April Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge 2016- Days 23-27

Time to catch up! I apologize for falling behind on coverage here but I'm here now and ready to catch up!

Day 23 started with ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE a DVD sent to me courtesy of Wild Eye Releasing to view specifically for this challenge. It's a modern exploitation film, filled plenty of things  I like and dislike about modern exploitation films. This demon biker movie is funny without too many "in jokes" or winks and nudges to the audience and has a genuinely sleazy sensibility to it with lots of violence and forced nudity. The special effects are a bit hit and miss but aside from CGI blood splatter I'm okay with them. The acting holds up a decent script so I can get passed the things I don't like such as artificial scratch filters to make it look like an older film ala Grindhouse. It's a trend that annoys the piss out of me but ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE is good enough that it didn't make that big of a difference.

I followed that up with THE CURSE, a 1987 adaptation of HP Lovecraft's The Color Out Of Space. I wasn't aware of the HPL ties until seeing the film so that was a pleasant surprise and the movie ended up being a pretty solid 80s horror style work on the story. It has plenty messy gross out effects work and latex effects makeup. Wil Wheaton stars a young boy who's family is changing into vicious monsters after eating and drinking produce and water that is tainted from a strange alien orb and he's quite good carrying the film.

Day 24 started and ended with THE CURSE 2 which has nothing at all to do with the first film. Subtitled THE BITE, this one follows a young couple, including the gorgeous Jill Schoelen, as they're on a road trip and travel through an old bomb testing site that is overridden with snakes. When the boyfriend gets bitten on his hand he slowly transform into a hyper aggressive and violent version of himself and undergoes bizarre physical changes as well. THE CURSE 2 was good, but had it let the major payoff occur earlier in the film and let the snakeman monster run amuck on the town this could have been a true masterpiece of horror cheese.

An overdue viewing of KING KONG ESCAPES was next - A well known Kaiju film from Toho that I had never seen. It's King Kong vs MechaKong. Need I say more? We have a giant gorilla fighting the robot version of himself in Japan. A solid script that is deeply rooted in the original King Kong allows the movie to have fun with the giant beast and robot while maintaining an air of seriousness that allows the campy film to still be a pretty good movie.

The next night I tossed on ISLAND OF DEATH - A Greek exploitation film from 1976 that found itself on the Video Nasty list a few years later. Director Niko Mastorakis made this film after seeing the financial success of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as a way to cash in. With no artistic desire to make the film he made it anyways and he certainly made a film filled with deplorable acts and ideas such as rape, goat fucking, murder, racism and homophobia. From an exploitation film standpoint it's entertaining, and competently made for the most part aside from our two main characters essentially being on this Greek island for no other reason than to be bigots and kill people they don't like. ISLAND OF DEATH's biggest problem to me is that any and all likable characters are quickly killed off and the movie is over 100 minutes long which is far too long for a movie with nobody to root for. If this movie was 75-80 minutes long I'd like it more.

EXTRAORDINARY TALES was the follow up - This animated anthology of E.A. Poe tales was an interesting watch. With voice over work from the likes of Christopher Lee, Bela Lugosi, Roger Corman, Guillermo Del Toro and Julian sands it gave each short, which featured a unique art style, it's own atmosphere. Some segments were better than others, and I don't see myself rushing back to watch the film again as I'd rather sit down and watch the various feature film adaptations of the stories but it was well done and I recommend it for any Poe fans.

This update comes to a close with a movie I've long seen floating around on VHS but it had never crossed my path until recently - THE ANNIHILATORS. This vigilante film is set in Atlanta where a gang has a section of the city under siege, forcing them to pay unfair "protection and insurance" taxes, and raping and murdering those that don't agree including a man running a mini market who was paralyzed in Vietnam. His squadron reunites to help his father, and his neighbors regain control of their neighborhood in a film filled with shootouts, flame throwers, food carts filled with heroin and a school bus filled with kids in the line of fire. THE ANNIHILATORS isn't the best vigilante style film and the cast isn't amazing but it remains an energetic, action packed exploitation romp of a good time.

