Warhead (1996)

I came across this one on Watch Instantly, and have kept it on my radar until this week, when I finally decided to make it happen. The combination of Frank Zagarino and Joe Lara could be, if anything, at least a fun time-- though they could also be a boring slog too, you never know. Let's see what this spin of the roulette wheel yields. Also, our buddy Kenner at Movies in the Attic hit this one too.

Warhead has Lara as the head of a white supremacist separatist paramilitary organization, and Zagarino as the special forces soldier that leads a unit of elite troops to stop him. He has his work cut out for him though when Lara gets his hands on the codes to launch some nuclear missiles, and it looks like he has intel on the inside that warns him when Zagarino tries to take him down. Now it's do or die, as the fate of the free world hangs in the balance and only Zags can save the day.



This one is a definite 3AM gem. It's too D-grade and too obscure as far as the lead actors go to make for a good bad movie night flick, and the plot and action, though plenty mindless, aren't solid enough to make this one good. But at 3AM, whether you're procrastinating on a paper, trying to get the room to stop spinning after a heavy duty bender, or battling insomnia, this is the kind of thing that will get you to the church on time. It's something you'd've been lucky to find on EncoreAction, or TNT or USA back in the late 90s, but with it's availability on Watch Instantly, it's at your disposal whenever you need it.

Zagarino is a D-grade mainstay. I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing though. We need that level of action flick, and it's good to have someone to helm it. The acting is a little more wooden, the bad script isn't papered over as well, and watching him, there's almost a sense that we are seeing the scenes as they're shot, as if we can hear the director yell "cut!" after. There's a place in the market for this kind of movie, and Zagarino is the quintessential actor to cast as its hero.



The best way to describe Joe Lara's performance is to imagine a Lifetime movie where a guy plays a sleazy pimp that seduces a young girl from a small town into running off with him, not knowing he's planning to sell her on the street. A big part of it is his voice. It's this creepy monotone, and it sounded like that predatory Lifetime villain much more than the action hero main baddie. Then you factor in the ponytail too. All he needed were the double-breasted blazers and the fancy cherry apple red sports car, and we could see him pulling up to the girl's cheer-leading practice, telling her how beautiful she is and how he'll give her all the finer things in life that she deserves, and next thing you know they're holed up in a cheap motel and Joanna Kearns is teaming up with disgraced alcoholic former cop Treat Williams to track them down.

Even though this movie was shot in South Africa, an early scene took place in Idaho, making it the first time Idaho popped up on the DTVC. I imagine Idaho and New England-- especially Maine-- are as far as you can get from one another, though Maine has potato farming in common with Idaho. Like every state in the US that I haven't been to, I'd like to get out there and see it some day, if only to hike Borah Peak, maybe see what Boise's got going on too. If anyone reading this is from Idaho and can suggest some other places to check out, that would be cool.



I recently watched The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and was struck most of all by how little the film captured the essence of what made the Super Mario Bros. games such a great series. Somehow though, Warhead has done that. It just seemed like a fun ride with stuff blowing up around Zagarino, and him swinging on things and sliding down pipes and riding jet skies with bombs into militia men. The best one came when Zags was fighting some guys on an ice skating rink while some kids played a hockey game. He'd grab onto to one of the kids' backs, and instead of stopping and turning around and asking why he did that, they'd just skate away and take him for a ride. Even crazier was how they kept playing while this shootout and brawl was happening around them. It felt like one of those levels in a Super Mario Bros. game where you'd have to ride a bird or something.

This is not so bad it's good or a great bad movie night flick, it's mid-90s South African D-grade action that is a great 3AM time killer. With the advent of Netflix, Hulu, etc. and the ability to stream movies, these 3AM gems are now at your fingertips as opposed to something you stumble upon as you flip through the channels. Not a bad deal.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118119

976-EVIL (1988)

Though this movie had a theatrical run, and did pretty well for itself in 1988, grossing just shy of $3 million at the box office, it's always felt like it belonged on this site. It's a video store flick if I've ever seen one. On the other hand, while it's a video store mainstay, I don't remember either me or my friends really liking it, which is why I kept off it for a bit, and why it wasn't reserved for a milestone post. Regardless, we're here now, giving it the DTVC treatment. Also, our buddy The Film Connoisseur has looked at this one too.

