The Bad, The Weird, and if we're lucky the sorta Good
1 - The Filmmaker Neil Breen, The Light of This World
1. Double Down (2005) 4.5
2. I Am Here....Now (2009) 4.9
3. Fateful Findings (2013) 4.7
4. Pass Thru (2016) 5.4
Brett Kelly, the David Michael Latt of the North
5. Hell at My Heels (2011) 1.1 - also first to check
6. Rise of the Black Bat (2012) 1.2
7. Jesse James: Lawman (2015) 1.9
8. Surfacing (Claude Jutra, 1981) 4.3
9. Underwater! (John Sturges, 1955) 5.2
xx. Atlas Shrugged: Part I (Paul Johansson, 2011)
10. Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike (John Putch, 2012) 5.3
11. Atlas Shrugged: Part III (James Manera, 2014) 4.3
Don Emonds - Sultan of Sleaze
12. Tender Loving Care (1972) 4.2
13. Ilsa: She-Wolf of the S.S. (1975) (re-watch) 5.1
14. Ilsa: Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1976) 5.1
Alvin Rakoff - Canuck jack-of-all-genres
15. City on Fire (1979) 4.1
16. King Solomon's Treasure (1979) 4.2
17. Death Ship (1980) 4.9
18. DEFCON-4 (Paul Donovan, 1985) 4.5
Lloyd A. Simandl - lingerie, shower & leather fetishist, purveyor of awful cinema
19. Autumn Born (1979) 4.2
20. Ladies of the Lotus (1987) 3.7
21. Possession (1987) 4.2
22. Empire of Ash aka Empire of Ash II (1988) 3.8
23. Empire of Ash III (1989) 4.4
24. The Bloody Brood (Julian Roffman, 1959) 4.9
Rafal Zielinski - purveyor of generic 80s teen comedy schlock (25-29)
25. Screwballs (1983) 4.7
26. Loose Screws aka Screwballs II (1985) 4.2
27. Recruits (1986) 4.4
28. State Park (1988) 4.8
29. Last Resort aka National Lampoon's Last Resort (1994) 2.8
30. Starship Invasions (Ed Hunt, 1977) 3.8
more low-grade Canuck sci-fi
31. The Neptune Factor (Daniel Petrie, 1973) 4.5
32. The Shape of Things to Come (George McCowan, 1979) 3.1
33. Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe (Damian Lee, 1990) 2.8
34. Replikator (Philip Jackson, 1994) 2.9
Roger Corman - King of the Bs
35. Swamp Women (1956) 3.1
36 . The Oklahoma Woman (1956) 4.2
37. Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) 4.9
38. The Undead (1957) 4.4
39. Naked Paradise (1957) 4.2
40. Carnival Rock (1957) 4.7
41. Teenage Caveman (1958) 3.3
42. She Gods of Shark Reef (1958) 2.7
43. Last Woman on Earth (1960) 4.8
44. Ski Troop Attack (1960) 3.5
45. Attack of the Giant Leeches (Bernard L. Kowalski, 1959) 3.7
Well you know, they made films about giant rabbits and killer shrews, so why not big leeches? Kind of scary if you think about it, not so much when you watch it and it's obviously just dudes in weird black vinyl costumes with plastic suckers that don't look anything like leeches or any other kind of animal. Anyway this is a swamp-set movie - popular thing in the 50s and 60s I guess, though it's all filmed in L.A., mostly in an arboretum and botanical garden. There's this big thing in the swamps and it's-a killin' folk, and we better get some scientists or somebody to figure it out, etc etc. An AIP production with Gene Corman (Roger's younger brother) producing and Roger in an exec credit, but with little of the wit or social commentary of Roger's better pictures in the director's chair - or even his average pictures. I guess he saved the better material for himself. Yvette Vickers makes a bit of an impression as the slutty wife of Bruno VeSota, the first guy to see and shoot at the creatures, but that's about all I got out of this.
46. The Giant Gila Monster (Ray Kellogg, 1959) 3.6
Ray Kellogg was primarily a special effects guy, so you might expect the effects here to be better than in most other poverty row productions from this era? Naaahhh. Check out his previous film as director, The Killer Shrews. Most of his effects work was done in larger-budgeted, non-SF films, and the other two films he directed were a family film about a boy and his dog, and The Green Berets of all things (knew I'd seen his name). This is a little better than the leech movie I guess because it's got a slightly more interesting cast of characters, starting with a young mechanic and would-be rock singer (Don Sullivan) who despite being a teen hot-rodder is also buddies with the local sheriff (Fred Graham). Of course he's got a girl also, and he's also got a kid sister with leg braces - do you think that will come up when people have to run from a giant monster? Anyway this isn't too bad at first when it's developing a little bit of small-town southwest flavor (filmed in Texas) but once the monster story takes over it just becomes all-too typical and the rear projection is as fake as it is anywhere, though at least they do use some models in a scene or two.
47. The Amazing Colossal Man (Bert I. Gordon, 1957) 4.5
48. War of the Colossal Beast (Bert I. Gordon, 1958) 3.7
The first of this duo came out in the fall of '57 - my guess is that Gordon seized on the huge success of the much bigger budgeted Universal film The Incredible Shrinking Man and decided that this was the new hot commodity; Attack of the 50 Foot Woman also got pushed into production shortly afterwards so it's clear that 50s Hollywood was no more original than it is today (as if you had any doubts). Anyway these are actually pretty decent films, in fact the best from Gordon I've seen. In the first film army colonel Glenn Manning (Glenn Langan) gets a massive dose of radiation from a plutonium bomb and burned horribly all over - but instead of dying, he starts to grow rapidly in size. Scientists race to find a cure or some way to at least stop the growth, and they do when he's 60 feet tall, but by this time his mind seems to be going. Forget the silliness of the idea and the even sillier pseudo-scientific explanations - Langan's performance communicates some of the same kind of pathos that Grant Williams' did in Shrinking Man, and the action plot - Manning of course escapes confinement - is fairly exciting, and the effects about as good as any Gordon achieved in this era. The colossal man shows as sort of shimmering in a lot of shots, but the scenes atop the Hoover dam at the end and a few other sequences look pretty decent.
I have no idea why Langan was replaced for the sequel, but for whatever reason he was, and that's the reason for the heavy disfigurement on his replacement in the role, Duncan Parkin. Manning's fiancee from the first film (Cathy Downs) is also replaced, this time by a sister (Sally Fraser) who believes that Manning is still alive from his fall from Hoover Dam, and helps to trace him to Mexico. More of the same kind of plot and action here but it's on about the same level as the first film, and the ending sequence at Griffith Park in Los Angels is pretty well done.
49. King Dinosaur (Bert I. Gordon, 1955) 2.1
Most of Gordon's films (like a lot of Corman's) have simple descriptive titles that are fairly accurate. Not so this one unless by "dinosaur" you mean "any old lizard that looks big thanks to rear projection". And that projection looks maybe even worse than usual - the first few shots of the giant ant in particular are just awful. A new planet has entered our solar system and it's not far from Earth, and a mission consisting of two couples of scientists is sent out to explore it. This is silly even by 50s standards, which would be fine except it's fairly boring, the women do little besides scream when they see some giant insect or beaver or whatever, the acting overall is terrible, and the ending where they decide to blow up a whole island full of dinosaurs with an atomic bomb is ludicrous, offensive, and nonsensical according to the plot - I thought these were SCIENTISTS?
Avg 3.99
to zorfff for hosting and providing a fun challenge overall, and to all my fellow challengers for plucking so many delicious butterballs. Now, it's time for a nap....
