Six-String Samurai (1998)

Directed by Lance Mungia. Starring Jeffrey Falcon, Justin McGuire, Stephan Gauger, Dan Barton, Gabrille Pimenter, John Sarkisian, George L. Casillas, (voices) Lex Lang, Keith Mortimer. [PG-13]

Set in an alternate present day where—brace yourself—the Soviet Union nuked the U.S. forty years ago, Las Vegas (a.k.a. “Lost Vegas”) became one of the few remaining inhabitable areas in the county, and Elvis Presley has been serving as a literal king for decades…but once news spreads that the King is dead (long live the King), a new “King of Rock n’ Roll” is needed in Lost Vegas. Enter an enigmatic lone swordsman-slash-guitarist (Falcon) traveling across the bleak Nevada desert, joined almost against his will by a whiny orphan (McGuire), and hounded by Death itself (or…Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash?). Outlandish, tongue-in-cheek genre mashup has some enjoyable moments and a certain degree of referential ambition to its rampant symbolism and homages, but there’s almost no drive to the one-dimensional story, the filmmaking is too awkward to hold all these bizarre incidents together, it’s plagued by repetition and muddled editing, and the kid is, quite frankly, an annoying twerp (looking like a roughed-up li’l Anakin Skywalker doesn’t help him in the sympathy department either). The bursts of action tend to be fast and furious, but tame in terms of violence (hardly any blood is shed onscreen) and lacking real stakes. Rockabilly group The Red Elvises appear as “themselves” and contribute a handful of songs to the soundtrack.

41/100