Actuarial Science Movie Reviews

I was pissed off recently when I picked up a copy of SHE DEMONS,(from the 'Wade Williams Collection'). If the guy owns the damn film, why couldn't he wait until he locates a decent print before rushing it to DVD?

In the film there's a scene where a bevy of not-as-yet demonic beauties does a ritual dance before the camera; as each woman dances before the camera she has her moment when the camera gets a chance to focus on her face close up. Someone, probably long ago, had clipped out the crucial frames for each woman's close up in front of the camera. You may have seen other films where this "clipping" has been done, I know I have. What's up with that? Are they making prints to sell or something? This clipping of frames is not the kind of thing a casual observer will notice, but for me it mars the film horribly.

I remember watching BATMAN (was it 1985?) at the Grand in Oakland. It was a few days after the movie had been released, but damn if someone had not already snagged crucial frames, like the shot where Joker kills his TV.

Seems like the picture I'm getting of one Wade Williams is he doesn't really care about these films except as money makers. He has no love for the genre, and therefore does not really care about video collectors either.

Bob Burns
S.F.

First off, let me say that "She Demons" is a favorite Z picture of mine. As a kid I always looked forward to the times it played on "Chiller Theater." I mean, where else could you get mad scientists, Nazis, disfigured go-go dancers (with the phoniest make-up), paper mache scenery, AND Irish McCalla?

To be fair, the film has a few scares at the end, especially when the mad scientist's wife discloses all too clearly her reason for not leaving with the heroes and the death of Mr. Nazi Mad Scientist himself. The DVD transfer is excellent, and though this is not the sort of picture in Ed Wood's league, it is still enough fun for inviting a few friends over and doing your own version of "Mystery Science Theater 3000."

And the best reason for owning it? Where can you get such sublime awfulness...

First off, I'll admit that this is one of my long-time favorite cheesey movies. It's got just about everything you could want in a B-movie: a shipwreck on an uncharted island, spunky heroine (Irish "Sheena" McCalla), stiff-as-cardboard hero, nubile native dancing girls, papier-mache cave walls, lecherous evil scientist, whip-cracking Nazis, embarrassing racial stereotypes, pasty-faced monsters, heart-touching sentimentality, low-key humor, volcanoes, lava, and a Hideously Disfigured Wife, whose face the scientist is trying to restore, natch. This heady mix of numerous beloved B-genres remains probably Richard Cunha's most technically accomplished work, and the most thought-provoking in his oeuvre. ...not as dizzyingly awful as an Ed Wood film, or as leaden as a Herbert L. Strock movie, but campy, enjoyable, rainy-Saturday-afternoon fare nonetheless. Bad film junkies cannot possibly be disappointed. As for the DVD, this has got to be the best presentation yet for this film. While the print is not perfect, it is a massive improvement over the VHS pre-record I own. There are some relatively minor flaws in the source print: light speckling/dirt spots throughout, sporadic short stretches of vertical/horizontal scratching or soiling, and at least one jump cut that I noticed. But overall, (and especially compared to the tape) the image looks terrific. The tonal values, brightness, sharpness, and detail of the DVD are a dramatic improvement over the VHS. It's like watching another movie entirely'I can't believe I paid money for the tape! It also blows away the taped-off-TV print that I had. So until Criterion jumps in I guess that this is about as good as it's gonna get. I'd give the disc 5 stars but for the minor problems with the print and the lack of any features besides the usual trailer (excellent quality also), chapter stops, and five "hidden" trailers advertising other Image releases. All in all you can't go wrong if you're a fan of this movie.

I would almost consider the movie "Specimen" a high class "B" movie in the SciFi genre. If you liked the movie "Firestarter" with Drew Barrymore in the '80's, you may like this movie.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Saved By the Bell) actually does a decent job in his role as Mike Hillary. In this, what I consider to be, a low buget film.

Think of "specimen" as an updated version of the movie "Firestarter." Specimen has more of an alien feel to it, on a low budget scale. I am not into "B" type movies. However I can say I liked this movie. A movie so bad it's good.

Recomended for the SciFi or "B" movie fan

I liked this movie. The story is intriguing. The only problem I had with this movie was with some of the writing--it was a little bit stilted in some places. The character of "Eleven" was just a little bit lame. I thought Mark-Paul Gosselaar was great. He made the character (Mike) believable and sympathetic and made the whole movie watchable and enjoyable. I liked that this movie wasn't just a bunch of scenes jumbled together for effect, but told a slowly unfolding story as it went along.

The singular point of watching this is the considerably lovely footage of MarkPaul Gosselaar, soaking wet, in the bathtub, in his underpants. Otherwise, it's a paperweight.

