Here we have another amazing spaghetti western courtesy of "Django" director Sergio Corbucci. I found this one to be better than "Django" and the best Italian western that I have ever seen and I am still reeling from the brutal bloodbath of a climax. In fact, the whole movie is quite brutal as we focus on a confrontation between two bounty hunters: one who is mute and goes by the name of Silence and another who is crafty and evil and goes by the name of Loco. The two end up in the small snow covered town in Utah and are basically hired to kill each other. As both are living by a code of not shooting first, it takes some other tactics to get to the final showdown aside from the usual of bravado of a draw at high noon. French actor Jean-Louis Trinignant is perfectly cast as the intense Silence who watched his family get slain as a boy and then had his throat slit and Klaus Kinki is raw as ever as the clever and determined Loco. We also have the beautiful Vonetta McGee ("Shaft In Africa") in her film debut as Pauline, the widow who hires Silence to take revenge on her husband's killer. This is a great movie with a harsh location and even harsher action by most of the characters that will leave you wanting to see more movies by the brilliant Sergio Corbucci (who seems to have a thing for hand mutilation). Warning, do not watch this on the same day as "The Grey Zone" like I did or you will have a very fitful sleep.
The only thing I remember about "Penitentiary" from when I saw it twenty years ago is Gloria Delaney as Peaches in the bathroom. While this would certainly stick in the memory of a young man, I see now that the movie had a little more to offer than large breasts. Leon Isaac Kennedy stars as Too Sweet, a dude who gets locked up and will not be anyone's bitch. After getting into numerous scraps, Too Sweet joins the prison boxing club and we are treated to a number of boxing matches as well as what I felt was a pretty realistic vision of prison life in the late 70's but lacking a danger aspect. Like director Jamaa Fanaka's other film that I have seen entitled "Soul Vengeance", this movie is very low budget which I think works for a film of this sort as it adds to the rawness that needs to be achieved in a prison movie. This also hurts the film, however, as many of the scenes are too dark and there is some poor acting that hurts the pacing of the film as these characters slow things down. All in all, by the end of the film, I felt like it was okay but I am having trouble seeing how this has gotten the reputation it has earned. If the subject matter was treated a little more like the harsh environment that prison provides it may have helped as I never felt like Too Sweet was in any threatening positions. I will be checking out the two sequels and the idea of a prison boxing circuit was also explored in this 2002's underrated "Undisputed". Look for Chuck Mitchell ("Porky's") as the main prison guard.
It was really good to see a movie be made about Egypt actually be filmed in Egypt. I have been disappointed in the past with films like "The Awakening" and the remake of "The Mummy" where I felt like they could have utilized the various Egyptian locations a lot more but for some reason they chose not to. "Sphinx" uses all the great locations (the pyramids, Valley of the Kings, Cairo, and Luxor) in abundance and makes for a very cool experience on that front. There is also a nice chunk of time spent on the inside of various tombs which provide a creepy atmosphere when used in the context of this film. The story revolves around Lesley-Anne Down ("Hanover Street") as an Egyptologist who is in Egypt to investigate some missing artifacts. She is soon involved in a plot regarding greed and curses. While not the most enthralling thriller around, I loved the locations and found the movie moved along at a nice pace and contained enough action and mystery to stay interesting. The real star here as mentioned before is the locations. Co-stars include Frank Langella ("Dracula"), acclaimed British Shakespearean actor John Gielgud, and John Rhys-Davies (Sallah from "Raiders Of The Lost Ark"). This was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner who also made "Planet Of The Apes", "Patton", and "Papillon". The guy being ripped in half by the horses in the opening scene was a nice touch.
