Showing posts with label bad editing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bad editing. Show all posts

Saturday, July 29, 2023

Ho!

 

 (imdb)

POWER FORCE-1991-In Bangkok, Benny is fighting with help from the CIA while rebels stage an uprising with lots of machine guns and hand grenades. I admit I didn't really understand what was going on most of the time but this movie was directed by Godfrey Ho (using the pseudonym Charles Lee) so it seems like this was a movie made by someone else with Ho adding unrelated scenes of his own.

That's a weird poster too!

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Tuesday, April 18, 2023

It Never Ends

 

 (imdb)

CATACLYSM (THE NIGHTMARE NEVER ENDS)-1980-A couple, Clare and James Hanson (Faith Clift and Richard Moll) vacation in Las Vegas after Clare complains that she dreams about demons. At a show, a psychic shows her a scene of Nazis celebrating. Then a guy from the SS kills the women playing music. Clare invites the psychic to dinner but he's killed before he can attend. Meanwhile Mr. Weiss (Marc Lawrence) gets very upset when he sees Mr. Olivier (Robert Bristol) on TV. He tells police captain Sterne (Cameron Mitchell) that the guy killed his family 35 years before but since Olivier is in his 20's, the captain doesn't believe him. Weiss goes to kill Olivier and is killed by a monster. 

This is actually a feature length version of the third story of the horror paste up anthology NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR. It's almost twice as long as that version and there have been at least 4 other versions in one shape or another! The male voices in this seem to be slowed down and dubbed by the one person!

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Friday, December 9, 2022

Ko & Ho

 

 imdb)

THE UNTOUCHABLE GLORY-1988-Another Asian paste up job, this time from Phillip Ko. Once again some kind of Philippines made action drama has new inserted scenes with Pierre Kirby as a ninja Chuck Norris /Rambo machine who's supposed to be part of an elite force called "The Untouchables". Weird General Karpov (Patrick Frzebar; also in THUNDER OF GIGANTIC SERPENT) wants them destroyed. As usual the story (co-written by Geoffrey Ho) is made incomprehensible but there are some funny incompetent fight scenes in the added footage.

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Saturday, May 29, 2021

Henry's Last Ride

 


FULL METAL NINJA-1989-After some clad in black ninjas threaten a guy dressed in yellow, they fight a guy dressed in pink who gives them a message for their boss "The judge is here". He shoots one of them and lets the other go. 

Then a village is pillaged and most of the people killed. Then a guy named Eagle (Renato Sala) jumps out of the water and cuts down a tree with his sword. The guy in pink is Leon (Pierre Kirby) who's seeking revenge against Boris, an evil guy who killed Leon's family. Eagle has a lot of fights (including vs. a dude who breathes fire). He's looking for general Lo. He meets Jade and after beating a big guy in a contest gives her the prize money. He stays the night with her and her father. Meanwhile Leon the pink fights some multicolored ninjas sent by Boris. Leon shoots one of the attackers but runs out of bullets and let's the other one live. Meanwhile, while preparing to leave Jade's home, Eagle is attacked by a Ninja with a bow and arrow that turns out to be Jade's father. Eagle wounds him but after confessing to his daughter, he kills himself. Eagle leaves her crying over dad's corpse. 

After Jade tries to unsuccessfully kill Eagle, a monk tells Leon he is good and Boris is evil. He should seek Eagle's help. Eagle is captured by Lo after being drugged by a giggling woman, He escapes and is almost killed again but some monks save him. At their monastery he meets Leon. Well sort of... 

If you haven't guessed by now this is two movies pasted together. The main movie is a 1984 Korean feature WARRIOR. Geoffrey Ho (hiding under the name Charles Lee) created this paste up job with his usual incompetency. This was star Pierre Kirby's last movie outing. He seemed to disappear with several stories surrounding his demise.



