Wednesday, Dec 28, 2005

Hell's Bloody Devils.

Ahhh, the greatness (or badness) of Al Adamson. But as enjoyable as his rotten movies are (and this one is a true mess), Sam Sherman's commentaries are even better. I love them things! I mean, you watch the movie, and it sucks (and after this commentary, I think I even know why!), but Sam just gushes over them. You'd think Al was Steven Speilburg or Joss Whedon. And on this one, Sam reveals that Al didn't like to give much direction (funny, I thought that was the Director's job), but to let the actors act. Thats really rich, since most of Al Adamson's actors move around like cardboard cut outs. I mean, when the most animated actor on your set is poor old John Carradine, you've got problems.

And the plot. This movie went thru about 3 MAJOR rewrites over the course of the years, and so its just a patched together mess that mades no god damn sense whatsoever. The man character goes from being a bad guy working for the mob to a good guy working for the FBI with absolutely NO indication why or how. And before you say it, no one EVER says double agent. And the titular Hell's Bloody Devils, the motorcycle gang? Obviously just cut in. They only share scenes with ONE other character to tie it to the rest of the flick. Nice that they could get her back, 'cause otherwise they'd just be floating there, tacked into the plot with elmer's glue.

The print was fair to poor, but Sam explains that its a lost film that they had to splice different sources together to make, so that can be forgiven. No subs, and soft audio though, make a convoluted mess even harder to follow. The extras are a mixed bag. The interview between Sam Sherman and the main actor John Gabriel is mostly a rehash of what Sam says on the commentary. But the Joe Franklin (yeah, him) interview of Al Adamson from what looks like the 70's is really cool. Its obviously a copy of a VHS tape, but its a real window into the world of Al Adamson. He's so quiet and demure (and in front of Joe Franklin, not exactly Mister Confrontation himself) that I just can't see him working very well with "challenging" actors.

Anywho, this is a bad movie lovers dream, 'cause its got everything we love about bad movies. Three out of five beers.

Murder Mansion (part of the Blood Soaked Cinema: Back from the Grave Double Feature)
I have this love/hate relationship with Italian movies. They usually LOOK lovely, with good visuals and atmosphere. They have some really trippy ideas sometimes too. But they are even worse than the Japanese as far as quality of dubbing is concerned. And plot? Well, its an optional component at best.

This flick is a perfect example of that. If there's a plot, it is SO buried I couldn't find it. And in the end, when the film ends, I was still had no idea why what happened, happened. And this one didn't even have good effects. Some Italian movies (especially Fulci) have great gore effects, which, like nudity, helps to keep your attention. While there were a couple of nice breasts exposed, there was NO gore. I mean, people are shot, and they don't bleed (except at the end, where there were a couple of good squibbs). And the women all kinda look alike, so that its sometimes remember who is who. Especially with a cast thats interacting so much, it really becomes tough. Overall, this was a boring, convoluted mess that I had to fight hard to concentrate on, and the payoff wasn't worth it.

One out of five beers. And its gone mildly skunk.