Bullets Of Justice

Bullets Of Justice in an exercise in how to make a film using whatever you have to hand. When you've blown most of your budget on a Danny Trejo cameo and a jetpack but you still have access to ruined buildings, guns, rubber pig masks and skimpy male underwear, international fame is still within your reach and you can still make your creative voice heard. At any rate, nobody who sees this film is likely to forget it.

Meet Rob Justice (Timur Turisbekov), a man with remarkably pointy ears and, so he tells us, the second best arse in the world. He and his sister Raksha (Doroteya Toleva) were raised by a mysterious gravedigger (Trejo) who taught them to survive in their post-Apocalyptic wasteland home, and ever since his death they have devoted themselves to vengeance upon the pig-human hybrids who dominate the world and hunt humans for food. They may be the last to do so because in this world, humans are infertile, but according to the leader of their rebel band, somewhere out there is a single huge female pig, giving birth to all of their enemies. If they could find and kill her, they could bring an end to their plight, or at least ensure that theirs is not the only species to die out.

There's plenty of carnage on the menu here, with playfully slapdash editing, enthusiastic stunt work and some pretty good low budget special effects. Our heroes jump and roll and smash their way through walls in exuberant action sequences that leave one wondering why people ask questions about Raksha's moustache and not her curious absence of scars. But there's more going on here than the familiar hard man dynamic. Why does Rob keep having flashbacks to modelling competitions? Just who is the long haired, scantily clad man whom he fantasises about whilst fucking his assistant, and what does that man have to do with the mother pig? Who is the mysterious woman who has been killing his associates, and what does the teleporter have to do with it all?

In a film that sees teabagging used as a combat move, pretty much anything goes, but writer/director Valeri Milev has avoided the common pitfall of relying on wackiness to sell his film, and has kept a tight rein on the story. It may seem wildly incoherent at times but it comes together remarkably well, and good pacing keeps it from losing momentum across the 76 minute running time. The actors have good chemistry and know the form well, timing their lines perfectly. Both Turisbekov and Toleva display the kind of natural charisma that this kind of material needs, a well as demonstrating an admirable ability to keep a straight face during the more immediately ridiculous scenes.

For some viewers, this will be a one star film and beyond all redemption. Others will enjoy it more than anything else they see all year. You certainly won't look at a can of spam the same way again. A cleverly constructed response to a genre that absolutely deserves it, Bullets Of Justice is right on target.