AXE / KIDNAPPED COED -- Blu-ray + CD Review by Porfle

Sometimes a disc falls into my hot little hands which is an all-round cinematic experience in itself, and goes beyond simply watching a movie or two and some extras. Severin Films' new 2-disc set, AXE/KIDNAPPED COED (one Blu-ray disc, one soundtrack CD) is just such a heady film-fan experience. 

Representing the entire filmic output of 70s independent writer/producer/actor/director Frederick R. Friedel (save for an obscure 2000 comedy called MY NEXT FUNERAL), it's a saga of how someone with a little money and a lot of talent made his mark in the regional movie industry, had his films robbed from him by a crooked distributor, and finally found a "rainbow at the end of the storm" decades later when his work was rediscovered by a whole new audience of fervidly appreciative fans.

Watching the first film, AXE, aka "Lisa, Lisa" (1974), my initial impression was that this guy Friedel is one of those creative talents who can take the kind of budget and resources usually reserved for the lowest drive-in dregs and work a kind of rough-hewn magic with them.  Even as the film's look and feel still have that unavoidable bottom-drawer ambience, there's something sharply intelligent about the camerawork and editing, as well as performances by a uniformly fine cast, which elevates it all into a much higher realm of watchability.

Two plotlines are introduced which will eventually intertwine--in one, three gangsters are on the lam after having dispatched some unlucky mug in his cheap hotel room, in luridly violent fashion.  Jack Canon plays Steele, the icily psychotic leader, Ray Green the equally sadistic thug Lomax, and Friedel himself is Billy, a novice criminal still hampered by a nagging conscience.  After the murder, they disappear into the North Carolina backwoods to find a place to lay low for awhile.

This brings them into a collision with plotline number two, in which a curiously disaffected young girl named Lisa (Leslie Lee) is the sole caretaker for her catatonic grandfather (Douglas Powers) in a remote two-storey farmhouse.  Scarcely into her teens, Lisa already seems shell-shocked by life, and barely reacts when Steele, Lomax, and Billy forcibly invite themselves to stay. 

While Lisa's deceptively placid countenance hides a fierce inner turmoil, the evil men now invading her life force her to take overt actions to defend herself.  This comes to a head when Lomax enters her bedroom at night with bad intent, and Lisa displays an aptitude for slicing and dicing heretofore reserved for chickens.

 

This is where AXE starts to live up to its lurid trailers and print ads (which scream the tagline "At last...total terror!"), with winsome nutcase Lisa wielding a straight razor and an axe in bloody fashion without ever breaking that strangely calm but troubled fascade.  Still, the film is never in the same league as THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (alternate titles include CALIFORNIA AXE MASSACRE and THE VIRGIN SLAUGHTER) nor does it try to be.  It's mainly a compelling and pleasingly morbid character study with splashes of gore but little that could be called "graphic", although that didn't stop it from being condemned as one of England's infamous "video nasties" of the 80s.

As for the cast, the leads couldn't be better.  Leslie Lee is an ideal Lisa, pretty but strange, her sad face always interesting to look at as you wonder what the heck's going on behind it.  As Steele, Jack Canon is a classic big-screen tough guy that you just can't look away from.  He'd have been perfect as the lead in one of those tacky 70s or 80s TV cop shows like "Hunter"--as it is, one can only wonder why he never went farther as an actor.  Ray Green's bloated Lomax is sleaze personified, and Friedel himself, bearded and Brillo-haired, is a convincingly conflicted Billy who ends up trying to help Lisa. 

As a director, Friedel takes his time and lingers artistically over every sequence as much as the brisk shooting schedule allowed, drawing out every nuance of visual interest possible while admittedly playing fast and loose with the script.  An early scene of Steele and Lomax terrorizing a poor convenience store clerk (Carole Miller) is like a foretaste of Oliver Stone's NATURAL BORN KILLERS.  Never one to rely on sheer exploitation, Friedel shoots this and Lisa's rape scene later in the film--as well as the subsequent killings--not just as visceral exploitation but as an opportunity to indulge in a form of raw cinematic poetry.

Wanting to fully explore the potential he saw in Jack Canon during the making of AXE, Friedel then concocted the entire screeplay for his follow-up film KIDNAPPED COED, aka "Kidnapped Lover" (1976) around the actor's charismatic appeal.  Thus, Canon appears in almost every single scene and makes the most of his screen time with a performance that should've been a ticket to broader fame.

Equally compelling is young Leslie Ann Rivers as ginger-haired, bespectacled Sandra, a well-to-do teenage "coed" whom small-time crook Eddie Matlock (Canon) abducts in hopes of a big ransom.  Both actors have faces that are fascinating to look at and naturalistic acting styles that bring their characters to life. 

Friedel has a bigger budget here (around $40,000) which allows for more elaborate camera moves and other relative indulgences that really pay off in the movie's look and style.  Again, he takes plenty of time for character development as the two leads get to know each other and gradually even form a tentative romantic relationship, all done in a series of quirky exchanges taking place during some wildly unexpected situations.

These include a brutal, Scorsese-esque sequence in which both are attacked in their seedy hotel room by a couple of violent thugs who force their way in at gunpoint so that they can beat up Eddie and rape the horrified Sandra in another scene that's stunningly executed.  Continuing the theme that this just isn't his day, Eddie later encounters unfriendly shotgun-wielding farmers while simply trying to get water for his car radiator, and finally ends up in a life-or-death struggle against another bearish farmer who has just welcomed him and Sandra into his home before suddenly going pitchfork-wielding berserk. 

As all this happens to them, Eddie and Sandra's relationship wanders through different stages as the film itself passes, with varying degrees of finesse, through such disparate genres as thriller, horror, action, character drama, quirky romance, and even comedy.  Friedel admits in the commentary that he doesn't even remember whether or not there was a written screenplay for the film, but this only contributes to its off-kilter charm.  Mainly, though, it's Canon and Rivers that keep our eyes glued to this wildly uneven but compelling little film right up to its abrupt and somewhat anti-climactic ending.

The full story surrounding these two films from conception to oblivion (and, lucky for us, joyous rediscovery) is recounted in the hour-long bonus documentary "At Last… Total Terror! – The Incredible True Story of AXE & KIDNAPPED COED", which sees the warm reunion of Friedel and several key members of his production team who also gather to provide excellent commentary tracks for both films.

"Moose Magic – The George Newman Shaw & John Willhelm Story" (38 mins) tells of the two young musical geniuses who scored the films shortly before their tragic demise in a car accident.  Shining lights in the Charlotte, North Carolina music scene, these wonderfully creative and eclectic musicians contributed some offbeat, often minimalistic tracks to AXE and KIDNAPPED COED that are preserved in this set's second disc, a music CD which also includes several bonus tracks of the duo's non-movie-related jazz compositions that provide scintillating listening. 

A ten-minute interview with author Stephen Thrower ("Nightmare USA"), who helped bring Friedel and his films to the attention of new audiences, is followed by several trailers and TV spots for them. 

No doubt the oddest of all the bonus features is the full-length feature film BLOODY BROTHERS, which is actually a later re-edit by Friedel of both AXE and KIDNAPPED COED into one strange, disjointed narrative in which Jack Canon's "Steele" and "Eddie Matlock" characters are presented as identical twins unaware of each other's existence.  Their unrelated stories are intercut with little rhyme or reason, while recurring intertitles tell us that the two are gradually drawing closer to one another ("Five miles away", "One mile away", "1/2 mile away", etc.)

