STAGECOACH: THE TEXAS JACK STORY -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 10/31/16

 

There are really great westerns and there are really awful westerns.  And in the very middle between the two, there are pretty good westerns.  These are the ones that tide you over while you're waiting for the next really great one to come along.

STAGECOACH: THE TEXAS JACK STORY (2016) is one of those pretty good ones, and, having watched it, I feel sufficiently tided over for awhile. 

Country crooner Trace Adkins (TRADED), who has that long-haired, gravelly-voiced "outlaw country" thing down pat, plays former stagecoach bandit Nathaniel Reed.  Nate's been trying to make a go at the straight and narrow life with his schoolmarm wife, Laura Lee (Michelle Harrison, "The Flash"), although times are hard for the small-time rancher.

They get a lot harder when renegade lawman Woody Calhoun (Kim Coates), sporting an eye patch thanks to one of Nate's bullets years before, catches up with him along with his female deputy, a sadistic, trigger-happy blonde named Bonnie Mudd (Helena Marie, "Supernatural").  One of Nate's old cohorts, Frank (Claude Duhamel), shows up first to warn him and before we know it, the air around Nate's ranch is filled with bullets.

When it's over, Nate's beloved Laura Lee has apparently been killed and, in desperation, he returns to what he knows best--robbing stagecoachs with Frank and another old saddle pal, the likable Sid (Judd Nelson, THE BREAKFAST CLUB).  But the vengeful Calhoun and Mudd are now more determined than ever to get them and will leave no dastardly deed undone until Nate and his gang are dead.

While there are some nice plot twists along the way, this is a pretty straightforward story that's well told and gives us a decent amount of the no-frills western shoot 'em up action that we're looking for.

Editing is a bit clunky at times, but the direction by Terry Miles (DAWN RIDER, LONESOME DOVE CHURCH) is capable enough, with photography that's consistently eye-pleasing.  It does seem rather odd seeing stagecoaches rumbling through dense green forests instead of deserts (the film was shot in Canada), but there's a richly authentic feel to the settings and costumes. 

As Nate (aka "Texas Jack"), Adkins is no Olivier, yet he's a decent enough actor with the right presence for this sort of role.  He works well alongside Judd Nelson, who's fun to watch as good-natured stagecoach robber Sid (let's face it, Judd Nelson has always been fun to watch, even in clunkers like STEEL). 

Kim Coates, whom I will always think of as "Chet" in THE LAST BOY SCOUT, just does what he does best--playing a sneering bad guy who revels in being bad--and gives the film some of its best moments, particularly during an extended, tension-filled saloon scene between him and Duhamel that is quite simply one of my favorite scenes from a western in years.

Coates also has a terrific co-star in Helena Marie as Calhoun's deputy, Bonnie Mudd, one of the best female gunslinger characters I've ever seen.  She plays the role to perfection, a character who's equal parts realism and fantasy, yet entirely convincing.  Other cast standouts are Duhamel as the duplicitous Frank, and Michelle Harrison as Nate's devoted wife Laura Lee.

Dialogue is a bit on the corny side at times, with the occasional gem such as when Judd Nelson's character boasts, "It's gonna take a lot more than dyin' to kill Sid Dalton."  An offhand reference to UNFORGIVEN's "we've all got it comin', kid" speech is also nicely done.  Most of the really juicy lines are delivered by Coates and Marie, who, truth be told, are the main reasons for watching this movie.

While hardly a new classic, STAGECOACH: THE TEXAS JACK STORY serves up a decent helping of good old meat-and-potatoes western fun that should please fans of the genre until the next blockbuster horse opera comes galloping into town. 



Read our original coverage HERE

STAGECOACH: THE TEXAS JACK STORY -- Movie Review by Porfle

TRADED -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

(Originally posted on 5/10/16)

 

One of the recent spate of big screen horse operas, TRADED (2016) isn't a sweeping spectacle, nor does it try to be.  But it is a solid and in many ways traditional Western that fans of the genre should find reassuringly old school.

Having just lost his young son to a deadly snake bite, humble rancher Clay Travis (Michael Paré, STREETS OF FIRE, THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT) and his profoundly distraught wife Amelia (Constance Brenneman) suffer further emotional pain when their rebellious teenage daughter Lily (Brittany Elizabeth Williams) runs off to Wichita in hopes of being a Harvey Girl but instead is kidnapped into prostitution. (Shades of TAKEN.)

Paré, who has aged well and fits the role of concerned frontier dad to a tee, plays Clay Travis as a regular guy--albeit rather stoic--instead of trying to come off as super-cool, which I find refreshing.  He isn't superhuman either, so we're impressed by his displays of shooting and fighting skill, holdovers from his past life, as well as his overall tenacity.

We discover more interesting things here and there about this less domesticated past life, including his acquaintance with a former whore named Nell (Natalia Cigliuti), now a madam of her own Dodge City brothel.  A chance run-in with a former enemy results in one of those classic fast-draw showdowns in the street that make Westerns so much fun to watch. 

Naturally he'll be forced to use all his old skills on the trail of his elusive daughter as she passes through various hands until finally ending up in the clutches of the monstrous saloon-owner-slash-pimp Lavoie (Tom Sizemore).

The procession of bad guys Clay encounters keeps getting worse and worse, with Sizemore's Lavoie being the most coldblooded bastard of them all.  (Which he play with much relish.)

Runner-up in the bad guy stakes is country crooner Trace Adkins (AN AMERICAN CAROL, A COUNTRY CHRISTMAS) as Ty Stover, every bit the badass and the subject of one of TRADED's more satisfying comeuppances.

Helping Clay along the way is philosophical bartender Billy, played by legendary singer-actor Kris Kristofferson (PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID) who also seems to be fitting comfortably into his silver years as an actor.

Old fave Martin Kove (BARE KNUCKLES, CROOKED, THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT) gets to play what may be his grungiest character yet, the vile, incestuous stepfather to a frightful-looking young girl (Marie Oldenbourg) named "Girl" ("They say I'm too ugly to have a name") in whose clutches Clay ends up after a bad experience on the train to Dodge City.  A set-to between these three midway through the film is short but sweet and had me cheering.

One of the film's best features is its look--attractively photographed with realistic set design and costumes, TRADED has the authentic, sun-burnished look of one of those great made-for-TNT Westerns such as CONAGHER or CROSSFIRE TRAIL. (In my opinion, Ted Turner's cable channel TNT made some of the finest traditional Westerns of the last thirty or forty years.)

Direction by Timothy Woodward Jr. (SWAT: UNIT 887, THROWDOWN) gets the job done without being too fancy.

Clay Travis' odyssey is punctuated by moments of violence which at times are surprisingly, even shockingly hard-edged, although aside from that and some pretty rough language and sexual situations, TRADED is an old-fashioned Western at heart.  Which, for me, is one of its best qualities, because I love old-fashioned Westerns.



From Cinedigm and Status Media

TRADED -- Movie Review by Porfle

Trigger Smashes Outlaw's Skull (GRAPHIC!) in Roy Rogers' "Under California Stars" (1948)(video)

Outlaws kidnap Roy Rogers' prized horse Trigger for ransom. 

But Trigger proves to be quite a handful.

Especially for the "dummy" who gets a hoof right through his head!

He may need to lie down for awhile after that. 

Originally posted on 3/24/18
I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

Trigger Smashes Outlaw's Skull (GRAPHIC!) in Roy Rogers' "Under California Stars" (1948)(video)

My All-Time Favorite Scene From "Lonesome Dove" (1989) (video)

Captain Woodrow F. Call (Tommy Lee Jones) refuses to admit...

...that young orphan Newt (Ricky Schroder) may be his illegitimate son.

But just let anyone do any harm to the boy...

...and Captain Call strikes with a mindless, vengeful rage.

He hates rude behavior in a man.


I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

My All-Time Favorite Scene From "Lonesome Dove" (1989) (video)

WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE, SEASON THREE -- DVD review by Porfle

 

(NOTE: This review originally appeared online in 2007.)

 

WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE, SEASON THREE picks up right where volume two left off, giving us the 26 episodes that comprise the final season of this irresistibly entertaining Western series which ran from 1958-1961.

But unlike, for example, STAR TREK:THE ORIGINAL SERIES, which was running on fumes during its third and final season, WANTED ended only because Steve McQueen left to pursue a film career. Thus, the series finished stronger than ever with a season of episodes featuring better scripts, sharper dialogue, and roughly twice the amount of gunsmoke and flying lead. Even Rudy Schrager's original music is better this time around.