I would almost consider the movie "Specimen" a high class "B" movie in the SciFi genre. If you liked the movie "Firestarter" with Drew Barrymore in the '80's, you may like this movie.

Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Saved By the Bell) actually does a decent job in his role as Mike Hillary. In this, what I consider to be, a low buget film.

Think of "specimen" as an updated version of the movie "Firestarter." Specimen has more of an alien feel to it, on a low budget scale. I am not into "B" type movies. However I can say I liked this movie. A movie so bad it's good.

Recomended for the SciFi or "B" movie fan

I liked this movie. The story is intriguing. The only problem I had with this movie was with some of the writing--it was a little bit stilted in some places. The character of "Eleven" was just a little bit lame. I thought Mark-Paul Gosselaar was great. He made the character (Mike) believable and sympathetic and made the whole movie watchable and enjoyable. I liked that this movie wasn't just a bunch of scenes jumbled together for effect, but told a slowly unfolding story as it went along.

The singular point of watching this is the considerably lovely footage of MarkPaul Gosselaar, soaking wet, in the bathtub, in his underpants. Otherwise, it's a paperweight.

I had to think long and hard about this one. Was this movie so bad, so awful, that it then became good? It lies in the intent of the writer and director. Were all the cliches scenes meant to be sincere? Was the dialogue unoriginal on purpose? Was the direction decively devoid of cleverness? There was no sense of irony that could redeem this film. But worst of all - this Sci-Fi "action" flick was....BORING.

Bottom line - this movie is so bad, it's just plain bad. But the bigger bottom line - How these people still get hired to make this?

My friend didn't like this movie, but she was taking it straight. This is toung-in-cheek satire about a post appocalyptic world in which deranged cyber-evengelists compete to control a dimishing population.

As a somber comedy, this works nicely much of time. First time director Hayman acquits himself with style and some great sets, and C Thomas Howell pulls off an interesting bleak character full of explosive remorse. You see "shepherds: are assiasins, who "protect their flock" by killing the guys who work for competing evangelists. Thomas tires of the gig, but fate won't let him leave peacfully. So, there's a lot of decent action, but it's just a bit more twisted and interesting than you'd expect for low budget sci-fi. If you like the Genre give it a shot. Oh, Roddy Piper - the WWF guy- does quite well here.

I see this is another one By the infamous Roger Corman working with the Producing team of Daniel Dor and G Phillip Jackson. (see Falling Fire).

This futuristic action flim contains all your favorite plot lines rolled into one.... From post-war,underground cities and evil leader(s), over policed downtrodden masses and the hero that car chases, gun fights and kung-fu's his way through seemingly unsurmountable odds, it is difficult to say too much about the story with out giving too much away. Once you start watching, you may think that you have figured it all out immediately. While this may or may not be the case, the fun is watching the story unfold, while yet another classic scenario of this genre folds itself into the plot. The characters are all readily recognizable and respond true to form. The dialog, acting, special efffects and props suit the over all effort to a tee. The viewer, when done, may be left feeling that they have seen this before, but, they haven't... not all at once and never all in the same movie! Get a group together to watch this one ala MST2000. The more the merrier for a guaranteed fun evening.

... The grotesque dialogue and meandering plotline offer nothing to the viewer more than possible gastro-intestinal problems. This is not even a film that could entice fans of "quality" B-flicks for the sake of amusement. I, personally, enjoyed the Evil Dead series, Killer Klownz from Outer Space and eagerly anticipate watching Sgt. Kabuki-man, NYPD. I'm not certain I could watch this movie again even if shown as part of an Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode (which I enjoy also). ...

That said, it's a sci-fi flick without any coherant plot wherein even the slightly well-known actors display acting skills on par with the last elementary-school play you've been to. I sincerely believe that any actor of any standing in this movie was blackmailed to appear in it. If you want comparatively quality movie-watching, watch USA-network movies, the series VIP or any porno you can think of....

On only a 2.5 million dollar budget this is quite a fun and well done movie. The acting is surprisingly good and the special effects are decent. But the main part that stands out in this movie is the music soundtrack. Great music for this movie! This composer should be proud of himself and should be getting more offers soon.

Awesome effects, big-budget feel. Who is this David Douglas guy? Pretty cool stuff!

The main interest for this production is that it was shot mostly on location in the vicinity of Juneau, Alaska around 1950. Some of the cinematograqphy is really quite good and, speaking as an Alaskan, very typical of the area. It would have been even more interesting from a nostalgia point of view were ther more scenes around Juneau itself. The preconceptions of the time about Alaskans, Russians, playboys, and lone wolf genius scientists are quite amusing. Denver Pyle is the only immediately recognizable actor although two other supporting actors are very good and worked almost constantly during the period. The leading man and lady are straight out of a Buster Crabbe serial while the plot doesn't quite rise to even that level. Were I not very familiar with the area and a fan of old science fiction and B-movies, I doubt that I'd have purchased this one.

