This is probably one of my favorite sci-fi movies. At least as far as non-serious, goofy, comic-book inspired sci-fi movies go. This here, along with DANGER: DIABOLIK(which also starred John Philip Law), is probably among the best representations of what a comic book would look like if you were to transfer it to a film screen. Everything is brightly light and oddly colored and since this was made in '68 everything seems very psychedelic and it's probably a good film to drop acid to before watching. The whole movie is just jam-packed with weird things that would only exist together in the comics. You get an angel, a pleasure machine, crazy-ass non-aerodynamic looking spaceships, killer birds, killer dolls with teeth, robot assassins, orgasm pills(exaltation transference pellets actually), wacky 60's pop tunes and Jane Fonda looking her absolute hottest ever! Way hotter than in those stupid aerobics videos my mom used to watch.
Fun facts: 80's band Duran Duran took their name from the power-mad villain in this. There was some talk of a remake starring Rose McGowan a while back but I think that's been cancelled. I'm sure it would be pointless and horrible. Director Roger Vadim had stated that he wanted to make a sequel at some point but now that he's dead that seems less likely. This film was originally released unrated with a "mature audiences" warning and then later on re-released with a PG-rating. I'm not sure what the differences are since every version I've seen of this, except for a few TV-showings, has Barbarella's boobs on display right there during the opening credits but not really any other nudity to speak of just lots of different hot outfits.
This is a movie I first saw when I was probably about 7 years old. They used to play it on TV quite a bit in the late 70's no doubt due to the fact that it stars "Rocky" Sylvester Stallone and "The Fonz" Henry Winkler. Of course they're not actually playing their more well known characters but when I was 7 I didn't really know any better. To me back then this was like watching an early adventure of two of my childhood heroes teamed-up together in the same gang. It was kind of like seeing Superman and Spider-Man together. That shit was just awesome to my younger self! I also recall being slightly traumatized when Fonzie gets hit by a car. For some reason I remember him dying in this movie. He doesn't, he just ends up with a broken leg but I probably turned the movie off in horror after his accident. Re-watching this movie now I think it's a little too talky and more about relationships than gang rumbles but Stallone does a pretty decent job in one of the lead roles and it's all really well shot. I also couldn't help but compare it to the way better similar movie THE WANDERERS which sort of deals with some of the same themes as this. The other negative thing is a lot of the music in this seems more like 70's versions of 50's songs than anything genuinely from that era. Still it's an interesting look at two big Hollywood stars given a chance to actually act before they became big names and stereotypes of themselves.
This isn't a very good documentary or even a very watchable film. It's a tough to get through rambling look at hippies in the late 60's in San Francisco without any narrative or much of a point of view. It's sort of like a shorter, crappier version of the movie WOODSTOCK except the hippies come off as way more annoying in this. They basically seem like air-headed homeless people begging for handouts like bums. Full of naive platitudes and they all just look like they smell bad. The "squares" interviewed also seem pretty stupid and are typically judgmental pricks, so I'm not sure who I'm supposed to side with here. The music is OK if you're into bands that jam on endlessly. There's way more interesting and informative docs out there about these times that you should watch before this one. I would also recommend dropping acid and staring at a wall for a more exciting trip.
"armed with a meat-cleaver in one hand and his genitals in the other..."
As a general rule I don't like a majority of the silly 80's horror movies that they spewed out because they're mostly just really fucking stupid and seem to have been made for retards which would describe pretty accurately people who love that horrible decade. There are a handful of exceptions to this rule. This movie is one of them. Originally shot as a sequel to the legendary HG Lewis' BLOOD FEAST making this movie a serious piece of cinema would have been really dumb and unnecessary. This movie is also pretty similar to the early works of Troma studios in that things happen in a fairly chaotic manner. You get naked aerobics, pro wrestling nazis, zombies, a talking brain in a jar, lots of cool 50's tunes and tons of ridiculous over-the-top gore. You also get a lot of stupid joke scenes which would probably turn off many hardcore horror fans but I still dig it enough to have re-watched this movie a bunch of times over the years and always find myself entertained enough to go back again and again. It's also way better than the official sequel to BLOOD FEAST that Mr. Lewis came out with a few years back.