Since we know they'll never meet, we wonder what this is all leading up to, if anything. The main interest is seeing which scenes Friedel decides to include and how he cross-edits them, as well as what he leaves out, including the entire subplot of Eddie and his mom.  There's one scene that's entirely new, which shows Eddie on the beach performing a Jewish prayer ceremony even though he isn't Jewish.

This interesting oddity comes with another winning commentary track by Stephen Thrower. I really can't say how it would play for someone who hasn't already seen the two films on their own. 

Severin Films has restored AXE and KIDNAPPED COED from the original negatives (rescuing these from movie purgatory is part of the main documentary's gripping story) for this HD Blu-ray release, which is in 1.85:1 widescreen and mono sound.  No subtitles. 

AXE, KIDNAPPED COED, and their bastard sibling BLOODY BROTHERS, along with the abundance of extras that go along with them, add up to several hours of movie watching that are engrossing, enriching, and just plain fun.  It's all very satisfying in an exploitation vein, but not only that, Friedel's low-budget films are small-scale artistic wonders which yield all sorts of aesthetic rewards and make one wish he'd done more before being soured on the business. Rather than "so bad, they're good", his films are actually so good, they're great.

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Stills used are not taken from the Blu-ray.

AXE / KIDNAPPED COED -- Blu-ray + CD Review by Porfle

SHAW BROTHERS COLLECTION II -- DVD review by porfle

(Brothers Five/ Holy Flame of the Martial World/ Journey of the Doomed/ Brave Archer and His Mate)

Originally posted in 2010

More lightning fists, flying feet, and clanging blades collide in SHAW BROTHERS COLLECTION II, a four-disc DVD set containing further fantastic adventures in the "Sword Masters" series. 


BROTHERS FIVE (1970), a raucous frenzy of clashing swords and impossible feats of derring-do, has just enough story to string together one blade brawl after another. We're back in ancient China again, where evil Long Zhen Feng (Feng Tien) and the villainous cutthroats of Flying Dragon villa keep the countryside in a state of terror.  Young swordsman Gao Wei (Yueh Hua) travels there to settle an old score with Long Zhen Feng, who murdered his father and took over the villa from him. 

On his way there, he meets beautiful Miss Yan (Cheng Pei Pei), who informs him that he has four brothers and that it was his father's dying wish that they someday reunite and avenge him.  Eventually the five brothers--Gao Wei, burly blacksmith Gao Hao, scholar Gao Zhi (Kao Yuan), dashing bandit Gao Xia (Lo Leih), and Security Bureau chief Gao Yong (Chang I)--join forces to take on the bad guys.

Once the exposition is taken care of, the story barely gets in the way of a succession of battle scenes that seem to crop up every few minutes or so.  Blacksmith Gao Hao settles an altercation in the street with the Flying Dragons by swinging his mighty hammer with deadly effect, while Shaolin-trained bookworm Gao Zhi has a nifty battle against two of them in a restaurant.  Gao Yong's Security Bureau men are ambushed and wiped out on an isolated road, and his assistant Chu, played by a very young Sammo Hung, is killed. 

Most of the fighting takes place in and around the Flying Dragon villa, with the brothers going up against impossible odds time after time.  The group choreography is excellent, with foreground fighters surrounded by several other fairly realistic battles going on all around them.  There's plenty of sword-clanging action and some pleasingly fake wirework, including one astounding shot in which kung fu mistress Miss Yan makes her escape by suddenly and inexplicably flying away like Superman.  The drawback here is that a monotonous sameness begins to set in after awhile, with one drawn-out clash beginning to pretty much resemble the next.  But it's all solidly directed by Wei Lo and expertly performed.

The topper comes after Miss Yan introduces the brothers to the special Five Tigers kung fu technique ("Five tigers, one heart") which requires five men with different skills to pull it off.  During their climactic free-for-all against a seemingly invincible Long Zhen Feng, they go into their rotating Five Tigers formation, which resembles one of those razzle-dazzle cheerleader formations and is pretty funny to look at.  The five brothers whirl around in this position for awhile, which seems to confuse Long Zhen Feng and leave him open to attack, so they start leaping at him.  I won't give away the exciting conclusion.

With nice period atmosphere, furious swordplay and martial arts mayhem, and likable characters (Miss Yan is particularly captivating and the brothers are a robust bunch), BROTHERS FIVE overcomes a tendency toward occasional monotony and is ultimately a pretty colorful and entertaining adventure. 

Making just about every other movie in the world seem slow-moving and mundane in comparison, HOLY FLAME OF THE MARTIAL WORLD (1983) is about as close to a total cinematic freak-out as you could imagine. 

Wan Ching Chung and his wife are killed by white-haired, bushy-eyebrowed Grand Master Jing Yin (Leanne Lau) and her associate Monster Yu (Jason Pai Piao) after they're forced to reveal the location of the Creed of the Holy Flame.  The Phantom (Philip Kwok) swoops in and rescues the dead couple's baby boy Wan Tien Sau, pledging that in 18 years the boy will return to get revenge.  Jing Yin takes their baby girl Dan Fung and raises her as a warrior in the all-female Er Mei clan, telling her that the Phantom killed her parents. 

Eighteen years later, Wan Tien Sau (Max Mok) is sent off to seek the Holy Flame.  Along the way, he rescues the beautiful Juan Er (Mary Jean Reimer) from the evil Blood Sucking Clan and she inadvertently gains great power in her index finger after touching an enchanted snake's bladder.  Meanwhile, Jing Yin, who possesses a Yin version of the Holy Flame, sends Dan Fung to avenge herself against the Phantom and retrieve the Holy Flame's Yang counterpart, which will give Jing Yin great power.  This sets the stage for a series of battles like you wouldn't believe between Wan Tien Sau, Dan Fung, Jing Yin and Monster Yu, Monster Yu's impetuous young apprentice Duan, Golden Snake Boy, the wacky Eight Righteous Clans, and Juan Er's Mighty Finger.

I just don't know what to think about this movie.  It's like taking an acid trip on a rollercoaster.  I'd call it cartoonish, but I doubt if even Tex Avery ever made a cartoon with such a breakneck pace and rapid-fire editing, nor such a dizzying, non-stop bombardment of bizarre images.  Director Tony Liu Jun-guk couldn't be less concerned with how realistic the wirework is, which doesn't matter anyway because characters continuously zip around all over the place in fast-motion like a bunch of flying speed freaks.  In addition to this is the precision fight choreography that is quite impressive, and lots of colorful FX animation.

The characters also display a wonderful variety of super-powers.  The Phantom's main weapon is his "Ghostly Laugh"--he sits crosslegged and convulses with broad, forced laughter, creating a deadly cyclone all around him which terrifies Jing Yin and Monster Yu until they learn how to make their ears close up by themselves.  In return, they attack with the horrific Bone Incineration By Fire and Merry-Go-Round techniques.  Wan Tien Sau is able to make his Devil Sword fly around as though he were operating it with an invisible remote control. 

