Oh, the cable TV memories! It was a HUGE deal when HBO was finally offered in my neighborhood and this Stewart Raffill-directed action-comedy will forever be paired in my analog-cerebral cortex with Enzo G. Castellari’s The Inglorious Bastards. Another of my Raffill-loved flicks from my cable days of yore was 1978’s The Sea Gypsies, which also needs to find a home on a Mill Creek box set.
We unpacked Raffill’s career with our review of his Star Wars dropping that is The Ice Pirates and his studio-interfered E.T. romp-redux Mac and Me. You can learn more about Stuart Raffill’s career in the pages of Master of the Shoot ’em Ups by reading his chapter (pages 36-43) for free on Google Books.
So lets get into this flick!
While this looks like a drive-in quickie of the Crown International variety, a de rigueur studio when it comes to Mill Creek box sets, this was actually produced by Hemdale Pictures, the studio that brought you the likes of Oliver Stone’s Platoon, James Cameron’s The Terminator, and the teen-angst drama River’s Edge.
Yeah, as with The Ice Pirates and Mac and Me, Raffill didn’t catch a break with this James Brolin-fronted flick that got buried at the box office as result of being released the same week as a somewhat similar action-in-foreign lands romp: Raiders of the Lost Ark. This is Michael Douglas’s Romancing the Stone, sans the rom-com and more action. This is Rambo: First Blood Part II as a dark comedy.
James Brolin is a down on his luck documentary filmmaker who used his filmmaking credentials as a recon-scam on the military regime-backed encampment of a South American drug lord. Recruiting his cash-strapped dork-friends (Bruce “Willard” Davison (Kiss My Grits), Cleavon “Prince of Darkness” Little (FM), and TV character actor and animated voice artist Chick Vennera), the quartet plans a raid on the camp of James Coburn’s drug lord and steal the spoils.
Stockpiled with weapons purchased by Ernest “Cabbie” Borgnine (!) as an illegal weapons dealer (who’s more concerned that they don’t go hunting with the weapons and kill animals), they make their raid — while gaining the ire of mountain bandit Anthony Quinn (Stallone’s Avenging Angelo) and rescuing imprisoned American Lindsay “Bionic Woman” Wagner from jail. The real pisser of the film: twin thespians David and Richard Young (Bradley Cooper lookalikes, no?) as two retro-drug running hippies with their machine-gun mounted DC-3 coming to the rescue — all to the tune of the Rolling Stones “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” blaring from their cockpit tape deck, machine gun turret on fire, bullets blazing.
See what I mean? This comes highly recommended! And you can watch it as a free-with-ads stream on Tubi. If you want to own a copy of High Risk, the fine folks at Mill Creek Entertainment include it on their Excellent Eighties 50-Movie Pack.
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook.He also writes for B&S About Movies.
Leave it to Mill Creek — with their B-Movie Blast set — to carry the entire, two-film career of director Lawrence Bassoff on one disc. And Hunk also reappears on their Excellent Eighties set, which we’re also unpacking this month . . . but not with Weekend Pass, again? Is not Weekend Pass, also from the ’80s, “excellent” as well? What gives, Mill Creek? As you can see, we took it upon ourselves to review Hunk, not only once, but twice, with two different takes, as we love this movie. Now, that’s not to say that Hunk — as well as Weekend Pass — isn’t a bitch to sit through, because they will make you want to Red Ryder your eyes out.
We also made an effort to find the WORST artwork used for the film. It’s pure 10th grade art class. Again, get the BB gun: for it’s a celluloid Christmas. Oh, guess who got his start as a background extra in this: Brad Pitt. True story.
Rondo does it again with the art fail that is Top Cop. Oh, and Vipco did worse with Beyond Evil.
Did you see Bedazzled (1967) with Peter Cooke as the devil and Dudley Moore as the dope who accepts the ‘Bubs seven wishes for his soul? More likely: Did you see the Elizabeth Hurley and Brendan Fraser’s 2000 remake? Well, it is that same old Faustian tale, only with comedian-actor James Coco in the Cooke role. And only the budget is so low, the production could only afford one wish. And that “wish,” if the poster didn’t give it away, is to be a “hunk.”
