Strider-100 Reviews

Fortress: Sniper's Eye (2022)

Awful movie, it's bad to the bone

[1/10 · 27 April 2024]

The sequel to Fortress and this stinkathon should nail the coffin door shut. A terrible Grade C film.

Let's review the accounting data to explain these movies:

Fortress had a budget of 20 million dollars and its worldwide gross revenue was $52,169.

Fortune 2 had a budget of 22 million dollars and a World wide gross revenue of $69,075

Needless to say both films failed at the box office.

The sequel is a continuance of the first movie where you find out neither of the two baddest bad guys died in the first film and although Robert (Bruce Willis) saves Balzary's wife, he still wants to kill Robert with the aid of his buddy Ulysses. There's no story, hardly any action, poorly choreographed fight scenes, they kill off the Natalie Burn character Sandra in 5 minutes so we never got to see her have an action scene and Kelly Greyson as the character of Kate barely got in on any action but spends most of her time in this film with duct tape on her mouth while wearing a Daisy Duke outfit tied up with zip ties. It is really not a film, just a bunch of people running around with no sense of direction or purpose. I guess that is what makes it comical.

I am gong to go out on a limb and say I am pretty confident there will not be a 3rd picture.

Disturbing the Peace (2020)

More of a tv movie of the week then a real movie.

[2/10 · 26 April 2024]

A small-town marshal named Jim (Guy Pearce) who hasn't carried a gun since he left the Texas Rangers after tragically shooting his partner by accident, must pick up his gun again to battle with a gang of outlaw bikers led by Diablo (Devon Sawa) that have invaded the town to pull off a brazen and violent heist.

More like a tv movie then a real movie, one you would see on Lifetime. Full of cliches, bad acting, cheesy lines, and a lot of illogical behavior.

You have a weird love triangle between Jim the Sheriff and the acting Town Mayor Rogers (Luke Martin Collins) who is like a combination of Howard Sprague and Barney Fife from the Andy Griffith show and the Cafe Waitress Catie (Kelly Greyson) who also specializes in fist fighting, shooting villain girls, and is ready to take a tumble with the Sheriff and ride his range 24/7 at any moment, then preaching sermons at Church on Sundays because she is the town minister They sure don't make gals like that anymore plus she knows how to drive a horse. Yeeeeee-Haawwww!! Did I mention she was purdy? Well she's PURDY!!!!! If your going to marry a woman, you need to marry a woman from Horse Cave, Kentucky!!! Okay, you have suffered enough, I'll stop now.

Other then that, the villain was a complete moron who actually thought he was smart. His name is Diablo (Devon Sawa) and he proves he was a moron because they succeed in robbing the bank and the armored car but he won't leave town because he wants to kill the Sheriff of a town of 2000 people. Makes no sense.

Now the illogical part was earlier in the film and two people are shot and killed because the Sheriff won't do anything. Just ignores the demands of the villain so the villain caps two innocent people and the Sheriff has no guilt or remorse over that. I guess he was still dealing with accidentally shooting his partner.

FantastiCozzi (2016)

Excellent documentary on Luigi Cozzi aka Lewis Coastes Director and Writer

[7/10 · 19 December 2023]

A well done documentary on the Ed Wood of Italy, Luigi Cozzi. Starts out with the young Cozzi's love of science fiction, monster, and fantasy films and how he got a job as an Italian writing correspondent.for Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine doing interviews and stories for the Italian horror and science fiction films. It then shows Cozzi reflecting on the films he wrote and directed. Fun to discover he was a huge Caroline Munro fan and cast her and attempted to cast her in many films. The most successful film featuring Caroline Munro was STAR CRASH which was suppose to be like Star Wars but low budget Cozzi Style. The film was picked up by Roger Corman's New World Pictures and was their biggest box office hit of all time to that point which was 1979. The producers rejected Cozzi's idea of casting Caroline Munro because they wanted a talented American actress and they had not fallen in love with her like Cozzi because they never watched THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD, but when they discovered how much money the American actress wanted they returned to Cozzi two days later and said Cozzi could cast the English actress Caroline Munro. The film is historic in the sense it features "A" actor Christopher Plummer as the Emperor of the Universe (he is very good in the film), but the lead is played by Caroline Munro as Stella, David Hasslehoff as her romantic counterpart as a Prince. This role was before KNIGHT RIDER so I guess you could say, Cozzi discovered him when David was working on a daytime soap opera and the film also included former child Evangelist Marjoe Gortner and Caroline Munro's husband Judd Hamilton as the Robot that accompanies her in the film. What made the story so funny was that the producers gave the Robot part to Judd to appease him and let his wife appear in the film but he was an extremely jealous man and forced the ending where Stella (Caroline Munro) and the Prince (David Hasslehoff) were suppose to kiss into merely having a hug. That just cracked me up! Luigi then wanted to cast Caroline Munro in HERCULES as Ariadne opposite Lou Ferrigno but the producers hated Caroline's husband Judd Hamilton and vice versa so the role was given to Sybil Danning. Cozzi did another film which was like an ALIEN RIP OFF called CONTAMINATION.and wanted very much to cast Caroline Munro as the lead female character but was overruled by a producer influenced by Sergio Leone, a friend of his who stated that a Canadian actress named Louise Marleau needed to play the female lead. Cozzi directed his last film in 2016. An interesting look at a B movie director who is not only directing films but has a great love and interest as a fan of film. Highly recommend you watch.

