Don Movie Reviews

"What kind of name is Peter Gunn?" "What kind of name is Jack Deth?" is just one of the memorable lines you will see in this low budget 1985 cult thriller "Trancers," starring the ever reliable Tim Thomerson and a struggling Helen Hunt. "Trancers" spawned five sequels, all of which never quite duplicated the fun of the original. I saw somewhere on the Internet that Thomerson is the "King of the B movies," but "Trancers" is the one film he made that stands head and shoulders above all others. If you draw a blank with the name "Tim Thomerson," you most likely saw him in a few bigger budget pictures, such as "Air America, "Uncommon Valor," and "Who's Harry Crumb?" He's done television work as well, appearing on "Xena" and "The Days of Our Lives." Once you recognize Thomerson, you'll remember his appearance in numerous films. Helen Hunt should need no introduction, but the fact that she appears in this low budget film is oddly jarring. Hunt went on to appear in two "Trancers" sequels before moving on to "Mad About You" and eventual stardom.

"Trancers" opens with a futuristic L.A. The majority of Los Angeles sits under water, a victim of a massive earthquake. A council rules the remaining areas of the city, but their reign is under fire by a man named Whistler, an evil psychic with the ability to put certain weak-minded people (called squids) under a "trance." Whistler hopes to overthrow the council with his trancer shock troops. Trancers tend to be rather ugly blokes, with crusty looking lips and yellowish skin. The council dealt a series of blows to Whistler and his movement with the help of trancer hunters like Jack Deth. Deth and his fellow officers move around the city, hunting down trancers in order to kill them. Jack refers to this process as "singeing" because a trancer shot with a gun burns away, leaving only a black, ashy outline on the ground.

After Jack quits the force over a dispute with his boss, he's suddenly called back to duty when an emergency arises. It seems Whistler sent himself "down the line" (read: time traveled into the past) to Los Angeles in 1985, where he hopes to hatch a plan that will doom the council and allow himself to take over. Jack Deth must now follow Whistler back in time in order to put an end to the nightmare of the trancers. When Jack goes down the line he meets Lena (Helen Hunt), who quickly becomes a part of the mission to track down Whistler. Predictably, a romance springs up between Deth and Lena as the two race around L.A. battling Whistler's new batch of trancers.

It's difficult to tell if "Trancers" is a serious science fiction film or a sly spoof. There are a lot of gags and jokes centered on Christmas in 1985 Los Angeles, especially with Lena's job as an elf at a department store. I don't want to spoil this scene for you, but it is one of the funniest things I've seen in awhile. Imagine a battle with foam candy canes, a set of antlers, and a falling Christmas prop and you'll get the idea. This battle in the mall also leads to one of the funniest lines in the film when a lady calls security on a walkie-talkie and squawks, "Security, we've got trouble at the North Pole." If the idea of a singed Santa named Murray appeals to you, buy "Trancers" right away.

There are other elements in this film that might appeal to the dedicated cheese lover. Watch how Thomerson drives the car; his hands twist and turn the wheel but the car continues moving in a straight line. Then there is the deadly effect of a tanning booth, which apparently can radiate enough heat to singe a raincoat or burn hands. Jack's special watch, which can freeze time for ten seconds, seems to stop time for minutes. These are small problems that instead of detracting from the film actually serve to add a chuckle or two. Arguably, the biggest joke in the film is the trancers themselves. They aren't that hard to kill, don't look particularly scary or dangerous, and have absolutely no powers whatsoever. You'd figure that at the very least the trancers would possess some sort of psychic power with which to threaten our heroes. You'd be wrong. These guys are so weak you could kill them by hitting them over the head with a rolled up newspaper. Be sure and watch for Deth's first encounter with a trancer in the diner of the future L.A.; I laughed for a long time over the uppercut he delivers to an old waitress when she turns out to be a trancer.

"Trancers" is actually entertaining overall, with an occasionally cool soundtrack, funny dialogue, and better acting than one usually finds in a movie of this caliber. I really enjoyed Thomerson as Jack Deth; he's fun to watch and actually makes you root for his character. It's too bad the people who made the DVD didn't take the film seriously, as the transfer is fuzzy, there's a dead spot in the middle of the movie, and no commentary. What the DVD does have, amazingly enough, is a whopping FORTY-FIVE trailers on the reverse side of the disc. Sure, the trailers are for low budget clunkers like "Puppet Master" and "Robot Wars," but it's still great to watch them. For the price, "Trancers" is well worth the time. Hopefully, the rest of the series will come out on DVD soon.

And he's never even been here before! Classic quotable ad line for the cult hit Trancers back when it played in theaters in 1985. Yeah, Trancers really played the big screen venues back before video ate up the grindhouse theater chains that booked these exploitive little trash movie gems. Charles Band (of Full Moon fame) created his own little movie studio, the now defunct Empire Pictures, which scored a megahit with Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator and, from 1983 until 1988 (or 89), released many a great piece of low rent cinema, Trancers being one the tiny studio's bigger non-Stuart Gordon hits (Ghoulies was the other one).