A distinctive new opening sequence begins with darkness punctuated by three gun flashes. As the title appears, McQueen's "Josh Randall" character steps into the light and holsters his gun with a steely-eyed glare.

As usual, Josh Randall is a decent, laidback sort who only shoots when it's absolutely necessary--he'd rather bring 'em in alive than dead. But if he's pushed too far, he lets the Mare's Leg, the sawed-off Winchester '92 that he carries in a clip holster, settle things in a definitive way. Josh doesn't tolerate rude behavior from bad guys ("You put down that blade or I'm gonna start blowin' off fingers") but will go out of his way to avoid violence whenever possible. Which, fortunately for us, is often impossible.

One episode in particular ("Journey for Josh") finds him falling in love with a female prisoner (Debra Paget's sister, the extremely hot Lisa Gaye) during their trek to another town. Something happens to her along the way which raises Josh's ire like never before, and, in an uncharacteristic moment of rage, he shoots the offending bad guy full of holes. The gunshot sound effects are turned up really loud in this series, too, lending more consequence to each shot fired. (Verna Fields, who handled most of the third season sound effects, went on to edit Steven Spielberg's blockbuster hit JAWS.)

Even more so than before, several of the stories break away from the usual bounty hunter formula in which Randall is either tracking someone down or bringing him in for trial. More and more, in fact, he finds himself being hired for all sorts of things, from keeping a prospective bridegroom on the wagon until his wedding day ("The Cure") to helping a young widow retain custody of her son while her domineering mother-in-law uses her wealth and political connections to take him away from her ("One Mother Too Many").

In a particularly exotic episode ("The Long Search"), he helps a Japanese mail-order bride locate her reluctant husband-to-be and not only finds himself participating in an elegant ancient tea ceremony in the middle of nowhere but also runs into an ill-tempered samurai intent on turning him into sushi.

Such a broad premise allows writers such as TV veterans Ed Adamson and Norman Katkov to come up with a wide variety of engaging stories, some of them intensely dramatic, which easily sustain interest throughout. Each 26-minute mini-Western is superbly rendered with movie-quality black and white cinematography by talented directors including Richard Donner (SUPERMAN, THE OMEN) and Murray Golden (ST:TOS' "Requiem for Methuselah").

There are even several comedy episodes which give Steve McQueen a chance to exploit his playful side. I actually LOL'd a few times at "Baa-Baa", the story of a distraught couple who hire Josh to find their beloved pet sheep, Baa-Baa. When news of his latest assignment gets around, Josh becomes a laughingstock at the local saloon and almost gets hanged by a couple of sheep-hating cattlemen for his trouble. It got to the point where I was laughing every time a character said the name "Baa-Baa." The final shot of Josh being chased across the prairie by a smitten Baa-Baa is just plain nutty.

As always, every time Josh Randall rides to a different town for which an indoor set is used, it's the same town that served as "North Fork" on another Four Star production, THE RIFLEMAN. It's fun to see how all the signs and certain bits of scenery are switched around in an effort to make it look different each time. In season two, you can spot a sign for North Fork's Doc Burridge, and in this collection Lucas McCain's favorite blacksmith Nels Svenson appears long enough to get murdered by some escaped outlaws. Even the interior and exterior sets for Lucas McCain's ranch are reused here and there, notably in "The Long Search."

The guest cast continues to offer a wealth of interesting character actors in addition to past and future stars. These include a young James Coburn (McQueen's co-star in THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and THE GREAT ESCAPE), Paul Burke, Harold J. Stone, Tom Drake, RIFLEMAN regular Bill Quinn, Olan Soule', Don Gordon, director Mark Rydell (ON GOLDEN POND, THE COWBOYS), Cloris Leachman, J. Pat O'Malley, Frank Albertson, Richard Anderson, Gloria Talbot, Warren Oates, Howard Morris, Noah Beery, Richard Farnsworth, and an insanely-young Mary Tyler Moore.

Jeanette Nolan is unrecognizable in an incredible performance as a spooky Mexican witch woman in (what else?) "Witch Woman", while "The Choice" is a special treat for old-time horror fans as it offers an aging Dick Foran (THE MUMMY'S HAND, THE MUMMY'S TOMB) as an over-the-hill bounty hunter whose concerned wife hires Josh to make sure that her husband survives his final hunt for a desperate outlaw.

But it's the series star, Steve McQueen, who makes this show so much fun to watch. He's ever so cool, but not in a detached way. His Josh Randall character is warm, caring, funny, fallible--in other words, human. He loves money, but he values honesty and friendship even more. His love life consists mainly of brief encounters with the various dancehall girls he's gotten to know over the years, which are usually played for laughs. But when the situation gets dangerous, you can always depend on him to say something cool and go into action.

Add this to all the other elements that make WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE one of the best Western series of all time, in addition to seven featurettes, and you've got a 4-disc DVD collection that provides a wagonload of pure entertainment. As Josh Randall would say: "Let's go!"




Read our review of WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE, SEASON TWO




 

WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE, SEASON THREE -- DVD review by Porfle

WANTED:DEAD OR ALIVE, SEASON TWO -- DVD review by porfle

 

(NOTE: This review originally appeared online back in 2007.)

 

Three of the main things that make me glad I own a DVD player are Steve McQueen, Westerns, and classic TV.  So when WANTED:DEAD OR ALIVE, SEASON TWO fell into my hot little hands, my inner joy buzzer went haywire.  This is the good stuff, pardner!

Steve McQueen was effortlessly cool in whatever he did.  His "Josh Randall" character is a bounty hunter, but instead of the cold, ruthless type we usually associate with that occupation, he's more of a kind-hearted Good Samaritan who spends much of his time getting involved in other people's problems and helping them out.  This gives the stories a lot more variety than they'd have if Randall just tracked down bad guys all the time, although we often get to see him do that, too.  But even then, there's always some novel twist that makes it more interesting than the standard "good guy vs. bad guy" yarn.

Since Steve is the sole continuing castmember, the show's premise is similar to that of "Route 66", "Then Came Bronson", "The Fugitive", "The Incredible Hulk", etc., in that the main character travels from town to town interacting with a different set of guest stars in each episode and getting himself mixed up in their affairs.  (Josh Randall has one advantage over the others, though--he doesn't have to find a different odd job in every town.)  And if you enjoy watching great character actors as I do, the endless assortment of notable guest stars in these episodes is a constant source of delight.

In "The Hostage", Lee Van Cleef makes a very imposing outlaw who breaks out of his jail cell and threatens to kill the captive Josh Randall unless he's given safe passage out of town.  "The Empty Cell" features both classic horror icon Lon Chaney, Jr. and Star Trek's DeForest Kelley in fine performances.  In "Bad Gun", King Donovan plays a prissy gun salesman from the East who hires Randall to lead him into the badlands to track down "Curly Bill" Brocius, simply to exchange a defective gun that he sold him!  Even Tony "Scarface" Montana's mother, Miriam Colon, shows up in the episode "Desert Seed", along with Kurt Russell's real-life father, Bing, who would later appear with Steve in THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. 

Other familiar guest stars include Brad Dexter and Robert Wilke (also of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN), Warren Oates, Richard Farnsworth, John Carradine, Gloria Talbot, Dabbs Greer, John Dehner, child actor Richard Eyer (THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD), Everett Sloan, Royal Dano, Virginia Christine, Claude Akins, Beverly Garland, Philip Ahn, James Westerfield, Charles Aidman, Jean Willes, Jay "Tonto" Silverheels, Susan Oliver, William Schallert, Dyan Cannon, Martin Landau, Mara Corday, voice-over legend Alexander Scourby, R.G. Armstrong, Mort Mills, and Virginia Gregg. Wow!  As I've said before, this kind of consistently fine guest star line-up gives fans of these actors the feeling that they're watching an "all-star cast" during several episodes.

This DVD set consists of four discs in three attractively-designed slimline cases and contains 32 episodes from the classic series which ran from 1958-61.  They're so beautifully restored they could've been shot last week, and the cinematography is feature-quality.  Each episode is a 26-minute mini-Western that wastes no time in getting the story going and keeping things moving right up till the end.  Some of the scripts are penned by such familiar names as Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson, and Star Trek's Fred Freiberger and Samuel A. Peeples, and contain some choice dialogue.  "Can you hit anything with this?" someone asks Randall in one episode, indicating his unusual gun.  "It's happened," he drawls.