Not only is this review a round-up of Lawrence Bassoff’s career, but actor Steve Levitt’s as well, as we also reviewed his work role in Last Resort. Sure, Levitt did other things, more than two things — mostly TV series, which we don’t review — but unless Mill Creek boxes those “other things” up, we probably won’t review those films. Hey, the dude is serviceable and was Tiger Blood tryin’, but after 10 years in the biz, he just wasn’t winning. He bailed on the biz after his first starring role-TV series The Boys (1988) failed, and the TV movie Danger Team (1991), which was series pilot, didn’t go to series. Again, Mill Creek, hook us up with Danger Team to give us a Steve Levitt trifecta for the site.
So . . . Levitt is Bradley Brinkman, a computer programming geek whose fiancee ditched him for her aerobics instructor — and I feel for Bradley: My “dumping” experience was by a woman who pursued me . . . then traded up . . . when our mutual friend hit the family inheritance jackpot. Why be with an up-and-coming radio jock who used to draw floor plans for a living when you can live in a two-story mansion on the Palm Beach-skirting Intercoastal? They’re divorced thes days, but she cleaned up (which was her scam, I believe) and financed her to-Los Angeles relocation. She was ga-ga for Hollywood, even when we dated.
But I digress, again.
So Bradley is losing his mind over finishing a computer program, so he drops the ol’ “I’d sell my soul to finish this” trope. He comes to move next door to Chachka (Cynthia Szigeti, a member of the influential The Grounding comedy troupe). At least she’s sweet on him, but the rest of the upscale greedy professional types hate him because Cha is sweet on him. But there’s another “hottie” on the way.
Coco’s devil dispatches O’Rourke (Deborah Shelton, a Miss USA 1970 and runner-up to Miss Universe that year; she was on Dallas and in Bloodtide, as well as DePalma’s Body Double) to finish the computer program for Bradley — and gives him a new, hunky body for the some. So, actually, he gets “two” wishes. Ugh, don’t over think the plot.
And, with that . . . that’s a wrap on Steve Levitt. Call John Allen Nelson (the Deathstalker from Deathstalker and the Warriors from Helland Dave in Killer Klowns from Outer Space), as Hunk Golden: the ultimate martial arts he-man that can bed any woman he wants. Remember Den, the John Candy-voiced geek in Heavy Metal that the Loc-Nar geek-to-hunked? It’s like that. Only Den, like Hunk Golden, won’t end up in hell.
PLOT TWIST!
Does anyone remember Rebecca Bush, who played Florence Henderson in Growing Up Brady? Well, she’s really actress Deborah Shelton, aka O’Reilly, aka Dr. Sunny Graves, the head shrink that Brad’s been seeing. Huh, people “become” other “people” in this movie. Was all of this identity-switching in the original script or did actors quit and creative scripting filled out the story? Who knows. (What a f’ing mess this is, but we will plow forward.)
PLOT TWIST!
Now, we are time traveling, as Bradley-Hunk meets Ivan the Terrible, Jack the Ripper and Benito Mussolini, as his job is to recruit “demons” for hell, which are in short supply. And something about Coco-Devil wanting to start WW III. (What a f’ing mess this is, but we will plow onward.)
PLOT TWIST!
Bradley-Hunk becomes a nation celebrity when he saves Garrison Gaylord, a national, but drunken, television host (Robert Morse, who you know as Bertram Cooper on Mad Men) from being hit by a car — with his brute strength. Like the Hulk. Only he’s not green and he’s Hunk. And O’Brien who is Dr. Graves, who is the devil’s agent, is really a 10th Century princess who sold her sold to avoid an arranged marriage. (What a f’ing mess this is, but we will plow forward.)
Does the presence of Avery Schreiber, aka Dr. Cornelius Butt from Galaxina (also on the B-Movie Blast set), as well as Airport ’79 and Silent Scream, help? Does the presence of Hilary Shepherd, who was in the band American Girls and appeared in Weekend Pass, Scanner Cop, Radioactive Dreams and Theodore Rex, help?
