The story goes (according to the two minute interview on the DVD) that Franco Nero and his good buddy Nello Rossati were in Columbia shooting Alien Terminator together when they decided they should do a sequel to his classic Spaghetti Western Django. This must have come as a surprise to Sergio Corbucci, who made the original and wasn’t invited to join in, but who am I to begrudge Franco the chance to cash in on the name of Django when every single other person in the Italian film industry had already done so years ago? Continue reading “Django Strikes Again (1987)”
Category: Action
Jack the Giant Killer (1962)
Uh, so where the magic beans? If I’m watching a movie called Jack the Giant Killer, then I have to believe that somewhere along the way, I’m going to see a dude named Jack get hoodwinked into trading grandma’s cow for some magic beans. Continue reading “Jack the Giant Killer (1962)”
Misfire (2014)
Kickboxing and low budget action movie legend Gary Daniels has been making movies most people have never seen for the last 25 years. He’s on the other side of 50 now, but being an old action hero doesn’t necessarily mean you should hang up your prop gun and stop kicking guys in the head. Jean Claude Van Damme is also over 50, Steven Seagal is over 60 and well into his 70s, Chuck Norris is the action Methuselah! But your movies have to try to hide your advanced years, not call attention to it! Continue reading “Misfire (2014)”
Running Red (1999)
Gregori and Sergei were just a couple of brothers in the Soviet special forces on a mission to take down a Spanish nerve gas factory! Aside from the fact that Soviet special forces guys go on some strange missions, they run into the same sorts of problems our own movie special forces guys sometimes run into.
The mission goes horribly wrong, a commanding officer demands that Gregori kill a child and when he refuses, does so himself! Sergei meanwhile gets all shot up by the Spanish bad guys and dies with Gregori at his side. Gregori then retires from the Soviet Army to a life in suburban California, desperately trying to forget the past! It’s like this guy is everything we love about Doctor Zhivago, Ivan Drago, and Yakov Smirnoff (he says “Do svidaniya!” to a guy right before he shoots him) all rolled into one! Continue reading “Running Red (1999)”
Prehistoric Women (1967)
Prehistoric Women starts off promisingly enough. And by that I mean the suitably lurid poster art depicts a jungle queen perched on a saber-toothed tiger’s head while an evil tiki god looked on behind her. (Of course no saber-toothed tiger appeared in the film, but the jungle queen repeatedly shimmied for your amusement.) Continue reading “Prehistoric Women (1967)”
Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
Watching Terror of Mechagodzilla knowing that it would be the final film in the original Godzilla series is like a long, sad goodbye to an old friend, complete with heartrending moments where relationships are forever ended and heads of giant metal robots are ripped clean off! Continue reading “Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)”
Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
So many times the bean counters in the film business get criticized for inhibiting great art. Such and such movie could’ve been so much better if we had the money to hire this guy or the time to shot this complicated scene. The special effects would have been so much more special if we just were given an extra $40 million. Godzilla vs. Megalon then is a breath of fresh air where budgetary constraints acted to give us the greatest of all early 1970s Godzilla movies featuring Gigan! Continue reading “Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)”