Kult Eye Bleeder

Superargo Against Diabolicus (1966), Superargo (L'invincibile Superman, 1968)

2012-01-25T15:10:00.000+02:00

Superargo Against Diabolicus (1966)
Wrestler Superargo (Giovanni Cianfriglia) accidentally kills his opponent in the ring and he retires from the world of wrestling. But there is a job to do and the only one who can deliver is Superargo. So he is called in to stop a crazy bastard who is about to take over the world with his crazy schema.

Superargo (L'invincibile Superman, 1968)
Superargo (once again Giovanni Cianfriglia) got to stop madman who is turning top athletics into robots. And of course this madman's ultimate goal is to take over the world. This time Superargo has an Indian guru as his sidekick. So be prepared for some levitation action in this one...

Ok,what we have here is Superargo who is a caped crusader (yeah the cape and suit is bulletproof) doing jobs that normally are signed to James Bond. El Santo might be Superargos's distant cousin. At least they must have the same mask maker...

I think that these movies had decent budgets and they are really Bondesque in terms of crazed villains trying to take over the world, Superargo having all kinds of cool gadgets and the over all feel is more like a spy movie than your typical superhero movie.

I have to say that i really eyjoyed these films. Yes, they look ridiculous at this time and age but that is part of their charm. Well, i think it's hard not to like superhero running around in bulletproof spandex and saving the world!

Prom Night (1980)

2012-01-20T11:00:00.000+02:00

Four kids accidentally cause the death of their fellow comrade. Fast forward six years and now these kids are teenagers and they are getting ready for the prom night. Maniac starts to kill them one by one.

Heavily relying on the fame of Jamie Lee Curtis as the early '80s scream queen. Opening scene where the kids kill their friend is pretty well done, but after that (six year later) movie kind of drags on a little bit, nothing really happens. Maniac just makes a couple of phone calls to the victims-to-be. Leslie Nilsen plays the father of the child that was killed and Curtis plays her sister. Ending is pretty good, maniac doing "disco dance" with an axe.

Not the worst slasher for the early '80s, but certainly not the best. My least favourite slasher featuring Jamie Lee Curtis, i have to say. There was remake made in 2008, but what i have read for various reviews, it's total piece of sh*t.

Directed by Paul Lynch.

Hell Night (1981)

2012-01-16T10:59:00.000+02:00

Four college pledges, 2 girls and 2 boys, have to spend a night in an old empty mansion so that they are approved in the fraternities and sororities. Older members are playing pranks on them: loud screams from the hidden speakers, ghosts moving in the hallways etc. But there is strange killer on the loose who starts to kill off older members one by one and after that he is after the four pledges. Can they get out of the mansion before it's too late!!!

Actually this movie feels more like an old gothic horror movie than a slasher. The killer is a strange wolfman type character, not your typical student-gone-insane-from-the-childhood-trauma slasher movie killer. Linda Blair is not my favorite actor. Well, basically she can't act... and in this movie her performance is really halfhearted. Sometimes she looks like she is bored out of her mind.

All in all, pretty decent horror movie, but not my favorite slasher from the early '80s.

Directed by Tom DeSimone.

SFX Retaliator (1987)

2012-01-09T17:52:00.000+02:00

Doris (Linda Blair) steals one million dollars from the mobster (Gordon Mitchell) . When mobster notices that the money is missing he sends his men after Doris. Just when they are about catch her, special effects guy Steve Baker (Chris Mitchum) just happens to come to rescue and Doris and Baker get away. Mobsters kidnap Bakers wife and tell him that they will exchance her for the money.

Most of the action happens on car chases and there is a lot of them. All most every time Baker gets behind the wheel some one is after him. But hey, he drives a cool special effects car: it got rockets, machine guns, smoke screen maker etc. And in the final scene he disquises it as a tank! Well how about that! All three main character gives ok performance, although sometimes Blair seems bit stiff.

Ok little actioner. Action sequences are pretty standard, nothing so over the top as for example in Arizal's movies. Directed by Jun Gallardo.

Chopping Mall (1986)

2012-01-02T15:40:00.000+02:00

Killer robots on the loose! Bunch of teenagers stay in the shopping mall after hours to have a party. Shopping mall have just gotten new security guard robots (that's right) as a night watches. Robots of course go berserk and start to kill people handling them and now they are after the teenagers.

Oh dear... This is some good entertainment. Well if you have killer robots killing teenagers with lazers and stuff, it's got to be good. Think of Dawn of the Dead, just replace zombies with robots and LOTS of cheese and there you have it, Chopping Mall.

Hysteria Continues have made really good podcast about the movie. They got interviews from four people involved in the movie! Check it out, good stuff.

Directed by Jim Wynorski. This was his second movie and it comes recommended, really good robo-slasher-cheese-fest.

Fast Gun (1987)

2011-12-26T11:09:00.000+02:00

Army armories are getting robbed by guys in a ski masks. No one really knows what the hell is going on. It turns out that it's a inside job, one of the officers is involved in the robberies. As the story unfold, it turns out that more and more high ranking people are involved.

Small town sheriff Jack Steiger (Rick Hill) get accidentally involved in all of this and he pretty soon discovers that the town's well-doer is also playing a major role in this.. He starts to investigate the matters.

Action wise not the most action packed Santiago movie. Lots of fist fights, but basically we have to wait for the final to see Santiago trademark explosion-gun-fight stuff. The final is a good one, the whole town is blow up to pieces, Rick Hill "accidentally" loses his shirt and starts killing bad guys with his M60. Good stuff. And yeah, almost forgot, sheriff Steiger can shoot down a helicopter or a big airplane with nine millimeter handgun.

Like i said, lacking non stop action but story is ok and it makes up for the missing action. And well, it's a Santiago movie so of course you want to see it!

Le Mataf (1973) / La Traque (1975)

2011-12-19T15:51:00.000+02:00

Le Mataf (1973)

French heist movie. Lots of twists and turns, basically story about 3 heist men who forced to do a job that goes awry and how they are going deal with the outcome. I liked the long continues shots that are so rare in today's fast paced music-video-style-editing. Adolfo Celi (the Spectre bad dude in James Bond film Thunderball) makes also a good role as the catalyst behind the heist. Directed by Serge Leroy. Recommended.

La Traque (1975)

Young English woman (Mimsy Farmer) is looking for a place to rent in a French country side. She happens to tumble upon a guys from a local hunting party. One of the men rape her and they leave her in the woods. Soon the men notice that they have left one of their guns where they rape the woman.When the rapist goes back for the gun, woman shoots him. Now the hunting party is after her as they try to convince her to just forget the the whole thing ever happening.

Damn, every Serge Leroy movie seems to have James Bond arch enemy in them. In this movie one of the guys in the hunting party is played by Michael Lonsdale (from the James Bond adventure Moonraker). Lots of good actors: Farmer, Lonsdale, Michel Constantin( who played the lead role in Le Mataf), Jean-Luc Bideau. Plot is not so original but it's very well executed and the ending differs from a typical rape-revenge movie. Recommended.

Face to Face (1967)

2011-12-12T13:25:00.000+02:00

Professor Brett Fletcher (Gian Maria Volonté) quits his teaching job due to health problems and heads west. On the way he meets outlaw Bennet (Thomas Milian) and ends up saving his life in a gun fight. Fletcher joins "Bennets raiders" and starts to enjoy this outlaw way of life. Flether's slow tranformation from good to evil starts.

At first i didn't like Gian Maria Volonté's character. To me it felt like wrong casting. It was odd to see Volonté play a good and well-spoken character. But then when his character started show his evil side things got way better. Tomas Milian (oh man that hair cut/wig) did a pretty solid job as an outlaw who still has something good in him.

Ennio Morricone's score is ok, nothing special if you ask me. The main score was good, but rest of it was pretty standard.

Directed by Sergio Sollima. All in all, Face to Face is a good spaghetti western, the story about good guy turning bad and vice versa is pretty interesting, but not nearly as good as Sollima's Big Gundown.

Scalps (1983)

2011-12-05T15:05:00.000+02:00

Group of archeology students go on a field trip to dig up some old Indian artifacts. They stop at the gas station on the way and old Indian warns them that they should not go messing around with sacred Indian burial ground. They pay no attention to the warning and continue their trip. Once they get to the wilderness, strange things start to happen and old spirit possesses one of them who then starts his killing spree, but the spirits are not done yet!

Budget? We don't need no stinkin' budgets! This one is a really low-budget horror/slasher whatnot. There is always certain charm to see what can be done with very limited budget. There are lot of scenes where there is no actual audio, just background music. We get to see couple of special effects in Scalps (rubber faced possessed killer, head chopped off and couple of scalpings).

Story takes little too long to get going, so they could have trimmed the story a little bit. Although running time now is just little over 80 minutes. If you are into low budget horrors, you might wanna give this one a go.

Directed by Fred Olen Ray.

Barbarian Queen (1985)

2011-11-30T11:20:00.000+02:00

"I'll be no man's slave and no man's whore"

Set in the when the magic was strong and true...oh, wait a minute...Our heroine's, The Barbarian Queen, (Lana Clarkson) village is attacked on her wedding day. Village is destroyed and all the people killed except 3 women who survive the massacre. Among them is of course our heroine. And she is pissed. She swears that she will make those lousy-no-good-savage bastards pay.

Titties, titties and more titties. The girls in this movie just happen to lose their shirts a lot. Well, i don't mind. When you are watching these '80s sword and sorcery movies you just have be in certain state of mind. I was just in the right mood, i didn't mind that the acting was just damn awful, fight scenes looked like ...to be honest like shit. I can't even remember the last time i have seen so untrained fight scenes. But what the hell, i knew i wasn't watching top class Hong Kong action movie. And that the story was half arsed and the set was made out of cardboard.

Coming out of the Roger Corman cannon, this is one of the movies that you eather don't like or you can set your mind to that '80s sword and sorcery frequency and just enjoy this madness. Choice is yours.

Raiders of the Sun (1992)

2011-11-25T11:32:00.000+02:00

Set in the world after the final nuclear war. There are only few survivors and world has fallen into chaos. This time the most valuable thing is gunpowder. Alliance called Alpha-Group tries to get the world back on the track by providing some kind of law and order. But there is a traitor (Richard Norton) among them who has left the Alpha-Group and has formed his own vigilante posse.

Story focus on the soldier called Talbot (Blake Boyd) who has been honorably discharged from the Alpha-Group. He returns to his home village only to find out that it has been destroyed and his wife has been kidnapped by the vigilante posse. Talbot infiltrate the posse in order to get his revenge and his wife back.

Good post apocalyptic movie from the maestro Santiago. Lots of action and this time they did go all the way with the explosions. There is lots of them, i tell you. Post apocalyptic soldiers wear this time old American football gear, helmets and shoulder pats painted black. But hey, that's ok. It's the world after the nuclear holocaust so you have wear what you can...

Santiago regular Nick Nicholson has one of the biggest roles i have seen him in as the sidekick of the Vigilante group's captain.

Good fun, give it a spin.

New Gladiators (I guerrieri dell'anno 2072 , 1984)

2011-11-20T15:27:00.000+02:00

Lucio Fulci's cheaper than cheap post apocalyptic gladiator movie. Plot is pretty simple: Network television wants to give people good old times Roman style gladiator entertainment, "win you live, lose you die" is the motto. They get couple of convicted criminals to be the gladiators and start to train them.

