Mickey One (1965)

Director: Arthur Penn


Writer: Alan Surgal

Composer: Eddie Sauter

Starring: Warren Beatty, Alexandra Stewart, Hurd Hatfield, Franchot Tone, Teddy Hart, Jeff Corey, Kamatari Fujiwara

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Number One... In Excitement... In Drama... In Suspense...

Plot: A comic steals the identity of a homeless man and goes on the run after the mob tries to kill him for an unknown reason.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

I usually dig Beatty's work but he's part out of place and part mediocre.  I've always found his acting to hover close to one note but I really dig the tune.  Not this time.  Part of it is the story and some perhaps with the direction.  The film goes to some odd places that feel like Penn's trying to make this more than just a crime thriller of sorts.  He goes into bizarre territory with some scenes as if to make this an art house picture that transcends Hollywood but it didn't work for me because you also have to take into account of everything that surrounds those scenes and look at the picture as a whole.  I found it dull at times and sometimes outright drab.  I like the B&W photography and the jazzy score was good.  There's that, I suppose.  It's not compelling except for not knowing why Mickey is on the run from the mob.  He doesn't get far when he pushes the same questions.  There could be a better told story there somewhere but I didn't see it on the screen.

Bathman dal pianeta Eros (1982)

Director: Antonio D'Agnostino

Writer: Antonio D'Agnostino

Composer: Ubaldo Continiello

Starring: Mark Shannon, Riccardo Zamagni, Guia Lauri Filzi, Sabrina Mastrolorenzi, Giuseppe Alotta, Ornella Picozzi

More info: IMDb

Plot: Sexually-obsessed Bathman (Shannon) and Klito-Bell arrive from the planet Eros and fight perverted criminals on Earth, such as prostitutes and rapists, in this outrageous Batman spoof.

My rating: 3/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

This is not the Batman porn parody you're looking for...or maybe it is.  I don't know you.  Bathman is pronounced as Batman, by the way.  This picture is 78 minutes long and it feels more than twice that which is the biggest problem.

But it looks like fun,right?  Well if you made a supercut with all of the goofiest scenes then maybe but I still have my limits.

The subs are fan made.  Sometimes it's obviously done for laughs but the subs seem to adhere to what is actually being said but with little tweaks here and there for comedic effect.

It's a porn parody so you get LOTS of fucking.  It's a little weird that most of the fuck scenes are so brief but there are lots of them and the movie ends with the longest of all that involves all of the heroes and villains in one giant orgy.  Even before that happens it's one setup for a sex scene after another with everyone fucking everybody else (except there's no guy on dude stuff).

The sex is generally OK at best.  The lesbian scenes fared best.  One of the problems is the music during the sex is usually goofy and played for laughs.  Hell, there's a couple of them that have pseudo Dixieland music for your fucking scene entertainment.  It doesn't work except for possibly being potentially funny.  The few decent parts are much better than their sum.  This was a struggle to finish.  I've done my community service and now it's back to digging for that rare gem among shit movies.

The Swinging Lust World of John Phillip Law (2007)

Directors: Yourek Dury, Marko Kapri


Starring: John Phillip Law, Domenico Giuliano, Don Stroud, Gordon Hessler, Mathias Sanderson

More info: ???

Plot:  Movie star John Phillip Law talks about his early career in movies.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

This half hour documentary has Law talking about his early days leading up to becoming an actor and through his first few films ending with BARBARELLA (1968) and DANGER: DIABOLIK (1968).   That's the audio.  What plays behind it are Law's home movies showing him in various places like at his home in Hollywood and then in Italy.  In those you get a glimpse of quite a few celebrities which adds a neat factor.  There's not much time spent here to really get into the movies but Law gives us enough to satisfy and he's talking about the films he's most famous for.  THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1973) is briefly mentioned.  After that his film career is filled with lesser known stuff.  Law fans will naturally need to see this but it's also worth a look for those into genre pictures as there's plenty said about BARBARELLA, DANGER: DIABOLIK and DEATH RIDES A HORSE (1967).  Law died soon after making this documentary, which he also produced.

Bad Samaritan (2018)

Director: Dean Devlin

Writer: Brandon Boyce

Composer: Joseph LoDuca

Starring: David Tennant, Robert Sheehan, Kerry Condon, Jacqueline Byers, Lisa Brenner, Hannah Barefoot, Carlito Olivero, Bob Nagle, Dana Millican

More info:  IMDb

Tagline: One bad night...one bad decision...can haunt you forever

Plot:  A pair of burglars stumble upon a woman being held captive in a home they intended to rob.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Look, I know it rains a lot in the Pacific Northwest but does every freaking scene in this movie have to lit with dark mood lighting?   The interior filming has some low as shit light including places where people work.  It's aggravating.  I know it's only done for effect but it called attention to itself.  Also, all of the intended scares are jump scares.  The story has potential but somehow it got to the stage where the suits said it was adequate enough to push through production.  There are so many moments that are by the numbers.  The Mrs. and I just watched this alone in a theater so we could comment out loud without obviously disturbing anyone.  There's a moment when the FBI is waiting at the gate to check out a wooded residence but the one thing that's stopping them is the warrant that should be there at any moment.  Suddenly a shot is fired and one top agent says to the other, "What was that?".  My wife and I both said, "Probably cause", which is the exact same thing the other agent replied with.  There's stuff like that all through the picture.  Except for the jump scares, the movie is pretty well directed and acted, it's just that some of the situations needed some tweaking.  I didn't care for Tennant this time.  I usually dig the guy.  He's OK but it might be more that his character is a bit underwritten.  The ending is complete bullshit.   So and so should've been dead like they were portrayed to be but Hollywood can't let a teeny-bopper flick (which is what this is) go without loading it down with stupid-ass cliches.  If this is the first thriller you've seen then you'll probably like it.  If you've seen good movies before and you know when you're being insulted then sit this one out.