For the most part, I enjoyed this Jason movie more than most of the others since the first one. Laugh if you will at the concept of Jason in space but at least it is a welcome break from the usual slaughter at Camp Crystal Lake. Die-hards will complain that Jason belongs in that setting but the reality is that there is simply no way that you could do another Friday movie at Camp Crystal Lake and make it interesting. I was just happy that there was a new Friday movie at all that I had a chance to see in the theatres and that it was better than 95% of the other crap that is playing at your local multiplex or taking up space on the video store shelf. The plot has a number of nods to "Aliens" with Jason being picked up from a deserted planet and then a money-hungry doctor not wanting to kill the killer when he learns that Jason is a valuable research subject. We also have a scene involving army grunts being killed in an industrial setting and an extended ending where our lead bad boy just won't stay down. Although this extended 'homage' could be considered a big ripoff, I found that it made what could have been a boring story a lot better and brought this movie above the standard we have come to expect from recent horror movies. Director Jim Isaac, who comes from a special effects background, also managed to cram in some decent-looking CGI as well as some creative kills that we have come to expect from a Friday movie. Stars include Lexa Doig and Lisa Ryder from "Andromeda". Look from legendary director David Cronenberg in a small role in the opening scene.
I think this is the worst movie that I have ever seen. A plot involving scantily-clad female commandos can usually save even the lowest of the low but in this case, the whole thing just falls flat thanks to some of the worst acting, directing, and writing that I have ever experienced. Sybil Danning stars as the leader of a group of girls whose mission is to save the world's space program from a group of evil eco-terrorists who call themselves 'Clean Space'. The main problem lies in the fact that none of the girls have any personalities (or speaking parts) so you really don't care about them. They also are really bad fighters, have no stealth, and leave all their clothes on. So our lead characters are a bunch of Barbie dolls with crazy glued clothes. Next, we have lame unmenacing villains (including a token bald guy and a token German woman). Finally, nobody really seems threatened so there is no suspense and the fact that every character is borderline mentally retarded made me feel like I was on a roller coaster in kiddie land that would not stop. Yawn with a capital Y and what was truly the silliest, non-sensical ending ever earned this a place in my own personal Rotten Turkey awards. To put things into perspective, the only member of the Panther Squad other than Danning who had any sort of career after this was released was Karin Schubert and she went on to become a porn star! You can pass on this one and rest easy.
I don't know how you can make a docudrama about legendary porn producers the Mitchell Brothers boring but this film failed to leave an impression on me. With all the ingredients for a nice and sleazy look at the 70's sex and drug industries, I found that this one sort of "pussied out" so to speak. I guess I can't expect too much from something that is supposed to appeal to Showtime survivors but a little more dirt would have been a nice treat. Emilio Estevez directs himself and brother Charlie Sheen as they play the infamous young upstarts who made a name for themselves (and actress Marilyn Chambers) with the 70's porn classic "Behind The Green Door". The brothers also started a live sex club in San Francisco and stood up for free speech and their first amendment right to defend what they chose to do with their lives. They also consumed monumental amounts of cocaine and their rise to fame crashed down with one of the brothers being gunned down in 1991. Although the performances are decent and Estevez competently directs the picture with some cool ideas thrown in, I found the movie and little dull and I found that the careers took second place to the home lives of these guys and neither were explored properly. If the focus had remained more on the film sets, the mob confrontation, and Marilyn Chambers' story had been shown in more detail, I would have been a lot more entertained. This is a classic case of trying to fit way too much into a two hour movie and rather than cutting some things to lengthen others, I just felt like everything was cut to much less than it should have been. Maybe they should have tried a mini-series. The film was interesting and you got the basics but I wished there was more to it in both story and sleaze.
Here we have a fairly standard Indiana Jones ripoff that takes place in India. The story concerns a newlywed couple who travel to India and are caught up in a case of mistaken identity when a stolen ruby called the bloodstone is slipped into their bag and the wife is kidnapped. What follows is a series of routine fights and chases as the husband teams up with a local cab driver to save his wife and track down the missing jewel. Nothing new here with a rope bridge sequence a la "Temple Of Doom" and a lead actress who looks a lot like Kate Capshaw. There is also a police inspector who reminded me of a Kermit the Frog bobble head and was constantly involved in slapstick antics and an Abbott and Costello moment in a train station. You can do much better if looking for an action movie of this sort. No blood and no skin. Director Dwight Little also did "Halloween 4" and the Robert Englund "Phantom Of The Opera" remake.