Movie is a strange mixture of PA/Blade Runner/2001: Space Odyssey (computer that turns from good to bad...). Sad to say but one could easily skip the first hour of the movie (basically Gladiators repairing for the event) and go straight into the gladiator tournament part. That is the shit! Gladiators racing in the arena on the motorcycles, wielding their swords and spears like in the ancient times... That sequence is very well executed and basically saves the movie from being a big disappointment. Oh yeah, good ol' Fred Williamson from the Black Cobra series is one of the gladiators. Do i even need to tell you that he is the man. Once again.

Comes recommended although you might wanna use the fast-forward button in some parts of the movie.

Specialisti, Gli (1969)

2011-11-15T17:16:00.000+02:00

Gunslinger Hud (Johnny Hallyday) returns home to seek revenge for this brother's death. Town people have lynched Hud's brother because they think he was involved in robbery. The money from that robbery is still missing.

Directed by Sergio Corbucci, he does a pretty good job. Although Corbucci was totally fed up with westerns at this point (Alex Cox speaks about this in his great book "10 000 ways to die", if you are interested in spaghetti westerns get that book!) i think this was pretty good movie. Johnny Hallyday gives a solid performance as vengeance driven gunslinger.

One of the best (or maybe just weird) scenes in the movie is when bunch of hippies(were there hippies in the wild west?) take over the town and tell everyone to strip naked and hand over their money. So there are about 30 extras lying butt naked in the old western town street at the final scene.

All in all, good western from Corbucci.

Nine Deaths of the Ninja (1985)

2011-11-10T17:10:00.000+02:00

Kosugi and Huff plays couple of bad ass agents in this movie. They are trained combat machines who will take down all the bad guys who are standing in their way...shit i got carried away, move on. Here is the plot: Terrorist kidnap group of people traveling by bus and threatens to kill them if one of their terrorist brothers is not released. Of course Kosugi and Huff are signed to this case.

Oh man... Lots of jaw-droppers in this movie. Fighting midgets, terrorist boss who has lots of nazi vibes going on and his sidekick, a lesbian amazon. Throw in couple of ninjas and explosions and there you have it: 9 Death of the Ninja!

Action scenes are ok and there is good amount of them. Mr. Huff delivers the goods as always and he is given plenty of screen time. To me it seems that Kosugi's acting is just too "serious" at the times. But maybe it's one of the factors that makes this movie so over the top.

Directed by Emmett Alston (New Year's Evil)

Django the Bastard (1969)

2011-11-05T16:03:00.000+02:00

Django (Anthony Steffen) walks into a town and he is about make everyone pay who had betrayed him and left him for death in the battlefield.

Film starts with terrific scene. Django has a wooden cross with him as he walks into town. Cross has a "dead soon to be" guy's name written on it. Django calls out the guy and shoots him. He falls next to the cross, dead. Classic stuff.

Django is this ghost like character, now you see him, now you don't, BANG! You're dead. Look and feel of this film is not like your typical spaghetti western, there is also some horror/gothic stuff thrown in.

To be honest, i was not that impressed by Anthony Steffen's performance. He lacks some of that big screen presence that is totally essential for these kind of roles. Now his character Django is somewhat shallow.

Luciano Rossi makes one of his biggest roles as the madman brother of one of the betraying officers. All the euro fans might wanna check out Kier-La Janisse's book about Luciano Rossi, "A Violent Professional, The Films of Luciano Rossi". Good book about one of the unsung heroes of Italian film industry.

All in all, pretty decent spaghetti western that has some horror/gothic stuff too. If you like this one, you might also wanna check out "And God said to Cain..." , starring Klaus Kinski, it also a revenge story with some horror feel thrown in.

Hitch-Hike (1977)

2011-11-01T11:41:00.000+02:00

Couple (Franco Nero and Corinne Cléry) that has totally dysfunctional relationship is returning home from their camping trip. They stop to pick up a hitch-hiker (David Hess). They soon learn that the hitch-hiker is wanted criminal and he wants them to take him to Mexico. Travel through hell is about begin!

I really liked this movie, the leading trio (Nero,Cléry and Hess) do a tremendous jobs as odd traveling company. Nero broke his arm during the filming of Keoma just prior the filming of Hitch-Hike was about to start. So they had to change the script to explain why Nero has a cast on his arm and Cléry had to drive the car instead of Nero.

Sometimes this movie is labeled as giallo but this is actually a really good thriller. The twist in the end was also a good one.

Directed by Pasquale Festa Campanile

If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death (1968)

2011-10-28T10:42:00.000+03:00

Couple of stagecoaches are robbed by two different gangs, a gang led by Morgan (Klaus Kinski) and another gang led by Lasky (William Berger). Both robberies go awry, Sartana kills all the Morgans men, except Morgan and Lasky's gang is killed by Lasky himself, but it turn out that the strongbox they robbed is full of stones and not gold. Morgan and Lasky team up to get Sartana out of their way.

I have to say that i didn't like this film. The main character was just too slick. Sort of poor man's version of the characters played usually by the great Lee Van Cleef. Kinski was as stable as ever, but that just was not enough to save the film. Lots of things happening all the time in this movie, everybody betraying everybody, everyone is after the gold. Sartana stepping in and killing the bad guys. It gets pretty confusing after a while...

Like i said this one was not my "bowl of spaghetti". Maybe i give it another spin sometime in future just to see if it gets any better when you have some kind of crasp of the story. Directed by Gianfranco Parolini.

Cut and Run (Inferno in diretta, 1985)

2011-10-25T13:08:00.000+03:00

Reporter and her cameraman head into jungle to get the truth about military officer involved in the Jonestown massacre. They are also trying find the missing son of a TV producer. They get caught in the middle of violent drug wars and now they have fight for their survival. Welcome to inferno, baby!

I have say that i found this Deodato's film bit boring. Yes, it's violent as hell in that Deodato gut munching style, but all the violence seemed just little over the top and somewhat unnecessary. You can clearly see that Deodato tried to follow his own footsteps in the path he set with Cannibal Holocaust. All the scenes between these violent outbursts just seem...well, they a boring. There is also some actual footage from the Jonestown, the infamous interview with Jim Jones just couple of hours before the hell broke loose.

Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes) plays psycho who commands his own little army of natives as they steal drugs from the drug plants. He looks as cute as ever...

If you want to know what Deodato's was up to in mid '80s you might want to take a shot at this, otherwise don't bother.

Warrior, The (1981)

2011-10-21T10:42:00.000+03:00

Barry Prima plays rebel chief Jaka Sembung, who is captured by the wicked Dutch officer and his troops. He is send to prison camp, but he manages to escape and he will lead the fight against the evil imperialist who have taken over his country.

Oh man...another Indonesian film that is just pure gold. Lots of bloody action, wicked voodoo kind of stuff: evil sorcerer who can put himself back to one piece after his arms, legs and even head are chopped off.

One of the most memorable scene is the one where Jaka is captured and send to prison dungeon. He is crucified to the wall and his eyes are pierced... but don't worry, he will get his vengeance (and his eye sight back!). The whole movie is full of WTF moments that leave you scratching your head with disbelief. Barry Prima rules the wide screen as always, he does some really good fight scenes and just gives a really good performance as tortured rebel chief who is about to get even.

Two sequels were made, The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman and The Warrior and The Ninja.

So if you want to see some really good crazy-Indonesian cinema from the early '80s, The Warrior comes highly recommended. Directed by Sisworo Gautama Putra.

Cut-Throats Nine (1972)

2011-10-18T15:39:00.000+03:00

Group of inmates, all sentenced for life, are heading back to prison from the gold mines. They are escorted by the troops, Sgt. Brown (Claudio Undari) as their leading officer. They are attacked by the bandits, who are convinced that there is gold on the wagon where the inmates are traveling. When they can't find the gold, bandits kill everyone except the inmates and Sgt. Brown and his daughter who are traveling in the wagon. Bandits stampede the horses leading the wagon and the wagon crashed into the woods.

Now the inmates, Sgt. Brown and his daughter are left in the wilderness to walk back to the prison. Tension rises between the inmates and Sgt. Brown as they travel through the mountains in the cold winter weather.

Really brutal western. I think that one of the reasons why this film is one of cult favorites is it's over the top violence. Lots of gory/graphic scenes. This is also pretty minimalistic western, no big crowd scenes. Only the odd little traveling company trying to survive in the wilderness. Yet still highly enjoyable movie.

Directed by Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent.

Big Gundown, The (1966)

2011-10-14T11:04:00.000+03:00

Mexican peasant Cuchillo Sanchez (Tomas Milian) is accused of murdering and raping 12-year old girl. Bounty hunter/temporary deputy John Corbett (Lee Van Cleef) is send after his.

Lee Van Cleef and Tomas Milian as leads and great story equals one of the best spaghetti westerns ever made. Lee Van Cleef had just filmed another classic-to-be (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) before making this film. Van Cleef makes a helluva job as the leading character and delivers the goods in spades. Tomas Milian is also great in this one. Milian "taking the bull by the horns"- scene is one of the highlights.

The title score/song is just all the way classic stuff, easily one of the best scores Ennio Morricone has ever written. Well, what the hell, in fact the whole movie brilliantly scored.

Directed by Sergio Sollimo who directed also couple of other Spaghetti westerns in the late '60s, "Face to Face" and "Run, Man, Run". He also directed the brilliant Charles Bronson actioner, Violent City (1970).

It it easy to join all the praise this movie has gotten over the years, because this is one of the best Spaghetti Westerns ever made.

Killer Instinct (aka Behind The Enemy Lines, 1987)

2011-10-11T11:32:00.000+03:00

The Vietnam war rages on! This time Mr. Santiago puts our heroes on POW rescue mission. Everything seems be going just fine, but our heroes find themselves ambushed by the Vietkongs and are taken as prisoners.

One of the soldiers, Johnny Ransom (Robert Patrick) manages to escape from to prison camp and he is not about to leave his buddies rotting in that god forsaken place. He goes on an another rescue mission. This time he going to make the Vietkongs pay and it's going to be all the way grenade launcher mayhem.

Some good old cold war stuff in this one. Vietkongs have Russian officer as their advisor (think of Dolph Lundgren in Rocky 4 and you get the picture what he looks like).

Movie is basically divided into two parts. First act: the rescue missions and capture and yet another rescue mission. Act two: our hero Ransom goes to hospital to gather his strengths and when he is ready to rock n roll he goes to yet another rescue mission. This time kicking ass big time.

To be honest i haven't paid much attention to Robert "Terminator 2" Patrick's career so i don't know have he ever talked about the movies he made with Santiago, circa '86-'88, after he got his break in Hollywood. Any interviews online? Anyone?

Another solid Vietnam war actioner from Santiago with lots of exploding huts, exploding soldiers and whatnot. Check it out.

Black Cobra 3: The Manila Connection (1990)

2011-10-07T17:11:00.000+03:00

Robert "Black Cobra" Malone is back!

Malone (Fred Williamson) travels to Philippines to help out his friend's son on an investigation of stolen weapons. Bad guys seems to know their every step. Is there a traitor in their ranks?

I think that this one was little better than the second Black Cobra movie, although there is a same problem with this one: action wise the middle section of the film is pretty lame. But then again, the grande finale where they blow up the enemy base is just damn awesome. This time the slow motion explosions are in the right place.

Directed by Edoardo Margheriti. On "Antonio Margheriti .com" (Edoardo's father) there is a couple of Edoardo's comments about this film. He says that Black Cobra 3 wasn't even properly completed due to market crisis in 1990...

