Rugs Movie Reviews

Gone to Texas is a good TV movie about the life of Sam Houston. It follows Houston from his days as the Governor of Tennessee all the way through to his time as the commander of the army during the Texas War for Independence. Interweaved through it all is depictions of the fall of the Alamo, the Goliad massacre, and also the government convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos. This is also one of the only movies to show the taking of San Antonio by the Texans three months before the siege of the Alamo.

This may not be very interesting to people who do not already know something about Houston or at least some background about the time. Sam Elliott is pretty good as Sam Houston with Michael Beck giving a decent performance as the knife fighter Jim Bowie. There is a very good presentation of the battle for San Jacinto as well. Interesting movie which does take a while to get going.

This made for TV movie is a decent attempt to portray one of the central figures in the Texas Revolution and the subsequent history of Texas. Told from the perspective of Sam Houston, the story begins with a cameo of Houston's election as Govenor of Tennessee and a very brief explanation of his subsequent journey to Texas on the eve of revolution.

The history portrayed is largely correct, and the scenes of battle (at the Alamo and at San Jacinto) are carefully portrayed and present viewpoints and information rarely seen elsewhere. I would like to have seen Sam Elliot shave off his famous moustache for the film, but I guess I can overlook that. As one of the many Jacksonian era living history reenactors whose time, effort, and presence made the movie, and especially the battle scenes, more accurate and memorable, I am somewhat prejudiced about the film's merits. Still, viewed from a historical perspective, it gives a good overview of the passions and politics that forged the Republic of Texas. If you want to learn something about the way Texas became an independent Republic, this movie beats reading almost any single account of the story. There are a few glaring flaws in the movie, but they pale in comparison to the overall product. Academy Award material? No, but a long way from boring.

"Gone to Texas" is one of those films that resonate with truth. Sam Elliott is one of the great actors of our time, and his portrayal of Sam Houston is incredible! A fine supporting cast, and a brilliant recreation of the battle of San Jacinto! This is a movie worth owning! An awesome made-for-television historical epic! Grade: A+

Lots of fun for all ages. Micky Dolenz and Mary Woronov played the villians exquistly. Well worth the time and money enjoyable from the begining.

This movie was pretty good, kinda childish at times, but what do you expect? Trenton Knight was enjoyable as the young son, Josh.But Invisible Mom #2 was an absolute bomb; it was about as entertaining as watching paint dry. Even tho I'm a fan of Justin Berfield, even he couldn't save it from mediocrity.

I thought this was a great movie for any kid to watch. I usually fall asleep watching movies, but this one I just couldn't. I made myself stay awake to watch it. I have to say this is a great movie.

"Anatomy Of A Psycho" is rumored to be based on a story written by Ed Wood, using the pseudonym Larry Lee. It's a juvenile delinquent film, a genre in which Ed excelled. The character being executed for murder is named Duke Marco. Duke Moore appeared in several Ed Wood movies, and Paul Marco played Kelton the cop in "Bride Of The Monster," "Plan 9 From Outer Space" and "Night Of The Ghouls." Some of the background music in this film was used in "Plan 9 From Outer Space." "Anatomy Of A Psycho" was a very low budget production, the black and white print is of a very poor quality, and the acting is abysmal. There's a lot of action in the film, including several fights, a house fire and someone being stabbed to death. Unfortunately, just as the main character is about to meet a violent death, the movie wimps out with a happy ending. Whether or not Ed Wood actually wrote the screenplay, this movie has many of the characteristics of Wood's work.

"Hatchet For The Honeymoon" is one of Mario Bava's lesser efforts. His usual visual style and effective use of colors are lacking when compared to his earlier movies. There's never any question as to the identity of the killer. While some of the scenes are shocking, the gore is tame by today's movie standards. Many beautiful models are killed throughout the course of the film. The last intended victim's character name is Helen Wood! Is that a coincidence or another clue as to the true identity of the first film's writer? My advice is to watch both movies and draw your own conclusions!

