Austin Movie Reviews

O.K. It goes like this: I recently sold my copy of this tape because I never watched it anymore. The first few times I watched this video (after I bought it) was fun. But after a while, it got boring. Most of the stuff on this video is just scenes & moments of the Austin-McMahon feud. If you want a video on the rivalry between S.C. Steve Austin & Mr. McMahon then go buy the McMahon vs. Austin home video.
This video is uncensored too. That's the only reason I gave it 2 stars instead of 1. There's a scene in which Cactus Jack is cutting a promo in the ring, and he says the GD word twice.
Also, there's a part where Val Venis is about to be castrated by some enemies, and you can see his nakad behind when security breaks into the locker room.
The story of The Undertaker & Kane is kind of cool, but nothing much. This video focuses on the feud between Austin & McMahon too much. Don't waste your hard earned money on this. Find something else to buy.

This was a waste of time it has stuff from '97 to late '98.But
the short parts with mick foley D-X and the nation was interuppted by the austin mcmahon battle.And dont watch this if you have bad eyes, the part with kane and undertaker will kill
your vision its mostly red and blue.DOnt buy this its not worth it...

Boy some WWF fans just have nothing better to do but complain. The Austin vs McMahon Feud was the backbone of RAW. It deserves the amount of video time it received. I would have liked a bit more focus on The Rock. I like the Val Venus segments. They definitely were worth a chuckle or two. Some of the Undertaker/Kane stuff dragged on a bit in spots. Jackie vs Sable does not actually stand the test of time. However, the good clearly overshadows the bad. Dr Austin is the house. What more could you want?

If I could give this movie a -1 star rating I would emphatically do so.

With a poorly written script, mediocre acting (not the least of which is James Caan doggedly referring to sailors as "soldiers"), inacurate uniform details and an amazingly incompetent misportrayal of both Clayton Hartwig and Kendall Truitt this is easily the worst movie I have ever seen.

I have often watched "real life dramas" made into movies and wondered how much is true and how much is "Hollywood". Well - I can say with absolute certainty and first hand experience that this movie is 99% Hollywood and 1% Truth.

If you really want to know about what happened aboard the USS Iowa and why it may have happened you are much better off reading the book, "A Glimpse of Hell" (which still has its faults and problems, of course) and forgetting about this farce of a movie.

Who am I? I am GMG3 Kendall Truitt's ex-wife and I lived this movie. Take my word for it - this movie stinks!

Told from the point of view of a young ensign on the ship, it attempts to show that the Iowa was a dilapidated ship whose command structure was ignorant of anything except self-promotion. Fearing that newer high-tech gadgets would make its own guns obsolete, the gunners take increasing risks in an effort to come up with more spectacular results. Possibly they took one risk to many or possibly there was a mechanical failure but something went tragically wrong and killed 47 people. To this day there are many unanswered questions about the incident.

I did not find this movie to have any spirit, nor did it succeed in showing any new plausible theory about how the accident happened or why the Navy would think that a cover-up would be in its best interests.

There were no special features on the DVD of note.

A very good movie overall. An outstanding view of men standing up for what they believe in the face of those that would oppose them and ruin their careers.

James Caan turns in a fine performance as the Captain of the USS Iowa and Robert Sean Leonard another fine performance as the ensign that sometimes opposes the Captain and questions the Navy, even though his father is a Navy legend. These two strong personalities clash over the explosion on the Iowa and its causes.

The men of the Iowa have their own ideas of how to impress the Captain, who is on a career upswing, possibly the next Admiral and they hope to ride his coat tails. The mixture of their ideas and the Captains seeming aloofsness to his men make for a disaster when while trying to stretch the limit of the machinery a gun turret explodes. Many men die but the Navy seems content to brush it under the rug.

But the question remains, was it a horrible accident or a dereliction of duty. The facts presented here weigh in on both sides of the argument. What is the final choice? What happens when the brass get involved? Will they find a scapegoat? Will they hold someone accountable? Or will they use the faulty machinery excuse? Was there a cover-up? A whitewash? Or does the Navy tell you the truth?

Watch this excellent movie to find out.

if u want a good decent martial arts film then believe me there are plenty to choose from....exept this one. what really pisses me off is that producers con people into thinking that bruce lee apperas in so many movies by puting a picture of the kung fu master on the front of their dvds and video sleeves. it seems that the only way they can attrat people to buy or even watch their [bad] films is to put a picture of bruce lee on the sleeve. it should therefor be noted that the only films which Bruce Lee appeared in were enter the dragon, big boss, way of the dragon and fist of fury. you may also find that certain films which show jackie chan on the cover do not actually star jackie chan himself.
This film is an example of how NOT to choreograph fight scenes, and how to make a bad low budget...kung fu flick. please if u r interested in martial arts films or want to watch good kung fu, there r LOADS of good ones to choose from.....dont buy this one!

This movie was made after Bruce Lee died. It features clips (some never before seen)of various other Bruce Lee movies and uses a look-a-like filmed so that you can't see his face. In terms of story, Lee is killed while trying to stop a helicopter from taking his dead friend's coffin. His younger brother (played by the double who stands in for Lee earlier in the movie) intends to take revenge (how original) so he travels to Japan (why?) to seek vengeance. He eventually discovers the Tower of Death which is a tower built upside down underground. He fights his way to the bottom (if you don't want to know what happens, stop reading this review)and finds that Lee's dead friend was the man behind it. The brother fights the friend in a fight which ends in the friend getting stabbed by his own sword. This movie has often been confused with THE NEW GAME OF DEATH which is a very bad movie that dosen't feature Bruce Lee at all. TOWER OF DEATH has also been released as GAME OF DEATH 2, a sequel to Lee's last movie. That is ridiculas and it was even dubbed to carry on the story of the first GAME OF DEATH which resulted in a very bad film. The movie, TOWER OF DEATH is a 1981 action classic and the last Bruce Lee movie (sort of). In Chinese with English subtitles.

The version I saw is entitled: Goodbye Bruce Lee, His Last Game Of Death. I don't know if that version is the same as this one but this is what happened in the one I saw. The movie begins with the opening credits: a black screen with yellow text and a picture of Bruce Lee on the right. After that, there is some behind the scenes footage from Game of Death. Bruce Lee died before he finished Game of Death and this movie was one of the first and in my opinion the best attempt to remake the movie using doubles. After the behind the scenes footage, we see a Bruce Lee double being taken into a cinema by a movie producer. The producer wants this double to fill in Lee's shoes. He tell the double he is going to show him the footage Bruce Lee filmed before he died. This footage is the rest of the movie. So does the double fill in Lee's shoes? I don't know. Fan's should seek out the British DVD release of Goodbye Bruce Lee.

if u want a good decent martial arts film then believe me there are plenty to choose from....exept this one. what really pisses me off is that producers con people into thinking that bruce lee apperas in so many movies by puting a picture of the kung fu master on the front of their dvds and video sleeves. it seems that the only way they can attrat people to buy or even watch their [bad] films is to put a picture of bruce lee on the sleeve. it should therefor be noted that the only films which Bruce Lee appeared in were enter the dragon, big boss, way of the dragon and fist of fury. you may also find that certain films which show jackie chan on the cover do not actually star jackie chan himself.
This film is an example of how NOT to choreograph fight scenes, and how to make a bad low budget...kung fu flick. please if u r interested in martial arts films or want to watch good kung fu, there r LOADS of good ones to choose from.....dont buy this one!

This movie was made after Bruce Lee died. It features clips (some never before seen)of various other Bruce Lee movies and uses a look-a-like filmed so that you can't see his face. In terms of story, Lee is killed while trying to stop a helicopter from taking his dead friend's coffin. His younger brother (played by the double who stands in for Lee earlier in the movie) intends to take revenge (how original) so he travels to Japan (why?) to seek vengeance. He eventually discovers the Tower of Death which is a tower built upside down underground. He fights his way to the bottom (if you don't want to know what happens, stop reading this review)and finds that Lee's dead friend was the man behind it. The brother fights the friend in a fight which ends in the friend getting stabbed by his own sword. This movie has often been confused with THE NEW GAME OF DEATH which is a very bad movie that dosen't feature Bruce Lee at all. TOWER OF DEATH has also been released as GAME OF DEATH 2, a sequel to Lee's last movie. That is ridiculas and it was even dubbed to carry on the story of the first GAME OF DEATH which resulted in a very bad film. The movie, TOWER OF DEATH is a 1981 action classic and the last Bruce Lee movie (sort of). In Chinese with English subtitles.

The version I saw is entitled: Goodbye Bruce Lee, His Last Game Of Death. I don't know if that version is the same as this one but this is what happened in the one I saw. The movie begins with the opening credits: a black screen with yellow text and a picture of Bruce Lee on the right. After that, there is some behind the scenes footage from Game of Death. Bruce Lee died before he finished Game of Death and this movie was one of the first and in my opinion the best attempt to remake the movie using doubles. After the behind the scenes footage, we see a Bruce Lee double being taken into a cinema by a movie producer. The producer wants this double to fill in Lee's shoes. He tell the double he is going to show him the footage Bruce Lee filmed before he died. This footage is the rest of the movie. So does the double fill in Lee's shoes? I don't know. Fan's should seek out the British DVD release of Goodbye Bruce Lee.

The video is a good workout on its own. When I bought this with the book "Shrink Your Female Fat Zones", I assumed it would be a "spot training" video to actually go with the book; your own personal fat zone - IT DID NOT. It mixed them all up. On its own the workout is good, but DO NOT buy this video if you think it's going to go with the book in that sense.

I'm a Denise Austin fan, and have several other videos by her. I like her chatty style, it keeps me going through the tough spots. Also, I'm 68 and badly out of shape after recovering from a back injury. I wanted a "beginner" type workout. I bought her book of the same title and love it. I hoped the DVD would have the exercises broken out the same way they are in the book, and I would be able to skip from track to track with the DVD technology to create a custom workout that got tougher as I got stronger. Wrong. This is two twenty minute workouts, although the transition to the second part is not well marked and makes it hard to stop the DVD at the exact point so you can do the second part at a different time. The exercises on the DVD work well for me, but it is still not what I hoped for, so I'm afraid I can only give it 3 stars.

After reading all the negative reviews, i had to write one of my own for the positive side of this dvd.

I believe this is geared more for the beginner -- and it was perfect for me. after doing this workout, i actually felt "good" -- not worked to the point that my legs and arms are jello. i have a lot of "toning" videos that are going to pretty much sit on my shelf til i am more into that fitness level, but this is one toning video i will reach for again and again while i classify myself at "the beginner" stage.

i havent done the stability ball portion yet, but the 1st 20 minutes worked all the right places for me. as for the 2 20 min. segments, there *is* a clear end and beginning to when one section stops and the other starts. the only issue there that i had was that the final stretch was mixed in with the stability ball section, and it wasnt a direct "next chapter" to get there.

as far as Denise Austin's chattiness -- i am able to tune that out, and just hear her instruction. If this isnt your first Denise video, you are already well aware of her chattiness, so if it doesnt bother you on those videos, it probably won't bother you here either. its nothing out of the ordinary.

I can't give this 5 stars only because of the lack of usage of dvd technology, but then again, that's probably why this dvd is as inexpensive as it is. For the price of this DVD, i thought it was well worth it.

My first impression of Habitat was that this was gonna be a really underrated and overlooked sci-fi gem, but the end results are one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The storyline is intriguing and interesting, but the screenplay and direction are overly sloppy, not to mention that Balthazar Getty and Tcheky Karyo are wasted in their roles, if they're acting talents were better used, this movie might have been not so bad. One good quality though, there is some nice T&A, and I never realized how hot Alice Krige was until I saw this, but other than that this movie is a waste.

Yup, Alice Krige and Laura Harris showing their gorgeous bods is the "best" thing about this film.
There's really not a whole lot to say about a film that seems like it was probably originally an exciting-sounding concept to its creators, but ended up being somewhat....blah. I'm not sure how they could have pulled off a film in which a family's house turns into a living jungle, and the Dad turns into some sort of weird creature which can break down into little green molecules and fly around because of his science experiments. The neighbors who dislike them get killed trying to put a stop to the house's growth. Okay. BUT...
Laura goes for a nice skinny-dip, which makes this essential viewing for any Celeb skin collector.

Yep! It's me again. You must think all I do is sit around and watch movies. You're right. In a stressful job this is the best therapy. At work I earn every penny of my salary. At play (home) I indulge in my love for film.

So what did I think of the Science Fiction thriller "Habitat"? It's definitely for Sci Fi folks...only. It is a bizzarre tale of what happens when the ozone layer is destroyed and mankind must shield itself from the microwave effect of sunlight.

So why is it called "Habitat"? An obsessed scientist and his beautiful and sexy wife, create their own environment inside the confines of their home...a vegetation filled fantasyland of plants and flowers that literally ooze with life.

This one plays out like an expanded episode of "The Outer Limits"...but it is definitely "R" rated for the seductive passions of mom and girlfriend. Quite bizzarre. A definite 8 on my 10-scale for Sci Fi. Many people did not like this flick. I was intrigued and thoroughly entertained. A great Friday Night flick...in early November...alone in my own HABITAT. Paul

My first impression of Habitat was that this was gonna be a really underrated and overlooked sci-fi gem, but the end results are one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The storyline is intriguing and interesting, but the screenplay and direction are overly sloppy, not to mention that Balthazar Getty and Tcheky Karyo are wasted in their roles, if they're acting talents were better used, this movie might have been not so bad. One good quality though, there is some nice T&A, and I never realized how hot Alice Krige was until I saw this, but other than that this movie is a waste.

Yup, Alice Krige and Laura Harris showing their gorgeous bods is the "best" thing about this film.
There's really not a whole lot to say about a film that seems like it was probably originally an exciting-sounding concept to its creators, but ended up being somewhat....blah. I'm not sure how they could have pulled off a film in which a family's house turns into a living jungle, and the Dad turns into some sort of weird creature which can break down into little green molecules and fly around because of his science experiments. The neighbors who dislike them get killed trying to put a stop to the house's growth. Okay. BUT...
Laura goes for a nice skinny-dip, which makes this essential viewing for any Celeb skin collector.

Yep! It's me again. You must think all I do is sit around and watch movies. You're right. In a stressful job this is the best therapy. At work I earn every penny of my salary. At play (home) I indulge in my love for film.

So what did I think of the Science Fiction thriller "Habitat"? It's definitely for Sci Fi folks...only. It is a bizzarre tale of what happens when the ozone layer is destroyed and mankind must shield itself from the microwave effect of sunlight.

So why is it called "Habitat"? An obsessed scientist and his beautiful and sexy wife, create their own environment inside the confines of their home...a vegetation filled fantasyland of plants and flowers that literally ooze with life.

This one plays out like an expanded episode of "The Outer Limits"...but it is definitely "R" rated for the seductive passions of mom and girlfriend. Quite bizzarre. A definite 8 on my 10-scale for Sci Fi. Many people did not like this flick. I was intrigued and thoroughly entertained. A great Friday Night flick...in early November...alone in my own HABITAT. Paul

The only good thing about this flick is the balcony sex scene with Rachel Hunter and Eric Robets. Plus the accompanying background music is pretty cool and hypnotic. Other than that, this movie is totally blah!

movie is well made, however, they left out english sub-titles. The sub-titles are in Spanish only. What a bummer!

Framed for murder Susan Price, (Rachel Hunter) will stop at nothing to clear her name.

I can say I liked this movie despite the fact, at times the plot is strained and the movie predictable. A good portion of the movie takes place in a telephone relay center for the deaf. There are scenes in the movie that are disturbing or unsettling. To me the movie borders an R/X rating. Curtain parts of this movie (the disturbing scenes) remind me of the rating controversy over "Fatal Attraction" when it first came out with Glen Close and Michael Douglas. That said...

"Two shade of Blue" has an impressive cast which includes Eric Roberts, Rachel Hunter, Marlee Matlin, "Children of a Lesser God," and Anthony Natale, "Mr. Holland's Opus" and "His Bodyguard." Both Matlin and Natale are deaf actors.