There is also 4th installment in Black Cobra series, but what i have read from Internet reviews it is total piece of celluloid waste. What i gather this celluloid Frankenstein's monster is parsed together with scenes taken from the first Black Cobra film (scenes with Fred Williamson) that are incorporated with some new footage. Sounds like a winner...

Black Cobra 2, The (1990)

2011-10-04T16:56:00.001+03:00

Detective Malone (Fred Williamson) shoots a bad guy who has taken a woman as a hostage. His boss totally flips out for his irresponsible behavior, telling him that he is tired of sorting out the mess Malone always causes. Malone is sent to Manila, Philippines to work with the Interpol.

While on airport his wallet is stolen by a small time crook. Malone pays the crook a visit but finds him murdered. Before his death he has send a package to his daughter and now the bad guys are after the girl. Malone can't figure out what was so important in the package.

Good amount of action in the beginning and in the end. The middle part was bit boring, they could have trimmed easily 10 minutes from the middle of the film. Fred Williamson does once again a good job as an aging cop. Maybe his knees were totally busted for real from his American football days, because in some scenes it looked like he had hard time for real to get up on his knees.

Directed by Edoardo Margheriti, who also directed the 3rd Black Cobra movie.

Black Cobra aka Cobra nero (1987)

2011-06-27T20:19:00.001+03:00

Young photographer sees her neighbor murdered and manages to take a picture of the killer. Now this gang of biker bad-asses wants the pictures back and girl dead. Detective Malone (Fred Williamson) is put on the case to protect the girl.

Fred Williamson delivers some really cool one-liners and is just perfect for this role. Shaft of the '80s? Yeah, we all know that film's plot is pretty much "borrowed" from the Stallone's 1986 film Cobra. I think that the budget was not the biggest one in the film history, you can see the boom mike in couples of scenes. But so what, there enough action to keep you entertained for 90 minutes.

Directed by Stelvio Massi (co-directed by Umberto Lenzi), best known for his excellent crime films: Emergency Squad (starring always brilliant Thomas Milian), Convoy Busters (starring another icon from italian cinema, Maurizio Merli) and many others.

Black Cobra series run for 4 films. Last one, titled Detective Malone, is said to be directed by the great Umberto Lenzi, but this might not be case because the man himself has denied to have anything to do with that film.

Stabilizer, The (1986)

2011-06-20T09:42:00.000+03:00

Drug smuggler Greg Rainmaker (Craig Gavin) has kidnapped professor Provost who have invented "narcotic detector". Peter Goldson (Peter O'Brian), who has just arrived to Indonesia, teams up with Captain Johnny(Harry Capri) and Sylvia Nash (Gillie Beanz) to find the professor. Goldson is also on a personal revenge mission: Rainmaker killed his fiancee brutally many moons ago.

Mr. Peter O'Brian's first collaboration with action maestro Arizal. The second one was the awesome, the brilliant, the magnificent (insert drum roll here) Double Crosser! O'Brian has also small role in Arizal's Lethal Hunter.

Arizal's trademark crazy motorcycle and car stunts are all here. One of the highlights of the movie is when O'Brian drives motorcycle inside this small warehouse, basically kicking the shit out of bad guys with motorcycle.

Peter O'Brian talked about making of this movie and specially in detail about the motorcycle/helicopter stunt he made in the end of the film in the interview he gave to "The Gentlemens Guide To Midnite Cinema" Interview can be found here. Awesome stuff, check it out!

I guess it's clear to everybody that this is an awesome actioner from the dream team Arizal/O'Brian. Both of these guys need more respect for their work.

Please, PLEASE! Somebody put this stuff out on proper DVD release.

Expendables, The (1988)

2011-06-13T10:36:00.000+03:00

Vietnam war is raging wild and furious. Captain Rosello (Anthony Finetti) finds himself as the leading officer to bunch of misfit soldiers who are sent to do special missions.

Cirio H. Santiago's take on the Dirty Dozen theme. Group of misfit soldiers (all the usual suspects are in the group: lunatic, religious nut etc etc) are put in same unit, first they hate each other but in the end they would give their lives to save each other. Wow, that was deep!

Film's budget seemed to be ok, because there is enough exploding huts and other shit blown up to keep things interesting. Some of the sound effects were pretty wild: sometimes the gun shots sounded like they were made with a drum machine, oh well...

All in all, solid jungle actioner from Santiago. Well, did you expect something else?

Silk 2 (1989)

2011-06-06T11:05:00.001+03:00

"We are making Dirty Harry look like shit, are we lady"

4 sacred Japanese scrolls "of temple of immortality" are stolen and fakes are put in a museum. Silk's (Monique Gabrielle) partner Chris Meadows (Bon Vibar) gets a call from an old friend from Japan. He ask Meadows to get the real scrolls back. Silk and Meadows find the scrolls, but Meadows is taken hostage. Silk tries to free him, but Meadown is killed. Now she is after the bad guys and she will kick their asses, big time.

Directed by the maestro Cirio H. Santiago. Clocking just little over 70 minutes. We have different Silk actor this time, Monique Gabrielle. Cec Verrel played Silk in the first movie. There is enough action to keep the things interesting, i think that this one was better than the first one.

One of the stand out scenes is when a thug breaks in Silks house while she is taking a shower. Thug goes upstairs and tries to kill Silk. What follows is a pure movie gold, Silk fighting in her silky (pun intended) nightgown with her tits bouncing all over the place. Monique Gabrielle is not a shy to strut her stuff... well, she was the Penthouse Pet of the Month for December 1982 and played Emmanuelle in "Emmanuelle 5 (1987)".

All the Santiago fans should give this one a go and why not everyone else who likes '80s girls with guns action.

008: Operation Exterminate (1965)

2011-06-01T09:45:00.000+03:00

American secret agent 008 (Ingrid Schoeller) and agent 006 from British secret intelligence services (Alberto Lupo) start to work together to locate anti-radar device. Their investigations start from Cairo, Egypt and later takes them to Switzerland.

Directed by Umberto Lenzi early on his career during the Eurospy craze in mid '60s. Little different from typical James Bond poofs because the leading spy this time is a woman, agent 008. Of course there is also a killer with a strange killing method, this time we have a killer with rubber glove that shoots knife blades. Well, how about that...

There is also a little homage to James Bond films. When agent 006 is sitting by the swimming pool he has a book on the table, it's Ian Flemings "Live and Let Die".

The twist in the end is pretty good, but then there is another twist after that and it feels like added there just to make sure that there could be another 006 and 008 adventure.

Pretty enjoyable Eurospy movie and it's nice to see films from maestro Lenzi when he was just starting out his career as a director.

Cheerleader Camp aka Bloody Pom Poms (1988)

2011-05-27T10:55:00.000+03:00

Bunch of cheerleaders goes into a cheerleader camp to compete other teams from the same area. Maniac starts killing these girls.

Holy cheese, Batman! At first i thought i was watching Porky's guys going camping. First part of the movie is like one of the crazy '80s teen comedies that suddenly turns into a slasher cheese fest.

Gory effects are pretty well done. Plot is half arsed and acting is pretty awful, but so what. This one doesn't even pretend to be high art, it just what it is: slasher cheese fest with lots of naked chicks.

Directorial debut of John Quinn.

ps. UK title Bloody Pom Poms is just damn brilliant, i laughed out loud when i saw that.

Hunt for the Golden Scorpion (1991)

2011-05-24T09:51:00.000+03:00

Mary Maitland (Christine Leigh) gets a message that her brother has died in the Amazon. She doesn't believe it and goes to embassy to sort the things out. She learns that the man who delivered the message about her brother's death is not even working in the embassy. She return home. Someone has break in in her house looking for something. She gets a letter from her brother written after his supposed death. "There are too many things that don't gel". Mary travels to Brazil to find her brother.

Directed by the great Umberto Lenzi at the end of his career. Lots of action scenes and explosions. Way better movie than what i was expecting. I expected it to be totally zero-budget hike in jungle type of movie. Of course this movie is a far cry from Lenzi's giallo and crime classics (some of my personal favourites in those genres comes from Lenzi), but this movie was a nice suprise.

All in all, if you enjoy early '90s low budget action movies, you probably will enjoy also this one.

Candy Snatchers, The (1973)

2011-05-17T21:41:00.001+03:00

Young girl is kidnapped and buried alive. Young boy who can't speak sees this. Kidnappers call young girl's father for ransom. They tell him to get a diamonds from the store he is working for. When her father doesn't show up with the diamonds, kidnappers dug her up and start thinking ways to get the ransom from her father.

Lots of dysfunctional families in this movie. Father of the girl who has been kidnapped is cheating on her wife and really doesn't care for his daughter, he just wants to bang his mistress. There is a sort of plot twist involved in this scenario. Then we have the young boy who saw the kidnappers. He is verbally and physically abused by her mother and his father just doesn't really give a shit.

I have to say that this was really a thought provoking movie. What lengths people are ready to go to get what they want. The world in this movie is pretty dark place. No happy endings.

Directed by Guerdon Trueblood. According to always reliable(yeah..) IMDB this was the only film he ever directed.

Light Blast (1987)

2011-05-09T11:17:00.000+03:00

Erik Estrada plays inspector named Ronn Warren in this fast paced actioner. Story line is pretty straight forward: San Francisco's mayor gets a call from mad scientist who threatens to destroy the city with a deadly laser ray unless the city pays him 5 million dollars. Mayor puts Warren on the case.

This one is pretty damn good action movie. Lots of cars chases, melting faces (hey that rhymes...), shootouts, explosions and all that good ol' '80s action. There is some good scores in this movie, i noticed tapping my feet to one of the car chase scenes.

BTW, can you name one action movie filmed in San Francisco that doesn't have car chase scene where they drive up and down that hill???

The special effects. Oh man. The opening scene where the mad scientist tests the death ray on the train cart and kills the couple inside the cart is just classic. Melting bodies, big ass explosion (well not quite, but...) and the infamous death ray! The '80s, gotta love it.

Directed by Enzo G. Castellari (Keoma, Street Law).

Women In Cages (1971)

2011-02-23T16:27:00.004+02:00

Woman is framed by her boyfriend for smuggling heroin. She is send to a women's prison. And we all know what's going on in those places (at least in WIP movies...)

This is one of those infamous WIP movies. Pam Grier plays a guard called Alabama who is giving hard time to prisoners. She has her own private playpen where she tortures the prisoners.

Not much going on in this movie, your usual WIP stuff: naked chick showering, playing with each other, fighting each other, planning escape, guard torturing and humiliating them etc.

Women in Cages was actually pretty boring movie. I can't really recommend this one unless you are a fan of WIP movies. Directed by Gerardo de Leon.

Rocktober Blood (1984)

2011-02-16T17:24:00.001+02:00

Billy (Tray Loren), singer of hard rock group called Rocktober Blood goes insane and kills punch of people. He is sentenced to death and executed.

Two years after that Rocktober Blood is back with a new singer, their former backup singer Lynn Starling (Donna Scoggins). Everything seems to be going great but then suddenly Lynn starts to see Billy everywhere, stalking her. Oh my god, has he risen from his grave!?!?

Holy cheese! Rocktober Blood is one of those movie titles that puts a big grin on your face and you know that this movie is going to be so bad that it's going to be great fun. And yeah, that is exactly the case with Rocktober Blood.

Acting is just horribly bad and Hard Rock tunes played in the movie are full of clichés. We also get to see lots of '80s glam rock hairdos and that flashy '80s clothing to go with it. But hey, that is what i was expecting and that's what i got. I don't think that Rocktober Blood was even meant to be "really frightening horror movie", just a camp-fest for a good laugh.

