The Final Sanction (1990)

We start our five-movie 1000th post celebration at 998 with this AIP gem, suggested by our friend Simon at Explosive action. I'd been meaning to get more AIP on the site for a long time, but I felt like for a 1000th post, maybe Deadly Prey would be more iconic for that, which I've already covered; but at the same time, I felt like a celebration like this deserved a nod to AIP and all of the great David Prior action that made DTV what it was in the 80s and 90s. In addition to us, Ty and Brett at Comeuppance have done this, as has Mitch at the Video Vacuum; and if you haven't done so yet, check out the Explosive Action YouTube channel!

The Final Sanction has the crazy Grinchy idea of settling the Cold War with a mano-a-mano battle between the Soviet's best and the US's best, Robert Z'Dar and Ted Prior respectively. We watch as each train for their fight in their own unique ways, with Z'dar throwing shovels and getting mentally tortured by William Smith, and Prior crushing cheeseburgers. Who will emerge victorious?

This was a fantastic fun time. With a plot like I described above, it can only go one of two ways, right? And fortunately this one went the right way. This is the AIP you came for, and I think a perfect pick by Simon for a celebration like this. Almost 1000 posts in, this is the kind of movie I started this blog for, and while I tend to get caught up in doing all the most recent Dolph posts or whatever, these kinds of movies consistently deliver the bad movie fun I'm looking for. In a sense, they were made with that in mind, so instead of jacking up the runtime and trying to make something more "serious," they're banging this thing out with as much action as they can squeeze in and let the devil take the hindmost. You can't not applaud them for that.

This is only the third David Prior flick we've covered here at the DTVC, which is a major oversight on my part. He deserves his due among some of the DTV greats, like Pyun, Wynorski, and Fred Olen Ray. I recently had Jacob Gustafson on the podcast--who wrote the fabulous Awful Awesome Action Vol. 1, which you can get more details on on our DTVC Book Review page--and he talked about Prior's late 80s early 90s output. It was like 3 in '87, 4 each in '88 and '89, and 6 in '90. You don't know when he actually shot all of those, if some were in the can before that and held back on release, but that's still 17 flicks in four years, which is something we love here at the DTVC. I say this all the time, but we're going to make sure we get more of his stuff up in the near future--for that podcast we looked at Mankillers, so we already have that one in the can.

The great Robert Z'Dar left us in 2015, right around the time I unfortunately went on an unplanned hiatus, so I wasn't able to give him the tribute he deserved then. A total icon who did it for multiple companies over many years, he's someone who will definitely be missed. In this one we get all of the best of him. He's totally buying in on this plot and his character, and he's giving it everything in every scene. I think that's part of what makes a classic like Samurai Cop work so well too. If you're looking for great Z'Dar after checking out Samurai Cop for the first time, I think this is a great place to go next, it's classic Z'Dar. Here's to you Mr. Z'Dar, you were one of the greats, and you will be missed.

This is the first time we've seen Ted Prior since we reviewed another all-time cult classic, Deadly Prey, which was also directed by his brother. Ted and David teamed up on a lot of AIP flicks, so we have a lot of work to do to get caught up on them, but I think it will be a fun ride. What makes Ted great here is he really plays up the other side of the coin to Z'Dar's cold, emotionless Soviet soldier; he's the rude, chauvinistic, burger crushing American that is part loose cannon, part honorable soldier who we trust will get the job done when the chips are down. Again, like Z'Dar, if he doesn't sell this to us, none of the film works in the fun way we want it to. The fact that a lot of the Prior brothers' AIP work is on places like Tubi and Prime and I haven't gotten to them yet is a travesty, but we're going to try to make it happen soon.

I want to finish this by talking about another element that these movies have that modern movies don't--and it's not the modern movies' fault. There's a nostalgia factor in seeing these late 80s/early 90s movies that, when we watched them back then didn't exist, but now make them even more fun. Whether it's a Bud Dry truck in Skyscraper, or Ted Prior washing down his cheeseburger in this with an RC Cola, they're little touches that add to the enjoyment. They pad out slower moments in ways that are a lot of fun as well--though to be fair, this movie at a cool 85 minutes didn't have much in the way of slow moments.

Let's wrap this baby up. Right now you can stream this movie, along with many more of David Prior's AIP flicks, on Amazon Prime. When I first started the blog in 2007, we had to scramble to find them on VHS, which I think also hampered my ability to get more on the site. Now, with so many available to stream, this is a great time to be a DTV movie fan, and this gem should be at the top of your watch list. Thank you again to Simon at Explosive Action for this suggestion, and as I said, everyone should check him out on his YouTube Channel!

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101876