Jack Deth is an Angel City cop tracking down the last few Trancers, people who have become mental zombies enslaved to their psychic leader Whistler, who Deth singed (slang for dispatch revolver style) on one of the 'Rim Worlds'. But it turns out that Whistler is not dead, he has gone 'down the line' to wipe out the current Angel City Council members family lines. Deth has to go back in time, to 1985 Los Angeles, and snag Whistler before he rewrites the future to his power mad liking.

Although Trancers has plot holes and paradoxes you can drive several highways through, the script manages some real wit and fun with its premise and character actor Tim Thomerson is obviously having a blast playing Deth. The Full Moon (now Koch Distributing) DVD is just a copy of the Vestron Video laserdisc release, presenting the movie in full frame and offering up some bios and filmographies of the various actors. 40 trailers for most of Band's Full Moon output is offered on the b-side and that makes this disc all the more worth having. Recommended.

One of the greatest movie ever made! I wish all the other ones were out as well! I had 7 of them on vhs! I miss them!
Jack death is totally cool in it!!
Great special effects!
Great story! The time is the future and the country has changed! Police are called troopers and that is what jack is!
His job is to kill trancers to save the human race. He is a man that you can count on to do his job. In the future there is a war between the humans and the trancers with whistler who is the head of the trancers to went down the line to the past in the body of his ancestor who was a police officer. Jack must fight impossible odds to try to save whistler ancestor and himself and the world. Just a little bit to get the juices flowing!

When I was a kid growing up in the '70s, I thought "The Beguild" was one really cool movie. The two things I remember most from my childhood viewing of this film were Clint Eastwood's reaction to his amateur surgery and the little school girl's last line about the difference between good and bad mushrooms.Over thirty years later, I rewatched this film on DVD and I'm still fascinated by this creepy, yet highly erotic, southern-gothic tale.The story takes place in the South during the American Civil War. A little girl (Pamelyn Ferdin) is hunting in the woods for wild mushrooms and finds the badly injured Union soldier, Cpl. John McBurney (Clint Eastwood). She takes him back to her small, all-girls boarding school, where the Head Mistress (Geraldine Page) decides to let the soldier recover from his injuries, rather then immediately turn him over to the Confederate authorities.As McBurney starts to get stronger and healthier he precedes to start sexually seducing and manipulating all of the female staff and some of the students.But is he the one manipulating them or is it really the other way around? Sexual longing, jealousy and paranoia seem to be the main subjects being taught at this school.Things get so crazy (and erotic), that one really disturbing night, McBurney finds himself the subject of some table top surgery at the hands of the head mistress! Was the Head Mistress really trying to save his life or was she just being sexually vindictive? McBurney dosn't like what the ladies have done to him. He attempts to regain charge of the school and the situation, but the women serve the soldier up his just desserts in a very memorable and eerie ending! Long time Director, Don Siegel ("Dirty Harry", "Coogan's Bluff") has crafted a tense and claustrophobic film, that can really get under your skin.The film reminds me of one of those old 'EC' comic books (you know the ones your mother didn't want you warping your minds on...), where the bad guy eventually recieves some creepy, unworldly retribution for his misdeeds. But who actually is the bad guy in this film? Eastwood? The Head Mistress? The other women? I think the movie leaves this question open for interpretation. The acting in the movie is superb! Eastwood breaks out of his "Man with No Name' persona and really gives us an interesting characterization. We never know, what he is going to do next.Veteran, Broadway actresses Geraldine Page and Elizabeth Hartman both give some great,'over the top', scenery chewing performances. I love watching both their characters (the Head Mistress & the young teacher) seem to crumble in hysteria right before the viewer's eyes!The DVD to the film is pretty bares bones with little in extras (just a trailer). The picture is O.K. but the sound remastering is awful. But don't let that stop you from seeing this southern-gothic gem! If you want a tense, suspenseful film, which just might keep you up at night, then I highly recommend "The Beguild".

This superior southern gothic is one of the best of the Eastwood-Siegel collaborations, ranking just short of Dirty Harry and just above Coogan's Bluff and Eascape from Alcatraz as the most memorable of that duo's contributions to pop culture. The atomosphere is suitably weird and bizarre to create a shroud like atmosphere that ultimately envelops one of Eastwood's amoral protagonists.

The great Geraldine Paige heads the supporting cast, which also features the haunting Elizabeth Hartman (who would later die tragically, by her own hand) and a scrumptious piece of crumb cake, Jo Ann Harris.

Four stars!

This review refers to the Universal DVD edition of "The Beguiled"....

Think of Eastwood, and you think of his cool, tough characters.Harry Callahan, Josey Wales, and The Man With No Name, are the first we envision. Cpl. John McBurney is probably not at the top of that list. Yet, this is a film in which Clint really shines, and one that will hold you from start to finish with it's superb Direction by Don Siegal("Dirty Harry"/"Two Mules For Sister Sara").

The rest of the cast is also outstanding in this psychological drama set in the south during the civil war. Cpl. McBurney(Eastwood) is an injured Union soldier, discovered and nursed back to health by the residents of an all girls school.The first impulse of the Head Mistress, Miss Farnsworth(Geraldine Page) was to turn him over to the Confederate Army, but Mr. McBee, as they have so affectionately come to call him, has charmed nearly all the members of the household from Miss Farnsworth, to the 12 year old Amy(played brillantly by Pamelyn Ferdin),leading each to believe that they are the one he loves. As each disovers the truth, they begin some mind games of their own. Has Clint finally met his match in this tale of jealousy and revenge. Find out in this very different film for Clint...no guns or badges to get him through this one.