My favorite TV Western of all time is still "The Rifleman", but "Wanted: Dead or Alive" is now a close second.  Like Lucas McCain, Josh Randall packs a distinctive weapon--the "Mare's Leg", a sawed-off 1892 Winchester lever-action rifle that he carries in a holster.  Unlike Lucas McCain, however, Randall rarely uses his gun, preferring to talk his way out of violent situations rather than shooting his way out, and the body count on an entire season of this show is lower than a few trips to town for Lucas McCain.  But the drama and excitement levels are just as high, and the fact that Randall isn't tied down by home and family gives him the chance to partake in a wide assortment of storylines that could never take place on shows like "The Rifleman" or "Bonanza." 

The sole bonus feature on this 4-disc set is a brief (approx. 11 min.) featurette entitled "The Women of Wanted: Dead or Alive", which is pleasant but not very informative.  But the 32 episodes of the show themselves are sufficient compensation for the lack of extras. 

Besides, the main thing that makes WANTED:DEAD OR ALIVE, SEASON TWO such fun to watch is that Steve McQueen is just so darn cool.  I'd watch this show just to see him even if it was a piece of junk, so the fact that it happens to be one of the finest Westerns in TV history makes it absolutely essential viewing for his fans.  Just out of curiosity, I checked jumptheshark.com to see when this series reached its "jump the shark" point, and the unanimous verdict was: never.  As one voter put it:  "The shark wouldn't stand a chance against Steve."


Read our review of Season Three

WANTED:DEAD OR ALIVE, SEASON TWO -- DVD review by porfle

CARNIVAL MAGIC -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 4/23/20

 

I'm not sure if it's a kid movie with adult elements, or an adult movie with kid elements, but Al Adamson's 1983 novelty feature CARNIVAL MAGIC (Severin Films) has all those elements rattling around in it and more, and you never know which one's going to jump out at you next.

Most of all, though, it's got that magical element of legendary exploitation filmmaker Al Adamson (SATAN’S SADISTS, DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN, BRAIN OF BLOOD) knocking out his next-to-last finished movie with all his limited but very enthusiastic skills in play, making the most of a small budget to create something that, hopefully, will pack 'em into neighborhood theaters.

The final stage of Al's career veered inexplicably into family film territory, hence this colorful tale of a cash-strapped carnival whose desperate owner depends on the popularity of a very unpleasant and cruel animal trainer (Joe Cirillo, GHOSTBUSTERS) whose own animals are starting to turn against him. 

But when their resident magician, Markov (Don Taylor, star of the soap opera "The Guiding Light"), reveals that he owns a talking chimp--a fact he'd somehow managed to keep secret all this time--he becomes the carnival's lucrative star attraction while making a mortal enemy of the jealous animal trainer.

And as if that weren't enough, an unscrupulous research scientist named Dr. Poole wants to kidnap "Alex" the talking chimp so that he can run him through an exhaustive series of experiments back at the lab, ending with a complete vivisection.

If you think some of this sounds a bit strong for a kids' film, wait'll you get a load of sexy Adamson regular Regina Carrol's boob-a-licious costumes as Markov's assistant, Alex the chimp's lecherous mumbled asides, and the sight of the increasingly hostile animal trainer going on a booze bender and beating the daylights out of his girlfriend.

Still, the plot also includes some nice stuff like the carnival owner's tomboy daughter "Buddy" (Jennifer Houlton) coming into her own as a young woman and falling for her dad's handsome young public relations guy as Markov gives her life advice while trying to deal with his own bitter memories.

But the main focus of this ostensible "kid" flick is Alex the mumbling chimp, who comes off like some senile old vaudevillian or a simian version of Buster Keaton at his most sullen. 

Not only does he play an active role in Markov's cheesy magical act, mostly by making insulting remarks or blowing raspberries from the sidelines, but there's a lively sequence in which he takes off in a car and causes havoc along several miles of highway as your standard redneck cop gives chase.

The very leisurely-paced story finally picks up in the latter half when Alex is ape-snatched by the horrible Dr. Poole and taken to his lab of horrors, with Markov, Buddy, and all the other good guys racing against time to rescue him.

When compared to Al Adamson's quick and dirty exploitation jobs with their hasty set-ups, bobbling hand-held camerawork, and threadbare production values, CARNIVAL MAGIC seems relatively lavish. 

(He even stages a real parade during the closing credits in which the joyous inhabitants of the local town act as extras, many of the female ones rushing up to give soap opera star Don Stewart a big kiss.)

The three-week shooting schedule must've seemed luxurious to a director used to lensing a feature by the seat of his pants in five-to-ten days or so, and the producer for whom he shot the film obviously gave him a more substantial budget to work with.

Thus, while hardly resembling a Grade-A film, this modest production shows Al Adamson capable of doing a workmanlike job under the right circumstances, while still allowing his somewhat oddball imagination to bleed through the more mundane material given him in lieu of one of his own fevered screenplays.

The Blu-ray from Severin Films boasts the last surviving pre-print 35mm elements of CARNIVAL MAGIC, already in a state of decomposition when discovered and scanned to create the nicely-restored copy we see here.

Special features consist of the very entertaining restoration featurette "A Boon To Science: A Critical Appreciation by Zack Carlson & Lars Nilsen", an audio commentary with producer Elvin Feltner, outtakes, and a trailer and TV spot.

In addition to this we also get a complete second feature, LOST, which was Al Adamson's final completed film and yet another odd  foray into family entertainment, this time about a man (Don Stewart again), his wife (Sandra Dee), and her daughter moving from the city to a cabin in the wilderness. Ken Curtis and Jack Elam also appear in this tale of the daughter getting lost in the mountains as her family endures much emotional distress during the frantic search.

While it will hardly appeal much to viewers whose tastes run toward films that are more polished and less conspicuously odd, CARNIVAL MAGIC is essential for Al Adamson fans who will delight in seeing him work within a normally mundane genre and turn it into something which, in its own way, pretty much defies description.


Buy it from Severin Films

Special Features:

    A Boom To Science – A Critical Appreciation by Zack Carlson & Lars Nilsen
    Audio Commentary with Producer Elvin Feltner
    Outtakes
    TV Spot
    Trailer

    Bonus Film: LOST
    The Happy Hobo – Rushes for Promo From Unproduced Adamson Kids Film
    LOST Trailer

CARNIVAL MAGIC -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Ten Old-School Jump Scares (video)

Ten Old-School Jump Scares

"Prior to the 1980s, jump scares were a relatively rare occurrence in horror movies." -- Wikipedia

The Haunted Castle (1896)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Cat People (1942)
Hideous Sun Demon (1958)
The Killer Shrews (1959)
House On Haunted Hill (1959)
The Birds (1962)
The Night Walker (1964)
Wait Until Dark (1967)
Jaws (1975)

 

Originally posted on 4/23/18
I neither own nor claim any rights to this material.  Just having some fun with it.  Thanks for watching!

Ten Old-School Jump Scares (video)

KILLER CROCODILE -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

(Originally posted on 10/2/19)

 

If you loved JAWS and just can't get enough of hapless landlubbers being menaced by a huge, bad-tempered amphibian with a sweet tooth for people, then you may be just the person KILLER CROCODILE (Severin Films, 1989) was made for. Especially if you also love really bad movies that are, for some reason, really fun to watch.

This one finds a group of idealistic young ecologists in the swamps of Santo Domingo, investigating reports that radioactive industrial waste is being dumped there. Toodling around in their flimsy little boat, they present a tasty buffet to the gigantic mutant crocodile that's cruising the area waiting for a chance to sink its teeth into them.

Meanwhile back at the village, an evil industrialist named Foley (Wohrman Williams) is conspiring to dump even more waste as local law official The Judge (a seriously slumming Van Johnson) looks the other way.

Thank goodness grizzled croc hunter Joe (Thomas Moore), sort of a poor man's combination of Crocodile Dundee and Quint from JAWS, is gearing up to go after the creature and hopefully show up in the nick of time when the young ecologists get themselves neck-deep in croc-infested water.

That's really all one needs to know about this frantic little low-budget Italian thriller from prolific producer-director Fabrizio De Angelis (as "Larry Ludman") except that the crocodile scenes are a total hoot.