Nope.
If you’re a B&S About Movies geeker of the obscure actor variety, you’ll see Melanie Vincz (The Lost Empire), Page Mosely (Edge of the Axe), John Barrett (Gymkata and Steel Dawn) and Andrea Patrick, who plays a mermaid here; she was a beauty queen that was married to Fabian Forte — and you know we show the Fabian film love ’round ‘ere.
If only Fabian starred in this as the Devil. No, we’d never wish that devilish punishment on Fabian. Don’t believe us? Punish yourself on You Tube — Brad is called out at the 17:25 mark in the upload. So there’s that click bait incentive.
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook.He also writes for B&S About Movies.
Writer, director, and cinematographer Christopher Steinberger made his debut film, the short Pendulum, in 2012. Completing seven more shorts since then, he’s now arrived on Amazon Prime with the action crime-drama, Iris, his feature film debut.
How we came about reviewing Iris is just one of those happy accidents. We received a screener for the arthouse zombie fest Necropath, the feature film debut of Joshua Reale. Courtesy of my Law & Order: SVU fandom, I couldn’t help but recognize the film starred Nathan Faudree, who was a recent guest star on the long-running NBC-TV’s with the episode, “Hell’s Kitchen.” And he stars here, as the nefarious Edward West — and he has an interesting interview and hiring process of his sanctioners.
Carson Jobb, a genius software engineer, creates a powerful, new program. But Charlotte Knapp, his ex-girlfriend and government operative who is always up for a little corporate espionage, steals it for a secret organization. But when she realizes her employers will use the software to breach the security of the United States, her and Carson bury their tumultuous past to retrieve the software — without getting themselves killed.
Producing a self-financed short is hard enough. A feature film, even harder. And when a filmmaker decides to eschew the low-budget go-to narratives of horror (such as Necropath) or comedy (see our recent review for Banging Laine) for their debut feature and goes straight to the action-crime drama genre, that filmmaker better know what they’re doing behind the Final Draft and Canon Reds. And Christopher Steinberger has the skills — and then some — in spades . . . and diamonds.
If you’re spent any amount of time at B&S About Movies, you know that I’m a big fan of the prolific, direct-to-DVD oeuvre of writer-director Steven C. Miller with his films Arsenal , Line of Duty, and First Kill. As result of Miller’s pedigree, he’s able to secure larger budgets that attracts the likes of Nicolas Cage, Hayden Christensen, Aaron Eckhart, Claire Forlani, and Bruce Willis. And I really dig the action work coming from Prince Bagdasarian, who really impressed me with Abducted, his own up-against-the-budget actioner.
Obviously, based on the time it took Steinberger to get from a 2013 short to the eventual feature film version of Iris, he doesn’t have a lot of money to work with to get his films made. But you wouldn’t know it. The production values on Iris — considering it’s an espionage film — are of a stellar quality that evades most low-budget indie streamers. And while he couldn’t get the likes of Bruce Willis or Claire Forlani for his leads, the new-to-the-game Patrick M. Kelly and Michelle Hunter are more than up to the challenge in carrying a feature film. The skilled cast is rounded out Mu-Shaka Benson (who I really want to see more of on screen; he was in the zombie anthology Empire State of the Dead, which includes the short version of Necropath), Stephen Long, and Josef Ritter. I believe each of these actors will surely rise up through the casting ranks into bigger roles in larger films and TV series.
When I watched Nightfire, the fifth student-short production by French-born writer-director Brando Benetton that served as his college thesis project shot on a low budget in 14 days — with notable character actor Dylan Baker in the cast — I was truly impressed by the work. And while Christopher Steinberger wasn’t afforded the luxuries of Benetton’s espionage action-drama, I was still equally impressed with the work. It’s only a matter of time before established producers take notice, loosen the purse strings, and Steinberger comes to work with the Dylan Bakers and Nick Cages on his later films.
Stream it. It’s worth the admission price.
You can learn more about the film at the Watchworks Studios Facebook page and director Christopher Steinberger’s official website. You can stream Iris now, on Amazon Prime.