Ban the Sadist Videos! (2005) Parts 1 & 2

Director: David Gregory

Writer: David Gregory

Composer: Mark Raskin

Starring: Chris Theobald, Jesus Franco, Wes Craven, Ruggero Deodato, Dario Argento

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Likely to deprave and corrupt!

Plot: Part one presents an in-depth analysis of the "Video Nasty" scandal of the early 1980s in Britain and part two presents an investigation of UK video censorship after the video recordings act was introduced.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably not.

I've seen a few documentaries about England's "Video Nasties" and this one is the best...and last one that I'll see.  I think I'm done with this topic but I'm not done watching the funner'n'hell movies that are on the list.  It's a well produced film that not only covers the origins, as you would expect, as well as the massive controversy surrounding it and the subsequent arrests, trials and even murders attributed to watching these films, it also covers the aftermath and brings us up to date to the time this was made.  It's interesting and horrifying how bullshit coming from these prudish, ill informed and power hungry censorship assholes could get away with so much.  It's amazing what ignorant people will do when frightened by something they know little to nothing about. 

Operation C.I.A. (1965)

Director: Christian Nyby

Writers: Bill S. Ballinger, Peer J. Oppenheimer

Composer: Paul Dunlap

Starring: Burt Reynolds, Kieu Chinh, Danielle Aubry, Cyril Collick, Bill Catching, Vic Diaz, Marsh Thomson, John Laughinghouse, Frank Estes, Santi, Michael Schwiner, Robert Gulbranson, Janet Russell, John Hoyt

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Our C.I.A. man in Saigon ... The hottest spot on Earth!

Plot: A young CIA agent is assigned to Saigon to stop a planned political assassination.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

For a low budget movie like this (purported to be 70k) it looks great.  The Warner Bros. Archive Collection DVD sports a marvelous B&W widescreen print.  And the location shooting in Thailand does the flick a good turn, too.  I rather dig the movie poster (above) although there's too much empty space in the middle on both sides of Burt.  The story is pretty simple but it's not too bad.  It's a low budget Bond film but with one locale, a couple of hot chicks (one local), some bad guys and a plot to kill the American ambassador and other dignitaries with a race against the clock for Mark Andrews (Burt) to save the day.  Although Burt had a lot of acting experience under his belt by this time with lots of TV work, this was his third feature film and his first as the lead.  He's not bad but you can see he needs a few more gigs to hone his craft.  Part of the problem is the mediocre dialogue.  Some of the interior scenes feel more suited for television, especially with Burt's first scene.  You guessed it, the director and one of the writers (Ballinger) worked almost exclusively in TV.  But these folks sure knew how to stretch a dollar.  The best moments are the action scenes, especially the big chase and fight at the end.  Those are quite good...but then I could be remembering them being so much better than the rest of the picture.  There's nothing about this that stands out all that much except for a familiar face or two (like the always fun Vic Diaz) and of course seeing a super young Burt Reynolds in a James Bond kind of role where he gets the chicks, gives the baddies what fer and saves the day in the end...and gets more chicks after that.

$100,000 for Ringo (1965)

Original title: 100.000 Dollari per Ringo

Director: Alberto De Martino

Writers: Alfonso Balcazar, Alberto De Martino, Vincenzo Mannino, Giovanni Simonelli, Guido Zurli

Composer: Bruno Nicolai

Starring: Richard Harrison, Fernando Sancho, Luis Induni, Massimo Serato, Gerard Tichy, Eleonora Bianchi, Loris Loddi, Guido Lollobrigida, Monica Randall, Michel Montfort, Francisco Sanz, Romas Torres

More info: IMDb

Plot: A stranger named Lee Barton rides into the western town of Rainbow Valley where he's mistaken for a former resident named Ward Cluster who was believed killed in the Civil War. Cluster's wife, Rose, is now dead but his young son, Sean -- raised by Indian chief, Gray Bear -- also believes Barton to be his father. Barton soon finds himself in opposition to local boss Tom Cherry who used local Indians to drive off settlers and who then turned against the Indians. Cherry is "sweet" on blonde townswoman Deborah but Deborah loves a drunken man named Ive. Cherry seeks to find $200,000 stashed away by a Mexican general and during the course of his hunt captures and flogs Barton and then kills both Deborah and Ive. Barton, having joined forces with a wandering sheriff from Tucson, kills Cherry in a shoot-out, finds the missing money, and plans a future with adopted son, Sean.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

A lot of what's in this picture is just plain bland, from the English dub to the characters, their costumes and so on.  The scenery is nice but there's nothing all that great about it.  The story is OK but it's rather slow despite the abundance of fights and gunplay.  The music  is outstanding, though, and that's a huge plus but, like anything, it's not enough to elevate the picture to more than a basic watchable level.  It's an OK picture at best and that's only because of the wonderful score by Morricone friend and colleague, Bruno Nicolai. It's far more exciting than the film it accompanies.  And be sure to groove to the theme song sung by none other than Bobby Solo!