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Tuesday, July 21, 2020

More Buchanan


IN THE YEAR 2889-1967-Instead of music during the opening credits we get several mushroom cloud explosions and a voice reading Scriptures. After we find out this made for TV remake of Roger Corman’s DAY THE WORLD ENDED was directed by Larry Buchanan everything falls into place.  

Capt.John Ramsey (Neil Fletcher; also in CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION) and his daughter Joanna (Chara Doherty) await the arrival of Larry, her fiance after the bombs have dropped. Dad says she should give up hope but she refuses and when there's a knock at the front door she's elated to think Larry did make it. Despite dad’s warning she opens the door. Surprise! It’s not Larry but scarred victim of radiation poisoning. And according to Pop’s Geiger counter he should be dead! A minute later a guy named Steve (Paul Petersen; in better days the teen star of TV's THE DONNA REED SHOW) shows up and says the radioactive guy is his brother Granger (Max W. Anderson).  Then thug Mickey (Hugh Feagin) and his girl friend Jada (Quinn O'Hara) show up. Steve catches drunk rancher Henderson (Billy Thurman) peeping on Jada. John lays down the law and Jo thinks she hears someone calling her. Granger needs fresh meat and goes out at night hunting game. John says he’s a mutant and should be destroyed.

 A few weeks later (?), Steven and Joanna are falling in love and Granger is setting traps to catch wild game. However he’s scared off by an even uglier mutant who eats the rabbit Granger had planned for his din-din. Pop says as long as it doesn't rain for a while they should be ok. The girls go for a swim In what dad calls a “spring fed pool”. It looks like a regular cement pool and has a diving board! The ugly mutant prowls around. 

This nearly scene for scene (with most of the original dialogue) remake gets boring really fast and the makeup is horrible. Thurman’s original role (played by Raymond Hatton) was a prospector with a pet donkey. Here he’s an alcoholic bootlegger. I guess this version couldn't afford a real donkey. 

Despite some cast listings Jules Verne is not in this movie. The title was appropriated from a Verne short story that AIP had the rights to but never made and had the title under copyright. This is one of four AIP movies remade for the company that were released directly to TV. Buchanan directed them all plus the “originals” MARS NEEDS WOMEN, CURSE OF THE SWAMP CREATURE and IT'S ALIVE!

Thanks for reading! 

The original: https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2009/07/this-is-very-long.html

Zager & Evans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izQB2-Kmiic



Monday, June 15, 2020

Back On Milligan's Island...


THE WEIRDO-1989-Quiet loner Donnie (Steve Burlingtopn) is bullied and beaten up by some redneck refugees from a Ted Nugent concert. He lives in a shed owned by the kindly elderly Mrs. Martins (Naomi Sherwood) who’s friend’s daughter Lisa (Lynee Angus) is staying with her. “Donnie’s alright. He’s just not all there”. He gets very excited watching Lisa take a bubble bath. Later he has a crazy conversation with a girl named Jenny (Jessica Straus) who walks with a limp. They start to hang out together. On his way to deliver some clothes to a church Donnie is once again beat up by white trash inc. but Jenny shows up to help him. At the church the perverted minister warns Jenny not to hang out with Donnie then puts a move on her but she rejects him and tells him off. While drinking milk the couple kiss but Donnie comes on too strong and Jenny runs. 

Later when she calms down she tells Donnie when she was 14 she was raped by a classmate. After they have sex, Donnie has to visit his mother an alcoholic floozy who insults him and winds up whipping him but Donnie turns the tables and chops off her head with meat cleaver. When a guy with a straitjacket comes to take Donnie away he’s killed by shovel. When the minister’s wife questions Donnie about sex with Jenny, he puts a large cross through her. He strangles and electrocutes the perverted minister. Even kindly Mrs. Martins turns against him and he burns her to death.

The funniest stupidest part is when one female character in a dinner explains about the killings. When a vigilante mob gets together it’s like some modern day inbred brain damaged version of a mob from a Universal horror film! Donnie also cuts the throat of one of his attackers and cuts off his hands. (It's not an Andy Milligan movie if someone doesn't lose a hand) The dysfunctional gang (young, old, a guy in a suit & tie) seem to beat Donnie to death. After finding his body Jenny asks “Why can't people be nice to each other?”. But upon bringing a cop to Donnie’s dead body they only discover his bloody jacket. With a strange smile on her face Jenny wanders off to look for her love.... 

This is by far the best looking of  Andy Milligan’s horror movies. The acting by the two leads is ok but it still suffers from the usual Milligan flaws: bad editing, bad acting, ludicrous script and of course gory but phony looking sfx. Filmed by director/writer Milligan in Los Angeles instead of his usual stomping ground Staten Island. The same year he made another movie SURGIKILL which would be his last. He passed away in 1991.

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Sunday, June 14, 2020

Andy's Not Dandy


CARNAGE-1984-A newlywed couple, Carol (Leslie Den Dooven) and Jonathan (Michael Chiodo) move into their new house where three years before a husband killed his bride and himself on their wedding night. Weird things happen. A gas stove goes on by itself, kitchen utensils move around and a phone hangs itself up. There's useless scenes of a mother and daughter talking about marriage and pregnancy. Then Rose (Lola Ross), the new housekeeper is terrorized by the laughing ghost of the dead bride. She tells Rose to leave and begins to strangle her. Rose winds up comatose but wakes long enough to cut her own throat. 

After more useless talk about marriage, two would he burglars break into the basement and are confronted by the insane laughing blood smeared bride ghost. 

One burglar has his hand cut off (typical Andy Milligan cheesy sfx) and the other is strangled and disemboweled,although there's little blood. The next day (?) two couples come for a housewarming party. While one guy can't seem to take a shower, his wife is visited by the ghost bride. Later at the party a rug mysteriously moves causing one woman to fall and get glass in her arms. Then a guy is electrocuted in a bathtub and the next scene is his church funeral. When Jonathan's secretary stops by, her head is chopped off. Then a priest tries to help but gets a neat cleaver in his head. In the end the ghost couple make Carol and Jonathan commit murder/suicide the way they did. 

I don't mind low budget horror movies with bad acting and cheesy sfx but this movie has so much talk unrelated to the plot that it’s ridiculous and boring! Filmed in Staten Island by writer/ director Milligan.

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Thursday, May 28, 2020

Not The Famous Monster

THE ISLAND MONSTER-1954-Critics go on and on about how bad this movie is. True, it's boring and one of Karloff's worst. His real voice isn't even used. A bad imitator dubs him. 

06-13THE ISLAND MONSTER isn't very good. The story drags and the dubbing is terrible but the film was never meant to be viewed outside of Italian speaking countries. This wasn't that uncommon (it happened to Christopher Lee in the German made Sherlock Holmes and would again effect Karloff in THE SNAKE PEOPLE). In the mid-fifties Boris wasn't making a lot of movies. He concentrated his career on TV (he started the “Col. March” TV series the same year) and the stage. Still he felt if someone wanted him for a film he was usually willing to take it. And getting a free trip to Italy for his wife and himself couldn't hurt. He was also probably under the assumption that it wouldn't be shown outside of Italy. It wasn't a pleasant experience for him being the only English speaking cast member and he didn't like the fact that his character was totally unsympathetic in the end. Personally I was glad to see it when it showed up once on WOR’s “Fright Night” in NYC.

Mario (Renato Vicario), an undercover cop in Naples investigates the smuggling of heroin. He meets Guy Gaetano (King Karloff), the island’s “benefactor”, who has built a hospital for sick babies. He goes to a club where everyone acts suspiciously and he pretends to romance D'Auro (Franca Marzi), a singer there. Trouble of another kind brews when Mario's wife Fiorella and little daughter (and their dog) come to visit and wife sees Mario talking to D'Auro. She meets with a smuggler named Foster (Carlo Duse) because they are all in the dope ring and take their orders from an unseen boss (gee...I wonder who that is?). Foster wants the singer to kill Mario. I guess she refuses because later Fiorella is lured from her hotel room with a phony phone call and leaves their daughter alone in an unlocked room. The girl is kidnapped and taken to a secluded island. Of course later it's revealed Gaetano is the ring leader and is also the “monster” of the title, an evil guy who pushes dope and kidnaps a child. 

I guess the producers thought a movie with Karloff in it with monster in the title would deceive many film-goers into thinking it was some kind of horror movie. Eventually the daughter is rescued but not before D'Auro is shot. Mario kills Gaetano. From what some of the characters say it seems this drawn out potboiler was longer but scenes were edited out. Director Roberto Bianchi Montero went on to make many more films in his native country.

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Thursday, April 30, 2020

Monster Muck Up


MONSTROID-1980-An American industrialist (Philip Carey) worries that his cement producing water polluting plant in Columbia SA is losing money because the locals say a giant creature is on a killing spree. A local named Vic is stirring up trouble with his anti-American, anti-big business protests which besides including the monster also concern a witch. An American lady reporter (Andrea Hartford) investigates and interviews people while villagers torment a bull during some kind of festival and a young girl gleefully takes pictures. Meanwhile Pete (Anthony Eisley), the plant manager has a bad break up with his white girlfriend Laura (Coral Kassel) who he throws off for local boo Juanita who has been branded as “la bruja”, a witch. A priest (John Carradine), sermonizes and leads a festival procession and troubleshooter Bill Travis (James Mitchum) arrives to sought things out. After Laura has one last bang with Pete, she becomes monster bait. Later they have sonar equipment set up. Horny Pete is suppose to be monitoring it but he’s too busy bedding Juanita and misses the monster attacking a fishing boat. Meanwhile Travis drills the reporter. Pete’s kids get a blurry photo of the creature’s eye and this convinces everyone the monster is real. At night while the priest leads some loco locals to burn the witch, crazy Vic causes an explosion that cripples the plant and kills him. Pete, Travis and Juanita set a trap for the monster and Travis gets waterlogged saving the day but blows up the monster. However the kids’ dog makes a startling surprise in the end.  

The monster makes Reptilicus look good. Credits say based on a true story but there’s no such village in Colombia and most of the story was shot in Mexico.

This low budget production (begun in 1971!) went through many script, cast and title changes (Carradine doesn't interact with any of the other “stars” and scenes with Philip Carey are just him talking on a phone) before being released in it's present form. Director Ken Hartford also made the past up job THE LUCIFIER COMPLEX. It's also been said (by Anthony Eisley in an interview with Tom Weaver) film “doctor” Herbert Strock directed most of the movie with credited director Hartford having very little to do with it.

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Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Daring Drug Expose'



MARIHUANA-1936-More REEFER MADNESS influenced anti drug mania with two sleazy grass peddlers who recruit a woman (Harley Wood) to help them push weed after the boyfriend who impregnated her is killed in a drug smuggling operation. Later they kidnap her sister's child and hold her for ransom until she learns it's actually her child! Another badly acted morality tale from exploitation master Dwain Esper, the director of MANIAC and HOW TO UNDRESS IN FRONT OF YOUR HUSBAND.

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Monday, November 9, 2015

American Actors In Italy


 
 
THE VISITOR-1979-At an Atlanta Hawks basketball game a little girl named Katy (Paige Connor) seems to make an opposing player lose the game. She's a snot-nosed brat and after having sex her mother Barbara (Joanne Nail) confesses to her boyfriend Raymond (Lance Henriksen who was in OMEN 2 the year before) that she's afraid of her daughter. It turns out Raymond actually works for a cabal led by Dr. Walker (Mel Ferrer) who says the mother carries the genes of “Sateen”. They want the boyfriend to impregnate mom so Katy will have a brother. For some reason Katy gets a revolver for a birthday present and she accidentally shoots mom who winds up paralyzed. A character who may be Jesus Christ (Franco Nero) sends a visitor (John Huston) to check up on Katy. And a weird housekeeper (Shelly Winters, no stranger to horror and exploitation) also hangs around. Meanwhile a detective (Glen Ford who had played Pa Kent in the SUPERMAN movie the year before) investigates until he is killed. Later after Raymond and Katy kill Barbara the visitor sends a flock of birds to kill Raymond and Katy is whisked away to a heavenly place where (now bald) she joins other hairless children under the protection of the Christ like figure.

This Italian/US co-production THE OMEN inspired tale was filmed in and around Rome by Guilio Paradisi (a former actor) under the more American sounding Michael J. Paradise. It's no paradise when viewing this disjointed, badly dubbed horror tale despite the name cast. It could be the US version was badly cut and dubbed making the story fairly incoherent. For example director Sam Peckinpah appears in one scene as a doctor named Collins (Katy and Barbara's last name). It seems in the uncut version it's explained that the doctor is actually Barbara's ex-husband but here it's reduced to a weird cameo by an American director (Peckinpah would make this last movie THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND a few years later). Actor/director Mel Ferrer was in several European horror films around this time and the same year as THE VISITOR was in added US scenes for an Italian horror film SCREAMERS.

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Wednesday, September 16, 2015

8 Drunks


 
KUNG-FU OF THE EIGHT DRUNKARDS-1980-More inebriated Kung-Fu hi-jinx. An alcoholic martial arts master, Wu Tseng tries to teach his student Chan Kung (Meng Fei). After some fool who looks radiation scarred causes trouble with some firecrackers Chan Kung meets another fighter named Monkey Thief. They fight in an “8 Immortals Style” tournament. Kung becomes a waiter and that seems to help improve his Kung-Fu but he gets beaten up anyway. When some idiots refuse to pay their check a woman named Pie Yu beats them up. Meanwhile a mysterious figure in black hangs around in the background. There's more plot but it gets very confusing (probably due to the bad dubbing and editing) but there is some intense training sessions for Chan Kung and most of the fights are humorous (despite the serious story line) until the finale which is very violent but it all ends comically.

Director Ma Wu (the word director is spelled wrong on the print I saw) was also a busy actor as well as directing over 40 martial arts films (including WU TANG CLAN and ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA).

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Friday, April 17, 2015

Lee's Game


GAME OF DEATH-1978-Every martial arts movie fans' favorite paste up job. The legendary Bruce Lee began this film as producer/writer/director in 1973.

While filming Lee got an offer from Warner Bros. to star in the most expensive budgeted martial arts at the time (ENTER THE DRAGON). He planned to resume shooting on GAME but died of a cerebral edema (some might disagreed with the cause of death) before DRAGON's release leaving behind about 100 minutes of footage. In 1978 DRAGON's director Robert Clouse was hired to make a movie out of the remaining footage.

The story concerns a martial arts film star Billy Lo (either Kim Tai-jung aka Tony Lung, or Yuen Biao doubling for Lee who appears briefly in close-ups and in scenes from WAY OF THE DRAGON (used as the film he's working on; Chuck Norris also appears). He's under pressure from a syndicate boss Dr. Land (Dean Jagger) and his smart ass henchman Steiner (Hugh O'Brian; still alive at the time of this writing). Billy refuses to buckle under the syndicate's grip so Land sends an assassin (Mel Novak) to kill the star. Billy is shot but not killed but with the help of his reporter/friend (Gig Young in his last role) fakes his death and has plastic surgery so he can get revenge on the gang. He wears various disguises (so he doesn't look like the real Lee) and beats up a corrupt American martial artist (real pro Karate fighter Robert Hall). Later, after his girlfriend (Coleen Camp) has been kidnapped,  in the film's most famous scenes, Billy (the real Lee) has to fight three guardians played by Don Insanto (his real life student), Korean Hapkido master Ji Han-jae and former pro basketball player Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

Writer/director Robert Clouse does a good job of editing together scenes of the real and fake Lees but even still the movie doesn't ring true and the re-editing and Lee doubles ultimately do in the production.

