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Pagbabalik ng Panday
Ang Panday 2
Philippines 1981
produced by Fernando Poe jr for FPJ Productions
directed by Ronwaldo Reyes (= Fernando Poe jr)
starring Fernando Poe jr, Max Alvarado, Tina Revilla, Lito Anzures, Bentot jr, Rosemarie Gil, Lillian Laing, Jose Romulo, Michael Pigar, Eddie Gicoso, Mary Ann Galapin, Sarah Carino, Amy Anzures, Clint De Castro, Ernie David, Efren Belardo, Buddy Dator, Eric Navarro, Cesar Abejuela, Mario Fernandez, Joey Padilla, Linda Peralta, Muzette Mendez, Frank Raagas
screenplay by Tommy C.David, based on the comicbook created by Carlo J.Caparas, music by Ernani Cuenco, special effects by Cesar Abejuela/Esposure Films
Ang Panday, Ang Panday (Fernando Poe jr)
review by Mike Haberfelner
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It starts out as business as usual for blacksmith Flavio (Fernando Poe
jr), as he and his boy sidekick Lando (Bentot jr) and his hermit advisor
(Lito Anzures) wander the countryside, and he fights and defeats the
occupying army, flesh-eating zombies and vampires using his magic dagger
forged from a meteor (see Ang Panday
for that story). Then though he is attacked by a (man-sized) river monster
and loses his dagger in the fight that leaves him knocked out cold. With
noone to protect them, his companions are taken prisoners and dragged to a
labour camp by the occupying forces, while Flavio, more dead than alive
anyways, is left to die ... but is saved by a race of bird people, who
then help him retrieve his dagger from the river monster, attack the
labour camp, and free all of the prisoners, including Lando and the old
man of course. In return, Flavio helps the bird people to fight off their
adversaries, a race of savage neanderthals. For the finale, an evil
witch resurrects Flavio's arch enemy Lizardo (Max Alvarado), who has
his army of faceless warriors attack him, and this time Flavio is so
outnumbered that not even his magic dagger can save him - but he has made
many friends during the course of this film, and now that necessity
arises, they all come to his rescue and take out Lizardo's army easily,
and this time around, Lizardo himself is killed by the bird people - until
someone else will resurrect him ... As Ang
Panday before it, this movie is enjoyably trashy, crude in the low
budget kind of way, and full of pulp clichés - and yet it's by far not as
much fun as the earlier film, mainly because the pacing seems to be oddly
off: Pretty much all of the narrative threads of this rather episodic film
are set up at the beginning of the film, and then left alone for too long
a time to maintain suspense while the film itself goes through way too
much dialogue for its own good. That's not to say that at least portions
of the film are not enjoyable in a trashy sort of way, just that the movie
as a whole could have done with a little more narrative stringency and
about half an hour less dialogue (at almost 2 hours running time).
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