Being a fan of both Matlin and Natale is what drew me to view this film. Also, I am myself physically challenged. It is good to see "true" disabled or physically challenged actors get lead or supporting roles in films today. Anthony Natale gives a satisfying yet justified performance as the character 'Todd". Natale works well opposite Hunter, who plays "Judy/Susan Price". A lady gone undercover to catch a killer. Given what she had to work with Marlee Matlin's performance was mediocre at best.

As this review is being written I can say, I have not seen much in the way of Eric Roberts's performances. He is however very good a being bad.

Though I think "Two Shade of Blue" is a satisfactory movie as a whole film. Might I recommend, if you are considering a purchase of this film to rent it first to save on disappointment and money spent. This suspense drama is not for everyone.

After watching numerous Vietnam War-related documentary and fiction movies, I consider that "Under Heavy Fire" is one of the worst and most lackluster movies I ever watched. It should not be on market at all.

This movie seems to be fairly offensive and distasteful because it used an male actor, Casper Van Dien in his 20s as a Vietnam veteran while the actress, Carre Otis, who looked like she was flirting, lusting, and taking pictures at this fairly egoistic whiner. Instead, it should use a real Vietnam veteran in his 50s as a leading role.

The battle actions seemed too scattered, too fixed-chaos, and too much past/present time hopping. Some scenes of jungle almost looked like they were not previously touched by some soldiers of past because they did not look dense enough. It caused me to suspect that some actors of present were more afraid to walk and crawl through some areas with high density of plants, insects, and animals than the old-time actors.

It painted Captain Ramsey as the king of the Vietnam tunnel battle which was very rare in Vietnam War. In reality, a lot of Americans were unable to go into some tunnels. It was one of most difficult and daunting tasks a U.S. soldier ever took. It took a very small soldier to enter a Viet-Cong tunnel successfully. He would be known as "Tunnel Rat".

According to the title's polite statement(on back of DVD/VHS package), it failed to mention that it would include short sexual scenes at "present" time which was fairly unusual for a Vietnam War-related film. Because of this, it made the movie seemed fraud.

Not just the statement, so does the title. The movie failed to match its title, "Under Heavy Fire". The title seems too exaggerating because of too few battle actions, poorly selected fields for a war film, and too much of bus-riding and unprofessional touring at the present time.

What in the world why did the film waste its time showing some so-called Vietnam veterans staring at dirty graffit written on the outside walls? This wasted minutes should be used for real fighting action to be according with the title.

The TV journalist, Kathleen Martin, treated Captain Ramsey as if he was a special person and acted like he should deserve some pleasure treatment from a good-looking woman like her.

Involving some story-telling Vietnamese at the present time in the movie actually saved it from becoming totally laughingstock. Actors and actresses seemed to do well but their reputations could be affected by the movie's script. Good and organized script is very critical key to make a movie to be successful.

I feel kind bad for an attractive actress/modeler like Carre Otis, to be included to Sidney J. Furie's war-related directing.
Casper Van Dien should not be used because of his age and he was not a real Vietnam veteran. He did not even wear facial make-up or mask to make him to look older. It is highly unusual for a man in his 50s to have a lot of hair and youthful skin. Dying hair white while leaving everything alone does not help at all.

Carre Otis is recommended and deserved to be in the movie, she should be used properly in script term. She could be either perform a lot of sex or do no sex at all.

To add sex scenes in "fictitious documentary" section many years after the war, is not best option. Otherwise, remove ficitious documentary and put in "non-documentary" fiction should sound better.

To improve the movie, some sex scenes should be deleted (not because of graphics -no problem with those, just not essential), more battle time at right places, and turning too long "fictious" documentary into a brief "real" documentary with real Vietnam veterans who would not screw up against each other. It should not offend some Americans and probably Vietnamese. ( I think that it insults some Vietnam veterans because of Casper Van Dien is being picked up to be a leading role.)

This is another typical racist American movie that depicted the Americans as good guys put into an "immoral war" protecting the corrupt South Vietnamese who is too corrupt to be saved any way. This is not a new myth, this attitude have been around for a long time and have repeated in American movies time and time again with little basis in fact. I have seen this kind of attitude since the Vietnamese start arriving in this country. What Vietnamese can forget the comments printed in the Time magazine May 1975 issue where the left and the right in this country was oppose to allowing the Vietnamese coming into America with some saying that "all Vietnamese are killers and whores".

The director of this movie have a long history of making films which depict American soldiers as virtuous warriors place in a bad war and the Asians in his movies is often portrayed as corrupt, stupid cowards and the Viets civilians as defenseless, helpless people who could not survive without Americans help. Take the movie "The Boys in Company C", in which a bunch of American boys who have never play soccer come to dominate the soccer game against the South Vietnamese professional soccer players. This is reality? That's like saying someone who have never play baseball before can come to America and defeat the best professional baseball team this country have to offer. I though that this director will have improve his attitude and bigotry in time but I was wrong, the movie "Under Heavy Fire" is just a repeat of his previous movie.

As to the argument that the South Vietnamese are corrupt? Well, have anyone who say that ever read the book Dem Giu Ban Ngay [Darkness at Noon] by Vu Thu Hien who was a North Vietnamese officer and reporter who father is the personal Attaché for Ho Chi Minh, or the book Tu Ha Noi Den Mac Tu Khoa [From Hanoi to Moscova] written by my father, a former Communist battalion commander and former member of the North Vietnamese Bo Tong Tham Muu (a North Vietnamese equivalent of the Pentagon). The fact is the North Vietnamese have always been 100 times more corrupt than the South. Communist general Nguyen Son used to say in the 1950's that if the Vietnamese have take out every logistical officer in the Vietminh army and shoot them for corruption without a trial, they would not be executing innocent men.

Do you think that the Kennedy and LBJ administration were clean? Ever read the book "The Dark Side of Camelot"? How about the Bush administration with the S&L scandal or the Clinton administration with "pardon gate" and the Elk Hill Oil Reserve scandal. Learn history before you start accusing the Vietnamese of being corrupt.

Atmittedly, Van Dien may have been a bad choice for this film, but he doesn't do a terrible job. Just not that good. The amazing thing about this film which most reviewers seem to have missed is that a lot of it seems to have actually been filmed in Vietnam. It is also the first film to approach the subject of Veterans returning to Nam. On that note, the acting was pretty bad, quite overdone and just plain laughable at times, and the dialogue was pretty lame. The action was mediocre at best, and all the actors, the "vietnam veterans" who are revisiting Nam are clearly in their 20's and 30's. The subplots were unnecessary, and several of the dates were extremely innacurate. If you have any intrest in Vienam films, and war films in general, this film is worth at least one watch. Even better, watch Sindey Furie's other film "The Boys of Company C".

I waited years to see this little epic and when I found it available on DVD, I snapped it up. Then I watched it. Well. I should have just given up. But no, I have a fondness for low budget horror movies. However, "Beast" is a curious failure and it broke my heart that it wasn't even enjoyable on a mere camp level. Lance Fuller brings new bride Charlotte Austin home and introduces her to his pet ape he keeps in the basement. He's a big game hunter. Austin and the ape develope an attraction for each other (no, really) and soon the gorilla is sneaking up to her room. Fuller catches the beast making passes at her (really!) and shoots it dead...to Austin's dismay. She goes under hypnosis from Fuller's friend and discovers she was a gorilla in a past life. Then they go on safari and she allows a big gorilla to abduct her and never goes back to Fuller. Way, way too much jungle stock footage kill the story. There are moments of hallucinatory silliness, yes, but the movie just doesn't hold up on it's own. I was so bummed out that it was, indeed, a "bomb" all the way that I walked out the next day and gave it to some guy I saw sitting on the curb. Now that's sad. And I love gorilla movies! Where's "GORILLA AT LARGE" on DVD? It's got Anne Bancroft getting carried away, it's in lurid color AND has Charlotte Austin in it! "Bride and the Beast" is too cheaply made to enjoy.