Disclaimer: We didn’t receive a screener or review request from the producers, distributor, or their P.R. firms. We watched the trailer and requested the film from the filmmakers ourselves.
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook.He also writes for B&S About Moviesand publishes short stories and music reviews on Medium.
We originally reviewed this film on June 13, 2019, just because it’s the Hoff, you know? We’ll, thanks to its Mill Creek inclusion on the Mill Creek Excellent Eighties 50-film box set that we’re reviewing in full, this month, we’re taking another crack at it. Which is more than this film deserves. It didn’t even deserve the first review.
Ugh. Let’s do this. Oh, this is not excellent. Not by a long shot.
It’s as if the art department knew they had a stinker and just gave up.I mean, that’s the Hoff from Knight Rider on the cover, for gosh sake.And I think that’s Blair from Savage Streets?
It’s direct-to-video U.S. VHS junk like this — courtesy of the Hoff’s musical stardom in Europe, which resulted in this receiving a theatrical release in overseas markets, with another title: Wings of Freedom — that leaves no doubt as to why Linda Blair’s and David Hasselhoff’s careers cooled, quickly, after their demon possession and talking car days of yore. But, it does reunite that demon n’ hot car duo after last year’s Witchery, aka La Casa 4. So . . . there’s your Blair/Hasselhoff Trivial Pursuit movie trivia for the day to amaze your friends.
Okay, so what’s with the dopey W.B, Blue and the Bean title? Ah, it’s the kitschy kharacter names of the story: White Bread (Hasselhoff), Blue (stuntman Tony Brubaker), and Bean (Thomas Rosales Jr. from Speed and Running Scared). They’re three ne’er-do-well bounty hunters hired to protect Blair’s richy-bitchy, natch, snob — who just witnessed her playboy-cum-drug-dealing boyfriend murdered by his Columbian connection. So, if you want to see Blair sportin’ a white cleave gag in a dusty ol’ Mexican farmhouse — and what growing young lad doesn’t — then this is your movie. Will our bounty-trio save her to make it to court to testify?
Uh. Duh. What movie are you watching? Were they trying for the superior action-comedy of Stewart Raffill’s High Risk (also on the Excellent Eighties set)? If so, they failed. Utterly and craptastically.
Worse renderings of the Hoff and Blair ever committed to poster board.
If you want to see ex-stuntman and director Max Kleven do another film — Ruckus, which also starred Blair, his other movie we’ve reviewed at B&S About Movies — then you’re all set. Oh, and if you needed another John Vernon film to complete your set, he’s here as Linda’s rich daddy. So there that. Oh, and since we are in Mexico — and Danny Trejo needs to get his foot in the biz door — well, there’s that watch incentive. It has to be the incentive, as there’s no comedy, no “great one-liners,” and no “great entertainment.” If it wasn’t for the grey-market DVDs paper insert chaffing me, I’d use it and save the Charmin.
As we said, you can pick it up (wipe it off) as part of Mill Creek’s Excellent Eighties box set. You can also watch it for free on Amazon Prime because, well, even Amazon knows a crap bag when they smell one. But, for those without an Amazon account, we found a nice n’ muddy, washed-out VHS rip over on Tubi, which also has Witchery — so you’re double-featured up for a double-ply wipin’ night o’ flushin’.
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook.He also writes for B&S About Movies.
Wow, Mill Creek loves this debut film directed by Michael Fischa — or is it because it’s a Susan Blakely flick — as it has appeared on their Pure Terror, B-Movie Blast, and Excellent Eighties 50-Film Packs. And the debate in the B&S cubicle farm rages: who loves this movie more? Melody Vera with her Pure Terror review . . . Sam the Bossman with his review . . . or your’s truly, ol’ R.D.
For his directing debut, Fischa signed on the dotted line with this script penned by Mark Pirro, he who wrote and directed the equally whacked Polish Vampire in Burbank (1983) and Deathrow Gameshow (1987). Polish Vampire — shot for $2500, returned over one million in home video and cable television distribution via late-nights on the USA Network. And Fischa — on his way to make the even more oddball slasher Death Spa, and before the more conventional, retro-blaxploitationer,Crack House — brought Pirro’s werewolf comedy to the screen.