I can appreciate the first two films of Dario Argento but they've never really been my favorites from his body of work. I think DEEP RED is the movie where he really hit his stride full force and made some really good films from then on up until around THE STENDAHL SYNDROME after which he turned out some pretty hacky stuff. This one is Dario's second film and it's probably closer to a Hitchcock film and is way less graphic than most of his other bloodier giallos. There is a guy who gets smushed by a train so that's something to watch for. It features Karl Malden as a blind man who likes to do puzzles. Now I remember Mr. Malden as the American Express guy who made all those commercials telling me "don't leave home without it" so maybe that's why I find it so hard to buy him as a blind guy who hangs out with a little girl and solves crimes in his spare time. The soundtrack is by the great composer Ennio Morricone but it doesn't really stand out much and seems sorta bland. Another major problem with this film is it's generally pretty boring and you kind of have to pay attention if you want to follow the plot so it all seems like quite a chore for little pay-off. Still it's better than the crap Mr. Dario is making currently and it is available on a dollar DVD so maybe it's worth watching if you're on a low-budget and aren't too picky.
As far as slasher flicks go this has always been one I've really dug. Directed by the great Jeff Lieberman who also did the equally great killer worm flick SQUIRM and the LSD-crazies epic BLUE SUNSHINE, I first encountered JUST BEFORE DAWN playing at a horror convention in a little conference room. The two people I was with got up after about 30 minutes of stalk and slash goodness and left in bored disgust. That made me like this movie even more because clearly those people were not as cultured as I and could not appreciate the simplistic elegance of this ode to backwoods breeding mishaps. Seeing this more recently on a big screen as part of an all-night horror marathon just reinforced my positive vibes towards this film.
What you basically get here is a FRIDAY THE 13TH rip-off predictably set in the woods with a group of campers/victims. The one main drawback is there are only about 10 people in the whole movie so your body count is obviously not very high but it makes up for that by having a family of inbred weirdos running around and one final kill scene that's totally over-the top ridiculous. You get some boobs, some nasty crotch violence, a totally out of place disco-dancing scene, that guy who ran the camp in SLEEPAWAY CAMP as a Crazy Ralph character and a goofy killer who laughs like Muttley from those old Laff-A-Lympics cartoons. You also get George Kennedy as the standard ineffectual sheriff character who talks to his plants and horse and only decides to do something helpful after people start showing up dead. There's also a sort-of twist ending that you can pretty easily figure out before it happens. You can do much worse than checking this one out.
One time this clearly insane paranoid fellow informed me that the
modern-day craze of zombie popularity was some sort of warning from the
powers that be that soon mass segments of the population would become
shambling messes due to radiation-leaks or some other such man-made
catastrophe. If this was true, which it obviously isn't, this would make
director George Romero some sorta all-seeing prophet since the guy
basically invented this genre right here. Also zombies were pretty
popular throughout the 80's and I don't recall any living dead epidemics
back then but what do I know?
At this point there's not a whole lot anyone can say about this
milestone horror epic that hasn't been said before a million and one
times. This movie has been picked apart by scholars and idiots alike.
People have ascribed it a social significance that seems to have been
mostly unintentional by the filmmakers and every serious horror fan
would have to admit that this film was the starting point of a new era
in horror. An era that would be marked with increasingly graphic and
horrific elements in film that mirrored our own societal ills quite a
bit more relevantly than something like THE BLOB or THE WOLFMAN ever set
out to. 70's horror for all practical purposes starts right here and
movies that came before, for the large part, instantly seemed quaint and
hokey in comparison. I've probably viewed this movie as much as
possible without my eyes falling out of my head and it always entertains
on some level. From an old cheap-ass VHS tape I had, to MTV's
midnight Halloween showings, to this being on almost every cheap-ass horror movie DVD set,
this film is inescapable. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. It is
due in part to it's public domain status that this film has gained it's
legendary reputation.. It changed
scary movies form being about giant bugs and martians to being about
gore and human monsters. We are the monsters. If there's any more
truthful statement than that in horror movies I don't know what it could
be. Or as John Carpenter likes to say it's the horror "out there" vs.
the horror within all of us. This, along with THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE,
are the two films I've seen the most in my life.
The one thing I have noticed, the more times I watch this film, is how my sympathies in this movie have shifted from the Ben character to that of Mr. Cooper. Sure it's easy to like Ben, he's the hero, he seems to do almost everything right and keeps his cool. Cooper on the other hand is almost the stereotypical uptight family man and although it's never explicitly stated we're led to assume that he's probably some kind of a racist as well. The problem is after viewing the movie so many times you realize that Cooper is right about the basement being the safest place and about all the barricades set up not really being strong enough of a defense against all those zombies. The way I figure it, if they just listened to him in the first place everyone would have been way better off. Maybe if he wasn't such a nervous, sweaty balding man he would have gotten the respect he deserved. Of course this would not have made quite as entertaining a movie and I suppose we have Ben to thank for this film going on to influence every zombie film made after it. Of course I'm also looking at the film from 2013 and not
1968 which I think would skew my view quite a bit taken out of the
social/racial-context that it was created in.