Blaring music and an endless cacophony of sound effects bombard the viewer along with the freakish visuals.  One of the best sequences is when a 1,000-year-old corpse, which Lam May Heung brought home from a trip out West, comes to life spouting English phrases such as "I KILL YOU!" and, sure enough, decides to kill him.  Another is Wan Tien Sau's search for the Holy Flame inside the Moon Cavern, where he's attacked by cool cartoon ghosts and giant Chinese text that pops off the floor and flies around trying to do him in. 

From the moment this utterly kooky film bursts out of the gate it just doesn't stop, plunging headlong through a rapid-fire succession of breathtakingly off-the-wall scenes until the hilarious conclusion.  Possibly the downright nuttiest movie I've ever seen, ever, HOLY FLAME OF THE MARTIAL WORLD is funny, exciting, stupefying, and wonderfully endearing.

After HOLY FLAME, 1985's JOURNEY OF THE DOOMED seems positively sedate.  Despite some comedy here and there, it's mainly a tale of tragic romance with intermittent swordplay and some surprisingly adult elements.

The madame of a classy brothel, Big Sister, gets in hot water with an evil client named Mr. Duan after he cruelly breaks in a new girl whose best friend, Shui-erh, an orphan whom Big Sister has raised since childhood, throws a snake at him.  Shui-erh is actually the illegitimate daughter of a prince who's next in line to become Emperor, and Big Sister figures that this scandalous information will be valuable to the second-in-line prince so she reveals it to him in return for squaring things with Duan.  Second Prince sends the Three Knights--Fei-hsia, Xi Ma Cross, and Swallow 13--to capture Shui-erh so he can show her to Dad, while First Brother sends bad warrior Shan and two murderous Black Dragon Order swordswomen, Spicy Double Wind Eel and Monkey Lin, to kill everyone in the brothel.

Shui-erh escapes into the woods and is helped by a handsome young fisherman whom she calls "Knight."  It turns out that he is the younger brother of Spicy Double Wind Eel, which complicates things a bit.  Shui-erh and Knight fall in love while living in the secluded beach shack of a kindly mute girl, but Shui-erh becomes jealous of her and runs away, falling into the hands of the Three Knights.  Fei-hsia, who is in love with Shan and under his hypnotic spell, makes off with Shui-erh before she can be taken to the palace and delivers her to Shan at the Mysterious Fire Village, where a fierce battle between Shan and the Knights takes place over the fate of the future princess.

Director Chuen-Yee Cha's JOURNEY OF THE DOOMED has few major action setpieces compared to most Shaw Brothers films, and there isn't a lot of effort put into making the characters' fighting skills look all that convincing.  The main emphasis is on the love story, which is less than riveting.  Much of the middle part of the film resembles one of those BLUE LAGOON-type flicks about young lovers cavorting in the wild, with Shui-erh's spoiled brattiness getting a bit trying after awhile.  The lack of chemistry between the two actors is obvious when they kiss--she keeps her lips pressed firmly together as though being forced to eat spinach, while he practically tries to suck her entire face into his mouth.

Still, leather-clad babe Monkey Lin is entertaining whether taking on a bunch of inept guys just for fun or having it out with Spicy Double Wind Eel when she tries to kill her brother.  Most startling is the sequence in which Monkey and Spicy slaughter the prostitutes of Big Sister's brothel, and the final battle at Mysterious Fire Village is impressively staged.  There isn't much wirework here and fantasy elements are kept to such a minimum that when animated light beams eminate from Shan's eyes as he hypnotizes Fei-hsia, it seems almost out of place.

What sets this film apart is the nudity and softcore sex.  An early scene with Big Sister and her brothel partner gettin' it on is totally gratuitous, but the fact that she's so gorgeous makes it my favorite part of the movie.  Mr. Duan's session with the virgin Xio Cai is considerably less romantic, as he whips and even brands her while roughly availing himself of her supple body.  Later, things get sappy during Shui-erh and Knight's idyllic wilderness interlude, which even includes one of those cutesy montages set to the tune of a bad 80s power ballad.  This entire sequence slows the movie down and it doesn't pick up again until we get to the Mysterious Fire Village.

After recently watching several Shaw Brothers films which are loaded with wall-to-wall action and fantasy, JOURNEY OF THE DOOMED comes as a letdown.  It does have its charming moments and a certain amount of excitement, but it isn't a film I'll feel compelled to revisit any time soon.

Probably the most frustrating movie in the collection is Chang Cheh's BRAVE ARCHER AND HIS MATE (1982), because while it features a generous amount of impressive hand-to-hand combat, acrobatics, and swordplay, the story is a cluttered patchwork that makes little sense.

I won't even begin to try and unravel the knotty plot with all of its superflous and dead-end elements except to say that it begins with hero Kuo Tsing (Philip Kwok) and his beloved wife Huang Yung (Gigi Wong) becoming the guardians of an orphaned baby boy named Yang Guo after a deadly encounter with the evil Ouyang Fung (Wong Lik) in Iron Spear Temple.  The baby grows up to become a flakey slacker (Alexander Fu Sheng) who gets picked on by his foster parents' other kung fu pupils until he discovers Ouyang Fung still living in the abandoned temple.  The crazed old man, who has lost his memory, desires a son and offers to teach Yang Guo his invincible Frog Skill kung fu if he'll call him "father." 

Still a goofball but now armed with the power of the Frog technique, Yang Guo is tricked into thinking that his real father, Yang Kang, was a hero who was murdered by Kuo Tsing and Huang Yung.  His ill-fated alliance with Ouyang Fung seems to set up the rest of the plot until the movie takes a sudden left turn and ends up in a monastery where Kuo Tsing takes Yang Guo and fellow pupil Wu Sau Man (Chin Siu-Ho) to be mentored by his former teachers.  There's a whole other subplot about suitors coming to the monastery in order to duel for the hand of a mysterious woman who lives in a tomb (it's a long story).  Between the ardent suitors and the hostile apprentices of the monks, Kuo Tsing and his two charges find themselves in one furious battle after another until the movie simply screeches to a halt as though the DVD had gotten stuck.

I haven't seen any of the other "Brave Archer" films (this is the fourth) but I assume that they must have some archery in them since this one doesn't.  There is, however, a lot of carefully-staged action that is worth wading through the muddled plot for.  The melodramatic early scenes in the Iron Spear Temple are overly laden with exposition but feature some good fights, while the climactic sequence in and around the Quanzhen Sect's monastery is non-stop sword-clanging and kung fu fun.  In between, the business with crazy old Ouyang Fung returning to make trouble leads to some good clashes as well.  What weighs the film down, however, is the fact that all of this action is unsupported by a coherent story.

Philip Kwok is always a welcome presence in these films and Gigi Wong is beautiful and appealing as Huang Yung, while Wen Hsueh-erh is cute as a button as their daughter, Guo Fu.  Unfortunately, her character disappears halfway through the movie.  Wong Lik is a lot of fun as Ouyang Fung but he also drops out long before the extended end sequence. 

Worst of all is Alexander Fu Sheng's supposedly funny Yang Guo, who would be more at home in a "Bill and Ted" movie than in this one.  The relentlessly unamusing Yang Guo gets harder to take as the story progresses, ultimately becoming rather repellent.  The film ends with a freeze-frame closeup of him mugging like an idiot while the story remains frustratingly unresolved.

