The Purifiers

Gang-warfare in a futuristic city which, if you pay very close attention, may look a little like Milton Keynes or Glasgow. The story, too, may be vaguely reminiscent, not so much of Xenophon's 'Anabasis' as of Walter Hill's already cheekily derivative 'The Warriors'. Jobson's still more impertinent martial arts saga works well enough – very well stylistically, given the budgetary constraints – as long as you don't start taking it at all seriously; if you do, the ludicrous machismo on which the whole edifice is built crumbles into a heap of hollow postures. Less rewarding, then, than '16 Years of Alcohol', but not without its enjoyable moments.