Today's Rundown
All Hell Breaks Loose - 6/10
The Curse - 7.5/10
The Curse 2 - 6.5/10
King Kong Escapes - 6.5/10
Island Of Death - 6/10
Extraordinary Tales - 6/10
The Annihilators - 6/10

April Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge 2016 - Days 17, 18, 19

Day 17 had one lone movie but it was a fun one - ATRAGON - the 1963 Kaiju film from director Ishiro Honda. As a fan of giant monster movies from Japan this is one I've long heard about and it didn't disappoint as the people of Earth are forced to develop and use their new flying submarine warship Atragon to battle the underwater Mu people and their giant laser breathing snake monster Manda. The movie is well made and has a solid story and script but is a bit light in the Manda v Atragon department. A bit more action between the two and I think this would have been bumped up to true classic status.

INFRASEXUM was it for day 18 and the new DVD from Vinegar Syndrome will be getting reviewed later today so be on the look out for it...

And finally day 19 had a pair of films that probably couldn't have been more different. Bill Zebub's 2011 feature ANTFARM DICKHOLE features exactly that... an antfarm dickhole. Just think about that term for a second- antfarm dickhole. Antfarm. Dickhole. Ant. Farm. Dick. Hole. You get it? Yeah, this movie, among many other things like a giant spider fucking a woman and as many "ant" puns as you can handle (and probably couple dozen more) has a man that has a colony of killer African ants living in his dick that kill people whenever he's sexually stimulated. Have you ever wanted to see a giant ant crawl out of a man's peehole? Here's your chance! The movie is funny and raunchy and stupid and you're either going to appreciate it or think it is repulsive trash. Chances are you'll think it's repulsive trash. I enjoyed it.

This recap closes with SECRETS OF A CALL GIRL - a Euro Crime turned drama from director Guiliano Carnimeo and co-written by Ernesto Gastaldi. That duo should have made a far better movie than this is. Luckily Edwige Fenech stars and makes thing visually stimulating at all times. The movie starts out good enough as Fenech plays a girl caught up in the middle of the mob and their prostitution ring who wants a way out after giving birth to her son. The movie's timeline doesn't make a ton of sense towards the end as a lot of time is covered all of a sudden without much mention of it. Once the movie turns into more of a drama it falls flat and feels deflated. It's watchable but I hoped for better. Oh and that artwork I used from Wikipedia is fucking atrocious and doesn't do the film any justice or even represent it accurately.

Today's Rundown
Atragon - 7/10
Infrasexum - 6/10
Antfarm Dickhole - 6/10
Secrets Of A Call Girl - 5/10

April Exploitation/B-Movie Challenge 2016 - Days 11, 12 and 13

Three days to cover so lets just get down to it - A revisit of the original MAD MAX left me feeling underwhelmed and confused. I apparently remember almost nothing of the original film. Granted, it has been a number of years since I made an effort to actually sit down and watch any of the original trilogy but apparently all of my memories have been formed by The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome. MAD MAX isn't a bad movie but I was expecting to revisit something different, something more in line with its sequels and knockoffs that I have no shame in saying I enjoy quite a bit more on the whole.

BUNNI was next - a 2013 production recently released on DVD by Wild Eye Productions. This is a slasher film geared for the gore hounds as there are a number of bloody and messy kill sequences. MINOR SPOILER: Castration and feeding the severed cock to it's victim has officially become a theme this month SPOILER OVER. The film is short, and lightning paced once things get rolling. The abandoned building that the majority of the film takes place in is inherently creepy and the effects are pretty well done. The acting isn't offensively bad but the direction and photography is shall we say, uncomfortable. I don't mean that the direction is scary or unsettling, it's not that type of uncomfortable. I mean that there's something in how it was filmed that makes everyone look the slightest bit jittery at all times. Movement just looks off, almost if it was shot at an awkward frame rate that doesn't quite look natural. I can't say exactly what it is and it's difficult to describe without seeing it in motion but it's a major distraction throughout. BUNNI ends up being a passable indie horror flick.