The Isle (2018)

Old Fashion Siren or Ghost story. I thought it was an interesting story

[7/10 · 29 May 2023]

Directed by Matthew Butler-Hart who did an excellent job I thought for the most part and whoever chose the location for the film shoot, on the island of Eilean Shona, Scotland did a fantastic job. I would love to go there someday. So spooky and mysterious. It makes you want to explore.

The film was written pretty well except for a couple of segments which did not make sense to me. The part that did not make sense to me was the Siren, formerly known as Persephone (Emma King), has Jacob MacLeod killed when in fact Jacob did not harm her and actually had a crush on her. I can definitely understand her killing Billy Innis for raping her and murdering her when she was still just a mortal.

I could not figure out her lust to kill the 3 lost sailors because they meant her no harm. It was like she became the man hating woman with the roots of bitterness that I am all to familiar with who Pastor Jim would always go on about in his sermons when alluding to his ex-wife, past loves, models, actresses, prostitutes, rock climbers, singers, cotters, accountants, and of course his fellow Christians, etc.

Other then that confusing part I liked how the story built the brooding tension and also created the desire to make you keep watching to see if the lead sailor, Oliver Gosling (Alex Hassell) could solve the mystery. I was saddened by both the deaths of fellow sailors Cailean Ferris (Fasiyo Akinade) and Jim Bickley (Graham Butler). The characters written here were innocent for the most part and did not deserve their fates and were likable.

The two cryptic and deceptive older men with houses and daughters on the island, Douglas Innis (Conleth Hill) and Fingal MacLeod (Dickon Tyrrell) were not very helpful but then when pressed finally became of use to clear up the mystery. You have pity for their two daughters Lanthe Innis (Tory Butler-Hart) and Korrigan MacLeod (Alix Wilton Regan) and their fate.

An unsung hero in the film is the dog Monty owned by Fingal MacLeod who can sense danger. Monty should have been awarded a King George Cross or at least a delicious dog treat......

I liked this haunting story because it kept my interest and it had a story, which is something different from the usual mindless horror film of today with no story but a lot of gory killings. To each his or her own.

Kill for Me (2013 Video)

Katie Cassidy is just incredibly beautiful in this.

[5/10 · 20 May 2023]

Two female roommates Amanda Rowe (Katie Cassidy) and Hayley Jones (Tracy Spiradakos) who have been with abusive men in their pasts consider murder as an option to help settle each other's problems.

Movie is sort of a generic rip off of STRANGERS ON A TRAIN minus the train.

Katie Cassidy is the daughter of David Cassidy who was the step son of Shirley Jones. In this film, you can tell she is the daughter of David Cassidy and you can see facial similarities.

This film has a definite surprise twist ending which turns out fairly happy which shocked me because things seemed so dark and awful. I won't give that surprise away, you have to watch the movie.

My rating of the movie would have been higher but there is a scene near the beginning where Hayley kills the boyfriend of Amanda because he was going to kill Amanda if she did not. Now Hayley maintains that they need to get rid of the body because the police would never believe the abusive boyfriend was trying to kill them. This theory is so incredibly false. The reason being, the ex-boyfriend had a loaded gun, he had beaten Amanda in the face drawing blood and bruises, and he had dragged Amanda down the basement steps and later throws Amanda down the same steps which would surely cause bruises and abrasions to her back. He had also punched Hayley. This event gives the movie its title of KILL FOR ME because now Hayley wants Amanda to kill her abusive father in exchange for Hayley killing Amanda's abusive boyfriend. The plot flaw is that just going to the police would have ended the whole movie and the evidence was clear the killing of the boyfriend was in self defense.

No likes yet.

The Division - PoC (2018)

Action packed but Samantha Schnitzler is barely in the film.

[5/10 · 11 April 2023]

The short film is almost a half hour long so it is a lot longer then most short films I have watched. It reminds you a lot of a short John Wick movie. The same fighting, rolling around and then a gun shot to the head, leg, or chest in rapid succession and then repeat. It is about two highly trained cops. Jake (Jean Paul Ly.) and his partner. Lance (Laurent Plancel) who take on an organized crime group led by the evil. Adam (Hugo Nicolau) Samantha Schnitzler is a Russian mobster allied with Adam but she only gets 30 seconds of screen time. I don't understand that. It's akin to a waitress showing you they have Trifle for dessert then giving you a petrified Pavlova instead to eat. Tastes just like chalk, like the one I ate at the Sydney Airport many moons ago. So angry Samantha did not have more screen time. The film is action packed as I mentioned and it did feature. Phoebe Robin-Rodrigues.as Jinx and she has a terrific fight against Lance at the end. It's more fighting then story or character development but the short films intent I think was to show how ready for action these actors are for in a full length feature film.