The cast includes Elizabeth Hartman, Jo Ann Harris and Melody Thomas(Scott).

Filmed in Louisiana, the picture of this 1970 film is clear and the colors lush in this transfer to DVD. It is presented in anamorphic widescreen(1.85:1). The sound in Dolby 2 Channel Mono, is decent but Mono is Mono!(I probably would have gone 5 stars if not for that). Stereo surround(at least) would be much better.There are some production notes, Cast and Filmmaker Bios, a theatrical trailer and may be viewed with English captions or with Spanish subtitles.

A must see for Clint Fans....enjoy...Laurie

There are a lot of good Clint Eastwood movies out there, but this is not one of them. Instead, this is one of the weakest of his seventies crime drama movies, an ineptly written and generally boring movie.

Eastwood plays Shockley, a Phoenix cop assigned to extradite a prostitute from Las Vegas. As a bit of silliness right off the bat, it turns out that there is even a wager at the sports books that he will not make it back to Phoenix alive. From that point on, the dumbness continues, with Shockley blindly going from one trap to another, hardly piecing anything together without being led by the hand. On the other hand, all the other cops are equally dumb, willing to shoot first and ask questions later.

There are lots of bullets flying in this movie, but interestingly, Eastwood does not fire a single one at a person. Instead, he shoots doorknobs and motorcycles. Actually, Eastwood doesn't get more than a few punches in; those expecting Eastwood kicking butt will be sorely disappointed.

This movie is strictly for Eastwood fans only; all others should go elsewhere for a good crime movie.

At this point in his career, Clint Eastwood was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. With his own production company (Malpaso), Eastwood had firm control over the projects he became involved with. His choice as a follow up to The Enforcer, the third Dirty Harry film, was The Gauntlet. This cartoonish adventure, directed by Eastwood, features a poorly written story, huge doses of excessive violence, and bad dialog with liberal doses of profanity. It is another opportunity for Clint to operate against overpowering odds, and team with then girl friend, Sondra Locke, for the first of several films in which they would star together.

Once again Clint is a cop. Ben Shockley, one of Phoenix's finest, is assigned to bring back a prisoner being held in a Las Vegas jail, to testify. Sondra Locke is the prisoner, her character Gus Mally is a prostitute, who happened to have as a client, a certain high police official with usual sexual preferences. This apparently, is sufficient reason to want her dead.

The story is a simple double cross, as forces behind the scenes manipulate various agencies of law enforcement, to turn against Shockley and his tough-talking prisoner, to prevent her from testifying. The pair is forced to make their way from Nevada back to Phoenix via a circuitous route, evading the forces of the law and other dangers.

Excessive gunfire is the featured event several times. The first time, enthusiastic Vegas cops destroy a house, while Shockley and Mally barely scurry to safety in a most implausible manner. Then a police car is thoroughly ventilated. The final and most outrageous example is the film's finale, in which Shockley drives a tour bus through a "gauntlet" of police, lined up on both sides of the street. The film's ending is an unbelievable, extended exercise in gratuitous excess. Shots are fired at close range, and the crowd of police officers behave like zombies. Violence just for violence sake can have a purpose, but this is pretty dreadful. Calling this bad writing, is a gross understatement.

Throw logic totally out the window, go along for the ride, and you can still be entertained. Although the plotting is spotty, and the dialog unpolished, there are some decent action scenes, particularly when Shockley takes to a motorcycle, and is chased by a chopper. Clint's quiet macho swagger, contrasts with the free spirited, and spunky Locke. Their relationship, both on and off screen, is really at the heart of this movie. Romance, Eastwood style, has its rough edges, and is at times almost painfully awkward. Warts and all, this film was done per Eastwood's specifications.

Though part of the "Clint Eastwood Collection", the DVD offers only a trailer as an extra. From here, the collaboration with Sondra Locke would continue for several more films, as Eastwood's career took a turn. The Gauntlet, Clint's last true action film in the 70's, is far from his best work, and is best suited to his true fans, and those who appreciate excessive gunfire

This review refers to the Warner Bros. DVD edition of "The Gauntlet"....

From the moment Ben Shockley(Clint Eastwood)steps out of his car and an empty booze bottle falls out, we know this is not the usual "Dirty Harry" character we'd been used to up to now. Ben is a cop who's chances for greatness seem to be fading with him.
Eastwood directs as well as stars in this film and we see his brillant directoral style taking hold here.

The Phoenix P.D. seem to be scraping the bottom of the barrel when they assign Shockley the job of escorting Gus Malley, a seemingly unimportant witness from Las Vegas back to Phoenix for a trial. Ben's been looking for his big break on a big case and it doesn't look like this will be it with this guy. Upon arriving in Las Vegas, Ben discovers that Gus is no guy. Gus Malley(Sondra Locke), is a local prostitute and unwilling partcipant in the journey back as well. This is not "a hooker with a heart story" though, this pro is as hard edged as they come, but she does have a brain!

