If premise and enthusiasm were enough to ensure a quality product then Samurai Avenger would be more of a winner. It merges the samurai revenge flick with the spaghetti western, two of my favourite genres, and wraps them lovingly in a grindhouse bun. It falls short of the expectations such a paring gives rise to, but it’s still fun in a purposefully 'bad but good' way.
It steals most of its best moments directly from the Lone Wolf and Cub and Zatoichi films, with Sergio Leone close-ups and anime-esque bad guys thrown in for good measure. It has some really good scenes and kills, but there's a lot of down time in between those moments.
3 easi-clean swords out of 5