If you don't like cheese, stay away from this one! Directed by Beverly Sebastian.

Pieces (1982)

2011-02-09T08:11:00.005+02:00

Boston 1942. Young boy makes jigsaw puzzle that has a naked girl in it. His mother finds him making the puzzle and flips out. Boy gets an ax and kills his mother. Police finds him, but they think that the killer is someone else and send the boy to live with his aunt.

40 years later. Young girls are getting killed in Boston campus. Killer cuts of different body parts from them with a chainsaw. Police thinks that the killer might be one of the faculty members so they put an undercover agent in the university to find the killer.

Pieces. Yeah, like the title says there are lot of people chainsawed to pieces in this one. Violence is pretty over the top and the killings or actually the results of the killings are pretty graphic. Giallo feel to this movie. Killer putting jigsaw puzzle together with rubber gloves and his identity is not revealed until the very end.

Good but not so well known slasher. Definitely worth the look, not your typical teenagers slashed in campus movie. Directed by Juan Piquer Simón who sadly passed away a month ago.

Heroes For Hire (1984)

2011-02-06T10:24:00.000+02:00

Miami 1980, doctor transplants some sort of metal object into a patient arm. Then tells him to go home and relax but the patient kills the doctor.

One year later. Professor Arlington (Mike Monty) is kidnapped by punch of thugs from his pool party and taken into a secret location. Only one of Arlington's bodyguards survives,McPearson (Bruce Baron), and he helps the cops to find the professor and locate the kidnappers with some heroes for hire...

Another John Lloyd low budget Filipino actioner. I think Lloyd was given some of lowest budgets among directors who directed these action movies in Philippines and yet he managed to make really entertaining movies like this one.

Really bad acting, especially the lesser known supporting actors, no budget explosions, scenes that really doesn't fit into the plot, machine gun mounted to a motorcycle and map tattooed on girl's ass. With ingredients like that you really can't go wrong. So this one was really good movie, best one that i seen from Lloyd.

One of the best sequences is when the police captain(?) is going through the CVs of these "Heroes for hire" and we get to see them in action in these flashback scenes. One of them is your regular Rambo, another one is cowboy (who goes into a bank in middle of robbery and executes the thugs with shotgun) and last but not least we get to see the Ninja dude in action.

All in all, low budget feel is strong in this one and i like it! Highly recommended.

Savage Streets (1984)

2011-01-11T18:26:00.001+02:00

Thugs rape Brenda's (Linda Blair) deaf sister and kill her good friend. Cops are doing nothing so she decides to take matters into her own hands and make those bastards pay for what they have done.

'80s hairdos and pumping AOR music, naked girls running around in shower, half arsed dialog and bad acting. How much more '80s can you get than this film? I think none. These '80s movies are always fun to watch. They have that certain campy feel that just can't be found from the current cinema.

Yes, i know. Linda Blair will always be remembered for her role in The Exorcist as the head spinning, cursing and vomiting possessed little girl. She does ok job as a leading lady in Savage Streets, but she lacks the charisma that would really make her stand out.

All in all, fine example of '80s revenge flick.

Spyder (1988)

2010-12-19T12:27:00.001+02:00

Spyder (Blake Bahner) is a tought cop working for LAPD. Spyder's partner Stokes (Ronald William Lawrence) gets call from his long lost brother from Hawaii. Brother is in deep shit. Drug smuggling mercenaries held him as a prisoner but he managed to escape and now they are after him.

Stokes was told that his brother was MIA, so he goes to see his brother in Hawaii and all the hell breaks loose when the mercenaries come to a hotel where they are staying to silence Stoke's drug addict brother. Stoke gets killed and thugs plant in his room shit load of heroin to set him up being on a drug buy out. Spyder don't believe any of this and goes to Hawaii to sort this whole mess up.

Pretty mean spirited movie. Drug addicts, lots of shoot outs, car chases, even couple of exploding huts (damn those grenade lauchers are handy when exploding the shit out huts). All in all, good movie. Filipino action movie junkies won't be disappointed, i know i wasn't.

Directed by Joe Mari Avellana. He directed only hand full of movies, but did lots of supporting actor roles, especially in Cirio H. Santiago's movies (Silk, Wheels of Fire, Caged Fury etc)

Hunters Of The Golden Cobra, The (1982)

2010-12-14T16:33:00.002+02:00

Year 1944. British intelligence officer David Franks (John Steiner) and American soldier Bob Jackson (David Warbeck) try to catch double crossing Japanese officer who has a statue called "Golden Cobra", that possesses supernatural powers.

Japanese officer crashes his plane into a jungle and American soldier goes after him. Japanese officer is killed by natives and American soldier drugged by natives. He is put on a draft and send floating on a river. Before he passes out he sees white woman appearing from the jungle.

One year later. Franks tracks down Jackson and offers him bunch of money to go with him to an expedition to find the Golden Cobra.

Director Margheriti's (credited as Anthony M. Dawson) first take on the Indy-style-adventure genre. Not as much action as i hoped for. First part of the movie is really good and then the action somewhat slows down and never seems to really pick up again.

British officer character is pretty over the top. Strong British accent and shoots people without even blinking an eye. Good stuff.

All in all, entertaining movie but lacking that over-the-top action that makes these Filipino movies so special. But i will definitely check out the other Indy-style-adventures made by Margheriti: Jungle Raiders and Ark of the Sun God

Devils Three aka Pay Or Die (1979)

2010-12-09T10:36:00.001+02:00

Lucifer Devlin(Johnny Wilson) is a drug pushing crime boss. His own men kidnap his daughter in order to get in charge of his operations. Devlin is forced to call his arch-enemy Cleopatra Wong (Marrie Lee) to help him to get his daughter back. Devlin promises to turn himself in if she manages to succeed in her mission. Wong needs couple of reliable sidekicks and she hires Tony (Franco Guerro) and 300 pound psychic lady named Rotunda...

This one is even crazier that the first Cleopatra Wong movie. Much more comedy in this one. Some of it seems little bit dated by now.

Guerro is not playing the same character that he played in the first movie. This time his character is this over the top stereotyphical queer. When i first saw this Guerro's character in this movie i have to say that my jaw just dropped. He ain't no One Armed Executioner, i tell you that. Marrie Lee's fighting skills have improved since the first Cleo movie and the fighting scenes are much better in this one.

Not as good as the first Cleopatra Wong movie, but still really entertaining and definitely worth the look. This one was also directed by Bobby A. Suarez.

Blazing Magnums aka A Special Magnum for Tony Saitta (1976)

2010-12-05T18:54:00.000+02:00

Tony Saitta (Stuart Whitman) is hardboiled cop. His sister dies suddenly after having a seizure. Saitta suspects she was murdered, possibly poisoned. His main suspect is the doctor who was present when his sister had the seizure and gave her medicine. Saitta starts to unravel his sisters somewhat shady past that includes transvestites, stolen necklace and an affair with the doctor Saitta suspects of his sisters murder.

Really good euro-crime flick. Lots of fast paced action and Stuart Whitman gives excellent performance as Saitta. John Saxon plays Saittas partner, but he is only in couple of scenes.

There are also some giallo whodunnit elements present: Saitta's sister's murder investigation and couple of gruesome gialli-styled murders when murder tries to cover his/her tracks. Some of the most memorable scenes include Saitta fighting three transvestites and in a middle struggle shoving hot hair straightener up one of the transvestite's ass and of course the long car chase sequence, which clocks nearly ten minutes, is one of the highlights of the movie.

All in all, really good entry in euro-crime genre. Directed by Alberto De Martino.

Phantom Soldiers (1987)

2010-11-28T10:22:00.000+02:00

"Phantom soldiers" wearing black bio-chemical uniforms move from village to village slaughtering everyone. Group of green berets are send to find these soldiers but they are ambushed and captured. They are reported MIA. Texas ranger Daniel Custer (Max Thayer) is brother of one of the MIAs and he goes back to Vietnam to find his brother.

Opening scene where these "Phantom Soldiers" attack village and slaughter everyone is without doubt one of the most brutal opening sequences. Just jaw dropping mayhem.

Whole movie is a wild action ride: lots of gun fights (i think that they used something like zillion blanks to make this movie...) and lots of explosions and these scenes are very well executed. Gas masked bad guys is a brilliant idea and it separates this from your typical vietcong vs US jungle action.

One of the most brutal and best Filipino jungle actioners i have seen so far. Highly recommended.

Directed by Teddy Page (credited as Irvin Johnson).

Cleopatra Jones (1973)

2010-11-23T18:22:00.002+02:00

Secret agent Cleopatra Jones (Tamara Dobson) pisses off drug-pushing-lady called Mommy by ordering feds to burn her poppy fields. As a result, cops bust local rehabilitation center Cleo is supporting and they find drugs on one of the residents. Cleo suspects that drugs where planted and starts her own investigations.

Made in heydays of blaxploitation. Entertaining movie that has lots of action. Some of the fight scenes look bit dated, maybe because, to be honest, Tamara Dobson is not be best ass-kicking-chick seen on the big screen. Otherwise she is great as a leading lady. Antonio Fargas as one of the Momma's pushers, Doodlebug who is trying set his operating up, pretty much steals the show. Fargas delivers awesome dialogue and performance. All in all, entertaining movie but bit dated.

Directed by Jack Starrett. I think he is best known for his role in First Blood as the evil deputy Galt.

Born To Fight (1989)

2010-11-20T11:50:00.001+02:00

Reporter Marilyn Kane(Mary Stavin) hires Vietnam vet Sam Wood (Brent Huff) as a guide for their trip to Vietnam. Of course things are not what they seem, Kane has actually hired Wood to help her to get her father out of Vietcong prison camp. Let the mayhem begin!

Hell yeah! Our hero Sam Wood is snake venom drinking bad ass! He always have a cool one liner after he takes out bad guys. Movie was somewhat slow in the middle part , but the ending was all out hut exploding mayhem (same hut was shown blowing up at least dozen times...). Recycling in Mattei style.

I have to say that Brent Huff has became one of my favourite actors in this Filipino madness. Well sure, his acting skill are somewhat questionable, but so what. He is just perfect for these kind of roles. You know, he has that certain "Hand him M-60 and he will bring those boys back from prison camp" -element in him.

Directed by the maestro Bruno Mattei and yeah, he delivers in spades with this one.

Just A Damned Soldier (1988)

2010-11-15T09:59:00.001+02:00

Elite squad of four soldier rob a gold mining plant. Soldiers succeed in their mission and manage to get the gold out of the country. Crime boss that owns the plant doesn't take this too lightly and sends his men after the elite squad.

Little different than your usually Filipino jungle actioner. No POW rescue mission or getting Vietcongs out of the underground tunnels in this one. We do get couple exploding huts though. First part of the movie is some good old gun fighting action and exploding shit up. Middle part is bit slow, but then the action picks up again. Rom Kristoff plays one of the members of the elite squad and so does Mark Gregory.

Not the best shit filmed in Philippines, but still enjoyable actioner. Directed by Ferdinando Baldi, credited once again as Ted Kaplan. Seems to me that Baldi is usually given little bit bigger budget than your average Filipino trash directors, at least in the final scene they blew lots of shit up. Or maybe i have been watching too many Bruno Mattei movies lately and that's why everything else seems like a big budget extravaganza compared to them...