976-EVIL takes place in the small town of Garden City, where a guy named Spike is living in an apartment next door to his crazy bible thumping aunt and his messed up cousin Hoax. Hoax idolizes Spike and wants to get away from his crazy mother, not to mention his school where he's brutally picked on by a gang of guys that just happen to hang out with Spike. Anyway, after Spike brings a girl home, Hoax sneaks into his room and takes the girl's underwear and the number to a 976 line that gives people their "horrorscope". From there things go crazy-- and Evil! What could this mysterious force coming through the phone be, and what will happen when it imbues Hoax with the power to stand up for himself?



Watching this now, I see why I wasn't a big fan of it growing up. It's not only slow moving, but it spirals out of control as it moves to the end. We go from some creepy phone calls to demons and flaming bottomless pits. It felt like a Tales from the Crypt episode that was an hour too long. We have characters like the principal, who's supposed to be a major part of Hoax's life, but she's barely in the film, then shows up at the end and we're supposed to take for granted that she'd have some kind of connection with him. It's something that wouldn't be a big deal if it were only a 23-minute TV episode. Also, the 976-EVIL line isn't really explained. It kills people through phone lines early on, but at the end it turns Hoax into a demon and he turns his house into a freezer. Again, these things on their own work in a short TV show, but in a 90-minute movie, they should all fit, and they don't.

I will say though, a few of the scenes built up some nice tension, and if it had ironed out some of the inconsistencies in the plot and tone, it could've been something really good. Take for instance the scene where Hoax kills Spike's girl by casting a spell that causes tarantulas to spawn out of her TV dinner. The actual execution was fantastic, with the tension slowly ratcheting up, until we hit the boiling point; but the motives for Hoax to do it were so flawed. If you don't know, what happens is Hoax goes out for pizza with Spike's girl while Spike plays poker, but before this, Hoax has already snooped in Spike's room and stolen her underwear that she left behind. Long story short, they hit it off, looks like things are happening, only to have the bullies show up, push him around, and find her panties in his pocket, which causes her to leave disgusted at him. Why then would he be upset with her, especially to the point that he'd cast a spell through the phone with 976-EVIL? It was this kind of unevenness that ultimately killed this one for me.



Stephen Geoffreys plays Hoax, and the word on the street is he turned down the chance to reprise his Evil Ed role in Fright Night 2 to do it. Maybe it was a chance to work with Robert Englund (did I forget to mention he directed this? He did a pretty good job too). Perhaps even more puzzling, was the fact that about five or six years after this, Geoffreys decided to forgo his film acting career to pursue a career in gay porn. Hey, you only live once, gotta do what you love I guess.

I read a blog post a few years back-- I can't remember where-- that had this movie on a list of films that the blogger felt are best experienced on VHS. I can kind of see that in the case of something like 976-EVIL. I mean, I always prefer a movie in widescreen, and older VHS seldom has that, but beyond that, how much better quality is a $5 DVD with no extras going to be over the VHS? On the other hand, DVD availability gives people greater access, especially through something like Netflix, so there are pluses on both sides. The VHS definitely adds a nostalgia element that DVD can't compete with though.



I had to finish with Spike's girl, who was in the hottest outfit. Another aspect of the movie that made no sense, how Spike could ditch her when she looked that hot in order to play poker, especially after he'd just had sex with her and gave no indication that that sex was anything but great. We find out later that she was expelled from a Catholic school, and her outfit is derived from her Catholic school girl uniform. She tells this to Hoax, again, making it absurd that he'd hit it off with her like this, almost get in the sack with her, then blame her when the bullies come in and expose his underwear stealing. Hell no, he'd be thinking of ways to make it right, and channel all of his anger at the bullies. Perhaps the film's most egregious offense, eliminating her and her hot outfit so early on.

As far as I know, this is out of print on DVD, but you can get it on either that or VHS used. You can also see it on Crackle if you use them, though you have to pay for their premium service to get it. I wouldn't do that. If you're a VHS nostalgist, I'd just keep my eye out for a used VHS in a bargain bin somewhere and leave it at that. This one isn't really worth it otherwise.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094597/

Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV (2000)

We finish our look at the Toxic Avenger sequels, as forced by Netflix when I had to watch them all before they dumped them from Watch Instantly on the first of the year, with Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV. This is one I'm glad I fit in, because it looks like the Hulu one is the R rated version. I haven't watched that one, but I'm guessing it's the R rated one because it's 20 minutes shorter than the one Netflix had. Good thing I made the unrated one happen, because I can only imagine how neutered the R rated version would be.

Citizen Toxie: Toxic Avenger IV starts off with our hero Toxie and his trusted sidekick Lardass trying to save a classroom of developmentally delayed students from a gang of thugs wearing diapers. When the gang sets off a bomb, Lardass tries to eat it in order to save everyone, but he fails, and the explosion creates a dimensional rift, sending our hero to Amortville, a twisted alternate dimension version of Tromaville, and his counterpart from there, Noxie, into Tromaville. Can Toxie get back to our dimension before Noxie destroys Tromaville and Toxie's reputation with it?



This is the everything but the kitchen sink sequel you either really wanted or have no stomach for-- and then there's me, somewhere in the middle but leaning more towards the really wanted end of the spectrum. On the one hand, especially early on, they leaned on a lot of jokes about crap and people that are learning disabled, the kind of thing that's just really lazy more than anything, and that was a disappointment; but like all the others, once it hits its stride, we're treated to another great combination of social commentary, hilarious satire, and gross-out gore that's a staple of great Troma. Not to mention, this had some sweet celebrity cameos. I had a few qualms outside of the beginning, in particular they wasted Sgt. Kabukiman by having him be just a drunk, but otherwise, this was a fun and entertaining way to wrap up the series.

One thing that hit me as I was watching this was how many of the references were time specific, and what that will mean for people who watch this ten years from now that were born in the early 2000s. The school shootings, the man who was dragged behind a truck to his death in Texas-- even the Twin Towers, which were a huge symbol because this film was first screened in New York in November of 2001, and Lloyd Kaufman decided to keep the images of the WTC in the film, something that garnered a huge ovation from the crowd. It's going to be up to people our age to watch these movies with that generation and explain these things, but I think that will be part of the experience, to say where we were when 9/11 happened, or what the climate was like in this country in the late 90s when Columbine happened.



Where do I start with the celebrity cameos? I guess with Corey Feldman, who plays an ob-gyn, and is listed in the credits under the name "Kinky Finkelstein". Lemmy is also back with a small cameo. Ron Jeremy played the town mayor. Then we had Joe Fleishaker, who, instead of having a cameo in this one like he did the others, has a bigger part as both Lardass, and then as the physicist that gets Toxie home. Is it right that I consider Joe Fleishaker to be a celebrity? (Maybe not, considering I initially fell for the Michael Herz ruse and thought that's what his name was...) One celebrity that didn't make it in though: Hugh Hefner, whose Playboy Mansion was used for the Citizen Kane shots, and who himself had some scenes, but they were cut out after his lawyers sent Troma a ceases and desist letter.

As the title suggests, this movie pokes fun at a lot of classics, in particular what is often held up as the greatest of all time, Citizen Kane. If you're expecting me to go on a rant about how Citizen Kane is overrated, you won't get it, because I love it and believe it's deserving of its status; but I liked that Kaufman and co. had a lot of fun Troma-tizing it. If anyone is going to poke fun at Citizen Kane, it has to be Troma, and I liked that they did it as well as I hoped. (I can't mention some of the other classics they poked fun at, because it'll give away too much of the movie.)