Duchess (2019)

Man vs Woman boxing mixed martial arts.

[3/10 · 10 April 2023]

This is mainly just a lot of crude language, insults, and rage. The actual fight scenes are limited but Samantha Schindler looked good fighting for the limited amount of time for actual fighting. She shows she could be in an action film, preferably fighting a Sasquatch so you could make it a monster movie as well. This film is basically about an arrogant male fighter who hits on the female fighter in a crude fashion and ends up getting in a fight with the woman fighter for a sexual favor. Lots of rage with both boxers doing damage to the other. It does not bring them closer together or resolve their differences but it does increase their rage and hate. It's sort of like a bad marriage. It starts off on the wrong foot and gets worse.

The Dinosaur Project (2012)

Not bad for a lower budget Dinosaur film.

[5/10 · 20 December 2022]

A British expedition formed by the lead researcher Jonathan Marchant (Richard Dillane), his assistant Charley Rutherford (Peter Brooke), a doctor named Liz Draper (Natasha Loring) and a TV crew consisting of Dave Moore (Stephen Jennings) and Pete Van Aarde (Andre Weideman), travels to the Congo to seek evidence of a dinosaur. A local guide named Amara (Abena Ayifor) and the helicopter pilot named Etienne (Sivu Nobongoza) join the team and the group heads to the jungle. During their trip, they find a stowaway in the helicopter, the son of Jonathan named Luke Marchant (Matt Kane). Soon the helicopter is attacked by flying creatures and crashes in the jungle in the beginning of the last journey of Jonathan Marchant and his team,

This is a found footage type film so you are tipped off there are no survivors. The CGI was pretty good. Not a great movie but an entertaining film after a long day of NFL football. Scenery was fantastic, the actors weren't too bad.

I was a bit frustrated to see the pretty actress, Natasha Loring, who plays Liz, killed off so quickly. Movie implied there might be a romance between her and Luke but that love connection was destroyed by a flying dinosaur tearing Liz to pieces.

Broken Star (2018)

Natasha Loring sizzles, Lio Tipton provokes, Tyler Labine is calm and creepy!

[4/10 · 20 December 2022]

Lio Tipton plays Markey Marlowe, sort of a Lindsay Lohand kind of actress who feels abandoned by friends, family and everyone, is spoiled rotten, and needs constant attention. Unfortunately for Markey, she has been put in house arrest for 30 days and also wears a tracking device on her ankle. If she can stay clean and sober for 30 days she will go on probation.

To make matters worse, her landlord who lives next door is monitoring her and he is obsessed with Markey. His name is Daryl (Tyler Labine) who has recently lost his grandmother. Daryl was the one who performed a mercy killing on her according to his story.

As weird as each character is, they form a bond and Marlene not only lets Daryl film her and interview her, but also Daryl carries out Marlene's bidding. Marlene wanted revenge on the boyfriend Nick (Joshua Davis) who raped her so she tells Daryl she wants his capped gold tooth with a diamond in it for a gift. No problem, Daryl races out and rips out Nicks tooth and makes a necklace present for Marlene.

Marlene wants revenge on her best actress friend and tells Daryl she wants her best friend Sydney (Natasha Loring) to have all her hair ripped out by hand. No problem, Daryl races out, drugs the drinks of Sydney at a bar, follows her home and captures her and pulls her hair out by hand. Natasha Loring sizzles in her few minutes of screen time.

Marlene then wants to punish her mother and younger sister so she orders Daryl to capture both of them and then cut up the face of her younger sister Jade (Addyson Bell) who is a rising actress to destroy Jade's career and force her mom Kara (Lauren Bowles) to watch her personal meal ticket get cut up.

Then to imitate Marilyn Monroe, she orders Daryl to kill her so she goes out in a blaze of glory. Things get weird here because before Marlene is killed she gets her personal assistant Annie (Monique Coleman) to come over to the house so Marlene can knock her out and give her a haircut. Movie leaves you hanging whether Annie is killed or not.

Then Daryl goes to strangling Marlene, but then the film fades and we see Marlene waking up as if the whole thing is a dream. It is the weirdness of the movie that gets you to watch and I did like how the director Dave Schwep chose not to be graphic but implied things. Example: the hair pulling scene shows some hair being pulled out of Sydney's head but only a couple of clumps and her screaming and then cuts to another scene.

The actors all did a fine job, but the script is what kills the movie. It is not believable or even plausible so it is not realistic at all and hence the low rating.

Karla (2016)

Natalie Burn and Melanie McGregor are the only sparks in this film.

[1/10 · 8 December 2022]

Natalie Burn has appeared in some incredibly bad movies and this one is right up there with her worst.