ANATOMY OF A PSYCHO: More a "Juvenile Delinquent" film than a horror movie. About a psychotic killer named Chet [Darrell Howe] who prowls the night murdering people to avenge the death of his guilty brother Marco who was sent to die in the gas chamber. Although the advertising campaign centred around Howe's Manson like eyes, top billing in this film went to Ronnie Burns [Son of George and Gracie], plays the boyfriend of Chet's sister, and the innocent forced to take the fall for Chet's crimes because his fathers testimony sent Marco to his death. Producer-director Brooke L. Peters and scripter Jane Mann both worked on The Unearthly (1957) with John Carradine and Tor Johnson. Sometimes sleazy, mostly cheesy, and a terrible print of this Drive-in B-Movie.
HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON: Psychological thriller about a mild mannered fashion designer [Stephen Forsyth] who slowly goes insane hacking up young models in wedding outfits. The killer has visions of his childhood, which somewhat explains his odd behaviour. After his own nagging bride complains one too many times, he murders her only to have her ghost (or his conscience) haunt him into insanity. Good use of color, and strong images by director Mario Bava. A must for fans of Euro-Horror

Anatomy of a Psycho. Good title wasted on totaly boring movie with actors you know you'll never see again. no stars.Hatchet for Honeymoon stylish Italian horror thriller by Mario Bava makes more of old wheeze about mad killer wondering why he kills that you expect. Actors good too. Fashion scenes a real blast from the past. Cartoon is excllentBetty Boop Snow White. Nice format but why does company put on a dud like Anatomy? Even their FBI warning is more entertaining. Previews include Creature From Haunted Sea worth watching for Creature. Hatchet holds interest throughout. Just as eye candy the Bava cinematography is worth the price of the movie.

This video includes a number of sequences involving large-breasted women as well as a few short commentaries by Russ Meyer. The scenes include two maids who strip for the occupant of a hotel room, four women in various states of undress in a 50's diner, and two women who remove their bikinis by the pool, as well as some rather silly and poorly produced sequences involving four women in an orchestra, women with different sized breasts comparing them to lemons, apples, oranges, and melons, and a woman with *huge* breasts naked in a bar.

There is no sex of any kind in this video, and Russ Meyers' commentaries are very dull and are included as obvious padding for a somewhat short video. Further, while some of the women are very attractive (a few of the larger-breasted playmates are used), fully half of the women in this video have comically large fake breasts which may be very appealing to breast fetishists but might appear ridiculous and even a bit grotesque to many men. Overall, Voluptuous Vixens is decidedly sub-par as a general Playboy video but certainly seems appropriate as a breast fetish video.

This movie basically has women with massive bobbies prancing, dancing and relaxing. Typical Playboy movie.. mind you, you don't exactly watch these for a moving epic story. Lots of hot women worth watching.

This video is for the fan of big busted women. It looks at about 10 different big busted models, mostly from playboy, but a few exotic dancers/porn stars and has several photo shoots for most of them. If you are not high on big busts, it is still a good, quality Playboy video, full of all that you have come to expect from them.

Poor Robert Preston. We understand that everyone needs to earn a living, but to earn it in such a fetid fashion is unforgivable. We shouldn't blame the poor music man ... the plot is inane, the writing pedestrian and the direction is stiffer than a Viagra test room. (You know something is very wrong when even the folks who wrote the packaging copy refer to the flick's co-star Lynn Redgrave as "Vanessa Redgrave." Poor Lynn is engaged to poor Robert. She "commits suicide" on the very the night she makes her Broadway debut ... in a show he wrote. Preston is out to prove it was murder, and gathers all the possibilites in an empty theater ... sort of "The Last of Sheila" meets "And Then There Were None." The careers of co-stars William Daniels, Patrick Macnee and Jeff Goldlbum managed to survive this horror. This film doesn't. Close the curtain. Now!

One of the best made-for-TV movies I've seen. A Broadway playwright tries to catch his wife's murderer by staging a play that is designed to reveal the murderer's identity. A marvelous film with many twists and turns written by Richard Levinson and William Links, who also made the equally fabulous "Guilty Conscience" and "Murder by Natural Causes." The DVD has good picture and sound quality.

Check this classic TV film from the creators of Columbo. Levinson and Link showcase the reason they are considered the best TV mystery writers ever. They created a terrific teleplay that was critically acclaimed when it first aired. If you love mysteries you MUST catch this one. Great cast (Robert Preston, Lynn Redgrave, Jeff Goldblum, Patrick McNee, Madolyn Smith), great story (you will be fooled by the ending)...and true to classic Levinson and Link...you'll be entertained.

Poor Robert Preston. We understand that everyone needs to earn a living, but to earn it in such a fetid fashion is unforgivable. We shouldn't blame the poor music man ... the plot is inane, the writing pedestrian and the direction is stiffer than a Viagra test room. (You know something is very wrong when even the folks who wrote the packaging copy refer to the flick's co-star Lynn Redgrave as "Vanessa Redgrave." Poor Lynn is engaged to poor Robert. She "commits suicide" on the very the night she makes her Broadway debut ... in a show he wrote. Preston is out to prove it was murder, and gathers all the possibilites in an empty theater ... sort of "The Last of Sheila" meets "And Then There Were None." The careers of co-stars William Daniels, Patrick Macnee and Jeff Goldlbum managed to survive this horror. This film doesn't. Close the curtain. Now!

