The Mutants of Nightmare City - part 2

There's better screenshots of this fella, but this is the one for me. He's obsessed by the  TV-camera and stands there looking... looking... looking... Maybe he think he's in some kind of mutant-reality soap?

This mutant loves to suck on breasts. It's almost a little bit annoying after a while. At least for his victims. He makes the right choice with attacking the TV-studio though, because everyone is almost halfnaked there. Make's life so much easier.
Every italian movie from the eighties had to a have a random black guy in it to broaden it's appeal. He dosen't do much than staring and walking a few steps, so I guess he newer became that Reginald VelJohnson-lookalike he always wanted to be.

The Mutants of Nightmare City - part 1

You all know my obsession with Umberto Lenzi masterpiece Nightmare City. The mutants (some call them zombies, but that is of course wrong) are like family nowdays. There's hundreds of them in the movie, but I've chosen a couple of them - some of the more important and interesting creations - and will present them here on the blog. I'm not sure how many parts this will be, but just keep an eye open until the next part of The Mutants of Nightmare City will be published!

This big-eyed creature is one of the mutants in the infamous TV-show attack. I still don't know if we should thank them of stopping one of the most awful dance routines ever committed to television?

This guy is quick to eat and suck on his victim after his friend has done all the hard work. At least he looks very enthusiastic.

Armed with a dagger and lot's of jokes, this guy down in the basement is always a welcome sight at his friends parties and other social gatherings. He have the honor to always cut the first piece of eye.

And thanks to Pax Romano who wrote the blogpost that inspired me to this journey into Nightmare-land.

The Last Days of Pompeii (1935)

This is a proof that having Merian C. Cooper produce, Ernest B. Schoedsack direct, Willis O'Brien supervising the special effects and Ruth Rose doing the wiring means a good movie. Because The Last Days of Pompeii is probably the most boring version of this historical events, and it's not until the last ten minutes there's something good, or even fantastic.

Preston Foster (who bears a strange resemblance to an american comedian, and I don't know who!) plays the gentle blacksmith Marcus. He's proud and he's rich with happiness. But one day both his child and wife dies, and that after he (very suddenly, within like... one hour in real time) becomes a gladiator and earn some money just to get medicine to them. Bitter he continues a career as a gladiator, get's rich and want's more money... until the day he meets... Jesus! 

(and yes, did I mention this was a movie about Pompeii?)

This is a more complex film than my text above says, but it's still a very boring drama about who money and greed can destroy your life (something I agree on by the way). The Pompeii-stuff is somewhere far in the background, and the focus is on his journey to be a rich and cold man. Preston Foster is not bad in the lead, and Basil Rathbone is good as Pontius Pilate, and the movie looks good and nice... but really, who the fuck cares about Jesus? Not me.

But in the end there's finally the eruption of Vesuvius and the whole city is destroyed spectaculary with some amazing effects. This is the single highlight in the whole movie. Not even the gladiator-scenes are that fun. 

Some good acting and ten fantastic minutes at the end dosen't make a good movie. Give me King Kong instead.

The Super Ninja (1984)

It was a long time since the Ninjas had any respect in the western world, and that's probably because the asians themselves treated the Ninjas with so much disrespect that they've become more silly than cool during the years. The Super Ninja isn't any expection, but that's alright - because there's more fun with a silly Ninja-movie than with a serious one (in most cases anyway). Alexander Lou was a semi-famous star in Taiwan during the eighties, a former Tae Kwan-master and a man with zero self-distance. 

Here he plays John, a cool cop with a secret persona: The Super Ninja! His partner is a black guy dressed like Axel Foley, no other than Eugene Thomas. His name here is Spencer. As usual in buddy-movies they are in total conflict with the chief of police, and this time they go to far. John is set-up and accused of being a drug pusher! But behind everything is The Five Element Ninjas, who want to take control over the... world? I'm not sure. John now has to prove he's innocent and fight both the corrupt police and the multi-colored Ninjas!

Yes, this is one of those movies that has ninjas with different colors. There's a golden ninja, a black one, a white one, a camouflage-ninja and so one. One has burning hands, another one is an expert in traveling underground! The surprise is that this isn't a Godfrey Ho-movie. Except a few location-shots there's not stockfootage from other movies, and the same actors are interacting together the whole movie! Amazing! The director must suffer from being hyperactive, because the editing and action is so frantic that it's hard to relax while watching this movie. Crazy camera angles, weird noises, stolen music, blood and some good fighting is mixed with extremely bad dialogue and one of the oddest First Blood rip-off's I've see: first John escapes from a house, a fast cut and then it's day and he's dressed in a Rambo-outfit and trapped the whole forest with... slapstick-booby traps! Yes, it's true.

But when the bad guys don't do as he tells them, he start killing them for real!

The Super Ninja is a crazy, crazy movie with tons of action and silly special effects. The fighting isn't bad at all and there's some nice and painful stunts to. Alexander Lau probably took a chance here, and included a borderline softporn sex-scene with him and his love interest! It get's really weird with the climax comes and the soundtrack is filled with really trippy sound effects!

