THE THREE AVENGERS (1979)

  This kung fu flick is sort of a Brucespolitation movie since it features Bruce Li. He shares the spotlight with Chin Yuet-Sang and an American dude named John(Michael Winston, who was only in this one film) to make up the titular three. The plot deals with Li's Auntie trying to keep her house from being sold and Li and his kung fu school coming to help her with some gangsters. It's pretty typical stuff but has some added nostalgic value for anyone who used to watch this back in the 80s on the local kung fu theater program since it was shown a bunch back then, most newer viewers will probably not be as forgiving with the goofy-ass humour and nonsensical dubbing. There is a ridiculous disco scene reminding us this was shot right after SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER came out in Hong Kong that is pretty amusing. AKA THE LAMA AVENGER and DRAGON ON FIRE

NIGHT OF THE EAGLES (1989)

  This is one of the best-looking films directed by Euro-sleaze master Jess Franco, unfortunately it's also one the more boring films of his. It's basically a drama about a love triangle set during World War 2. There's a minimum of actions scenes and stock footage, from a 1971 Italian war movie titled HEROES WITHOUT GLORY, is used for some of that. It's is a little weird to see Luke Skywalker himself(Mark Hamill) in a Franco flick but this is a very tame version of a Eurotrash film with nothing very exploitative about it. There's also a bit of music that makes me think ol' Jess wanted to do his version of CABARET or something. Christopher Lee, as always, does a decent job and might be one of the only reasons to watch this. AKA FALL OF THE EAGLES

                                                   Very CABARET-like!:

THE 7 GRANDMASTERS (1977)

  This kung fu master(Jack Long) has to travel around and defeat all the other masters in China just so he knows he's the best. Along the way he picks up a student(Lee Yi-Min) who he trains in the Pei-Mei(probably best known as that guy with the long white beard in KILL BILL) style. There's also the basic revenge tale here with Lee trying to get revenge for his murdered father. This one is pretty much wall-to-wall fighting(well choreographed thanks to Corey Yuen, who also appears as one of the grandmasters) so if that's your scene this will most likely be for you. 

SCREAM FOR HELP (1984)

  I caught this one last weekend down at the drive-in theater as part of a slasher-movie-themed event and while this was not really a slasher I still found it more entertaining than I had initially expected. I've never seen the horror flick THE STEPFATHER, which came out a few years later, but I imagine it was highly influenced by this. Director Michael Winner(know bets to me as the director of the original DEATH WISH and a bunch of other excellent Charles Bronson vehicles) delivers an effective tale of a girl who knows her new stepdad is trying to off her mom but nobody will believe her. There are a bunch of cheesy lines of  dialogue which I found delightful. The musical cues, credited to Led Zeppelin bass guitarist John Paul Jones, seem way out of place and more fitting to a Lifetime movie but overall I found this dumb 80s thriller worth staying up late at the chilly drive-in to view. 

Known in Germany as TRACE OF DEATH??:

Known in Italian as THE HOUSE IN HELL STREET: 

Known in Spanish as CRY FOR HELP:

BLOODSUCKING FREAKS (1976)

  I first saw this grimy, gruesome New York City sleazefest when I was around 12 or 13 years old back in the VHS days. It was a pretty scarring experience that left an indelible impression on my young mind. This film exists in a 70s porn-aesthetic world of gruesome misogynistic horror. At the time I thought the inclusion of jokes while horrific scenes involving brain-drilling, decapitations, eyeball-chomping cannibalism and all kinds of various tortures were going on only served to make things even more off-putting. Watching now, as an adult, there's obviously a great deal of black humour and I find the whole thing to be a riot. Director Joel M. Reed takes the basic outline of H.G. Lewis' classic THE WIZARD OF GORE and injects so much debauchery that he created a 42nd Street classic of his own. Unfortunately Reed would never reach these disgusting heights again and would follow this with only one crappy zombie movie  5 years later. Midget star Louie DeJesus, whose Ralphus character is the standout performance here, would go on to appear in a bunch of porn films. 

 This was originally titled THE INCREDIBLE TORTURE SHOW and wasn't given the FREAKS moniker until it was re-released in the 80s. Othjer AKA's include SARDU, MASTER OF THE SCREAMING VIRGINS and THE HERITAGE OF CALIGULA: AN ORGY OF SICK MINDS(video title)

 There are some alternate scenes involving Sardu & Ralphus in some homosexual antics that are included on the blu-ray release. 

"We dare you to keep your eyes open!":