The action starts as soon as they leave the jail. Someone is going to make sure that these two never make it to trial. Vegas is even giving odds against them. Everyone's after them..the mob, the cops, they even made the mistake of angering a group of bikers along the route and they're out for revenge as well. They hardly know who to trust, as they get shot at from all angles, cars blow up, they are set up and beat up. What Gus knows can cost them their lives, but Shockley is now determined to bring his prisoner in at all costs and rises to the occassion and must break through an impassable barrier set-up to keep him at bay.

It's edge of your seat drama, thrills, and fun, as Gus and Ben trade quips and get in a little romance(we couldn't expect any different with Eastwood and Locke)along the way.As usual Clint surrounds himself with the finest talent. Pat Hingle, William Prince, and Bill Mckinney turn in excellent performances as well as Eastwood and Locke. There's also a terrific jazzy score by Jerry Fielding.

The film made in 1977 looks great on this DVD transfer. It is in a widescreen on a dual layer format. The picture looks good. Clear and sharp with good color. There was occasionally a little purplish tint in places, but it didn't take away from the enjoyment of the film. The soundtrack remastered in the 5.1 Dolby Stereo was also good. The music sounded great and the dialouge always crisp. Not too much in the way of bonus material if that's what you're looking for, there's a filmography on Eastwood(his was the only one I was able to access) and a theatrical trailer. It may be viewed in French(Mono) and also has subtitles in English and French as well. You can bet on this one!

5 stars to a great Eastwood action film that can be watched again and again.

Get the Popcorn ready for this one and enjoy.....Laurie

Drink plenty of caffeine for this one, folks - it's not exactly a roller coaster ride. But that doesn't matter. I hate "roller coaster ride" movies, anyway. Still, there are several patches in this film where you glance at the time and wonder when it will end. On the concept level, however, this is a very interesting movie, particularly for the time and genre. If we could only go back and redo the special effects, make them less 2-dimensional, and re-edit it here and there, we might really have something.

Art Deco.

Big, heavy architecture. Five-pound cigarette ash trays. Gleaming, over-stylized microphones. Eight-ton elevator doors. Huge, reel-to-reel tape recorders everywhere. Even a "computer", requiring an entire building to be housed in.

The year was 1957, and yes, even the monsters of our movies were Art Deco. Kronos, an original, albeit blocky, (apologies to Irving Block!) faceless mechanical menace with a voracity for electricity and atomic power, is hell-bent on trampling all of Los Angeles before Dr. Leslie Gaskell (Jeff Morrow) figures out how to save the day. And herein is where Kronos deserves praise for being an entertaining piece of cinema which truly was art imitating life. Replete with interesting sound effects, Kronos offers up copious quantities of all of the above, and could even be a "first" in many aspects with regard to a sci-fi flick: items such as a computer with a name (S.U.S.I.E.), fiber optics, ID cards used to control access, even a doctor with the name Hubbell, leaves one to wonder where some of the science fiction greats had gotten some of their ideas.

While far from perfect (the monster has a problem maintaining the same physical proportion throughout the film), Kronos shall remain as one of my favorite bits of original Americana.

Kurt Neumann has put together a wonderful display of SciFi stuff and all of the silliness that goes along with the 1950's genre... Jeff Morrow is typically over-reactive and Barbara Lawrence is beautiful. The plot is really good and interesting, and the widescreen version shows all the great animation/special effects as were intended. A different, and very interesting, monster appears and never fails to entertain. The whole cast is quite good, and very concerned. The musical score by Paul Sawtell & Bert Shefter has been used repeatedly in other cheaper films...I'm not really sure if it was original for this one. Still, it's fun and tacky. Notice this: at the very beginning, the guy is driving down the highway in hs truck, and the music on the radio is "Something's Gotta Give". I thought that was clever.

"The Mountain Men" tells the story of two free-spirited fur trappers along the Rocky Mountain range in the mid-19th century. Billy Tyler(Charlton Heston) and Henry Frapp (Brain Keith) are two rather down-on-their luck trappers living the good life on the wide open frontier, trapping beaver, going to rendezvous, and getting drunk. But the pair get caught up in a raid by Blackfeet Indians and Tyler winds up gaining the affections of Running Moon, the wife of the powerful Blackfeet warrior Heavy Eagle, who soon becomes obssessed with killing Tyler and taking back his "property". Tyler and Frapp spend most of their time paling around and trying to keep one step ahead of the vengeful Heavy Eagle, before finally forced into the obligatory final confrontation.

"Mountain Men" is entertaining and interesting in that it depicts a timeperiod often ignored in modern film. While I felt that there was a bit of unnecessary silliness in certain segments, the film held my interest, especially so as it shows the hardships faced by many of the longhunters who went out as the outriders of white civilization, as well as the strong relationship between the whites and the native tribes with whom they lived and died. It is too bad that films of this genre are few and far between. I would also recommend the other fur-trapping classic "Jeremiah Johnson".