Next up was the first of three Jess Franco directed women in prison films - 99 WOMEN. This is almost a paint by numbers WIP film and it would have been perfectly enjoyable had it been but Jess Franco throws his "Francoisms" as I like to call them, all over the place. "Francoisms" refers to his awkward, and downright shitty directorial techniques like panning the camera side to side until whatever action is off screen or random zooms that often go so far as to turn the picture into a total blur. Hey, I'm okay with zooms on bush and butts as much as the next guy but I don't need to feel like a fucking parasite crawling up in there.

Then we get WOMEN BEHIND BARS - this is pretty much the slightly more enjoyable version of 99 WOMEN in that we get less of Franco's nonsense and more Lina Romay. There's a better plot, though it's messy, about stolen diamonds and undercover agents in the prison. And there's Lina Romay. There's also some shoot outs and it's fun enough.

I took a break from Franco for the next film and watched OVER THE EDGE, a 1979 teen rebellion movie dripping with a punk rock attitude. My main thoughts about this movie are how in the blue hell did this movie never get brought to my attention? How have I never heard of it? This is the story of a dream like community that ended up being a hell hole to grow up in with nothing to do but be left to your own devices. Partying, drugs and fights were normal. So was shooting out cops windows on the highway. Parents barely cared and the kids would have their say. I love this movie after a single viewing and know I will frequently revisit it. It's well made top to bottom and gets some great and natural performances out of a group of kids in junior high and high school. It also has a wild finale that isn't to be missed.

We close things out with Franco's best, or at least most interesting women in prison film that I've seen to date and without a doubt his sleaziest. SADOMANIA lives up to its name in a film where a pair of newlyweds drive into an off limits area of a women's prison and they take the wife prisoner while letting the husband go. The husband now fights for his wife's freedom and tries to break her out of this strict facility ran. That paper thin plot provides an excuse to show everything from topless women performing hard labor, lesbian sex, bestiality, homosexuality with Franco himself, murder, fights to the death, human hunting, and human trafficking of these women with the mention of selling girls as young as twelve. Yeah, this one goes the distance. It's not perfect but I had a blast seeing just how far SADOMANIA would go.

Today's Rundown
Mad Max - 6/10
Bunni - 4/10
99 Women - 5/10
Women Behind Bars - 6/10
Over The Edge - 8/10
Sadomania - 7/10

MARQUIS DE SADE'S JUSTINE (Blu-ray Review) - Blue Underground

Italy, France/1969
Directed By: Jess Franco
Written By: Harry Alan Towers
Starring: Romina Powers, Maria Rohm, Klaus Kinski
Color/124 Minutes/Not Rated
Region FREE
Release Date:
Limited Edition 3 Disc BD/DVD/CD Combo Pack

The Film
Justine and her older sister Juliette are left orphaned after their father is forced to leave the country and their mother dies and are removed from their convent where they're training to be nuns. The sisters quickly take different roads in life as Juliette shacks up at a brothel and takes to a life of crime while Justine clutches on to her innocence and virginity while she's put through trial of physical and sexual abuse and torture, framed for murder, forced into a gang of fugitives just to name a few as told by the Marquis De Sade himself.

JUSTINE is Jess Franco's biggest production and it certainly feels and looks like it with lavish costuming, big sets dripping with gorgeous dressing and a substantial amount of locations and cast members. The film looks beautiful and despite a few "Franco being Franco" moments (including a needless quick zoom to a totally out of focus eyeball) this is a stylish and skillfully made production. Unfortunately the star Romina Powers is either totally disconnected from the material or blissfully (for her own sake) unaware that she's making a movie. She has a perfect look for the character of Justine as she has a naturally innocent look but she's as wooden as wooden can get and doesn't emote any of the tasteless brutality that she endures again and again.

The script can be blamed for that however as much of the straight forward mean spirited nature the original story has toward Justine is lightened and there is a moment of reprieve for Justine in the film where she meets a man who has a genuine love for her and wants to protect her. It leaves the film being a bit uneven and awkward at times. Jack Palance and Mercedes McCambridge play supporting roles who both kill it with their respective performances. As the story goes Palance was drunk on red wine by 7am each morning and that very well may have lead to his totally bizarre and off the fucking wall performance while McCambridge owns the screen during her scenes as a powerful leader of a band of thieves and swindlers. If Romina Powers had half the charisma or talent as McCambridge she could have won an Oscar for this film. The film still succeeds in adapting the De Sade story, with a performance from Klaus Kinski himself as the author locked up in a prison having hallucinatory visions of naked chained women bleeding from their necks and covered in sweat.

