“Your Weapons Have No Affect On Me”

 

 (imdb)

THE PRINCE OF SPACE-1959-In Japan, the evil alien Phantom Dictator (Joji Oka) wants the secret formula Dr. Maki (Ushio Akashi) has. The aliens have big fake noses that kind of look like birds. However, a mysterious superhero Prince of Space (Tatsuo Umemiya) shows up to thwart the bad guys. Some little kids get in the way. 

Known as “Planet Prince” in Japan, it's based on TV show and was shown in several installments in Japanese theaters. It's a typical fun outing but those “beaked” aliens are hilarious! It was shown in US theaters in 1965. Eijiro Wakabayshi was the director. 

The character was rebooted in 2021 as PLANET PRINCE 2021.

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Aztec Hero

 

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THE PUMAMAN-1980-Jane Dotson (Sydne Rome) discovers that an ancient mask of The Pumaman has alien technology in it. However, two stuck up guys don't want anyone to know so one of them Kobras (Donald Pleasence) hypnotizes her. He then sets his sights on killing The Pumaman, an alien protector with "god like" powers connected to an Aztec legend.

 In England, where several Americans have been killed, an American archaeologist Prof. Tony Farms (Walter George Alton) is a smug wise ass who likes to jog. He's pursued by a big guy Vadinho (Miguel Angel Fuentes; also in FITZCARRALDO (1982)) who throws him out a window. Farms survives and is told he's the Pumaman but doesn't believe it. Later he's invited by Jane to visit her father at the Swedish embassy but it's really a ruse by Kobras to find out if Farms is the P-man. When Farms puts on a gold belt, he becomes The Pumaman, in a superhero costume and cape. He must save the world from Kobras and his conquest scheme and rescue Jane from his clutches. 

This Italian feature directed by Alberto Di Martino (THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER 1963)) has very bad sfx.

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From Japan

 

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FUGITIVE ALIEN-1978- Alien Ken (Tatsuya Azuma) is on the run from his home planet because he wouldn't kill a human child. On Earth he has super abilities and is kind of forced to join a special space force unit headed by Captain Joe (Jo Shishido; BRANDED TO KILL (1967)), whose wife and child were killed by Ken's race. A pasty-faced alien leader sends Ken's lover to kill him because Ken killed her brother (he was going to kill the kid Ken wouldn't). It's several episodes of the Japanese TV show "Space Wolf" which in turn was an adaptation of a novel by American author Edmund Hamilton. There was also a FUGITIVE ALIEN 2.

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Mighty Jack

 

 (imdb)

MIGHTY JACK-1968-In Japan Mighty Jack was a 13-part TV show co-created by sfx guru Eiji Tsuburaya. American producer Sandy Howard got a hold of 2 episodes (1 & 6) and edited them together to create this feature film. 

It features a group of government agents called Mighty Jack and their atomic submarine also called Mighty Jack. Their main enemy is the villainous organization called Q. In the first half MJ rescues the mysterious Mr. Atari who was kidnapped in France. He becomes their new leader. In the second part, MJ investigates the creation of "hot ice" from a scientist's stolen papers. The protagonists are the scientist's German son and star reporter. I'm sure the original was entertaining enough but this version is a mess. 

Star Kenji Sahara was in the original Godzilla and several sequels and other series like Ultraman. This is also the only directorial effort from Kazuo Sagawa who did sfx for other movies.

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Batwoman in Mexico

 

 (imdb)

THE BATWOMAN-1968-In Acapulco, Robles (Hector Godoy), a FBI agent and the local police enlisted the aid of superhero crime fighting lady wrestler The Batwoman (Maura Monti) to help solve a series of killings, all against pro wrestlers and all having pineal fluid taken from the bodies. Batwoman's crime fighting outfit consists of boots, a bikini and cape and cowl that look like a Halloween costume. The killings are all the work of mad scientist Dr. Williams (Roberto Canedo) and his abused assistant Igor (Carlos Suarez) who are trying to create a man-fish. After infiltrating Williams' boat The Reptillicus, Batwoman's caught but escapes after beating up some henchmen. She uses a lot of chops. The gang pursues her. They recapture her but she chops her way out. Later Williams gets a creature to grow man-size and plans on making a fish-woman. Now named Pisces, the creature goes after Batwoman while she's doing some underwater exploring. She is again pursued but an underwater flare and gasoline show that fire is the creature's weakness. Later while Batwoman is wrestling, Williams has a tracking device placed on her cape but she turns the tables on the mad doctor and saves the day. Funny final scene. 

