ROOTS OF EVIL (1979) Directed by Christian Anders (Germany)

I must admit that I had no idea what to expect from this as I popped it into the DVD player. I remember seeing the old Temple VHS cover in the mid 80s but never ever got around to renting it. That was about 30 years ago! On watching Christiam Anders epic movie how could I have waited that long to see it.

Is Roots of Evil a good movie? Is it a film of exceptional interest to then common man?

No! No! No!

Roots of Evil is awful in every aspect of film making. Badly made, badly acted, badly...... fill in the rest yourself. It's just bloody terrible on every level you can think of. But.................... It's bloody hysterical!

Anders plays Frank Mertens, a peaceful Karate teacher who just wants to be left alone. He has a small band of students and an assistant, Ingrid, who loves him. You can tell she loves him because she looks all dreamy when he walks into a room.

Enter Deep Roy! (Sounds like a 1973 porno). Deep Roy is Van Bullock and he's 4 foot 4 of one of the most entertaining bad guys in film history. Roy is most famous for playing 165 Oompa-Loompas in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.... That's every one of them.

Anyway, Van Bullock wants Anders to give up his school because he wants to start his own school. He also sells drugs to kids. The back story is that Van Bullock killed Anders' master a few years ago because he was giving info to the cops. Van Bullock did 9 years in prison and he's still pretty angry about it.

And that;s the story. Simple. It's what happens in the middle that makes this film a little gem. Terrible fights, terrible dialogue, terrible music, terrible drunken dwarf scenes. It's all here. Why was there never a sequel? Why? Why I Ask Ya?

Anders looks like a young Chuck Norris but does Bruce Lee sounds when he's fighting. He also sings the super song. He also directs, producers, writes, does the catering and probably does hair and make-up! I love Christian Anders. He needs to be seen to be believed. The film has a wonderful training montage to. Every film should have a training montage. Anders does all kinds of super techniques. He ties wires to his undies and fiddles with himself. I believe this is the way David Carridine died.

Anyway, would I watch this film again?

Hell yeah! I'm watching it now! The film should have its own designated channel on sky so you can dip in and out whenever you like. It's hypnotic in its badness. I love that.

See it if you can!

Van Bullock!!!!!!!!!

If you're looking for a cheap laugh, then look no further than this film! I was fortunate enough to find this obscure turkey in the back of an old second-hand store, and upon viewing the cover, consisting only of a picture of Christian Anders looking angry with the title in huge lettering across, reading "Djævelsk Terror" (Devilish Terror),and then the description on the back: "One man alone against a perverted midget and his gangsters", I had to buy it!

The story is roughly as follow: The ambitious karate-teacher, Frank Mertens (played by German folk-singer Christian Anders) only wants to run his own small karate-school in peace and tranquility, preaching non-violence in the name of his deceased master, with the help of his secretary Ingrid (played by the Spanish actress Maribel Martín). But with the arrival of the evil, drug-dealing and martial-arts teaching midget Van Bullock (played by Deep Roy of "Charlie and the Chocolate-Factory fame in one of his very first roles),everything changes. Van Bullock wants to place his own karate-school right next to Frank Mertens' karate-school, but doesn't like the competition, so he tries to buy Mertens out, but he refuses. After that, Van Bullock sends some of his goons after Mertens to beat him up, to no avail. Then he tries more peaceful negotiations, but they fail miserably yet again, and he apparently has no choice but to eliminate Mertens from the face of the earth. Moving his own school to another part of the city, or accepting fair competition is not an option!

With the help of his trusty, neutered (!) henchman Komo (played by notorious B-movie actor Fernando Bilbao aka Fred Harris),Van Bullock beats his way to whatever he wants, and even scores with the most sexy ladies imaginable, including his mistress Cora (played by the Croatian/German actress/singer Dunja Rajter). But Frank Mertens is the one man that cannot be controlled, so Van Bullock frames him for a crime and Mertens then goes to jail. What happens next is totally ridiculous, as Mertens more or less turns himself into a John Rambo-clone and breaks out of jail, going after the bad guys.. mind you, this was made BEFORE "First Blood", so every reference to Rambo is actually non-existent, and the Rambo-films actually should pay THIS film homage instead!

Overall, this was a pretty bad movie, poorly directed, poorly acted, and (especially) poorly written! But it does have some redeeming points, such as having a couple of German folk-singers in the lead as action-stars, and Deep Roy giving a hilarious portrayal of a hysterical and egotistical gangster-boss. At one point, we see a montage of Mertens training to funky 70s music, and some of his routines are - to put it mildly - a bit bizarre, as in wearing tight leather-shorts with straps attached, and speed-jumping up and down with only his belly touching the floor, etc. The ending of the movie was particularly weird, as Mertens runs around in the woods fighting Van Bullock and Komo, and at the same time also fleeing from the police, practically rendering him an outlaw!

But when all is said, I have to give this a 5/10, as it was very entertaining, and I laughed quite a lot while watching this. However, I wouldn't recommend this film to people who can't appreciate movies that are "so bad they're good", as this one clearly falls into that category.

he he...this movie is fun. Its so bad you cant believe your eyes. The strange part is that Christian Anders (both music and director)look like he have martial art skills. That training sequence is funny as hell. The bad guy role is also hilarious a dwarf that looks like a child with mustache his name is Van Bullock. He want to buy the place where Christian Anders main character has his training school. Think bad Asian martial art movie and add some German cheese and you have "Roots of Evil". This movie is worth seeing cause of the cheesy music the serious acting by Christian Anders. ....................................................................