JUSTINE is worthy of praise as the good certainly outweighs the bad and will live on as one of Jess Franco's most attractive and lavish productions. It makes me think about how incredibly some of his horror films could have looked and how big their scope could have been had he had the budget he had on JUSTINE.


The Audio & Video
Blue Underground takes what is arguably Jess Franco's most visually stimulating and lush production and give it the Blu-ray release it deserves with a stunning anamorphic widescreen transfer keeping the film's original 1.66:1 aspect ratio. Colors are vibrant and vivid while there is excellent detail level in textures and surfaces. You can almost feel the scratchiness of the wool garb! Skin tones are fleshy and natural with no signs of waxiness or excessive digital scrubbing. The film's natural grain structure is kept gracefully in tact and there's really nothing that could have been done better on this disc from a visual standpoint. And the English DST-HD mono audio is largely the same with a crisp and clear track that is free of any background noise or distortions. The dialogue and beautiful score from Bruno Nicolai are beautifully complimentary and have a great mix.

Please Note: Screen shots are taken from the DVD copy of the film and do NOT represent the quality of the Blu-ray transfer.

The Extras
-"The Perils And Pleasures Of Justine" - Interviews with Co-writer/Director Jess Franco and Producer Harry Alan Towers (20 minutes)
-Stephen Thrower On JUSTINE - Interview with Stephen Thrower author of "Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco" (18 minutes)
-French Trailer
-Poster and Still Gallery
-Booklet by Stephen Thrower
-CD Soundtrack
-DVD Copy of the Film

The Bottom Line
This period piece adapted from the story of the same name is sometimes sleazy, sometimes excellent and sometimes a misfire. Those misfires are quickly followed up by more sleaze and excellence most of the time which lands JUSTINE as a perhaps under appreciated piece of Franco's filmography and one that will hopefully gain some attention from this gorgeous Blu-ray release.

MARQUIS DE SADE'S JUSTINE is available HERE

ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD (DVD Review) - Intervision Picture Corp

Italy/2006
Directed By: Bruno Mattei
Written By: Antonio Tentori, Bruno Mattei, Giovanni Paolucci
Starring: Yvette Yzon, Gaetano Russo, Alvin Anson
Color/97 Minutes/Not Rated
Region 1
Release Date: February 10, 2015

The Film
A group of treasure hunters wreck their ship on the coast of an uncharted island. While the mechanic tries to fix the boat (with all of those tools on board he should have no problem!) the rest of the group heads ashore to find food and water and scope out the island. Almost immediately they're attacked by hundreds year old zombies and must begin to fight for their survival. That fight gets a bit more difficult after the boat is overrun by zombies and explodes leaving them totally stranded. Things get stranger and stranger as their time on the island goes on until they set sail on a shoddy raft as their only hope.

ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD is exactly what you'd expect from a Bruno Mattei film. It's pure schlock. The man had no shame throwing 90 minutes of pure cheese, many times cheese that he ripped off from someone else, on the screen. I for one am thankful for this because some of my favorite movies are Bruno Mattei movies. ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD is now among them. In his penultimate film Mattei gives us splatter like hadn't seen out of Italy since the 80s. Blood and guts fly while zombie hordes fill the screen. The special effects are very good for the most part but some of the zombies have really fucking bad makeup. I guess that adds to the experience of watching this movie.

ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD is what it is. A movie to share with likeminded friends who enjoy this type of stuff. There's some legitimately good sequences including a ghost guitar that while random, is a creepy and cool visual. The movie only makes a little bit of sense really, as much as you need it to since some of the zombies are very interactive beyond just wanting to eat the living. It all adds up to an exceptionally entertaining time that will have you laughing while a bit grossed out and certainly smiling ear to ear.

