Mad Mex: The Blackfighter [a.k.a. Big Game] (1980)

Starring:

• Max H. Boulois
• Tom Hernández
• William Anthon

IMDB.com
I'll hand it to Max Boulois: He knows how to make a movie about himself. This is the 2nd of his movies that I managed to glom onto, and from what I can gather from them he is (or was) France's answer to Mr. T before Mr. T even became a name. Big lummox of a man who actually had an intelligent, creative side to him that he harvested after some sort of sports career. I'd like to learn more about him.

Here he directs himself in a somewhat trashy but nonetheless engaging movie about a (get this) Vietnam veteran NFL star who falls on hard times, runs up a gambling debt, and is recruited by a bunch of shady, ultra-rich elites who want to enjoy the ultimate thrill -- hunting another human being like an animal. The first twenty or so minutes of the film were shot in and around Manhattan with various travelogue footage before Mr. Boulois finds himself presented with a key to a Grand Central Station lockbox containing a million dollars, which will be his if he survives the ordeal. He's then blindfolded, bundled onto a helicopter, and flown to a forested area (supposedly Florida) where he predictably reverts back to his days fighting in 'Nam, using his skill at jungle warfare to turn the tables on his hunters.

So far so good, but then the film takes a U-turn back to Manhattan where Boulois hooks up with his old Vietnam war buddy to claim his cash and finds that the whole thing was a setup. What started out as a "Black RAMBO" adventure turns into a "Black POINT BLANK" as he tries to get to the bottom of the organization which decided to make sport of his life. We meet a scuzzy FBI agent (depicted as being in Washington by showing the city on a map), his pretty pistol-packin' female assistant who has a taste for African art (??), encounter intrigue with the faked suicide of a former Army colonel who had been part of the hunting party, various bombs and offscreen explosions, all of it leading to a very French looking "Mr. Big" type tycoon who's gated mansion is patrolled by armed guards carrying walkie talkies with antennas as big as the Eiffel Tower......read more