PROBABILITY ZERO (1969) (DVD Review)

PROBABILITY ZERO (1969) 

Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: O NTSC
Rating: M (Mature Audiences)  
Duration: 91 Minutes 
Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono 2.0
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Maurizio Lucidi
Cast: Henry Silva, Luigi Casellato, Riccardo Salvino, Ezio Sancrotti, Franco Giornelli, Vittorio André, Marco Guglielmi, Maria Cristina Farnese, Paolo Magalotti, Fulvio Mingozzi, Tony Roico, Pietro Martellanza, Katia Christine, Renato De Carmine, Bill Vanders

In this Italian produced WW2 slice of war-is-hell cinema we have an Allied Spitfire fighter plane going down in Nazi occupied Norway, aboard the plane is a new form of radar equipment utilized by the Allied forces, and the fact that this has fallen into the hands of the enemy poses a threat to the war effort. The Nazis are transporting the wreck of the plane to a underground mountain base in Norway where it will be dissected and repaired, and the Allies must assemble a ragtag brigade to infiltrate the base and destroy the plane before it can give up its secrets to the Nazis.

What first caught my eye about this movie was that the screenplay was written by Dario Argento (Suspiria), a year before he directed his breakout debut crime-thriller The Bird with The Crystal Plumage (1970). It was produced by his father Salvatore Argento, and Dario had been cutting his teeth penning stories for Italian movies for a few years already, including Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Cemetery Without Crosses (1969), and a few other spaghetti war movies like Sullivan's Marauders (1968).

The Argento connection might prove disappointing to anyone expecting more than a fairly standard issue WW2 film along the lines of The Dirty Dozen (1967), with a rag tag crew of men assembled by American officer Duke (Henry Silva) who amasses a small squad of mercenaries willing to join his team, sometimes under coercion, for what has been deemed a "probability zero" mission with almost no chance of success or survival. It's fun stuff for what it is, with way more production value than I had envisioned going into it, we get decent WWII Nazi costuming, and some fun action set pieces at sea, on the battlefield, on the mountain, and even some submersible underwater action in a mined river, leading up to a full-on assault at the underground Nazi base, which was action-packed. Along the way there's plenty of small skirmishes, turmoil and tension amidst the group that all adds up to a gritty war film that moves along swiftly. 

Henry Silva (Escape from the Bronx) is the main attraction here, a sort of duplicitous bad ass willing to kill his own men if they disobey or stray from the mission, at one point taking out an AWOL member of the brigade with a sniper rifle when it becomes apparent he's heading for the hills. The men that make up his misfit brigade are a good bunch, there's not much depth to any of them but they do what they need to do, getting the mission done against the odds. We have the usual array of miscreants - a mountain climber accused of cowardice, a black market smuggler, an Italian POW with a penchant for torpedoes, and a troublesome frogman/saboteur, plus blond femme fatale (Maria Cristina Farnese, The Conspirators) who is not above using her curvy body to get what she needs from the Nazi scum. 

It all comes to a proper head at the Nazi base in Norway, the men crawling through an AC duct, dragging along a rather large torpedo, which they use to blast the Nazi base (and the plane with the top-secret radar system) to smithereens, but not without some casualties to the Allied team, but trust me they take a metric ton of Nazi to the grave with them, ha ha. 

The action is pretty damn good throughout, the production value is high, and while I am pretty sure this was shot in Spain through he magic of color grading it does have a certain cold Norway atmosphere, and to be honest I wouldn't know Norway from Spain anyway, so they convinced me at least. The action is plenty gritty, loads of bullets flying, stressful dramatic tension and Argento stuffs the story it with some convoluted story stuffing. It makes for a damn decent WWII flick with plenty of action, I'll definitely be adding a few more of the spaghetti war flicks to my to-watch list, this was fun. 

Audio/Vidoe: Probability Zero (1969) arrives on region-free NTSC formatted DVD from Australian label Umbrella Entertainment in anamorphic widescreen, framed in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio The source looks beats to Hell with all manner of blemish, vertical scratches, dirt, fading and blown-out whites - it certainly has a grindhouse feel about it. Likewise the English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono audio audio is boxy with distortion, with plenty of snaps, crackles and pops, but the whole affair was watchable, and it didn't detract much from my viewing. The DVD is bare-bones, there's no start-up menu, it goes straight into the feature. There are no subtitle options, and no extras.

Fans of Italian-made WW2 films should enjoy this one, plenty of cool scenery and gritty action, a fun turn from Henry Silva as a badass and a simple but action packed war-story that keeps the momentum moving forward.   

ESCAPE FROM THE BRONX (1983) BD/DVD Combo 2-Disc Collector's Edition

ESCAPE FROM THE BRONX (1983) 

BD/DVD Combo 2-Disc Collector's Edition 

Label: Blue Underground
Release Date: June 30th, 2015
Rating: R
Region Code: Region-FREE
Duration: 89 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD Mono, Dolby Digital Mono with Optional English SDH Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Enzo G. Castellari
Cast: Mark Gregory, Henry Silva, Valeria D'Obici, Timothy Brent, Paolo Malco, Antonio Sabato, Massimo Vanni

The sequel to 1990: The Bronx Warriors is a down and dirty action fest with more than enough gun fire, flames throwers and huge slow-motion violence to appease the most ardent junk-cinema connoisseur. so strap yourself in and enjoy the low-budget mayhem for all it's worth. 

It's been a few years since the events from Bronx Warriors and Trash (Mark Gregory) is no longer the leader of the Riders biker gang. Now he's a smuggler running arms in the Bronx, supplying  ammunition to a the remnant of the gangs who now reside underground  where they are lead by Dablone (Antonio Sabato), a hairy son-of-a-bitch who keeps underground, away from the eyes of the GC Corporation who are currently campaigning to rebuild the Bronx as a city of the future. Before they can begin reconstruction they must rid the burrough of the scum and villainy inhabiting it. Under the false image of a mass relocation program the GC Corporation hires a disgraced prison warden named Wrangler (the always fun Henry Silva) to burn the streets clean of the scum, Wrangler heads the Disinfestation Squad, a troop of murderers bent on erasing the left over gang members from the streets. Silva is a good stand-in for Vic Morrow, though he never does go quite as insane as Morrow did at the end of Bronx Warriors. This time out the death troops have upgraded from black leather to shiny foil uniforms, which is pretty corny and yet another layer of cheese on an already packed action-quesadilla of a movie. 

As the death troops sweep the street eliminating pretty much anyone who won't take them up on their offer to relocate to sunny New Mexico Dablone and his crew are content to keep underground and not engage Wrangler and his merciless minions. However, things heat-up pretty quickly when Trash's parents are burned to cinder by the death squads, who then push deeper into the underground territory of Dablone, forcing him to team-up with Trash and enlist the talents of a loner named Strike (Giancarlo Prete) and his fire-bug son Junior (Alessandro Prete), coming up with a ridiculous  plan to kidnap the president of the GC Corporation and much violence and slow-motion mayhem ensues. 

Shot on the cheap by a man who knew how to stretch a dollar the movie is loaded with plenty of action things considered, you can see every penny onscreen with a few too many slow-motion action sequences and huge fireballs -- this is mindless fun at it's finest ...and cheapest. Trash shooting down a well-gunned helicopter out of the sky with his tiny snub nosed .38 was a favorite of mine, and that's just the beginning of the gratuitously cheap onscreen mayhem, a film that is dripping with Italian testosterone, machismo and sweat from start to finish, so much good stuff. 

Mark Gregory seems way more comfortable in the role of the long-haired street tough, he moves more naturally, not sure if Enzo pulled him aside for a chat or what but for whatever reason he seems more badass. Henry Silva as Wrangler is straight-up maniacal and a lot of fun, so evil in fact that sugar is just too damn sweet for him, there's a fun scene of him losing his shit over a cup of sweetened coffee, fantastic stuff. Additionally we have Valeria D'Obici as mouthy reporter Moon Gray who is out to expose the corruption of the GC Corp. plus a love interest for Trash, unfortunately the pair have zero chemistry, their scenes are sort of hilarious in an overly-dramatic doomed love sort of way. Fortunately no one is coming into a Enzo G. Castellari joint for the deep character development and a thoughtful storyline, you are here for the awesome low-budget action fun and we have plenty of that! 

Audio/Video: Escape from the Bronx (1983) arrives on Blu-ray from Blue Underground with a brand new 2K HD transfer and it looks pretty damn nice with a nice layer of fine film grain, a few of the scenes are stronger than others with a few looking a tad soft from time to time, but surely this is an issue with the source elements and not of the transfer itself. Colors are vibrant, skin tones look good and the black levels are pretty decent all around, a damn nice transfer. The English language DTS-HD 2.0 Mono audio sounds crystal clear, well balanced with Francessco De Masi's cheesy score, hilarious English-dubbed audio and the wonderful array of loud sound effects sounding really great. Optional English subtitles are provided. 

Onto the special features we have an Audio Commentary with Co-Writer/Director Enzo G. Castellari and Enzo's son Andrea with David Gregory moderating the whole affair, a good commentary and a lot of fun. Then we have part three of the Enzo G. Castellari and Fabrizio De Angelis In Conversation with the producer and director reuniting and speaking at length about the film and their various collaborations through the years. A fun inclusion id The Hunt For Trash - Interview with BRONX WARRIORS Superfan Lance Manley featurette with a superfan who has spent years trying to locate actor Mark Gregory who has seemed to have dropped of the face of the earth after a brief stint in Italian cinema in the eighties. Finishing up the extras are the International and Italian trailers for the film and a poster a still gallery, a very solid array of extras for an awesomely fun actioner.  

Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Co-Writer/Director Enzo G. Castellari

- Enzo G. Castellari and Fabrizio De Angelis In Conversation Part 3 (13 Mins)
- The Hunt For Trash: Interview with Bronx Warriors Superfan Lance Manley (13 Mins) 
- International Trailer: (3 Mins)
- Italian Trailer: (3 Mins)
- 1990: The Bronx Warriors Trailer (3 Mins) 
- The New Barbarians Trailer (3 Mins) 
- Poster and Still Gallery

The movie is all sorts of awesome, if you love low-budget violence, funny dubbed-dialogue and slow motion action this just might be a slice of Italian exploitation worth checking out. Of the three Enzo G. Castellari Blu-rays coming out from Blue Underground this one offers the most bang for your buck, and benefits from a slightly more comprehensible storyline than it's predecessor, but this is still bug-nuts insanity as only the Italian could give us. 4/5

ALLAN QUATERMAIN AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD (1987)

ALLAN QUATERMAIN AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD (1987) 

Label: Olive Films
Release Date: March 31st 2015
Region Code: A
Rating: PG
Duration: 99 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Video: HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Gary Nelson
Cast: Richard Chamberlain, Sharon Stone, James Earl Jones, Cassandra Peterson, Robert Donner, Henry Silva

I remember watching King Solomon's Mines (1985) in a second-run theatre sometime in '86 and enjoying it quite a bit. At the time I would have been thirteen and already a huge fan of the Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark plus the sequel and this was something squarely designed to cash-in on the success of that action-adventure blockbuster and the following series of adventure-romance films like Romancing the Stone. Coming into this viewing I thought for sure I had watched this but now I am doubting if I even knew there was a sequel to begin with, so it was a pleasure to watched this with a fresh set of eyes.

It appears to be a few months after the events of the first film and Allan Quatermain (Richard Chamberlain, The Swarm) and his fiance Jesse Huston (Sharon Stone, Total Recall) are living comfortably on a plantation in Africa with plans to travel to America where they will e wedded. Jesse is clearly beside herself with happiness at the prospect of marrying but adventurer Allan doesn't seem quite ready to forgo the adventuring lifestyle just yet. As fate would have it the night before they are to embark to the US a stranger arrives at their estate and dies shortly after, but not before informing Quatermain that his long lost brother Robeson (Martin Rabbett) has found the legendary Lost City of Gold and is being held captive there by a lost race of white people. With this information in hand Jess and Quatermain put together a hasty expedition into the heart of the African jungle and along the way they enlist the help of an African warrior named Umslopogaas (James Earl Jones, Conan the Barbarian) and a cowardly Fakir named Swarma (Robert Donner, Vanishing Point).

Our adventurers must cross the treacherous Sahara desert and only just barely survive elaborate booby traps and an attack by a swarm of warrior tribesmen during which Umslopogaas brandishes his battle axe like the whirling blades of a fan thereby dispelling the numerous spear and arrows hurled at them. It's a scene straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon and poor James Earl Jones has this look on his face that clearly says I only did this for the money. Afterward Quatermain launches fireworks into the air and of course the the primitive tribesmen assume he must be some sort of white devil, thus they allow the adventures passage through their territory unscathed. There's some sketchy race stereotypes throughout the movie, the primitive people are depicted about as poorly as you would expect from an Italian cannibal from the '70s, just has a slightly larger budget but this is clearly an PG rated exploitation film. The worst offender is the portrayal of the bug-eyed Indian mystic Swarma, a cowardly and greedy type who craves the golden treasures of the lost city and is the butt of many a joke.

The action-adventure set pieces are fun if a bit uninspired, an underground river puts the group up against serpents and a geyser of flame threatens to consume them but the preceding underground rapids ride will douse your enthusiasm long before the first canoe goes up in flames as the cast comically duck out of the way of low-hanging rocks through what looks like a water slide.

Arriving at the Lost City of Gold Quatermain is reunited with his long lost brother who has not been help captive against his will but is enjoying life in the idyllic village, which is not all that impressive, for a Lost City of Gold this pace is a letdown. The city is ruled by two sister Queens, the good Queen Nyleptha (Aileen Marson) and the evil Queen Sorais (Cassandra Peterson of Elvira notoriety), the latter of whom has aligned herself with the High Priest, Agon (Henry Silva, Ghost Dog). Agon is a frizzy haired weirdo who brought to mind Kevin Dubrow, the late singer of Quiet Riot. The maniacal high priest enjoys his power over the community and leads through fear, regularly dipping his followers headfirst into a vat of molten gold creating a series of macabre statues. It's not quite Temple of Doom but that's what they're going for, it's a pretty lazy script through and through, and feels very episodic without the benefit of any proper follow through.

As you might expect our adventures must wage war against the evil priest and free the city from his tyranny so it can once again return to the ways of an idyllic and peaceful society... or some such nonsense. The finale is overwrought and runs out of steam long before our adventures enter the Lost City of Gold. The finale features Quatermain melting an enormous statue of a lion which stops Agon and his followers in their tracks in an ironic sort of way, it's certainly silly.

Richard Chamberlain is an easy guy to like with charisma to spare, some decent comic timing, he seems game but there's only so much he can do with what's written on the page, and this is some weak stuff. Sharon Stone has even less to work with in what amounts to a cameo as a woman in distress that just pops up from time to time, pretty sure this was not a break-out role for her.

At the end of the day this is what you have come to expect from a Cannon Films action-adventure film, these are after all the same fine people who brought you Ninja III: The Domination (1984), and if you loved that gem of b-movie making I can pretty much guarantee you will find enough to enjoy with this one. Obviously after years of digesting cheap Italian knock-offs I have developed a high tolerance (or maybe even a craving) for this type of stuff and I am pleased as punch to see it on Blu-ray from Olive Films.

Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold arrives on Blu-ray from Olive Films with an AVC encoded transfer in the original scope aspect ratio, the image is pretty decent but grain seems to be unnaturally heavy throughout, but there is a decent amount of fine detail and some minor depth to the image. It may not be Criterion-worthy, but it's certainly Cannon-worthy, just kidding. The English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 does a decent job exporting dialogue, score and effects. Notably much of the score is recycled from the first film which is largely a poor man's knock-off of John Williams iconic Indiana Jones score, apologies to Jerry Goldsmith, but true.

Unfortunately the only extra on the disc is a trailer for the feature film, there's no making of documentary, no audio commentary or a booklet with new writing on the film from some random film historian. This having been a Golan-Globus production there must be some entertaining behind-the-scenes anecdotes someone could have shared with us. but it was not to be. I do appreciate just having this trashy action-adventure sequel in HD, while it may not be a great slice of action-adventure cinema I do find it to be a great deal of fun with a few cold brews and couch full of friends.

EUROCRIME! THE ITALIAN COP AND GANGSTER FILMS THAT RULED THE '70S (2014)

EUROCRIME! 

THE ITALIAN COP AND GANGSTER FILMS THAT RULED THE '70S (2014)

Label: Cinema Epoch

Duration: 127 Minutes

Region Code: 1

Rating: Unrated

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) 

Audio: English, Italian  Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 

Director: Mike Malloy
Cast: Franco Nero, John Saxon, Henry Silva, Luc Merenda, Antonio Sabáto, Fred Williamson, Richard Harrison, Chris Mitchum, Enzo Castellari, Leonard Mann, Joe Dallesandro, Michael Forest, Claudio Fragasso, John Steiner Ottaviano Dell'Acqua, Mario Caiano, Nicoletta Machiavelli, John P. Dulaney, Greg Stephen, Sal Borgese, Ted Rusoff

Something I didn't even know I was yearning for was a comprehensive documentary about the high octane Eurocrime police films coming out of Italy in the 1970s following the decline of the lucrative spaghetti westerns. At first these films were out and out copycats of American angry cop films like DIRTY HARRY but the Italians quickly made it something all their own by informing their stories with the true life violence of the era. The format usually dealt with an angry cop fed up with crime but also infuriated by the bureaucracy and red tape that prevented them from taking the scum off the streets ending with a fed-up cop pushed over the edge and taking things into their own hands with bloody consequences.

Mike Malloy's two hour plus documentary covers all the facets from  Enzo Castellari's HIGH CRIME (1973) starring Franco Nero (DJANGO) onward offering up a steady stream of movie posters, clips and talking heads. We gets some great info about the second career it offered both seasoned Italian and American actors and just which films were ripping off what other films. Some of the dialogue comparisons are quite fun and just a cunt hair short of being verbatim.

The interviews with John Saxon, Henry Silva and Franco Nero are my favorite with candid and often funny recollections of making these oftentimes misogynist crime thrillers under suspect and hurried circumstances.

Plenty of tales of shooting death defying stunts and action sequences peppered with live ammunition - the spaghetti western may have died off but the down and dirty nature of some of these shoots are right out of the wild west.

I've seen only a handful of Eurocrime capers from the likes of Blue Underground and Raro Video so it was a treat to sit down with  this and just take notes with pen and pad jotting down names of films to further my Italian crime education - this was quite an introduction to a sub genre of Italian cinema that has eluded me for the most part.

There's a metric ton of interviews crammed into this, it's a veritable who's who of Eurocrime cinema spread out over two hours and divided up into chapters with a great soundtrack from Calibro 35 among others. The editing is down and dirty and not overly glossy and that's just fine by me, this is a great documentary packed with more info than I could ever hope to absorb in one sitting. The passion for the genre by the filmmakers is dripping off screen and makes for an electrifying watch one critique might me that at over 120 minutes it's a bit long in the tooth and might wear out the less initiated but not me, I wanted it to on for another hour! 

If you have a curiosity for Eurocrime and Italian cinema I strong encourage you to seek this out and immerse yourself in the glory of the action-packed and ultra-violent Eurcrome cinema of the '70s, a damn fine documentary.

Blu-ray Review: THIRST (1979)

THIRST (1979) 

Label: Severin Films

Region Code: Region-FREE

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 93 Minutes

Audio: Englsih Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Video: 1080p Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Rod Hardy 

Cast: Chantal Cantouri, David Hemmings, Henry Silva, Max Phipps

Thirst (1979) starts off with a deceptive bit of a Hammer-esque Gothic horror before revealing itself as post-modern vampire tale with a twist. An attractive young woman Kate (Chantal Contouri, Snapshot) is home with her cat one day and feeling a bit strange when she is suddenly abducted by a cult known as The Brotherhood. The Brotherhood are a cult of wealthy eccentrics who whisk her away to their secluded island colony and reveal that she is a descendant of the infamous mass murderer Elizabeth Bathory.

In a way that sort of brought to mind the cult-classic TV series The Prisoner (1967) the cult attempt to brainwash her into accepting her legacy and to acquire a taste for human blood neither of which she's very keen on accepting. The film strays from the traditional vamp mythos as the Brotherhood are presented not as supernatural entities but a superior race whom ritually drink human blood. They harvest blood from brainwashed donors known affectionately as "blood cows" which are routinely milked of their life essence not unlike a dairy farm,  complete with filtration and pasteurization to remove unwanted traces of drugs, antibiotics and disease. 

Young Kate proves
surprisingly resistant to the cult's conditioning process and the sinister Mrs. Barker (Shirley Cameron), with the super creepy Cheshire grin, resorts to a using an experimental psychotropic approach which sends Kate teetering on the brink of insanity. Her performance here brought to mind Catherine Deneuve's in Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965) as she quickly descends into a nightmarish spiral of dreamlike encounters leading up to her partaking in a bizarre bloodsucking cult ritual.

The film has a top notch cast beginning with Chantal Contouri who is just fantastic as the emotionally distraught lead, such a convincing and sympathetic performance. The Brotherhood is embodied by the creepy Mrs. Baker (Cameron), the slightly more benign Dr. Gauss (Henry Silva, Ghost Dog) and Dr. Fraser played by Eurocult superstar David Hemmings (Dario Argento's Deep Red) who is a more compassionate character and seems to have a soft spot for Kate. In the background you might notice Robert Thompson who most remember from the Aussie shocker Patrick (1978) in a mostly silent performance. 

The look and aesthetic of the film could be described as slightly art house with a twist of the Aussie new wave featuring some cinematography by Vincent Morton (Long Weekend) who captures the gorgeous locations on film. Such an attractively shot and edited production which manages to sustain a creepy atmosphere without resorting to scene after scene of gore and cheap scares. It just creeps up on you and is peppered with just a few unnerving scenes that work exquisitely, the blood shower scene comes to immediately to mind.

Blu-ray: Severin have created a brand-new HD transfer of the film from the original camera negative framed in it's original scope aspect ratio and it's quite nice. Colors are vibrant and nicely saturated with a fair amount of detail, depth and clarity to the image. Notably there's a distinct amber hue to the color timing that drew my attention but that's a nitpick, overall the image is top notch. As with their Patrick Blu-ray Severin have opted for a Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono audio track without benefit of subtitles. The track is decent but if only just to augment Brian May's fantastic score I wish we had an uncompressed audio option. 

The special features are ported over from the previous DVD edition including a decent audio commentary with Director Rod Hardy and legendary Aussie  producer Antony I. Ginnane plus an isolated score option that showcases Brian May's atmospheric soundtrack. We also have a few TV spots and the theatrical trailer. Definitely not a greatest selection of extras, and it's a bummer we have no new content, but the 1080p upgrade (at least the video) is very nice. 

Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Director Rod Hardy and Producer Antony I. Ginnane
- Isolated music score by Brian May
- Theatrical Trailer (1:38)
- TV Spots (1:17) 

Verdict: Thirst (1979) is an underrated slice of post modern bloodsucking cinema infused with surreal weirdness and science fiction elements that should please fans of on non-traditional vamp tales such as George A. Romero's Martin (1977) and Guillermo del Toro's Cronos (1993). The Severin Blu-ray looks quite nice and should be an easy upgrade for fans of the Aussie classic. 3 Outta 5