I love the huge fake-looking monster that lurks around under the surface before crashing through the hull of a boat, chomping the dock out from under the feet of a little village girl, or leaping through the air to snatch someone right off the deck of their boat and into the water to be chowed down upon.

Really, the monster's glorious fakeness is a plus in this case because it just adds to the over-the-top fun factor during its every frenzied appearance in the movie.

This also helps us through the less exciting parts, i.e. the ones featuring actors delivering awful dialogue (as when one of the ecologists whines to croc-hunter Joe to "Stop calling me 'kid'! My name is KEVIN!")

The movie starts with two pre-titles attacks (the first recalls Chrissy's death from JAWS) and gives us plenty of quality croc-time after that with a series of giddy-fun attacks that often end with someone being chomped. Echoes of JAWS abound, including the extremely similar two-note musical theme by composer Riz Ortolani (MONDO CANE, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST) and the final man vs. monster showdown. 

Acting is passable, with Richard Crenna's son Richard Anthony Crenna as the aforementioned "Kevin", the hunkier member of the ecological team who gets the most opportunities to be an unlikely hero when the croc's on the warpath. 

Thomas Moore's "Joe" comes off best as the film's battle-scarred "Quint" substitute, while faded star Van Johnson (THE CAINE MUTINY, EAGLES OVER LONDON, EASY TO LOVE, THRILL OF A ROMANCE) happily overacts his way to a paycheck and a vacation in Santo Domingo with his broad and rather blowsy performance.

Producer-director De Angelis (DR. BUTCHER M.D., EMANUELLE AND THE LAST CANNIBALS) gets the most out of his meager budget during the action scenes, filming that huge, delightfully fake crocodile to its best advantage while fully utilizing some wonderfully lush locations. The film isn't exactly an all-out gorefest but there are some nice splattery touches here and there, including a particularly hemoglobin-hued finale.

The Blu-ray from Severin Films is scanned in 2k from the original negative and looks really good. English and Italian soundtracks are available along with subtitles and captions. Severin's typically full bonus menu offers extensive, informative interviews with members of the cast and crew including:

    The Fearless Crocodile Hunter: Interview with Actor Pietro Genuardi
    It Crawls: Interview with Cinematographer Federico Del Zoppo
    In the Jaws of the Crocodile: Interview with Special Makeup FX Artist Giannetto De Rossi
    Of Crocodiles and Men: Interview with Actor Richard Anthony Crenna
    Trailer
   
Modestly mounted and produced but well-stocked with good old-fashioned bad-movie-style fun, KILLER CROCODILE is the toothy, scaly, blood-splattered bad monster movie that JAWS: THE REVENGE wished it could be.


Buy it from Severin Films

KILLER CROCODILE -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

EAGLES OVER LONDON -- DVD review by porfle

(Originally posted on 10/22/09)

 

 

 

The Italian WWII epic EAGLES OVER LONDON, aka La battaglia d'Inghilterra (1969) is making its American debut on DVD thanks to a renewed interest in director Enzo G. Castellari (THE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS) which is due mainly to his enthusiastic admirer Quentin Tarantino. I haven't seen Castellari's original version of the QT remake of BASTARDS, but EAGLES would seem to be a good example of the kind of "macaroni combat" filmmaking that might get uber-fanboy Tarantino's geeky juices flowing.

Strangely, EAGLES has the look and feel of a big-budgeted low-budget film, if that makes any sense. There's the usual bad dubbing and sound effects common to many Italian films of the era. Shaky hand-held camerawork (back when it wasn't supposed to look like that), extras staring into the camera, and way too many bad zooms (which Castellari himself winces at now) give the film an unpolished look at times.

Yet the scenes being shot are often epic in scale, and Castellari's direction is consistently stylish and inventive. The Allied evacuation of Dunkirk at the beginning of the movie is grand, with sweeping shots of thousands of soldiers and refugees (way before you could easily trick up crowds like this with CGI) lining the roads and swarming the beaches to be picked up by boats for the trip to England. When a trio of enemy fighter planes begins strafing them, it's like something out of THE LONGEST DAY. Back in England, the sequence showing these crowds of soldiers and displaced civilians arriving and congregating en masse are impressive.

Part of this crowd consists of German soldiers who have stolen uniforms and identification from British and French war casualties and are planning to sabotage England's air defense for the upcoming German invasion. The leader of these spies, Maj. Krueger, is played by Luigi Pistilli, whom most of you will recognize as Tuco's brother, Father Pablo Ramirez, in THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY. His second-in-command, Martin (Francisco Rabal) is less of a zealot and inadvertently forms a friendship with Captain Paul Stevens (Frederick Stafford) which will become a problem when the shooting starts.

Van Johnson, the typical big-name Hollywood star chosen by Castellari to head the cast, plays Air Marshal George Taylor, who is Captain Stevens' romantic rival for the affections of the lovely Meg (Ida Galli as "Evelyn Stewart"). The film's main comedy relief character, Sgt. Donald Mulligan (Renzo Palmer), is one of those short, scrappy types who is alternately amusing and irritating.

While several of the expository scenes are a bit dull, much of EAGLES OVER LONDON is action-packed. The opening scene of Stevens and company ambushing a convoy of Nazi tanks (followed by a massive bridge demolition) is just the first of many fierce gun battles that occur during the film. The explosive sabotage of a British early-warning radar station and the bullet-riddled takeover of their communications control center are similarly exciting sequences which Castellari stages very well. Even a hot-blooded lovemaking scene with Captain Stevens and Meg takes place during a nocturnal air raid of London, with the strobe-lit lovers locked in feverish embrace as bombs explode, buildings crumble, and citizens flee in terror all around them. Pretty cool!

What really distinguishes this film more than anything, however, are the exhilarating aerial combat sequences which take place during the climactic Battle of Britain. Swarms of planes fill the sky. Footage of actual bombers and fighter planes, including real-life stock footage imaginatively integrated via split-screen, is combined with excellent studio SPFX shots. The latter cleverly combine full-sized cockpit mock-ups with model planes flying around them in shots that are so cool that it doesn't even matter when they look fake. Bombing runs are depicted using similarly impressive models of the cityscape from high above, illuminated by explosions and floodlights. Before it's over, venerable Van Johnson even gets to leap into a fighter plane and kick some enemy butt himself. Castellari's sure handling of these scenes is nothing short of breathtaking.

The DVD from Severin Films is in 2.35:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound, both of which are good. Extras include "A Conversation with Enzo Castellari and Quentin Tarantino Part 2" and "Eagles Over Los Angeles", which takes place at a screening of the film that is introduced by the two directors. There's also a very brief deleted scene and some awesome trailers for both this film and THE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS (which I can't wait to see).

While not as slickly-produced as similar WWII epics such as THE DIRTY DOZEN and THE GUNS OF NAVARONE, EAGLES OVER LONDON is still a remarkable achievement that's loaded with eye-filling spectacle and entertainment value. It took me a couple of viewings to fully appreciate it, but now I'm ready to watch it again.

EAGLES OVER LONDON -- DVD review by porfle

THE CONOR TIMMIS INTERVIEW

(Note: This interview by porfle originally appeared online in December 2008.)

In 2006, actor and Boris Karloff fan CONOR TIMMIS got the idea to produce his own screen test for Universal Studios' biopic of the legendary horror star. The fact that no such picture is in the works was of little concern. Besides serving as a devoted fan's tribute to Boris, Timmis' screen test-slash-documentary KREATING KARLOFF was intended to give the studio that produced FRANKENSTEIN and THE MUMMY something to think about while giving us some interesting reenactments of certain scenes from those films.

Conor recently took a wrong turn and found himself in the spacious and elegantly-appointed HK and Cult Film News offices. Before he could make his escape, we blocked the door and promised to release him as soon as he answered a few questions for us. Here, then, are the results of that historic encounter...


When did the acting bug bite you?

I got the acting bug in my early 20's after watching Depp and Del Toro in Fear and Loathing and Karloff in The Mummy. Those performances made me notice great character acting and inspired me to follow in their footsteps. Around this time I took an intro acting class at my local community college after drifting through school not knowing what the hell I wanted to do with my life. Since it was the only class I enjoyed, attended regularly and excelled in, I figured acting was my life's calling.

How did you get into classic horror, and the work of Boris Karloff in particular?