It’s a comedy that has it all: MTV-era synth rock, a horror movie convention, forgotten ’80s stars, still tryin’ ’70s stars (Solid Gold host Marilyn McCoo and Marcia Wallace, aka Edna Krabappel on The Simpsons, and Kimmy Robertson from The Last American Virgin and TV’s Twin Peaks) — and (heart sigh) Susan Blakely. Oh, do we love Susan around the B&S cubicles with Capone, The Lords of Flatbush, The Concorde … Airport ’79, Over the Top, and Dream a Little Dream. And it helps that one of the characters loves horror movies and has posters for Prime Evil, Deathrow Gameshow and Galaxina in her room: for this is a parody by and for horror movie fans that’s also filled with Jewish deli jokes, singing werewolves, John Saxon without a shirt, Susan shavin’ hairy-hairy legs, and a tip o’ the hat to the dentist scene from Little Shop of Horrors.
Susan is Leslie Shaber, a bored suburban mom with a boring, all-about football-loving hubby (John Schuck, Sgt. Charles Enright from McMillan & Wife and the Klingon Kamarag from the first Star Trek filim franchise). And their daughter Jennifer (Tina Caspary, from Can’t Buy Me Love, Teen Witch, Mac and Me) is freaked that her parents are going to get a divorce. She finds support in her horror-movie loving friend Stacey (Diana Barrows of Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood).
Then the actors we love show up: Ruth Buzzi is a fortune teller who tells Jennifer that she has the mark of the pentagram and she’ll fight an unholy evil. John Saxon (check out our Exploring: John Saxon feature) owns a pet store and eats a mouse. Well, he’s a werewolf. Leslie innocently goes into buy a flea collar, he bits her toes (did Quentin Tarantino make this) and she begins to change. And they fall in love.
Now it’s up to Jennifer and Stacy — in bit that sounds like the better known dark comedy horror Fright Night — instead of vampires — fight the werewolves and save mom.
Hey, when you’re watching a movie scripted by the guy who gave us the oft HBO-ran and USA Network-aired Curse of the Queerwolf (1988) and Buford’s Beach Bunnies (1993), you know you’re not getting some mainstream werewolf comedy like Teen Wolf, but something just a little bit from the left of the dial. Hey, Pirro’s the guy who gave us Nudist Colony of the Dead (1991), after all. And Michael Fischa brings it all together quite nicely in his directing debut. Next up, for Micheal is, of course, Crack House with Richard Roundtree then, Sam’s favorite: Death Spa! Hide the asparagus!
This is easily found on many streaming platforms and the DVDs are bountiful — with plenty of ways to get a copy, of course, via Mill Creek Entertainment.
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook.He also writes for B&S About Movies.
A millionaire is suspected of buying an ad agency to use it as a way of brainwashing the public for his political ends. Hmm . . . subliminal messaging through inaudible sounds and images hidden in TV audio signals and magazine spreads . . . John Carpenter’s They Live, anyone?
The millionaire here is the mysterious Ted Quinn (Robert Mitchum) who buys out the giant Montreal ad agency Porter & Stripe where Philip Morgan (Lee Majors) serves as its top copywriter and project manager. Of course, as with any corporate takeover, half of the firm’s staff is soon blown out the door and replaced by “Quinn’s people.” And Morgan is getting the old “do you like your job” trope when he complains about being kept out of the loop on the firm’s new accounts.
Next thing you know, the firm’s geeky-and-too-nosey-for-his-own-good Sam Goldstein (very familiar Canadian actor Saul Rubinek), who discovered Quinn is using the firm’s new slew of commercial spots to influence a political election, ends up dead. Now it’s up to Lee and Valerie Perrine, as his love interest, natch, to get to the bottom of the advertising-cum-political tomfoolery.
