PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 805

Crystalstone 1987 Written and Directed by Antonio Peláez. Pablo is a little boy who's mother dies as we meet them. His mother's sister if going to keep Pablo's sister and send Pablo to work with her relatives in a town far away. Pablo hears her telling the cook and he runs off with his sister Maria in tow. They run through town and wind up on a train. In another city they witness a murder and help rescue the man who was wrongly accused of the crime.

Pablo's mother gave Pablo a cross before she died, it turns out to be one of three that are fairly easy to find, even if they have to do a bit of grave robbing. It leads them to a giant diamond and their long lost father. It was OK but nothing too special. It's part of a two pack with the movie below.

The Boy And The Pirates 1960 Story and direction by Bert I Gordon, screenplay by Lillie Hayward and Jerry Sackheim. Jimmy and his friend Kathy are playing by the beach. Jimmy's really into pirates. He finds a fancy bottle, rubs it and a genie pops out. The genie takes him back to the pirate days and he has an adventure with them until he returns home. It's pretty entertaining, though meant for kids, it's a slaughter fest once they get involved with pirates and buried treasure. It's not overly gory, it's light hearted and there's plenty of yelling and grog. I'd seen it before and I enjoyed it again.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 2018 Written by Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow, directed by J A Bayona. A greedy prick wants dino DNA off of Isla Nublar. There's also debate in Washington what to do about the dinosaurs on the island, the volcano is due to erupt anytime. No one wants to save them in the government but that doesn't matter. Remember that greedy prick? He's got a plan to rescue some dinos and sell them to creeps from other governments. He's even got a guy who's made him a nasty ass new dinosaur that likes killing and can be directed. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard get called in to be on the rescue expedition to the island. They are nearly left behind while the volcano erupts and the dinos rampage. It's noisy movie that alternates the exciting times on the island with scenes of that greedy prick setting up his big score. It all goes to hell when the dinosaurs arrive at the lab and the bidding begins. It was alright for the most part. Someone gave me a DVD of it and I'd watch it again. I should have a marathon some day. It's been a while since I watched the first movie.

Friday Night Movies 776

Tai Chi Hero is a 2012 Chinese action comedy directed by Stephen Fung. It's a jazzed up fantasy about the creation of Tai Chi. It's a mix of melodrama and martial arts. The action sequences were choreographed by Sammo Hung. It's the sequel to Tai Chi Zero, which I haven't seen. They do give us a bit of a recap at the start of the movie. Now the action takes place in a village that's going to be destroyed for a railway line. The zero from the first movie is now getting married to a member of the Chen family, it's the only way he can learn the family style without bringing disaster to the village. Disaster comes anyway as the village is attacked by the scumbag in charge of the rail expansion. He's got it in for the Chen family himself. Peter Stormare plays Lord Flemming or "Flamming" as he's listed in the credits. He's as atrocious character, much like his atrocious British accent. I sure wasn't sold on the movie, the melodrama parts were dull but I did like some of the action scenes. By the time it was done I was pretty much thinking I wouldn't need to see it again.

I've seen Dinosaurus! more than once but I do like movies with big monsters. The movie has two decent stop motion dinosaurs and the fight between the T-Rex and the steam shovel is OK. It's from 1960 and when I saw it back in 2017 the DVD was $54 on Amazon. Now there's a DVD for $14 and a Blu-ray for $20, the later is what we watched. The movie looks pretty good but it's still about an average production.

I do like the two posters above. Sometimes the foreign posters are more entertaining than the US versions. The movie is fairly entertaining, buoyed up by the stop motion dinosaurs, dragged down a bit by the average script. I'm debating the purchase of the Blu-ray. There are some extras that sound interesting.

The Face Of Eve 1968

The Face Of Eve is a 1968 UK Spanish Liechtenstein and US production that was partially filmed in Brazil. It's got a few names, Eve in the US and Canada, Hula Hula, la femmina della giungla in Italy, Eva en la selva in Spain, Diana - Tochter der Wildnis in West Germany. I got a DVD from the UK, it's part of The British Film series from Network.

Producer Harry Alan Towers wrote the story and the screenplay under his usual pen name Peter Wellbeck. Robert Lynn and Jeremy Summers share the directing credit on the IMDb, the Wikipedia doesn't mention Robert but does mention that Summers quit half way through the shoot and Jesus Franco finished. There's not a credit for The Face OF Eve on Franco's IMDb page. Who knows.

It's a jungle tale with lost treasure, wild animals, crooks, and a blonde jungle girl. Celeste Yarnall plays Eve, she's joined by some cast members I knew of, Robert Walker Jr, Herbert Lom, Christopher Lee, Fred Clark and Maria Rohm.

An explorer is looking for some Inca treasure when he meets up with Eve, she's a goddess to some locals. She's got her enemies, another tribe is after her, they want to kill her. A carnival showman is after her, he wants to capture her alive and put her in a cage as his star attraction. Her own grandfather wants to do her in. It's a mad old world, huh.

It's watchable but pretty much average. There's some OK jungle footage and some fights and stuff like that but the scenes back in England with Christopher Lee and Herbert Lom were kind of dull. I've got it so there's a good chance I might see it again.