Finally, I left a celebrity cameo out of my list above, because I wanted to save it for here. The Sklar Brothers play Tromaville news anchormen (they're credited as Foofy and Skippy Applebaum). They used to do a show on ESPN Classic called Cheap Seats, where they'd watch videos of old, off-beat sporting events that used to air on ESPN or ABC Wild World of Sports, like celebrity fishing tournaments hosted by Steve Garvey, or early 80s professional wrestling. They'd mock the events MST3K style, and mix in some sketches. Anyone who's been rockin' with us for a while knows I love sports, and their sense of humor was pretty close to mine, so it was a great match. It was really cool to see them in this, plus, they were pretty funny too.

I don't know what to do about recommending this, because it looks like the Hulu one is edited-- pretty heavily too if it's 20 minutes shorter. In that case, look for a DVD. The best way to describe this is that it's a real Troma movie for real Troma fans, so if Troma's more hit and miss for you, you may not want to bother; but if you're a huge Troma honk (then you've probably already seen this, but if not) I'd go out and make this happen, because this movie has your name written all over it.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212879/

The Toxic Avenger III: The Last Temptation of Toxie (1989)

Sometimes it's a dilemma to figure out how to attack these movies in order to write a proper review. What to focus on, what to leave out, what themes I want to draw from. Take this film and the one before it, Toxic Avenger II. Knowing that much of this film was taken from the four hours of film that was shot for part 2, the question was, do I do them both together? do I do them both in separate reviews on the same night? how much do I mention the fact that so much of part 2 was in part 3 in the part 2 review, which, ultimately kills the part 3 review? So I decided not to mention it at all in the part 2 post, which inevitably leads to the deluge of "hey, you know part 2 and 3 were shot at the same time" comments in my inbox that I see first thing in the morning when I'm cranky before I've had my coffee, so I fire off a cranky response about how "yes, I'm aware of that, I too read the imdb page for the movie, hence the link at the bottom of the post", but that gives the comments page an angry tenor, something I don't want, so I have to go through and delete things. It's all a pain in the ass, all because Lloyd Kaufman didn't know when to quit in part 2, and then tried to make lemonade out of some lemons for part 3. [End Rant.]

Toxic Avenger III picks up where part 2 left off. Again, Tromaville is basking in the warm glow of it's lack of crime, which is bad for Toxie because there isn't much else he can do for work other than fight crime. Depressed, feeling useless, and living off his blind wife's welfare checks, he then finds out an operation can cure her blindness, if he only had the money. Enter Apocalypse Inc., who offer Toxie a job in public relations for a salary that will cover said operation. Now, with the toughest crime fighter on their side, they force Tromaville to succumb to their evil ends, while Toxie is loving his life as a rich Yuppie. Only his wife can make him see the error of his ways. (No pun intended.)



For a potential lemonade out of lemons movie, this isn't bad. It's another step down from part two, but not as big a drop as the one from The Toxic Avenger down to part 2. And like part 2, once it starts going, it really hits its stride. I loved Toxie as a Yuppie, wearing his Izod/Lacoste polo, calling his wife "babe", penciling her in for brunch. The Faustian bargain with the Devil was great too, with Rick Collins turning in an excellent performance. And of course, there were some great kills and classic Kaufman commentary on big business and it's toxic control over our society. All in all a fun Troma flick.

I think what you have with both of these movies is a lot of people-- Lloyd Kaufman chief among them-- with a bunch of stuff they want to get off their chests, plus a lot of classic movies and modern movies they want to poke fun at, and they ended up with four hours of footage. From there it was probably just a matter of taking what they could after they'd made part 2, and keeping it as a head start/the bulk to part 3. This isn't like Kill Bill, which is essentially one movie broken into two because no movie audience would go see a nearly five-hour long film (though I did just that at a local indie theater that showed both Kill Bills together in one night), these are two separate movies with the second made up of a lot of unused footage from the one before it.



I gotta go back to the Toxie in the Izod (now Lacoste) polo. That 80s Wall Street Yuppie was such symbol in the 80s, and the disdain with which Kaufman and the other Troma folks felt for this symbol is just dripping off their satirization. There's also a clear message that these people do the work of the Devil. While Toxie works for Apocalypse Inc., he never physically attacks anyone, never gives any cops a double arm amputation, nothing violent like that; instead he revels in kicking old ladies out of their homes, and cherishes making money and being trendy above anything else. This focus on white collar nonviolent crime being the work of the Devil was a very astute choice on the part of Kaufman and everyone involved.