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Saturday, September 27, 2014

Gory Junk




HEADCRUSHER-1999-In this low budget horror atrocity a mobster kills his cheating wife and her soldier lover. With the help of some underlings he hangs the woman and crushes the head of the man. 20 years later some stupid racist construction workers are digging around and unearth something. Suddenly someone or something is running around crushing people's heads. Meanwhile a female police detective investigates and the daughter of the first construction worker tries to find some answers with the help of some friends (bad move). The killer (he resembles the killer in 1981's THE PROWLER)  was used as an experiment in Vietnam. It's probably the only slasher movie I've seen where a pro wrestling  "sleeper hold"  comes into play at the climax.

Crap like this always makes me wonder about the mental state of the director, this time Richardo Islas but perhaps he's just an incompetent boob trying to win a place among "gore hounds" wrapping bad acting, stupid dialogue, disposable characters, clumbsy sex scenes and substandard direction around extreme violence.

Also called BROKEN SKULL. 

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Saturday, May 24, 2014

Fatal Entry



FATAL CHASE-1992-This Hong Kong production is one of the most ineptly made low budget crime dramas I've seen. The dubbing and sound effects are so out of sync it almost seems no one cared if they matched at all!

The episodic story concerns two Hong Kong police officers (Robin Shou and Yukari Oshima) in The Philippines (where this was shot) hunting a crime boss named Torres (Dion Lam). Later after Oshima's character is killed the local chief of police (Waise Lee from A BETTER TOMORROW) helps out. The fights and direction are terrible but director Phillip Ko (who has a small role) did better with INTERPOL CONNECTION (also with Shou, Oshima and Lam).

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Friday, March 21, 2014

Massacre Mitchell Style




DUKE MITCHELL'S MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE-(aka THE EXECUTIONER)-1978-If you've ever seen the very bizarre BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA, you'll remember the comedy team of Mitchell & Petrillo who did a take-off on the the popular team of Martin & Lewis.

Well the Dean Martin clone of the duo Duke Mitchell produced, wrote and directed this THE GODFATHER rip-off but apparently he only had beer money to finance it. The acting, direction and editing are all terrible. Mitchell plays Mimi Micelli who narrates his story which begins in Sicily where he grows up after his father has been deported by the US. Mimi returns to the states later and hooks up with his old friend Jolly (Vic Caesar). They kidnap a mob boss Chucky Tripoli (Louis Zito) and hold him for ransom (they send his severed finger through the mail as proof). After crashing Chucky's son's wedding and he and Tripoli decide to team up. Mimi swears a lot, spouts racist slurs, smokes and kills with a shotgun. He forms The Sons of Sicily Defense League but their spokesman is shot dead on live TV. A gangster named Bones (Fred Otash) who's fed up with Mimi's antics beats him up and makes him go into the movie business! Mimi and Solly go to a black pimp called Super Spook (Jimmy Williams) to get some girls for their movie. After they insult him he says "you guys have been been watching too many Humphrey Bogart movies". (he's actually right in a way) When he declines their offer they crucify him on a church cross.

There's killing, some gore and an explosion at a funeral that kills all the mourners! Mimi's ridiculous speech at the end includes a swipe at THE GODFATHER movie and novel. His bloody death involves a shotgun hidden in a loaf of bread.

It's called LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON when the credits are shown at the end. Mitchell also wrote the movie and sings the end theme. He made one other movie GONE WITH THE POPE (which he started filming before MASSACRE) but died (in 1981) before it was finished. It was rescued from obscurity by Grindhouse Releasing (co-founder by Sage Stallone who died in 2012), Buck Flower (who has a very small role) was the only other cast member I knew.

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Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Rothrock



HONOR AND GLORY-1993-Tracy (Cynthia Rothrock), an FBI agent leaves Hong Kong for Washington DC to investigate something about a Soviet warhead detonator. Her sister Joyce (Donna Jason)) beats up a black woman in a parking lot. They both practice martial arts. Most of this badly directed and acted martial arts crime drama is Joyce investigating corrupt banking CEO Jason Slade (John Miler) who calls Ronald Reagan an "old bastard". Eventually Tracy gets involved and gets help from (the unfortunately named) Asian FBI agent Dragon Lee (Robin Shou later in MORTAL KOMBAT) when it turns out Slade has the warhead.