This spawned 2 different series of films including Romero's Dead
trilogy and writer John Russo's way goofier RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD
series. This was officially remade in 1990 by Tom Savini but also served
as the blueprint for just about every zombie movie made after it.
Update 10/25/13: I saw this as part of a Rifftrax show recently and while they could
riff on some of the goofy old-timey elements and dubious acting of some
of the cast here and there, even these goofballs couldn't do
much to elevate the depressing ending and note of doom that this classic
wraps up on.
Most people think that slasher movies died when the 80's came to an end but unfortunately, even before SCREAM came along in '96 and we got a bunch of shitty/smart-ass/self-aware Hollywood-ized slasher flicks, there were still a bunch of low-budget hack and kill movies being pumped out by maniacs and/or stupid people. This one here is about as low-budget as you can get from a shot-on-video killer on the loose tale that hits every cliche of this, already by this time, completely worn out genre. The FX consist of some fake blood being thrown on people and the rest of the budget seems to have gone towards Halloween masks and a van that gets shot and instantly explodes. The grating background music sounds like it's from some kind of an instructional video. This was filmed in Kentucky using locals who I'm assuming weren't actual actors of any kind. The fact that they gave this thing a feature length running time is astounding. Most of the time is filled with a bunch of unimportant dialogue which dares you to sit through it. I was also a little bit disappointed that the title didn't refer to a ghostly possessed penis. The positive things I will say about this is there are a couple of attractive ladies who do have the decency to at least get their tops off before being butchered and there's a nifty sequence where our masked killer puts on a show of killing people in a haunted house that sorta reminded me of a shitty version of BLOODSUCKING FREAKS but I'm not sure if it's worth sitting through this whole thing just for those couple of bright moments. There is a HAUNTEDWEEN II promised after the credits but thankfully I don't think that ever happened.
Believe it or not Hanks here with the extra stupid accent is actually our hero:
This movie is a really big mess! It starts off with a pre-credit sequence that lists a bunch of serial killers and then we get a full song by some 70's lounge singer named Johnny Charro and then we get a sorta-proto-slasher movie. The main problem with this movie is it appears to have been patched together by some very inept filmmakers. There's weird cuts, lingering shots of nothing, inexplicable use of slow-motion, weird freeze-frames for no reason and just strange editing choices all around. In addition the acting is down there around BLOOD FEAST levels. It's overall a tough movie to sit through without feeling like you might lose your mind before it's over. Probably the weirdest death scene has a fellow who gets slashed up by being strangled with a telephone cord? This movie also really doesn't have anything to do with the real life "Son Of Sam" David Berkowitz and originally had the more boring title of HOSTAGES. The print I viewed didn't have the "ANOTHER" in the title like every poster seems to. The cool-looking poster is definitely the best thing about this whole movie!
I've had this movie sitting on my to-watch pile of DVD's for a long time now. I kept putting it off mainly because all I've heard is how terrible this movie is and what a disappointment it was coming from Mr. George A. Romero, the man responsible for basically creating the modern-day zombie movie as we know it. Another scary thing is that this is a sequel to DIARY OF THE DEAD which I also didn't feel was a very good film except for maybe the opening scenes of dead people starting to rise. For the most part after watching this one I would have to agree that this movie is, as expected, just basically not very good. It sorta reminded me of that scene in DAWN OF THE DEAD where a biker gang has a pie fight with zombies and what it would be like if you stretched that out for 90 minutes. Except in that scene I always thought that at least the bikers were cool(and it would probably make an entertaining film if we followed them around) and in this no one was in any way cool or interesting and I didn't care about anyone. Every character is pretty much an asshole and nothing seems to be very serious. Also there's a completely distracting use of bad CGI for every little spurt of blood that makes it even more cartoonish. Also why was the island set in the old west with horses and stuff? Also why was everyone on this island Irish? Also was this supposed to be a comedy cuz it's barely a horror film? Also, and most importantly, is Romero still capable of making anything worthwhile? It's looking pretty doubtful at this point. While there are way worse zombie films out there considering this one was made by someone who, at least at one time was capable of making classic horror flicks it's all pretty sad and only slightly better than your typical bottom-of-the-barrel, no-budget backyard-made zombie crap movie.
"Your mother's cunt... STINKS like carpet cleaner!"
Having been a huge fan of Charles Bukowsi's writings since I was a stupid teen this movie has been one that I've probably re-watched more than any other in the drama category. It's a movie that I love for it's depiction of a mostly crazy yet completely individualistic person. This person is, of course, just a thinly veiled personification of Mr. Bukowski himself. It's this personal touch that gives the movie such a strong resonance and deep feeling and also moments of complete absurdity. If there's any negative aspect to this film it would probably be the all too Hollywood feeling that many of the scenes fall into. The fight scenes are the most unrealistically staged looking things that you would expect to see in your typical American action film and some of the characters and their actions seem very cartoonish but regardless of this the movie never fails to entertain me in the many viewings I've given it. The main credit has to go to Mickey Rourke who shows his acting abilities that place him up there with actors like DeNiro and Pacino in portraying a person most people would call a loser but I think in many ways he's better than most of the plastic people we worship in this sick society. It's too bad Mr. Rourke wasn't born a decade earlier when there were more quality films being made that he would've fit right into. Rourke would go on to win awards for his starring role in THE WRESTLER, which I think is a great film also, but he really should have won something for this also. It's also a great film to watch while drinking excessively. There was a sorta-remake made of this in 2005 with Matt Dillon called FACTOTUM but you're better off sticking with the original.
"Maybe that stupid mummy has fits and undresses. Who knows what he has beneath his clothes?"
The sixties were a decade chock full of silly superhero comic book movies. I woulda thought it was all Batman's fault but that goofy show hadn't started yet and Mexico was already pumping out these wrestler/superhero flicks. They were mostly masked wrestlers but also, like in this one, a few lady wrestlers starred. I guess it kind of goes along with the women's lib movement starting up at the time since you get scenes of ladies throwing men around and generally kicking their asses. In addition to this we get an evil Asian bad guy(who looks way more Mexican) named The Black Dragon in the dubbed version, judo girls, a goofy comic relief guy and best of all a mummy(who doesn't really show up until the last third of the movie). The mummy's origin is all told with stock-footage from 1957's THE AZTEC MUMMY which would be used a few more times over the years. This mummy character seems to also be half vampire since he can turn into a bat and a spider and is afraid of the sun. Why this is I'm not sure. Maybe if you take a vampire and mummify him this is what happens but I don't recall that ever being clarified. Overall this is a fun goofy flick but only for lovers of really bottom-of-the-barrel silly Mexisploitation. There was a re-edited(with 60's pop music) version of this titled ROCK 'N ROLL WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY but I recall that being really awful. The wrestling women here had appeared together prior to this in DOCTOR OF DOOM where they fight a guy in a KKK hood and his gorilla henchman.
Apparently there was a shortage of Asians in 1960's Mexico since our judo chicks also look suspiciously Mexican:
This is a strongly anti-capital punishment, made for video, documentary which looks at methods that people have used around the world to kill other people in the name of justice. It is a really good historical look at the barbaric practices of humanity even if it is completely slanted to make you hate the death penalty in all forms. We go from the guillotine in France to Nazis in World War II to Communists in China and Russia to the electric chair in America and on to the lovely practices of beheading in the Middle East amongst other places I probably never want to travel to. The most memorable and shocking clip here is of a man in Lebanon who is shot multiple times(including in the face) and somehow keeps breathing.
Personally in theory I think the death penalty makes perfect sense. I mean if someone kills someone I care about taking them out seems logical. The grey area comes in when we give the power of vengeance to a government that will undoubtedly misuse it. Also leaving the power of life and death in the hands of an angry mob(as is shown here with middle eastern stonings and such) is an even worse idea. So while I agree with the basic concept of an eye for an eye when put into practice it's a pretty hard thing to justify in a societal structure. I also think, despite what is argued in this video, that lethal injection doesn't seem like that horrible of a way to check out and it would definitely be my preferred method if I had a choice.
I think this would probably appeal to fans of mondo-movies and stuff like FACES OF DEATH even though it's not quite as gory, features actual footage and is way more thought-provoking than just your typical shock for shock's sake gore vid. There was an EXECUTIONS II that came out the same year as this.
