Movieline Online

A large part of the appeal of those classic Hammer horror films lay in watching the stuffy British psyche come up against supernatural terrors that were completely contrary to all logical and scientific explanation. It was as if mummies, werewolves and vampires were more of an inconvenience to their afternoon tea than an actual threat to mankind. And Lifeforce , director Tobe Hooper’s chaotic homage to ‘70s era sci-fi Hammer excess, recaptures that feeling in spades, upping the cinematic insanity to levels that would make the Queen’s head spin. Based on Colin Wilson’s novel The Space Vampires - a title that’s a) much more explanatory and b) much more in keeping with the B-movie tone - the film ditches the original futuristic Earth setting and takes place right in 1985 at the height of Haley’s Comet mania. A multinational space shuttle mission discovers a derelict ship in the comet’s halo. Once onboard, the crew finds thousand of dead bat-like creatures and three perfectly preserv...

The term “independent film” didn’t always bring to mind Sundance-style dramas with characters having endless conversations about their sexuality. For most of the ‘70s it was just about making a buck. Drive-ins were still in full force and a producer who was quick to capitalize on a fad could put together something on the cheap and make a bundle. Producer/ director Charles B. Pierce’s The Legend of Boggy Creek did just that. Hitting just as the Bigfoot craze was taking off, the faux-documentary following one family’s search for a shaggy creature lurking in an Arkansas swamp, made over $20 million bucks and bought Pierce a career making small genre films between his regular gig as a set decorator. It was four more years before he returned to the horror genre with The Town that Dreaded Sundown . And, much as he did with Boggy Creek , Pierce used the “true story” angle to grab people’s attention. Using a dramatic narrator and meticulously noting names, dates and places, Sundown is...

Not to sound too “generational,” but let’s make something clear up front: this is not your Dad’s Die Hard . This is a cut-to-the-chase modern action movie built around a familiar title and an almost completely unfamiliar John McClane. The sooner you put away any notions of recapturing the glory of a fading franchise the more enjoyment you may be able to squeeze out of this father-son reunion between everyone’s favorite NYC cop and his estranged son joining forces to take down some Russian scumbags. Now in its fifth installment, Bruce Willis is really the only original piece in the Die Hard formula which, let’s face it, became ridiculously coincidental after the first sequel. He brings the same smirk, the swagger and the jingoistic attitude to the party; this time to save his son who, he believes, is on trial for murder in a Moscow courtroom. One extended car chase later and the two have teamed up to debate their family differences between endless burst of machine gun fire and f...

Aussie exploitation began – and pretty much peaked – with the Mad Max (1979), director George Miller’s nasty revenge drama set in a dystopian semi-future where the roads are ruled by dilinquent motorheads barely kept in check by an undermanned police force, including their top interceptor: Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson). But the worldwide phenomenon of Max’s popularity didn’t kick in until the sequel – The Road Warrior – was released in 1981, starting an avalanche of copycat apocalyptic action movies that inevitably paled in comparison. The saga concluded (for the time being) with 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome , a far more family friendly blockbuster designed to capitalize on Gibson’s Hollywood star status. Although MGM was the original home video distributor for Mad Max , all three family are now gathered together on blu-ray in one steelbook case as the Mad Max Trilogy , with Thunderdome getting the hi-def treatment for the first time. Having seen what the franchise has beco...

Poliziotteschi – the Italian term for cops and robbers flicks – can be a complex affair. Not only does one have to deal with the standard mechanics of the plot (revenge, double-crosses, etc) but also the Italian legal system in general, a confusing system of judges, detectives and cops all of whom seem to be on the take. Shoot First, Die Later (1974) is remarkable not only for its above-average acting and action sequences, but for the way director Fernando Di Leo makes the whole thing accessible to an audience that might not know the difference between spaghetti and linguini. A celebrated supercop, Domenico (Luc Merenda) takes down a gang of armed robbers at breakfast, arrests a pair of gun runners around lunch and still has time to treat his high maintenance girlfriend to a nice dinner. Trouble is, Domenico is dirty. His ties to the local mob franchise give him and his partner a healthy cash supplement to their salary…in exchange for some information from time to time. But wh...