Six-String Samurai

In a post-apocalyptic world, Las Vegas awaits a new king to save society from the Soviet army and Mad Max-like vandals that terrorize the landscape. Enter Buddy (a disaffected Jeffrey Falcon), a rockabilly ninja who thrashes his way to Vegas, rescuing an impossibly annoying child (Justin McGuire) along the way and eventually facing Death himself.

Lance Mungia's ridiculous debut pulls out every trick in the indie-film canon: a confusing premise, self-consciously cool dialogue, unnecessarily panoramic cinematography, prolonged randomness, strained irony, failed metaphor, Star Wars references. It also draws from mainstream Hollywood by lacking strong characters, being monotonously repetitive and predictable, and generating a lot of undeserved positive buzz. Not even a fantastic surfabilly soundtrack by the Red Elvises, Falcon's gifted acrobatics, and really cool shoes can help this Samurai battle to victory.

-- Dan Tobin