Pink Force Commando (1982)

2010-11-09T11:09:00.001+02:00

Our heroines are surrounded by bunch of soldiers, who wants to get their hands on the gold that these girls have. I think soldiers are supposed to be Japanese, although they are dressed up once again in nazi uniforms. Anyway, girls make a pack that they meet in year's time in a same place and two of them make a run for it with the gold. They manage to escape, but Jackal (Brigitte Lin) betrays them and runs of with the Commander, who was in charge of the attack.

Together they, Jackal and Commander, build a town in middle of nowhere where the good folks of this bizarre land can gamble and satisfy their other needs in a brothel. Rest of the girls don't like this a bit and they are going to get their share of the gold.

Holy shit! This one was even more crazier than the prequel "Golden Queen's Commando". This time we get dudes dressed up like KKK, one of the girl's got this weird fantasy/super heroine costume, other girl loses an arm and it's replaced with machine gun prosthesis and yeah the Japanese nazi soldiers are back.

Yen-ping Chu directed also this one. There is some recycled footage from the first film and sometimes the plot doesn't make any sense, but so what. Action is top notch and girls are cute. That's enough for me.

They Call Her Cleopatra Wong (1978)

2010-11-07T10:56:00.000+02:00

Cleopatra Wong (Marrie Lee) is a police woman who is put on a case to find crimals that are making counterfit money. Her investications lead her to monestry where the bad guys are running their counterfit operation by forcing the nuns to work for them.

Non-stop action rollercoaster ride. Lots of ass kicking performed by Marrie Lee. She was only seventeen when she auditioned for this movie, so she must have been something like 18 years old when they made this movie. She might not be the best martial arts performer but fighting scenes are still highly enjoyable. In her interview she says that she performed lots of the stunt by herself. She was offered 10 film contract by Bobby when her 3 years contract with him was ending, but she declined. Sadly she made only one film, "Target Scorpion", after her last film "Devil's Three" with Bobby.

All in all, really an upbeat movie.Well, movie that has guys dressed up as nuns and killing everyone in sight and blowing shit up, what else could it be than whole lotta fun.

Click on the pictures to view in full resolution.

DVD Info

Released by Dark Sky Films.

Double feature disc, One armed Executioner and They Call Her Cleopatra Wong.

Beginning of the film is in correct aspect ratio (letterboxed, see the first screenshot) and after opening credits aspect ratio turn into a full screen 1.33:1. There are lots of film/video artifacts present and picture quality is not so happening. But this was the best source Dark Sky could find and the main thing is that this one finally made it on to DVD.

English subtitles included.

Cleopatra Wong Bonus features (There are also extra features on the OAE side of the disc, see OAE review!!!)
- They call her Marrie Lee
- A conversation with Bobby A. Suarez
- Still gallery

Special Silencers (1979)

2010-11-05T10:17:00.000+02:00

Bad guys kill town's mayor with "Special Silencers". In case you don't know what they are: tablets that will grow roots of a tree into your stomach, once swallowed! That is unless you are enlightened guru and use them for meditation.

Mayor's brother and daughter Julia (Eva Arnaz) are on their way to town. Their car broke down and Hendra (Barry Prima), who is also on his way to town, stops to help them. Hendra goes to town to get some help and in a meanwhile thugs kill mayor's brother and try to kill Julia but Hendra comes to rescue just in time. But the bad guys are not done yet. For the rest of the movie bad guys try to kill Julia and Hendra and gain control over the town.

Now this what i'm talking about! Indo-madness at it's finest, crazy ass pills that will plant a tree in your stomach (kudos to writer Djair who came up with this shit!). Fighting scenes are very well executed, Prima kicks some serious ass on this one. Lots of gory deaths, well of course if there is damn tree growing out of one's stomach!

Directed by Indo-trash maestro Arizal. All Indonesian cast, at least i didn't see any westerns. Without a shadow of a doubt one of the best film to came out of Indonesia. Highly recommended.

Hanzo The Razor: Sword Of Justice (1972), The Snare (1973), Who's Got the Gold? (1974)

2010-11-03T21:00:00.003+02:00

Hanzo (Shintaro Katsu) is officer in Edo period Japan. He uses unorthodox interrogation methods, to say at least, to get confessions out of criminals, especially from women. Spinning sex chair is Hanzo's secret weapon for getting the confession out of women criminals/suspects. He rapes them with his huge cock and usually women end up begging for more and his is not going to give them anything unless they confess. You know...well.... You could call him the Rapist Detective...

Sword Of Justice (1972)
Films start with Hanzo giving hard time to his superiors, all the officials should swear loyalty, but Hanzo refuses because he wants to do things his own way. Hanzo hears that there is a convicted killer, who has escaped from penitentiary, on the loose in his town. He start to investigate the case and soon he discovers that there are also higher ranking officials involved. No matter what your ranks is, Hanzo is going to get you!

The Snare (1973)
Young girl is found dead in town's watermill. Hanzo starts to investigate the case and discovers that girl has had an abortion prior to her dead. Hanzo investigates the case further and finds out that local temple is used to sell young girls to town's influential men.

Who's Got the Gold? (1974)

This time Hanzo is investigating gold smuggling case. Smuggled gold is buried deep in the lake near treasury and crazy ass ghost woman is guarding the lake and keeping unwanted visitors away. This won't stop Hanzo and he gets the info he wants out of this woman by using he's special interrogation methods on her. Information leads Hanzo to suspects and he is ready to tear the whole town apart to solve this case.

Oh man... what can i say about these movies other than they are great! Geysers of blood spraying all over the place, a samurai cop who don't take shit from anybody. The whole aspect of these films is so absurd that you just look at them with your jaw dropped and wonder what the fuck were they thinking.

Hanzo's daily routines include beating his dick with wooden stick and after that doing a thing or two with a rice sack. Hanzo has two former criminals as his side kicks who brings some intentional comedy in these films.

All in all, great trilogy. You won't see this kind of detective work everyday, i promise you that.

My Bloody Valentine (1981)

2010-10-30T15:12:00.001+03:00

Miner gone apeshit.

Some twenty years ago bunch of miners got trapped in the mining shaft, because men who were resposible for their safety went to Valentine's day party. Later only one miner was found alive. He had eaten rest of the miners. Sole survivor goes bananas and kills the men responsible for the accident and tells the town to never ever again to celebrate Valentine's day or some heads are going to roll.

Fast forward to present day (or to 1981). All this is now just a legend and town arranges Valentine's day party. Now that's mistake. Miner starts to give his own bloody Valentine's day presents to town's folks...

One of the best slashers hailing from Canada. Miner bogeyman character works really well, i think it's right up there with the good old Halloween bogeyman, Michael Myers. Mining shaft gives a nice claustrophobic feeling at the final. Ending twist is some what predictable, but so what. These funky twists come with the slasher-territory.

Movie was remade in the 2009, i haven't seen that one. I don't think that i even want to. Recent slasher remake boom (Halloween, Sorority Row, Elm Street etc) has gotten little out of hand IMO.

Directed by George Mihalka.

Burning, The (1981)

2010-10-29T17:24:00.002+03:00

Kids in a summer camp play a prank on the camp's care taker. Prank goes terribly wrong and care taker is badly burned. Fast forward five years. It's summer camp time again. Care taker has come back and he is going to make those kids pay for what they did to him.

POV stalking, naked girls, horror stories by the camp fire, it's all here. This is one of the better slasher films. Murders are pretty graphic. Even so graphic (effect were made by the maesto Tom Savini) that this movie made it to the infamous Video Nasties list

Directed by Tony Maylam. His directing career didn't really take off. He only made couple of feature films after this. Holly Hunter makes a quick apperance as one of the kids in the camp. Don't blink or you will miss her. Jason Greenspan (who plays George Costanza in Seinfeld) is also one of the campers.

House On the Sorority Row (1983)

2010-10-27T16:19:00.006+03:00

Group of sorority sisters play prank on their house mother who has given them hard time from day one. Prank goes terribly wrong and house mother gets killed. Sisters hide her body in the swimming pool. Sorority sisters are having a party in the house like nothing happened but then somebody start killing them. Has the house mother risen from her watery grave !?!?!

Not enought breasts and showering scenes to make this good "show them titties"-slasher. And story is not good enough to make this a really good movie (yes, those tits are needed if the plot is not good enough). Couple of plot twists in the end and couple of pretty graphic murders. Murderer's instrument of choice is the house mothers cane. All in all, mediocre slasher from the slasher genre's crazy days.

Directed by Mark Rosman. Remake version titled "Sorority Row" was made in 2009.

ps. The band "4 Out of 5 Doctors" that plays in the sorority party sucks ass big time. I even checked out quickly their best of album in Spotify and man, this band was destined not to make it. Sorry.

Terror Train (1980)

2010-10-25T10:02:00.000+03:00

Bunch of collage kids set up their nerd friend for a prank that goes wrong. Fast forward three years.These youngters are having their graduation party on the train. There is also killer on board (could it be that nerd...), students start to drop dead one by one.

First half of the movie is pretty slow. Not much going on, couple of students get killed, but that's about it. Second half of the movie is little bit better. Yes, there is some titties shown in the second half. This time the killer uses multiple masks, taking the mask of his/her latest victim (student are wearing costumes for the graduation party).

Jamie Lee Curtis plays the leading role. Of course the main idea for having Curtis as the lead is to cash in on the success of Halloween. David Copperfield plays magician who performs for the student in the train. These Copperfield magic number scenes are pretty pointless.

Directed by Roger Spottiswoode. He tells in the book "Going to Pieces" in detail what a total nighmare it was to shoot in the actual train almost the whole movie and how the cinematographer John Alcott (famous for his work with Kubrick) basically saved the day with his brilliant lighting ideas.

All in all, second half is a good old time slasher fun and scream queen Curtis is cute as always. She would later return to slasher genre in Halloween II (1981) and Halloween H20 (1998).

One Armed Executioner, The (1983)

2010-10-23T09:13:00.012+03:00

Protagonist of the story is Interpol agent Ortega (Franco Guerrero). He is assigned to a case to get a diary that contains all the contacts of the local drug kingpin. Ortega and his men ambush the the dealers and in the process manage to destroy the diary. Interpol leads the kingpin to think that they have the diary. Thugs invade Ortega's home to get the info about diary's whereabouts. They kill his bride and chop off his left arm. Once he is released from the hospital he start starts drinking heavily and basically not giving shit about anything anymore.

He is saved from the skids by martial arts sensei, who is terminated help Ortega with his revenge. Sensei turns Ortega into a mean fighting machine with just one arm. Now he is ready take his bloody vengeance on the drug cartel.

Great revenge movie, of course seeing it from such a great print is always a bonus. Directed by late great Bobby A. Suarez (there is Suarez interview on the Cleopatra side of disc). Soundtrack is simply awesome. The western style theme that is played through out the film is just really catchy. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up. But what the hell was that swastika doing on the side of the boat in the final scene ?!?!

Click on the pictures to view in full resolution.

DVD Info

I don't usually make these DVD info sections, but i make an exception because this is a new release.

Released by Dark Sky Films.

Double feature disc, One armed Executioner and They Call Her Cleopatra Wong. To me Cleopatra Wong seemed like a very nice extra feature and the main attraction here is the OAE definitely.

Over all great print, well hell, amazing print. Some film artifacts are present but in no way disturbingly.

English subtitles included.