When I was very young I remember my father renting "The Mummy" with Boris Karloff and telling me it was his favorite scary movie when he was little. Even at such a young age I remember enjoying "The Mummy", especially the spooky opening titles and the scene at the end when Ardath Bey is incinerated by the "living" statue of Isis and that wonderful shot of Karloff's face crumbling into dust. Indirectly, I was first exposed to Karloff by playground teasing. I was a shy, gawky, lanky kid growing up, with big hands, big feet, a pronounced brow and high forehead. So I was constantly called "Frankenstein" or "Karloff" when playground bullies wanted to hurt my feelings. Now I would take it as a compliment! When I rediscovered "The Mummy" and "Frankenstein" in my early 20's, I had an immediate empathy for the characters he played in those films. I guess cause I felt like a "little Frankenstein monster" growing up.

How did the concept for KREATING KARLOFF come about?

Inspiration came from many sources, but the initial idea, the earliest I can remember, started back in 2005 when I was working on a WWI short film. My character suffers horrific wounds in the film, so I underwent an extremely gory makeup application. It was my first time in the makeup chair, and I enjoyed it immensely. I kept pushing the makeup artist to make me look worse and worse. I found that I had a talent for happily enduring long hours of makeup-fx. Which I guess is a rare thing since most actors either detest heavy makeup or refuse to do it all together. When it comes to head and face casts and extreme creature/character makeup's alot of people panic and "lose it" in the make up chair.

It was during one of these makeup sessions that the idea for Kreating Karloff hit me like a bolt of lighting. I remember asking the makeup artist if he thought(based on my natural facial features)I could be transformed into a halfway decent Boris Karloff. He said that with prosthetics and a great makeup artist I could be made to look like almost anyone. After that conversation the project began to shape itself in my mind. Around this time I watched a clip of a screen test Jason Scott Lee underwent for the role of Bruce Lee in the film "Dragon". In order to pitch him as the best candidate for the role to Universal the director had made a cinematic looking screen test with costumes, set etc. I then thought I should do the same with my ambition to play Karloff someday by recreating scenes from his two greatest roles, "The Mummy" and "Frankenstein".

I had two major stumbling blocks from moving forward though, lack of money and not knowing a Hollywood quality makeup artist willing to take a chance on a complete unknown like me. So all this was just a day dream until I called Norman Bryn.

What was involved in organizing the whole thing and financing it yourself?

Organizing the project was simply a domino effect of exceedingly good fortune. Once I convinced makeup artist Norman Bryn to take on the project everyone else jumped on board. You get that one credible, professional person and it makes other talented professionals comfortable and willing to "throw in their lot" with you. Everything started and ended with the makeup artist. If Norm had said "NO" or hung up his phone, there would be no "Kreating Karloff". I knew starting off that the only way the project had a chance was IF I could somehow convince a Hollywood makeup artist with an extensive knowledge of Karloff's likeness to collaborate with me for very little money.

Through sheer luck this makeup artist lived only an hour away from me in Connecticut and believed in me and what I was trying to accomplish. Norm is also a good friend of Sara Karloff and one of her closest confidants...so that helped make the Karloff family comfortable with the project.The initial financing came from my jobs working at Starbucks and Ruby Tuesdays..I had very little money saved..once the budget skyrocketed over $20,000, I had to take on crushing unsecured personal loans to finish the film. I wasn't gonna let lack of money stop me. The film ruined my finances but gave me an amazing resume. I consider it my "college". I'd do it all over in a heart beat.

What was it like sitting through those complicated Norman Bryn makeup sessions?

Alot of fun. Absolutely fascinating because he was recreating the techniques Jack Pierce used on all his great classic monster makeups. Despite the long hours, it went by quickly because it was so damn interesting to watch. Norm's makeup talent is an awe inspiring thing to behold in person. The Mummy was 4 1/2 hrs and Frank was around 8 hours with 40-60 mins of "surgery" when my brow piece/head piece caved in from the hot lights.

Was it inspiring to see yourself in full costume and makeup as Frankenstein's Monster and the Mummy?

Yes, it gave me an appreciation for what Karloff endured on a daily basis with Jack Pierce. It's very easy to become your character when your covered in monster makeup. I'm an actor that works from the "outside in", meaning that the way I look effects the way I feel and helps shape my characterizations.

The lovely Liesl Ehardt plays Zita Johann as "Helen Grosvenor" in the MUMMY scenes. How familiar was she with the film at the outset?

Liesl had seen The Mummy many times and had done enormous research into the life of Zita Johann before I discovered her for my film. I mean she is Zita's cousin and "The Mummy" was Zita's biggest film role and what she is primarily remembered for.

How likely do you think it is that Universal will ever actually produce a Karloff biopic?

I think it's highly likely that someone will make either a Karloff bio pic or some kind of "Boris and Bela" film in the near future. Karloff's story would make an inspiring, heartwarming movie I think. His life was the personification of the "American Dream", coming to this country without having a pot to piss in, starving and struggling to become a working actor for more than 20 years to finally become a Hollywood Legend.

Watching KREATING KARLOFF now, are you satisfied that you achieved what you set out to do?

Yes. I did the best I could. That's all you can really ask of yourself. I'm very satisfied that the film has and will continue to expose new generations to Boris Karloff.

Have you found modern viewers able to relate to KREATING KARLOFF? What has the general response been?

Yes, absolutely. The best and most frequent compliment I get is when people say they want to go to Best Buy or Blockbuster and check out some Karloff films after watching my documentary. That's a great feeling, knowing that my film is exposing Karloff's work and achievements to a new generation of viewers and young people in particular. I didn't make this film for the fans, they already know everything about Boris. One of the main reasons I made Kreating Karloff was to reintroduce the life and work of Boris Karloff to the general public who have either forgotten about him or know him simply for Frankenstein.

How did Sara Karloff react to the project?

Sara enjoyed the film a great deal and was quite flattered by all the hard work that went into a project regarding her father. She's the nicest lady on the planet. I met her for the first time at Chiller Theater last year and spent the day at the "Karloff Table" with Sara and her husband Sparky. Makeup artist Norman Bryn showed up too, and we all had dinner at Ruth Chris after wards. Frank Stallone also joined us for dinner which was kind of funny. He's a friend of Sara's and a huge movie buff.

What's your favorite Karloff movie and/or performance, and why?

That's a really tough one to pick...obviously his performances as The Monster in the Frankenstein films are some of the greatest committed to film of any genre. There are so many excellent Karloff roles/films. I think his performance in "The Mummy" is his most underrated..I mean, how many great actors could make you BELIEVE 100% that they are truly a 2,700 dead Mummy brought back to life? I can't think of any actor that could approach what Boris did in "The Mummy". My favorite Karloff performance is probably his role as Hjalmar Polezig in the Black Cat. Even playing a character that is pure evil with no redeeming qualities, Kaloff makes Polezig so damn likeable. Karloff's great talent with playing monsters was injecting sympathy in them, making the audience root for them against "the good guys". "The Man Who Changed His Mind" is another favorite Karloff performance of mine, even though it's one of his lesser known films.

I loved the "Re-Animator: 1942" short in which you played a Nazi zombie, but at three minutes it was way too short. Any chance of Fierro Films doing a longer version of H.P. Lovecraft's "Herbert West:Re-Animator"? It seemed as though Derek Meinecke could really do some fun things with that role.

I'd love to do a longer version and I do think Derek Meinecke makes a wonderful Herbert West for someone who is not an actor. He had the perfect look for the role.

Was "Nazi Zombie" the most elaborate Norman Bryn makeup you've worn so far?

Yes, it was the most elaborate and uncomfortable makeup i've yet to experience. It really kicked my ass. I was buried alive, heavy foam rubber prostetics, painfully tight skull cap and "corpse gloves"...just covered in layers of tight fitting gore..it was worth it though, the makeup, the character that was created...really incredible to look at.

I still think Richard Upton Pickman of Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model" is your best character to date. You had some fun with that one, didn't you?

Richard Upton Pickman is my favorite role too. I am a HUGE H.P. Lovecraft geek. Getting to take on the role of Pickman was a dream come true even though the film itself was a micro budget, community college student film. Pickman is one of the central figures in Lovecraft's "Dream Cycle" stories and is his best known "human" character next to Randolph Carter. To put my personal stamp on a character that is a big part of the Mythos Lovecraft created is an honor.