While I found the film long and the music tiresome, there was one OUTSTANDING performance - Stephen Macht playing Heavy Eagle! He brought incredible depth and texture to the character - playing against stereotype - fighting for his land and his woman. Macht, though not a Native American, captured the strength and nobility of the Indian nation; yes, there was cruelty and violence in the film, but there was also a deep understanding of the human condition and what it is to be persecuted without end and driven from the land of one's birth.

This movie is very entertaining and very instructive for muzzleloading enthusiasts, who participate in shooting and tomahawk throwing contests at annual rendez-vous. It shows several crucial aspects of that rough life of independent, freedom-loving, beaver trappers, or mountain men. This movie may also help to promote the sale of St. Louis Hawken rifles (Heston = Chairman of the NRA) and to raise the interest in a relatively unknown historical era towards the end of the fur trade, between, say, the Lewis and Clark Expedition by the Corps of Discovery in 1803-06 and the Fall of the Alamo in 1836, a simpler historical period, clearly far before the Civil War and its gutwrenching questions raised by the abolition of slavery, and the following unreal "cowboy" wild west fights between ranchers and settlers, as portrayed by John Wayne. The somewhat flat story of this movie "Mountain Men," of "bad indians" versus "good (white male) beaver trappers," partially fighting about an indian squaw, plays out in the Rocky Mountains near the Grand Tetons (Jackson Hole, Wisconsin), just south of the border between Canada and the USA. Some individual special fights and flights are quite well executed, e.g., a jump from a cliff in a foaming river and the portrayal of very old, but still lascivious "Jim Bridger" in his suit of steel at the rendez-vous is priceless. But, don't go to see the movie for the story, but go to see it for the bawdy and rough life style of these free-spirited mountain men, their muzzleloaders and tomahawks and their acoutrements. That life is far less idyllic and Arcadian than the 1837 drawings of Alfred Miller. See it for the spectacular scenery and vistas of the Rocky Mountain. And, of course, see it for Charleston Heston, as a fairly credible 50-year old "Lion in Winter," who, initially reluctantly, but soon convincingly, hooks up with a "trophy wife" in the form of a pretty indian squaw.

The late Dudley Moore plays George Webber; a famed playwright, songwriter and multiple Oscar winner who has success practically oozing out of his ears. But one day while out for a drive he spies a gorgeous blonde (Who else but Bo Derek?) en route to her wedding, so he follows her to the church and predictably makes a fool out of himself. Undetered by this setback, George embarks on an obsessive quest for this beautiful woman; thus placing further strain on his relationship with his girlfriend, played by Julie "Goody Two Shoes" Andrews; which already isn't helped by George's voyeuristic spying on his permanently randy Exhibitionist neighbours through a telescope.
Special highlights include the hilarious aftermath of George's first visit to a dentist in years, and of course Bo Derek in THAT swimsuit massaging suntan oil all over her thighs. She's enough to make any red-blooded male's saliva congeal to thick foamy goop. She definitely gets a "10". The story isn't that great, but in terms of laughs the movie delivers. This may be Blake Edwards' funniest movie since A SHOT IN THE DARK. Well worth a look, though it wouldn't surprise me in the least if in the name of Political Correctness and "cultural sensitivity" this movie gets retitled "Teko" (Maori for "10") in NZ in the near future. It's a strange country I live in.

This is a good movie but ignore those who say it is some movie that started a trend in the 70s, this movie came out in the last 6 months of the 1970s, way too late for it to have started any trend, it is best actually seen as a prelude to the 1980s rash of sex comedies. Moore is very funny in this and does a good job, but the director is clearly mostly interested in Derek's body, so the comedy suffers a little bit. Still, not bad at all. This like the later Arthur are both under-rated now though they were over-rated at the time they came out.

Great cast, great writing and director. Dudley Moore is a hoot and you can just look at him and laugh. Julie Andrews is not what you exept in this movie. She doesn't play Mary Poppins(nor is she really one in real life as being dubbed as a Nanny!). She is a single mother divorced and like to give the finger to the neighbors when they are spying on her and Moore. Nice to see this movie since Moore just died. Very funny scenes! A gusty movie to make in the 70's! DVD is pretty good for the price. There is a trailer and behind the scenes of writing this movie. 6 bucks in the stores and can't go wrong!

Contray to what some Amazon reviewers say on this interview, Ray Harryhausen did not work on this movie, although the effects work in this movie is stop motion animation with models, it was done by a different artist named Howard Anderson. This is really a parody of the Harryhausen films, with very corny effects work and even cornier dialoge and acting. It is a little known fact that this picture was originally shot as straight forward action adveture type picture, but then for some reason it was turned into a semi-musical with dubbed music and singing. Even the actors were surprised at this change when they saw a final print of the film. Why this change? Who knows?
But it has emerged as nothing more then a B-creature feature turned musical with very poor results.

God bless Kerwin Mathews. Not really all that great an actor, his dashing looks and his sincerity were the foundation for a series of wonderful "fantasy" films of the late 50s and early 60's: "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad," "Three Worlds of Gulliver," "Warrior Empress," and this little gem. Undoubtedly not as marvelous as Ray Harryhausen's stop motion animation, Howard Anderson's little creations are fun and imaginative, given the time this movie was made (1962). Torin Thatcher is appropriately hammy as Pendragon; Judi Meredith was ingenuishly funny as the princess, especially in her hammy witch sequences; Anna Lee was appropriately British as the betraying witch; and Walter Burke was delightful as the dwarfish aide to Pendragon. The dragon teeth soldiers are hilarious; everyone seems to be having fun and it can be said, they don't make movies like this anymore! Relax, have fun and a lot of laughs!

