By country:
52 - USA
9 - Italy
5 - Australia
1 - India, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea, UK
By decade:
1930s - 1
1940s - 1
1950s - 20
1960s - 14
1970s - 7
1980s - 17
1990s - 3
2000s - 5
2010s - 4
1988 is the top year with 5 films seen
Best (my rating)
1. Cherry 2000 (8)
2. Space Men
3. Mean Johnny Barrows (7)
4. Battle of the Worlds
5. Chandni Chowk to China
6. The Green Slime
7. Alien from L.A.
8. 5 Guns West
9. Order of the Black Eagle
10. Sky Pirates (6)
----
64. Robot Holocaust (1)
65. Lost: The Black Earth
66. Nighfall
67. Maniac
68. Mongjoengae / Dream Affection
Triple-feature of 1950s US Science Fiction - all Double Word Scores being on the SF/Fantasy challenge as well:
1. Unknown World (Terry O. Morse, 1951) 3.9 IMDb rating
2. Mesa of Lost Women (Ron Ormond/Herbert Tevos, 1953) 2.5 IMDb rating
3. Cat-Women of the Moon (Arthur Hilton, 1953) 3.7 IMDb rating
Triple-feature of 1980s Australian Science Fiction - all Triple Words scores on the SF/Fantasy and Oceania challenges
4. Sky Pirates (Colin Eggleston, 1986) 4.2 IMDb rating
5. Starship (Roger Christian, 1984) 3.4 IMDb rating
6. The Time Guardian (Brian Hannant, 1987) 4.3 IMDb rating
60s Italian Triple Feature
7. La strada per Forte Alamo / The Road to Fort Alamo (Mario Bava, 1964) 5.0 IMDb rating
8. Space-Men / Assignment Outer Space (Antonio Margheriti, 1960) 3.4 IMDb rating
9. Il pianeta degli uomini spenti / Battle of the Worlds (Antonio Margheriti, 1961) 4.3 on IMDb
More American schlock from the past 30 years:
10. Nightfall (Paul Mayersberg, 1988) 2.4 IMDb rating
11. Independence Day: Resurgence (Roland Emmerich, 2016) 5.2 IMDb rating
12. Cherry 2000 (Steve DeJarnatt, 1987) 5.4 IMDb rating
Continuing in the sewers of sci-fi, with 2 from W. Lee Wilder, Billy's older and significantly less-talented bro:
13. Phantom From Space (1953) 4.0 on IMDb
14. Killers from Space (1954) 3.1 on IMdb
Roger Corman and His Disciples 3fer:
15. The Wasp Woman (Roger Corman/Jack Hill, 1959) 4.6 on IMDb
16. Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (Curtis Harrington/Pavel Klushantsev (uncr), 1965) 3.6 on IMDb
17. Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (Peter Bogdanovich as Derek Thomas, others uncredited, see below, 1968) 2.7 on IMDb
rounding out the day with an American Eurospy, or something
18. Agent for H.A.R.M. (Gerd Oswald, 1965) 2 on IMDb
more from the endless piles of 50s American sci-fi stupidity
19. Terror from the Year 5000 (Robert J. Gurney Jr., 1958) 2.5 on IMDb
20. War of the Satellites (Roger Corman, 1958) 5.0 on IMDb
21. From the Earth to the Moon (Byron Haskin, 1958) 5.1 on IMDb
another trio of crap from Downunder
22. Incident at Raven's Gate (Rolf de Heer, 1988) 5.4 on IMDb
23. Lost: The Black Earth (James Cole, 2004) 4.3 on IMDb
24. Angel Mine (David Blyth, 1978) 5.0 on IMDb
Four genres of crap from two years and two countries in the 1950s
25. The Brain Eaters (Bruno VeSota, 1958) 4.0 on IMDb
26. Bullwhip (Harmon Jones, 1958) 5.1 on IMDb
27. La momia azteca contra el robot humano / The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy (Rafael Portillo, 1958) 2.3 on IMDb
28. Prisoners of the Casbah (Richard Bare, 1958) 5.4 on IMDb
1970s-80s: Action! Crime! Action! Spies! Action! Nazis! Action! Baboons! Action?
