Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

SHATTER is Hammer's second attempt at a Hong Kong-backed movie after the cult classic that is LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES. Whilst not an inherently enjoyable film like the former, SHATTER is a mildly interesting diversion with a good enough cast to make it worthwhile. Although the film has a fair few slow patches where the interest wanes through lack of action, generally the plot, which concerns a hit-man trying to collect his fee, is engaging and the action realistic.This isn't a James Bond-style adventure as the title might suggest; the movie strives for realism over comic book style and the result is a gritty, downbeat, sporadically exciting foray into the world of the international thriller. The unconventional lead is played by Stuart Whitman, who enjoyed a brief status as a leading action man in the 1970s after he appeared in this and some Italian thrillers. Whitman is hardly an athletic hero, but his hang dog looks and his steely determination go part way in letting the audience empathise with his character's situation.Things begin with some stock footage of African race riots and moves into a bloody assassination scene, where Whitman uses a gun disguised as a camera to take care of his contract! From then on we see him hiding out in a seedy Hong Kong hotel room and biding time while he tries to figure things out. SHATTER isn't a film which shows Hong Kong in a very good light – in fact the film has a sleazy, depressing atmosphere and the crowded setting only makes things worse.Whitman visits his German contact Hans Luber (played by genre favourite Anton Diffring) but is unable to collect his fee, and instead finds himself beaten up by violent policemen. These two scenes highlight two excellent cameo performances. The first is Diffring's; the typically sinister character of Luber is a great role to play and Diffring is his usual snide, evil self in the part. Secondly we have Peter Cushing in the role of Paul Rattwood, which is more like an extended cameo. Rattwood is an official in the secret police and a rather nasty character who knows more than he lets on and who keeps a gang of thugs under his command. Cushing is of course excellent in the role and gets some nicely sharp-tongued dialogue to himself; but sadly this proved to be his last role for Hammer Studios and a rather inconspicuous swan song for the golden age actor. Still, the moments when he is on screen sparkle and he seems to be enjoying himself, which is enough for me.Whitman moves into a seedy massage parlour/restaurant owned by Ti Lung, at the same time beginning a tragic romance with Lily Li who works there. The rest of the film shows him basically hanging out and eventually doing a trade with Diffring (an unbearably suspenseful scene), who wants the top secret documents in Whitman's possession. But the treacherous Diffring betrays our down-at-heel hero, leading to an action-packed finale where Whitman and Lung storm the enemy's retreat.Most of the action towards the end of this film focuses on Lung, who is portrayed as a young, unstoppable martial arts hero in the line of Bruce Lee. Lung is a tour-de-force in the action stakes and the scenes of him fighting are tremendously exciting and violent. Lily Li is also pretty good as Mai, although she doesn't get to fight in this movie. SHATTER isn't a very engaging movie, but the direction is solid, there is enough action and gore to satisfy the male crowd, and the cast alone makes it worthwhile. Don't be fooled, this is no classic, but it remains watchable enough if you're in the right mood.

