Movieline Online

ARIZONA COLT RETURNS: There’s a tendency to put Spaghetti Westerns into two categories: “those made by Sergio Leone” and “everything else.” And while none of the imitators really came close to approximating Leone’s inimitable style, quite a few managed to be damn entertaining. Like this well-meaning shoot-em-up which pits a lanky Eastwood stand-in (Anthony Steffan) and his loyal but perpetually drunk sidekick (Roberto Comardiel) against a small army of bad guys who’ve framed our hero for robbery and sullied his not-so-good name. Directed by Sergio Martino with his usual energetic pace, there’s nothing here you can’t see in dozens of other Italian Dollars knock-offs that will never make it to DVD. But Arizona Colt hits the trail hard and fast, jumping from one showdown to the next until the nearly 20-minute finale, the perfect capper to a film that’s constantly trying to top itself. Through it all, Martino maintains a good-natured tone, expertly balancing the comic relief with the...

ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN: Volcanoes, black magic, escaped convicts, mutated Gill-Men and Barbara Bach. Could you ask for anything more? Not when it comes to the Italian exploitation genre. This take on the familiar Island of Dr. Moreau story sees three shipwrecked survivors attacked by an army of Black Lagoon leftovers led by an evil recluse using them to steal treasure from the lost city of Atlantis. The plot actually makes more sense than you’d think, and Joseph Cotton even pops up as the dedicated but deranged scientist convinced that we’d all be better off with fins. Director Sergio Martino makes effective use of his exotic locale and limited special effects, delivering a perfect Saturday matinee that doesn’t skimp on the monstrous action, yet remains relatively bloodless. The film’s titular fishmen parade around on full display for most of the running time, making sure everyone gets their money’s worth. Lead actor Claudio Cassinelli brings a rugged believability to the procee...

SCREWBALLS: It must have really irked Roger Corman to see Porkys rake in so much money from a genre that he essentially pioneered. His cinematic response was Screwballs , more of a teen-flick satire than a straight-up sex comedy, that comes highly endorsed from none other than “Mr. Skin,” the popular movie nudity resource index. The students at T & A High School are all ridiculously promiscuous except for one Purity Busch (Linda Speciale) – the untouchable tease who becomes the object of everyone’s special attention. Five mismatched horndogs bet each other they can get a glimpse of her goods and stage five different plans of attack. While most of the other films released around 1983 were variations on the coming-of-age story, Screwballs doesn’t even bother. It embraces the corny stereotypes (nerd, jock, rich-kid, etc.) without apology and invites everyone to a rowdy, raunchy kegger of a B-movie. Director Rafal Zielinski claims to have been inspired by the old-school Archi...