It would be nice if BRAVE ARCHER AND HIS MATE had been about Brave Archer and his mate, instead of devoting so much of its running time to the painfully uninteresting and pointless Yang Guo character.  As it is, the film fails to weave a compelling story out of its various plot threads and is watchable mainly for its furious action scenes. 

As with the first Shaw Brothers collection, each of the four DVDs in this set from Well Go USA, Inc. and Celestial Pictures is widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.  Soundtrack is in Mandarin with English and Chinese subtitles.  The theatrical trailer for each film is included.  SHAW BROTHERS COLLECTION II is a mixed bag, containing two rousing and highly-entertaining adventures along with a couple of somewhat less successful efforts.  As with most SB films, all are worth watching, but you may not find them all worth re-watching.

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SHAW BROTHERS COLLECTION II -- DVD review by porfle

SHAW BROTHERS COLLECTION -- DVD review by porfle

(THE HEROIC ONES/ THE BATTLE WIZARD/ THE DUEL OF THE CENTURY/ TWO CHAMPIONS OF SHAOLIN)

 Originally posted 5/6/2010

 

Here's something Hong Kong action fans will want to check out--the four-disc SHAW BROTHERS COLLECTION, which contains four furious fight films from their "Sword Masters" series.

THE HEROIC ONES (1970) is a rousing tale of ancient China that's a feast for fans of sword and spear action done on a grand scale. As the Tang Dynasty wanes, warlords Li Ke Yong and Zhu Wen become allies in the fight against bandit leader Wang Chao, who has taken over the capital city of Changon. Li Ke Yong's thirteen generals, whom he has adopted and regards as sons, are fierce super-warriors who love a good battle as much as they love getting drunk and making whoopee. He chooses nine of them to be led by thirteenth son Chun Xiao in a mission to retake Changon and kill Wang. But fourth son Li Cun Xin is jealous of the young general and wants more glory for himself, which will lead to him and another son joining Zhu Wen in a bloody betrayal of Li Ke Yong and the other generals.

Cheh Chang's direction is old-style with lots of restless hand-held camera and whiplash zooms. But with a big budget to work with, he offers up an opulent display of elaborate sets and costumes with hundreds of extras. His battle scenes are often spectacular, featuring some impressive choreography involving numerous actors performing long, complicated bits of business. Swords and spears clash furiously as the generals take on waves of opponents and rack up body counts well into the hundreds. There's some less than convincing wirework as Chun Xiao and his brothers execute a few super-human moves here and there, but it's all part of the fun.

The battle for Changon is an early highlight which is surpassed later on when Li Ke Yong is kidnapped by Zhu Weng and is rescued by courageous general Ju Li, who must fight his way through dozens of soldiers on a bridge as the enemy stronghold goes up in flames. Throughout the film, the action is eye-filling and intense.

A lighthearted mood fills the early part of the story as we get to know the comically self-confident and cocky Heroic Ones, who revel in the fact that they can defeat just about anyone and have fun celebrating their invincibility with plenty of wine and women. As thirteenth son Chun Xiao, David Chiang does a good job taking his character from brash insouciance to wounded disillusionment as the story takes on tragic proportions. What happens in the latter half of the film is pretty heavy stuff, with the final confrontation between brothers carrying quite a lot of emotional weight along with the action.


I wasn't expecting an epic when I started watching THE HEROIC ONES, but it certainly does its best to resemble one. In addition to being an opulent historical piece, it also has elements of the Italian western and war films such as THE DIRTY DOZEN. And there's a gripping story to go along with all of that beautifully-staged carnage.


If you ever wondered what Hong Kong action flicks look like to crazy people, THE BATTLE WIZARD (1977) should give you a good idea. This is one seriously nutty flick that left me doubting my own sanity even more than usual.

As the film opens, the Emperor's brother Tuan Zhengchun is caught messing around with Hongmian, the wife of Yellow Robe Man, and when her husband attacks, Zhengchun defends himself by using "Yi Yang Finger", which he performs by making pretend shooting motions with his index fingers and firing destructor beams that sever Yellow Robe Man's legs. Yellow Robe Man swears revenge, and twenty years later we see him in his chintzy-looking cave lair with a new pair of telescoping robot bird legs, ordering his cackling monster henchman Canglong to kidnap Zhengchun's son, prince Tuan Yu.

This is just the set up. We then find that Tuan Yu has left the palace because he's a pacifist scholar who doesn't want to learn martial arts ("One could get hurt, and very sweaty," he fears) and wants to see if he can survive in the outside world without them. Needless to say, everyone within fifty miles starts attacking him and he is aided by an enchanted snake-handling girl named Ling-erh, who throws glowing green snakes at the leader of the Poisonous Moths Clan which burrow under his skin. Tuan Yu escapes and seeks help from the dreaded witch-woman Xiang Yaocha, who has sworn that if any man sees her veiled face she will either marry him or kill him. Tuan Yu sees her face, of course, and after they're betrothed he discovers that she is his half-sister, Wanqing, by his father and Hongmian.

All of this brings us to the film's free-for-all finale in which Yellow Robe Man conspires with another warlord to capture Tuan Yu and Wanqing so that Tuan Zhengchun and his wife will be lured to their doom. The young protagonists are hurled into a pit where they are attacked by a "giant gorilla", which is a man hopping around in one of the worst gorilla suits in film history. Tuan Yu, who now has super powers after drinking the blood of the Red Python and eating a glowing green frog (don't ask), takes on the various bad guys and their minions amidst a flurry of hyperkinetic editing, colorful animated special effects, and visuals that seem to have been conceived by a committee of schizophrenics. My favorite part of the whole thing is the sight of a wildly-emoting Yellow Robe Man stalking around on his metallic bird-leg stilts.


Hsueh Li Pao's direction and editing are all over the place in some scenes but that only contributes to the disorienting strangeness of this wacky cartoonish adventure. There are several fun setpieces including the fight with the Poisonous Moths Clan, Wanquing's frenetic battle with a group of bandits (in which she displays her great skill with the "bone-cutting sword" technique), and Tuan Yu and Wanquing's flight from a Tasmanian Devil-like Canglong. I don't know if John Carpenter ever saw this, but it's certainly the kind of movie that served as the inspiration for his BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA.

With its comically exaggerated acting and characters, hilariously melodramatic action, and "anything goes" special effects, THE BATTLE WIZARD is pure Shaw Brothers fun. It isn't often you'll see a movie that is this deliriously bizarre. I just had to sit there for a few minutes wondering what the heck I'd just watched.


Director Chu Yuan's THE DUEL OF THE CENTURY (1981) is much less fanciful than a cartoony romp like THE BATTLE WIZARD--no sorcery, no animated death rays shooting out of anybody's fingers, no diabolical creatures. While the impossible feats of skill performed by the characters still place it well into the fantasy realm, this is basically a mystery story with elements of "The Three Musketeers" and those old Westerns in which evenly-matched gunfighters faced each other in a final showdown.

The mystery begins when the two greatest martial arts champions in all of ancient China, Ye Gucheng and Shimen Chueishiue, challenge each other to a duel on the rooftops of the Forbidden City. Since the two fighters aren't enemies, a puzzled Lu Xiaofeng (Tony Liu) turns detective and tries to get to the bottom of things. Drawn into an ever-widening web of deception and intrigue which includes ninjas, monks, lamas, and flamboyantly gay eunuchs, Lu finally uncovers a dastardly plot that leads all the way to the throne. (This, along with the swashbuckling swordplay, is what reminded me of Dumas.)

