Seven years before FIRST BLOOD we get Tomas Milian as a hero named Rambo(apparently Milian was trying to get a movie of the FIRST BLOOD novel made but only got as far as using the name here). Original Italian title of THE VIGILANTE CHALLENGES THE CITY. Instead of a Vietnam vet we get a biker sort-of helping the police take on some mobsters. It has some DIRTY HARRY elements thrown in thanks to director Umberto Lenzi and despite feeling a bit long makes for a decent action flick. AKA RAMBO'S REVENGE
The DVD I own of this has this for a cover which reflects nothing that happens in the movie. Maybe they were thinking of Lucio Fulci's CONTRABAND which features some torch hijinks:
This Italian murder mystery starts out with a bloody bullfight and that's about the most gore you're gonna get out of this fairly slow-moving giallo by director Umberto Lenzi and starring Carroll Baker. This is the 4th movie these 2 made together and probably the worst of them all. There's a hippie junkie, Snoopy shows up in necklace form and of course lots of red herrings. It's almost saved by the ridiculous twist ending which might be the only thing I will remember shortly after watching this.
The 3 other Lenzi/Baker films(which are also said to be a kind of trilogy):
Having already seen the other Umberto Lenzi-directed film known as PARANOIA I couldn't pass up the opportunity to catch this one down at the local weirdo art theater. Just like that earlier film this one stars Carroll Baker. This time she gets involved with her ex-husband(Jean Sorel), his new wife(Anna Proclemer) and her daughter(Marina Coffa). Murder, mystery and gaslighting ensue. It plays like a sorta giallo-lite since there isn't all that much in the way of blood or killing and it deals more with various relationships. There are some twists and surprises to wrap everything up and some very stylish wardrobe and cinematography on display. AKA A QUIET PLACE TO KILL
This is supposed to be the final part of a very loose trilogy that includes the 2 PARANOIA movies and SO SWEET, SO PERVERSE all featuring Baker and very messed up relationships!
Not to be confused with the earlier Tobe Hooper killer crocodile flick, this is director Umberto Lenzi's second cannibal flick(his MAN FROM DEEP RIVER back in 1971 pretty much invented this subgenre). This is the one that combines a very Jim Jones-inspired cult in the jungle story with your more typical cannibal antics. Instead of The Amazon this time we're in New Guinea and Lenzi doesn't skimp on the gore. Of course a good portion of the most gory bits are all from other movies including DEEP RIVER, SLAVE OF THE CANNIBAL GOD and JUNGLE HOLOCAUST but hey it's the thought that counts! Porn star R. Bolla(Robert Kerman) stars and he would return in Lenzi's final cannibal epic CANNIBAL FEROX the following year.
It's hard to rank these classic cannibal movies in order of entertainment value since they're all pretty similar. This one is somewhere in the middle for me with FEROX and CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST being on the top though.
This is a pretty entertaining slasher flick from late in the slasher game. There's actually not much slashing going on since the killer mostly uses an elaborately souped-up motorcycle to electrocute his victims but there's lots of burning/melty head gore to go around. Also doesn't skimp on the boobs since it takes place at Spring Break in Miami Beach(hence the alias WELCOME TO SPRING BREAK). My favorite aspect of this is the biker gang named THE DEMONS(complete with jackets emblazoned with their name in the same font as the classic Italian gorefest) who kinda go from being complete scumbags to accidentally becoming almost heroic by the films conclusion. John Saxon also puts in a great performance as a real shitty cop. To top things off we get a fairly metal soundtrack and a stupid surprise ending.
Strangely enough Italian director Umberto Lenzi was supposed to be the director of this(it is technically an Italian-produced film even though it seems very American) but he apparently had some problems with the producer. He still has a writer credit though.
Got a chance to see this early Umberto Lenzi-directed thriller at a drive-in a few days ago. Not to be confused with Lenzi's other PARANOIA from the next year(which also starred Carroll Baker and is allegedly the last part of a trilogy which includes this film and SO SWEET...SO PERVERSE) this one is a psychological thriller about a widowed woman who runs afoul of a couple of young hipsters who at first befriend her and then ultimately attempt to drive her to suicide to obtain her cash. While it's an awesomely-shot film I couldn't help but think it would have made a good giallo if they only threw a couple of murders in there or something. As it is with it's twists, s & m trappings and all it's fine but probably not one I need to revisit anytime soon. Still a cool drive-in experience following Lenzi's amazing zombie epic CITY OF THE WALKING DEAD!
