The table is set for my undoing

I just found out that Scarecrow changed their rental policies — all titles now rent for seven nights. In the past, my Scarecrow binges were limited by how many films I felt I could get through in three days. Now, it seems I'll be limited only by the carrying capacity of my car. They're going to need to start providing shopping carts over there.

Fortunately, with the SIFF starting tomorrow, I held back this time and only brought home a small armful of titles, including The Master Gunfighter — a Tom Laughlin (“Billy Jack”) samurai-western that I discovered courtesy of The Scarecrow Movie Guide.

I buckled in for a truly awful movie, because on IMDb Master Gunfighter received a combined user rating of 3.4, which is downright abysmal when you consider that three of the worst westerns I've ever seen — His Name Was King, Django Spara Per Primo, and Buon Funerale, Amigos! — were rated 4.5, 5.5, and 5.7.

I was surprised. Master Gunfighter is certainly a goofy, hyperstylized B-western, but it's beautifully shot (most of the action takes place on the beaches of the Pacific Coast) and not badly acted. Ron O'Neal (yes, “Superfly” himself) makes a charismatic and sympathetic villain, and a young Barbara Carrera makes a strong and stunning leading lady.

Don't get me wrong — it's a bad movie. But it's a good bad movie, with solid production values, a competent cast, and a halfway original plot. I enjoyed it more than probably two-thirds of the spaghetti westerns I've seen. (In some scenes Laughlin even outperforms Clint Eastwood's fastest moments in “The Man With No Name” trilogy.) Hell, the quality of the photography alone warrants a rating higher than 3.4.

Plus, the DVD transfer is gorgeous — clean and beautiful. Good sound, rich color. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and I'm baffled by its reputation. Guess I'll just have to watch it again, and see if I can find the awfulness everyone else seems to see.

And Jeff, Dandy, Ninepin: In keeping with the “vigilantes out for justice” theme, two of the other movies I picked up were Ramrod and Rolling Thunder — a double feature I couldn't resist. Thought you'd appreciate that selection of titles.