One of the best made-for-TV movies I've seen. A Broadway playwright tries to catch his wife's murderer by staging a play that is designed to reveal the murderer's identity. A marvelous film with many twists and turns written by Richard Levinson and William Links, who also made the equally fabulous "Guilty Conscience" and "Murder by Natural Causes." The DVD has good picture and sound quality.

Check this classic TV film from the creators of Columbo. Levinson and Link showcase the reason they are considered the best TV mystery writers ever. They created a terrific teleplay that was critically acclaimed when it first aired. If you love mysteries you MUST catch this one. Great cast (Robert Preston, Lynn Redgrave, Jeff Goldblum, Patrick McNee, Madolyn Smith), great story (you will be fooled by the ending)...and true to classic Levinson and Link...you'll be entertained.

I'd seen one Russ Meyer movie before, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, and remembered it as a fun frolic filled with bountiful babes. So I bought Up! hoping for some light-hearted fun along the same lines, and boy was I disappointed. Up! is a mean-spirited, unfunny, violent movie that happens to have a fair amount of nudity. There are a few worthwhile moments, but none of them ends up being sexy because almost every scene ends with a rape or graphic murder. Not exactly what I call fun filmmaking!

"Up" is so much better than other soft porn movies. It has lots of large, naked breasts and bizarre, creative dialogue and plot. The acting, cinematography, editing and picture quality is all top-notch stuff. However, I'm not sure it is worth the exhorbitant price. If Russ is going to charge 30-40 dollars for his fine films, he could at least spend an hour and a half doing a commentary track.

Russ Meyer, the Fellini of the sex-industry, has finally started to release his legendary films on DVD. The first series of his cult-classics to hit the digital format are MONDO TOPLESS, CHERRY HARRY AND RAQUEL, and RUSS MEYER'S UP! Although all three of these films are essential viewing, RUSS MEYER'S UP! is probably the best one, and a perfect place to start for both novices and aficionados alike!

RUSS MEYER'S UP! starts off in the inimitable Russ Meyer style... German sex-fiend Adolph Schwartz (who bares an almost uncanny resemblance to another famous Adolph) is mysteriously murdered when an unseen assassin places a piranha into his bath tub! In the meantime, a beautiful and well-endowed woman is seen jogging into town... The rest of the film is basically your standard whodunit, sparkling with witty and hilarious dialogue (co-written by famous film critic Roger Ebert), and punctuated with Russ Meyer's trademark touches... Flashy editing, top-notch direction, visual puns, indescribably humor, graphic sex and excessive violence clash together in one of Meyer's most entertaining spoofs. And just in case you get confused, Kitten Natividad shows up occasionally as an all-nude Greek Chorus, to recite the facts and pose open-ended questions, the whole time speaking in Meyer's trademark Shakespearean accent and ready to break out into an orgasm at any moment! The highlight of the flick occurs when Janet Wood and Raven De La Croix engage in what has to be one of the most memorable fight sequences to grace exploitation cinema! Bosomania indeed!

And, of course, it wouldn't be a Russ Meyer film without a colorful and offbeat cast of characters! Edward Schaaf as the aforementioned kinky nazi, Robert McLane as the sensible Paul, Janet Wood as the Sweet li'l Alice, Monty Bane as the perverted sheriff Homer Johnson, and the magnificent Raven De La Croix as the mysterious Margo Winchester are just some of the unusual personalities that populate Russ Meyer's twisted flick!

Needless to say, RUSS MEYER'S UP! is an essential purchase for all you cult-film fans out there! This was Meyer's second to last major film (BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRA-VIXENS was his swan-song), and by now, the celebrated auteur had perfected his directorial style! For intelligent, hilarious, and witty X-Rated entertainment, you can't possibly go wrong!

This is the most overrated film I've seen in a while. I hoped for a violent, sexist, stark, disturbing biker film, and I got cheese. The motorcycles are awful, some of them are like dirt bikes and others no self-respecting biker would ever ride. The Satans colors look like iron-on patches. The violence is very antiseptic, with very litte gore, almost no nudity, and no realism. The plot and continuation are pathetic; could someone explain to me how the manniken-haired "good guy" got up that mountain so quick at the end to fight Firewater, or better yet, why? Also, the picture and sound quality are abyssmal, rendering whole sections of the movie unwatchable. A total waste of time and money, and completely misrepresented by anyone who gives it a good review.

