PRIMITIVES (1978)

  Indonesian action star Barry Prima stars in this very low-rent version of an Italian cannibal movie. You get some animal on animal violence that looks like stock footage from some other film, people eaten by crocodiles and some very hard to believe "cannibals". I put cannibals in quotes there since there isn't actually any cannibalism on display here even though it is implied. The one thing I always recall after watching this one is how sad the orangutan, that our primitve tribe keeps in a cage, looks. It's almost as if he knows how terrible of a film he has been cast in. 

 The opening title tune is supplied by(stolen from) the German krautrock band Kraftwork. AKA THE DEATH CRY OF THE SAVAGES

                        Known in the UK as SAVAGE TERROR:

Italian grand premier!:

THE RAPIST (1994)

 Allegedly based on real-life serial-killer/rapist Lam Kwok-wai, this Hong Kong category III flick gives you exactly what it promises. There is plenty of nudity and sexual violence on show though it all gets to be a bit of a slog to get through before it's all over. THey do skip the usual goofy humour bits that are usually in these graphic Hong Kong movies which might have actaully broken up the monotony a little.

 There is another film from this same year based on this same case starring Danny Lee titled PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL RAPIST that I have yet to peruse. 

CURSE (1988)

  A real jumbled mess of a movie! This Hong Kong horror flick starts out as some kinda love-triangle romance story, then it becomes a supernatural horror tale with a few pretty explicit sex scenes thrown in and finally ends with a gross secene of a bunch snakes, rats, worms and other unidentifiable creepy crawly things exploding out of a melting guy! Oh and along the way there's a tribe of cannibal midgest led by an evil sorcerer. It does movie along at a fast pace despite it being fairly incomprehensible. AKA CANNIBAL CURSE  

THE ARK OF THE SUN GOD (1984)

  You would think given this title and year of release that you would get a straight-up RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK rip-off but for the most part Italian director Antonio Margheriti gives us instead a more James Bond-ish tale starring David Warbeck in the heroic lead role. To drive this home Roger Moore even gets name-dropped at one point. It does get more into Indian Jones territory towards the end when the discovery of a lost ancient artifact gets put into play. For an action movie this is overall a pretty dull watch that never reall grabbed me and took a couple of attempts to even get through without dozing off. 

 Strangely the DVD I have of this says it's called TEMPLE OF HELL which I don't believe it ever actaully was. 

Margheriti, Warbeck and John Steiner had all made the similar HUNTERS OF THE GOLDEN COBRA 2 years earlier.

Released on video in Sweden(and apparently somewhere else that speaks English) as THE HUNTER: 

EMANUELLE: FIRST CONTACT (1994)

 There were a whole series of these softcore Emanuells in space films starring Krista Allen made for Cinemax(Skinemax!) back in the 90s. While she is certainly a beautiful woman to watch frolic naked this is a pretty bady-edited mess of a movie. We get a Star Trek-influenced tale of some aliens beaming down to Earth to find out the mating habits of humans, mainly by just banging a bunch of ladies. They try and shoe-horn a love triangle(rectangle?) into the ending. None of it is very engaging and I don't think I really need to watch any of the other entries in this despite their enticing titles. AKA EMMANULLE IN SPACE: QUEEN OF THE GALAXY and EMMANUELLE IN SPACE

The whole EMMANUELLE IN SPACE SERIES(all made in 1994):

1. EMMANUELLE: FIRST CONTACT

2. EMMANUELLE: A WORLD OF DESIRE

3. EMMANUELLE: A LESSON IN LOVE

4. EMMANUELLE: CONCEALED FANTASY

5. EMMANUELLE:  A TIME TO DREAM

6. EMMANUELLE: ONE FINAL FLING

7. EMMANUELLE: THE MEANING OF LOVE

https://fullxcinema.com/emmanuelle-in-space-1994/

GAMERA, THE GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE (1995)

  I've seen this 90s reboot of the Gamera series a few times over the years but I don't think I've ever seen the UK-dubbed version before. In this version everyone has a very British accent and some pretty annoying techno jams start up every few minutes so if that sounds like something you would be into check that out. Personally I think I'll stick with the subtitled version if I ever watch this again. 

 Gamera, the giant fire-breathing, flying turtle had been gone for 15 years(GAMERA: SUPER MONSTER was his last outing) before they brought him back in this and it's generally considered a high point in Japanese monster films and I can't argue with that. They also bring back Daiei Studios own version of Rodan, Gyaos(there are technically 3 Gyaos but only one survives to the big final fight) to battle our protector of children. Steven Seagal's daughter, Ayako Fujitani plays one of the main characetrs who forms a psychic bond with our big turtle. 