This is suppose to be a comedy and there is not a single laugh until near the end which in unintentional when you realize that the woman that was cast to be Karla's mother Maria (Michelle D'Alessandro Hatt) looks younger then Karla, and the man who is suppose to be Karla's father, whom she is torturing, also looks younger then Karla. His name is Nick Smyth and plays the CEO of a Ad agency named Cameron Kennedy. He is the male lead. I laughed hard at that because it was so crazy and defied medical science.

The positives of the film are that Natalie Burn dressed up in a lot of nice outfits. Also Melanie McGregor caught my eye as the character Montana. She is very pretty and needs to be cast in more films.

Film is beyond bad. Some trivia though, the buxom blonde in the movie named Natasha is the wife of the professional wrestler known as THE MIZ. Her name is Maryse Mizanin,

Pistoleros: Death, Drugs and Rock N' Roll (2022)

Sad but interesting documentary focusing on lead singer of the Pistoleros Lawrence Zubia

[8/10 · 14 November 2022]

The Pistoleros were inducted into the Arizona Music Hall of Fame and were at their peak in the 90's. The story of Lawrence and Mark Zubia is shown in this film. They were only 3 years apart in age. Mark was the shy one who was very skilled on guitar while Lawrence was the outgoing one, lead singer, but he could play guitar also. They had been in a band called the Chimeras with former lead guitarist and songwriter from the Gin Blossoms, Douglas Hopkins. The movie documents the tragic spiral Hopkins fell into with alcohol and drugs trying to cope with a depression problem he had all his life. He finally shot himself in the mouth. It was his 6th suicide attempt in 10 years. Lawrence Zubia was heavily drinking and doing drugs along with Doug Hopkins and he was the one who discovered and reported to 911 the death of Douglas Hopkins. It is a very emotional scene as Lawrence retells the story while being interviewed for the documentary. He chokes up in tears several times during it. This documentary has the approach of the "pebble dropped into the pond" Where that pebble is deposited, ripples course out from where it enters the water. Some of the ripples are positive like the million dollar contract that the Pistoleros got with Hollywood Records and other ripples were dangerous like the spiral into drinking and drugs which not only took a toll on Lawrence, but the ripples also caused pain for his brother and family as well as friends. A doctor interviewed in the film states the alcohol and drugs were a symptom to a bigger problem. Douglas Hopkins had fought depression his whole life and in the documentary you discover that Lawrence has been sexually molested by a Catholic Priest in his youth. Traumatic events can make a person make bad choices in how to deal with said problem. It is quite obvious that drinking heavily and drug use may create a short term effect of euphoria but in the end it can kill you. Lawrence Zubia also had the misfortune of hurting his back and doctors gave him Fentanyl for pain. This increased Lawrence's problems because he became addicted to that. Lawrence Zubia ended up nearly killing himself ramming his speeding car into a metal pole. He hit rock bottom, was estranged from part of his family and lived with his mother. His brother Mark reached out and bought Lawrence a guitar and also a car for transportation. Lawrence struggled back to sobriety and reunited with his two children, and the band came together again and they were doing okay until you see the scene where they make the Arizona Music Hall of Fame and you discover that Lawrence kicked Mark out of the band because they had a disagreement. It was such a sad part of the story. Had the drugs and alcohol not been involved who knows how big and successful the band could have been. What I take from the film is it is time the United States adopted national healthcare like England, Canada, Norway, Sweden, France etc. So this way people who have problems with addictions or any ailment for that matter whether physical or mental can get access to treatment so the symptoms and problems of the ailment can be treated. Lawrence Zubia died in December of 2020 due to pancreatitus. It was an interesting story but I preferred the previous Steven Esparza documentary GIRL ON WAVE because it was inspiring and triumphant whereas PISTOLEROS: DEATH, DRUGS AND ROCK N' ROLL is more of a sad cautionary story.

Regression (I) (2015)

The greatest sin a movie can commit: It's boring

[2/10 · 4 September 2022]

This movie was so dull and boring I was googling real estate and reading about that instead while the movie droned on. I am just glad I watched it for free on Freevee.

The film is about a police detective investigating a possible satanic cult and abuse going on inside a dysfunctional family.

The best actor was the David Thewlis character because of his British accent.

Ethan Hawke played an angry cop with a side order of depression.

Emma Watson as Angela Gray, wearing colonial pilgrim styled dresses and falling in love with the much much older Ethan Hawke while droning on and on about the abuse in the family. I did observe she would make a great waitress at Frontier PIes wearing that get up.

As the poem goes, "A dream but a caravan, a caravan but a dream. The dog may bark but the caravan moves on" which accurately describes this film because as soon as I heard a dog barking outside my window I moved on from this movie which felt like a dead 40 pound Albatross around my neck.

I can't recommend this movie because it is dull and depressing.

Horme To (2021 Video)

A music video, not really a short film, unless a music video is considred a short film.

[1/10 · 10 August 2022]

I gave it one star only because it features Mahlagha Jaberi who plays the Femme Fatale. They film her and her boyfriend in the shadows mostly so you barely see them clearly except when cuddling on the couch watching tv. The music is sung in the Persian language and the singer seemed passionate about his song but I have no clue what was being communicated.