"The Flying Saucer" has the distinction of being the first movie about UFO's, with Mikel Conrad doing the Orson Welles bit by writing, directing and starring in this 1950 science fiction film. Actually, this ends up being more of a Cold War spy film. Conrad plays Mike Trent, a playboy agent for the CIA who heads up to Alaska to investigate flying saucer sightings. Accompanying Agent Trent is Vee Lagnley (Pat Garrison), who poses as his nurse; the cover story is that Trent has had a mental breakdown and has returned home to Alaska to recooperate. However, the couple's opportunity for fun at the local hunting lodge is dashed when they not only spot a flying saucer but discover a gang of Soviet spies have come across the Bering Strait to also learn the secret of the saucer and control it for their Commie masters. Why is the saucer so important? Because the CIA believes it can be used to carry atomic weapons. Seriously. That is what they think and they are worried. Because in 1950 nobody remembered how to put an atomic bomb in a B-29 and drop it on anybody, I guess. This might be why Mike Trent drinks so much in this film. As for the Soviet spies, they basically make Boris and Natsaha look good, and the chief value of this film is probably how it reflects the rampant anti-Soviet sentiment that was going to fuel McCarthyism. Actually, I have to wonder why Conrad felt the need to put flying saucers into this film, because they are really nothing more than a hook...

Having never watched this film before i was afraid it would turn out to be one of the worst of the 50's sci-fi classics. But i was pleasantly surprised, sure nobody can deny that it suffers from a lack of action and special effects[more shots of the saucer and a faster pace would have helped]but the film boasts superb location photography of Alaska. I also thought that the film's star Mikel Conrad[he also wrote, produced and directed] made a likeable hero playing a millionaire playboy recruited by the government to track down those responsible for the saucer[shades of an early james bond type character i think]. My only gripe was concerning the russians who also wished to get their hands on this super flying machine,why were they speaking with perfect american accents? was there a shortage of russian actors in 1950 or maybe these russians had attended an american linguistics school! This film also differs from other 50's sci-fi movies plotwise in that it has absolutely nothing to do with aliens or outer space, it is definately earthbound and therefore slightly disappointing in that respect,but on the whole a worthy addition to any serious 50's sci-fi fan's dvd collection. Just a few annoyances about the dvd itself,the quality of the original print is quite poor and could have done with restoration also the film appears broken and rejoined in quite a few places, a pity!

W. Lee Wilder, brother of Billy Wilder, directed this exciting tale of people sitting around and talking while an invisible space alien flees all who come into his invisible path. Unfortunately, this 1953 clunker is not as beautifully campy and tacky as Wilder's "Killers from Space" or "Snow Creature," though it does feature some hilarious film-noir method acting in the person of a needlessly abusive cop who simply won't take anyone's word for anything. When the lead characters aren't sitting around discussing the obvious, they are running around outside and shouting the obvious. Perhaps this is some primal reaction to the unseen.

W. Lee Wilder had a penchant for making enjoyably average yet largely forgettable science fiction films. In Phantom From Space (1953), he introduces us to a much more agreeable alien than that found in his more familiar Killers From Space of the following year. Okay, so the phantom does kill a few people and cause some serious oil fires, but it's not all his fault. He's just not a people person, you see, what with being invisible and all. He's also not that bright, choosing to ditch his spacesuit and helmet rather than fall into the clutches of the humans on his tail. He needs something akin to a methane gas atmosphere in order to breathe, and a helmet-less jaunt on earth with its oxygen-based atmosphere threatens to cut short his visit in a most significant way.

The film starts out with an unidentified object hurtling from Alaska to the California coast, where the object seems to disappear. Mobile communications folks are sent out to determine the source of interference suddenly wreaking havoc in the area, and these guys keep bumping into cops investigating murders and other acts of destruction. Soon, these different forces team up with an army man and a scientist, and everyone eventually comes to the amazing conclusion that the source of all the trouble is actually a humanoid not of this world. The ending is not exactly a bright and chipper one, but it is just about the only plausible ending possible and, in its own way, it works pretty effectively.