The Audio & Video
Intervision Pictures' anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) transfer looks as good as you'd expect. This film was obviously filmed with digital photography so it lacks the richness and warmth of actual film but colors and details still look good. The various monster designs shine through as well as the substantial blood and gore. The image is clean and stable and for a standard DVD release it looks nice enough. The audio is a standard Dolby stereo track with an English dub from the actors. The track is clean and free of any damage and sounds very good overall.

The Extras
-"Bungle In The Jungle" - featurette featuring interviews with producer and long time friend of Bruno Mattei Giovanni Paolucci and writer Antonio Tentori
-International sales promo
-Trailer

The Bottom Line
If you're into splatterfests and/or schlocky over the top Italian horror romps you'll be doing yourself an injustice to pass over this release. Intervision has given this film its first ever uncut release in America and it's one I highly recommend.


ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD is available HERE

Grindhouse Trailer Classics (DVD Review) - Intervision

Color/129 Minutes/Not Rated
Region FREE
Release Date: August 12, 2014

The Film
For the exploitation, horror and various other genre films of the 60s and 70s the trailer was the only thing to draw in an audience aside from having an appealing title. This would be 30 seconds to a minute and a half of footage from the film promising the most exciting, nerve shattering, blood curdling and adrenaline pumping action you've ever seen. Often times the trailer was better than the movie itself and sometimes the trailer showed every single exciting part of the full film.

Creating an exciting trailer that will captivate audiences and get them to shell out their bucks to buy a ticket to see the full film is an art form in itself and the trailers for the films that would play in seedy theaters in cities such as Chicago, San Francisco and along the Deuce in New York City featured an energy that has never been recreated. GRINDHOUSE TRAILER CLASSICS features 55 trailers from films stretching the gamut of exploitation genres. A few included trailers are the horror films House Of Whipcord, and Don't Open The Window to the exploitation classics They Call Her One Eye and the Ilsa films. There's even a giallo or two included.

The Audio & Video
Intervision releases this DVD with an anamorphic widescreen transfer and original mono audio. The picture and audio quality fluctuates from trailer to trailer as you'd expect. The best trailers look and sound fantastic with little background noise and minor dirt or damage to the print. The trailers in lesser condition still maintain pretty good quality. There aren't any trailers that are excessively beaten or battered.

The Extras
-"Bump 'N Grind" - a 15 minute featurette with Emily Booth and she discusses the history of the grindhouse theater and the films they showed.
-Gallery of poster art

The Bottom Line
These trailer compilations are a lot of fun to watch in their entirety or to throw on before movies during a movie night with friends. Pick a few random trailers to watch before your main feature and you'll have even more fun. GRINDHOUSE TRAILER CLASSICS has some of the best trailers from the era and you won't be disappointed with this disc.

GRINDHOUSE TRAILER CLASSICS is available HERE

Women In Cellblock 9 (Blu-ray Review) - Ascot Elite

Switzerland/1977
Directed By: Jess Franco
Written By: Jess Franco
Starring: Karine Gambier, Howard Vernon, Susan Hemingway
Color/78 Minutes/Not Rated
Region FREE
Release Date: October 22, 2013 

The Film
Set in the jungles of South America during a time of revolution a truck carrying suspected revolutionaries is stopped and searched by members of the prison. The women on board are arrested and thrown into the infamous Cellblock 9. They're stripped and chained by the neck, no better than dogs, where they undergo interrogation tortures and humiliations by the warden and doctor. They are asked repeatedly who they work for and what they know and their silence causes more punishment. As the days pass the women formulate a plan to try an escape and disappear into the jungle.

WOMEN OF CELLBLOCK 9 is pure exploitation gold. Jess Franco's sleazy side was firing on all cylinders here with nudtiy, violence, torture and even some horror moments on display. From the forced nudity, to quasi rape of an inmate just so she could get a drink, to stock footage of crocodiles (who apparently can't go on land), to running naked through the jungles while being gunned down... WOMEN IN CELLBLOCK 9 has it all! This movie is trashy in the best way. It is 78 minutes of pure mind melting sleaze entertainment. I loved every second of it.