 There would be 2 direct sequels to this, then in 2005 there was a film featuring an even goofier-looking offspring of Gamera. Finally an animated movie in 2023 appeared. I'm still waiting for that crossover with Godzilla though. 

THE CHAMBERMAIDS (1974)

 A couple of maids in a hotel  decide being whores will be a more exciting and lucrative profession. Then a bunch of sex scenes happen. Eric Edwards is the only really familiar face to me in this cheapy porn flick, though future pop star Andrea True is also apparently in this somewhere. 

 There's some dubious information floating around online about this being shown in 3-D at some point which seems very doubtful. 

 

DOWNTOWN (1975)

  Not to be confused with director Jess Franco's DOWNTOWN HEAT made in 1991, this Franco Eurotrash nudie tells the tale of a schluby private investigator(played by Jess himself) who gets mixed up with some scheming murderous ladies. The cast here includes a bunch of folks from BARBED WIRE DOLLS which was made around the same time. This includes Lina Romay, Eric Falk, Monica Swinn, Paul Muller and others. About as graphic as you can be without being hardcore with many close-ups of vaginas. Will undoubtedly dissappint fans of Franco's more depraved horror/sleaze works since this one is intended as a comedy. 

https://fullxcinema.com/downtown-full-movie-uncut-sex-1975-lina-romay/

THE FARMER (1977)

  Kinda similar to, another movie from the same year, ROLLING THUNDER, what we get here is another revenge-tale of a wartime veteran(this time it's World War II instead of Vietnam). It's a bit different here though as things start off dealing more with some gangsters before our farmer(Gary Conway who was previously the star of  that LAND OF THE GIANTS TV-show in the 60s) gets involved in the action. Rape, acid poured into eyes, people thrown out of windows, racism and plenty of gun-fu round out the action. While not quite up there with THUNDER it's still worth a look if you don't mind lots of folk music intercut with your vengeance. AKA BLAZING REVENGE

NIGHT OF THE EXECUTIONER (1992)

 Eurotrash legend Paul Naschy stars and directs a Spanish DEATH WISH rip-off. Charles Bronson gets name-dropped and we get to watch an almost 60-year-old Naschy working out(showing off his prowess from back when he was a professional weight-lifter) and blow away a ridiculous assortment of rapists and murderers. It's obviously not up to the quality of DEATH WISH but certainly as entertaining as one of the later sequels. The big bad boss reminds me of the bad guy from Inspecter Gadget who never shows his face which certainly fits the more cartoonish aspects of the film. It also has a MAD FOXES-vibe with it's rape/revenge insanity which I loved!

                                     Naschy getting pumped up!:

OUTRAGE (2010)

  Director and star 'Beat' Takesh Kitano took a little break from these types of films for a few years to make more artsy/weird stuff but then returned to what people know him best for with this Yakuza flick. Fairly typical stuff here with some extremely violent scenes including devious use of a dentist drill, a near decapitation involving a car and some rope and tons of gun-fu. Nothing unexpected but still an entertaining watch for folks into the mobster movie genre. 

 Might be the last Asian action movie Blu-ray I ever pick up at Big Lots since they just announced that they are going out of business.

BLOOD GAMES (1990)

  The Australian title of this as BASEBALL BIMBOS IN HILLBILLY HELL really perfectly sums up this dumb backwoods revenge flick. Our story involves a group of traveling baseball ladies, led by biker/action movie star Ross Hagen, who run afoul of some violent retarded rednecks(why there are rednecks flying confederate flags in California I'm not sure, but OK). Things get progressively more bloody and revenge-fueled as it goes on. We get a rape scene, lots of boobs(including a lovely shower scene) and countless ass-shots on display. A good trashy exploitation epic. 

 It was also nice to see George "Buck" Flowers in a big role not playing his usual drunken bum character but instead playing one of the stupid women-hating hicks.

ONIBABA (1964)

 While I'm more of a fan of Japanese director Kaneto Shindo's later KURONEKO, this one is certainly not too shabby either. It's main focus is on a couple of poor ladies stuck in wartime Japan who resort to killing passers-by to make ends meet. While there are some horror elements involving a demon mask(and stabbing samurais) this one really focuses more on the drama side of things than KURONEKO and plays more like an artsy flick that just happens to also contain ample nudity and murder to go along with your symbolism and metaphors. Check it out for an fine example of some classy Asian cinema.