1974's "Call Him Mr. Shatter" was nearly the last gasp for Britain's renowned Hammer Films, followed as it was by only three more titles and a pair of 13 episode teleseries. Second of a two picture deal with Hong Kong's Shaw brothers, preceded by "The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires," its lone returning cast member being Peter Cushing, in a sad finale to a sterling run at Hammer that began with the 1957 classic "The Curse of Frankenstein" (completing one episode of HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR in 1980, "The Silent Scream"). Stuart Whitman stars in the title role, that of a professional assassin whose latest successful hit, the president of a (fictitious) African nation, results in his payment deferred by recalcitrant international banker Hans Leber (Anton Diffring). Not keen on losing $100,000, Shatter quickly learns that it was neither the US nor Britain that actually hired him, but the drug syndicate that found the president's lookalike brother a better fit for their nefarious needs. Paul Rattwood (Cushing), British security agent in Hong Kong, advises Shatter to leave or sacrifice his health, but with support from martial artist Tai Pah (Li Tung) and sister Mai-Mee (Lily Li), plays off both Rattwood and Leber for greater financial gain, ultimately left no choice but to remain in Hong Kong for the rest of his life. The opening builds nicely through Cushing's introduction 21 minutes in, then goes into a slumber as over a half hour of staged kung fu fights stops the plot dead in its tracks. The choreography is fine, but none of the blows actually hit their targets, the stunts consisting of men simply leaping or falling (no match for Bruce Lee's authenticity). Any film that requires its audience to root for a professional hit man for hire is asking quite a bit, so its really Cushing's three scenes, and Diffring's solid evil presence that truly keep it from sinking completely. Cushing's cynical character initially comes off as quite villainous and never really shakes that image, even when he come through at the end with Shatter's final remuneration. Despite its reputation, it remains quite watchable, perhaps due more to director Monte Hellman's yeoman efforts, filming roughly 80% of the finished film before being unceremoniously dumped toward the end of shooting by Hammer producer Michael Carreras, who took sole directorial credit (he'd been hired because of his familiarity with the location).

Hammer helped define the gothic vampire genre, for which we should be thankful, but they also found need to dabble in other fields with mixed results. Shatter did not have the most inspired mixture and doesn't stand the test of time very well. Perpetually grouchy killer for hire Stuart Whitman fails goes to Hong Kong where he fails to collect from disreputable banker Anton Diffring. Corrupt government official Peter Cushing has his men beat the pulp out of Whitman, who stumbles off to a massage parlor where kung fu master Lung Ti treats him to a freebie from adorable Li-Li Li (whose name sounds like the refrain to a doo-wop song). Whitman finds his apartment blown up so he takes refuge at his new friends' dojo. He slips underground for a while but gets attacked at a martial arts invitational won by understated Ti. Without questioning the moral validity of his instincts, they help him in his quest to extort a mil from Diffring. International affairs gets somewhat sticky from here, and the bullets fly freely until the predictable climax. Carreras tries his best to present Whitman as a then-prevalent philosopher killer, but the weak introspective sequences that show Whitman roaming around his apartment fail to do the trick. The apparently sensitive regret he feels for his victims comes off as a brooding doom with little real emotion backing it up. Shatter's intolerance for international culture makes a few unexpected peeps from its veneer of acceptance. Snooty references to eating snakes evidence a discomfort with the behavior of a foreign country. The background story sets this attitude in stone: Whitman's being tracked down for getting involved with political affairs in Badawi, a corrupt puppet country in Africa in which brothers contentedly murder brothers for money and power. Such situations may perhaps at time truly occur, but the same can be found in Shakespeare with less disapproval asked of the audience. The degree of acceptance present can be seen as a sense of tragedy, completely disconnected with the random slaying of evil black or Asian characters. I don't mean to push the point, but I found it odd that both major black characters were played no-name Yemi Ajibade in an otherwise internationally well-known cast. Cult director Monte Hellman apparently assisted Carreras, far more experienced as a producer, but did not receive credit. Writer Don Houghton produced the other Shaw/Hammer co-production, The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires and also takes credit for the awful but amusing Dracula AD 1972. Scenes allegedly shot in Badawi, a country that does not exist, were probably done in Hong Kong.

Part of a three film deal (only two pictures were actually made -- the other being LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES), SHATTER was intended as a copy of the hip actioners being made in the U.S. Unfortunately, much of the film involves the title character hiding out from pursuers, as he tries to sort out a killing he'd been contracted to provide, but which he'd been undercut on and set up as the fall guy for. In the meantime, the guilty parties and others are on the hunt for Shatter, and he can't be certain of his few allies.Peter Cushing's final Hammer role, as a cynical intelligence operative who refuses to help Shatter and may have an undisclosed agenda of his own.Very minor material and only for Cushing completists.