Playing Pickman was my first and possibly only chance to play a true "classic horror villian". It gave me the oppertunity to channel some of my biggest acting influences: Karloff, Lugosi, Frye etc. I did alot of research for the role, traveling to Salem, Providence and the "Back Bay" area of Boston. The project was the first time I reunited with Kreating Karloff makeup artist Norman Bryn. My makeup was inspired by Chris Sarandon's sickly Curwen makeup in "The Resurrected"(One of my favorite movies) and Lovecraft's desription of Pickman as someone being on the "toboggan of reverse evolution".

Thanks for talking with us today. What's the very next acting-related thing you're going to do after we release you?

I have some very exciting and ambitious acting gigs lined up with producer/director Scott Essman, our first collaboration (on a feature film) lenses in early 2009. Unfortunately, i'm not allowed to say what those films are at this point in time. Aside from that, i'm talking with alot of indie filmmakers who are putting together films for 2009. With the worldwide release of Kreating Karloff on DVD this Nov.18th, i'm hoping the phone will ring with some acting work....we shall see!

Buy KREATING KARLOFF at Amazon.com

THE CONOR TIMMIS INTERVIEW

SAY KIDS...WHAT TIME IS IT? IT'S HOWDY DOODY TIME: THE LOST EPISODES -- DVD review by porfle

 

(Originally posted on 5/26/13)

 

Say, kids! What time is it?



If you answered "Howdy Doody Time!" then you just might be ready to take a nostalgic trip back to Doodyville to see what Howdy, Buffalo Bob, Clarabell the Clown, and the rest of the Doodyville gang are up to. And this 5-disc DVD set, called (take a deep breath) SAY KIDS...WHAT TIME IS IT? IT'S HOWDY DOODY TIME: THE LOST EPISODES (is that a long enough title or what?) is just the right vehicle to get you there.



Beginning in 1947 as "Puppet Playhouse" on the fledgling NBC network, the name was later changed to "Howdy Doody" after its freckle-faced marionette star and continued to air until 1960. Bob Smith played the buckskin-garbed Buffalo Bob, and Bob Keeshan, who would go on to great success in children's programming as Captain Kangaroo, co-starred as the horn-honking, seltzer-spritzing Clarabell the Clown, along with a supporting cast of live actors and marionettes. On each show they would entertain a studio audience of kids known as the "Peanut Gallery" with skits, songs, games, and silent movies narrated by Buffalo Bob. As Clarabell, Keeshan's successor Lew Anderson remained silent throughout the series, communicating only by sign language and by beeping his horn, until the final episode when he ended the show with a tearful "Goodbye, kids." (I'm getting verklempt!)



Thus, the lights went out in the Doodyville studio...until 1976, when the show was resuscitated for another 130 episodes before going down for the last time. Taped in Miami, Florida, "The New Howdy Doody Show" was a worthy successor to the original, at least judging by the few 50s episodes I've seen. Somehow the new version seems brighter, faster-moving, and more fun, but I was too young to catch the old show so nostalgia isn't a factor for me--you older Peanuts may disagree.



Buffalo Bob's older here, and I think that works in his favor. He's somehow more lovable and endearing now, and his enthusiastic, yet easygoing demeanor and keen sense of humor set the tone for the show. He loves to perform, singing and mingling with the Peanut Gallery (which has now greatly expanded to include not only dozens of kids but their giddy baby-boomer parents as well). Lew Anderson is a delight as the mischievous Clarabell, who loosens things up considerably by constantly pulling pranks and spraying everyone with his seltzer bottle. It's funny how agitated the Peanuts get whenever they see Clarabell sneaking up on an unsuspecting victim like the show's groovy bandleader, the leisure-suited, white Florsheim shoe-wearing Jackie Davis.



Of course, more than a few of these kids look as though they're being held hostage--even by the 70s, this sort of innocent nonsense was an alien concept to the more "sophisticated" sensibilities of some of the junior cynics in the Peanut Gallery. In one episode, there's a little blonde girl scout with glasses who I swear looks like she'd go postal if she could get her hands on a machine gun. So in a weird way, watching the various reactions of the kids to this old-fashioned brand of children's entertainment is pretty interesting in itself.



But you might as well leave that attitude behind, Missy, when you pop one of these discs into the DVD player. Because in Doodyville, the kids compete in "Good Behavior" contests and one of the most anti-social things you can do is to pop someone's balloons. Howdy Doody is everyone's favorite kid, of course, but his pal Dilly Dally runs a close second. Other marionette characters include the sweet-tempered Indian maiden Princess Summerfall Winterspring, the broomstick-riding cutup Sandy Witch, and, my favorite, the irascible old grouch Mayor Phineas T. Bluster. He's definitely the funniest thing about the show, whether strutting around self-importantly spoiling everyone's fun for his own selfish reasons or gleefully proclaiming his own greatness as he does in his hilarious ode to himself, "Bluster's Love Song":



"Oh, why oh why does everyone admire me so muh-uh-uch,

Oh, why oh why do people think I'm groovy?

Can it be because I happen to be so good-looking

Can it be they think that I should star in a movie?



"Oh, as a star I know that I would be the hottest, de-spite the fact I'm always shy and modest

I'm diligent, intelligent, I ring your chimes so I know they will put me on the front cover of Ti-ime...



"...oh, why oh why does everyone think I'm divine and I'm a saint

That's not only your o-pin-ion, it's mine

That's not only your o-pin-ion, that's not only your o-pin-ion, it's my opinion, too, because you see

I love, love, love, love...meeeeeeeee!"



This musical number cracks me up, especially when they cut away to everyone reacting in horror and covering their ears. And when Mayor Bluster's bratty nephew Petey, who looks like a short-pants version of him, joins the cast, it gets even funnier--they're a great comedy team. Rounding out the assortment of stringed characters are Mambo the Dancing Elephant, Tommy the Turtle, and the delightful Flub-A-Dub, a creature made up from parts of eight different animals.



A new live-action cast member is Marilyn Patch as Doodyville's schoolteacher, "Happy Harmony." With dimples deep enough to park a truck in, she's so perky she makes Mitzi Gaynor look like Ed Sullivan and provides viewers with ten times their daily minimum requirement of sweetness and light. At times, her zippy, wide-eyed energy makes even the kids in the Peanut Gallery regard her with puzzled amazement. But she's incredibly cute, giving us older Peanuts an added incentive to watch the show. And as a Harvard-educated Ph.D. in children's television research and human development, who starred in her own Saturday morning kid's show called "Marilyn and Calico" at age 11, she isn't just some happy-faced bimbo they hired off the street. Knowing that she has such a lifelong dedication to educating children through the media adds considerable weight to her character.



Each of the five discs in this set represents a week's worth of episodes with its own story arc. The self-explanatory titles are "Doodyville Arts Festival", "Dilly Dally's Birthday", "Good Behavior Contest", "Doodyville Laugh-A-Thon", and "Songfest." In all, there are 25 episodes for a total running time of about 600 minutes. The discs are beautifully packaged in a colorful fold-out box that fits into a metal tin and comes with a 20-page booklet with pictures, show info, and trivia (example: the Canadian version of the original "Howdy Doody" show featured Robert Goulet as "Timber Tom").



IT'S HOWDY DOODY TIME is bright, breezy fun, and surprisingly funny once you get into the spirit of it. There's zero irony, and none of the kind of humor that's funny for kids on one level and really funny for adults on a "wink-wink, nudge-nudge" level. I don't know about you, but darn it, sometimes I just get a craving for something like this between viewings of PULP FICTION, BOOGIE NIGHTS, and HOUSE OF 1,000 CORPSES. It's pure kid stuff, and if you're open to that sort of thing when it's done really well, you can have a ball watching these shows.



Read our interview with Marilyn (Patch) Arnone

 

 

SAY KIDS...WHAT TIME IS IT? IT'S HOWDY DOODY TIME: THE LOST EPISODES -- DVD review by porfle

SLIPSTREAM (2005) -- movie review by porfle

 

(NOTE: This was one of my first reviews from back in 2005 when I loved recapping the plots to movies in detail,  so there are a lot of spoilers here.)

 

There are plenty of time-travel stories about people going back hundreds, even thousands of years into the past.  But ten minutes?  If you think about it, this could come in quite handy in a wide range of day-to-day situations. 

You could win arguments, say just the right things to people you want to impress, avoid a variety of mishaps, missteps, and mistakes, or -- as Stuart Conway, inventor of The Slipstream Device, seems to have noticed -- you could cash the same paycheck over and over.