The story is so dense and talky that I eventually gave up trying to follow it after awhile and just enjoyed the fight scenes which crop up every five minutes or so. Lu is one of those warriors who is so infallible that he can afford to be relaxed and funny (some find him extremely annoying but I like him) while fighting off hordes of foes. One running gag I enjoyed is the way everyone recognizes him when he uses his famous finger technique, which consists of grabbing whatever blade is jabbed at him in a vise grip between his thumb and forefinger. "You're Lu Xiaofeng!" they shout as he feigns modesty.

Lu encounters a variety of hostile opponents with different techniques during several lively but somewhat repetitive sequences, cracking jokes like Spiderman while defeating them all. There are a few bursts of hand-to-hand combat here and there but mostly the fighting is done with clanging swords and various other blades. The fight in an elegant three-level restaurant is an early highlight, which begins with an army of geishas filling the air with rose petals and ends with Ye Gucheng applying his deadly "flying goddess" move to an unlucky opponent. Great sets and lots of atmosphere augment the action, along with an effective score composed of some recognizable library tracks.

Lu uncovers the real reason behind the duel but, lucky for us, is unable to keep it from taking place. While it would be hard for any fight to live up to all the build-up this one gets, it still delivers a fair amount of action and unbelievable displays of superhuman skill (although I didn't quite get why they were leaping through big circles of paper). Again, this is just the kind of stuff that inspired both BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA and "The Powerpuff Girls", with warriors soaring through the air at each other as though flying or jumping straight up and fighting in midair for several seconds before coming back down. After watching all the tedious plot threads entwine around each other for an hour and a half, it's fun when these guys finally cut loose and get down to business.


Cheh Chang returns with his familiar directorial style in TWO CHAMPIONS OF SHAOLIN (1978), moving the camera in a dizzying series of lightning-fast zooms and pans that give his action scenes their own unique vitality. And finally--some good old-fashioned fists 'n' feet kung fu!

You may want to take notes, because the first scene is loaded with exposition as "courageous but reckless" young Tong Qianjin (Lo Mang) graduates from training in the Shaolin temple (I guess he snatched the pebble) and is told by Master Zhishan that he must locate fellow student and master boxer Hu Huigan (Chiang Sheng) and wait until the time is right for them to move against the rival Wudang Clan. (The Wudangs are loyal to the Qing Court, which the Shaolins wish to overthrow in order to restore the Ming Dynasty.) All of this is just to get us to the point where the fighting between the Shaolins and the Wudangs begins, which is when the movie takes off.

Tong hasn't been in town for long before Wudang brother Dezong shows up and starts flinging boomerang knives at him, which are pretty cool. The wounded Tong seeks refuge with a sympathetic brother and sister, Jin Tailai and Jin Bier, who teach him how to fend off the dreaded Bloody Knife. The next time Tong and Dezong meet it's a quick and dirty hand-to-hand clash that breathes some life into the movie.

The Wudangs then challenge Tong and Hu to a public one-on-one fight that becomes the most sustained and exciting action setpiece yet, with excellent choreography and lots of quick and skillful moves. Hu fails to endear himself to the Wudangs when he rips the junk right off one of their best guys during a slow-motion leap. Not surprisingly, this ticks off the Wudangs to the point where they invade the wedding banquet of Tong and Bier and turn it into a massacre in another lively fight sequence.

Things get more complicated as we go along, with a young Wudang named Wei switching allegiance to the Shaolins just as a fearsome badass named Gao Jinzhong shows up with the Yuan brothers, experts in monkey boxing and monkey rod, to take up the Wudang banner against the Shaolins. Also adding to the unpredictability of the plot is the appearance of Dezong's daughter, Li Erhuna, who's out for revenge. All of this leads to a climax that's a bloody free-for-all in which nobody is safe--you never know who's going to buy the farm next in this movie. Despite its many comedic touches, TWO CHAMPIONS OF SHAOLIN is filled with somber and downbeat moments that keep the viewer off-guard.


The only downside to this movie is the effort it takes to keep up with all of that exposition, plus a second half that tends to drag until the thrilling finale. At that point, however, the screen is filled with an extended flurry of bloody kung fu action in which you never know who's going to drop dead next. TWO CHAMPIONS OF SHAOLIN is a rousing example of old-school martial arts mayhem, rounding out the collection in suitable style.

Each of the four DVDs in this set from Well Go USA, Inc. and Celestial Pictures is widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Soundtrack is in Mandarin and dubbed English, with English and Chinese subtitles. The theatrical trailer for each film is included. Whether you're a longtime Shaw Brothers fan or just getting into them, SHAW BROTHERS COLLECTION should provide plenty of fun-filled entertainment.

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Buy it at HKFlix

Read our review of The Shaw Brothers Collection II.

SHAW BROTHERS COLLECTION -- DVD review by porfle

THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION) -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

I watched an awful lot of afternoon TV back in the 80s, but I somehow missed out on "Transformers."  (Although I did buy my nephew one of the toys for Christmas once.) 

This half-hour cartoon series--some would call it an extended toy commercial--about the never-ending war for planet Earth between two opposing factions of intelligent shape-shifting robots named the Autobots and the Decepticons, who can all turn into various high-powered vehicles or cyber-creatures, ran from 1984-87 and garnered a fervent cult following for which it rated a feature-film treatment in 1986. 

Thus, THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION) (Shout! Factory and Hasbro Studios, 2-disc Blu-ray) is a great way not only to catch up on what all the nostalgia's about but also to see it at what I assume to be its very best.

Even for a "Transformers" novice like myself, the 80s nostalgia that this rollicking animated space adventure radiates is intoxicating.  It's old-school anime-style cel animation without the CGI gimmicks.  Even if it sometimes betrays its TV origins, it looks fantastic.  And it has a voice cast that's to short-circuit for. 

The film opens with a pretty spectacular sequence in which a renegade planet-sized robot named Unicron (voiced by Orson Welles in his final film appearance) attacks a peaceful world populated by robots and ingests it for fuel.  The artistic depiction of this massive global devastation is stunning, the first of several more upcoming scenes that will dazzle the viewer.

After a "Superman: The Movie"-style main titles sequence featuring the show's familiar theme song, we then settle into the story proper as our mechanical heroes, the Autobots, thunder into action to stave off an attack from the evil Decepticons in the far-off year of 2005.

No sooner is this action-packed battle over than Unicron shows up and transforms some of the surviving Decepticons into his own personal army with which to defeat the Autobots and steal from them an all-powerful device known as the Matrix of Leadership.  Leonard Nimoy himself provides the voice for Unicron's duplicitous number-one, Galvatron (formerly Megatron), who covets the Matrix for himself.

An interesting side note: the deaths and transformations of several regular characters during this sequence are a result of the scripters' instructions to retire the old line of toys and replace them with new ones for young viewers to covet.  This proved to be more traumatic for fans than anyone expected, especially the intensely dramatic death of the Autobots' leader, Optimus Prime, who passed the Matrix on to new leader Ultra Magnus (voiced by Robert Stack.) 