Bride and the Beast, co-produced by Adrian Weiss (ex B-movie editor/producer) and (father?) Lewis Weiss (ex silent and cheapie western producer), and scripted by Edward D. Wood Jr., never really replicates the manic delirium of Wood's directorial efforts (Plan 9, Glen or Glenda, Night of the Ghouls, etc.) Unlike those films, the fun here results not so much from breathless incompetence as from the ludicrousness of the overall concept. Bride and the Beast is a campy, immensely entertaining melange of jungle thrills, domestic melodrama, and past-life regression/reincarnation hokum, with a touch of implied bestiality thrown in to give it that Woodian je ne sais quoi. Lance Fuller moves up from his supporting role in the equally enjoyable jungle-horror opus Voodoo Woman to star as Dan Fuller, big-game hunter, who returns home to his jungle "mansion" with newlywed bride Laura, played by gorgeous, sultry Charlotte Austin (Gorilla at Large, Daddy Long Legs, Frankenstein 1970). Johnny Roth is houseboy/guide Taro, one of those Natives of Indeterminate Ethnic Makeup (apparently a member of that B-movie caste who refer to white men as "bwana," Taro's skin color varies throughout, he has Caucasian features, and wears a turban). Veteran monkey-suiters Steve Calvert and Ray "Crash" Corrigan play the gorillas. The excitement starts as soon as the honeymoon begins: Laura reveals her fur fetish to Dan; she and his full-grown pet gorilla, Spanky, are strangely affected/attracted by each other; Laura has disturbing dreams about gorillas; Spanky breaks out of his cage during a thunderstorm to menace (?) her; Dan awakes, shoots and kills Spanky, then later takes Laura to a shrink who hypnotically regresses her and determines that she was a gorilla in a previous life! (Hypnotic regression was a hot topic at the time because of the famous Bridey Murphy case; see Corman's The Undead, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Fright, etc.) Progressing from a man-eating tiger hunt in the jungle to Laura's abduction by a pair of horny gorillas (one is blonde like White Pongo) and final showdown at Bronson's Canyon, Bride ultimately surprises with an incredible ahead-of-its time 'downbeat' ending. Crazy as it sounds, Bride and the Beast really isn't a knee-slapping Bad Film atrocity; in spite (or perhaps because) of the offbeat subject matter I actually found it quite absorbing, yet hugely entertaining on a camp level as well. The younger Weiss's actually fairly competent, if pedestrian, direction keeps the plot moving along briskly, and the substantial stock footage is integrated into the movie rather well for a cheapie of this type. (People with animal-cruelty sensitivities may be offended by a few clips.) The musical score is by an apparently slumming Les Baxter (famous for his 'exotica' LPs and numerous AIP soundtracks) and Harry Thomas (Frankenstein's Daughter, Night of the Ghouls) did the makeup. Highly recommended for fans of cheesy jungle thrillers, gorilla freaks, and Ed Wood completists. Makes a great co-feature with Curt Siodmak's Bride of the Gorilla.
With the Allied Artists catalog in DVD limbo due to Warner Home Video's apparent indifference and foot-dragging, this will likely be the only disc release of this movie in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, the transfer appears to be from a 16mm source print, and while the tonal values range from very good to excellent (a little worse in some of the stock footage) and the black level and shadow/highlight detail are pretty acceptable, the print has a slightly soft, dupey look; no worse than a typical TV print, but probably a bit of a letdown to those spoiled by the typically tack-sharp Image/Wade Williams DVDs. Fortunately, physical damage is limited to some light speckling and spotting, leaving the picture very watchable overall. The mono audio is clear and the included 35mm trailer looks generally excellent, if also a bit soft and exhibiting some light speckling and lining. Six chapter stops and a nicely done if somewhat skimpy gallery of about a dozen stills and lobby cards (accompanied by some jarringly inappropriate music) are also provided. Another 'bonus' is a pretty awful (bad acting, unfunny 'comedy') 3.5-minute sequence from the aborted Wood-scripted Beach Blanket Bloodbath, featuring Forrest J Ackerman and Bobbie Bresee, which completists may care about but that will probably not impress anyone else. Also (dis)gracing the disc is an interview with and some shorts by one David "The Rock" Nelson, whose miserable home videos (that have insanely been compared by some to Ed Wood movies) are so embarassingly putrid they make Beast of Yucca Flats look like Citizen Kane. A complete waste (I fast-forwarded through most of it) and definitely INessential; consider yourself warned. In total an acceptable if less than ultimate package that will have to tide gorilla fans over till someone digs up and transfers some crisp 35mm elements (don't hold your breath).