This is a great little film with stop motion animation (pre-CGI) that deals with magic, sorcerers, fearless heros with viking and a leprechaun. A favorite of mine as a kid with great performances by the "7th Voyage of Sinbad" cast, this movie is a family film that can be enjoyed by all ages.

This movie starts out in a small fishing town, which may or may not be getting a cannery built, depending on if the local political activist / indian chief gets his way. This whole subplot only exists to set up some explanation as to where the salmon men came from (the cannery people want to increase salmon population, and they use science - eek! - and it goes horribly wrong). Two things this introduction doesn't do is to 1) introduce the characters very well and 2) establish some sort of atmosphere. In the town, pretty much everybody dislikes pretty much everybody else; they argue, they scheme, they fight, they carry beer in from a truck. You don't really get to know (or care about) any of them. They're quite interchangeable actually. There are a few interesting secondary characters but they get little screen time, absolutely no character development at all, and are soon fodder for the special effects. As far as atmosphere, everyone seems to hang out on the dock or else go to the big annual salmon festival. And you should hear the salmon festival band - imagine a bunch of retired people going to the American Legion on a Wednesday night. Now imagine the band that might play there; now imagine a band four times worse than that. Egads, these folks must have been praying for salmon men to kill them for years if this is what they do for entertainment.

Anyhow, after suitable time is given to showing more and more of the monsters, they finally attack in force, and there's lots of blood spurting in all drections. Not an exceptionally exciting action sequence, but it is campy as can be.

Overall, this reminds me of something one might see on the Sci-Fi channel at 10:00 am on a Saturday morning. Not very good, but watchable. And there are some pretty girls getting nekkid. Too bad they didn't spend a lot more time on that, and a lot less time on those banal primary characters.

I consider myself well schooled in low budget schlock from various film genres. Watching cheesy films is an acquired taste, one not easily cultivated overnight. Even with some knowledge about who makes these types of films under my belt, I still stumble over major contributors to the clunker movie catalogue and wonder why I haven't spent time with these delicacies before now. Roger Corman is my latest discovery. I admit to having heard of Corman before in reference to the spate of Vincent Price horror classics that emerged in the 1960s along with a few other films he made over the course of his career, but until now I never saw any of them. This guy is a giant of the low budget film, producing or directing some 500 plus movies in the last forty years. He's still going strong as far as I know, and never limits himself to one particular genre; he's made westerns, horror, action, drama, and science fiction films with seeming ease. Moreover, according to the bio on this DVD, Corman helped launch the careers of numerous Hollywood bigwigs. If "Humanoids From the Deep" is any indication, I will spend a lot of time with this filmmaker's projects in the near future.

This movie really ought to be a huge cult cinema classic. Maybe it is in some circles, but if so, I never heard about it. What a shame, too, because "Humanoids From the Deep" is classic camp that rips off every 1950s monster film you ever heard about. The movie, set in a fishing town called Noyo, tells the story of a town rapidly fading away. The local tars are having a tough time catching enough fish to make a living, and just when it seems that all is lost a big time cannery corporation arrives on the scene promising to build a factory that will rejuvenate the local industry. Who can argue with an influx of well paying jobs? Certainly not a fisherman named Hank Slattery who sees dollar signs in the arrival of the suits. Most of the townspeople adopt Hank's position concerning the changing times, even level headed Jim Hill. Hill, who really doesn't care for Hank due to the man's racism against the local Indian tribe, grudgingly agrees that the cannery will help salvage the town. He's a bit suspicious about corporations in general, a thought shared by his wife, but he's willing to go along with it if it means food on table. The local Indians, led by Hank's nemesis Johnny Eagle, despise the idea of building a cannery on old tribal grounds. When a series of unexplainable incidents occur in rapid succession, the Indians and Slattery's goons duke it out with other over the future of the area.

What in the world could possibly cause all of the dogs in the area to die violently in the space of a single evening, lead to the disappearance of a few of the local ladies, and cause such discord between the Indians and the Anglo community? Why, humanoids from the deep, of course! That's right, within mere minutes we learn that Noyo has a big problem in the form of some weird half-salmon, half man beasties roaming around offshore. And these monstrosities take no prisoners, either, since they aren't above tearing open a few bodies, ripping off a few heads, or liberating a few bosoms in order to capture Noyo's women for mating purposes. Corman permeates this film with everything a low budget horror lover could want: completely unnecessary nudity, gallons of gore, and numerous massive explosions. The cars, houses, and boats blowing up in "Humanoids From the Deep" especially impressed me since the producers of the film sank a lot of money into these blossoming fireballs. This is obvious because they use the hilarious old "numerous camera angles and quick cuts" to get the most out of the effect. If you don't care explosions, there is always the gore to float your boat. The conclusion of the film, when Noyo celebrates their town festival and the humanoids make an impressive yet unannounced visit is sure to thrill you with the arterial sprays and gory amputations going on all over the place. What a great little film.