 The whole thing is very disjointed. It almost seems like two movies edited together but it was directed by Godfrey Ho the master of the Kung-Fu paste-up job so that could explain a lot! It even takes time to deviate from the time story to focus on Hideo (Richard Yuen), Slade's disillusioned bodyguard. It also features phony shieks and one actor waits for his cue. Like a lot of Shaw Bros. films at the end four good guys fight the main bad guy.

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Thursday, March 6, 2014

Hong Kong again



INTERPOL CONNECTION-(Zhi zun te jing aka HARD TO KILL)-1992-Nearly an hour goes by and this is a standard cops vs. gangsters drama with Robin Shou as an arrogant Hong Kong government agent tracking a drug smuggler (director Phillip Ko) in Manila. There's shoot-outs, car chases and an annoying comedy relief detective, a real whining buffoon who still acts like a clown even after his partner is gunned down. However late in the story Yukari Oshima (aka Cynthia Luster) shows up as another Interpol agent who teams up with Shou for a decent martial arts finale that almost saves this badly made bore-fest (although Oshima moves are very good).

Stunt coordinator Dion Lam later worked on big Hollywood productions like THE MATRIX and SPIDER-MAN 2.

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Sunday, February 2, 2014

Jackie Chan






THE INVINCIBLE FIGHTER:THE JACKIE CHAN STORY-1996?-A narrator tells us about Jacky (Jackie) Chan (born Chan Yuen Long) becoming the new Bruce Lee, a Kung-Fu international star. The movie highlights 10 movies featuring Chan. The narrator also explains about the 18 fighting styles and weapons used. Then scenes from "CUB TIGER FROM KWANTUNG, SPIRITUAL KUNG-FU, THE FEARLESS HYENA and others (mostly directed by Wei Lo) are shown with the narrator explaining some of the action. The sub-titles have lots of mistakes and are sometimes out of sync with the action. Also a scene that's suppose to depict Chan's training is actually a scene from a movie!

Despite all that it's worth seeing for the stunts and styles especially if you're a Jackie Chan fan. I'm not sure of the year it was made or who directed. It recently came out on DVD.

Thanks for reading!

Friday, January 31, 2014

Slaves




SLAVES IN BONDAGE-1937-Jim Murray (Wheeler Oakman from ESCORT GIRL) and Belle Harris (Florence Dudley) are running whore houses using kidnapped girls. A reporter named Phil (Donald Reed) tries to crack the ring with the help of his girlfriend manicurist Donna Lee (Lona Andre). For some reason two guys do a weird acrobatic dance for Phil, who's unimpressed. It turns out the manicure parlor is actually a front for it's real business: prostitution! A thug named good looking Freddy is shot and his dead body dumped on the street. An Asian woman does a fan dance. Meanwhile two of Murray's stooges Nick (John Merton) and Dutch (Richard Cramer)) plot to take over. Jim (who's sweet on Donna) frames Phil with some marked money while Belle tries to "recruit" Donna. Nick and Dutch try their takeover and a big fight ensues. The police finally get wise and arrest everyone and Phil rescues Donna from Jim's evil clutches. This badly directed and edited exploitation film is full of comic drunks, cliched dialogue, a cat fight and 2 woman spanking each other.

Lead actress Lona Andre was in OUR RELATIONS with Laurel & Hardy and lost out the role of "the panther woman" in ISLAND OF LOST SOULS to Kathleen Burke.

Producer J.D. Kendis also produced ESCORT GIRL. Director Elmer Clifton started his career in silent films (his most famous was DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS) but made mostly low budget dramas in the sound era. One of his last projects was the serial CAPTAIN AMERICA.

Thanks for reading!