Complete garbage, 24 January 2018
My short and sweet plot summary: A young man named Rick (Christopher Mitchum) goes in search of his girlfriend who has been abducted by the worst looking Bigfoot ever put on film. The local sheriff won't help, so Rick turns to a traveling huckster named Jasper B Hawks (John Carradine) for assistance.
What a complete load of garbage! Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, about Bigfoot is wretched. The movie doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel - it turns the barrel upside down to get at the poo stuck to the underside. Dull, boring, horribly acted, with some of the absolute worst special effects anyone has ever seen - that' what you'll find in Bigfoot. Carradine may have been a decent actor at one time, but by 1970, he was appearing in just about anything offered. As much as I enjoyed some other films with Christopher Mitchum (Ricco and Summertime Killer to name just two), he proves here how bad an actor he could be without a solid script. It's all so awful it's really not worth saying much more.
After watching this movie, I think I need to revisit some of the other films I've rated 1/10. I think I've done some of those movie a disservice. On IMDb, of the 2,932 films I've rated, 63 received a 1/10. Some of these movies (Dead Men Walk, Sinbad of the Seven Seas, Night of the Sharks, Diamond Connection, Barbarian Queen II, ROTOR, The Adventures of Hercules, or The Swarm for example) have to be better, or at least more enjoyable, than Bigfoot.
1/10
"The moment you pick up a sword you become a target. The moment you kill everything changes.", 21 January 2018
Gabrielle is taken hostage by Morpheus, the God of Dreams. Morpheus wants Gabrielle for his bride. Xena, as you'd expect, is having none of it. She enters a dreamscape, filled with all manner of threats she'll have to overcome if she is to survive and bring Gabrielle out with her.
Of the first three episodes in the Xena series, Dreamworker is filled with more magic than we've seen so far. It's not the best episode, but it is a nice preview of what's to come in the series. Xena's battles in the dreamscape are nicely staged. We are treated to some of the best action we've seen so far. The dreamscape itself is an interesting idea where, we quickly learn, anything is possible. Dreamworker also introduces us to the idea of Gabrielle killing in battle and what it would do to her. It's a theme that's explored in much of the series. It really adds to the muchly needed character development. Another plus for Dreamworker is that, when compared with the previous episodes, Gabrielle is less annoying. Fortunately, her character goes on to become much more than the damsel in distress she plays early in the series.
I guess my biggest complaint with Dreamworker is the way Morpheus is presented - or not presented would be more accurate. His absence from the screen hurts the episode. There's a lack of a big-time threat. While there are plenty of fight scenes, etc., without Morpheus, the episode is missing the danger or real sense of peril that should be present.
6/10
- 28 minuti per 3 milioni di dollari
I like a good 60s-era Euro-heist film., 21 January 2018
Jacques (Richard Harrison) is hired to steal a diamond worth $3 million. He puts together a crew - you know, an electronics expert, a safe guy, etc - the usual assortment of characters you'd put together to steal a heavily guarded, valuable diamond. Through all of their planning, Jacques and the others determine that once inside, they'll have 28 minutes (hence the title) to get the diamond and get out. Can they do it?
I like a good 60s-era Euro-heist film. 28 Minutes for 3 Million Dollars, while nowhere near as good as something like Grand Slam or some others I've seen, is a decent enough example of the genre. The plan to steal the diamond isn't as elaborate or as "serious" as some other heist films I"ve seen, but there's enough here to make it enjoyable. Taking a nod no doubt from the granddaddy of heist films, Rififi, much of the actual heist is carried out in complete silence. A nice touch. A little more drama from an inquisitive guard, for example, would have created some additional badly needed tension and a better overall film. The ending is a bit silly, but what do you expect? These guys never get away with it.
Over the past few years, I've really come to enjoy Richard Harrison, When you get him away from Sword and Sandal films, he's got a flair about him that works in the more modern settings. He's in good form here and is easily the star of the movie. The rest of the cast is workmanlike at best with no one really standing out.
6/10
