This film contained something that you usually do not see in low budget genre flicks - comedy! Yes, that's right, this is a low budget horror comedy that actually works and turned out to be a lot of fun on a Sunday afternoon. The premise revolves around a couple of military experiments that when combined have some pretty bizarre results. The first experiment is Dr. Oliver's (Keith Kjornes) replicator machine which is, as he puts it, like the transporters in "Star Trek". The only problem is that when they put a tough male soldier into the machine, there is a flaw that makes the subject come out as a beautiful, sexy, army dud clad female. I don't know why they are complaining but when the higher-ups catch wind of this "flaw", they threaten to shut down the project. This opens the door for the greedy Dr. Fields (Randy Clower) who wants to "take over the world". He is working on a brainwashing program which he muscles his way into combining with the replicator to come up with beautiful, sexy, army dud clad, brainwashed females who are basically the slaves of the people they love. The only flaw with all of this is the nasty side effect that when these girls have an orgasm, they turn into "alligator babes" and proceed to do what alligators do: kill and maim humans. Can the scientists come up with a solution and reverse Dr. Fields' perverse experiments before it's too late?? I really, really liked this movie and it was technically superb for a low budget film and a hell of a lot of fun. It reminded me of the old b-movies of the 80's that have become classics of sorts in this genre. Movies like "Creepozoids" and "Sorority Babes In The Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama". I have been wanting to see a new movie from this genre for so long but everything usually seems to suck and fall flat. Kids, if you are a fan of b-movies, "Repligator" does not suck, it is a breath of fresh air. The cast is all great but I just want to point out to genre fans that there is a special appearance by scream queen Brinke Stevens and "Leatherface" himself, Gunnar Hansen as Dr. Kildare.
Heather Graham ("Boogie Nights") stars in this different looking movie about paranoia and the fear of being stalked. There were many things in this movie that gave the whole thing a nightmarish surreal characteristic that was very cool to experience. Some of these tricks included some precise placement of characters and objects that you do not normally see that gave certain scenes a depth and a feeling that is quite uneasy. In particular is a scene where Heather Graham's character Olive has been robbed and is having a conversation with the police. Another technique that I noticed was that sometimes the acting really seemed like acting but I think this added to the strange tone that is set. I think (I hope) that this is what the director intended and if it was not, it certainly worked in his favor. The greatest part of this film is that you are brought right into Olive's paranoia and you stay with her the whole time rather that just watching some chick go crazy every once in while. She is weird from the beginning and she gets weirder as the film progresses. Another thing that I noticed was that there were no sympathetic characters in the film and it seemed like everyone just wanted to get laid. Again, this really worked as we start to get paranoid along with Olive as everyone is an asshole in this film. I highly recommend this to fans of the thriller genre or fans of psychological problems in film. My friend Emilee compared this film to Roman Polanski's "The Tenant" as both contained the same type of depiction of a person's slow and scary descent into madness. Some of the co-stars include Lisa Zane, Max Perlich ("Drugstore Cowboy"), Balthazar Getty ("Where The Day Takes You") and Richard Lynch ("The Sword and the Sorcerer"). Director James Merendino has made a number of movies since including "S.L.C. Punk" last year.
Here we have another great 70's cop thriller. This time around we have Yaphet Kotto ("Alien", "Live And Let Die") and Anthony Quinn ("The Guns of Navarone") as detectives in Harlem who are investigating a brutal slaying at a drug deal. It seems two guys dressed as cops went in and wasted a bunch of mobsters from the Italian and Black mafias. These three bad guys are now hiding out from both the cops and the mob and it is up to Yaphet and Anthony to get there first to try and prevent any more bloodshed. As usual in the seventies, this was very gritty, very tough, and very enjoyable. Highly recommended for fans of the cop genre (I seem to be lucking out of these on the last couple of updates). Anthony Franciosa ("Tenebre") co-stars as the mob boss and Antonio Fargas ("Foxy Brown"), Paul Benjamin, and Ed Bernard play the three thieves. Gloria Hendry ("Live And Let Die") also makes a small appearance. Director Barry Shear went on to a lot of TV including "Starsky and Hutch" but I would like to note that he also directed two really cool movies entitled "Wild In The Streets" and "The Todd Killings" reviewed elsewhere on this site. I also can't forget to mention the awesome soundtrack that features Bobby Womack and a lot of cool and groovy soul music. This was one of the first films that one may consider part of the blaxploitation genre although I see it as much more of a cop movie than some of the Pam Grier or Fred Williamson films of the seventies.
Creaturealm: Demons Wake (1998)
Here is another excellent low budget production from Kevin J. Lindenmuth's Brimstone Productions. This is the second film in the "Creaturealm" anthology series which consists of a couple of horror shorts in each film. The shorts in this film were well done and as in most direct to video horror anthologies, one story is much more entertaining than the other. The first story that we have here is entitled "Possession Is Nine Tenths Of The Law" and was very well done. The story revolves around a lawyer named Pat McManus (Paul Locklear) and his attempts to defend a woman (Michelle Fitzgerald) who is being charged with stabbing her husband to death and chowing down on his corpse. It is a difficult case until a tabloid reporter/occult guy comes along and explains to Pat that she was possessed when she killed her husband and should therefore be innocent of the crime as she was not the murderess but was the murder weapon. What follows is an interesting courtroom drama complete with murder, spells, and demons. I thoroughly enjoyed this film and thought it was very well written and paced quickly and interestingly. You will probably like this if you are into low budget horror as it is a good example of how to stage scenes effectively with a low budget. It is by no means perfect but it is definitely better that most. The same cannot be said about the second story entitled "Dryer Straits". Technically, everything was well done but I guess I just didn't enjoy it and I felt like it made no sense. An old woman is doing her laundry and she develops a rash on her arm. Unbeknownst to her, there is a lint monster growing in her dryer that will eventually try and kill her. This is a case of an original idea that for some reason, lost its way from conception to execution. Nothing was explained on where the lint monster came from and I did not understand what the rash had to do with anything. Fortunately, the film was only about twenty minutes long so it can be seen as simply a weird little short that followed the more prominent feature described earlier. All in all, this tape is well worth checking out and makes me continue to hope that there are more entries in the "Creaturealm" series.