This Mexican production was directed by Rene Cardona (NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES (1969) and produced and written by Alfredo Salazar. Star Monti (from Italy) made her last film appearance in one of Boris Karloff's Mexican films (ALIEN TERROR aka INCREDIBLE INVASION) in 1971.

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The One and Only

 

 (imdb)

THE GOLDEN BAT (Ogon batto)-1966-Akira (Wataru Yamagawa), a young guy who likes astronomy tells some scientists in an observatory that the planet Icarus is going to collide with the Earth. They don't believe him. He's contacted by a secret organization hidden in "the Japan Alps", who monitor abnormalities on Earth, to help destroy Icarus before it strikes Earth. Unbeknownst to them is that Nazo (Koji Sekiyama), an evil alien who sort of resembles a muppet rabbit has send Icarus at the Earth. Meanwhile a “super destruction beam cannon” is developed by Dr. Yamatone (Shinichi “Sonny” Chiba) and Prof. Pearl (Andrew Hughes; also in DESTROY ALL MONSTERS). When one of the organization's ships mysteriously disappears the group all put on shiny suits (including Pearl's young granddaughter) and board super car #2 to investigate an uncharted island which turns out to be a submerged portion of Atlantis. . 

When they are attacked by Nazo's alien henchmen the group hides in a cave where they discover a sarcophagus of "The Golden Bat". When they pour water on his stomach he comes to life and proclaims himself "the protector of justice". He vanquishes the attacking aliens and helps the group escape. When Nazo finds out about the super destruction beam cannon he sends disfigured Keloid (Yoichi Numata), female Piranha (Keiko Kuni) and wolf like Jackal (Keiichi Kitagawa) to destroy it. They invade the organization headquarters and The Golden Bat, who has a skull face, a cape and a baton and laughs just as maniacally as bad guy Nazo, shows up to help but Prof. Pearl is kidnapped and the cannon stolen. Piranha takes over the body of Noami, one of the crew. Later Keloid is transformed into Pearl. GB invades the base and takes back the beam just in time to destroy Icarus before it hits. 

The Ogon Batto character was created in 1931 and is now generally considered the first comic book superhero. He kind of reminded me of Dr. Phibes! Although an Anime series was produced in 1967, this is the only feature film made featuring the character. Director Hajime Sato later made GOKE, BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL.

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Big Debut!

 

 (wikipedia)

INVASION OF THE NEPTUNE MEN-1961-Invaders from space attack Earth. While scientists investigate, a group of little boys are saved from the pointy headed metal invaders by the superhero Iron Sharp (Shin'ichi “Sonny” Chiba in his film debut) who is also the friend of one of the scientists. 

It's very dumb and kiddie oriented. 

When the aliens attack there's a quick shot of Hitler on billboard being destroyed. This led to rumors that actually footage from WW 2 was used but all the destruction footage is taken from a movie called "WW 2 Breaks Out". This Toei production was directed by Koji Ota.

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Frank!

FEARLESS FRANK-1967-In this comedy/parody nuttiness country boy Frank (Jon Voight in his film debut) leaves his home and goes to the city where he falls for Plethora (Monquie van Voorhen,)daughter of mob leader Needles (author Nelson Algren) and is killed. “The Good Doctor” (Severn Darden) brings him back to life as a super hero to fight evil. Frank can fly, is bulletproof and is very strong. His strange gang consists of Cat (Ben Carruthers), Rat (David Steinberg) and Screwnose. Later the doctor's evil brother Claude (also Darden) shows up and creates “False Frank” to combat the hero. Eventually both Franks meet and have a fight on some roller coaster tracks. When Frank is killed it's up to False Frank to save the city from destruction. Director Phillip Kaufman creates a weird personal (maybe too personal) one of a kind low budget oddity that seems to be using elements of Frankenstein, Superman, My Fair Lady and even FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER! Outrageous touches include Frank and Plethora having sex with loud Batman TV show sound effects.

