STUNT ROCK 1978

"DEATH WISH AT 120 DECIBELS !!"

     The recipient of one of the most superbly edited & adrenaline pumping trailers in the history of film (which can be seen here) this massively entertaining combination of car chases, explosions, death defying stunt work, & magic along with 70's theatrical metal music all worked into the plot (complete with an onstage battling wizard & devil) has been slowly gaining a cult following over the years as a result of the trailer showing up on various compilations. Held together by the barest thread of a plot (which in large part helps it), STUNT ROCK was described by director Brian Trenchard-Smith (THE MAN FROM HONG KONG & THE SIEGE OF FIREBASE GLORIA) as a homage to 1970's stuntmen and its basic premise can probably be looked at as simply an attempted star making vehicle for famed Australian stuntman Grant Page (MAD MAX). Frustratingly hard to see through the years (I remember it showing up occasionally at midnight shows), it was issued by Code Red on DVD a few years back.

     Because of a rushed production schedule and producer meddling, Trenchard- Smith was dismissive of it through the years and refereed to it as the "the worst film I ever made". However, in recent times he's turned around quite a bit on it with all these aspects playing out in the extras on the DVD special features. Looking back at it today, it's a movie viewing experience that  you can't help but enjoy and is a fascinating (albeit heavily fictionalized) portrait of pre CGI movie making
   Playing himself, Page travels to Los Angeles to help out on the stunt work for a fictional American TV series titled Undercover Girl (which because of a producers insistence stars Dutch actress Monique van de Ven - again playing herself) and along the way hooks up with Lois, a reporter (played by Trenchard-Smith's wife Margaret Gerard) and soon a romance develops. Page also meets up with his "cousin" Curtis Hyde who is a member of the theatrical rock group Sorcery. Hyde pays the part of the "Prince of Darkness" who does battle with "King of the Wizards" (played by Paul Haynes) during Sorcery's stage show (portions of which are integrated into the plot). Becoming friends with the band, Page agrees to help them out by staging some stunts onstage featuring himself as Sorcery is getting ready to do "three nights at the Fourm" (!).

    The film's plot line basically has Page relating stories of his past stunts to reporter Lois (shown as flashbacks from his previous movies), along with his working on the TV show and doing things such escaping from a hospital after an injury by climbing down the hospital's outside wall, chin-ups on the Hollywood sign and repelling across two buildings in order to talk to Lois - all interspersed with the periodic concert & rehearsal footage of Sorcery. Some of the flashback footage Trenchard-Smith had used earlier in his previous stunt filled opus DEATH CHEATERS from 1976, along with some of the truly wince inducing crash footage lifted from H.B. Halicki's car chase classic GONE IN 60 SECONDS from 1974. Among some of the highlights are Page's blazing high fall in MAD DOG MORGAN that resulted in him suffering burns over a majority of his body (but returning to work in a matter of days) and some truly spectacular automobile and high fall stunts.

     Many bands were considered and approached with Van Halen reputedly being in the running for a time and Foreigner being the final choice until touring commitments prompted them to dropout. Faced with fast looming start date Trenchard-Smith signed Sorcery after a week long search (and later described them as "the type of band you'd find if you had only a week"). Although their stage show does have low budget Dungeon & Dragons type cheesiness about it, their theatrical show does add to the WTF atmosphere of the film and most likely helps with films cult reputation.
     As a leading man Page's acting chops are a bit flat, but he does have an undeniable charisma about him and as he's not required to do a whole lot other then just play himself (along with most of the cast) plus his performance does fit in with the premise of the movie perfectly. Page was the go to stunt guy for Australian cinema starting in mid 70's (his resume reads like a checklist of Ozploiatation cinema) and he continues to serve as a stunt coordinator up the the present day. His work on MAD MAX, including the car blasting through a trailer and the climatic motorcycle pileups are still awe inspiring to this day.
   The plot does a drag a bit whenever the characters actually have to interact, as its best when it's just left to the stunt and/or concert footage and is an almost perfect example of "not letting the plot to get in way of the story"

THE EXTERMINATOR 1980

"In War, You Have To Kill To Stay Alive...On The Streets Of New York, It's Often The Same..."