Hmmm. I think this is a flick to watch only if you are a big Robert Forster fan like myself. First of all, it is a TV movie so it loses points right away. Second of all, it didn't seem to have any punch (probably because it was a TV movie). Third of all, we have seen Robert cover the same ground in the much better "Vigilante" directed by William Lustig. In "The Death Squad", Robert stars as Eric Benoit, a cop who was kicked off the force and who is hired back to investigate a wave of execution-style murders of bad people in his old precinct. It is suspected that a group of cops have joined together to kill those who have their charges dropped due to technicalities. Robert soon gets involved in a situation involving old friends, new enemies, and a question of honor. This movie wasn't entirely memorable and their weren't any great moments aside from a brief scene in a roller rink (I love those roller rink scenes, they remind me of "cHiPs"). Robert's performance was great as usual as were the performances of the rest of the cast. The script just lacked the guts that so many better 70's cop movies had. This is for completists only. Co-stars include Michelle Phillips from The Mamas and The Papas as Eric's girlfriend, Claude Akins as his partner, Mark Goddard ("Blue Sunshine") as a death squad member, and Melvyn Douglas as Eric's old chief. This was produced by Aaron Spelling.
Fast Times At Ridgemont High (1982)
What can I say about this other than that this was one of my main movies when growing up. There are so many lines and memories from this flick that I can't possibly go into them all. I guess that I can best sum it up in that this was THE movie for my teenage years. I have seen it many times and it is still as great as it ever was. Mike Damone's five point date plan still rings true today, Rat's uncertainty and nervousness around his first love, Brad's self-inflicted fantasy (and getting caught), Linda's worldly knowledge even though she is still pretty much a child, Stacy's confusion about sex and men, Spicoli's goofiness, and we have all had a teacher like Mr. Hand. It has been a while since I have seen "Fast Times" and it was great to check out again on the recently released DVD version with lots of goodies and an entertaining commentary by director Amy Heckerling (who went on to make "Clueless") and screenwriter Cameron Crowe. There are so many good times associated with this film and the memories that it brings back that I recommend it to anyone who grew up in that era or who is just looking for a great and real representation of the 80's. Some of the many stars include Sean Penn as Jeff Spicoli, Jennifer Jason Leigh as Stacy, Judge Reinhold as her brother Brad, Phoebe Cates as Linda (who every guy who was a teenager when this movie came out was at one time in love with), Robert Romanus as Mike Damone, Brian Backer as Mark Ratner, and the totally awesome Ray Walston as Mr. Hand. We also have Vincent Schiavelli as the Sanka drinking Mr. Vargas, Scott Thomson ("Police Academy") as the nerdy Arnold, Amanda Wyss ("Better Off Dead") as Brad's girlfriend Lisa, Forest Whitaker as football monster Charles Jefferson, scream queen Kelli Maroney ("Chopping Mall") as Cindy the cheerleader, Pamela Springsteen (Bruce's sister) as Cindy's friend, Eric Stoltz, Anthony Edwards, Nicolas Cage, and many more. Bring yourself back and check out "Fast Times" again.
Don't be fooled by the sci-fi action box that you will probably see for this film at the video store. This is actually an intelligent and frightening look at what our world may become if we keep going down the path that we are currently trodding. Director Norman Jewison (who is quickly becoming one of my favorites) shows us a world where corporations rule everything and the only outlet for people is to watch a spectacle called rollerball which is not unlike the brutal gladiator battles of the Roman empire. Rollerball is a full contact game that is played on roller skates that seems like a combination of hockey, speed skating, and football that was designed by the corporations as a way of showing us that individuality cannot rule over "the man" and provide us with an outlet for our violent tendencies by watching these athletes pummel each other. James Caan stars as Jonathan E, a rollerball champion who is being forced into retirement by energy corporation head Bartholomew (John Houseman) because, from what I gathered, he is doing exactly what the game was designed to prevent. He has become a champion who is defying the odds. When Jonathan refuses to accept his fate, the game becomes more and more violent to please the crowds and to try and get rid of Jonathan. He catches on to the conspiracy and looks for answers to the question of who is running things. Eventually, the rules are slowly taken away and the game regresses to a bloodsport. Many people seem to write off this movie as a cult movie that shows us a bizarre future ruled by violence like "Death Race 2000" but unlike that film, "Rollerball" manages to sicken us by what we are seeing as opposed to turning us on like films like "Death Race 2000" or "The Running Man" did. I applaud Norman Jewison for taking such a tough subject and managing to pull off an end result in this manner that is a near impossible feat. I am not nearly as opposed to film violence as this picture is but I certainly get the message and understand the warning that is being sent. Jewison did an excellent job and I recommend this film to sci-fi fans who want more than laser battles and mutants. Check it out. This is what sci-fi is all about. Co-stars include John Beck ("Audrey Rose") as Jonathan's friend Moonpie, and Maud Adams ("Octopussy") as Jonathan's ex.
Back To: