tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24542013618380974792011-08-09T15:28:49.599ZRipping My Way Through the Budget AisleArmandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.comBlogger641100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-58838729223902758782008-06-24T20:40:00.003Z2008-09-05T16:17:14.531Z

Dear God, make it stop! Please! I know I am a bad person. I do terrible things and think terrible thoughts! The Marquis de Sade doesn't make me blush, and I idolize Bender B. Rodriguez and Larry, that swingin' lounge lizard who lived above the Three's Company apartment. But even a man as evil as I doesn't deserve any more "jungle adventure" movies comprised almost entirely of bored actors

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-54470007359834465422008-06-24T20:19:00.005Z2008-09-05T16:21:56.228Z

I would call this one "another snore" if I hadn't watched it immediately after White Pongo. Compared to that slog, Phantom from Space is positively scintillating. Of course, when not judged against White Pongo, the merits of this film are far more dubious, though it gets points for having that sort of misguided and ill-communicated "important message" that so many classic (and less than classic)

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-8201309343513023312008-06-24T09:28:00.004Z2008-09-05T16:23:10.848Z

Wow, I forgot how bad this movie was. I mean, I knew it was bad, but I didn't remember the fact that almost nothing happens for the entire length of the film. About the only thing anyone ever remembers after viewing this film are the space aliens, who are realized by taking regular people, dressing them up in body stockings, then sticking ping ball ball halves over their eyes. They are among the

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-11843521721058290592008-06-24T01:08:00.002Z2008-09-05T16:28:21.945Z

On numerous occasions I have said that I watch all the crap films, so you guys don't have to. Well get out a big black texta colour and cross Project: Kill off your list. It is absolutely dreadful. Project: Kill is one of a myriad of crap films that Leslie Nielsen made before he found an audience as a comedic actor. Here he stars as John Trevor who works for a covert intelligence group, much like

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-19462178671832985712008-06-23T08:01:00.002Z2008-09-05T17:38:58.537Z

Knowing that this film was produced by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, the two men behind Cannon Films didn’t fill me with hope that this would be a quality production. Added to that, the film has now passed into public domain, so I figured this film is the bastard child that nobody wanted. But all that aside, while The Uranium Conspiracy isn’t a top tier spy film, it is certainly better than a

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-37338741245487565612008-04-10T08:17:00.003Z2008-09-05T17:43:55.275Z

The title to this feature is a trifle misleading. Hercules And The Masked Rider is not much of a Hercules film. In fact, Hercules (Alan Steel) is not the star of this movie at all. He is simply a strongman from a troupe of Gypsies, who are drawn into the story at a later stage. And even then, he is very much in the background. It’s almost as if Steel walked onto the wrong set and decided to throw

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-41327329433325262872008-03-19T02:08:00.004Z2008-09-05T17:55:21.082Z

Although I'm a big supporter of Italian exploitation director Antonio Margheriti, even I'm hard pressed to be a booster for everything he does, and this early science fiction effort -- his second film -- certainly falls into that category that makes me shrug my shoulders and go, "Well, at least he made Yor, The Hunter from the Future." Rick Van Nutter stars as Ray, an irritating blowhard reporter

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-52496051623557684302008-03-09T21:58:00.004Z2008-09-05T17:57:50.190Z

I don't know a whole lot about Richard Harrison. I first discovered him when I bought the Retromedia Terminal Force / Ring Around The World Double Feature DVD. Terminal Force is almost unwatchable (even by Teleport City's standards), but Ring Around The World has quickly become one of my Eurospy favourites.Gladiators 7 is an earlier role for Harrison, and the film, despite there being 'Seven'

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-79896120053042556612008-02-29T05:08:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:02:02.034Z

There seems to be a few versions of this EuroSword flick floating around and depending on which version you find, the hero is either Ali Baba (sans forty thieves), or Sinbad (sans sailing). The most common version available appears to be Ali Baba And The Seven Saracens. The film itself is a middling affair. Some of the sets are rather fake and the dubbing into English is quite wooden. All the

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-29036625075338933762008-02-29T05:01:00.008Z2008-09-05T18:10:29.886Z

As with most of the Peplum films that are out there, there appears to be many versions of this film, varying in running time from about 90 minutes to 120 minutes. As well as differing running times, the films hero seems to change from either Hercules or Masciste, the son of Hercules. But that shouldn’t matter too much. The version I am reviewing here is the shortened American version, Hercules

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-31651794666274902882008-02-25T01:41:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:12:31.713Z

Goliath and the Sins of Babylon is one of the better peplum films I have watched recently. This is due to two reasons. The first is the cast, and the second is that it seems to have had more money thrown at it than most.The film opens in the town of Methra, which is under the control of the Babylonians. Each year, as a tribute to their rulers, the Methranites send thirty young virgins to Babylon.

Davidnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-17785939759378486522008-01-27T22:15:00.007Z2008-09-05T18:18:01.661Z

Listen closely to that theme song. I hope you like it. Because it's going to play through the entire movie, almost non-stop. Anyway, this is one of those "must-see" titles that forms the basic foundation of any solid b-movie structure, and though you may wonder at times how the hell it managed to garner such a reputation, by the end of the film, the reason is clear: it has an awesome title.So the

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-69474214663091610372008-01-27T22:15:00.006Z2008-09-05T18:15:55.224Z

Oh man, a couple days ago, was I making fun of Lost Jungle? I take back everything bad I said about that movie, because it was a thrilling spectacle compared to White Gorilla, a horrible film assembled out of the bits and pieces of an old silent serial with some new footage of guys lying on cots thrown in for good measure. It's yet another movie where a haggard dude stumbles into a camp and tells

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-27248406524501371992008-01-27T22:04:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:20:29.531Z

Oh man, here we go with another jungle adventure. And since this one stars famed lion tamer Clyde Beatty, you can bet that at least half, if not more, of the movie's running time is going to be scenes of a dude with a whip and a chair messing around with lions. But before we get to that, let me ask a question: how can a jungle be lost? I mean, I can understand being lost in a jungle, or there

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-68838539713997978012008-01-23T18:21:00.001Z2008-09-05T17:54:15.831Z

This movie has one of those classic titles that were the bread and butter of the Halcyon days of drive-in movies. How can you not go see a movie called I Eat Your Skin? Well, I certainly can't go without seeing a movie called I Eat Your Skin, especially if it comes to me courtesy of Del "Monster of Party Beach" Tenney. Tenney's movie was originally called Voodoo Bloodbath, but when the movie got

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-51759340830815614582007-12-25T02:49:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:23:19.729Z

One kind of forgets that there was a point in history when George Hamilton was famous for actually doing stuff, as opposed to just standing around and having a weird tan. Medusa features a young Hamilton as an American cad in Greece who gets on the wrong end of a substantial Mob debt. Mobster Cameron Mitchell has cut George plenty of slack because he kind of likes the young rakehell, and because

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-71217008792435090822007-12-20T05:36:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:25:58.179Z

Fulfills the 1970s law that all country-related movies had to star Dub Taylor in a dirty t-shirt. It's basically a drive-in exploitation version of Badlands or Bonnie and Clyde, with two young folks on the run after a botched bank robbery. The film does strive to be something a little more, with some interesting arty techniques and some attempts at message (for example, the protagonists are cool

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-3068544477519943192007-12-19T21:35:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:29:00.493Z

The year is 1227, and the infamous Ghengis Khan has died. His power has gone to his son Ogadai, but his three other sons squabble among themselves for the scraps, always looking for an opportunity to elevate themselves through whatever means possible. And that is the basis for much of this film, which features Ghengis' three backstabbing sons trying to outmaneuver one another. Enter Maciste, or

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-64415494976235707912007-12-15T21:38:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:30:34.892Z