Girl on Wave (2017)

Excellent sport documentary on Professional Windsurfer Sarah Hauser

[10/10 · 18 January 2022]

Watched this sports documentary on professional windsurfer Sarah Hauser who is originally from New Caledonia. I remember watching the tv show BAA BAA BLACKSHEEP in the late 70's with Robert Conrad as Greg "Pappy" Boyington and hearing about a bombing run to New Caledonia. Anyhow it is a South Pacific Island that is under French control and Sarah Hauser is bilingual which is cool and speaks English with a heavy French accent.

The documentary shows Sarah pursuing her goal to become a professional windsurfer and some of the obstacles she faces pursuing her dream. Her parents were skeptical about her becoming a professional windsurfer so Sarah made sure she got her college degree in Computer Science to fall back on in case things did not work out.

The next obstacle for Sarah was getting enough money to pursue her dream. Although she is a great windsurfer, she needed money to travel to the different tournaments all over the world to show everyone how good she really is. Sarah got sponsors who helped and aided her rise in surfing competitions. Unlike male athletes, female athletes don't get paid as much and so another challenge for Sarah was she had to be her own marketing and promotional department as well. She actually writes articles about herself that get published in surfing magazines.

One of the segments I enjoyed the most in the documentary was Sarah's workout routine. Sarah is in fantastic physical condition and she is incredibly strong which is necessary to take the pounding of the giant waves that she surfs on. Sarah is very beautiful as well and on a side note you can see why her husband married her.

Another unique aspect of the documentary were the interviews with her fellow Windsurfer peers and contemporaries, both male and female attesting to what a great windsurfer Sarah is.

The documentary shows the inherent danger of windsurfing and it shows not only Sarah wiping out but her contemporaries as well. But is also shows that wiping out is part of the process and you just get back up and try again.

The grand finale and wrap up of the documentary is Sarah taking on the giant wave that comes to Maui only twice a year. It is called "JAWS" and it is a wave over sixty feet high. Some really incredible footage shot here of Sarah successfully riding that giant wave several times.

The cinematography was excellent as well as the direction and editing. My only minor complaint was the selection of the music which I found grating. Movie was shot by EchoHouse Films based in Scottsdale, AZ.

I highly recommend GIRL ON WAVE.

Best F(r)iends Volume Two (2018)

Great 2nd part to a great film story.

[10/10 · 4 January 2022]

Watched volume 2 of this film and was quite pleased with it. The mystery, murder, and adventure continues with some new characters introduced. Traci (Kristen StephensonPino) and Jon (Greg Sesteros) travel to Arizona with the ATM safe where Harvey had stored the money. They need to find a locksmith to open it. On their trip in Arizona they are pulled over by a suspicious cop who puts them through a tortuous interview before he lets them depart. From there they go to a B&B where the owner is a complete jerk to them. While staying at the B&B we discover the Traci is up to something with someone else via cell phone. Shortly after that, her Uncle Rick Stanton (Rick Edwards) shows up as a high testosterone redneck cowboy jock who loves to intimidate Jon and make sexual suggestions to Traci. Rick Edwards does an excellent job of playing an ex jock redneck cowboy.(On a personal note he should have been the next actor selected to replace Damian Lewis character on BILLIONS to go toe to toe with the Paul Giamatti character of Chuck) Uncle Rick can't seem to open the ATM safe so they decide to hire a locksmith. The locksmith comes out to the ranch to open the safe but when he senses the desperation of Jon and Traci he calls for backup and suddenly Uncle Rick, Jon, and Traci are being held at gunpoint. Vicente, (RJ Cantu) the backup to the locksmith Doc Seagor (George Killingsworth) recognizes Traci as someone who did him wrong years ago and drags her off into the house to kill her. This is when things get really crazy when Traci is about to be killed and is saved by a man dressed up like the outlaw Ned Kelly in a metal helmet and body armor. He shoots Vicente in the back and when Doc Seagor tries to assist Vicente he is killed as well by our Ned Kelly lookalike. Meanwhile Uncle Rick and Jon find the traumatized Traci unharmed but shaken in the bathroom. They go back to the house to try to figure out if they have to fight a drug cartel or some other person who is trying to kill them. Uncle Rick asks Jon to go get some guns out of the garage to help defend but this is where Jon discovers the car that crazy Harvey purchased in part 1. How did it end up at Uncle Rick's in Arizona? Jon confronts Uncle Rick and Uncle Rick pulls a gun on Jon and explains that he and Traci are involved and there intention was to get the money out of the ATM Safe and go to the Caymans. Traci starts to pack for the Caymans as Uncle Rick takes Jon out into the desert to kill him. The funniest line in volume 2 is where Uncle Rick tells Jon, "After you went to sleep last night I was f_ckin your girlfriend so hard I thought I was going to commit a headboard homicide." Uncle Rick is about to shoot and kill Jon but Jon is saved by the Ned Kelly lookalike who kills Rick and it is revealed the Ned Kelly look alike is Harvey. Now Jon thinks Harvey is going to kill him after the event that led to what appeared to be Harvey's death but I was pleasantly surprised by a positive ending for a new Neo Noir movie. Beautifully cinematography in this film and good direction. All the people who worked on this did a fantastic job on such a low budget. Thank you, a very entertaining film.