I really liked this matte painting here. With the advent of computers, the matte painting in films has gone nearly extinct, which I think is too bad, though I think a big part of that too is the fact that most films are shot on digital cameras nowadays, and I imagine a matte painting would look more obvious in digital than it would on film or video. The cost and time though are the bigger issues. Why pay an artist to create a huge landscape when a computer can do it in less time, for less money, and render it with more visible perspective.



Because I wasn't that old in 1988-89 (9-10), it's hard to go back and recall what the atmosphere was like in this country as Martin Scorsese was releasing The Last Temptation of Christ. I remember the outrage and the protests, but also that there was a fair amount of good buzz surrounding it too. It would be much later in life that I would buy the Criterion DVD of it used, and see that one: it was a very good movie; and two: there really shouldn't have been any fuss, that people were just being overly sensitive. While The Toxic Avenger III is more Faust in story than it is Last Temptation of Christ, the name is more indicative of the time it was released.

I think this movie's about as good as part 2: starts off slowly, eventually hits its stride, and has its moments. Neither are as good as part 1, so again, if you haven't seen part 1, see that first, and then see part 2 before part 3, because they do follow one another story-wise. You can either see it for free right now on Hulu, or pick it up off the Troma website.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098502/

The Toxic Avenger II (1989)

I've always had the long term goal of reviewing all of the Toxic Avenger flicks here at the DTVC, but when Netflix let me know they were dumping them all before the New Year, that long term goal became an immediate one. Turns out I didn't need to rush: all three of the sequels are on Hulu.

Toxic Avenger II takes place five years after The Toxic Avenger. Tromaville is now completely safe and free from crime, which upsets the evil Apocalypse Corporation, who wants to convert the town into a toxic waste dump. Problem is, they can't possibly fulfill their evil ends with Toxie in town. So they get him to go to Japan on a search for his father, and in his absence, they begin their evil take over. Will Toxie figure out their scheme in time to save Tromaville?



Unlike the first one, which was a true classic, this one started out slowly, and really doesn't find its stride until the action moves to Japan. It had more zany slapstick type stuff, with silly sound effects and Airplane!-eque sight gags, things that I don't exactly associate with Troma, but more with Troma imitators; but once we see Toxie interacting with the Japanese people, that kind of stuff works better and is more entertaining. I wouldn't put this as one of Troma's best, but it's still pretty sweet.

The other thing though is I think the film was more classic Troma when the scene shifted to Japan. It was like Troma invades Japan, Godzilla style (they even joke about that), and it had everything you could imagine in combining the two. You had people sliced up by sushi chefs, naked women, sumo wrestling, Kabuki dancers, and Toxie meeting up with some random dancers on the street dressed like Greasers. This is the part of the film where it makes its money.



One guy we know that's a money maker is DTVC favorite, Michael Jai White, who has a small role as one of Apocalypse's goons. This is actually his first credited role, though he's credited sans "Jai". One thing about his role in this one and part 3, is that he gets to flex both his comedy and his martial arts skills, which we don't see that often-- probably best seen in Black Dynamite. Even though it's only a small part, any Michael Jai White is good.

The Apocalypse Inc. chairman is played by Troma mainstay Rick Collins. In the (scant) trivia section of his imdb page, he's listed as being one of only two people that appeared in all four Toxic Avenger movies. I thought the other one was Mr. Joe Fleishaker, who has very small parts in 2 and 3, then a bigger part as Lardass in part 4, but apparently he wasn't in part 1. Now I'm stumped. Maybe the archive footage of Melvin counts?



Finally, what Toxic Avenger would be complete without some McDonald's sightings and commentary. Not only did we see more vintage Quarter Pounder Styrofoam containers, but there was also a shot of a Tokyo McDonald's. Then there was the name of Toxie's dad: Big Mac. I think in this one there was a much more concerted effort to depict McDonald's as a major corporate entity that is ultimately a toxic influence on our society. As a big McDonald's guy, I'm probably a prime example of why they're right.

