Of the many gifts given to me by MST3K, there may not be one as great as Miles O'Keefe. I've seen many of his films post season 3's Cave Dwellers, all because they had Miles, and all because he was so hilarious as Ator. This gem, of course, takes the Miles factor, and multiplies it by former Kansas City Chiefs star Fred Williamson.
Silent Hunter is about Miles O'Keefe as a dude who's in the wrong place at the wrong time with his family. They end up carjacked by some bank robbers, and his wife and daughter are murdered. He'd have been murdered too, if not for his bulletproof sternum. In mourning, he dons a fake beard and moves to the Colorado wilderness, where playboy sheriff Williamson (who also directs) is the law. The same bank robbers show up again, in Freddy's town, and they buy grenades from the local convenience store owner. They use said grenades to rob the town bank, and try to escape, but the helicopter crashes and they end up with Miles again. They need the daughter of a WWI PTO vet (not a typo) to help them through the icy wilderness, and Miles needs to track them to get his revenge. He does.
This movie is actually funnier than the synopsis makes it sound. The baddies actually do buy grenades from the local store. It has to be one of the greatest things I've ever seen in a bad action movie, and considering the hours I've logged, that's saying a lot. The old guy I mentioned actually is a WWI vet who fought in the Pacific. I know the reality was they wanted him to have fought in WWII, but they used terminology associated with the first one to describe it, hence the WWI vet who fought in the Pacific.
Miles is pure gold. Early on he's an undercover cop who tries to talk like he's from the street. It's hilarious. Just when you think it can't get any funnier, they stick a fake beard on him and put him in Colorado. Oh yeah, I forgot the bulletproof sternum. When his wife and daughter are killed, he takes three point blank shots to the chest, and survives. It's simply fantastic.
And Fred Williamson is no slouch. He's great as a director, putting scenes together that seem to have no real relation; I have to assume his moustache has some of the blame in that. The first scene he's in a naked woman exits his bed. That's better than Woody Allen casting hot women to play his love interests in his films, because in this case, Fred's putting it out there like: "just another day in the life of Big Daddy Fred Williamson". How can you not love that?
The action in this is great too. There are explosions due to the grenades, which show up everywhere. Somehow snowmobiles make it into the film, and they explode too. In one scene, to get the bag of grenades or the bag of money, I'm not sure which, Miles pushes this chick over a log, scoops the bag, and runs. It was so ridiculous. Also, that woman looks like Debbie Harry in the first robbery, and Pat Benetar in the second, representing the 80s' two foremost rock chicks.
With all of that being said, this is a very bad movie. You have to be someone who really loves bad movies to love this one the way my friends and I did. Ten to twelve years ago, I may not have been able to handle this. If you're a bad movie rookie, I'd stay away from this for a little while. If you're a vet, though, I'd pick this up. You should be able to find it for like $2 to $5 on VHS.
For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114448/
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