Category: Adventure

Ursus, the Rebel Gladiator (1962)

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Made back in 1962, Ursus, the Rebel Gladiator most likely was lumped in with all the other musclehead movies coming out of Italy at the time. Audiences then can be forgiven if they thought this one was interchangeable with the latest entry in the Hercules, Goliath, Maciste, Samson, Atlas, Ursus and Ulysses film series.

It is also precisely because of this glut of pretenders that I’m going to cut the Academy a little slack for failing to recognize Ursus, the Rebel Gladiator with the Oscar for Best Picture that year. And lest you think this some artless attempt at being obtusely droll, all I’m saying is that if they can give this movie five Oscars when it came out again in 2000, then it was a shame that the participants in the first one languish in obscurity. Continue reading “Ursus, the Rebel Gladiator (1962)” →

Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977)

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Once there was a movie called simply enough, Emmanuelle. Released in 1974, it starred Sylvia Kristel as a horny French gal living in Bangkok. Sporting such a powerful plot, the movie easily spawned about seven legitimate sequels. But this isn’t our Emmanuelle. You see our Emanuelle is known as the Black Emanuelle and if she had to sacrifice an “M” in her name to avoid being sued, she more than made up for it by ditching the French softcore style of the original for an even more trashy Italian style! Continue reading “Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977)” →

Duel of Champions (1961)

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Here’s a movie that’s going to satisfy that contingent of gladiator fans that like watching old, short guys near the end of their life strapping on the Roman soldier outfit and battling a bunch of guys half his age and still come out on top. Sure, in the end both of his brothers are killed in the battle, his sister commits suicide, and his father has been accusing him of being a coward and a traitor for most of the movie, but other than that, he came out on top. Continue reading “Duel of Champions (1961)” →

Sphinx (1981)

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It’s easy to see why Sphinx stinks in scenes like the one where Egyptologist Erica Baron attempts to justify her desire to get credit for a big discovery she makes by playing the gender card, complaining that men get all the breaks in her profession. It’s a scene that seems to come out of nowhere, doesn’t make you sympathetic to her since we hadn’t seen her mistreated by academia and frankly just doesn’t make any sense since the whole point of her going to Egypt in the first place was to do some research, get published and to make a name for herself. And besides, if she were a man, wouldn’t she still want credit for a discovery of such magnitude? Continue reading “Sphinx (1981)” →