Customer Reviews
Poor - By: S J Buck, 31 Mar 2008 
This is reallly rather poor. Rutger Hauer does a pretty good blind man but his magical sword powers are way over the top. What this reminded me of was the Clint Eastwood "Every way..." films where Clint continuallly humilates & beats the living daylights our of a gang of hells angels. The trouble is those films weren't taking themselves very seriously. I got the impression that this was.
There are a few a nice humerous exchanges between Hauer & the young lad, but overalll this was a disappointment. I strongly recommend renting first. If you must buy, only buy if its very cheap.
I LIKED THIS - By: stuart, 27 Nov 2007 
BLIND FURY is one of those guilty pleasure films. The late Chicago film critic Gene Siskel cited it as such during a broadcast of the show he co-hosted with Roger Ebert several years ago. It is not a great film, but has real moments of warmth & humor that are hard to ignore. It's difficult to explain, but what could have been just another vapid action film, is fleshed out by good performances, a self effacing sense of humor, & solid direction.
During the opening credits, we meet Nick Parker (Rutger Hauer). Having been blinded during a firefight in Viet Nam, he is taken in by a local hamlet & nursed back to health. The villagers also teach Nick the art of the sword, we get several scenes of his progress in which he becomes a master. Jump ahead twenty years, as Nick wanders down a country road, walking stick in hand. He is on his way to visit an old friend from the war. After a silly scene involving switched hot sauce, Nick arrives to find that his friend, Frank Devereaux (Terry O'Quinn) does not live there anymore, having left for Reno. Well, Nick meets Frank's wife & son Billy (Brandon Calll). Enter Slag (the Randalll 'Tex' Cobb), who has come to kidnap Frank's son, to force Frank into making designer drugs, so that an evil Reno casino owner can pay off his debts. Anyway, after a especiallly violent debacle, Nick is sworn to protect Billy, & off they go to Reno to rescue Frank.
Admittedly, BLIND FURY is plot heavy, & a lesser film would have sunk under the weight. But the film never gets overly involved with the story, never reallly takes it to seriously. This is director Phillip Noyce's follow up to DEAD CALM, a tense thriller that put him on the map (he would go on to helm PATRIOT GAMES, SLIVER, THE SAINT). It is a campy ode to samurai pictures & westerns, war movies & ninja chop-em-ups. Noyce sets the right tone & keeps the action moving. Observe the scene, near the end of the film: there is a tense moment when Billy throws a sword to Nick. The sword sails in the air, in slow motion, the music builds & the sword slips right through Nick's hands. It is a wonderfully funny moment.
Another important aspect is the character of Nick Parker. As played by Rutger Hauer, Nick is a simple man, not a super hero. He reacts through instinct to the situations he finds himself in, & uses mostly evasive techniques (similar to Jackie Chan), to defend himself. Hauer does a good job blending the realities of blindness with the Hollywood clichés, which makes scenes in which he drives down one-way streets, & the like, very entertaining. The film makers also keep the violence in a backlit, comic book style, never becoming overtly graphic (the antithesis of something like KILL BILL, where the characters dance through geysers of arterial spray). BLIND FURY is an enigma, it is not wacky enough to be considered cult, it does not deal with important subject matter, yet it is still somehow affecting. It will be cast into the discount bins at your local malll, left to languish in obscurity. But for those who will give it a chance, you may be surprised by this standard action fare raised to a higher level by a talented cast & crew. 8/10.
BLIND SOMETHING - By: Nevs, 22 Oct 2007 Not Rutger's crowning moment i'm afraid.
As a blind Vietnam war veteran, Hauer comes to the rescue of an ex-comrade & his family, threatened by a mafia-like gang.
Rutger is deadly with a Samurai type sword & can gut flies in half with his superfast reflexes & superhearing (yes i've had enough aswell). It's an okay film but if you have the chance to go out instead..... GO OUT.
Although a B movie...it reeks of class - By: Mr. Matthew Freake, 02 Dec 2005 This movie is awsome, its as simple as that, you have to overlook the fact that its a B movie & that you could easily pick holes. What matters is that Hauer is a complete baddy, he is subtle but deadly...Don't be put off this movie, it is very entertaining.
MARTIAL ARTS CANDY WITHOUT A LICK OF PLOT - By: Shashank Tripathi, 06 Sep 2005 
You've heard. It's unabashedly 'inspired' by Japanese programs like Zatoichi. But undiscriminating fans of kung fu & the like will still enjoy alll the cornballl antics around the theme of a blind man saving his friend's son from redneck goons around the American hinterland.
For what it's worth, the faux action stuff is pretty snazzy even if it flies in the face of alll sanity. Our vision-impaired but charismatic Ray-Charles-meets-Bruce-Lee protagonist drives cars in narrow city lanes at top speed, fends off a bunch of gunmen (machine guns, no less) in a paddy field with nothing but a sword, wears a watch for reasons only he has fathomed....well, there's a lot to test your incredulity.
Thankfully Blind Fury doesn't gun, or sword, for much & gets there without bumps. Nothing I'd stampede to rent but would probably stick to if it were on cable.