    Robert Ginty (BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP) kicks some major butt of low-life bottom feeders all over a grimy pre- Giuliani NYC in this 1980 urban revenge opus directed by James Glickenhaus. One of the better post DEATH WISH vigilante based films, it’s helped along immensely by excellent performances by the leads (especially Ginty) and makes wonderful use of NYC locations.

   Opening with some pretty spectacular pre-credit Vietnam footage (filmed at Indian Dunes, Calif.), as we’re introduced to fellow soldiers (and friends) John Eastland (Ginty) and Michael Jefferson (Steve James). After they’ve both been taken prisoner Jefferson saves Ginty’s character (which incorporates a pretty terrific Stan Winston beheading) and we then flash forward to contemporary NYC where the two are employed by a food wholesaler.

   During a run-in with some lowlife beer stealin' street gang members Michael again saves John’s life and the thugs later attack Michael is reprisal leaving him paralyzed and on life support. This causes Ginty to break out the ol’ army foot locker and head out for some reprisal, which includes blowing some away with his M-16 and tying others up in basement and leaving them for the rats to munch on.
  This gets the attention of a police detective (Christopher George) who begins investigating the killings, while Eastland (Ginty) begins writing to the local news and labeling himself The Exterminator. He also begins taking on the local mobster (Dick Boccelli) via kidnapping & a large meat grinder and then moves on to a scuzz bucket child porn merchant (who numbers among his clients "a state senator from New Jersey" in the form of character actor David Lipman from LAW & ORDER). As Christopher George's detective character delves further into the case, the CIA becomes involved and a rather awkwardly inserted love story is introduced into the proceedings between George and a doctor played by Samantha Eggar

  Along the way Eastland meets up with an abused prostitute (Cindy Wilks) and seems to begin to develop a relationship with her, but some reason this plot point is abandoned - with the George/Eggar one played up. It is interesting to see how Eastland is not presented as a super hero action type figure, but as a regular guy (albeit a resourceful one) who as previously noted has to have his ass pulled out of the fire a couple of times early on.

  The film is filled with some pretty startling violence including a pretty rough bed burning, soldering iron torture, the above mentioned mind grinder & rats, plus Ginty blowing people away with his dum dum bullet equipped .44 magnum. The editing is sometimes pretty jarring with no transitional scenes, which creates some rather "WTF" story jumps and people have speculated that maybe the whole movie is suppose to be a dream with a flash forward and/or backward thing (although on the Synapse disc commentary Glickenhause dismisses this). As mentioned there is some great location work, including Ginty wondering about a pre-Disney Times Square and a beautiful nighttime helicopter ride over Manhattan as the opening credits role.

   Director Glickenhaus had a rather oddball career directing the "almost there" classic THE SOLIDER (1982), the so inept it's funny MACBAIN from 1991 (which features Christopher Walken as a mercenary and most likely inspired the character from THE SIMPSONS) and the interesting SHAKEDOWN from 1988. Ginty appeared in the non-Glickenhaus disappointing follow-up Exterminator 2 from 1984 (which does however deliver on the flame thrower that the original's one sheet promised).

   I really like this movie and along with Abel Ferrara's Ms. 45, its my favorite urban vigilante film. Robert Ginty (who passed away in 2009) gives a wonderful stoic performance and its shame he never really got his big break. He's probably most known for his TV work such as THE PAPER CHASE & BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP and in his movie work seemed to specialize in low budget actioners (always giving a solid performance). Later he started directing and producing TV and experimental theatre. Dick Boccelli, who plays the gangster here, was the original drummer in Bill Haley & The Comets.

 

The Lost Empire 1983

"Now it's beginning to make sense !"

"What are you talking about ?"

"I'm talking about international terrorism. mass murder and a legend of supernatural horror that goes back over 200 years !"