Best F(r)iends: Volume 1 (2017)

Terrific film

[10/10 · 4 January 2022]

There are very few newer movies that I enjoy watching. I discovered this one in a round about way, but I am glad I took the journey. This is a fantastic film, it is like a modern film noir/Hitchcock mystery sort of film.

It is about a homeless hippie drifter type Jon Kortina, played by Greg Sestero, who befriends and works for extremely eccentric, mysterious, creepy, and possibly dangerous, Harvey Lewis, played by Tommy Wiseau. Harvey is a mortician and Jon convinces Harvey into going into business with him selling the gold out of the teeth of their deceased clients.

What I loved about the movie was the unique and incredibly funny scenes in the movie mixed in with some terrifying and dramatic ones. A terrific balance of these. One of my favorites is where the gold buyer contact named Andrei (played brilliantly and hysterically funny by Vince Jolivette) shows up with his two scantily clad escorts dressed in the tightest dresses and Harvey wants to frisk them for weapons. Harvey's lines with responses from Andrei and his vixens are beyond hysterical. I won't give those away but they are some of the funniest scenes and lines in film history. The Tommy Wiseau character of Harvey is just fascinating and riveting. It is my opinion Tommy should have got the Academy Award for Best Actor in this movie for his performance. Sestero's plays the perfect counterbalance to the dominating Harvey character so the two together go like salt and pepper.

Things start to go south in their friendship when Jon acquires a girlfriend named Traci Walton played very well by actress Kristen StephensonPino. She appears to be the All American Girl with the heart of gold and a stabilizing influence for Jon. To add pressure to the dynamic between Jon and Harvey it appears that Harvey is spending all the money earned by Harvey and Jon on cars and something else which compromises the trust between Harvey and Jon.

Traci hashes a plan to help Jon get his share of the money from crazy Harvey. Things do not go according to plan and it appears that Jon has accidentally killed Harvey. This cliffhanger lets us know there is more to come in Part 2. Great cinematography and direction in this as well. Very impressive film for such a low budget. All the people who worked on film this did a fantastic job.

Thank you, a very entertaining film.

Journey Into Fear (1975)

Good but could have been even better. Love to do a remake if done correctly

[6/10 · 28 June 2021]

An American geologist Mr. Graham, played by Sam Waterston accidentally discovers oil in Turkey. Several assassins are sent to eliminate him, but they all fail. He eventually boards a passenger boat to try to escape. However, one of the passengers is an undercover assassin.

Movie has a great cast with an extremely young Ian McShane (DEADWOOD) as Banat the hitman who does not have a single line in the movie but carries menace like Aldo Ray's character in WELCOME TO HARD TIMES. Vincent Price makes a great turn as Banat's employer named Dervos. Donald Pleasance plays Turkish undercover officer Kuvetli , posing as a Turkish cigarette salesman who does not smoke and works for a company no one has ever heard of. Yvette Mimieux plays Josette who is being pimped out by her husband Jose played by Scott Marlowe. She is the love interest or bait for the Sam Waterston character Mr. Graham. Joseph Wiseman plays Colonel Haki who is trying to protect Mr. Graham from getting killed. Stanley Holloway and Shelly Winters play a married couple. Shelly plays a racist gossipy woman named Mrs. Mathews and Stanley Holloway in his final movie appearance plays her kindly husband Mr. Mathews.

Movie has super exciting opening and start, it kind of bogs down in the middle then jumps back into action towards the end.

Ripe for a remake.

Third Man on the Mountain (1959)

I think it is the best Disney film of all time.

[10/10 · 28 April 2021]

Third Man On The Mountain is the best Disney film of all time in my opinion. In fact it is just a great movie. Great script, fantastic scenery and story setting as well as great acting from James MacArthur, Janet Munro, James Donald, Michael Rennie, Herbert Lom, Luaurence Naismith and Ferdy Mayne. Great film. Highly recommend! Excellent mountain climbing film and the importance of teamwork to get to the top.

The Debt Collector (2018)

Martial Arts Buddy Movie is hit and miss

[4/10 · 21 April 2021]

A martial arts/MMA "buddy movie" featuring martial artist Scott Adkins as French and Louis Mandylor as his partner, Sue. They play debt collectors for the mob where they go around beating the crap out of people and collecting money.

Adkins gets to do the majority of the fighting and Mandylor gets to do most of the acting and comedic dialog.

Film leans towards projecting women as greedy, unfaithful, and disposable. The film gets negative points for this.

Praise for actress Nihan Gur as Angela who made the greatest and most memorable impression of all the women in the film. She is an incredibly beautiful woman and hopefully she gets better parts featuring her martial arts skills with better character development and more lines and bigger role. Her character Angela's motivation did not make any sense. The writer of the script seems to think women get turned on being threatened to be killed. Angela's seduction scene with a man she did not even know who threatened her life just minutes before makes no sense. Pure exploitation.