One of the greatest biker films of all time. Very nasty, raw and violent. "...Released during the height of the biker film craze, the film made enough money to finance several more movies..." The simple western good guys vs. Bad guys type plot consists of a bike gang who "...terrorize some people at a desert diner until the gang is done in by a drifting Vietnam vet..." This is Al Adamson's breakthrough film, which propelled him and partner Sam Sherman into business with the introduction of a company called Independent International Pictures Corp. The film was intended to be the jewel which they would market to the drive-in crowd. "...not at all typical Adamson fare... It contained no footage from other movies..." Extreme for the time, the film starts with the rape of a large breasted women, and later LSD being forced to unwitting girls before they are raped and murdered. Miles away from the usual Hollywood type exploitation biker movies that regulars like Casey Kasem [Cycle Savages (1969) / Wild Wheels (1969) acted in. This is a film that strayed far away from the mainstream, and found an audience amongst the anti-establishment film going crowd who were eating up such films as: The Wild Angels (1966) or Easy Rider (1969). Said to be "...the Citizen Cane (1941) of biker films..." So extreme that many say that the film almost ruined the career of the main star Russ Tamblyn [West Side Story (1961) Twin Peaks (1990 - 91). The anti-police speech Tamblyn does, as he sits on top the car is probably the highlight of the movie. Shot in 16mm and blown up to 35mm to save money for the casting. Al Adamson managed to hire such notables as John 'Bud' Cardos [Hells Angels on Wheels (1967) / Psych-Out (1968)], Greydon Clark [Skinheads (1989)], and Regina Carrol [Beat Generation (1959) / Viva Las Vegas (1964)] who later married director Al Adamson. Audio commentary on the disc by Sam Sherman, also features a radio interview with Regina Carrol, some behind the scenes photos, and short documentary called 'Producing Schlock'

The movie starts promisingly with a couple indulged in petting suddenly interrupted by a gang of bikers. They drug the girl and rape her, then set the forcibly drugged and drunk couple in their car and roll the car over the edge of a cliff.
And the action never stops in this fine drive-in classic biker movie dubbed by producer Sam SHERMAN as the "CITIZEN KANE of biker movies". Well, I don't agree to that (in my view the best biker film of all time is the Spanish THE MAD FOXES), but SATAN`S SADISTS is great fun nevertheless.
The further plot concerns a former marine hitchhiking through the California desert, who is offered a lift by a middle-aged couple, a cop and his wife on second honeymoon. They decide to have a meal at a roadside diner. Suddenly the biker gang arrive at the diner! You can probably guess, what happens next: the bikers make trouble, molesting the waitress and harrass the cop's wife, prompting the cop to draw a revolver. Things get nasty, resulting in the policeman's wife getting raped (unfortunately we don't get to see too much nudity here) and the death of the cop, his wife and the diner's owner. The ex-marine and the waitress escape in the desert, killing two bikers in the process. One guy meets a particularly nasty end by being drowned in the toilet! The furious bikers give chase and the couple must fight for their life...

WOW! They don't make movies like that anymore. SATAN`S SADISTS is a sleaze masterpiece, full of violence, nudity, violent sex and drug abuse. The film is rather anti-establishment, like many movies of the period. And the characters are really cool! Sure, the ex-marine is a bit boring as well as his new found girlfriend, the waitress. But the bikers deliver. Particularly Russ TAMBLYN is great as the cool but psychopathic gang's boss Anchor. He delivers a nice anti-establishment speech before shooting the cop and the other victims at the diner. And his accomplices are a rather weird bunch! Two of the gang members are handicapped, a biker is one-eyed (but wears sunglasses nonetheless), another even needs a hearing aid (!). The only concern of the bikers seems to be sex and getting stoned. And the dialogue is sometimes over the top - like when the bikers encounter three girls in the desert, one of them sunbathing topless, which prompts one biker to remark "She is keeping her milk warm."
Oh yeah, I really love this movie.