   In later interviews Wynorski said that The Lost Empire being his directorial debut and as he was afraid of never getting the chance to direct again, he tried to cram as many of his favorite genre elements in one movie as possible. Clocking in at barely 85 minutes he manages to throw together James Bond, Enter the Dragon, Dirty Harry, Indiana Jones & a Russ Meyer bosom epic while mixing in woman prisoners (and gladiators), kung fu, evil religions cults, ninjas, devil worship, giant remote controlled laser cannons, zombies, a gorilla on a chain leash and an island fortress.

  Starting off with a lengthy on screen crawl that attempts to explain the highly convoluted plot, but it's best not to try and figure too much out here - just sit back, enjoy & put your brain in neutral. Things kick off with an elderly oriental store owner selling a necklace to a buxom blonde when suddenly the eyes on an idol located in the store start glowing red and a bunch of ninja guys burst in and throw the oriental guy out the front window. Some cops show up and start blasting away while the ninja guys whip out pointed stars on chains and use them to take care of the police.

  Next we cut to a school where some guys are holding a classroom of kids hostage with the police presence commanded by Kenneth (The Thing From Another World) Tobey, when a black clad police person on a motorcycle crashes thru the school doors and blasts away the bad guys (but not before uttering a Dirty Harry like smart ass comment). As all this happens in the first 10 minutes, you know some stuff is really going on here.
   Turns out the Dirty Harry on the motorcycle is Officer Angel Wolf (Melanie Vince) who's the sister of one of the cops at the store shootout. Rushing to hospital (and wearing a silver body suit unzipped for max cleavage) she arrives just as he's dying and takes one of the pointed stars he managed to grab in the shootout. Her FBI boyfriend Rick Stanton (Paul Coufos) immediately identifies it as belonging to "Lee Chuck" who's some sort demon/devil guy that has to collect departed souls everyday (or something to that effect). Plus he's tied into religious cult leader Dr.SinDo (Angus Scrimm from Phantasm), who conducts gladiator like tournaments on his island fortress.

   As tournament entries have to be in groups of three, Angel has to round up a couple of more kick ass type chicks. First up she heads out to the desert and we get a bit of Native American mysticism as she summons "Whitestar" (Raven De La Croix) who shows up wearing a fringed white buckskin bikini (and constantly throws out Mae West like one-liners). For the third member Angel & Raven go to a women's prison (all right! - this movie has everything!). Once there they witness a fight in the prison yard in between Heather (what - no cool name for her?) McClure played by Angela Aames and Whiplash (Angelique Pettyjohn - Star Trek & Blood Island).

  Whiplash strips down to her prison approved dominatrix outfit & whip and the girls go at it. Luckily there's also a handy mud puddle close by so they can fall in, after which Heather kicks Whiplash's ass (but not before a couple more of the girls get their tops ripped off). This prison seems to pretty lax on the rules as along with wondering around the yard to watch the catfight, Angel & Whitestar also get to recruit Heather while she's taking a shower and seem to get her out on some sort of work release deal with no problem.

  Showing up on the island the girls are thrown into rigorous training - usually in as skimpy clothing as possible (no worry -Whitestar gets to keep her fringe bikini), while been overseen by Koro (Robert Tessier - The Longest Yard) - who's bushy black eyebrows seem to disappear and reappear from scene to scene. The plot at this point takes about seven left turns, with the evil Sin Do (or is it "Lee Chuck" ??) wanting to conquer the world with his giant laser cannon - which I think is powered by the eyes from the idol (or maybe those are just used to increase his evil powers ??).

   Along the way we get women gladiator sword fights, kung fu, a guy in a gorilla suit on a chain leash that's used to hunt down escaped prisoners (and gets beaten up by Raven De La Croix), disembodied talking heads, gratuitous nudity (including but not limited to Raven De La Croix), plus Angus Scrimm peeling his face off. There's really no way to describe this - the wooden acting & the intentional funny or not dialogue combined with Wynorski's enthusiasm and his "throw everything against the wall and see what sticks" writing & directing style all add up to one jaw dropping movie experience.
   Wynorski has been talking of a DVD release of this for years, but lately there's been a bunch of rumblings on his Facebook page about an upcoming release of this and his 1986 Dawn of the Dead/slasher mash-up Chopping Mall - along with some theatrical showings.