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Superboy on TV (almost)

THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERBOY-1961-This was a TV pilot produced by SUPERMAN producer Whitney Ellsworth. The simple plot involves a trio of thugs who plan to rob a movie theater in Smallville. Fred, the doorman (Ross Elliot) has a son Jimmy who's kind of ashamed of his old man's occupation. For some reason to promote their new movie the theater manager has 200,000 dollars in uncut diamonds on display. One bad guy (Richard Reeves) causes a ruckus out in Bronson canyon to distract the police from their real target. 

While Superboy talks by radio to the chief of police, the other two use knockout gas on the police guards and make off with the diamonds. Superboy arrests Reeves just as he gets the word the theater has been robbed. Fortunately Fred is also a crack artist and he draws portraits of the two robbers. Superboy uses his super pressure on some coal to create new diamonds for the display and uses his super hearing as a “lie detector” to listen to Reeves' heart rate. They use Fred as “bait” to trap the robbers but it kind of backfires and Superboy instead makes the fleeing crooks crash their car. For Fred's courageous work, Jimmy wins a scholarship and his father wins Jimmy's respect.

There are interviews with the 4 different actress auditioning for Lana and then screen tests and an interview with the lead actor John Rockwell (in his costume)

This has been available as a bootleg for years and is on Youtube.

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Stan Lee Has a Cameo!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN-2012-Hollywood couldn't stop when they were ahead could they? I'll say Sam Raimi's 2004 version wasn't perfect but he did a good adaptation. Why not 10 years later did they have to "re-invent" the whole thing over again?? The makers of this could have cut to the chase at least and just included a brief introduction on how the old web-head came to be but no they had to start all over again although the origins are basically the same. This time however nerdy science brain photograph taking Peter Parker has a mysterious missing father (Campbell Scott) who was once friends with the one armed Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans) now head of a technology corporation working with spiders. Flash Thompson is still the dumb muscled bully but when Peter after gaining his super powers humiliates him in front of the whole gym it's Peter who gets in trouble and receives a stern lecture from his doomed Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen). Hey! Someone has to defend bullies, right?

But in fact Peter is kind of a fuck up, acting very dysfunctional and even forgetting to do things for his devoted Aunt May (Sally Field). Later Peter strikes up a relationship with Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) who's father (Dennis Leary, Dennis Leary? Really? At least THE DARK KNIGHT had Gary Oldman) of course is the police captain trying to arrest the crime-fighter. Andrew Garfield is a total failure in the title role who instead of being the wisecracking hero is more like a smug bully himself. Connors later turns himself into The Lizard but of course instead of a being a lizard man it's a huge mutated CGI monster. The stupidest part is how The Lizard finds out Peter secret ID. After one of their encounters he finds a camera stamped "property of Peter Parker"!

Director Marc Webb (who also made the romance  (500) OF SUMMER) should stick to making Jesse McCartney videos. Unfortunately this was a hit and Part 2 is in post-production at the time of this writing. Too bad no one told him the phrase: "With great power comes great responsibility"....

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Super Hero

GREEN LANTERN-2011-I don't really think the people who made this flop adaptation of the cool DC comics superhero (this version created by Gil Kane and John Broome) really knew what they were doing. 

Ryan Reynolds (X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE) is Hal Jordan, a reckless pilot who becomes Earth's green guardian after the original is killed. He has a lantern and says the famous phrase: "In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight, let those who worship evil's might, beware my power, Green Lantern's light".

They even throw in a few other alien Lanterns and their little bosses The Guardians. Mark Strong (KICK-ASS) is Sinestro and Blake Lively helps bog things down as Jordan's love interest. Tim Robbins and Angela Bassett are also in it. 

GL must face a super being called Parallax, who lives on fear but somebody forgot to tell director Martin Campbell (THE MARK OF ZORRO, two James Bond movies, EDGE OF DARKNESS) he was making a movie about a comic book superhero not SFX laden science fiction talk fest which is what this is.

When are they gonna do a movie version of Bwana Beast? 

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When Capt. America Throws His Mighty Shield...

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER-2011-Marvel' s famous WW 2 hero is finally given the big budget Hollywood treatment.

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans from THE LOSERS) is a patriotic wimpy guy who tries several times to join the army but always comes up 4-F. His best friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) makes it easily and goes off to war. Eventually a German doctor (Stanley Tucci) picks Rogers to be the US army's test subject in their "Super Soldier" experiment. Hugh Weaving is fine as Johan Schmidt aka The Red Skull who with his Nazi based group Hydra plans to destroy the world. He's assisted by Dr. Armin Zola (Toby Jones from HARRY POTTER AND THE DEADLY GALLOWS) looking a lot like Truman Capote.