You can either check this out on Hulu, or scoop it at the Troma website if you want to add it to your collection. No matter what, if you haven't seen the first one yet, do that first, then take this one in. Like most sequels, it's a step down from the original, but still good enough.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098503/

Deceit (1992)

The imdb date on this Albert Pyun flick is a little misleading. 1992 was when it was released in Portugal (according to them), but the film was actually shot in 1989. I've read a few different accounts of the shooting online, but the common themes of all seem to be this: it was done over three days, in 1989, after the Cyborg shoot. Let's see how it turned out.

Deceit follows Pyun mainstay Norbert Weisser as he kills himself by drinking bleach in the opening scene, only to have some mysterious force enter his body and reanimate him. After the opening credits, we're rejoined by a shaggier Weisser asking a young couple for a ride. Already in the car with the young couple is Eve, who, after Weisser reveals that's he's an "alien sex fiend" and kills the couple, Wesieer forces into an abandoned warehouse where he plans to meet his alien partner in crime, fellow Pyun mainstay Scott Paulin. It's then that the two aliens compete for Eve's affections, potentially to the detriment of their mission on Earth.



I really enjoyed the first hour of this, and while it did grind to a halt a bit in that last half-hour, it didn't totally derail it for me. It's definitely not one for everyone, but it has some classic Pyun elements that fans of his will recognize: Paulin's character is named Brick Bardo; there's some fun pseudo-existentialist philosophy, especially from a radio DJ; and we have a strong female lead, in this case Eve, who doesn't start off strong, and has many weak moments throughout, but ultimately comes through. The problem in the final third came because what had started out as some great, fast moving, entertaining dialog was winding itself out of control, plus the plot felt like it was devolving into bad slapstick, which caused me to lose interest. Overall though, this is a fun, small-scale, off-beat 80s flick, and I enjoyed it.

Of the 30-plus Pyun films I've looked at here on the DTVC, this is the hardest one to put in proper terms or describe accurately so you can get a beat on whether or not you'd like to track it down. I'm not so sure that's a bad thing though. It's good to have movies out there that aren't easily defined, that someone who hears the name Albert Pyun and thinks Cyborg and Nemesis might watch and think "what is this?" But I think if you are a fan, and you've seen some of his other stuff from this period, in particular Down Twisted, Radioactive Dreams, and Vicious Lips, and also something like Brain Smasher that he made after, a lot of this will be recognizable and make more sense.



I'm a sucker for shots like this one of the clock here. That's why I'm such a huge Ozu fan, because his movies a chock full of things like that. The lighting on the clock gives it a Metropolis look too, or really anything from the silent film era. Another shot I was a big fan of was of the car radio dial that was shown as the DJ gave his pseudo-existentialist monologues. Often shots like these come off as indulgent, but in the context of the rest of what Pyun did here, they worked.

Usually this spot is reserved in Pyun flick posts for the Pyun mainstays, but because this film only had two, Paulin and Weisser, and we've already mentioned them, I figured I'd bring up the girl who played Eve, Samantha Phillips. She's gone on to have quite a career in everything from radio, to TV, to a Penthouse spread, to lots of DTV flicks. Maybe we'll see her again on here sometime. I don't want to discuss the specifics of her performance in Deceit too much because the evolution of her character is the crux of the film, so I'll just say I enjoyed it, and leave it at that.



Finally, I'm not sure if you can see that image above, but if not, click on it and go to the image page for the full size one. I also just realized that, because it was the second of two pages of credits, and you don't have the one before it, it's like it's apropos of nothing. It's the "thank you" section, and at the bottom, there's "Jean Claude Van Damme" with the caption "Without whom this film would not have been possible." I'm not going to speculate on what that means, just figured I'd include it.

