Plot: Johnny (Roland Dantes) was once a drug lord, ruling the streets until he was gunned down by a vicious rival, Ricky (Perry Baltazar). As he tries to recover from his wounds, Johnny lives and trains with his grandfather, who teaches him about the ancient art of fighting with sticks. This process not only makes him a better fighter, but hones his mind and prompts him to change his life. This leads to Johnny becoming a police officer, but while his temper is soothed these days, he still burns for revenge against his rival. He resists his urge for revenge, but when he learns Ricky was also the man who killed his father, it pushes him over the brink. As he tries to balance his police work, stick fighting courses, passion for vengeance, and trying to impress his future father-in-law, can Johnny make it work out right?

Entertainment Value: This Filipino martial arts curio is quite fun, with a focus on the value of sticks and their combat potential. These sticks are simple at first blush, but are proven to be more effective than a mere gun or other weapon, as the sticks always come out on top. The sticks sweep the nation in Sticks of Death, from Johnny to the police to presumably the entire disco inspired populace. This is a low rent martial arts driven action movie, with brawls, a street crime narrative, and the obligatory mentor/student bond. The movie is a little slow at times, but you’ll never notice, thanks to the horrific dub work that never fails to entertain. I don’t know how faithful this was to the original script, but it is outlandish and hilarious stuff. The narrative is a familiar one, with a man trying to redeem himself and avenge his father’s death, but it is also filled with discos, street crime politics, and nonsense. As terrible as it often is, Sticks of Death is massive fun and a must for fans of oddball martial arts cinema.

This one has a very brief instance of bare ass, as well as a tease of a topless shot, but no such luck. So since we have like half a second of bare ass as the lone nakedness, no points for this one. No blood. This one has some wild stick fights, fist fights, knife fights, and gun fights, but none of the chaos yields bloodshed. Even so, this is some fun stuff and I especially love how dominant the sticks are presented, you could take out an armed militia with these things. The action is low rent, of course, but still a lot of fun and there’s a good amount of it here, including some cool explosions. In addition to the street crime inspired violence, there’s even some competition based action, as dudes beat each other up with sticks for sport. In terms of dialogue, as I said before this movie has an atrocious dub that is off the rails and wildly inconsistent. This will upset some, but for most of us, this kind of outrageous dub is like a goldmine of entertainment. Half the dialogue just seems like random comments or at best, hilariously bad translation work, while the other half is awkward or just bland. But even the bland lines work, as these are some of the most wooden, stilted voice overs around, just solid gold. The craziness scale is amped up to thanks the horrible dub and dialogue involved, as well as the ridiculous action scenes and fetishistic treatment of the sticks.

Nudity: 0/10

Blood: 0/10

Dialogue: 8/10

Overall Insanity: 6/10