The film features lots of hand to hand combat but the ending is weird because it goes back to the boring gun battle at the end. Rather anti climatic if you ask me.

Hit and miss and mostly miss.

Take Back (2021)

Poorly crafted film is absolutely terrible.

[2/10 · 13 April 2021]

This movie is terrible for these main reasons.

1. The heroine at the end shoots an unarmed man. The showdown between the heroine (Gillian White) and the villain (Mickey Rourke) was completely lame while a policeman and her husband watch it like they are at the theater sharing a bag of popcorn. She shoots the villain who does not have a weapon. Very anti-climatic!

It also make the heroine a murderer.

2. The husband abandons his daughter during an active shoot out so he can go watch along with the police detective, his wife shooting an unarmed man. Talk about irresponsible and bad parenting and reckless endangerment of a child.

3. The villainess played by (Jessica Uberuaga) is in love with Mickey Rourke because he treats her like crap, uses her as a sex slave, had her chained up at one point of the movie, and will kill her if he gets bored with her. I guess people in love will do anything. I don't think anyone would understand the motivation of this female character. It makes zero sense.

4. They make an effort to show how dedicated the police officer is in the film and how he cares only to have the Michael Jai White character say the police don't give a $#%^.

5. At the end they don't call the police until the shootout starts even though they could have done it when they were going to have the hostage swap. Instead they rely on the sharpshooting skills of some redneck with rifle and scope that couldn't hit a bull in the backside with a hand full of cantaloupes. Insane!

Was there a positive. I felt the lead Gillian White did okay and had some good action scenes at the start of the movie. The camera man had some excellent and scenic wide shots in the film.

Cat in the Cage (1978)

Cult film favorite CAT IN THE CAGE would be great on Blu Ray

[4/10 · 7 February 2021]

Director Tony Zarindast is known as the Persian Ed Wood. After seeing this film I am a believer. The film does have some interesting historical value and cult film status. Sometimes a movie is so bad that it is good. That is the case in this particular film.

Frank Dekova, who played Chief Wild Eagle in the television show F-TROOP plays a rich patriarch named Rachid Khan who has recently been widowed but has rebounded tremendously by marrying the young and alluring Susan Khan, played very well by seductive Sybil Danning . Susan was the nurse to his deceased wife. A

What Rachid does not realize is that Susan is having an affair with the chauffeur Ralph played by Mel Novak (GAME OF DEATH) and plotting to kill Rachid and gain inheritance of the family fortune.

Standing in their way is the loyal son, Bruce, played by Behrouz Vossoughi and his faithful cat Samson who both hate Susan and Ralph with a passion. Soon people are getting killed by a mysterious killer.

Colleen Camp has a supporting role and sings the theme song. Just a bonkers movie that is totally disjointed with no continuity.

Best part of CAT IN THE CAGE is Sybil Danning. She is malicious and seductive in this. Her character is so weird. She gets turned on by being slapped around by her lover Ralph but you have to admit that no actress can perform a better seduction scene then Sybil Danning!

Would love to see this come out on Blu Ray including the extras which would be interviews with Sybil Danning and Mel Novak and also film commentary from both of them.

Julie Darling: An Interview with Sybil Danning (2011 Video)

Sybil Danning interview reflects on her career and the film Julie Darling

[10/10 · 4 February 2021]

This interview covers many topics, not just information about the film JULIE DARLING. The film JULIE DARLING is covered with Sybil describing the plot of the movie and why her favorite scene in the movie is where her character Susan, is playing a game of chess against Julie, the character played by Isabelle Mejias.

Sybil talks about other films and tv shows. Sybil tells stories about THEY'RE PLAYING WITH FIRE, WARRIOR QUEEN, THE HOWLING 2, CHAINED HEAT, and appearing in THE HITCHHIKER FACE TO FACE television episode.

Sybil mentions actors she has worked with and tells some very nice stories about them.

A very revealing interview.

Queen of the Werewolves (2015 Video)

Sybil Danning reminisces on being Queen of the Werewolves in Howling 2

[10/10 · 3 February 2021]

Red Shirt Pictures did a fantastic job on this interview with Sybil Danning for the featurette QUEEN OF THE WEREWOLVES regarding HOWLING II just like they did on SUN AND SEDUCTION WITH SYBIL DANNING regarding THEY'RE PLAYING WITH FIRE.

Sybil talks about how she started out as a model and had no interest in acting until she was approached to do so. This opportunity gave her the chance to be the first blonde werewolf and the Queen of the Werewolves. Sybil jumped at the opportunity to be in the movie.

Sybil speaks fondly of Christopher Lee, who she did five films with, and how fun it was to have dinner with him each night at a restaurant where they were under constant surveillance by a KGB agent who wore a "dead squirrel" toupee and had super thick glasses and wrinkled clothes. The film was shot in Czechoslovakia when it was part of the Iron Curtain. Sybil mentioned that the best advice given by Christopher Lee was to stay true to the character you are playing.