The rest of the film is a robot vs. robot free-for-all with several cool detours along the way, including a visit to a junk planet with "Monty Python" alum Eric Idle voicing a comedic bot named "Wreck-Gar" who listens to too much Earth television, and an encounter with a race of grotesque mecha-beings whose main form of entertainment is to conduct kangaroo courts in which to sentence strangers such as Hot Rod (Judd Nelson) and Kup (Lionel Stander) to "death-by-sharkticon."

Dealing with these foes leads to the ultimate battle with Unicron (who turns out to be one huge transformer himself) and his dark forces which provides the film with its thrilling finale. By this time, I was finally starting to sort out all the many characters including good guys Hot Rod, Kup (he turns into a pickup--get it?), female robot Arcee, human Spike and his plucky son Daniel--both of whom also get to be transformers by wearing exo-suits--Bumblebee, Blurr, and the diminutive Wheelie.

Much comedy relief is provided by the Dinobots, who lack all social graces, talk in Bizarro-Speak ("Me, Grimlock, want to munch metal!"), and live for the times in which old soldier Kup regales them all with oft-told war stories ("Tell Grimlock about petro-rabbits again!") The Decepticons are also good for a few laughs when their inter-family squabbles escalate into all-out fights for dominance among the different robot clans. 

Character design is good and the backgrounds are often beautiful.  The musical score is okay when we aren't assaulted by bad 80s arena rock (I did enjoy hearing "Weird Al" Yankovic's "Dare to Be Stupid" at one point).

Dialogue ranges from likably dumb ("Your days are numbered now, Decepti-creeps!") to quite good, as in the numerous exchanges between Welles and Nimoy.  Celebrity voice talent also includes Scatman Crothers ("Jazz"), Casey Kasem ("Cliffjumper"), Clive Revill ("Kickback"), Norm Alden ("Kranix"), and Roger C. Carmel ("Cyclonus"). Legendary voice performer Frank Welker takes on no less than six different roles.

The 2-disc Blu-ray set from Shout! Factory and Hasbro Studios gives us both the 1.85:1 widescreen version (disc 1) and the full screen version (disc 2) with English stereo and 5.1 sound and subtitles in English and Spanish.  Remastered from a brand-new 4k transfer of original film elements.  (A steelbook edition and a single-disc DVD edition with only the widescreen version plus digital copy are also available.)

Special features include a lengthy and highly-informative behind-the-scenes featurette entitled "'Til All Are One" (the segment on voice talent is especially fun), several other short featurettes, animated storyboards, trailers and TV spots, and an audio commentary with director Nelson Shin, story consultant Flint Dill, and star Susan Blu ("Arcee").  The cover illustration is reversible.  Also contains the code for downloading a digital copy.

THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION) is good old bombastic meat-and-potatoes space opera for kids and adults alike, with a welcome anime flavor.  It should rocket original fans of the show right back to their childhoods (or teenhoods, as the case may be) while gaining new ones such as myself who just love a good mind-expanding sci-fi adventure.  

Street date: Sept. 13, 2016

Pre-order now:
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Images shown are not taken from the Blu-ray disc.

THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE (30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION) -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

GHOST IN THE SHELL -- Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD Review by Porfle

Futuristic sci-fi thrillers such as 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, BLADE RUNNER, and the more recent THE FIFTH ELEMENT used to amaze and astound us with their eye-popping visuals and stunning practical effects. Nowadays, such fare is so overloaded with CGI-generated artificial wonders jam-packed into every frame that we tend to get numbed by it all. 

GHOST IN THE SHELL (2017)--a live-action adaptation of the original manga by way of the excellent 1995 animated version--starts out that way, cluttered with too many whiz-bang visuals that don't always seem to exist in the real world, with the ever-present advertising motif of BLADE RUNNER taken to new extremes and a sort of architectural imagination gone mad.

As the film progresses, however, we settle in and adapt to this frenetic, plastic vision of the future, mainly because the theme of the story is technology gone too far--people becoming willing cyborgs for vanity and convenience and all connected body and mind to a central core--and the main characters are meant to feel alienated by it as well. 

Our heroine, Major Mira Killian (Scarlett Johansson) of the anti-terrorist group Section 9, is especially attuned to such feelings, being that she is the first successful fusion of a human brain with an entirely robotic body (i.e., a "ghost in the shell") and thus constantly conflicted as to how much of her humanity remains and what percent of her is pure machine connected to the company mainframe. 

Her inner conflict is heightened when her group's newest nemesis is a cyber-criminal named Kuze who can hack into any system including all cyborgs--meaning just about everybody to one degree or another--and service robots. 

His goal is revenge, which he wreaks to the extreme in some explosive action setpieces.  But exactly why remains a mystery until Mira and her team manage to fight their way right into his sinister clutches and discover the truth behind not only Kuze but their own organization.

Scarlett Johansson strikes the right balance between robotic demeanor and inner conflict, which she underplays until it's time to delve headlong into her action scenes.  These lack the angular inventiveness and quirky choreography of, say, THE MATRIX, but are still packed with satisfying excitement in their own way, replete with gunplay and hand-to-hand combat with sci-fi elements such as invisibility and advanced weaponry. 

"Beat" Takeshi Kitano (BATTLE ROYALE, VIOLENT COP) lends his considerable presence as Mira's boss, Aramaki, as does Juliette Binoche--who will always be Catherine Earnshaw of 1992's WUTHERING HEIGHTS to me--as Dr. Ouelet, the head scientist who created Mira and regards her as a daughter.  Pilou Asbæk is also good as Mira's partner Batou, a gruff, bearlike agent who's just a regular guy beneath it all. 

Mira's quest to find herself, to uncover suppressed memories of her former life and get to the truth of why and how she was created, eventually takes GHOST IN THE SHELL to a place that's both powerful and tragic, lending emotional depth to its final chaotic showdown between good and evil (traits which will shift their meaning considerably before it's over). 

The 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD set from Paramount is in 1080p high definition (DVD is widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs) with Dolby 5.1 stereo and subtitles in multiple languages.  The DVD contains the feature film only.  The Blu-ray disc contains the feature plus three bonus behind-the-scenes featurettes.

Visually and emotionally compelling, the live-action GHOST IN THE SHELL never quite reaches the sublime beauty of its animated predecessor but tries its damndest to do so.  In this, it succeeds in being a lively, thought-provoking, and often dazzling entry in the dystopian-future sci-fi genre which fans won't want to miss.


Street Date:      July 7, 2017 (Digital HD) July 25, 2017 (4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD) 
U.S. Rating:    PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence, suggestive content and some disturbing images
Canadian Rating: PG, not recommended for young children, violence

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DVD
3D

Read our original coverage

GHOST IN THE SHELL -- Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD Review by Porfle

ZAAT -- Blu-Ray/DVD Review by Porfle

 (Originally posted in 2012)

If the idea of being attacked by a giant walking catfish has ever given you sleepless nights, you may not be able to handle ZAAT (aka "Blood Waters of Dr. Z"), a 1972 indy horror flick made on a shoestring in and around Jacksonville, Florida.  But if thoughts of catfish simply make you hungry, and you don't have anything more exciting to do for the next hour and a half, then this good-natured, pleasantly boring little fish story should go down pretty easy.