You can actually get this new from Amazon on VHS, because they have their own Amazon.com exclusive version. I think that's pretty cool. If you've already gone through some of the others in Pyun's filmography that I mentioned, and you enjoyed them, I'd give this a try. I think you'll like it.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097176/

Phantom Raiders (1988)

It's been almost a year since our last Miles O'Keeffe post, which is simply unacceptable. In fact, his meager 12 tags is among the lowest for DTVC inaugural Hall of Famers-- in fact, only Klaus Kinski is lower, and he's in more for embodying the spirit of what it means to be a great DTV actor than he is for his DTV filmography. This is an abomination. If someone were to ask me how much Keeffe is on my site, I'd only be able to tell them "feet O'Keeffe."

Phantom Raiders has Miles as Python Lang (yep, Python is his first name), a highly trained special forces dude called in by the government to take out a rogue Green Beret colonel that's training Commies in Vietnam. Python gets some old special forces vets he served with in 'Nam, gives them some ninja style training, and takes them and the colonel's son-- another special forces dude that wants to take his dad down-- back into 'Nam to stop this dude from training the Commies. Can he do it?



This is a lot of fun. Is it spectacular or something you should go out of your way for-- especially if you're more a casual fan and not a collector? Probably not, but you could do a lot worse. It's a lot of excitement by repetition, a lot of guys running into space, spraying the area in gunfire, and Filipino stuntmen shimmying or looking like they slipped on some wet grass, followed by a grenade tossed into the middle of a group of them, and they all fall over. Towards the end, things get more into classic 'Namploitation fare, with huts exploding all over the place. I think this one is more about the fun of Miles O'Keeffe, the fun of the low production values, and the mindless fun of a good shoot-'em-up. I like it for a good bad movie night with like minded friends.

Where have ye been Miles O'Keeffe? Or perhaps, Miles could be asking me that same question, considering he's always out there, I just need to bring in more of his films. Other than the fact that we lose him for a period near the end when his buddies are off storming the castle, one could fairly accurately describe this movie as having "Miles O'Keeffe". I should point out, I've seen in a few places where this description of how much Keeffe is in a movie is ascribed to someone other than MST3K. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, the joke "how much Keeffe is in this movie?" "Miles O'Keeffe" originated in the Cave Dwellers episode of MST3K-- the movie moment when I was first introduced to the awesomeness that is Miles O'Keeffe. And it is my New Year's Resolution here at the DTVC to make sure we don't take him for granted anymore.



The trailer for this gives the impression that Miles is a ninja, which isn't entirely accurate. He uses Ninjitsu as an element of his training, and he and the guys toss throwing stars-- some of which have explosives, which are great for blowing up huts. Then we see him running around with the GI Joe ninja mask on, which makes him seem more ninja-ish, but it's more like he's got the mask mixed in with a military uniform. It's okay, even without the full-blown ninja aspect, this is still ninja enough to be fun.

The late Mike Monty plays the colonel, and while you'll probably recognize him, according to imdb, a lot of the films he was in he wasn't credited for-- including one we would've seen him in, Strike Commando. What a good deal that seems like though, huh? Move over to Italy in the late 60s, make some soft-core porn and exploitation flicks for like 15 years, then make some more in the Philippines in the 80s, before moving back to Italy to retire. I think too often we focus on the quality of the movie someone is making, and act as if that's gotta be the worst thing in the world-- and maybe for some actors it is, but you gotta think for a Mike Monty Phantom Raiders and Strike Commando were the ticket to the good life. Here's to you Mike Monty, a real doer.



One last point about Miles. A few films of his ago, I realized that I'd been misspelling his name, calling him "Miles O'Keefe", which is the way he's credited in some of his films (including this one). Anyway, I went to at least fix it in the tags, but forgot to take out the old erroneous tag. It shows what can happen if I don't post enough Miles O'Keeffe flicks, I end up neglecting his tag, and then we end up with two, and people wanting to see what Miles I've done, end up confused. Again, I'm sorry, not just for the lack of Miles, but the whole tag debacle too.

This is available used and pretty cheap on DVD here in the States and abroad under a few distributors-- the most recent I believe Cine Excel, before going out of print again. I'm not sure you need it unless you're a collector, but if you see it in your travels and it's not more than a few bucks (you can get it for $3 including shipping from Amazon here in the States), I'd definitely pull the trigger. You could do a lot worse than this one.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844331/