ROCKY 2 1979 (TUBI)

The sequel to "Rocky" is just as good as the original.

Sylvester Stallone returns a Rocky Balboa, the man who almost won the world boxing championship from undefeated Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers).

After the fight Balboa marries his sweetheart Adrian (Talia Shire) and settles down into a much softer and quiet life, but there is always a fire burning deep down inside him.

This is also fueled by Creed's constantly taunting him into a rematch because Creed feels embarrassed about the entire match. The movie. of course builds into the final climactic boxing match in which Rocky takes the title from Creed.

This was made back when I was working for UA and everyone knew this was going to be a huge hit, which it was. The movie is engrossing and fun and I bet there isn't one person looking at this that hasn't seen the movie.

One of the best. Recommended!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

John Astin is 93, and Dana Gillespie is 74.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Julian Glover is 88, Michael York is 81, Talisa Soto is 56, June Wilkinson is 83, and Jody Fair is 89.

DEMON WIND 1990 (TUBI)

A strange movie, albeit not a bad one.

A young man named Cory (Eric Larson) goes to his grandfather's farm to find out about his family past. Along the way he and his girlfriend Elaine (Francine Lapensee) hear nothing but vague warnings of the dangers that await, but Cory shrugs them off as he is dtermined to discover the truth.

They finally arrive at the house with a group of their friends and soon they discovere that the house is possessed by evil spirits who will not allow them to leave.

There are several gory killings and the story will indeed remind you of "The Evil Dead: from 1982. This film has demonic monsters, walking corpses, parallel universes and some nice overall effects.

I did like the fact that this is a "rural horror" film as those to me are always the best kind. Overall I enjoyed the movie and found it to not be as bad as a lot of people have claimed.

If you get the chance, you ought to see it. I can't see horror fans not liking it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Paige Spiranac is 30, Sara Jean Underwood is 39, Diana Ross is 79, and Scotty Morrow is 77.

DUEL 1971 (METV)

I caught this on Svengoolie a few days back and it was fun to watch this little made for TV thriller again.

Sven ran the 90 minute version that was released to theaters with 16 minutes of extra footage.

Dennie Weaver stars as a businessman who is traveling thru California. He passes a truck on a lonely highway and thus his terror ride begins. The unseen driver of the truck starts to pursue Weaver's character of David Mann.

There are many scenes of intense car chasing as the killer in the semi truck sets out to kill Mann and anything and anyone who gets in his way. Director Steven Spielberg really piles on the suspense during the final 15 minutes and it makes this a landmark TV production.

Weaver is excellent as the man who is forced to fight for his life behind the wheel of his car. The rest of the cat is minimal but includes Eddie Firestone, Gene Dynarski and Charles Seel.

I hadn't seen this in almost 30 years and I found it to be just a great as I remember it. RECOMMENDED!!

THE HITMAN 1990 (WARNERS)

A great action film from Cannon.

Chuck Norris stars as an undercover detective named Cliff Garrett. During a stake out he is ambushed and almost killed by his partner, Ronnie Delaney (Michael Parks).

After a long recovery in the hospital Garrett decides to go undercover as a hit man and work his way up thru the mobs of Seattle in order to destroy all from within, including Delaney who has partnerd up with Muslims in a deadly drug operation.

Garrett stars working with a local gangster named Marco Luganni (Al Waxman). He also befriends a lonely boy who lives in his apartment and the two develope a good friendship.

There are a lot of violent gunfights and bloodletting and when the boy is badly burned by the evil Delaney, Garrett decides it's time to conclude his long dreamed plan.

Norris is excellent in the role and everyone in the cast does a very good job. The final confrontation between Garrett and Delaney is something you won't soon forget.

Sadly Cannon films was on it's last legs when this was made and the end of their long line of action films was near. But they still had one more Norris film in the works.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Meiko Kaji is 76, and Masha Lund is 37.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Barbara Rhodes is 77, Corinne Clery is 73 and Lori Williams is 77.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

William Shatner is 92, and May Britt is 89.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Kathy Ireland is 60, and Steve Borden is 64.

BLOODSPORT 1987 (WARNERS)

Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as Frank Dux.

Dux is an American martial artist who is serving in the military. He badly wants to compete in a Hong Kong martial arts tournement who people can actually get killed.

He leaves his army base without permission to compete and he has two agents following him to bring him back. Dux manages to lose the agents and enters the three day event.