Stuart (Sean Astin, LORD OF THE RINGS) doesn't seem like a particularly dishonest person, but as SLIPSTREAM (2005) begins, we find that the beyond-top-secret government research agency that this beyond-intelligent-physicist is working for has cut the funding on his pet project and stuck him in a back room out of everyone's way. 

So, well, he's feeling a bit underappreciated lately, and decides to prove the validity of his theories on time travel by using his new invention, a "poly-dimensional translocation device" (which looks a lot like a cell phone) to cash his latest paycheck as many times as he wants to. 

So there he is, standing at the teller's window at the bank, trying in his worst beyond-super-geek way to sweet-talk the bank clerk he has a crush on, when a particular observation he makes about the highly distracting properties of her low-cut blouse prompts her to pick up the decaf, non-fat, soy concoction she's been sipping and hurl it right at his face. 

Reflexively, he whips out his Slipstream Device and pushes a button.  The liquid slows to a snail's pace and then freezes in mid-air.  Then it begins to retrace its path back into her cup.  Time suddenly zips backward ten minutes -- and their encounter is now at its starting point again.  Cool! he thinks giddily.  While she's counting out my money again, I'll have another chance to shower her with suave witticisms!

Suddenly the doors to the bank fly open and in bursts a band of armed bank robbers, a motley assortment of scruffy, lower-class Brits led by Winston Briggs (Vinnie Jones) and his punky fiancee of twelve years, Gillian (Victoria Bartlett), who are extreme movie fans and fancy themselves as either Bonnie and Clyde or Butch and Sundance according to the situation.  And the situation gets a lot tenser when two FBI agents who have been keeping Stuart under surveillance whip out their guns. 

At first it's a standoff, but in no time there's a heap o' lead flying around, and one of the slugs catches Stuart right in the chest.  The robbers take the money and run.  Agent Sarah Tanner (Ivana Milicevic, CASINO ROYALE) rushes to Stuart's aid.  He tells her to pick up the device and press the button, which she does. 

In a flash, it's ten minutes earlier and Sarah is back standing with her partner Jake (Kevin Otto) before the robbery.  Since she was holding the device when it was activated, she is aware of the time-jump and is understandably flabbergasted.  She looks at Stuart, then at the clock, and realizes that a bank robbery is about to occur.

Or reoccur, that is.  This time there's even more shooting, and things go even more wrong.  Jake runs outside in pursuit of the fleeing bank robbers, and is shot dead as they escape.  Sarah is stricken with grief because she's in love with Jake -- they've even been perusing the classifieds for a nice house to move into together -- and it dawns on her that if Stuart is able to turn back the clock ten minutes, he can save Jake's life. 

One problem, though -- the bank robbers have The Slipstream Device!  And if she and Stuart don't get it back within ten minutes, they won't be able to go back in time far enough to save Jake!

And that's just the start of it!  (Pardon me while I catch my breath.)  Briggs and his gang have a freeway crack-up in their van and end up taking a busload of people hostage.  Sarah and Stuart try to get on the bus, but Briggs shoots Stuart -- again.  So Sarah has to tell him about the device in order to be able to use it to save Stuart.  Briggs thinks this would be a great way to rob the same bank over and over.  When the chopper he's demanded arrives, he and Gillian rig the bus to explode and take off with their gang and Stuart in tow. 

Fast-forward a bit (we can do that, even if Stuart can't) and we find Briggs and Stuart on an airplane headed out of the country.  Sarah has managed to board the same plane.  She gets The Slipstream Device away from Briggs, but it is broken in the struggle.  Briggs would rather die than be caught, so he shoots out a window, and the sudden decompression causes the plane to go into a dive. 

The pilots try their best to pull out, but there's a really big mountain in their windscreen, and it's getting bigger and bigger.  To make things worse, a stewardess whacks Briggs over the head with a fire extinguisher while he's pointing his gun at Sarah, causing him to shoot her at point blank range.  Sarah goes down, dead.  The plane hits the mountain.

As you can see, a lot happens in this movie, and most of it is pretty entertaining.  It's a bit derivative at times -- the bank sequence reminded me a lot of an old OUTER LIMITS episode with Barry Morse, Grace Lee Whitney, and Carroll O'Connor called "Controlled Experiment", in which a woman shoots her husband in a fit of jealousy and a Martian who has come to Earth to study the act of murder uses a device to replay the event backwards, forwards, in slow-motion, etc., and the climax owes a bit to 1964's THE TIME TRAVELERS, although I have no idea whether or not the filmmakers have seen it. 

But there's also a great deal of inventiveness going on here.  David van Eyssen throws everything but the kitchen sink into his directing style at times, especially in the bank shoot-outs that get wilder and more dizzyingly cinematic (though a bit overdone) with every ten-minute replay.  The final moments aboard the airplane are nice -- time stands still, or is slowed down and extended so that we're able to appreciate the effects that certain actions or events have on the characters at crucial instances, and then images begin to flash by and become almost subliminal impressions rushing toward the inevitable conclusion. 

The actors are all very good in their roles, so much so that you even begin to care about the bad guys (Vinnie Jones and Victoria Bartlett make a lovely couple).  Sean Astin and Ivana Milicevic are appealing leads.  The musical score by Rob Lord is outstanding. 

This isn't a great film by any means, but it's definitely a thought-provoking, action-packed good time.  Ten minutes after it was over, I pressed the button on my poly-dimensional translocation device (okay, my DVD player) and watched it again.

SLIPSTREAM (2005) -- movie review by porfle

THE MIKE CONWAY INTERVIEW, part two

[Note: this interview was originally done in June 2006.]

In part one of our interview, jack-of-all-trades indie filmmaker MIKE CONWAY filled us in on the making of his sci-fi film, TERRARIUM (aka WAR OF THE PLANETS). This time, we get to find out what went on behind the scenes of his latest production about a genetically-engineered superwoman gone nuts, THE AWAKENING, which cost roughly one-fifth of the budget it took to film TERRARIUM while surpassing it in just about every way. How does this low-budget auteur do it? Let's find out!


porfle: How did you get involved in THE AWAKENING?

MIKE: Producer Kelly Johnston, bought a copy of my previous movie, TERRARIUM. He then emailed me and we hooked up. He told me about the story by Erik Manion and I liked it enough to collaborate.

porfle: What changes or additions did you make to the existing story?

MIKE: I told Kelly that I would do the project if I could make some alterations. He and Erik were very cool about this. I took out all but one of the narrations. It was better to just show. I added the scenes with Lara's mom and the doctor. With a lot of Kelly's ideas, we added a number of military scenes, including the Sergeant Benson character. I added in the SUV scene, where Lara throws it. The original ending was not a cliffhanger, so I added those final shots to spice it up a bit.


Erik's story nailed the characters and their attitudes, as well as the story's scope. A lot of dialogue got cut. It made my job easier, to have more than enough material. There was also a scene where Lara hovers off the ground, as well as some scenes where she shoots lasers out of her eyes. I got rid of that stuff, because I thought it went a bit too far, or wasn't as easily explained, like the radioactive super strength was. Some people might prefer that, but I wanted to keep it just outside the realm of feasibility.

porfle: What can you tell us about Tamra Ericson Frame, the statuesque blonde who plays superwoman Lara Andrade in the film?

MIKE: She is a part-time model and has been Kelly's business partner for several years. Kelly always had her in mind for the story. They did a 25-minute short, called GIRL OF STEELE. That was her only acting previous experience, so this was a tall order for her. I think she has the right kind of blond, sassy attitude, that plays well into the character's more confident moments.

porfle: What about the 6'4" (in heels) Heather Lei Guzzetta as the sinister mastermind behind the film's "Project Gladiator"? She makes quite an impression.

MIKE: Heather was actually a last minute replacement, when the previous actress got pregnant. She was in Greg Parker's indie movie, BLADE OF DEATH. Kelly and I met her at the premiere of that movie and never forgot about her. I'm not sure of the extent of Heather's acting background, but she's really good. She took that sinister part and just ran with it. Yes, being tall really added to her character's presence.


porfle: Did you enjoy playing a lead role ("David Andrade") this time? How challenging was it to do this in addition to directing the film?

MIKE: On this movie, I would have never suggested myself, but I'm glad that Kelly thought that I would fit. I really do love acting and who knows if I'll get the chance to play a leading character again, so I jumped at the opportunity. It was even better to play the husband of a pretty character, like Tamra's.

It did make some things challenging, especially since we didn't have a director of photography to shoot the scenes that I was in. It would have helped to have that critical eye, when I wasn't shooting. You probably noticed some of the whacky headroom in a few of those shots, eh?

On the flipside, our lead male actor was always available. When the role is that prominent, that is a good thing. I hope that I get that chance again.

porfle: How were the digital effects in THE AWAKENING accomplished? Some of them--replicating extras, Lara tossing an SUV--were pretty impressive considering the budget.

MIKE: The SUV toss was a model that was shot against a greenscreen. It was added into the real shot of Lara and the street. As for cloning extras, once I saw some of Kelly's practice footage, in After Effects, I understood what we could get away with. We bought 6 Black Ops uniforms and 6 Marine uniforms. Some of those shots show 12 actors! It was always the same 6 guys, put in different positions and shot a second or third time. When the footage was composited, you couldn't tell.

Our budget was so cheap that we only had one labcoat for a while. There is a scene with Donald and I, where I'm standing over a crate and he is talking to me. We are wearing the same labcoat! We shot the scene with me wearing it, then I handed it to him. Again, no one knows!

The other main effects were gunfire and blood, which Kelly became quite efficient at. To make a guy look like he was torn in half, Kelly would just erase his legs and use the mask of the real floor. It's really incredible.

porfle: The explosive climax of the film was done using greenscreen. Didn't you shoot that in your livingroom?

MIKE: Yes, I've got Tamra on my shoulder and the building blows up behind us. We set up a greenscreen behind us, then put a queen-sized mattress on the livingroom floor and fell onto that. In the final shot, it looks like we're outside, almost getting blown up.

porfle: One of the most memorable scenes is the one in which Lara backhands a Black Ops guy's head off--the body stumbles to the floor, while the still-living head continues to observe the rest of the scene. How was this done?

MIKE: We shot a plate shot of the empty corridor. Then, we had the actors stand in the corridor. Keith Ford had a mouthful of fake blood. When Tamra hit him, Keith started drooling the blood, staggering, then falling. Kelly took the two shots (empty corridor/actors) and simply masked out Keith's head. He used the drooling blood as a mask point, because that was easiest to follow. When you see the final shot, it looks like Keith has no head, but he still has a neck and chin!

As far as the head watching from the floor, we threw a dummy head, which rolls into place. We did the same thing as the corridor; we took a plate shot of the empty floor, then had Keith lay down into the shot. Kelly masked out his body, so all you see is Keith's head, with the blinking eyes.

porfle: In an earlier scene, Lara turns over a van in front of her house and then struts away--it's a beautiful shot. Was that a first take? Where was it done?

MIKE: For the overturned van shot, we moved from the street, where the rest of the scene was shot, into my backyard. Kelly tied a towstrap to the back of his truck and connected it to the roof rails of the van. Tamra put her hand against it and pushed, while Kelly's truck pulled it over. Yes, that was one take.

porfle: What about Lara's barfight scene? It looked to me as though someone had a really nice bar/poolroom in their basement that was dressed to look like an actual bar.

MIKE: Actually, that was a 2 level bar, called Jose Hogs. For some reason, the bottom level is closed, so we were able to shoot there, without having to close the place down. A couple of the extras at the bar doubled for Black Ops. The bartender, Shae Wilson, was Dena from TERRARIUM. Also, the pool player with the bandana, George Miklos, was one of the actors who played the monster in that movie.


porfle: What was the location used for the government research complex where your character, David Andrade, works?

MIKE: That was a combination of several different places, including a storage facility, an office building, a warehouse, my garage and my friend Mike Rick's house. All of these locations are several miles apart from each other.

porfle: Which sets were actually constructed and shot in your garage?

MIKE: We shot the truck scene, with David, the captain and sergeant, in there. We used a greenscreen and had people shaking the truck. We also built the Laboratory, Radiation room, Autopsy room and a mock version of one of the storage facility hallways. That last one was because we needed to get a little bloody.

porfle: Where did you get all those cool-looking military weapons used in the shootouts between the Marines and the bad guys?

MIKE: Most of those weapons belong to a Las Vegas Airsoft club. A lot of these guys are former vets who like to get together for wargames, on the weekends. Some of the guns, with modifications, can cost up to $1,300 or more.

Airsoft is the name of the company that makes the weapons. The guns are near perfect replicas of the real thing. Most of the rifles are electric, while many pistols use gas. This allows the guns to display realistic blowback action. Kelly would add the muzzle flashes with After Effects. Kelly also had a real M4 rifle and I had some Collector's Armoury blank firing pistols.

porfle: As I've mentioned before, Timothy S. Daley ("Capt. Harris") makes a great action-hero Marine. He also played the main authority figure in TERRARIUM. Is he anything like these characters in real life?

MIKE: I love that Tim really got a chance to shine, with this movie. I would have to say that his real-life persona is pretty close to his characters. The haircut stays the same and that low, authoritative voice can stop people in their tracks. That was why I picked him.


porfle: You had two extra crewmembers on the set this time. Do the Conway kids, Shawn and Carmen, appear to be picking up your interest in filmmaking?

MIKE: Supposedly, Carmen wants to be a veterinarian and a filmmaker! Shawn definitely likes being on a set. As you saw in the documentary [GUNS, GIRLS, & CLONES, which is included on the DVD], he gets very upset when we don't take him to a shoot.

porfle: Was the budget for THE AWAKENING really $5,000?

MIKE: We finally added up the receipts and it was $5,900. A good portion of that was taking the actors to T-Bird's restaurants! One of the reasons that the producer, Kelly, wanted me for this movie, was because I already had the camera, lights, mics, greenscreen, motorhome (with generator), etc. Because of that, the Steele Productions' equipment cost was pretty much just DV tape.

Production money went to Lara's costume ($300), 6 Black Ops and 6 Marine Uniforms ($1,100). $600 was "incentive" to a warehouse manager and staff. There was also 3 paid cast days (after which, we ran out of money), props and food.

porfle: How long did it take to complete principal photography and post-production?

MIKE: Usually, we shot very short days, 5 - 6 hours, because a lot of the cast was unpaid and Tamra couldn't be away from her kids for more than a few hours. Shooting days totalled up to 43, spread out over an 8-month period. I usually can't get weekends off, so we would shoot on a Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on what everyone's schedule was.

There was about 6 months of post-production, including the documentary. It got spread out more than that, because Lionsgate wanted a lot of fixes on TERRARIUM. That meant shutting down THE AWAKENING for most of that summer.

porfle: As a personal accomplishment, how does THE AWAKENING compare with TERRARIUM and your earlier efforts?

MIKE: I think that THE AWAKENING is an awesome improvement and is my best movie yet. But, I still have some people tell me that they prefer TERRARIUM, because of the story and scope of that project. A lot of that has to do with the huge ship set and 16mm film.

THE AWAKENING has the edge with the action and much more realistic FX. The story is big, there are 40 actors and the locations are numerous. Unlike the dubbed TERRARIUM, THE AWAKENING is sync sound, so the acting comes off much, much stronger, particularly Tim Daley's.

porfle: I'm interested in seeing what you have in store for us in the future--where do you go from here? Oh, and any chance we'll ever get to see that "superchick" battle that's hinted at in the final shot?

MIKE: Though the movie ends with that superchick cliffhanger, there are no plans for a sequel. I kind of threw the cliffhanger in, because the original story ended with David and Lara in their home, getting away scot free. After all of the carnage that resulted from their doings, I couldn't settle for that. I didn't have "sequel" in mind, as much as "what comes around, goes around."

As for where I go from here, my main goal is to improve my filmmaking skills with each new feature. After being so stretched out on the massive TERRARIUM project, my last thought was to take on a 40-actor project, which was as ambitious as THE AWAKENING's script was! I feel that we pulled it off about as good as we could for the near zero budget. My goal is to go "smaller." I want more technical control and less people to deal with. What you'll see, next, is something a lot more polished and tight.

I have another pet sci-fi project that I want to get off of the ground. I also have a horror idea about a reptilian/human hybrid. There is also the possibility of doing a hitman type of movie. It just depends on finances. If I had my wish, I could leave my day job and make all 3 of these movies, in the next 12 -18 months. I like horror, sci-fi and suspense themes.

porfle: Mike, thanks for speaking with us today! It's been a real pleasure.

MIKE: Thank you!


http://www.midnightsunent.com

 

THE MIKE CONWAY INTERVIEW, part two