Movieline Online

The Italian film industry was never just content to spot a trend, they had to top it! Everything from westerns to gothic horror to sex comedies were emulated and then exaggerated to offensive extremes. Case in point, Franco Posperi's Wild Beasts (1983) which doesn't just choose one species to let loose upon mankind, but an entire zoo full of PCP-crazed animals! Though it's a bit late to the "nature run amok" party, the film sends the sub-genre out with an unforgettable highlight reel of rats, cats, cheetahs, elephants and polar bears out for blood. Prosperi himself was already a legend in exploitation history, having been responsible for the Mondo film craze - a series of fearlessly shocking and titillating travelogues that later inspired ill-conceived copycats like Faces of Death - with co-director Gualtiero Jacopetti. Here he's working under equally dangerous circumstances with the same intent: to capture something onscreen that has never been...

While not the first direct follow up to One Million Years B.C. - that would be the Prehistoric Women , which was in the works before the Raquel Welch classic was even finished shooting - Hammer Films' When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970) is the studio's only other attempt to incorporate stop motion special effects in one of its "Lost World" adventures, this time shepherded by Jim Danforth instead of Ray Harryhausen, who was otherwise engaged. The result is certainly impressive on a technical level (Danforth's work was nominated for an Oscar) but fairly insipid when it comes to everything else. Former Playmate of the Year Victoria Vetri takes over as the resident prehistoric hottie, Sanna, who escapes ritual sacrifice by her native tribe and washes ashore into the arms of Tara (Robin Hawdon), part of a much more progressive clan of hunter-gatherers. But Sanna's sanctuary is cut short thanks to a jealous cavegirl and the dogged pursuit of her sun-god wo...

There are those who insist life is too short to watch bad movies. In that case, they should stay far away from A.P.E. , director Paul Leder's ultra-low budget King Kong knock-off that feels interminable despite running only 87 minutes. That's because the film, allegedly produced for a under $25,000, is padded with so many one-sided telephone calls, parading army vehicles and fleeing Koreans that the big gorilla himself (an actor wearing the least convincing costume available at Party City) hardly gets much screen time. But when he does, at least it's in glorious 3D! Arriving in Seoul to film her latest role, famous American actress Marilyn Baker (Joanna Kerns - from Growing Pains ) winds up being the object of the 36-foot ape's affections as he scampers cross country stomping on as many buildings as the budget allows. Her boyfriend and the Korean police remain in pursuit while an American Colonel (Alex Nicol) shouts orders into his phone from the comfort of a bl...

One Million Years B.C. (1966) is one of the few movies where Ray Harryhausen's prehistoric creations actually have to compete for your attention. Raquel Welch and her fur bikini, immortalized by pop culture posters, is every bit as eye-popping in the role of Loana, a fair-haired cavegirl who teaches the finer points of life to Tumak (John Richardson) a rough-and-rowdy exile from a neighboring tribe. As the pair dodges dinosaurs, natural disasters and cannibalistic missing links, the film gets by without a single word of English dialogue, delivering one of the most memorable stop-motion spectaculars of the era. The biggest success in Hammer Films' history (a company known far better for its gothic horror output) actually began as a remake of Hal Roach's 1940 version, which starred Victor Mature and Carol Landis running away from photographically enlarged lizards and snakes. Producer Michael Carreras (who also wrote the script) upped the ante by bringing in Harryhausen t...

Mixing the groovy counter-culture aesthetic of Easy Rider with the cheap thrills of a zombie movie doesn't even seem cinematically possible . But somehow Psychomania (1973) manages to make the combination work by bucking the conventional idea of the "undead" and adding a health dose of black humor besides. Rich-boy rebel Tom Latham (Nicky Henson of Witchfinder General) leads a biker gang called The Living Dead, tearing around the countryside and generally pissing off Establishment-types like his mother (Beryl Reid), a famous spiritualist, and her curiously obtuse butler (George Sanders, who killed himself soon after production). Anxious to use his mother's supernatural knowledge for his own gain, Tom discovers the secret to life after death, returning from the grave with incredible strength and a huge chip on his shoulder. The rest of The Living Dead soon join up and these Death Wheelers (which also serves as an alternate title) hit the road. Not quite zombi...

Movies about the movies are a bit of a cheat; we wouldn't be watching if we didn't already share the same love of cinema and recognize the collateral impact it has on our lives. Cinema Paradiso (1988) reaches further back into film history than usual, following young Toto's obsession with the movies and, in particular, the projection room, which sets him on course to become a professional filmmaker. Based on writer/ director Giuseppe Tornatore's own experiences growing up in his small Italian village in the 1950s, the movie is an idealized reflection of life projected on the screen; full of colorful supporting characters, faded love-interests and the theater that brings them all together. Salvatore - "Toto" for short - is a precocious kid whose only father figure is the surly projectionist, Alfredo, working in the theater where they both spend most of their time. Begging for a chance to work the equipment, Toto eventually serves an apprenticeship und...