He also falls for a beautiful female reporter named Janice (Leah Ayres). Frank advances well into the second and third rounds. The final battle is with Cong Li (Bolo Yeung) who is undefeated in five years and has killed many opponents.

The final showdown is really something to watch. It just kind of grabs you and won't let go. I found myself enjoying this film after refusing to see it for many years.

The rest of the cast includes Norman Burton, Forest Whitaker, Ray Chiao and Rani Gill.

If you haven't seen this, check it out, you might like it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Ursula Andress is 87, Jan Shepard is 95, and A.J. Mendez is 36.

SANTO VS. THE INFERNAL MEN 1959 (INDICATOR) BLU-RAY

The second Santo film ever masde also shot in Cuba back to back with Santo Vs. The Evil Brain.

Again, this has a very simple plot. Santo helps a federal agent take out a gang of drug smugglers.

Santo has a few more lines in this film and several sceans from the Evil Brain film appear in here as well. It was a way to save money. It was shot very quickly in Havana and the film crew left just two days before Castro entered the Capital,

The 4K print is beautiful and if you're a Santo fan this is a MUST SEE!! "Invasion Of The Zombies" was next for Santo, and that was the film that would introduce him to a world wide audience, even thought in America he was known as "Samson" thanks to K. Gordon Murray.

However, this is a real piece of film history that has finally been made available and should be seen by every fan. I cannot recommend this enough.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Leslie Parrish is 88.

SANTO VS. THE EVIL BRAIN 1958 (INDICATOR) BLU-RAY

This is the first Santo movie and it was shot in Havana Cuba just days before the Castro takeover.

This film was shot very quickly and the plot is very simple. Santo has to tabgle with an evil mad doctor who is using a serum to control people's thoughts and actions.

Santo is drugged and works with the drug smugglers for a while until another masked wrestler named El Incognito rescues him. This film is very odd for several reasons. First it was shot in Cuba, second, Santo only has about 3 lines in the entire film and third is that he is given no background.

The print for this film is simply beautiful and brings out the black and white photography. It's in Spanish with American subtitles. The disc has some great extras including a background on where the film was made such as locations and how the print of this and another film shot back to back with it entitled "Santo Vs. The Infernal Men" were smuggled into the US in a casket after the Castro takeover.

I'm very happy to see this film finally getting a release as it has been thought lost for a long while. Any Santo fan will want to check out this release.

It still strikes me as very odd that the top Mexican wrestler and national hero in movies started out in a small Cuban production. CHECK IT OUT!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Kurt Russell is 72, and Laurene Landon is 66.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Erik Estrada is 74.

OVER THE TOP 1987 (WARNERS)

A Cannon action film starring Sylvester Stallone.

Stallone stars as Lincoln Hawk, a truck driver that is trying to win back his son after leaving him and his mother. His son, Michael (David Mendenhall) is a spoiled brat attending military school and living with his ultra rich grandfather played by Robert Loggia.

Hawk comes to Michael's graduation and picks him up in a semi truck. This is all planned by Mike's mother Christina (Susan Blakely) who is in the last stages of a ternimal illness and wants the father and child to make amends.

Grandpa Cutler has other ideas however and makes every attempt to stop Hawk. Hawk is also trying to compete in the International Arm Wrestling Tournement in Las Vegas.

Stallone didn't want to make this film, but he was offered so much money by Cannon Films he finally said yes and thought the film would never be seen anyway.

It's really no worse than millions of other movies and who knows, you might like it, I did.

The rest of the cast includes Terry Funk, Rick Zumwalt and Bruce Way.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

David Cronenberg is 80 and Magda Konopka is 80.

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE 1987 (WARNERS)

Not too bad of a time waster.

Dolph Lundgren is He-Man and he is out to save the universe from Nancy Pel....oops I mean Skeletor (Frank Langella). This is, of course pure comic book hokum, but it's easy to get involved with the story.

As was usual with most Cannon films from the 80's, this is nothing but non-stop action from start to finish. There is very little in the way of plot and I summed it up in the first line of this write-up.

Langella has stated many times that this was one of, if not his favorite role and it really shows. The cast is very good at what they do and there are a few familiar faces here including Billy Barty as Gwildor, Meg Foster, Jon Cypher, Christina Pickles, Barry Livingston, Gwynne Gilford and, of course, Courtney Cox.