Sybil gives credit and has great admiration for clothes designer Peter Mitchell who created the leather and brass outfit she wore in the film as well as the suede leather velcro rip away dress.

Sybil praises director Philippe Mora, who she felt made the most out of what they had to work with and she said she just really clicked with him.

Sybil then talks about how her nude scenes were exploited in the ending credits. She was very upset about this and confronted the producer about the exploitation. In reflection Sybil admits the audience loved those closing credits of her ripping her dress off 17 times and Roger Ebert said, "No one presides over a ritual as well as Sybil Danning" and said those scenes provided the most interesting moments in the film.

Sybil then pushes for a sequel to be made in the interview and she is ready to do it.

One Girl's Confession (1953)

I have to "Confess" that Cleo Moore really shines bright in this movie.

[10/10 · 2 February 2021]

The greatest contribution to film that Hugo Haas did was featuring Cleo Moore in his movies. Cleo has charisma and really knows how to carry herself. She plays strong characters. This film so far is the best one I have watched of the seven they made together. Cleo plays Mary Adams who works for a crooked man who bilked her father out of his fair share of the business profits in a bar restaurant they owned together so Mary decides to rob the man to the tune of $25,000. She confesses to robbing him but won't tell the authorities where she has hidden the money. She goes to prison and is a shining light in the prison. She works in the garden with the gardener who is played by Andy Griffith Show veteran Burt Mustin who explains that anything buried around tree roots can become rearranged because the roots shift and turn and changes the position of objects (important plot element). Mary gets out of prison on good behavior and goes to work on the wharf in a bar restaurant owned by the Hugo Hass character named Dragomie Damitrof. Dragomie hires her quickly which causes his girl friend to become jealous. When she questions him on it he replies "I haven't given her a second thought" and she says, "That's because you are still thinking about the first one." Mary and Dragomie become good friends as employer and employee. Mary starts dating a fisherman named Johnny who comes to the restaurant to eat just so he can watch her played by Glenn Langan. Meanwhile Dragomie who has a bad gambling habit has lost the restaurant due to inability to quit gambling. Mary wants to help him so she tells him about the stolen money and where he can find it buried by a tree in the woods. Feeling good and thinking she has helped her friend out of financial jam Mary discovers that the money was not found and now Dragomie's life is in ruin. Mary loses her job. A week later she discovers that Dragomie is rich and doing well. She suspects him of lying to her about not finding the money and she confronts him. In a moment of anger she cracks a bottle over his head and thinks she has killed him. She flees. In a moment of reflection, Mary thinks about what the old gardener told her about the roots of tree shifting the position of objects. She goes to dig for the money and finds it. She now feels super guilty. She goes and places the money box in the foyer of the children's orphanage and then goes and confesses her murder to the police, who explain to her that no murder was committed and that Dragomie was alive and well. Relieved she goes to reacquire the 25,000 left in the foyer of the orphanage but as she returns one of the Nun's picked up the money box so she is out of luck. Dragomie and Mary become friends again and she gets her old job back and of course she might have a future life with the fisherman that loves her and wants to marry her. A happy ending for all. Great movie, really cheered me up, and Cleo Moore was amazing!

Sun & Seduction with Sybil Danning (2017 Video)

Sybil Danning reflects on the making of They're Playing with Fire

[10/10 · 1 February 2021]

Sybil Danning looked absolutely stunning in this 18 minute featurette regarding the making of THEY'RE PLAYING WITH FIRE. Sybil starts by talking how she moved out to Hollywood in 1979 with hopes of dramatic roles in film bolstered by her role in the movie OPERATION THUNDERBOLT which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film. Her career got a huge boost when she posed on the cover of PLAYBOY with a ten page pictorial and started getting many offers to do B films including THEY'RE PLAYING WITH FIRE. Sybil said the title of the movie was inspired by a successful porn film called PLAYING WITH FIRE. The premise of the film is an older woman seducing a younger man who both get caught up in suspense, intrigue, and murder. Sybil mentions she had no problems doing sexy movies having done them previously and was okay with taking her clothes off. Sybil had worked previously for director Howard Avedis in the movie SEPARATE WAYS and she also thanked her manager for helping her get the part in THEY'RE PLAYING WITH FIRE and she certainly excelled in the role. Sybil mentioned she felt the script for the film was a bit too convoluted, but she liked the production values, the locations, the wardrobe, the editing, and she enjoys the comments from the fans of the film. She talks about the cast and crew. She praises Andrew Prine, Director Howard Avedis, and Director of Photography Gary Graver who worked with Orson Welles, but she was critical of Eric Brown, who did not want to do the sex scenes and she was wondering why he even took the role or if he even read the script. Sybil said she should have got an Oscar for acting like she was so hot for him during those sex scenes. Needless to say it is a fascinating interview and very revealing history of the film and some of its cast and crew.