OAE Bonus features (There are also extra features on the Cleo side of the disc!!!)
- Remembering OAE (interviews with Joseph Zucchero and Franco Guerrero)
- A conversation with Nigel Hogge
- Extended Scenes
- Trailer
- Still gallery

King Frat (1979)

2010-10-21T10:52:00.001+03:00

Last weekend i had a flu and i wanted watch some really stupid shit to cheer me up. So i went with one of my all time favourite college cheese fests, King Frat. I can't even remember how many times i have watched this piece of fine art.

Plot? C'mon, fart contest and your usually collage movie stuff, fraternity that is full of fuck ups (the good guys) and fraternity full of jocks (the bad guys) and of course they hate each others guts.

I have to admin that this movie can still make me laugh of loud. Probably the best scene is when the principal enters the fuck ups fraternity house and shoots the blow up doll that just happens to be the main characters girlfriend.

T&a movies are pretty timeless (at least among males!) and good fun if you want totally turn off your brain.

Directed by Ken Wiederhorn who also directed IMO the ultimate nazi zombie movie "Shock waves". But the next movie i'm going to watch from Wiederhorn's catalog is going to be of course Meatballs 2.

Barbarians, The (1987)

2010-10-17T17:01:00.002+03:00

Deodato's sword and sorcery cheese fest.

Two young boys are captured by evil forces who are after a ruby that holds special powers. These two boys are put into a salt mine to work. Fast forward ten or so years and now these boys are all grown up. I mean they are big as a house now. Played by body building twins Peter and David Paul. Not Hans and Franz. If i have to make a wild guess these twins were not hired for their acting skills.

Twins manage to escape and they rejoin with their people who now lives in a forest. They learn that their queen Canary is being held as prisoner by evil ruler Kadar. Now their mission is to free Canary and of course save the world from the dark forces in the process.

Hell yeah, this one was some great entertainment. Mindless, cheesy, special effects that will blow your socks off. I mean that dragon, i just don't know to describe it... it was...stunning. As their side kick these boys have young woman named Kara. Played by Eva LaRue, who later became famous for her role in CSI Miami series. I looked at Eva's IMDB page and i couldn't find any photos from the Barbarian's set in her publicity photos. Now what's that all about Eva?

Director Ruggero Deodato (directed also the infamous Cannibal Holocaust) was given the biggest budget he had worked with by 1987, so the decors and shit are not so bad as one might think. But don't let that fool you, this one has a strong low budget feel to it.

Cobra Mission (1986)

2010-10-12T09:34:00.001+03:00

Group of Vietnam vets get together and decide to return to Vietnam to save couple of POWs. Of course this is hush-hush operation and they have to work under the USA government’s radar also.

First 30 minutes or so are pretty slow when the vets get their shit together and plan the rescue mission. Once they enter the war zone things really pick up and rest of the movie is a good jungle action mayhem. One of the stand out scenes is the one where the vets ambush Vietcongs on the river.

Donald Pleasence makes a quick appearance as the priest who supplies them the weapons for the mission. Christopher Connelly is the team’s leader and he delivers the goods once again. He was great in Mattei's classic Strike Commando and i think he was even better in this one.

Directed by Fabrizio De Angelis (Thunder trilogy), credited once again as Larry Ludman.

Future Hunters (1986)

2010-10-08T10:53:00.001+03:00

Film starts as post apocalyptic movie. Year is 2025 and world has been a wasteland for last 40 years. One man can save the world by finding the spearhead that was used to kill the christ and he must touch it to go back in time. Yeah, that's right. He finds the spear and is transported back in time to LA. Year is 1987.

Slade(Robert Patrick, Terminator 2) and Michelle(Linda Carol) finds him wounded, man tells them that they have to return the spearhead to it's original shaft. Man from the post apocalyptic world drops dead. Couple start their journey to find the shaft. Bad guys are of course after the spear so that they can unleash the evil powers and rule the world.

Wild mix of genres in this one. Post apocalyptic movie turn into present day drama, then suddenly some kung fu is thrown in and rest of movie is sort "Romancing the Stone" rip off. Movie also includes tribe of amazon women, rose sniffing bad guy (that was SO over the top that i totally cracked up), lots of cardboard stones and all kinds of crazy shit.

Definitely not the best Santigoa movie, but lots of fun. Just be ready for some really over the top WTF moments.

Thunder aka Thunder Warrior (1983)

2010-10-06T10:58:00.001+03:00

Young native American called Thunder (Mark Gregory, Bronx Warriors 1 & 2) comes back home. He finds out that locals are building on his tribes sacred ground, old indian cematary. He gets into trouble with the construction workers. Thunder goes to see local sheriff and tell him about the treaty that Indians have made long time ago for the sacred land, Sheriff is not interested. Thunder goes to protest in front of bank. Deputy arrests him and drives him out of town. Deputy tells him that he doesn't want to see him again in town.

While walking back to town Thunder is beaten up by local rednecks. Now totally pissed off Thunder returns to town. Deputy stops him again and cops try to beat him up, but Thunder is not going to take any of that shit. He beats up the cops and escapes. Cops gather up a posse and starts hunting him down.

Italian Rambo rip off, this time it's not Vietnam vet but native American who is given hard time by local rednecks and police. Action sequences were okay, exploding shit up and destroying bunch of cars. Of course one has to remember that budget must have been pretty miniscule, so don't expect any of that "Blues Brothers car mayhem". All in all, good '80s actioner. Two sequels where made, have to check out those too.

Directed by Fabrizio De Angelis (he was one of the producers of Fulci's ultra-classic Zombie Flesh-Eaters aka Zombie 2)

Blastfighter (1984)

2010-10-04T12:19:00.000+03:00

Story about ex-cop Jake 'Tiger' Sharp (Michael Sopkiw) who is released from jail after serving 8 years for murdering a thug who killed his wife. Tiger's friend gives him a special modified rifle to kill the man who was the master mind behind the wife's murder. Jake can't pull the trigger. He's a changed man now.

He just wants peace and quiet and goes into country side where he was raised up. Local rednecks give him hard time and eventually things escalate to a point where these rednecks try to kill him. They don't succeed.

Tiger's daughter, local park ranger and friend comes to visit him. Rednecks end up killing all of them except Tiger's daughter. Tiger and daughter escape into woods. Eventually thugs manage to kill the daughter and that is the final straw for Tiger. He gets his special rifle and start blasting off some rednecks.

Directed by Lamberto Bava, man who is going to be known always as the son of the late great Mario Bava. I just can imagine the pressure he must have felt when he started his directing career. L. Bava has also made couple of decent giallos, A Blade in the Dark and Midnight Killer. Not the best ones in the giallo genre but not the worst ones either. There is a small giallo moment in Blastfighter when they show the wife's murder. Murderer got black gloves and switchblade. Typical giallo murder kit.

Blastfighter is a good movie. Better than your average revenge flicks. Of course it has some of that Ramboish flavour in it when our hero Tiger goes hiding in the woods and takes out bad guys one by one. Soundtrack was somewhat bizarre combination of electronic western doodles, which were pretty okay and really cheesy melodramatic Casio scores. They sucked. But what the hell, check it out. It's definitely worth it.

Exterminators of the Year 3000 (1983)

2010-09-30T14:40:00.001+03:00

World after the atomic bomb.

Two cops try to pull over man with a fancy nuclear wasteland ride. He won't stop and he runs over one of the cops. Another cop manages steal the hoodlums car, when he is looking for water in cops car. Hoodlum takes cops car and after chasing him he flips the car and gets trapped inside the car. Cop drives off.

Fortress, where the good folks of wasteland lives, is running out of water. They have send already one man to search for water but he hasn't come back, so they have to send another search party. Exterminators (wasteland bandits) attack the convey and kill every one except small boy Tommy who has the map to water source. He manages to escape from the bandits.

While lost in the wilderness Tommy bump into the man called Alien (whom we saw at the beginning of the movie). He is still trapped inside the car. Tommy frees him and eventually they team up to find the water.

Giuliano Carnimeo directed this solid post apocalyptic actioner. Car stunts are fairly good and action sequences are also well executed. Characters has these funky names like Alien and Trash, so that's of course added cheese factor bonus. Oh yeah, it turns out that the boy is biomechanical. Ending was bit disappointing, too happy for my taste.

Warbus (1985)

2010-09-28T10:50:00.001+03:00

Movie is set in Vietnam war. Missionaries have to flee from their station when Vietcongs attack their camp. Missionaries take a school bus (hence the name "Warbus") and escape from the camp. While on the road they meet group of American soldiers. Together they continue their journey back to American base through the enemy territory.

This one is great low budget actioner. Sort of a road movie with Vietnam twist. Lots of exploding huts, well just about everything is blown up in this movie. No dull moments, just battle after battle. Couple of inconsistencies in the movie. There is traitor on board who tries to sabotage their journey, he is caught red-handed and put in a bamboo cage. Couple of scenes later the traitor is fighting with the rest of the bunch. Well, maybe i was making sandwich when they sorted out their problems....

Directed by Ferdinando Baldi (credited as Ted Kaplan).

Deadly Prey (1987)

2010-09-27T13:28:00.001+03:00

Group of mercenaries kidnap people to use them as their "runners" in a savage hunting exercise. They kidnap Danton (Ted Prior) and now that was huge mistake! Danton is Vietnam vet and he kills all most all of the mercenaries hunting him. Danton's wife Jamie saw him being kidnapped and calls her father (Cameron Mitchell), a former cop, for help . Father goes looking for Danton.

Mercenary leader finds out that the "runner" is Danton, most deathliest killing machine he has trained. There is some bad blood between these two. Finally mercenaries capture Danton and the leader wants him to join them. Danton tells him to fuck off and manages to escape. Mercenaries kidnap Jamie and capture Jamie's father and kill him.

Danton goes back to his house and gets all kind of shit from his secret stash: Guns, dynamite, grenades - you name it. Now its time to settle the score.

Final fight between the biggest bad ass mercenary and Danton is quite epic. Danton chops off mercenary's arm with machete and start beating him with severed arm and as a grande finale he scalps the mercenary.

Low, i mean VERY low, budget Rambo rip-off. I think that they used only couple of locations in the whole movie and it looks like they are running in circles in the forest. Oh yeah, '80s mullets are also very well presented here. So if you are looking for cheesy '80 action movie, you should check out "Deadly Prey".

Directed by David A. Prior who is one of founders of Action International Pictures that used produce these low budget actioners in the '80s. He is also brother of the leading man Ted Prior.

Silk (1986)

2010-09-24T15:25:00.001+03:00

Silk (Cec Verrell) is tough female detective working in Honolulu P.D. She is investigating crime syndicate that is bringing Asian criminals into Honolulu with false identities.

I had little higher expectation for this movie. I was hoping that this would be action packed girls-with-gun movie, but i have to say that i was little disappointed. Cec Verrell was just ok as a leading lady. First part of the movie promised so much more, great car chase sequence involving train, lots of shooting and explosions. After the opening sequence the movie kind of slowed down to half speed and never seemed to get into full speed again. To me this felt like the most "American" style movie Santiago had directed by 1986. Missing the crazy ass Filipino flavour that was so strongly present in his previous movies.

If interested in girls with guns genre i suggest that look for Hong Kong movies, such as "Royal Warriors", "Yes, Madam" or "In the Line of Duty IV". Those HK chicks really know how kick some serious ass.

Battle Rats (1988)

2010-09-23T10:54:00.000+03:00

Group of American soldiers are ambushed by vietcongs using children as bait. They survive the ambush. Soldiers go to a small village to find vietcong leader responsible for the ambush and in a process execute everyone in the village.