The performances aren't all that bad either. Vic Morrow plays Hank Slattery with all the menace you would expect from the late star. Doug McClure turns in steady work as the even tempered Jim Hill. The rest of the cast, while not as well known as these two actors, all do a pretty good job with their parts. Of course, the humanoids share top billing with the human actors, which is fine because the special effects used in creating these violent creatures worked quite well in my opinion. The humanoids are gruesome looking, with sharp teeth, oversized heads and arms, and a shambling gait resembling the undead in all of those Italian horror movies. I can't say I cared too much their endless shrieking and wailing, but the look and the unremitting violence of these monsters repeatedly entertains.

The DVD is quite a catch too (pun intended). You get five trailers: "Humanoids From the Deep," "Eat My Dust," "Big Bad Mama," "Death Race 2000," and "Grand Theft Auto." A short interview with Corman, conducted by Leonard Maltin, graces the DVD, along with bios for Corman and the cast. The film transfer looks good for an old film of this caliber, at least good enough to see all of the splattery effects and nubile young women running around town. "Humanoids From the Deep" is a must see for those looking for a way to spend a wacky eighty minutes.

This was another classic from filmmaker Roger Corman.You have
legitimate actors in the persons of Doug McClure,Vic Morrow and
Ann Turkel. In this movie sea creatures come from the deep to
kidnap unwilling females for mating purposes. These creatures
are a cross between a giant salmon and the Creature From the
Black Lagoon.These females are taken and held by these creatures
and of course this starts a panic in the community.The good guys
seem to have no method to stop these creatures.The special effects also add to the quality of this film.The ending of the
film is also something to see. Buy this movie.You will find it
to be very entertaining.

This movie starts out in a small fishing town, which may or may not be getting a cannery built, depending on if the local political activist / indian chief gets his way. This whole subplot only exists to set up some explanation as to where the salmon men came from (the cannery people want to increase salmon population, and they use science - eek! - and it goes horribly wrong). Two things this introduction doesn't do is to 1) introduce the characters very well and 2) establish some sort of atmosphere. In the town, pretty much everybody dislikes pretty much everybody else; they argue, they scheme, they fight, they carry beer in from a truck. You don't really get to know (or care about) any of them. They're quite interchangeable actually. There are a few interesting secondary characters but they get little screen time, absolutely no character development at all, and are soon fodder for the special effects. As far as atmosphere, everyone seems to hang out on the dock or else go to the big annual salmon festival. And you should hear the salmon festival band - imagine a bunch of retired people going to the American Legion on a Wednesday night. Now imagine the band that might play there; now imagine a band four times worse than that. Egads, these folks must have been praying for salmon men to kill them for years if this is what they do for entertainment.

Anyhow, after suitable time is given to showing more and more of the monsters, they finally attack in force, and there's lots of blood spurting in all drections. Not an exceptionally exciting action sequence, but it is campy as can be.

Overall, this reminds me of something one might see on the Sci-Fi channel at 10:00 am on a Saturday morning. Not very good, but watchable. And there are some pretty girls getting nekkid. Too bad they didn't spend a lot more time on that, and a lot less time on those banal primary characters.

I consider myself well schooled in low budget schlock from various film genres. Watching cheesy films is an acquired taste, one not easily cultivated overnight. Even with some knowledge about who makes these types of films under my belt, I still stumble over major contributors to the clunker movie catalogue and wonder why I haven't spent time with these delicacies before now. Roger Corman is my latest discovery. I admit to having heard of Corman before in reference to the spate of Vincent Price horror classics that emerged in the 1960s along with a few other films he made over the course of his career, but until now I never saw any of them. This guy is a giant of the low budget film, producing or directing some 500 plus movies in the last forty years. He's still going strong as far as I know, and never limits himself to one particular genre; he's made westerns, horror, action, drama, and science fiction films with seeming ease. Moreover, according to the bio on this DVD, Corman helped launch the careers of numerous Hollywood bigwigs. If "Humanoids From the Deep" is any indication, I will spend a lot of time with this filmmaker's projects in the near future.

This movie really ought to be a huge cult cinema classic. Maybe it is in some circles, but if so, I never heard about it. What a shame, too, because "Humanoids From the Deep" is classic camp that rips off every 1950s monster film you ever heard about. The movie, set in a fishing town called Noyo, tells the story of a town rapidly fading away. The local tars are having a tough time catching enough fish to make a living, and just when it seems that all is lost a big time cannery corporation arrives on the scene promising to build a factory that will rejuvenate the local industry. Who can argue with an influx of well paying jobs? Certainly not a fisherman named Hank Slattery who sees dollar signs in the arrival of the suits. Most of the townspeople adopt Hank's position concerning the changing times, even level headed Jim Hill. Hill, who really doesn't care for Hank due to the man's racism against the local Indian tribe, grudgingly agrees that the cannery will help salvage the town. He's a bit suspicious about corporations in general, a thought shared by his wife, but he's willing to go along with it if it means food on table. The local Indians, led by Hank's nemesis Johnny Eagle, despise the idea of building a cannery on old tribal grounds. When a series of unexplainable incidents occur in rapid succession, the Indians and Slattery's goons duke it out with other over the future of the area.