The film opens with stock footage of various predatory fish as we hear mad scientist Dr. Leopold (Marshall Grauer) chuckling to himself about his scheme to take over the universe by creating catfish people.  Like a poor man's Vincent Price, he gloats:  "They'll have fish a size they've never seen before...walking fish!  Heh, heh...they'll like human flesh."

After the exciting main titles sequence, which shows the doctor slowly making his way from the ocean shore to his laboratory in the basement of an abandoned building, we see his decades-long experiments reach fruition when he injects himself with a special formula--"Z, sub a, and A, sub t"--and climbs into a water tank.  (The sight of him removing his shirt and pants is probably the most horrifying thing in the entire picture.)  What emerges from the tank is Zaat, an eight-foot-tall human catfish. 

Played by 6'8" actor Wade Popwell in a suit which consists of mounds of painted silicon over a scuba outfit and an oversized monster head, Zaat then begins his reign of terror by swimming around in Silver Springs (where Tarzan and the Creature From the Black Lagoon once frolicked) spraying radioactive waste out of a squirt bottle.  The color photography of the monster moving about these crystal-clear waters is actually quite nice. 

Director Don Barton stages a pretty cool attack sequence when Zaat stumbles upon one of the scientists who once ridiculed his experiments, overturning his fishing boat and killing him and his family.  Later, he kidnaps a woman camper (Nancy Lien, who looks terrific in a yellow bikini) and unsuccessfully tries to turn her into his catfish bride.  These and a few other acts of violence fail to generate much fear--Zaat is such a goofy-looking and clumsy creature (Popwell couldn't see too well in that big monster head and frequently stumbles over things as he galumphs around just trying not to fall over) that my main reaction was to feel sorry for him.

Meanwhile, the typical "comical redneck sheriff", Sheriff Krantz (Paul Galloway) and a young marine biologist named Rex (Gerald Kruse) are checking out some watery fauna when two agents show up from INPIT (Inter-Nations Phenomenon Investigations Team) just in time to get in on the monster action.  Blonde cutie Sanna Ringhaver and studly hero-type Dave Dickerson supply the film's cursory romantic element as the mismatched foursome try to track down Zaat before he can kill again.

While we may laugh at much of ZAAT's dumber dialogue and visuals, at least it's an earnest attempt to be a real monster movie and doesn't poke fun at itself with a lot of coy self-awareness.  The film's only deliberate humor comes from Sheriff Krantz and his gangly deputy, especially in a curious sequence in which the sheriff, Pied Piper-like, leads a ragtag group of hippie Jesus freaks down the street to jail (for safety from the monster) as one of them croons an earbending folk song (he inflicts the titles tune upon us as well). 

Even Zaat himself is only the second funniest thing about the movie.  The hands-down funniest has to be the sight of actual walking catfish flopping around on a miniature set that makes THE GIANT GILA MONSTER look like JURASSIC PARK. That aside, the notion of Barbie and Ken INPIT agents on the "weird science" beat in their specially-equipped RV is pretty comical in itself.

Technically, the film has little to be ashamed of for such a low-budget effort.  Direction and editing are well-done, while the photography and lighting, especially in the nighttime and underwater scenes, look pretty good for a drive-in flick that just turned forty.  None of the actors do an outstanding job (although Galloway is pretty good) but they're not really too awful, either.  With the abduction by Zaat of the female INPIT agent for the purpose of turning her into his mate, the story builds to a surprisingly somber finish that shows some imagination. 

The 2-disc Blu-Ray/DVD combo from Film Chest's Cultra and HD Cinema Classics labels is in 16x9 widescreen and standard Dolby audio.  Spanish subtitles only.  Extras consist of a genial cast and crew commentary, outtakes, trailer and TV spots, a before-and-after restoration demo, and a radio interview with Ed Tucker and Wade Popwell.

As with other "so bad it's good" cheapies, your reaction to ZAAT will depend entirely upon whether or not you decide to like it.  Some will find it unwatchable, while others have already embraced it as a beloved cult film.  Although actual excitement and suspense are non-existent, I found it so pleasant to watch in its own easygoing way that it rarely becomes painfully boring.  But it really did make me hungry for some catfish.  


Buy the Blu-Ray/DVD combo at Amazon.com

ZAAT -- Blu-Ray/DVD Review by Porfle

THE WIZARD OF OZ 3D: 75TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION (Blu-ray 3D/ Blu-ray/ Digital HD) -- review by porfle

 (Originally posted in 2013)

 

When I was a kid, the annual airing of the 1939 classic "The Wizard of Oz" on network primetime TV was almost as highly-anticipated a yearly tradition as Halloween or even Christmas.  Kids such as myself would scramble to get all their worldly affairs in order and move heaven and earth to make sure they were securely situated in front of a TV set, with no distractions, when that MGM lion roared and Oscar-winning composer Herb Stothart's familiar fanfare blared forth in all its glory.

Of course, we had to watch it right then and there because that was our only chance, and we knew it wouldn't come around for another year.  Now, however, you ungrateful young whippersnappers have the luxury of popping in Warner Brothers' snazzy new Blu-Ray 3D/ Blu-Ray/ Digital HD combo set THE WIZARD OF OZ 3D: 75TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION.   It even has a pulse-poundin' 3D cover pic and everything! 

But aside from how brand spanking new it looks and sounds in this latest Blu-Ray edition (which it does) or how cool it must look in 3D for you luckies who have 3D players (which I don't), the film itself is still the main prize.   Arguably the most beloved motion picture ever made, "The Wizard of Oz" set the Technicolor standard for opulent film musicals that has yet to be surpassed.  Some describe it as "the perfect movie"--indeed, it's practically beyond criticism no matter how many IMDb trolls snipe about how "boring" or "dated" they imagine any classic from the 1900s to be.  Few films are still this delightfully fresh and downright stunning almost 75 years after their initial release.  

The 16-year-old Judy Garland is extraordinarily endearing in her sincere, earnest  performance as Kansas farmgirl Dorothy Gale, who,  threatened by hateful neighbor Miss Gulch (Margaret Hamilton) to have her beloved dog Toto destroyed, runs away from the home where she lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry.  After a kindly traveling fortune teller named Professor Marvel (Frank Morgan) persuades her to return home, she does so just in time to encounter a raging tornado that knocks her unconscious, sending her on a dream journey over the rainbow to the fairytale land of Oz.

Despite the many wonders she finds there, Dorothy's only wish is to get back home.  A good witch named Glinda (Billie Burke) advises her to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City,  where the wonderful Wizard of Oz may be able to help her.  Along  the way she makes friends with a scarecrow who wishes for a brain, a tin man who desires a heart, and a cowardly lion seeking the courage he lacks.  But before granting their wishes, the Wizard demands that they prove their worthiness by bringing him the broomstick of the dreaded Wicked Witch of the West, the most evil and fearsome creature in all of Oz.

The bleak and moody depictions of a flat gray Kansas landscape (its evocative, almost impressionistic interior sets are all dusty plains and miles of wire fences and telephone poles) immediately get "The Wizard of Oz" off to a heady start visually.  Dorothy gains our sympathy by being a typical teen who yearns to experience life but is all but ignored by the adults around her.  Her song, "Over the Rainbow", is both an amazing display of the youthful Judy Garland's mature vocal talent and an emotional highpoint for the film's misty-eyed fans.