Back to army base. Captain from the massacre in putting together special elite group called "Tunnel rats" whos mission is to go into vietcong underground tunnels and smoke the "charlies" out.

After intensive training (well going through couple of car tires...) Tunnel rats start their mission to get the vietcongs out of the holes in a near by village. Things go awry and tunnel rats has to retreat back to base.

New day, new strategy. Terminated to capture the vietcong captain and terminate the rest of his soldiers, Tunnel rats return to the tunnels once more.

Violent Filipino Vietnam war actioner. Bad acting, characters with strange accents, lots of violent action and political incorrectness. So everything that a '80 Filipino war actioner should have is here.

Directed by Ben Yalung. IMDB trivia says that he became member of "Oasis of Love" church year after this film and he started doing religious movies as "his way of praising God". Haven't seen any of those but hopefully they are full blown action movies with a religious twist...

On a side note, some parts of the movie were subtitled and not dubbed, you don't see that everyday in a Filipino trash.

Ninja Warriors (1985)

2010-09-21T10:39:00.002+03:00

Ninjas infiltrate building and steal top secret documents. Drunken dude witnesses ninjas leaving the building and tells cops about this.

Ninjas are giving police hard time, stealing documents and killing people. Luckily one officer has a friend (Ron Marchini) who knows all about ninjas( he sort of ninja too, you know). Too bad for him because ninjas are trying to kill him every five minutes (it's not very clear why...).

Ninjas were after secret formula (something to do with world domination with über ninjas) and they only managed to get parts of the formula. So they have to extort the doctor who made the formula by kidnapping his daughter.

Oh man...i think that my weekly allowance as a kid was bigger than this movie's budget and it was only couple of bucks. I really don't know how i should react to this movie. I laughed out loud couple of times because the acting was so atrocious. So at least the movie was somewhat entertaining but it was not cheesy enough to reach the heights when cheese turn into a pure gold.

Directed by John Lloyd who also directed much more entertaining "Double Edge".Check that one out instead of this one.

Lethal Hunter aka American Hunter (1988)

2010-09-20T09:57:00.000+03:00

Another lethal dose of Indonesian action!

Movie starts with a bang. Jeep is driven into office building from the roof top of the opposite building. Man in the Jeep executes everyone in the office in search for microfilm. But microfilm is gone. Villains chase the man who escaped with the microfilm. Villains finally catch the man and get the microfilm.

Secret agent Jack Carver (Chris Mitchum) is send to get the microfilm back. He meets the man, Selick (Peter O'Brian), who is selling the film to highest bidder. All the hell breaks loose when the bad guys come into office to get the film. Carver manages to save Selick' secretary Janet (Ida Iasha). After series of gun fights and whole lotta crazy ass action bad guys capture Carver. They torture him to get the info of microfilms whereabouts. Of course they fail miserably and set the house on fire leaving Carver there to burn.

Surprisingly enough, Carver manages to escape. After this we get series of car and helicopter chases (best car stunt was the one where villains drove their car into a crowded grocery store), fist fights, gun fights, bad guys kidnapping Janet and lots of explosions when the bad guys try get the microfilm and in the process eliminate Carver. In the end we see the final fight between Carver and the main villain Adam (Bill "Superfoot" Wallace). Finally the microfilm is returned to the good guys. The End (just how many times did i wrote the word microfilm...).

Directed by Arizal and he knows how to make a good actioner. This was not as mind blowing as Arizal's "Double Crosser" or "Final Score", but still a very very fine Indo-actioner.

Lots of memorable scenes in this one. Highlights include Peter O'Brian's character's demise. He is chased by car into a dead end alley and rammed through a prick wall. One of most bizarre interrogation methods is also used when the villains want to get info out of Janet. They put shaving cream on her face and start shaving her invisible beard...

Naked Vengeance (1985)

2010-09-17T09:44:00.001+03:00

Santiago's take on the rape-revenge genre.

Husband (Terrence O'Hara) and wife (Deborah Tranelli) go out to celebrate their anniversary. After coming from a restaurant to the car park they see thug beating up woman. Husband intervenes and gets killed by the thug. Police is helpless because they have no eye-witnesses. Wife, Carla, gets frustrated and goes to the country side to stay with her parents.

Everyone at her old hometown gives her hard time.One night local hell raisers decide to pay her a visit. They gang-rape her. Carla's parents came back early, they were visiting relative, and the invaders kill them. One of the invaders freaks out and threatens to tell everything. Invaders kill him too and frame him for the murders. Hoodlums think that Carla is also dead, but she is hospitalized in catatonic state.

She wakes from her catatonic state and now she is about get even. Rapers meet their end in various ways: one guy becomes human torch, another one is castrated with knife. Now the town's sheriff and mob lead by the rapers is after her. Mob burns down her house while she is still inside but she manages to escape. She takes care of the last rapist and goes back to New York. She's got one more thing to take care of, her husbands killer...

Not typical Santiago movie. This is pretty serious movie, not your typical over the top action filled Santiago flick. Beginning of the movie is pretty slow, but ones she gets on her revenge rampage things really pick up. Over all pretty good revenge flick.

Double Edge (1986)

2010-09-15T10:46:00.010+03:00

"That's when the law stops and this is were i come in!"

Young kid sees his parents brutally murdered by loan sharks. Fast forward 20 years. Now this kid is tough cop named Mark Quinn (Romano Kristoff). Quinn finds out that his friend is blackmailed into smuggling heroin (thugs have kidnapped friends son). Friend commits suicide and Quinn is terminated to put end to this drug smuggling ring.

There is also vigilante ninja in town. He is the modern Robin Hood: kicking bad guys asses, taking their money and giving it to the ones who needed it. I don't think i am going to spoil pretty much anything when i tell you that Quinn is the ninja. He is like Superman, he disappears for a moment and comes back in a ninja outfit!

Directed by John Lloyd. According to IMDB he only directed couple of movies including this one. Have to track down "Ninja Warriors", that one sounds like a winner.

Action is pretty solid, but not as over the top as in Santiago or Arizal movies. Mostly violent gun fights, no big car chases here. Still recommended for Filipino action junkies.

Final Score (1986)

2010-09-14T10:01:00.005+03:00

"Who are you?" "Death!"

Villain named Mr. Hawk (Mike Abbott) sends his men to take care of director of computer institute Richard Brown (Chris Mitchum) before he can sign a contract that's not in a favour of Mr. Hawks criminal activities. Thugs enter Brown's home (he's away buying birthday present for his son) and kills his son and gang-rape and kill his wife. Brown finds his family slaughtered and swears revenge. Bad guys come back later and try to kill Brown, but that ain't gonna happen. He kills 'em all and manages to get the names of the men behind all of this. So now he's kicking ass and taking names.

Brown enters the thugs hideout. We get these flashbacks from Vietnam so we know Brown is about to blow some shit up and kill these goons. And so he does. Brown got five names in his list, one down, four to go. Rest of the film concentrates on how Brown takes down these men behind his family's murder one by one. Before the final match between Mr. Hawk and Brown, we get all the normal stuff that happens to you when go on a revenge: Brown gets captured and tortured by the bad guys and he get romantically involved with a woman who saves him.

Directed by Arizal (Lethal Hunter, Double Crosser), so you know that the action is top-notch and we get lot of that too. Gun fights, exploding all kind of shit up and lots of car and motorcycle stunts in this one. One of the car stunts involve guy hanging outside the car's window and they crash the car. That shit just looked dangerous. Hopefully that dude was OK after that.

Once again, highly recommended grim vengeance story with lots of action. Let's hope that some day some company releases these Arizal movies on good quality DVDs. Gimme triple Arizal feature, Lethal hunter, Final score and Double Crosser and i will be the first in line to buy that one!

Golden Queen's Commando (1982)

2010-09-12T10:22:00.007+03:00

Film starts at prison camp. Year is 1944. Seven women prisoners enter the camp. Beginning of the film tells the stories how these women ended up in prison. Most of them are in for murder. Next part of the movie is like a lighthearted WIP movie. Women escape from the prison camp. Woman who planned the escape, Black Fox (Brigitte Lin: Chungking Express, The Bride with White Hair), is offering them a job, that's why she helped them to escape. They must destroy chemical factory run by the evil army captain, but the army is closing in on them fast. Will they succeed in their mission?

Directed by Yen-ping Chu (in film's credits Chu Yin Ping). I can't recall that i have seen any of his work before.

This movie has elements from all sorts of genres: WIP, spaghetti western, kung-fu movies and comedy, well at least.

The over all craziness is what makes this movie great: crazy ass dubbing, wild soundtrack (they used Morricone's Ecstacy of gold from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", for christ sake!!!), prisoners playing basketball in Japanese(?) prison camp in the 1944, '80 hair styles and clothing, japanese army using nazi style uniforms and lots of gory action.

Another lost classic that needs a good DVD-release. There is also a sequel to this craziness called "Pink Force Commondos".

Nine Guests for a Crime / Nove ospiti per un delitto (1977)

2010-09-10T10:39:00.001+03:00

Film starts with a couple making out on a beach. Suddenly a group of men appears and they execute the man. Then they bury him on the beach. Fast forward 20 years. Group of nine people, all from the same family, return to this isolated island. They are killed one by one by a maniac who is stalking them. Has the buried man come back from the grave with a vengeance?

This one is a pretty average giallo. Nice scenery, couple of shots of female stars naked and some brutal murders sums it up pretty much. The tension that should have build between characters as they suspect each other to be the murderer just isn't there. Story line is somewhat borrowed from Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None".

This was the only giallo Ferdinando Baldi directed.

Double Crosser (1990)

2010-09-08T11:03:00.008+03:00

What do you get when you combine great talents like Peter O' Brian and Arizal ? Awesomeness that just keeps on giving! Yeah, you guessed it. This is one hell of movie.

Our hero Jack has lost his wife and is now single parent with a young daughter (who's voice is dubbed by adult woman). Villain Foster wants Jack to fight with his good friend Leo in an illegal boxing match. Jack refuses and the thugs kidnap her daughter. Jack goes to see Foster to make a deal and all the hell breaks loose. Jack manages to escape with his daughter.

Next Jack meets a woman named Linda (Priscillia Patsy) by accident , thugs are after her and Jack rescues her. Of course Jack and Linda hook up immediately. We get this mellow middle part in the movie, interrupted once or twice by couple of goons trying to beat the shit out of Jack. They can't even go to an amusement park without being hassled: Jack has to throw one of the hoodlums out of the ferris wheel cart.

But as we all know life can't be just walk in the (amusement) park. Leo has switched sides, so he is working now with the bad guys. Linda and Jack's daughter are kidnapped again. Jack has to come to rescue once again. Ending includes crocodiles, lots of fighting and finally the fight between Jack and Leo. But what about Foster? Well, he gets his ass blown off in the final scene.

Lots of car chases and awesome car stunts. Most memorable one being the one where Jack drives his car through a truck's container.

There are also lots of over the top scenes in this one. A thug stabs Jack's daughters teddy-bear with a switchblade and rips the foams out of it and this poor little girl cries out "They killed my panda", you know... that's heartbreaking. Or when Jake and Linda goes to a cottage to mellow down and to get some peace and quiet and then suddenly out of nowhere Leo appears. Jack and Leo start kicking each others asses and of course Jack finally knocks Leo out. When Jack returns to Linda and he goes "Lets go and party!". What happened to mellowing down ?!?!

I can't even recommend this enough. This one is a piece of action cinema history, that's for sure.

Wheels Of Fire (1985)

2010-09-07T10:15:00.003+03:00

Santiago's second take on the post apocalyptic genre.

Our hero, this time called Trace (Gary Watkins), is a wandering lone wolf in this wasteland. At the beginning of the film he meets his sister Arlie in a small tournament site. Arlie's boyfriend takes part in tournament (well, it's not really a tournament, just two guys beating the shit out of each other with metal pipes). Of course things go awry and they get local thugs going after them. Car chase ends up in a crash and bandits get their cars blown sky high. (Rule number one, if you crash your car in Santiago movie of course it's going to explode). Trace and Arlie go separate ways. That can't be good now can it....

Arlie is captured by the bandits and strapped on the hood of the car. Arlie's boyfriend is also captured and drug behind a car tied to a rope. Another standard punishment method in PA movies and of course in spaghetti westerns, only replace the car with a horse. Arlie is taken back to bandits camp and turned into a sex slave. On a site note: Arlie is played by Lynda Wiesmeier, former Playboy playmate of the month. I think that's a natural career development: first playboy bunny and then strapped on the hood of the car bare breasted in a Santiago movie. Not bad.

Trace is not going to take any of this shit and is terminated to put end to this whole bandit business. Before the ultimate showdown between bandits and the good folks of wasteland, we get lots of car chases, bandits being roasted by Trace's flamethrower, dwarf side kick and half naked chicks (mostly Lynda Wiesmeier). So everything that a good movie needs is here.

I liked this one better than the first Santiago PA movie, Stryker. Action is pretty high octane and over all atmosphere is much better in this one.

I Want to Get Even aka Lady Exterminator (1987)

2010-09-06T10:36:00.004+03:00

Don't confuse this one with the other Indo-trash fest Lady Terminator (1988).

Our leading lady Rini is a good girl who is pregnant and working in a local nightclub as a ticket girl. Local thugs kidnap and gang-rape her. Her wife-beating husband don't take this too lightly, he throws her off a moving car and tells her to get lost. After that he proceeds to rape the criminal ring leader's sister as a revenge. Rini loses her child (pretty graphic scene). That pushes her over the edge and she becomes Lady Exterminator who's gonna make things right with her bazooka!

Ending is pretty damn epic, our leading lady blows up the last hoodlum with her bazooka and after that we get passages from the bible, end of "Revelations". I mean ...wow.

Indo-weirdness at it's finest. Film starts with a scene from a drug den and that pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the film: grim, mean spirited and over the top. Lots of WTF moments, scenes that don't make any sense, some good action and bad dubbing. That is the way Indo-trash should be served.

Devastator, The (1985)

2010-09-04T17:28:00.003+03:00

Santiago mayhem continues! Now it's time to let the Devastator loose.

I had to check twice that i was watching the right film, because The Devastator starts with a footage taken from the Final Mission that was released just before this one. Nothing wrong with that, re-cycling is in at least now days...

Our hero Deacon Porter (Rick Hill) is a Vietnam veteran. He gets a call from his army buddy's wife Elaine telling him that her husband has died in a car crash and she suspects that there was something fishy in the accident. Deacon goes to see her and runs into a trouble with local drug dealers (they are growing weed in the forest) and corrupted sheriff. Thugs burn down Elaine's house and kill her in the process and run Deacon's car of the road thinking that they have killed him too. But no! Deacon survives and gathers his old army buddies to take revenge on the drug dealers. They go back to town and start causing mayhem.

Oh man, you just have to dig these Santiago movies. Lots of action also in this one: car chases, shootouts, exploding shit up. In the end we get some heroic bloodshed. Maybe John Woo is a big Santiago fan. You never know.

Next up Santiago's second take on the post apocalyptic genre, Wheels Of Fire. First one was Stryker.

Final Mission (1984)

2010-09-03T12:10:00.009+03:00

Film starts at Laos '72 where sergeant Vincent Deacon (Richard Young) is after a traitor Will Slater (John Dresden). Deacon's men manages to surround traitor and his men in a village. They blow the shit out of the village and capture Slater. He swears vengeance on Deacon.

Fast forward little over ten years. Deacon is the leader of SWAT team in LA. Local thugs break into his house but he manages to take out most of them. Deacon's captain is not happy about this and suspends him. Deacon goes on a camping trip with his wife and son. Everything seem to be happy and cozy. That is until his wife and son is killed by a bomb in their boat. Deacon finds out that bomb is planted by his arch-enemy Slater. He goes into a small town, where Slater's brother is the sheriff, to find Slater and all the hell breaks loose.

Cirio H. Santiago directed this Rambo rip-off. Don't get me wrong, this is a great movie. One of the best Rambo knock offs i have seen. Grim vengeance story with lots of action. Soundtrack is little different from the other Santiago movies i have been watching lately. Of course we get '80 hard rock (okay only one song, Steve Butler's "Always On My Mind") but also a melodramatic orchestrated score ( think of Ennio Morricone on a lazy day and you get the picture) and not the usual cheap electronic strumming.

Hats off to Santiago once again.

Naked Fist aka Firecracker (1981)

2010-09-02T18:43:00.000+03:00

Our heroine Susie Carter (Jillian Kesner) has a 6 dan black belt in karate and she has come to Philippines to find her sister who has gone missing. After numerous fights and some investigation work she finds out that her sister is dead. Now its revenge time.

Yeah, you guessed it. Whole lotta ass kicking going on in this movie. We get shady drug dealers, arena of death -fighting matches and some crazy ass dialog. Most memorable scene comes when two thugs are after our heroine and she loses her clothes one by one. When she is in her underwear other thug removes her bra with small sickle while they are fighting. She keeps kicking some serious ass in her panties and teaches the thugs a lesson. How much more epic can it get? None! Well the love making scene where Susie's clothes are removed with a switchblade is pretty damn epic too!

Santiago was the maestro in making entertaining low budget movies and this one is good example of that. They don't make movies like this anymore, now do they.

Calling All Police Cars / A tutte le auto della polizia (1975)

2010-09-01T10:04:00.000+03:00

Young girl goes missing in a Rome. She a daughter of surgeon and owner of private clinic with good connections. Police turns the city upside down trying to find her. Finally she is found dead, dumped in a lake with a bullet hole in the back of her head. Autopsy shows that she was three months pregnant. Who is her secret lover ? Hunt for the killer starts.

Good combination of Poliziotteschi and Giallo is what we get here. Beginning of the films mostly concentrates on the investigations of police trying to find the missing girl. Giallo part kicks in later in the films when the killer silences people who are on to him/her. Only typical Poliziotteschi car chase is in the end when the police is after the killer.

Antonio Sabato plays the leading role as the officer who is investigating the case. Also starring Luciana Paluzzi as a female officer. She is best known for her role in James Bond movie Thunderball, as a SPECTRE assassin Fiona Volpe.

Stryker (1983)

2010-08-31T12:46:00.000+03:00

Set in post apocalyptic world where water has became the most valuable asset. A woman knows the way to the one of the last water springs and group of road warrior thugs hunt her down. Woman is captured and tortured. Luckily our hero Stryker (Steve Sandor) frees her and they go back to the colony where the water supply is. Final battle between thugs and colony is about begin...

Trash maestro Cirio H. Santiago directed this Mad Max style movie (call it rip off if you want) about a world where life is cheap, cars beat up and women half naked. So not bad at all. We also get some midgets and really bad soundtrack: some sort of electronic bleeps and peeps. Action is good as one has come to expect in Santiago movie. So for the fans of post apocalyptic stuff this movie is a must.

L'uomo della strada fa giustizia / Manhunt in the City (1975)

2010-08-30T10:43:00.000+03:00

Henry Silva plays architect(?) David Vannucchi whos young daughter is killed brutally during jewelry heist. Police don't have any clues about the robbers. Vannucchi starts to investigate the case by himself.

Umberto Lenzi directed this vigilante story. Couple of good action scenes, especially the one where thugs destroy Vannucchis car while he and his wife are still inside, but mostly film concentrates Vannucchi's investigations to find the thugs responsible for his daughters death. Ending is pretty good with a small twist. Silva gives a solid performance as a father who is pushed over the edge. Luciana Paluzzi plays Vannucchi's ex-wife.

Day Of Anger (1967)

2010-08-30T10:29:00.000+03:00

Lee Van Cleef has been dirty, "ugly" and downright mean... now watch him get violent.

Giuliano Gemma plays town stable boy Scott who sweeps the floors and takes out the shit buckets. Probably not the best job in the world. Gun slinger Talby (Lee Van Cleef) rides into town and eventually takes Scott under his wings. Together they take the town under their control, but in the end Scott has to face Talby...

Lee Van Ceef is the man. He is good as always. All he have to do is smoke his pipe and take out couple of gringos to be cool. Gemma also delivers. Story is somewhat slow at the beginning but once they get the ball rolling there is no stopping there.

Robowar (1989)

2010-08-30T10:23:00.000+03:00

"BAM?" "Big Ass Motherf**kers!"

Bruno Mattei puts Predator and Robocop into the splinder and out comes Robowar!

Story is pretty simple: Elite squad (BAM) is send to jungle to hunt down robot that has become loose cannon. Exploding huts and lots of guns fights.So we get everything that Filipino jungle movie should deliver. Basis of the story is lifted from the Predator and in the end we get the Robocop moment or should i say surprise.

Do the robot talk! Everytime i hear the robot "talk" it just cracks me up. Also the robo-vision it totally from the '80, bad pixalated computer graphics. But hey! This movie totally rocks: Bad ass characters (most of them straight from the Predator), '80 hard rock and cheap special effect. One can't ask more from a good movie!

Strike Commando (1987)

2010-08-26T11:15:00.001+03:00

"He is not an ordinary soldier, he's a one man war machine!"

Bone-fide Bruno Mattei classic.

Sgt. Mike Ransom in operating behind the enemy lines and is left for dead by his commanding officer. Fighting his way back to safety, he learns that Russians are also in the area. He has to go back behind the enemy lines to get proof of the Russian. He is then captured and tortured. But he escapes and learns that there is also traitor in his own ranks. In the end he takes out all the suckers. He takes out the traitor with grenade launcher, epic!

Good Ol' cold war setup here, USA versus Soviet Union (rip). I can't even remember how many films i watched in the '80 with this cold war set-up. Evil CCCP always got theirs asses blown off at the end. The fall of Soviet Union must have been huge blow for the action movie industry.

One of the classic moments come when a dying child ask Ransom to tell about America and Ransom, in tears, starts to tell about pop-corn that grows in trees and genie that grants all wishes...

Highly recommended actioner. Grap your M-60 and let it rip!

Hands Of Steel (1986)

2010-08-26T10:04:00.000+03:00

In a near future... well, actually now it's the past. At least on the video cover it says "In 1997.."

Bionic killer cyborg Paco is programmed to kill scientist, but suddenly develops a conscience and lets the scientist live. He escapes the law and the people who programmed him to kill. Ends up in isolated bar arm wrestling truck drivers. Final showdown includes chick cyborg vs Paco (priceless!), helicopters and lazer guns.

Directed by Sergio Martino better known for his excellent giallos (Torso, The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh etc). Excellent '80 action film with cheesy dialog and hilarious computer stuff (~ 25 years is a long time in a computer world). John Saxon is the main villain. As always he delivers the goods.

Special kudos for soundtrack, pure '80 stuff and the dramatic score is really catchy. I couldn't find the composer, if somebody knows, please drop a line.