Satan Strikes

 

 (imdb)

NIGHT VISITOR-1989-Billy Colton (Derek Rydall), a moronic high school student who's always late for class spies on his new single hot neighbor Lisa (Shannon Tweed). He has a dopey friend Sam (Scott Fults) and a kind of girlfriend Kelly (Teresa Van der Woude). When Billy decides to climb to a window of Lisa's house to get some pics, he sees her ritualistically killed by a masked Satanist who turns out to be his teacher Mr. Willard (Allen Garfield) who lives with his weird brother Stanley (Michael J. Pollard) and have a kidnapped hooker in their basement. Unfortunately, the police (lead by Richard Roundtree) don't believe Billy because he's known to be a liar. Billy goes to an ex-cop Devereaux (Elliot Gould) for help. Meanwhile Willard and Stanley sacrifice the hooker to Satan. The police consult an authority on Satanism (Henry Gibson!). Later, when Kelly is kidnapped, Billy and Devereaux invade Willard's house. 

The out-of-control finale saves this from time wasting boredom and the annoying Billy character! Brooke Bundy plays Billy's mom. Director Rupert Hitzig earlier had produced WOLFEN (1981) and JAWS 3-D (1983).

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Chuck Power

 

 (imdb)

AN EYE FOR AN EYE-1981-After his partner Pierce (Terry Kiser) is killed in a shootout, undercover cop Sean Kane (Chuck Norris) resigns under pressure from his boss (Richard Roundtree). Pierce's widow Linda (Rosalind Chao) is a reporter who discovers a secret operation. Unfortunately, she's killed by a club foot Asian strongman (Prof. Toru Tanaka). Morgan Canfield (Christopher Lee), the head of a TV station seems helpful but acts suspiciously. Another reporter Heather (Maggie Cooper) helps Kane track down suspect Montoya (Mel Novak). Later Kane teams with Linda's father James (Mako). After he and Heather have sex, it's revealed that the whole drug shebang is headed by Canfield, helped out by Kane's corrupt cop friend McCoy (Matt Clark).

 Director Steve Carver (BIG BAD MAMA (1974), DRUM (1976)) worked with Norris again on probably his best movie LONE WOLF MCQUADE (1983). EYE isn't bad but what it needs more emotion from Norris.

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He's A Bad Mother...

SHAFT-1971-This kind of relic from the '70's is in a way the ultimate "black exploitation" film. In most movies the lead character has trouble with a racist individual or racism in general but here John Shaft "the private dick who's a sex machine for all the chicks" really has nothing but disdain for white people. In the mostly actionless plot Shaft (Richard Roundtree) refuses to help a white police captain fight crime but takes the case of finding the daughter of a ruthless Harlem gangster named Bumpy (Moses Gunn) kidnapped by the Mafia. He enlists some black militant drug dealers to assist him. He has sex with his girlfriend but when she says "I love you" to him over the phone he just replies "Yeah, I know" and hangs up and later has sex with a white prostitute. In the climax he leads the gang (dressed up like cooks, janitors and bellhops) in an assault on the building where the mob is holding the daughter. After the rescue and some fighting, Shaft just laughs as the police have to deal with the mess he's made.

Shaft acts cool and tough but there's too much talk. Perhaps Life magazine photographer turned director Gordon Parks wasn't sure which way to take the story: serious cultural drama or action packed crime drama. The best part to me was the on location scenes of NYC in the early '70's (especially the 42nd Street area).

 Author Ernest Tidyman (THE FRENCH CONNECTION) wrote the screenplay based on his novel. SHAFT spawned two sequels and a short lived TV series. The Isaac Hayes soundtrack won an Academy Award.

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