With a name like Alan Steele, you're bound to become a Hercules. That's one of those names like Bart Savagewood or Rock Slabchest. Along with Kirk Morris, Steele (born Sergio Ciani) was one of the few Italian-born actors to find success as a leading man in the sword and sandal genre. Bodybuilding had yet to catch on Italy the way it had on America's West Coast, so homegrown stars were generally

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-3137351391609729382007-12-14T21:38:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:31:55.850Z

Born Edmund Holovchik in June of 1928, Ed Fury gave himself a tough sounding name and went on to a successful career as a fitness model during the 1950s, and by fitness model I mean he was in lots of photos with compositions like, "Ed is naked and tangled in a fisherman's net. Ooo, be a sexy merman! Be a sexy merman!". His acting career started on the stage, and he later moved into small roles in

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-41391324150502440292007-12-14T21:36:00.000Z2007-12-16T18:28:58.683Z

Given the fact that sword and sandal films were Italian, one would assume there were quite a few Italian actors filling the starring roles. One would be wrong, however. Most of the peplum stars of the 1960s hailed from the United States. Only a few were born in the land which spawned the genre. Of these select few, Kirk Morris was one of the first. After leaving a lucrative career as a gondolier,

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-52981594086302411822007-12-13T21:42:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:52:07.188Z

Starring a primed and fresh off his Tarzan movies Gordon Scott, Samson, a.k.a. Maciste, has strolled to China in order to help put an end to the oppression. If we use this film as a basis for reality, and I can see no reason why we wouldn’t, then the downfall of the Mongolian Empire was actually caused when Samson, after being buried by a dwarf, started punching the ground until he caused an

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-23133715863653751532007-12-12T21:35:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:58:23.231Z

Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules sees the genre dip its feet in the realm of science fiction (it would plunge into that pond in other films like Conquerors of Atlantis and Giants of Metropolis) as Mark Forest squares off against an underground race, which, all things considered, was at least more capable than the ancient underground race in the film The Mole People.In this rousing adventure,

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-26020154705181760152007-12-11T21:39:00.001Z2008-09-05T19:30:48.185Z

There's something about Reg Lewis. Maybe it's his ultra cool (though totally out of place in ancient times) bleach blond rockabilly pompadour. Maybe it's the fact that he sort of looks like a buffed up Rick Moranis, if you can imagine such a thing. Or maybe it's simply the fact that he carries himself with such good-natured goofiness despite being a man who squash most other men like an overripe

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-49770118349922481252007-12-11T21:35:00.001Z2008-09-05T19:24:06.369Z

Goliath and the Dragon is an interesting entry into the genre if for no other reason than it's one of the few instances in which a movie starts out with Hercules being the name of the main character only to have the name changed to Goliath in the English language dub. Usually, it was the other way around. But if that was the most interesting thing about this movie, it wouldn't be very interesting

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-26284095499209463672007-12-10T18:55:00.002Z2008-09-05T19:06:02.939Z

Mill Creek's Chilling Classics follows up the Yul Brynner Mafia movie with Memorial Valley Massacre, a perfect example of why I love these sets so much. Any given collection has a fair number of movies I've seen, some I've heard of, and quite a few I know nothing about. Those are the movies I look forward to. Memorial Valley Massacre is one I knew nothing about, and as I do with such things, I

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-89718502523768086962007-12-10T16:46:00.002Z2008-09-05T19:35:26.873Z

I love titles like that. It sounds awesome, and it makes no sense at all. What the hell is a "death rage?" It reminds me of an old story I heard about soundtrack music composer John Barry working on the theme song for Thunderball. Barry was told, after writing the theme song ("Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang") that he needed vocals and had to use the name of the movie in the song, to which Barry

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-17623669690888379962007-12-09T21:34:00.002Z2008-09-05T19:20:12.473Z

The same year as Hercules in the Haunted World, Reg Park played Hercules in Hercules and the Captive Women. It was another fantastical adventure, this time pitting Herc against the evil queen of Atlantis and her army of blond clones sporting pale Abe Lincoln beards. The two films were often billed together as a double feature, and at one point someone got confused and started promoting a film

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-44499026393861557582007-12-09T20:31:00.001Z2008-09-05T19:16:52.730Z

1961's Hercules in the Haunted World was directed by acclaimed Italian horror maestro Mario Bava. Bava, bets known for Gothic tales of terror, worked as a cinematographer on both Hercules and Hercules Unchained. Given a chance to head up his own peplum film, his passion for Gothic nightmares came to the forefront. Hercules in the Haunted World is boiling over the images of the grotesque and

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-77674481307441623062007-12-09T20:23:00.001Z2008-09-05T19:13:54.203Z

When American bodybuilder Steve Reeves was approached about the lead role in the 1957 Italian film Hercules, he took it, figuring that if nothing else it was his first big role and would look good on his resume alongside things like "Mr. Universe." Reeves, like most people, never dreamed of what the film would become. Hercules was a smash. It shattered box office records in one country after

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-7786601900549537472007-12-09T19:50:00.001Z2008-09-05T19:00:34.321Z

Rocky and Winky return, along with the rest of the gang, for another space-farin' adventure beyond imagination. My most recent disc of Treeline's sci-fi box set concludes with Rocky Jones, Space Ranger: Menace from Space, another serviceable feature film created by stitching a couple episodes of the Rocky Jones television show together. This time around, someone from one of the moons of Jupiter

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-53558088493135575752007-12-09T19:47:00.001Z2008-09-05T19:26:02.579Z

Although nowhere near the league of the original Godzilla or the Godzilla films from the 1960s, Gamera the Invincible is never the less a decent example of what Daiei could do when they took a giant monster seriously. Atomic testing awakens the slumbering giant turtle, who appears here in pre friend to all children mode, and Gamera commences to trashing the Japanese landscape until a young boy in

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-40678965682766836152007-12-09T19:39:00.001Z2008-09-05T20:34:07.724Z

Growing up, I was never a Gamera fan. It wasn't that I didn't like the movies; I just never had a chance to see them. WDRB-TV 41 out of Louisville was the only source for Japanese monster movies at the time (this being the years before cable and VCRs), and they showed a definite bias toward the Toho films. So Godzilla, you betcha. Gargantuas, oh sure. But Gamera? No dice. I'd never even heard of

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-27548461786581033862007-12-09T19:31:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:47:45.590Z

Honestly, I didn't really relish sitting down to watch this movie again. I'd seen it before, obviously, and pronounced it one of those movies best only watched in its Mystery Science Theater incarnation. Just thinking about watching it again made my head hurt, but for you, I sucked it up and plowed through. It turns out the movie really doesn't get any better with age.Some Martian kids decide

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-48035234677383570832007-12-09T19:15:00.003Z2008-09-05T20:40:27.650Z

With a title like Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops, you expect some serious Cyclops fightin' action. Unfortunately, this movie open with a narrative text crawl that tells us it has been some time since the mighty Atlas -- well, make that the mighty Maciste -- has bested the Cyclops. Now really, if you call your movie Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops, then Atlas should be in the land of the

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-10559659806847926872007-12-09T19:15:00.002Z2008-09-05T18:49:34.426Z

Steve Reeves trades in his tunic and Hercules sandals to play the swashbuckling captain of a band of Indian or Malaysian pirates who battle the dastardly Brits in the South Seas. The presence of Reeves and an Italian crew means that this movie often gets classified as a peplum or sword and sandal film, but it isn't. Italy (and the rest of Europe) produced a huge number of cheap historical

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-38484192117296546442007-12-09T19:08:00.001Z2008-09-05T19:27:39.993Z

Man, sometimes you forget how shoddy a film can be until you stumble across bottom-of-the-barrel junk like Galaxy Invader. This movie is the sort of thing that would eventually become the digital video micro-budget film, but here they got to shoot on grainy film stock. The story is about a space alien who crash land son earth and finds himself pursued by drunken rednecks who want to sell him to a

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-78798791257448882752007-12-08T19:24:00.001Z2008-09-05T19:43:02.082Z

So here's the thing about Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. On paper, it sounds like something I should enjoy. Two guys in baseball caps fly through space rescuing people and marveling at crude special effects. The problem, however, is that one of the guys is named Winky, and Rocky Jones himself is just so...dull.Let's start with Winky. No man, no boy should ever be named Winky. I know Wee Willy set the

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-37428145267742424362007-12-08T19:06:00.002Z2008-09-05T20:44:23.594Z

A bio weapon is accidentally unleashed on a train, and a couple people have spend the movie quarantined in a small town depot. If you ever wanted to watch a movie comprised of almost nothing but people sitting around going, "I wonder what's going to happen to us," then this is the film for you. I still don't know what happens to them, because I didn't care and have yet to finish the movie. They

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-54385210030228230542007-12-08T19:04:00.001Z2008-09-05T20:46:33.565Z

Pretty horrible movie that, for whatever reason, remained ridiculously entertaining. When the earth is attacked by aliens, we must watch to separate plots, one about Charles Napier as a small-town sheriff going "What the hell is going on?" before he just sort of disappears from the movie, and the other about a group of researchers who collide with a group of corrections officers and prisoners,

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-3126120959023491772007-12-08T19:02:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:44:19.183Z

England's Amicus Studio gives us an adaptation of a sci-fi novel called The Gods Hate Kansas, but upon sighting a man carrying an umbrella and wearing a bowler hat, I assumed that perhaps the movie wasn't set in Kansas, after all. This is a pretty low-key "aliens take over our bodies and engage in some nefarious scheme" type of movie, with one of those "oh, it was all a big misunderstanding!"

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-73692162452485000552007-12-08T18:57:00.001Z2008-09-05T20:30:28.246Z

Some chick and the evil sensei from Karate Kid show up on a remote Greek island searching for the guy's sister, but all they find at first is some dumb blonde, a bunch of suspicious locals, and James Earl Jones with his shirt off. Eventually, they discover that the waters around the island are inhabited by a gigantic sea monster to which the townspeople occasionally sacrifice a virgin -- except

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-83286074871648325092007-12-08T18:50:00.001Z2008-09-05T20:32:19.716Z

This movie is one of several from Filipino director Eddie Romero that have the word "Blood" in the title. It's basically a wolfman movie, but with Vic Diaz as the Devil and an old blind man who must have thought he was in a Frankenstein movie. But we'll forgive him since he's blind. Plot revolves around a deserter in WWII who cuts a deal with the Devil to avoid death, and then spends the next

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-32994539027705858172007-12-08T16:35:00.001Z2008-09-05T20:11:13.331Z

The action continues with Bulldog Drummond Comes Back, though this is a film that falls much earlier in the chronology of the series (as Drummond has proposed to the first time to Phyllis, I assume it immediately follows Bulldog Drummond Escapes). When a nemesis from the past shows up and kidnaps Phyllis, Drummond, Algy, and Tenny find themselves on a wild goose chase around town, following one

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-61356071886327292862007-12-08T16:32:00.001Z2008-09-05T19:45:49.089Z

Bulldog Drummond's Secret Police finds ace busybody and freelance adventurer Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond and his beloved Phyllis sequestered away in Drummond's home on the eve of their wedding. This would be about the ten thousandth attempt they've made at a getting married, only to have each wedding spoiled by some crazy mystery or adventure that sends them off solving a murder, combating

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-24261501834776836312007-12-08T11:40:00.001Z2008-09-05T20:15:22.961Z

Not to be confused with Bride of the Monster, this cheap tale of the supernatural continues the "50 Classic Sci-Fi Movies" box set's preoccupation with films featuring people strolling through the jungle. Peeking ahead in the collection, I see lots of Gamera and sword and sandal movies on the horizon, which is heartening, because I'm just about at my limit when it comes to movies that feature the

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-30443445616565662202007-12-08T11:33:00.001Z2008-09-05T19:07:35.858Z

Oh, good gravy, Charlie Brown! When I sat down to watch King of Kong Island, I realized that thirty minutes into the film, I hadn't really seen or heard a single thing. About an hour into the film, I realized once again that I'd not heard nor seen a single thing, even though I sat staring at the TV with nothing to divert my attention. After restarting the film and experiencing the same effect, I

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-41046107180670854992007-12-08T04:29:00.001Z2008-09-05T19:59:29.709Z

Bulldog Drummond in Africa takes our intrepid adventurer (John Howard, who plays Drummond in just about all of the Bulldog Drummond films) and thorn in the side of the stuffy Colonel Nielson (played this time by H.B. Warner) to, as you may surmise from the title, Africa. Morocco, in particular. We first meet Drummond at home in England where and his butler, for some strange reason, have no pants

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-88884944377829809302007-12-08T04:24:00.002Z2008-09-05T20:02:05.748Z

Bulldog Drummond's Revenge gave us a snappy, highly enjoyable mystery movie in which the titular character never really seeks out any revenge. We follow up that movie with Bulldog Drummond Escapes, a movie in which Bulldog Drummond does escape something at one point, though it's hardly so important an escape that it warrants naming the movie after the act.This time around, ace busybody and

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-68529633273315742212007-12-08T04:18:00.001Z2008-09-05T19:57:50.352Z

1937's Bulldog Drummond's Revenge kicks off the 50 movie "Mystery Classics" collection in grand fashion. I'm familiar with the character, but have only seen him in action in the much later and very different Deadlier than the Male, which is an exceptional film and very much worth watching. It's a lot more colorful, of course, seeing as it's in color, and more in line with the swingin' 60s spies

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-13450752989133411842007-12-07T23:37:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:57:06.107Z

What we got here is a Robert Lippert production from 1947 called Queen of the Amazons, and it being a Lippert production, I assumed it would contain super-imposed shots of iguanas passed off as dinosaurs and an erupting volcano. I guess 1947 was a little early for these treats, because although they became de rigueur in Lippert's 1950s output, Queen of the Amazons doesn't feature either of them,

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-76311906965041897522007-12-07T23:26:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:43:00.733Z

Usually, when someone says a certain movie is the same as some other certain movie, what they mean is that the makers of the second film basically just ripped off the ideas from the first film. In the case of Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet and Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, however, they are literally the same movie. When Roger Corman bought the rights to a Russian (back then we

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-78113584943524411402007-12-07T23:22:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:40:58.815Z

So we're up to disc two, side two of Sci-Fi Classics, and the first of our color features. Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet was one of my favorites as a kid, being as it is a relatively plotless piece of sci-fi eye candy about some astronauts who, in the far-flung year of 2010, land on Venus, stroll around, get attacked by some monster, stroll around, then get in their rocketship and fly away.

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-12772991373411163582007-12-07T23:16:00.000Z2008-12-09T09:12:03.041Z

After sidetracking myself during my first attempt to watch Wasp Woman (I was trying to do it while writing a query letter to send to Outside magazine), I sat down again last night and applied myself a little more to the task at hand. Yes, those are my priorities. My obligation tonight? Watch Wasp Woman. Kids, this is what adulthood is really like. Don't let anyone tell you different.Wasp Woman is

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-26446872368062050042007-12-07T23:11:00.001Z2008-09-05T19:12:01.680Z

Now things are starting to roll. Disc one of my 50-movie Sci-Fi box set had some pretty trying films on it -- hour-long clunkers that still managed, despite their swift running time, to be wretchedly dull and packed full of stock footage and filler. Disc two steps the game up a notch, and the first film on this disc is Horror of Spider Island. It's still a pretty crummy film, but in a much better

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-37510023893012818602007-12-07T23:06:00.001Z2008-09-05T20:42:28.404Z

This daring film documents a secret suburban plan to turn Richard Nixon into a super-powered invisible guy. No wait, not quite that, but the main guy certainly looks like Richard Nixon, and invisibility certainly would have helped Nixon and his plumbers avoid a good deal of the nastiness that eventually brought the whole mean, greedy empire crumbling onto the White House lawn.The Amazing

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-44840181407720623852007-12-07T23:03:00.001Z2008-09-05T20:36:35.649Z

Oh, Atomic Brain, what have you done? This was a pretty painful one, truth be told. A crazy old woman wants a crazy middle-aged doctor to transplant her brain into a sexy young body. So they hire a couple foreign housekeepers, lock them up, and then proceed to conspire to bore them to death, or so I presume based on the movie itself. The bulk of this film is comprised of shots of a couple women

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-46789193060964756212007-12-07T23:01:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:46:00.517Z

This is one of those movies that should be really good, but in reality, well, you know. A couple guys get washed up on the shores of some island that is inhabited by nothing but multi-ethnic pearl diving women and their stern German matron (or something). Superstition abounds, taboos must be broken in fits of wild lust, and then probably a volcano has to erupt. At the very least, there should be

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-52863379320650389252007-12-07T22:34:00.002Z2008-09-05T18:54:03.636Z

I've probably seen this movie half a dozen time in as many years, and a few more times many more years ago than that. As I did with Plan 9 from Outer Space, the first I learned of this movie was via the overly snide but still useful It Came from Hollywood. I knew then that this was the sort of movie I needed to see, and when it finally happened, it was well worth the effort. Much ink has been

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-21270265604486642222007-12-07T22:12:00.002Z2008-09-05T19:10:58.609Z

The Incredible Petrified World, starring John Carradine (sort of), could have also been titled The Incredibly Petrified Movie, because that's about how fast this thing movies. Wait. Petrified isn't a measure of speed is it? Let's just say that even someone with my profound and admirable tolerance for meandering movies found himself eying the fast forward button during the endless scenes of "

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-31959768134445172872007-12-07T17:23:00.003Z2008-09-05T19:41:16.594Z

A rip-off of Deliverance with Hal Holbrook instead of John Voigt or Burt Reynolds. There have been few times, very few times in my life, when I have flat out abandoned a movie before finishing it. This marks one of those times. You start off with a group of doctors, every single one of whom is loathsome and does nothing but whine. Drop them in the woods, spend like an hour watching them snipe and

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-76551802844726724852007-12-07T17:23:00.001Z2007-12-09T22:30:34.730Z

If you ever wondered what an Australian martial arts film from the 80s would look like, the answer is that it would look like all the same kinds of movies from America. Guys in Members Only jackets and tight polo shirts with upturned collars kick each other to the soothing sounds of synthesized action music. Actually, this movie wasn't that bad. Predictable and generic, but not too bad as far as

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-83598886273974305302007-12-02T21:22:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:37:55.495Z

So how's this for a high concept. Three "hilariously" inept redneck thieves kidnap the computer genius daughter of some rich guy in order to blackmail him into turning over a new artificial intelligence system they plan to sell on the black market. Unfortunately, they didn't count on her vengeful husband and his sentient monster truck. OK, pretty awesome, right? And if you can get through the

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2454201361838097479.post-39673287779066751042007-12-02T21:18:00.001Z2008-09-05T18:35:47.447Z

The only face I needed for this movie was whichever face it is I make when I'm bored. This Italian production is supposed to be giallo, I guess, but there are no murders, no stylish flourishes -- to be honest, there's pretty much nothing at all. When this movie was over, I realized I had been staring at the TV screen for 90 minutes and had processed absolutely nothing. Basic story is that some

Armandohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00435281238176722479noreply@blogger.com0