29. Laser Mission (BJ Davis, 1989) 3.5 on IMDb
30. Mitchell (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1975) 2.4 on IMDb
31. Order of the Black Eagle (Wolf Keeter, 1987) 4.5 on IMDb
1970s time-travel adventures
32. The Time Machine (Henning Schellerup, 1978) 5.3 on IMDb
33. Idaho Transfer (Peter Fonda, 1973) 5.4 on IMDb
to the center of the earth and to alien brains
34. Alien from L.A. (Albert Pyun, 1988) 3.1 on IMDb
35. Journey to the Center of the Earth (Albert Pyun/Rusty Lemorande, 1988) 2.8 on IMDb
36. The Brain from Planet Arous (Nathan Juran, 1957) 5.3 on IMDb
Eurospies and Asian?-American martialartsvideogame action
37. New York chiama Superdrago / Secret Agent Super Dragon (Giorgio Ferroni, 1966) 2.0 on IMDb
38. Operazione Goldman / Lightning Bolt (Antonio Margheriti, 1966) 4.9 on IMDb
39. Il raggio infernale / Danger!! Death Ray (Gianfranco Baldanello, 1967) 2.2 on IMDb
40. Double Dragon (James Yukich, 1994) 3.7 on IMDb
2 Cormans and a Maniac
41. Gunslinger (Roger Corman, 1956) 3.1 on IMDb
42. The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (Roger Corman, 1957) 2.8 on IMDb
43. Maniac (Dwain Esper, 1934) 3.4 on IMDb
Blaxploitation! a few "educational" (but really propaganda) shorts, and more schlock sci-fi from the 80s
44. Mean Johnny Burrows (Fred Williamson, 1976) 5.0 on IMDb
45. Lady Cocoa (Matt Cimber, 1975) 4.7 on IMDb
46. Mandinga (Mario Pinzauit, 1976) 3.2 on IMDb
47. SHORTS average rating 4.225 on IMDb 61 minutes total
a) Girls Beware (1961)
b) The Terrible Truth (1951)
c) LSD: Insight or Insanity (1967) l
d) Know for Sure (1941)
48. Prisoners of the Lost Universe (Terry Marcel, 1983) 3.7 on IMDb
More sci-fi and some spy babes
49. Robot Holocaust (Tim Kincaid, 1986) 2.1 on IMDb
50. D.E.B.S. (Angela Robinson, 2004) 5.3 on IMDb
51. Skyline (Strause brothers, 2010) 4.4 on IMDb
52. Space Mutiny (David Winters/Neal Sundstrom, 1988) 2.0 on IMDb
53. The Killer Shrews (Ray Kellogg, 1959) 3.8 on IMDb
Tribute to Dorothy Malone, and 80s sword and sorcery
54. 5 Guns West (Roger Corman, 1955) 4.5 on IMDb
55. The Magic Sword (Bert I. Gordon, 1962)) 4.3 on IMDb
56. Ator l'invincilbile / Ator the Fighting Eagle (Joe D'Amato, 1982) 3.1 on IMDb
miscellany of junk
57. Out for a Kill (Michael Oblowitz, 2003) 3.4 on IMDb
58. Pirates of Tripoli (Felix Feist, 1955) 5.0 on IMDb
59. The Green Slime (Kinji Fukasaku, 1968) 4.6 on IMDb
action in mostly lower registers and something not erotic
60. Proud Mary (Babak Najafi, 2018) 5.1 on IMDb
61. BloodRayne (Uwe Boll, 2005) 2.9 on IMDb
62. Chandni Chowk to China (Nikkhil Advani, 2009) 4.0 on IMDb
63. Mongjeongae / Dream Affection (Soong-Hwan Lee, 2011) 2.8 on IMDb
64.
Sorceress (Jack Hill, 1982)
4.2 on IMDb
The first thing to know about this latter-day Corman production is not the director or genre or anything else, but writer Jim Wynorski, one of the worst T&A filmmakers around. You know there's going to be sex (or at least nudity) and it's going to be sleazy, and there isn't going to be much else of interest - and you're right. This stars a couple of Playboy playmates, the Harris twins, as a couple of babes with, you guessed it, a destiny handed down from the Gods to defeat evil! In the form of their own father, who had planned on slaying his firstborn as a sacrifice but was thwarted by their mother who he of course killed. Lots of naked breasts here, really terrible fight scenes, completely unmemorable in any way unless the Harris twins' assets are enough for you. Not for me so I'll give it a
2; at this point probably the worst of the 80s barbarian fantasies I've seen.
65.
Dr. Goldfoot & the Bikini Machine (Norman Taurog, 1965)
5.1 on IMDb
Along with all the serious and semi-serious spy movies that came along in the wake of Bond we also have quite a number of total spoofs, among them this Vincent Price vehicle wherein he plays a mad scientist who creates bikini-clad robots with the intent of putting them near the levers of power so he can RULE THE WORLD - no, actually, just putting them near wealthy men so he can get rich quick. I guess it's refreshing that the bad guy has such modest desires? But that's about the only interesting thing here; sure it's got babes but there are hundreds of spy movies that have those; and it's got Price of course but he's in plenty of vastly better films and not too many worse ones. Frankie Avalon is no help as a hapless secret agent, and there's an UNBELIEVABLY long and interminable chase sequence that ends the film not soon enough. Not bad theme song or credits sequence.