When I heard what this movie was about, I thought it sounded really stupid. When I try and explain to others what it is about, I know that I sound really stupid. The fact is though that this movie about masters of Shaolin kung-fu who form a soccer team has everything that you need for a totally satisfying and fun movie experience. You have a variety of distinct characters, a love story, some very positive messages, awesome action, a great music score, comedy bits that work, amazing special effects, a Bruce Lee-inspired goalie, and an overall completely original idea. We open with a soccer star named Golden Leg who can kick like no other but who becomes crippled and eventually becomes a servant to a jealous rival named Hung. Soon, Golden Leg meets a guy named Sing who has an awesome kicking leg and some talented friends and they decide to form a soccer team and compete in Hung's tournament. Seriously, folks, don't miss the boat on this one and see it in it pure form before Hollywood does a number on it. Even if you are not a soccer fan, you should get a kick out of "Shaolin Soccer".
One hopes that when a movie bears their name, it will be a tremendous epic that is too cool for words. Unfortunately that is not the case for me. What I got was a boring Western that didn't make a lot of sense and felt more like a group of people making a documentary about riding horses and then deciding to cut it together with a basic plot and turn it into a revenge movie. With no character development, however, this is pretty hard to do as you need to give a damn for this to work. I actually thought that the lead villain was the most sympathetic character of the bunch and seemed to be the only one who had anything to him at all. Fred Williamson stars as Joshua, an army officer who returns home to find that his mother has been murdered and that the thugs who took her also kidnapped the rancher's wife. This would seem like a good idea for a revenge movie but because no relationship between mother and son is established and because it seems like the wife is happy with the bandits (after the initial rape), you don't really have much to go on. Throw in the fact that there is no blood, no skin, and a totally annoying theme song and you have a film that grates on your mind, gives you a headache, and tempts you to use the fast forward button. I really hope that I don't have the same effect on people.
I heard that this was the big inspiration for "The Evil Dead" but aside from the fact that both feature the Necronomicon and an unseen force going through the forest they were very different movies. "The Dunwich Horror" circulates around a college student (Sandra Dee) and her relationship with a weird warlock named Wilbur (Dean Stockwell) who brings her back to his place in Dunwich. After repeatedly drugging her and making numerous crazy-eyed sex references, Wilbur eventually steals the Necronomicon and tries to make Dee a part of his otherworldly rituals. This movie was not a total bust as it moved along at a leisurely pace and kept me interested but it was certainly not the tale of demons running amok that I was hoping for. Stockwell was interesting as the calm and cool villain and Dee was a lot less innocent than "Gidget" but overall I just didn't find the movie very scary. The weird acid editing style certainly didn't help my patience nor did the fact that Dee's infamous topless scene lasted all of two frames and could easily have been a body double. This was based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft and director Anthony Haller was an art director on many of the classic Corman pictures. Look for Talia Shire ("Rocky") in a supporting role as a nurse.
Gasoline and cars are outlawed in future America as their existence threatens national security. At least, that is what this movie says. In a situation that reminded me of "The Last Chase", Darren McGavin ("Kolchak") stars as Red, a man who hides away a nice looking Firebird and drives it around to prove that he is not going to be oppressed by the government. It is not until his son returns home that things get interesting as soon Red and his son (along with Red's friend and his daughter) are being hunted down by the evil car police called the DVC. Things blow up and the friend's daughter (also the son's love interest) is taken hostage by the DVC and it is up to Red and his friends to save her as well as deliver a local senator to an important meeting. Sound confusing?? It is but if you are just looking to see cool cars zooming around, a likeable female character (Mary Beth Rubens), and a crazy Indian DVC cop, you will probably dig this movie. If you are expecting much more than that, don't bother. Also stars Doug McClure and Barbara Williams ("Thief Of Hearts").
Back To: