Red Eagle (2010)

Last year it was forty years since Mitr Chaibancha fell to his death from a helicopter during the production of Golden Eagle, the movie that became the last sequel in his franchise about Thailands most popular crime fighting drunk. What more fitting is to unleash a new Red Eagle-movie to the unprotected audience of Thailand and the rest of the world? An audience with little or none relationship to either Chaibancha or Red Eagle, which is of course the best way to do it. Because Wisit Sasanatieng’s Red Eagle is one insane, crazy, wacky rollercoaster (I once promised to never use that word in a review) of a movie, and I loved every friggin’ minute of it, even if it was far from perfect.

The year is 2013. Liberal party leader Direk Damrongprapa (Pornwut Sarasin) and fiancée Vasana Tienpradap (Yarinda Bunnag) is protesting and leading a demonstration and campaign against corruption among politicians and other leaders. They’re fighting against a nuclear reactor that’s gonna be built in Bangkok, but three years later and Direk has himself become a corrupt prime minister and an enemy of his former fiancée. During these years the corruption has gotten worse and the crime rate is thru the roof – then suddenly Red Eagle arrives, a masked crime fight that kills, Kills and KILLS! He’s a former task-force member, hurt both inside and outside during a jungle mission and is now addicted to morphine and revenge. A secret organisation, Matulee – maybe connected to some certain corrupt politicians – is sending out their best killer, Black Devil, to kill Red Eagle and take control over the city… but he’s not that easy to kill, that old eagle…


Red Eagle is not even close to being anything connected to the word “realistic”. This is very over-the-top, almost science fiction when it comes to absurdities. The director, Wisit Sasanatieng, is no stranger to this. If you’ve seen Tears of the Black Tiger you know what to expect and that he just does not care about logic or some kind of sense in what’s happening. In one scene a character defends himself against five bad guys with automatic guns, only protecting himself with a frying pan! He also takes out one character with throwing fried food on him from ten meters away! And this isn’t even Red Eagle himself, but one of the cops chasing him! Red Eagle prefers cutting people to pieces with his über-advanced sword, shooting a lot of people in the face and fight on the top of falling elevators!

The action is more or less non-stop. But make no mistake, this is not even close to the style that Panna Rittikrai, Prachya Pinkaew and Tony Jaa created. Red Eagle is normal Hollywood-style fighting and editing, lots of wires and digital effects. The whole movie resembles a comic book, with strong colours (not even close to Wisit’s earlier movies though), weird angles, crazy action set-pieces and personalities that’s bigger than life.



It’s a unique movie, even if we make the Hollywood-comparison, and it’s a lot more gorier, bloodier and violent than the normal superhero-movie from Hollywoodland. Heads and arms fly, blood spurts from every part of the body, a face is flattened by a frying pan, squibs (both real and CG), cuts and bruises. Not for children, which I’m sure we all are grateful for. Wisit Sasanatieng knows that Red Eagles is over-the-top, and he knows that it’s an absurdly commercial movie for the biggest audience possible. That’s why he takes the time to poke some fun at product placements (he really takes a lot of time to show Red Eagle buy and drink some kinda energy drink), the Thai censorship (for example, sometimes texts can show up on the screen with warnings – for real, and during a violent scene involving a smoking man the text claims that smoking can cause death…) etc.


Red Eagle is an intelligent, extremely violent and very silly action movie. Ananda Everingham is excellent in the lead, and has a lot of interesting characters around him. He clearly fills Mitr Chaibancha’s shoes without a problem. I’ve heard it became a flop in its homeland, and it’s a pity because the ending is a real cliffhanger and I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants to see a sequel to it.

Tidal Wave (1975)

In his memoirs, Roger Corman mentions Submersion of Japan (1973), a big budget disaster movie from Toho, which he bought the rights to, removed most of the drama, let Joe Dante and some people at the office re-dub and added Lorne Greene as “Ambassador Warren Richards” in three scenes. The result was Tidal Wave, a movie never – what I know – released on home video, but shown on television later on. I’ve been trying to find the Corman-version for many years now, and thanks to the magic of torrents I’ve just seen it. Was it worth the wait? Ah, maybe not, but it’s still good to close that chapter of my nerd-life.

Submersion of Japan, read my review here, is actually one of my favourite disaster movies ever (together with Earthquake, Avalanche and City on Fire – even Meteor is high up among my favourite disasters). An impressive spectacle about how Japan starts to sinks, getting torn apart by earthquakes and volcano eruptions, and at the same time a low key drama about life and death and the future of the Japanese people. That last part is completely gone in this version, where we instead have a very fast-told story about some dubbed Japanese dudes talking about nothing in-between the disaster scenes and then Lorne Greene doing his job for a quick paycheck.

It’s not actually bad in boring way, but if you’ve seen the long version (which has way over an hour of more drama) it’s a thin and silly little movie which just showcases the impressive special effects and rides on the popularity of bigger disaster movies from the same time. The dubbing is very sloppy and sometimes you can notice how the voice actors talks more slow to try to fit in their words in the original lip movements. It works so-so. But like all Corman-productions there’s always entertainment and here they just jump from one disaster to another and uses that footage well. The effects are very impressive, and some scenes with people are quite gory and sadistic. It’s a Godzilla-movie without Godzilla, which is the best way to explain this version.

The title is actually most stupid thing with the whole movie, because there’s hardly any tidal wave in the story – just a short not especially impressive one at the end. The rest is earthquakes and volcano’s doing their job.

Compared to the original movie this is crap, but fun and crazy crap like we all love. I wish all versions (there’s three edits in all) could be released in a nice fat, DVD and/or Blu-Ray box for people like me to worship.

Uninvited (1988)

Just when I thought I’ve seen it all, Uninvited by the wonderful Greydon Clark comes running after me like a mad and horny dog. But this isn’t about a dog, it’s about George Kennedy, Alex Cord, Clu Gulager and a bunch of stupid over-aged teenagers fighting a mutated, radioactive killer-cat on a private luxury yacht!!! Yeah I know, just that short description of the story is enough, but for you who want to know more can read this:

During a secret experiment and mutated, radioactive killer-cat escapes from a research facility and somehow gets in the hands of a blonde chick who’s is going on a cruise together with mean multi-millionaire Alex Cord. He’s going to the Cayman Islands to hide away some money, and brings with him his closest man George Kennedy and goofy henchman Clu Gulager. It won’t take long until the cat, who’s actually is two cats – the mutated killer-cat is INSIDE the other one, and squeezes itself out from its hosts mouth! Yeah, that’s about it!

I’m not sure I’ve seen anything like this, at least not in American cinema. The best thing, and I always prefer that form of filmmaking, is that it’s not tongue-in-cheek. Everyone, except maybe the brilliant Gulager, plays it straight and serious and Clark goes for the jugular with some cheap but effective gore. It’s just that it’s a cat within a cat! And when it bites someone it infects that person with something so the skin starts to bubble and cracks in a bloody way!

Is it bad? No, it’s just very silly and cheap and probably also a nice vacation for the actors who could hang around a boat in the sun for a few weeks. I like it and Greydon Clark sure knows who to make non-boring movies, at least what I’ve seen so far.

This could be a perfect movie for Code Red to release by the way, and I would love to hear a commentary on this from the director and a few of the actors. Uninvited is so absurd, so silly and crazy and that’s its hard not to like it!

The Green Slime Dance

34 minutes into The Green Slime there's a long dialogue-scene between Elliott and Rankin, our male testosterone-spurting heroes. I have already forgotten what they were talking about, mostly because of the fantastic "futuristic" dance that happens in the background. So I bring to you here a little instruction (picture first, instruction under) that I hope you all will learn and do on the dance floor next time you're out for some fun. Ok?

Begin with putting your right hand on your partners shoulder and at the exact same time push each other away, but don't let go! Do this a couple of times.

Stop, like in slow-motion, and move your right hands up to the side of your face and make a gentle circle-movement.

Move the hands slowly down against the side of your body, until you reach the hip.

From the hip, make a sudden (and I mean sudden, very fast) move with both your arms up in this Indian chief-position...

Up with your hands in the air like someone is saying "hands up!"

Then start waving both your arms, in opposite directions from each other, very aggressively, two times.

Up again to the "hands up"-position, and hook in to each others fingers!

And from there, just start to wag each others arms back and forth...

...until the wagging almost goes, without thinking, over to the whole body!

And because this is the sixties you can then smoke and drink as much as you want, it's not dangerous anyway, and continue with a nice slow dance that eventually lead to sex and maybe a blond little baby girl (but you all want a boy anyway, so the father can play football with him on the lawn and inspire him to start smoking a pipe at the age of 23.

Good luck everyone!

The Green Slime (1968)

I like logical titles, and The Green Slime might be the most logical title since The Blob. You get what you expect and neither of them are disappointments. The Green Slime has been in my mind for many years, since I saw it on TNT (now TCM I think) and was extremely enjoyed by its goofiness and charming execution. My memory fooled me on one detail, because I kinda expected a lot of Japanese actors too – but except the children in monster suits, this was a 100 % Caucasian monster-orgy. But that don’t matter at all, because it’s the great Kinji Fukasaku in the directors chair, Yukio Manoda and Akira Watanabe doing the special effects and the might Toei producing it! Can’t go wrong, eh?

Richard Jaeckel is Vince Elliott, the proud commander over Gamma III, an advanced space station. After saving the earth from a threatening meteorite, the accidentally bring a small sample of a green slime (surprise!) in to the space station and not long after it’s starts growing and growing and creates a horde of evil, tentacle-monsters with huge eyes and electricity inside them! A visiting colleague, Commander Jack Rankin (Robert Horton), tries to take over the station in order to save them – both of course everything goes wrong, and now it’s up to Elliott and Rankin to solve the problem, kill the monsters and get the girl!

First of all, those fuckers at MST3K should be ashamed for having (so I heard anyway) this movie for their first episode. Clearly they, just like all the episodes, they have no understanding of what they’re watching or any sense of taste. The Green Slime might be very kitchy, but it’s a damn effect sci-fi movie with a lot of excitement and action. It begins quite slow, with very colourful sets and a cheesy episode on the meteorite where they first find the green slime. But then it’s get more violent and from that moment it’s non-stop action and monster-mayhem until the last frame.

The action is intensive and a lot of fun, a high body count and a lot of tentacles electrifying blonde space marines. Fukasaku crafts a very nice atmosphere, for example in the scene where the first try to lure the monsters from the shadows with the help of some spotlights, which reminded me of more modern horror- and sci-fi movies. Can’t name any example, but it’s something with that scene that’s very familiar. I know that the Japanese version of the movie is shorter and deletes the love triangle, but I can’t ignore that fact that those scenes – and overall the interaction between Elliott and Rankin – feels very inspired, a bit edgy. It’s very easy to see Fukasaku’s style in those sequences: his use of small subtle eye movements, the editing back and forth between the rivals. It echoes of the gangster movies he made later, more than you think when you watch it the first time.

One interesting thing is that the budget seem fairly high for this movie and it’s made by brilliant Japanese technicians – but still, the miniatures looks quite primitive compared to other movies from this time. Why? Jocke at Rubbermonsterfetischism suggested that Fukasaku just didn’t have the experience to shoot effects and miniatures. Maybe he just didn’t plan enough time to shoot the effect scenes? Could be, because it’s very unusual to see weak miniatures in Japanese sci-fi movies. But I’m not really saying they’re bad, just very strongly lit and maybe too may close-ups. For a monster-nerd like me this is heaven and I love every second of the effects.

The DVD from Warner Archive is amazing. It’s not perfect, it has some scratches and dust, but who the f**k cares about that? The colours is vibrant, it’s sharp as hell (except when the lens of the camera seem a bit out of touch with what it’s trying to capture) and good sound too. This is easily one of my favourite DVDs from 2010. Its worth every penny, you can bet on it!

Curse of the Faceless Man (1958)

Edward L. Cahn was an extremely prolific b-movie director. During a thirty year period, from his debut in 1931 to his death in 1963 he directed no less than 125 movies (ok, around 50 of those are shorts – but still!)! That’s a lot! Cheapies of course, never (what I can see) any big movies, just simple entertainment. I’ve only seen two of his productions, but both of them shows that he was a deeply talented storyteller with both unique and really cool ideas. Two of the movies he directed in 1958 are also those I’ve seen so far: It! The Terror from Beyond Space and today’s feature, Curse of the Faceless Man!

During an excavation in Pompeii one of those stone-bodies is found, trapped in ashes since the famous volcano eruption. With him is a golden box filled with ancient Etruscan jewellery, which by this time – according to the main characters – should be an extinct people. At the same time beautiful Tina Enright (Elaine Edwards) is starting to get weird dreams and paints them down in the morning – and it seem to be the same “faceless” man who they found in Pompeii. Soon more deaths occur, can it be that the body is still alive and wants… to kill!!!

I can agree that that storyline seem a bit thin, but it’s a story filled with great ideas and neat details. But first of all, it has a great atmosphere and the location – in the movie Italy – but I think it’s filmed in LA, works very fine and brings a certain style to the movie. Richard Anderson as Dr. Paul Mallon is a typical hero of the time, a bit stiff, but that’s part of the charm with these movies. The drama does not need more than that, and it works great anyway. But it’s still well-acted and has a wonderful monster in the character of the faceless man. He’s more or less a mummy, but covered with a layer of stone and ashes.

Everything looks ambitious and interesting, from sets to fright scenes and the actors is serious and never looks bored, which can happen during some of these quickies sometimes. Cahn, the director, tells the story in such an effective and intelligent way that I wished he slowed down a bit. Some of the developments are explained by a voice over, which to be honest isn’t necessary – instead it stresses the story a bit too much. The best thing would of it was slightly longer (it’s a bit over one hour now) and left the voice over-guy out of the picture.

Anyway, Curse of the Faceless Man is a stylish little horror movie with a lot of ambitions and talent. The DVD from Cheezy Flicks looks quite good and I can recommend a purchase for fans of fifties horror movies.

When Worlds Collide (1951)

I have a love-hate relationship with George Pal. Most of the time I start watching his movies and realizes once again that he’s pompous religious fool with morals that probably even felt old-fashioned when the movies where made, but then I often revisit the movie some time later and enjoys it more than I should too. Maybe I just need to experience that first burst of anger, analyze it and then look beyond the stupidity the second time.

My biggest complain with When Worlds Collide is actually the lack of disasters. There’s one cool sequence in the middle with a lot of cool miniature-mayhem and even some flood-footage that was used in the Christopher Lee-movie End of the World, but that’s it. Even the final scene when the planets collide is quite weak and don’t deliver enough mayhem for my taste. It’s more about the human drama before and under the disaster, which is quite OK but very naïve.

Well, the whole movie is naïve. From this idea that a rocket will movie people to another planet in just a few hours to the idealistic newspapers headlines how humanity gets together with face their destiny (the panic never really happens, except a few guys at the end), prays to god and behaves like the proud race we definitely not are in reality. But the building of the rocket and some other visual effects is very nice to look at, if that counts.

What bothers me more is the religious theme in the movie. I have nothing against religion in movies, if there’s some kinda criticism, not just blind faith – which tends to be very silly after a while. Here the movie opens with shot some ancient bible and some words about end of the world. People pray and talk about god, humanity (as mention above) turns to their myths and legends to seek comfort and the weird thing is that only 44 people cane be taken away from earth and find a new home in “heaven”, which reminds me a lot about the 144 000 people Jehova’s Witnesses whines about all the time. In the end our completely white gang (no room for blacks, Hispanics, Asians on this brave new world) of survivors arrives to a planet which feels so heavenly it’s absurd.

But sure, this is a movie I watch for the sci-fi elements, the disaster scenes and the completely ridiculous amount of silly dialogue. And shit, it was a long time since I saw people smoke so much in a movie! I hope they brought some good lung cancer-experts with them to the planet Zyra!

Ah, it’s a fun movie. I can’t deny that. Wattya think?