Tommy Lee Jones is the skeptical Colonel Phillips and Hayley Atwill (the recent THE PRISONER remake) is the out of place English female officer Peggy Carter. Dominic Cooper is Howard Stark. Cap also gets help from the un-named Howlin' Commandos (Timothy McDonough as Dum Dum, Derek Luke as Gabe Jones, Kenneth Choi, JJ Feild and Bruno Ricci).

Of course it's a great action film and Evans is good in the lead role especially in his handling of the pre-super soldier Rogers. The weird twist ending features Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury. Co-executive producer Stan Lee has a cameo. Great closing credits!

Strange that this well done adaptation was made by director Joe Johnson (HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS, JUMANJI) after the overly gory THE WOLFMAN. Whoa! I can't wait for THE AVENGERS!

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Better Thor

THOR-2011-I really wasn't prepared to enjoy this movie and so maybe I liked it a little more than some. There were a 1000 ways for the filmmakers to screw it up but instead they did a pretty good "Hollywood job" with it.

Chris Hemsworth is the hammer yielding Norse god from the Marvel comic book. In Asgard he's a very arrogant thunder god who starts a new war with the frost giants and is banished by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) to Earth. But the real culprit behind it all is his jealous half brother Loki (Tim Hiddleston).

Natalie Portman is kind of miscast as Jane Foster, a scientist who becomes his love interest and Rene Russo is Thor's mom Frigga. Stellan Skarsgard is an archeologist who eventually figures in the future AVENGERS movie (a post end credits scene also features Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury). Even the Warriors Three are featured. Ray Stevenson is Volstag, Tadanobu Asano is Hogun and Josh Daniels is Fandril. Of course Stan Lee has a cameo as does J. Michael Straczynski who developed the story.

Actor-director Kenneth Branagh did a better job adapting this than he did Frankenstein.

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Iron Ass

IRON MAN-2010-2-This film is the biggest joke of 2010! Iron Man is reduced to a clown in this talky nonsensical hit which is too long, over acted and just plain annoying. The first 30 minutes had me wondering if I was actually watching an Iron Man sequel or weird promotional short about Tony Stark.

Still in Academy Award nominated mode Mickey Rourke (with Russian accent) shows up as Whiplash, a revenge seeking super villain but the initial fight is him against an Iron Man-less Stark. Don Cheadle returns as Rhodey Rhodes and dons the War Machine armor to battle a drunk Iron Man in a lounge at the Stark Expo in Flushing Meadow Park. Samuel L. Jackson has a bigger role this time as Nick Fury who says witty things like "I've got my eye on you". Scarlett Johansson is the Black Widow (this is also unfortunately seems like a major introduction for a her character). Sam Rockwell is Justin Hammer, Stark's moronic villainous rival and Gary Shandling plays a senator who wants the Iron Man suit turned over to the evil US. Oh yeah, Gwyeth Paltrow is back as Pepper Potts who somehow becomes in charge of Stark Enterprises.

Later Whiplash programs War Machine to go after Iron Man and the all out climax begins when giant Transformer like robots are let loose. Director Jon Favreau (from Queens, NY) plays Happy Hogan. I hope he sticks to acting.

Also with John Slattery, Kate Mara, Leslie Bibb, Clark Gregg and the voice of Paul Bettany. Stan Lee has a cameo and there's a post credit scene relating to Thor.

I have to admit though Downey plays a great asshole

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Cavedog Like!

HULK WORLD/PLANET HULK-2010-This Marvel Animation Production is based on one of their graphic novels. In it the Hulk is banished to another world by Iron Man and other Earth superheroes. He winds up on a planet where gladiator type fights take place between different alien warriors. Guess who becomes the champion? It's entertaining with action and drama and Beta Ray Bill even shows up in the arena! It premiered on the Disney cable channel XD.