Before we've even gotten out of Kansas comes one of the most thrilling special effects sequences of all time.   They made a whole movie filled with CGI tornadoes back in 1996 but not one of them could match the awe-inspiring sight of that one monstrous cyclone bearing down on Dorothy's tiny farmhouse as she scrambles for shelter.  Indeed, this segment of the film rivals 1933's "King Kong" as a breathtaking tour-de-force of sheer special-effects audacity.

After a dazzling switch-over from sepia to Technicolor, what follows in the "Oz" scenes is a succession of musical setpieces that are among the most whimsical and enchanting ever conceived for the screen.  Dorothy's encounter with the Munchkins (played by the Singer Midgets) is a delight, as are her encounters with the Scarecrow (rubber-limbed dancer Ray Bolger),  the Tin Woodsman (Jack Haley, Jr.), and the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), and their joyous arrival in the Emerald City--all carried along by the infinitely memorable songs of Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg.

The visuals exude a richly atmospheric fairytale quality which, just like the illustrations in the original L. Frank Baum books, is inspired by the old European tales but with a distinctly American flavor.  (This is reflected also in Bert Lahr's very Brooklynesque lion with his amusingly lowbrow vaudevillian schtick.)  A combination of colorful painted backdrops, sumptuous matte paintings, and elaborate sets, the backdrops for Dorothy's adventures are always a feast for the eyes.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the climactic sequence in the foreboding mountaintop castle of the Wicked Witch of the West.  If "The Wizard of Oz" is a journey through Dorothy's subconscious mind, then this segment of the film must surely be, from a child's point of view, the most terrifying Freudian nightmare ever filmed. 

Captured by the Witch's bizarre army of  flying monkeys (another impressive practical effect), Dorothy's life is first measured by the sands of an hourglass ("See that?  That's how long you've got to be alive!  And it isn't long, my pretty--it isn't long!") and then by one of the most potent threats ever leveled in a children's film: "The last to go will see the first three go before her...and her mangy little dog, too!"  A considerable amount of suspense and excitement are generated in this sequence as Dorothy's three reluctant friends conquer their imagined inadequacies and attempt to rescue her.

Here, Margaret Hamilton plays her part to the hilt and is the quintessential wicked witch in one of the movie's two (at least) Oscar-level performances.  The other, of course, is that of Judy Garland,  who did receive an honorary Oscar that year for her body of work up to and including "The Wizard of Oz."  Judy is wonderfully natural and appealing in the role, and much more realistic than Shirley Temple, whom MGM originally wanted,  would have been.  It's easy for kids to identify with her because of this natural quality,  while Temple's more artificial cuteness appeals mainly to adults.

The Blu-ray 3D/ Blu-ray/ Digital HD combo from Warner Brothers is in 16x9 widescreen with 5.1 Dolby sound and original mono.  There's an entertaining and informative new documentary,  "The Making of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz", that lasts over an hour, plus original and re-release trailers, various radio programs (one is an adaptation of the film itself), extensive photo galleries, and a "jukebox" containing songs and musical cues including alternate and interrupted takes. 

Reappearing from the earlier 70th Anniversary Edition is a commentary track hosted by Sydney Pollack and featuring Oz historian John Fricke along with archival cast and crew comments, an animated storybook condensation of Baum's original book narrated by Angela Lansbury,  a brief biographical sketch of each of the leads (Toto, too!) entitled "We Haven't Really Met Properly",  a music and effects track, and a sing-along song menu.

Like "Star Wars", the later watershed film classic that it partially inspired, THE WIZARD OF OZ remains a marvel of thrilling special-effects wizardry and all-around cinematic creativity that no amount of CGI could ever surpass.  More importantly, though, it's one of the most engaging, heartfelt, and purely sentimental adventures to ever grace the silver screen.  With a simple beauty that still evokes tears of joy in its fans, this beloved classic demonstrates that not only is there "no place like home", but that in each of us lies wisdom, compassion,  and courage if we but look for it. 

Buy it at Amazon.com:
Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/HD combo
Special Collectors' Edition

THE WIZARD OF OZ 3D: 75TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION (Blu-ray 3D/ Blu-ray/ Digital HD) -- review by porfle

LISZTOMANIA -- Movie Review by Porfle

With one of the dumbest taglines of all time ("It out-TOMMY's TOMMY!"), this movie is a mass of calculated stupidity candy-coated with rampant extravagance.

Vulgar and witless, randomly surreal, utterly tasteless, and lacking any of the visual and musical charm of the film that it supposedly outdoes at its own game, LISZTOMANIA (1975) is a movie that seems determined to be "so bad it's good" without even trying to be good first.

With TOMMY, Ken Russell had Pete Townsend's compelling rock opera upon which to hang his glossy visual musings.  Here, all he has is the music of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner channelled through a beer-addled Rick Wakeman at his worst and bastardized into some of the most pointless, rinky-dink rock songs imaginable.

Not to mention an incomprehensible storyline that features Liszt (Roger Daltrey) as a sex-crazed 19th-century rock star, Fiona Lewis as his long-suffering wife Marie, Sara Kestelman as his mistress, Princess Carolyn (who, in a fantasy sequence, is a Satanic dominatrix riding Liszt's giant, erect member like a bucking bronco before severing it in a guillotine), keyboard whiz Rick Wakeman as Thor, and TOMMY's "Cousin Kevin" himself, Paul Nicholas, as anti-Semitic political anarchist Richard Wagner, who steals Liszt's musical talent by literally sucking his blood like a vampire and then steals Liszt's daughter Cosima (Veronica Quilligan) away for his wife.    

Russell seems to have come to the conclusion that TOMMY was a surefire formula for getting stoners to come back to the theater over and over just to sit and go "wow" at goofy visuals mixed with rock music.  But there's a limit even to that dubious brand of entertainment, and LISZTOMANIA is it.

Now for the weird part--I was one of those gullible dopes who saw LISZTOMANIA two or three times on the big screen back in '75.  I had the soundtrack album on 8-track.  Not only that, but when I got my first VCR in 1981, it was one of the first movies I ever bought on videotape. 

And that was back when movies on videotape were, like, really expensive.  (I still have it, tucked snugly inside its special oversized cardboard container from Warner Home Video.)

Why? Because I love kitsch, and LISZTOMANIA is industrial-strength kitsch that's so utterly, irredeemably bad that it achieves a whole new level of horrible wonderfulness.

It's an all-out assault on art, on music, on film itself, and on our very senses.  And for all its badness, it doesn't even have the decency to be unwatchable even when Roger Daltry stops singing and starts talking.  In fact, I find it impossible not to revel in its absurd awfulness even as I'm repelled by it.

I don't know that much about the real lives of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner, but I'm pretty sure Wagner didn't rise from the dead as a Nazi Frankenstein terrorizing WWII-era Europe with a machine-gun guitar, and that Liszt didn't pilot a woman-powered spaceship from Heaven with which to dive bomb Wagnerstein into oblivion. And I kinda doubt that the current Pope looked and sounded like Ringo Starr.

LISZTOMANIA, however, shows us exactly what it would've looked like if these things and more had actually happened, as interpreted by the fevered imagination of Ken Russell at his most dangerously unhinged.  And watching it is like taking a strange drug that gets you high and makes you sick at the same time.

LISZTOMANIA -- Movie Review by Porfle