Runtime:
93 minutes
Directed
by: Worth Keeter
Starring:
Ian Hunter, C.K. Bibby, William T. Hicks, Anna Rapunga, Jill
Donnellan
From:
Manson International
Runtime:
92 minutes
Directed
by: Maurizio Lucidi, Guglielmo Garroni
Starring:
Roger Moore, Stacy Keach, Ivo Garrani, Fausto Tozzi
From:
AIP
Here
are two movies which are on Netflix Instant and are about to expire
starting next month. The first one is a goofy send-up of a James Bond
film, while the second one stars someone who was James Bond at the
time. Works for me for a combo. I have seen the first one in the time
I had done the blog but I wanted to wait to talk about it on a rainy
day and it didn't happen, so I might as well watch it again.
Concerning
Order of the Black Eagle I first heard about it from the Bad Movie Fiends podcast. The description really says it all, stolen right from Netflix: “A James Bond wannabe and his tank-driving baboon
infiltrate a South American lair where Nazis scheme to revive a
cryogenically frozen Adolf Hitler.” YES. All of that is true.
The
movie stars DUNCAN JAX (Ian Hunter, not the former Mott the Hoople
singer nor anyone else with the name; he only appeared in this and
the first movie in this series, Unmasking the Idol, which I've never
seen) as a secret agent type who has an M and a Japanese guy who is
supposed to be Q. Hilariously, Hunter looks a lot like modern day
Michael Bolton. He goes to South America to go against a German guy
who looks like an even fatter version of Orson Welles in his final
years. Duncan is aided by a real motley crue of people, from a guy
who is supposed to be James Coburn from The Magnificent Seven to an
enormous black guy, Not John Hillerman and Not Grace Jones, two guys
who look like Grateful Dead roadies, and an 80's hot brunette. This
is all true.
This
is not a film to watch for the cogent script or masterful acting.
Rather, watch it to see a massively entertaining film if you enjoy
low-budget 80's action movies. The final 25 minuets or so are
positively insane, with multiple massive explosions, multiple
stuntment getting positively wrecked, and a baboon (who loves
delivering the Up Yours gesture) driving the World War II amphibious
vehicle known as the DUKW, or Duck. Utter insanity... and it's all
great.
As
for Street People, it's a poliziotteschi film starring Roger Moore
and Stacy Keach and it's from AIP? Sure! However, I had heard it's
not as good as expected so that's why I waited to see it. To steal
another description from Netflix: “On
direct orders from his mafia boss uncle (Ivo Garrani), swaggering
lawyer Ulysses (Roger Moore) teams up with his reckless racecar
driver bud Charlie (Stacy Keach) to find the gangsters responsible
for smuggling a million dollars worth of heroin from Sicily to San
Francisco inside a cross. Brazen backstabbing, chaotic car chases,
life-and-death dilemmas and funny fistfights abound in this
action-packed crime movie.”
Overall...
I'll say that this is average and fine and nothing more; it certainly
isn't like the other poliziotteschi films I have seen. Things just
seem flat and while there certainly are nice moments, a nice car
chase chase, another car destruction scene, and funny
dialogue-especially between the two leads-but overall the other
movies in the genre are just better, crazier, and more entertaining.
The story is rather nonsensical and that doesn't help. According to
the IMDb, the script was from NINE different people. That's usually a
bad sign. And one of them was a dude who wrote Shaft and The French
Connection, and another was from the guy who would go to direct
Grease.
At
least the music was appropriate for the genre (i.e. pretty groovy),
there is some hilarious 70's clothing, and an adult establishment in
San Francisco once offered the entertainment of “EXOTIC LADY
WRESTLERS”. That made me laugh.
I'll
be back tomorrow night.
No comments:
Post a Comment