I love Lee Majors, and Robert Mitchum is always cool in-the-role (but barely here; this is a Lee Majors joint, after all), but when cheapo Canadian tax shelters films masquerade as an American-made film by casting beloved U.S. actors in lead roles, what we usual end up with is, not a theatrical film, but a telefilm that pisses us off by baiting us with Lee Majors.
If this had been made in the early ’70s by a major U.S. studio, say MGM or 20th Century Fox — and cast Charlton Heston as the ad man discovering the subliminal political campaign — and had Paddy Chayefsky adapt Paul Gottlieb’s superior, best-selling novel for Sidney Lumet to direct — Agency could have been a twisted sci-fi version of the Academy Award-winning Network. Or we could have had Madison Avenue taken to task in a political paranoia thriller that reminded of director Alan J. Pakula and screenwriter Robert Towne’s The Parallax View.
I love my Lee Majors joints, but — through no fault of his own (his Fawcett-Majors Productions didn’t back this one) — Agency is a flat-as-a-pancake conspiracy thriller providing a non-intriguing conspiracy devoid of thrills. If you’re in the market for sci-fi conspiracy thrillers of the ’80s HBO-variety, then stick with Micheal Crichton’s Looker from 1981 starring Albert Finney — at least that one had some computer 3D modeling and funky light-hypnosis guns to wow us. Of course, when it comes to subliminal conspiracies of the Canadian variety, none is finer than David Cronenberg’s Videodrome.
You can watch Agency on You Tube or watch it as a free-with-ads stream courtesy of IMDb TV’s Amazon Prime channel (caveat: both are fuzzy VHS-to-DVD rips). In 2001, Anchor Bay issued a now out-of-print DVD version, which, no surprise, is the best of the DVD transfers in the market. If you’re a Lee Majors Canadian film completist, then you’ll want to seek out the 1984 TV movie The Cowboy and the Ballerina (we found a clip on You Tube).
Luckily, the fine folks at Mill Creek Entertainment come through in the clutch by including Agency on their Excellent Eighties 50-Movie Pack.
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to Mill Creek Month! As you know, we love our Mill Creek box sets, so we’re doing an entire month of these films. The first set we got into was their B-Movie Blast 50-Film pack, then their Gorehouse Greats 12-Pack. And as with those sets — as is par for the course with these bricks of films, with their mashups of movie mayhem —their Excellent Eighties 50-Movie set is no different, with its crazy mix of drive-in ditties and lost network TV movies across all genres. So, to start our unpacking of this set . . . here’s our first review!
Oh, boy, Sam . . . when this was first assigned to me as “Second Sight” — without romantic the suffix — I thought I’d have to fly off the top ropes of the Civic Arena and whoop-ass Shirley Doe (my boss’s wrestling altar ego) for stickin’ it to me with that friggin’ John Larroquette monstrosity from 1989, you know, from back in the day when Bronson Pinchot was a “thing,” poised as the next Robin Williams . . . Bess Armstrong’s heart-weeping cuteness (Jaws 3-D) in the film, be damned. . . .
Sorry, Sam.
As it turns out, this debut entry on this Mill Creek set is an ’80s CBS-TV movie based on the best-selling romance novel Emma and I by Sheila Hocken. The “Emma” in this case, is a dog.
What? Why are you snickering? What gives with the eye rolls?
I’m not a totally heartless B-Movie slob. I can be romantic! Just not Hallmark Channel-romantic . . . only old “Big Three Network” romantic. And I’ll take a romantic dog-chick flick over a psychic-infused Balki Bartokomous flick any day of the week — and twice on Sundays.
How obscure and lost is this film: it’s easier to find a clean image of the book than the TV adverts or DVDs.
TV movie powerhouse Elizabeth Montgomery shines (as always) as Alexandra McKay, a woman who has been blind for nearly 20 years. Fearful that people will take advantage of her condition, she’s staunchly independent, living a sheltered, private life — a world where she only trusts her best friend: her always dependable guide dog, Emma. She allows love to enter her life when she meets Richard Chapman, an art dealer. And it’s great to see Barry Newman — of Vanishing Point fame — as said art dealer, allowed to stretch his thespian wings in a dramatic-cum-romantic role.
