludicrous premise. One wonders aloud what must be going through these characters' minds in that they are doing battle with an enraged lawnmower, and the serious tone really boggles the mind..perhaps to show these characters unwavering resolve in the face of crisis regarding a lawnmower, the intention was to get giggles by playing the material mostly straight, despite the absurdity of it all. This film doesn't really feature the kind of madness and excess Troma is known for, despite a premise that reads like it would be. The scenes where Derek and Roy are shooting loaded rifles and shotguns at this lawnmower that seems indestructible is simply surreal. I mean there are outrageous moments such as the lawnmower causing a riot on camera as people run for their lives, and the mob preparing to catch the killer on a golf course(..and, in particular, the final showdown with the machine), but, more often than not, even these scenes have a bit of restraint not typical with the usual popular output released by Troma. Could gain a cult following if more discover it, but I'm guessing a majority of Troma fans will find it disappointing.

BLADES is a 1980's horrorfilm that for the casual viewer might look like some others horrorflicks that were released in those years, but for those who take the time to take a closer look turns out to be a very ingenuously crafted comedy, that has it's scary moments as well. The story about a lawnmower with a mind of it's own gone berserk on a golf course at first sometimes seems too ridiculous to even take seriously, until one discovers that taking it seriously is definitely not the way to view this film. It certainly is not what director Thomas Rondinella had in mind when the humor is starting to get more and more obvious. The humor is of a Abrahams/Zucker kind of fashion played very straight by the surprisingly good acting cast, only it is far less obvious and thrown-in-the-face than in their Naked Gun and Airplane films, as in BLADES the viewer really has to be alert because a lot of the humorous action takes place in the background and by quickly passing characters while a different scene is happening in the foreground. The story and script are so totally opposite to the dead-pan acting and the skilled editing that the 101 minutes the films lasts constantly entertain and keep the viewer alert. Highly recommended. Available on DVD as part of TROMA'S TRIPLE B-HEADER VOLUME 1.

This movie is basically a parody of "Jaws". It took me a bit to get it, but once they strung up the lawn mower I finally got it. I realized they were doing "Jaws" before then, but not until that moment did I realize it was almost purely a "Jaws" parody. The problem, it takes itself a bit too seriously for a parody. That is why I say it is more of a reenactment where instead of an ocean they use a golf course, instead of a shark you have a lawn mower, and so on. For some scenes this works and I chuckled a couple of times, at other times there are long stretches of dialogue that just do not belong in a parody movie or a Troma movie for that matter. Still, this is a company known for its bad movies, and this one is better than a lot of the movies I have seen from them. I just wonder why they and Full Moon Entertainment have to always make horror comedy movies rather than straight horror. Seems to me a straight horror would be easier to make because lets face it most of the movies that come out of these two companies get really low scores. Though to be fair Full Moon has done a few straight horror movies in their day. I have never seen one from Troma. This one has its moments especially the scenes in the van where they were really spoofing "Jaws" in this case I think they just needed to make this one a bit funnier.

As a hardcore Troma fan, I must say this is one of the lesser works. This movie is truly got the Troma completist. There are some inspired moments and how can a fan of bad movies not enjoy the premise of a killer lawnmower?I found this one quite dull in many scenes. I have no problems with low budget-no budget movies and bad acting is one thing I always look forward to from Troma movies. This had all of those which I enjoyed, but there was so much more they could do with this movie. One thing that can kill a great movie is too much dialog, and this movie has too many scenes of long dialog.It's certainly not the worst of the bad movies, but it is a disappointment for the Troma team which I admire greatly.Nice try, but let's see a couple sequels and see what we can do about the long dialog.