The film was made for about 22 million dollars and yet it failed to gross all of it's money back at the time of it's release. That is one thing I cannot understand as it is no worse than anything else, but then again movies are crap shoots. Some times you win, sometimes you lose.

I enjoyed it for what ir was and expected nothing more than what it is. Escapist fun.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Barbara Feldon is 90.

THE BODY STEALERS 1969 (TUBI)

Odd little British sci-fi film.

I hadn't seen this film for over 40 years and was glad to see it available for streaming.

The story revolves around NATO paratroopers who are being snatched from thin air during jumps after being surrounded by a strange red beam of light. Naturally the military is very concerned.

General Armstrong (George Sanders) calls in Bob Megan (Patrick Allen) to head an investigation as to what is happening to the men. During said investigatin he discovers that the parachutes are now radioactive.

He asks Dr. Matthews (Maurice Evans) and his gorgeous assistant Julie Slade (Hillary Dwyer) for help. Megan also meets a mysterious, beautiful blonde named Lorna (Pamela Conway) who seems connected to the strange goings on.

When I was much younger I was bored with this film because of it's lack of monsters, but seeing it today was an entirely different experience. I liked the spy trappings and the women and I also found it to be more like an extended British TV show than a movie.

I liked the movie, but the ending was somewhat lackluster, however it still outshines anything made today. The cast in very, very good and all the familiar faces make it very worth while.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...,

Nancy Kovack is 88.

CURUCU BEAST OF THE AMAZON 1956 (VINEGAR SYNDROME) BLU-RAY

It has been about 52 years since I saw this movie, and it's the first time I've seen it in color.

In 1971 I had a small black and white Sony TV and that is where I saw for the first time this Universal released adventure/horror film. It was on KHQ TV 6 from Spokane, Washington.

I have never forgotten this little gem for one large reason...it was, at that time the biggest disappointment in my monster kid life. More on this later.

Vinegar Syndrome picked this up and released a beautiful print and remastered it in 2k. I have to admit, the color is very vibrant. The story surrounds a tribe in Brazil (Where this was actually filmed) whose people are being killed by a bird-like creature called Curucu (pronounced kurusu).

An adventurer named Rock Dean (John Bromfield) and a woman doctor, Andrea Roman (Beverly Garland) travel to Brazil to try and discover why all of the plantation workers there are leaving.

They discover that some have been killed by a legendary monster and Dean wants to hunt it down, if it is real. The two have many adventures and fight the usual jungle perils including snakes, spiders and deadly wildlife.

Dean finally confront the monster and bashes it over the head with his gun butt. This is where this hge disappointment as a child took place. We see that the monster is nothing more than a man named Tupanico (Tom Payne) dressed in a castume to scare the natives off.

Now, seeing this five plus decades later I can respect it more as a straight adventure film, but damn, all of the hype was on the monster!! The costume is surely one of the most outlandish of the entire 50's monster boom, and I think it looks very good.

With all this being said, I cannot thank VS enough for putting out this lost little gem made by independent filmmakers and distributed by Universal. It was super nice to finally see it again, and I actually liked it better this time around. It's a beautiful Blu-ray presentation, and yes, I will recommend it to everyone.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Chuck Norris is 83, Shannon Tweed is 66, Cynthia Brimhall is 59, and Ron Starr is 81.

RIP BERT I. GORDON

One of the most influential movie directors of my life has died.

Bert I. Gordon was an icon to me for all of my movie going life. I was first introduced to his work at the age of 8 when I saw "The Amazing Colossal Man" on KHQ TV Creature Features, and I was hooked from then on.

Gordon made many films I cherish including "The Magic Sword", "Earth Vs. The Spider", "War Of The Colossal Beast", "Tormented", "Attack Of The Puppet People", "Picture Mommy Dead" and the list goes on and on.

Gordon did all of the special effects foe his films as well, and while they were cheap they never failed to entertain. Bert I. Gordon passed away on March 8th, 2023 at the age of 100.

I have read some pretty awful stories about his movies today but I can tell you I loved all of his movies even "King Dinosaur" and "Serpent Island". Godspeed Mr. B.I.G.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO...

Cynthia Rothrock is 66, Micky Dolenz is 78, Kathy Shower is 70, Carole Bayer Sager is 76, and Silvia Tortosa is 76.