The Audio & Video
Ascot Elite has done another very nice job on this HD presentation. The anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) transfer is rather stunning from the lush greens of the jungle, to the blood reds that pop just enough and the natural, fleshy skin tones that show amazing detail I can't say enough good things about how nice the transfer is on this release. The audio tracks are nice as well, with German and English DTS-HD 5 channel surround or a 2.0 French track, the English track that I listened to, despite a bit of hokey dubbing, sounded excellent. The mix was full, and robust with no background noise to complain of. It is doubtful that WOMEN IN CELLBLOCK 9 will ever look or sound better than it does here.

The Extras
Extras include the original trailer, a still gallery and additional trailers. 

The Bottom Line
Women-In-Prison film fans rejoice! This is one of the sleaziest entries I've had the joys of watching and in glorious HD no less! There's a reason I love Euro-trash and this film is a great example of why. 

WOMEN IN CELLBLOCK 9 is available HERE

How To Seduce A Virgin (DVD Review) - Mondo Macabro

France/1973
Directed By: Jess Franco
Written By: Jess Franco, Alain Petit
Starring: Lina Romay, Alice Arno, Robert Woods
Color/87 Minutes/Not Rated
Region 1

The Film
The beautiful and rich Countess Martine has just been released from a stay in an asylum after castrating her former lover. Upon returning home to her coast-side villa, she enters the basement, home to her sexual fantasies and statues of human victims, giving us small but powerful glimpse into this woman's deranged world. Her husband plays into her sick desires as he is well aware that she is the money of the relationship and living his luxurious life style without her. 

He devises a plan for her to seduce Cecile, the teenage virginal daughter of their equally rich neighbors. They offer to let Cecile stay at their home while her parents go away on a business trip, to which Cecile's parents reluctantly agree. Cecile is certainly not innocent, as she regularly pleasures herself with her windows wide open, she is perhaps a bit of an exhibitionist but she is far from experienced and Martine wants her. As their plan begins to unfold Cecile gets in close with Martine's husband and the plan doesn't quite go as planned. 

Jess Franco is a director who may be equally loved and maligned, and the quality of his film definitely run the gamet from garbage to great. HOW TO SEDUCE A VIRGIN is an erotic horror film, that relies heavily on it's eye candy from star Alice Arno and Franco's own lover and frequent collaborator Lina Romay as the silent (and weird) servant, of course along with Tania Busselier as Cecile who would also work with Franco on The Countess Perverse from 1974. HOW TO SEDUCE A VIRGIN features a typical jazzy score that Franco loved to use and plenty of nudity. It is a simple story that makes for an entertaining piece of Euro-sleaze, and I love my Euro-sleaze and few do it as good as Franco did it.

 
 The Audio & Video
 HOW TO SEDUCE A VIRGIN is delivered on DVD by Mondo Macabro in an attractive and clean 1.33:1 full screen transfer. Picture quality is strong with natural skin tones and gorgeous color reproduction, specifically the scenes with heavy doses of colored lighting. There is a single instance of wobble from the picture towards the end of the film. Audio is also strong with a 2.0 mix in French with optional English subtitles which have been newly created. Overall the A/V presentation on this disc is quite good as you can readily expect from Mondo Macabro.

The Extras
Special features include:
-Interview with writer Alain Petit
-Introduction by film critic Stephen Thrower
-Production notes
-Mondo Macabro previews  

 
The Bottom Line

Mondo Macabro commonly does great things with their releases, bringing largely forgotten titles back to the masses in attractive packages and they've done so again here with HOW TO SEDUCE A VIRGIN. More Jess Franco on DVD is not a bad thing and this movie is a good one. If you find yourself a fan of Euro-sleaze you'll find this release as a great addition to your collection.


HOW TO SEDUCE A VIRGIN is available HERE

Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man (1976)

The opening ten minutes to this film are a lawless (literally, as there were no permits) three bike motorcycle chase through crowded downtown Rome during rush hour involving a pair of crooks and a pair of cops. This introduction to the film is a punch in the face for what is about to come.