There's a lot to love with this movie and I recommend a purchase. The UK dvd is interesting. I don't know if it's cut or not, but it's pretty violent and bloody. The picture quality is good vhs, but is stretched out - which means if you change the settings on the TV or have a 16:9 TV, you will be able to see the movie in 1.85:1 widescreen! It's shot in 2.35:1 though, so it's a bit cropped on the sides. But it's close enough for a better viewing experience. 

Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World (1961)

As I suspected, this lovely little movie was written around existing sets from big budget (compared to other italian movies) movie Marco Polo, and even used a lot of asian extras that was still hanging around. Actually they even kept the female lead, Yoko Tani! This is true exploitation and a very fun adventure movie with an orginal setting.

Maciste (Samson in the american version) is running around in the chinese forests in this movie! Why? I have no idea, but that's cool with me. An evil man from the royal court, Khan, want's to kill the royal family and be the new ruler of China. He kidnaps the son of the emperor with the help of the mongols and feeds him to a tiger! But what they don't know is that Maciste saved him in the last moment! Now Maciste joins the resistance and want's to save the princess to. They hide out in a buddisth-temple inside a mountain, all under the protection of the monks. 

But of course the evil Khan and the mongols are close and soon they must fight for their life!

Great little peplum which looks fantastic with the huge chinese sets. There's something that looks like the Forbidden City to, and they eve have a chariot-torture-race in there! There's a lot of asians in the background, and the emperors sun is and daughter is played by Chu Lai Chit and Yoko Tani. But the rest is very obvious (and hairy) italians with very crude asian make-up! Don't we all love that? I mean, just put a couple of evil-looking eyebrows and a black wig and they look chinese! ;)

Riccardo Freda handles the directing duties very well as the legend he was. Action runs smooth and the melodrama inbetween is cartoonish and silly, but very entertaining. Gordon Scott is great as Maciste and is a very good fighter to. Fast reactions and cool stunts, many he seem to do himself. The finale is fantastic. The baddies have buried Maciste under the forbidden city, and when he breaks free he creates an earthquake that destroys the city. Most of it is implied, but there's a couple of really cool effect shots for us disaster-fans to drool over.

Very nice peplum that would have been even better on a good dvd.

P.S. And I have no idea what became of the seven miracles of the world. Not in this movie anyway!

Goliath and the Barbarians (1959)

Peplum-time! And isn't it a good return to this wonderful genre with a Steve Reeves-movie? Goliath and the Barbarians is not his best movie, not even one of the best peplums I've seen, but a decent little time waster. What the heck, he's not even Goliath - it's a just an invention in the dubbing!

Reeves plays Emiliano, a simple and humble mega-strong and über-muscular lumberjack who lives with his peaceful people in a small town somewhere in Europe. A bad thing for them is that an army of evil and horny barbarians is roaming the countryside, raping and plundering every man, woman, child and animal then can see. Emiliano has to do something about this and invents his own early secret crime-fighter, Goliath! Dressed in fur and an animal head he attacks and kills evil barbarians in the forest. But of course he falls in love with the daughter of the barbarian leader... 

Okey, it's an early peplum from the years when some of the best ones where produced, but this is not so exciting I'm afraid. I love Steve Reeves, great hero and not much of an actor, but capable of carrying whole movies with his charisma and well-trimmed beard. Here he have a lot to do, but the direction lacks energy and the camera work can be very static during the dialogue-scenes and melodrama. Bruce Cabot, an old favorite, shows up as the king of the barbarians and is quite okey, but everyone seem a bit bored. 

According to IMDB the production ran out of money and AIP came to the rescue with money, which can explain the lack of 100 % entertainment. The script is also way to boring and it take at least an hour for the action to set in. But then it get's quite good. There's a two battles, both violent and brutal, and a wonderful montage when the barbarians is torturing and killing innocent villagers with kinds of tools and equipment. The best thing with the whole movie.

Goliath and the Vampires is on the same dvd and I will rewatch it someday. It's a much better movie, so I guess this one is only of peplum-fantatics like me.

more on sorting movies!

Okey, I've been more and more thinking about sorting them in alphabetic order - but here's a riddle for you all: Midnite Movies. You know, the fantastic series of dvds with two movies on one disc. Not only Midnite Movies of course, there's a lot of other double features. Really, here we have another big problem: it's two movies, and most of them begins with different letters. And here the shit continues! Some of these double features has one american movie and one european movie (especially the cheap ones with lesser quality), which makes it impossible for me to have neither alphabetic order or part of world - not even genre is possible with these nasty dvds!

Another thing: should I start mixing blurays with dvds? They are discs... with movies, and it would feel strange to have another shelf with blurays. But on the other side, it's not the same format and I would never, never, never mix tapes with dvds or blurays. To be honest, all my tapes are down in the basement anyway, so I can't mix them! But I think you all know what I mean.