Apparently there are 2 different endings to this depending upon which version you're watching. The ORGASMO version(it's original title) has a longer and better ending which actually explains a whole bunch more and the American release gives us a bit of a happier outcome by excluding some details. Also some versions trim the bare nipples out like stupid prudes.
Director Umberto Lenzi's giallo here is not quite as stylish and artistically done as many of his fellow Italian directors at the time but this one does a fairly good job of making up for that with a bunch of eye-gouging violence and some attractive ladies, The killer here uses red gloves, instead of the normal black leather, which matches their stupid red rain-slicker. It does drag in parts and the big revealing ending might not make a whole lot of sense but it's not a terrible watch if you dig these trashy Eurocult-type of cinematic exploits. AKA THE SECRET KILLER
As far as Italian 80's gore-drenched zombie flicks go this has always been one of my personal favorites. I mean it's got everything you could want in one of these things; flesh-ripping splattery goodness, boobs(thanks to a troop of TV aerobics dancers), lots of action(thanks to the running zombies, or "radiation vampires" as director Umberto Lenzi has insisted they are), a stupid action hero(thanks to Mexican acting favorite Hugo Stiglitz) and lots of inexplicably bizarre scenes. There's one scene where a ghoul breaks into an operating room mid-operation and the doctor without loosing a beat hurls his scalpel at him with highly-trained accuracy, there's the wanna-be SOLID GOLD dancers getting massacred and getting their tits cut off by these weapon-wielding monsters, there's the zombie/vampires who after having a drink of blood out of a neck wipe their faces clean like sweet gentlemen, and there's just about every scene with Mr. Stiglitz who makes for a real oddball hero figure. Also the zombies all just look like they have crud on their faces and use friggin' machine-guns! How absurd and unstoppable is that! It does all get wrapped up in a retarded ending but after viewing it enough times even that becomes another part of it's dumb charms.
My last viewing of this was at an actual drive-in which was a pretty awesome way to experience this spaghetti-gore fav.
Everyone nowadays knows this as NIGHTMARE CITY but back in the VHS days it was CITY OF THE WALKING DEAD and had this memorably bloody big-ass box!:
Umberto Lenzi, who would go on to make Italian crime movies in the 70's and cannibal films in the 80's, directed this early giallo flick. It's really only barely a giallo since the murder-mystery elements take a back seat to the dramatic twisted relationship story of our main characters, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Erika Blanc, for most of the movie. Also the body count in this one is really small. There are some cool twists that happen throughout but the ending seemed very disappointing to me. If only they threw in one more twist at the end I mighta dug it more. Also it's sorta reminiscent of the vastly superior 50's French art-film DIABOLIQUE and if a movie you're watching reminds you of something way better that's usually not a good thing. So I guess watch this only if you've already seen every other giallo and absolutely need to see them all.
Umberto Lenzi, best known to gorehounds as the director of CANNIBAL FEROX, delves into the giallo genre here with a mystery tale full of murder and bared euro-nipples. This one's definitely no classic since most of the run time is taken up with endless talking and tons of red-herrings. There's so many suspects here that it probably would have been difficult to pick out the actual killer if Lenzi wasn't nice enough to point him out in a few shots. There are a few decent kills including a driller-killer scene and a lady getting her head bashed in and some artistic touches here and there but that's counter-balanced with a super non-climactic ending and an overly convoluted plot. Overall I found this one to be a real snoozer with nowhere near the Bava or Argento level of mastery.
I picked up that stupid INGLORIOUS BASTARDS 2: HELL'S HEROES DVD set a while back and finally got around to watching it. Well attempting to watch it is more truthful. This was the only one out of all four films that I found even watchable. Perhaps it's due to its being directed by Umberto Lenzi that I found it O. K. It's by no means a great film but I guess in comparison to the other 3 it stands out a bit. The main problem I guess I have with all of these is that they're all pretty boring and for action movies that's not a good thing. I mean I'm not a huge fan of typical action movies anyway and these are even worse than typical for the most part. But this one did hold my attention and I actually thought the acting was fairly decent. I have no idea who any of these people are with names like Paki Valente and Zdenko Jelcic but they did an acceptable job for the stupidity of it all. The battle scenes really make no sense and are totally unbelievable but I think that just added to my amusement. So don't buy this thing unless you like very crappy euro-action.
The old Cannon VHS had Michael "American Ninja" Dudikoff talk up the movie:
