Not one of these reviews was like pulling teeth to write:
Cat-Women of the Moon (1953), which frankly looks depressingly timely again 67 years later…
Daughter of the Mind (1969), in which Ray Milland ain’t afraid of no ghosts, but the people he works for are very much afraid of Communists…
Forbidden World (1982), which is exactly the Alien ripoff you’d expect from New World Pictures…
Gretel & Hansel (2020), in which the title isn’t the only thing about the old fairy tale to get turned in a new direction…
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989), in which Moustapha Akkad pushes his luck just a little too far…
The Invincible Barbarian (1982), which might well have been the very first Italian Conan cash-in out of the gate…
and…
2020 Texas Gladiators (1983), in which we ponder the prospect of a movie to which Joe D’Amato and George Eastman were unwilling to sign their usual pseudonyms.
El Santo rules the wasteland-- and also 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting.
#1 by Chris on March 3, 2020 - 9:57 am
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Glad to hear it!
#2 by Blake Matthews on March 6, 2020 - 2:27 pm
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Glad to see you posting so fast.
I almost wonder if you won’t do that HANSEL AND GRETEL action film later on to see how not to do a modern fairy tale film.
#3 by Blake Matthews on March 6, 2020 - 4:18 pm
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Re: Halloween 5 — I wonder how fans would’ve interpreted it had Michael Meyers *not* killed his elderly caretaker in the beginning? I know a lot of people got angry in the Rob Zombie remake when he killed a certain Hispanic actor who had been the only guy nice to Meyers in the asylum.
Re: Catwoman on the Moon – I haven’t seen it, but Missile on the Moon did get a DVD release here in Brazil, which isn’t common for cheap 50s sci-fi flicks. I did see BOWANGA, BOWANGA and WILD WOMEN OF WONGO. They were just kinda there, although the latter seemed to support a philosophy that pretty people should intermarry within their “caste” and the same goes for ugly people. I actually knew someone who verbally told me that he believed in that.
Re: Forbidden World – I saw that last year when I had the hankering for Alien knock-offs, along with CONTAMINATION and KILLINGS AT OUTPOST ZETA.
#4 by El Santo on March 8, 2020 - 11:18 am
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[Looks up Killings at Outpost Zeta]
Oh, wow… I’ve never even heard of that one!
#5 by Blake Matthews on March 8, 2020 - 6:29 pm
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It’s not great, and it’s über low budget, but I found it to be fairly entertaining for what it was.
#6 by DamonD on March 30, 2020 - 6:19 pm
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When Halloween V gets down just to Jamie and Michael again (with some Loomis on the side), I do think it’s an effective last part. I just find almost everything getting there so tiresome, in a way that I didn’t with its immediate predecessor.
Harris is so good in both films. Hugely sympathetic, convincingly terrified, but massively brave and tenacious. Everything up to and including Daylight in 1996 was on a good career trajectory for her. But she just never got those one or two big films after that, that last big boost and bit of luck, to break into major Hollywood stardom. Far too many talented actors and actresses have shared that same story.
#7 by hurricane51 on December 19, 2020 - 2:55 am
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Oh where have you gone, El Santo?
#8 by El Santo on December 22, 2020 - 9:10 pm
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I’ve got a bad case of the Livin’ in a Failing State During a Pandemic Blues, I’m afraid. Haven’t been able to bring myself to do much except to read since frigging March.