Mark Savage obviously spent a great deal of time honing his craft between his shot-on-video debut (entitled Marauders) and this flick. Every aspect of the filmmaking process has improved dramatically from the writing and directing to the performances. It just goes to show that a dedication to the craft and to improving yourself can go a long way especially when you persevere for almost fifteen years until the release of your next 'big' movie. Unlike some directors that have been around for a long time (*cough* Ulli Lommel *cough*), Savage clearly wants to be a great filmmaker and it shows.

Sensitive New Age Killer (or SNAK as it is also known) is the tale of a hitman named Paul (Paul Moder) who is just a nice guy trying to keep his marriage together while making a living doing what he loves. When Paul was a child, he saw a legendary hitman called "The Snake" (Frank Bren) do a job and was inspired to become a professional killer himself. With the help of his slimy friend and partner George (Kevin Hopkins), Paul has succeeded in his ambition and finds himself preparing for the biggest job of his career, which will firmly establish him as a force to be reckoned with and give him the credibility he craves. The only problem is that The Snake is vying to do the same job, a female cop (Carolyn Bock) is blackmailing Paul to have sex with her every Friday, and George is getting sleazier as the days go on. Can Paul keep it all together and still be a sensitive, nice guy?

After Marauders, I wasn't sure what to make of an action comedy from the same director but after viewing the entertaining trailer which features an uber-cool Ennio Morricone song playing over various scenes of action, I began to buy into the concept. I am glad I did because this is a thoroughly original and unpredictable movie with a variety of quirky characters, dialogue, a really cool title sequence, and a few big set pieces featuring a lot of gunplay obviously inspired by Hong Kong directors like John Woo and Ringo Lam. Savage has obviously thought a lot about what would be entertaining to an audience and does his best to fill the movie with not only an engaging story loaded with a variety of conflicts but he also sprinkles some sex, blood, and comedy throughout to spice things up. All of these ingredients make this a lot more fun than your typical low budget action flick.

Paul Moder is perfectly cast as Paul and has a real sense of honesty that you latch onto right away. This is just a guy trying to do good for himself and the people he cares about and he seems genuinely affected with what is going on around him. Moder may be known to some horror fans as the actor who played the cop in the original short film version of Saw that I believe is found on one of the DVD releases of the 2004 horror hit. Fans of Savage's work will recognize Mark's brother Colin (who starred in Marauders) as the hitman near the end of the film who Paul has a certain amount of difficulty dispatching. He looks quite different without the crazy hair from 1986.

After watching this movie, I am certainly seeing why Subversive Cinema took it upon themselves to release Savage's work and unleash his wacky style of filmmaking upon the world. This flick was much more professional and focused than Marauders and if he keeps on improving as a filmmaker, it won't be long before more people know his name. On a side note, I am really curious about a snippet of a film that can be seen on a television during SNAK. It is called Masked Avenger Versus Ultra-Villain in the Lair of the Naked Bikini (aka. The Masturbating Gunman) and features a Mexican wrestler type ripping out a guy's guts and beating him with them. Looks awesome and I hope someone releases this one in North American very soon. Maybe Subversive will prepare for us another box set with more of Savage's films. I sure hope so. (Josh Pasnak, 2/7/07)

Directed By: Mark Savage.
Written By: Mark Savage, David Richardson.

Starring: Paul Moder, Carolyn Bock, Kevin Hopkins, Helen Hopkins.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: Other than a little bit of grain due to the fact that this was shot on 16mm film, the picture was decent. No complaints.

Extras: First up, we get a commentary from Savage and cinematographer/co-writer David Richardson. This is an enthusiastic talk about the film and many interesting aspects of the production are discussed. The cast members indicated on the DVD case did not participate in the commentary. They were apparently part of the original commentary but they do not appear on the US release. The case will be corrected on future editions. All of the key cast members are, however, involved in the 39-minute featurette entitled "SNAK: A Post Mortem" where they all discuss their memories of the film which are nearly all good ones. The remaining extras include trailers for some other Subversive releases, cast and crew bios, a self running photo gallery that runs just over a minute, and a booklet that contains excerpts from Savage's production diary.

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