Now, we know . . . ugh, romance . . . chick flicks . . . argh! So, we’ll play the John Korty card to get you to watch.
John’s career dates back to directing numerous episodes of PBS-TV’s Sesame Street, while his theatrical and TV movie efforts date to the early ’60s. If you grew up in the ’70s, you know John put his previous skills as a documentarian to good use in the TV rating juggernaut Who Are the DeBolts? and Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids? that was hosted by Henry “The Fonz” Winkler (The Lords of Flatbush). Korty also wrote and directed Oliver’s Story (1978), the not-as-successful-and-critically-lambasted sequel to the early ’70s standard for maudlin-romance flicks: Love Story (1970). Another one of Korty’s biggies was the civil rights-drama The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974).
But wait, hey you! Star Wars fan: John Korty directed the Lucasian knockoff, The Ewok Adventure (1984).
All in all, this is great stuff. This is why we have Mill Creek sets: to preserve well-made, forgotten films . . . and not just Crown International, B-Movie schlock. Bravo, Mill Creek!
And the Mill Creek sets keep on rockin’ our DVD decks! Another 12 movies put to rest. Previously, we jammed on Mill Creek’s B-Movie Blast 50-Film Pack. And we’re not done yet! We unpacking another 50 films to close out the month with Mill Creek’s The Excellent Eights 50-Film Pack.
Every November — to whet our appetites for Halloween — we tackle a Mill Creek box of fifty movies. We started with the Chilling Classics set in 2018 and also did the Pure Terror set in 2019. For 2020, we jammed on the Sci-Fi Invasionset. And Mill Creek’s 12-Packs always come in handy for our theme weeks, such as our recent “Fast and Furious Week,” when we a lot of films, quickly. To that end: the Savage Cinema set did the job. And, back in March, we were so giddy with glee that we finally got our own copy of 9 Deaths of the Ninja courtesy of the Explosive Cinema 12-pack, we paid it forward to Mill Creek and reviewed all of the films in the pack.
Many thanks to Rob Brown, Herbert P. Caine, Dustin Fallon, Robert Freese, Sean Mitus, Bill Van Ryn, Jennifer Upton, and Melody Vera for chipping in with their reviews for our month-long Mill Creek project!
“That right! You’re just a horny, little bitch!” — Let the desert hair-pullin’ chick fight games begin
Now, unlike The Young Graduates, which is included on Mill Creek’s B-Movie Blast 50-Film Pack (which we also unpacked this month), this entry on their Gorehouse Greats 12-Film Pack may sound like a softcore T&A romp, but it really is a sexploitation frolic (that’s also out in the wilds of the public domain as Deadly Field Trip). And if that title doesn’t clue you in: this is more horror than sexploitation (thus the reason for it being packed under a “Gorehouse” moniker by Mill Creek). But, knowing Mill Creek, this will eventually pop up on a “Biker Flick” set, as we have psycho bikers in our midst. And truth be told: there’s more bikers than blood here, more hippie than horror.
In the end, this is just another sleazy, ’70s drive-in take-a-shower-after flick (that reminds of 1973’s The Candy Snatchers, less that film’s ultra-violence) with more slobbering idiots livin’ it up by kidnapping, raping, and terrorizing (four) teenage girls. (One of the bad-girl students — in yummy, yellow shorty-shorts and matching halter top, natch — is Dina Ousley, later of the mainstream sex romp Shampoo with Warren Beatty and American Hot Wax; you’ve seen her spray-painted go-go girls make-up work in the Austin Powers movies.)
As usual, the girl’s bus driven by their teacher, Miss Tenny (Brenda Fogarty), breaks down in the desert on their way to Los Angeles; a trio of bikers (lead by B-Movie stalwart Zalman King of Galaxy of Terror fame) decides to harass them. Of course, these bikers are like the hear-see-speak-no-evil monkeys: one good, one bad, and one that is a confused mess of good and bad, because of his bad, bullying brother (King).