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X-Prequel

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE-This is a kind of useless prequel to the first X-Men movie. It shows Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) as a child experiment and how he and his brother (Liev Schreiber) fought in many wars throughout history. In the modern age, a military colonel named Stryker (Danny Huston) forms a mercenary team with them a few other mutants. Eventually, Logan has enough and leaves. Later, bro Victor starts killing his ex-team mates and Stryker wants Logan to stop him. The weird climatic fight seems like a scene from a video game and Kevin Durand as The Blob was a bad idea. Patrick Stewart even shows up at the end. Also with Lynn Collins, Dominic Monaghan.

Director Gavin Hood (from South Africa) also made TSOTSI.

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Live Action Manga

THE GUYVER-1991-This is a crazy kind of Sci-Fi superhero comedy drama based on a Japanese manga.

A scientist working for the evil Chronus corporation has created “the most dangerous technology since the atom bomb”. It's called The Guyver, an armor that sort of fuses with the body. It looks like an sinister version of Ultra-Man.

Chronus CEO Balcus (David Gale from RE-ANIMATOR in his last role) wants the armor. His semi-comical goon squad includes Jimmy Walker, Michael Berryman and Spice Williams. They can all mutate into monsters too. After the scientist is killed a dumb martial arts student (Jack Armstrong) accidentally gets the armor and must save the late scientist’s daughter (Vivian Wu). Mark Hamil is a CIA agent who helps out but becomes a monster in the climax. It’s a fun movie if you like outrageous monsters fighting with a little comedy thrown in.

Linnea Quigley has one scream, I mean scene and REANIMATOR star Jeffery Combs has a small role. Co-director Screaming Mad George did SFX on many movies (including BRIDE OF THE RE-ANIMATOR) but this is his only full length feature credit.

Co-director Steve Wang later made a sequel GUYVER: DARK HERO and episodes of MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS. If THE GUYVER seems to have a lot of Re-Animator connects, Brian Yuzna was the producer.



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Make Mine Marvel! Part 3

X-MEN 3: LAST STAND-2006-Although I read a lot of bad reviews for this hit second sequel I really enjoyed it. There are some rough spots but what movie is perfect? Nearly everyone returns including top billed Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Halle Berry as Storm, Patrick Stewart as Prof. X and Ian McKellan as Magneto. Famke Jansen's Jean Grey is even resurrected as Dark Phoenix. Kelsey Grammer is The Beast. Michael Murphy is a scientist who has invented a cure for mutants. Magneto (acting more like the comic book version than ever before) doesn’t like it and puts together a mutant army to overthrow the world. The finale is great. 

Director Brett Ratner helmed all three RUSH HOUR movies and made many music videos early in his career. He was the executive producer of the first season of TV’s PRISON BREAK. 

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Make Mine Marvel?

FANTASTIC FOUR-2005-The future super team (plus Victor Von Doom who is engaged to Sue Storm) goes into space and gets bombarded by cosmic rays. They begin to exhibit strange powers. Wow! This is kind of similar to a comic book Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created in the early ‘60’s!

Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd; Lancelot in KING ARTHUR) gets insulted a lot for being a detached egghead. Human Torch Johnny Storm (Chris Evans) is a wise-ass moron who makes you wish he'd really go up in flames. (well at least there's no Herbie the robot) Sue Storm (miscast Jennifer Alba) mostly walks around naked (but she’s invisible of course). The future Doctor Doom (Julian McMahon) likes to whisper and chew the scenery. In this version he doesn’t wear a suit of armor. He becomes one instead! Only Michael Chiklis’ Ben Grimm (aka The Ever Lovin’ Blue Eyed Thing) captures any spirit of the original comic. He needed funnier lines though. The action scenes and SFX are well done though except maybe for Mr. Fantastic’s stretching power. Director Tim Story had previously made BARBERSHOP and TAXI.

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Miike Strikes Again!

ZEBRAMAN-2004-Japanese maverick director Takashi Miike scores again with this insane super hero comedy/drama/takeoff. Shin’ichi (Sho Aikawa) is a doormat teacher who’s ridiculed by the school staff and students, his wife cheats on him, his daughter is a slut and his young son is bullied at the school. To escape reality at night he dons a home made costume of Zebraman, based on a long forgotten TV show. But when slimy real aliens actually invade the Earth it’s up to Shin’ichi to become the real Zebraman and save the world! The first half hour is tough going but after that it really takes off. Star Aikawa also appeared in Miike’s DEAD OR ALIVE series. Miike made this after ONE MISSED CALL.

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