I actually enjoyed Phantom From Space, despite a number of slow scenes in the first half of the film. The actors are reasonably good albeit colorless, and I was amused at the way the lead scientist seemed to become more and more German as the action progressed. There are certain limited parallels between this movie and Monster a Go-Go, and I feel compelled to state that the conclusion of Phantom From Space is far, far better than what you will find in its B-movie cousin. There's nothing here to make this film stand out, but it is a relatively painless and occasionally interesting cinematic diversion.

i liked the movie over-all. i liked the old-time mannerisms , these old flics are like windows into the past.
the story tho could have wrapped up better.
the alien kept trying to communicatem but the earthlings just didn't seem too excited about trying to figure out what he was saying. He dies because they are stupider than the crew of a star trek ship who can always find something to modify to solve a mewrely technical problem.
The foot chases are almost like the Keystone cops chases in the old silent movies.
a good movie to watch with friends when you need an opportunity to feel superior and have a laugh at some long dead movie people.

When they say that some movies get better as they go along they didn't mean this one. It is the worst movie I have seen in years. The acting is bad, the plot is bad and it does not get better as you go along. It is a very predictable movie so you will know what is going to happen before it happens almost every time. Not a movie to waist your time on.

I have a hobby of watching bad movies with my friends. We even have a website where we put our reviews up them up now. This was the original movie that got us started on the genre of B Movies.

This movie has everything: actors who have the talent of a high school play, bad 80's special effects, a drunken vicar, strip club scenes thrown in for no plot development ((just thrown in to try to keep the male audience interested)), ERIC ESTRADA! , and a mini van of death! This movie is great for a good laugh so get it, gather a bunch of friends together, and have a good evening laughing away!

A male visitor from Venus lands in what they say is USA, but in fact is the dullest of English country-sides, populated by people who barely seem to notice his arrival. In fact, they're too busy doing what they've been doing all their lives: uninspired English matinee theatre. If instead of a visitor from Venus the man Helmut Dantine were, say, a visitor from Tonga, the required changes in the script would be minimal, and the locals' astonishment at his speaking impeccable Oxford English might perhaps be even greater. Although one of the most unbearably boring sci-fi movies of all times, "Stranger from Venus" provides first-rate documentary evidence of the profound, meaningful changes which the notion of Alien (both terrestrial and extra-) has undergone in the intervening 50 years. It also shows how even inane sci-fi script-writing has gone a long way...

This one definitly has a familiar theme to it. Namely "The Day The Earth Stood Still". While not as good it still has an interesting storyline. My only problem with this film is the lack of sci-fi effects. Only a brief encounter with a flying saucer. Well acted and the transfer to DVD is very good. Like i said, good not great.

This film deserves more attention I think because it deals as much with the response of earth establishment types as it does with the possible aliens themselves...

The plot concerns an alien landing in a remote British village... and how this alien relates to earthly preferences and habits... This alien has compassion and vision and is willing to share it with humanity..but of course the establishment types are not ready for this and soon botch thinks up horribly!

It has a strong anti military flavor to it as well as antinuclear testing... The alien warns that continued testing could cause a destabilized earth orbit which could endanger other worlds... among other things...

The special effects are not unusual or even spectacular... but they managed to create an aura of mystery none the less!

Do not bother to buy or even rent this one. The girls are not good looking and there is no story. It was a total waste of money!

"Wham-Bam-Thank You, Spaceman" was a major disappointment in every respect, except that most of the women in it are really good looking. It must have come out near the end of the nudie-cutie movie craze, because the language and actions are much more graphic than earlier Harry Novak productions. Virtually every other word uttered by the aliens is an expletive. After a while the effect of that is neither funny or shocking but boring. The absolute low point of the movie comes when the aliens watch a woman being attacked. Their idea of helping her is waiting until AFTER she's raped, beaming her on board their spaceship and having sex with her. Then they return her to her attacker and she turns the tables on him by raping him. And this is supposed to be a comedy! In addition to the film, the DVD includes a couple of theatrical shorts. "The Peeper" is fairly tame, but "Daughters Of Darkness" involves a satanic cult of devil worshippers. Unbelievable!

I am not sure exactly what is expected from people that gave this film a poor review. It is 70's standard sexploitation schlock. No story, no acting, no dialogue. I would tend to think it rare to find ANY soft core 70's film to be much different. Still, the DVD is LOADED with great bonuses. If nothing else, consider it archival footage of the "late night after 11pm on a Friday night at Cinemax" film clip festival. There are some 6 trailers, all replete with nudity, as well as dozens of posters/ephemera of these and many other Harry Novak films that play on the screen while accompanied with audio tracks. The tracks are radio spots for these films, and I would dare anyone to find this stuff anywhere else. Best of all, there are two short films, one of which is VERY racy.

The goofy film gets 3 stars of 5 for the type of film it is. Let's not confuse it with Casablanca or Star Wars or something it should not be stacked against. The DVD itself gets 5 stars+ out of 5. A wonderful surprise to see a DVD so loaded with great stuff since the title itself is so poor.