The DVD itself is filled with lots of extra features. First, there is an introduction to the movie vy producer Sam SHERMAN, who talks about how cool the film is and that it has gained a cult following worldwide. This segment however looks like it was shot 100 years ago.
Producer SHERMAN also appears in an interesting interview. This guy knows some stories to tell and it is fun to listen to him. The producer also provided an audiocommentary on which I can not comment, because I did not listen to it and I am generally not a fan of audiocommentaries. However I did listen to the radio interview with Regina CARROL, wife of director Al ADAMSON and staring in SATAN`S SADISTS as "freak-out girl". It is a promotional piece and again fun to listen to. There is also a gallery of behind-the-scenes photographs, presented in a way, as if they were shown in a drive-in theatre.
Then there is the film's trailer, which is outstanding. It starts with a disclaimer: THE SHOCKING SCENES YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE ARE NOT SUGGESTED FOR THE WEAK OR IMMATURE. IF YOU CANNOT TAKE IT, WE ADVISE YOU TO NOW PATRONIZE THE CONCESSION STAND OR LOOK AWAY FROM THE SCREEN DURING THIS PREVIEW OF "SATAN'S SADISTS". The trailer promotes the film with the tagline A REBELLION OF HUMAN GARBAGE! Seeing is believing.
There are also 3 TV teaser trailers for the film as well as four additional trailers for other films, all directed by Al ADAMSON: DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN (trashy beyond belief, only for diehard trash film fans), the slightly better zombie romp BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR, ANGELS WILD WOMEN (a promising looking exploitation flick) and GIRLS FOR RENT (titled erronously I SPIT ON YOUR CORPSE on the trailer menue) starring XXX actress Georgina SPELVIN of THE DEVIL IN MRS. JONES fame.
A great disc!

If you like entertaining, violent, politically incorrect B-movies, buy it! You won't be disappointed.

I bought this film only today & despite the quality cast & talented director, this film was a real disappointment. The plot is minimal as was to be expected and the stunt action was well on track with all Jet Li movies. But the voices.............

No. what let this film down were the appalling voice-overs. Why? For Gods sake Why? Karen Mok, who is my all time favorite actress speaks flawless, cultured English and yet her voice and those of the other actors are dubbed over by people who sound like 'chipmunks on speed', (for those who remember the cartoon chipmunks, alvin, simon & theodore).

Surely a film budget could stretch to allowing voice-overs by people who speak both languages fluently? God knows there's enough Cantonese who speak the Queens English and could have been trained to dub for cinema to cover those actors, such as Jet Li whose spoken English at the time of this film wasn't all that great!

I've seen it the once, it didn't cost me all that much, but I'll be honest, this was far from being Tsui Hark's best work and as much as I love Karen Mok, I won't watch this film again because it just isn't worthy of her. This film was simply bad and my apologies to Jet Li fans, (who I admire as an action star), but his stunt efforts simply don't carry this dud over the line.

Good choregraphed fight scenes by Yuen woo ping and good performance by Jet Li as usual. But a bit too unbeliveable, because if they cant feel pain, then they cant know where their feets or hands are so how can they do martial arts? pretty stupid in fact, they should have thought it thru before filming it.

As a Jet Li fan, I really enjoyed the fight scenes in this movie, but the story is nothing. My version is dubbed in english and probably cut, so cant rate this one fair. Anyway, see this movie for the fight scenes, not for the story.

I bought this film only today & despite the quality cast & talented director, this film was a real disappointment. The plot is minimal as was to be expected and the stunt action was well on track with all Jet Li movies. But the voices.............

No. what let this film down were the appalling voice-overs. Why? For Gods sake Why? Karen Mok, who is my all time favorite actress speaks flawless, cultured English and yet her voice and those of the other actors are dubbed over by people who sound like 'chipmunks on speed', (for those who remember the cartoon chipmunks, alvin, simon & theodore).

Surely a film budget could stretch to allowing voice-overs by people who speak both languages fluently? God knows there's enough Cantonese who speak the Queens English and could have been trained to dub for cinema to cover those actors, such as Jet Li whose spoken English at the time of this film wasn't all that great!

I've seen it the once, it didn't cost me all that much, but I'll be honest, this was far from being Tsui Hark's best work and as much as I love Karen Mok, I won't watch this film again because it just isn't worthy of her. This film was simply bad and my apologies to Jet Li fans, (who I admire as an action star), but his stunt efforts simply don't carry this dud over the line.

Good choregraphed fight scenes by Yuen woo ping and good performance by Jet Li as usual. But a bit too unbeliveable, because if they cant feel pain, then they cant know where their feets or hands are so how can they do martial arts? pretty stupid in fact, they should have thought it thru before filming it.

As a Jet Li fan, I really enjoyed the fight scenes in this movie, but the story is nothing. My version is dubbed in english and probably cut, so cant rate this one fair. Anyway, see this movie for the fight scenes, not for the story.