3 is the best I can do and it was so dull I didn't even consider watching Mario Bava's sequel which has an even worse reputation. Sorry Mario.
66.
Eliminators (Peter Manoogian, 1986)
4.5 on IMDb
After three really, really bad and dull movies in a row I finally got lucky, though I can't say I struck gold. Copper, perhaps. This is a fairly standard but enjoyable Indiana Jones-cum-Terminator-influence trek through a jungle, with Denise Crosby as a scientist whose work has been stolen by a megalomaniac, Andrew Prine as the Jones or more accurately Han Solo-type amoral guide who will get her to the scientist's hideout, and Patrick Reynolds as the half-man, half-machine victim of said scientist's experiments. Crosby has a little flying robot that can do just about anything and serves as an excuse to get them out of jams, and also the Ewok/Short Round cuteness that I guess they felt they needed. The low budget and some poor editing decisions certainly hurt this but it's overall a reasonable enjoyable diversion.
6 from me.
67.
The Avengers (Jeremiah Chechik, 1998)
3.7 on IMDb
Right off the bat I'll mention that I'm not really familiar with the 60s TV series this is based on, so no "what an awful adaptation" or "this movie ruined my childhood" shit from me here. This starts out fairly well in the first few scenes, with Ralph Fiennes (pretty decent) as our hero John Steed first going implacably through a test of his umbrella-wielding fighting skills, then meeting Dr/Mrs Emma Peel (Uma Thurman, ravishing) and getting involved in the race to stop whoever is trying to destroy the weather in the UK through the Prospero Project, which Peel created. That's two flicks in a row with female scientists having their work taken by megalomaniac older men (in this case it's Sean Connery) in order to do Bad Things. Alas it's only maybe 15 minutes in when things start going horribly wrong and the film becomes nearly incomprehensible and stays that way till the end. Apparently this got terrible test reviews and so the studio (of course) decided to chop 1/2 hour out of it to make it more action-packed or something like that, not worrying of course that they were going to lose any sense of structure or narrative flow or much of the rationale for the events that happen.
I will say though that even though there are some good things here - I like Fiennes and Jim Broadbent as his boss "Mother", and Thurman is very fetching in her black leather catsuit, and the production design is quite nice overall - I don't think the film would probably be very good even if the best-case-scenario director's cut could ever be put out, because there is also a fatal error in tone throughout the film. Everybody talks in such an exaggerated cheerio-stiff-upper-lip, I say looks like London's going to freeze to death, dontcha know - and I mean everybody, all the way through the film - that it cannot be taken as anything but a parody, and alas a parody that isn't funny. I really don't know what the rationale for this approach was but making a parodic action film for $60 million (it'd probably be at least double that today) aimed mostly at the American market based on a TV series that few in the target demographic have heard of....well, thank goodness nobody does such stupid shit today. I mean it'd be like making a $200 million film about
The Lone Ranger or something like that.
4.
68.
Sangraal, la spada di fuoco / Sword of the Barbarians (Michele Massimo Tarantini, 1982)
3.9 on IMDb
Another barbarian fantasy from 1982, this one from Italy, featuring "Peter McCoy" (Pietro Torrisi) as one of the most heavily-muscled slabs of beefcake in the genre this side of Schwarzenegger and Ferrigno. Guess what, his destiny is to defeat an Evil One who has destroyed his village and murdered his wife, how original is that? This has nicer scenery (more outdoor location shooting) than most of the other lower-budgeted efforts in this genre I've seen, and some pretty good fight sequences, and while the regular low-angle shots that emphasize crotches and chests can be a bit disconcerting at least it's a slightly different visual style. Also our lead dude gets a magic crossbow that looks like it weighs 100 kg and which fires three bolts simultaneously, so points for that. Overall it's still not good but more fun than the Wynorski/Hill effort I saw the previous night. Probably won't get to watching all 4 Deathstalker films like I'd planned for this challenge now, but after the barbarian flicks I've already seen I think I'm hitting my limit.
4 for this piece of beef&cheese-cake.
Average IMDb rating so far (68): 4.001
Average OldAle rating so far (68): 4.0
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I'm also continually amazed at how much cast members of Arrested Development are willing to debase themselves in this franchise, this time Tony Hale stepping in for David Cross to shriek and mug. If Jason Bateman shows up in the next one, I'm done...