What in the world could possibly cause all of the dogs in the area to die violently in the space of a single evening, lead to the disappearance of a few of the local ladies, and cause such discord between the Indians and the Anglo community? Why, humanoids from the deep, of course! That's right, within mere minutes we learn that Noyo has a big problem in the form of some weird half-salmon, half man beasties roaming around offshore. And these monstrosities take no prisoners, either, since they aren't above tearing open a few bodies, ripping off a few heads, or liberating a few bosoms in order to capture Noyo's women for mating purposes. Corman permeates this film with everything a low budget horror lover could want: completely unnecessary nudity, gallons of gore, and numerous massive explosions. The cars, houses, and boats blowing up in "Humanoids From the Deep" especially impressed me since the producers of the film sank a lot of money into these blossoming fireballs. This is obvious because they use the hilarious old "numerous camera angles and quick cuts" to get the most out of the effect. If you don't care explosions, there is always the gore to float your boat. The conclusion of the film, when Noyo celebrates their town festival and the humanoids make an impressive yet unannounced visit is sure to thrill you with the arterial sprays and gory amputations going on all over the place. What a great little film.

The performances aren't all that bad either. Vic Morrow plays Hank Slattery with all the menace you would expect from the late star. Doug McClure turns in steady work as the even tempered Jim Hill. The rest of the cast, while not as well known as these two actors, all do a pretty good job with their parts. Of course, the humanoids share top billing with the human actors, which is fine because the special effects used in creating these violent creatures worked quite well in my opinion. The humanoids are gruesome looking, with sharp teeth, oversized heads and arms, and a shambling gait resembling the undead in all of those Italian horror movies. I can't say I cared too much their endless shrieking and wailing, but the look and the unremitting violence of these monsters repeatedly entertains.

The DVD is quite a catch too (pun intended). You get five trailers: "Humanoids From the Deep," "Eat My Dust," "Big Bad Mama," "Death Race 2000," and "Grand Theft Auto." A short interview with Corman, conducted by Leonard Maltin, graces the DVD, along with bios for Corman and the cast. The film transfer looks good for an old film of this caliber, at least good enough to see all of the splattery effects and nubile young women running around town. "Humanoids From the Deep" is a must see for those looking for a way to spend a wacky eighty minutes.

This was another classic from filmmaker Roger Corman.You have
legitimate actors in the persons of Doug McClure,Vic Morrow and
Ann Turkel. In this movie sea creatures come from the deep to
kidnap unwilling females for mating purposes. These creatures
are a cross between a giant salmon and the Creature From the
Black Lagoon.These females are taken and held by these creatures
and of course this starts a panic in the community.The good guys
seem to have no method to stop these creatures.The special effects also add to the quality of this film.The ending of the
film is also something to see. Buy this movie.You will find it
to be very entertaining.

I might have almost liked this movie, if it'd been a low budget cable film. However, since I had read the book that it was supposedly based on, I hated it. As other reviewers have noted, Jeff Goldblum, while a fine actor, is just wrong in this role. Hatch is a very ordinary guy until he almost dies and is brought back to life. Ordinary is not a word I'd use to describe any of Goldblum's roles. Christine Lahti is just wasted. In the book, she was a strong character and her husband's equal. Changing Regina from an interesting ten year old to a moronic sixteen year old decreased what little suspense there was. But the single most annoying part of the movie was the half baked new age explanations that they had for everything. The novel is rooted in Christian symbolism. Good versus Evil. Hatch and "Vassago" were both brought back from the dead. One is evil, one is good. That's the whole point of the novel, and the final chapter makes that clear. You can not replace the Christianity of the novel with Rae Dawn Chong (although she was one of the better characters in the movie) reading Tarot cards.

Better than what I was expecting, Goldblum is always on top form no matter what the movie. This film is severly creepy, although the computer effects are quite rubbish the film is saved by good acting and a heavy metal soundtrack.
If your going to watch a Goldblum movie I'd reccoment the Fly, but this is always a good rental.

I felt that although the book Hideway was ten times better than the movie,the movie had an originality of it's own. But,the book and the movie differ a lot. First of all Hatch played by Goldblum is a 5'9 160 pd. man. Goldblum on the other hand is 6'3 200 pds. Although some say this was a minor factor in the movies turnout, it was not in my eyes. No offense to Goldblum but he is better in comedic roles and playing human flies. Also in the book Regina was not a 16 year old ditsy blonde, she was an intelligent redheaded ten year old girl w/a physical handicap. HAHAHa. I think Silverstone could have played that part well. Yeah right, "as if". And last but not least Jeremy Sisto... Lets just say he was the best part of the whole movie. He is how I envisioned the killer tall,dark, and handsome. And there is something about his voice that is charming yet dangerously chilling to the bone. There are a few things that would have made the movie a bit better, maybe if the imagery was had more spice and also better portrayals of the roles. Although Goldblum and Silverstone are good actors in there own way they have proved that they can not be seen in a thriller.