Alfredo and Antonio are a pair of policemen who are inseperable partners. They work together, ride together and live together. They work for a special division of the police force that takes down the sleaziest criminals Rome has to offer. While Alfredo and Antonio are the good guys, and are incredibly likable in what they do, their tactics certainly aren't by the book. The duo is a cocky, womanizing pair of shoot first and say "fuck the questions" hardasses. They seem to be endlessly reprimanded for their actions and attitudes but it doesn't stop them from taking down the baddies however they please. They have no problems putting the public in the line of fire because their extremely dangerous training techniques ensure they won't miss. Antonio and Alfredo are assigned a mission to track down a Mr. Pasquini and LIVE LIKE A COP, DIE LIKE A MAN follows their frequently violent and sometimes sexy adventure that leads to a climax that is appropriately explosive but in a low key "been-there-done-that" attitude.

The director of the infamous Cannibal Holocaust Ruggero Deodato directs this intensely violent and surprisingly funny Euro Crime flick that is written by arguably the king of the genre Fernando Di Leo. This film has a snarky sense of humor to it that straddles the line of making the viewer feel bad for laughing along with for the police duo's actions but never quite crosses that line. The humor is well timed and never gets so tongue-in-cheek that it makes you roll your eyes, the violence makes sure of that. From hostage situations, to shootouts and car chases, the blood spills and murder (including our heroes) is on tap. The key here is that you never scoff at the protagonists for their questionable actions because they are simply reacting to the heartless nature of Rome's grimy underground. You don't have to look any further than the opening scene for that to ring true. Genre film vet Ray Lovelock (Antonio) and Marc Porel (Alfredo) shine. Is their deeper meaning in their relationship than just friends and partner? It's possible, but the duo brilliantly leaves it extremely vague so that it doesn't become a plot point. They an asskicking team that takes no prisoners (literally) and it doesn't matter what else they may do in their free time (other than women).

LIVE LIKE A COP, DIE LIKE A MAN is violent, funny and just pure entertaining. It has more memorable characters than it probably should due to some villains being extremely cruel in their limited screen time and it will immediately become one of your favorite Euro Crime films.

8.5/10

Beyond The Darkness (Buio Omega) (1979)

If you are at all familiar with sleazy Italian horror you have probably at least heard of BEYOND THE DARKNESS and Joe D'Amato. Quite possibly the most notorious film from the infamous director. The Italian title, BUIO OMEGA, should be a staple in any horror/exploitation fan's collection.

Francesco is a mortician and taxidermist who has just lost his lover, Anna. After her death and funeral Frank can't stand the pain and turns to extreme measures of preserving and stuffing his partner to keep her in his large estate. The groundskeeper Iris has been with the family for many years and has watched Frank grow up and is there to comfort him in a way that will make almost anyone squirm in their seat. As the heated relationship between Francesco and Iris builds so does the body count to keep Frank's secret just that. Anyone that enters the house is prone to Francesco's ever-growing madness to keep him and his true lover together. As the bodies pile up so does the tension with Iris after she makes a proposition to continue to help Frank if he marries her. Eventually the odd couple snap at each other and resort to violence that looks like a cross between jungle animals and lovers that have a truly fucked up sense of the word "love".

Joe D'Amato is well known for being one of the main catalyst's of creating the Italian horror genre and keeping it as sleazy as humanly possible. This wasn't hard for a man who would go on to make porn of both the soft and hardcore variety. D'Amato was never shy of getting nearly every woman that would appear on screen to peel her clothes off for no reason at all. He also amped up the gore to nearly Fulci-like levels. BEYOND THE DARKNESS features everything from slasher film violence to necrophilia to cannibalism. And more. It is one of the gross out, scary films that is a blast to watch over and over.

It had been quite a while since I last watched this movie, mainly due in part to Media Blasters delaying the Blu Ray for a full year, but it was worth the wait. In all reality this movie looks as good as it possibly could. A low budget, low production horror movie from Italy in the 70s, this Blu Ray has its rough spots but certainly looks considerably sharper and clearer than it's DVD counterpart.

With a standout score from the exceptional Goblin this very well may be Joe D'Amato's finest achievement. The man that wasn't opposed to excess of any sort wins with a movie full of excess of all sorts.

8.5/10