There’s a reason why this sleaze bag of a Russ Meyer-wannabe celluloid programmer was choreographer Earl Barton’s only directing effort — and ended up in public domain. Barton also acted in the requisite, ’50s rock ‘n’ roll flick, Rock Around the Clock, with Bill Haley and the Comets, a film which he also choreographed. Star Fogarty’s biggest claim to fame was starring in the sex comedy Chesty Anderson: U.S. Navy — and that’s a movie that must be seen to be believed.
“Alice Fades Away is a progressive take on a classic tale. It is about patriarchy, legacy and death but more importantly it’s about perseverance and strength in the face of fear and power by someone who’s not allowed to have her own identity.” — Director Ryan Bliss on his feature film debut
In the overcrowded streaming-verse with so many movies vying for the hope that we hit the big red streaming button on their film, the casting is the thing. And if you’ve spent any amount of time at B&S About Movies, you know how we champion certain actors in our little ol’ cubicle farm. So, yeah. We’ve watched more than our fair share of Eric Roberts-is-on-the box movies, even if he’s not the “star” of the film, because Eric rocks our analog and digital decks.
The “Eric Roberts” of this feature film writing and directing debut by Ryan Bliss (although he’s here more than the usual Eric Roberts appearance) is character actor William Sadler, whom you’ve most recently seen in Bill and Ted Face the Music, but you know Sadler best via the perpetual cable TV replays of Die Hard 2 and The Shawshank Redemption, as well as the earliest seasons of TV’s Roseanne. However, the greatest aspect of this beautifully shot and acted film is that Sadler’s presence exposes us to the start of a great leading lady career with new-to-the-scene Ashley Shelton(ABC-TV’s Army Wives; made her feature film, leading-lady debut in 2014’s Something, Anything), as well as Paxton Singleton (got his start in the 2018 The Haunting of Hill House mini-series), and the return of Blanche Baker, who you remember as the older sister bride-to-be in Sixteen Candles.
A period-drama thriller, Alice Sullivan is a troubled woman on the run who finds refuge on her uncle’s farm that now serves as a home to WWII PSTD-afflicted survivors. The refuge of the idyllic, isolated farmhouse — which is revealed to be haunted by strange voices in its rooms and surrounding woods — is soon upended by the powerful and mysterious James Sullivan (William Sadler), the wealthy family’s patriarch. He hires Holden (Timothy Sekk; a recent guest star on NBC TV’s The Blacklist) to retrieve his only surviving relative: Logan (Paxton Singleton), his grandson — and Alice’s son. And, in addition to bringing back his grandson, James Sullivan wants Alice to “disappear.” Will Alice’s new found family of the PTSD-afflicted fight to protect Logan and the increasingly paranoid Alice against the violent motives of Holden?
Edited to a suspenseful, tight 80-minutes, Alice Fades Away is a film that can — after it completes its streaming-platform run — increase its well-deserved wider exposure as an also-ran commercial cable TV movie (while it’s above the quality of most of the channel’s films, it would work well on Lifetime). While it’s not as graphic in its violence or as mysterious (i.e., “confusing” in some quarters) as most twisted, British Gothic thrillers or Spanish Giallos (my thoughts drifted to Jose Ramon Larraz’s Symptoms from 1974), Bliss’s choice to dispense with the shock-scares to keep the flashback-driven narrative restrained and subtle, is appreciated. This is a quiet film that paces its mystery and thrills. As with Larraz’s Symptoms, we ask the question: What’s “wrong” at this remote forest estate. Are the voices real. Are the voices figments of the home’s PSTD war heroes. Is that “smell” of war; the rotting flesh of the dead (the resident’s damaged souls), really back?
1091 Pictures will release Alice Fades Away on digital platforms in the USA and Canada on Tuesday, February 16th, 2021. Look for it on Amazon, FandangoNOW, Google Play, iTunes/AppleTV, Microsoft, Vudu, and all cable system VOD platforms. You can also visit 1091 Pictures on Facebook for more information regarding their releases, such as the recently released, the low-budget sci-fi film, Space.
Disclaimer: We received a screener from the studio’s P.R. firm. That has no bearing on our review.
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook.He also writes for B&S About Moviesand publishes short stories and music reviews on Medium.
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