SLEDGEHAMMER ** U.S.A. 2017 Dir: Joshua Miller 89 mins
This psychedelic head trip is destined to be one film that will leave you wondering what the hell you just watched. The plot (?) seems to revolve around Yolner, a guy who is having a really bad day. First he is late for work, then his car runs out of fuel, his mobile gets broken, the bus he needs to catch won’t stop for him and his girlfriend leaves him a voicemail to say he is dumped. Its just one of those days where you wish you stayed in bed.
At work his colleagues play a prank on him and drop some shady looking drugs in his coffee. Upon drinking the coffee Yolner goes mental and starts off on a killing spree with his sledgehammer. When Yolner was a child he had a fascination with Thor and the Nordic tales so he naturally thinks he is Thor now with his trusty hammer. Throughout the film, which must have been an editing nightmare, Yolner comes across scantily dressed roller derby cheerleaders, voodoo gangs and corrupt city officials. No one is safe from Yolner’s hammer of vengeance. One word amongst all others can describe this film…..weird! It is hard to pinpoint what market they were aiming for with this film as it doesn’t really fit in anywhere. It does have horror elements as is seen with Yolner killing people with his sledgehammer including a great looking cyclist brain smash. If you want acting that is up there with the greats you must look further then here as this is acting at its most basic. In the words of Mr Mackey from South Park “Drugs are bad m’kay”.
Review by Peter ‘Witchfinder‘ Hopkins