Arrow Films Review: Nightmare City (1980, Umberto Lenzi)

  Original title “Incubo sulla città contaminata”

“The Nightmare Becomes Reality.”
Whilst waiting at an airport to interview a scientist about a recent nuclear accident, American reporter Dean Miller (Hugo Stiglitz, 357 magnum) witnesses a military plane making an illegal landing. With police and armed forces on the scene, Dean knows himself and his trusty cameraman (Antonio Mayans, Zombie Lake) are going to potentially get some juicy material. Juicy material it definitely is, bloody too. Very bloody! Inside the plane are dozens of disfigured victims of the nuclear accident. These passengers aren't just casualties of an unfortunate event, they're also blood-thirsty maniacs and almost instantly wipe out the entire military personnel. As if butchering and battering their victims in brutal fashion wasn't enough, they also like to slurp on their blood to keep themselves going. Dean manages to escape and heads back to the studio to show the world what's happening. Unfortunately for him, the suits at work won't allow it because General Murchison (Mel Ferrer, The Longest Day) over at Civil Defence doesn't want the word out. Naturally, the infected are running amuck around the city and after they invade the television studio, Dean escapes once again and heads on over to the hospital where his wife Anna (Laura Trotter, Frivolous Lola) works. As he arrives, the hospital also falls under attack, but luckily, himself and Anna escape. What follows for the pair is a fight for survival. As if you didn't know that already....

  It's actually pretty pointless giving you a synopsis of this movie because I bet you have already seen it, probably multiple times. We all know that Nightmare City is a ridiculous film, but just in case you're one of the few people yet to experience this truly cinematic wonder, I won't go in to too much detail about some of the stand out moments and shortcomings. When I say shortcomings, I mean that in the greatest possible sense. In an (amazingly dark) age where yuppy hipster directors who are borrowing a nostalgia they didn't live and are creating purposefully bad low-budget films, this is a perfect film for the Kung Fury and Birdemic (I think / hope we're collectively over The Room by now.) crowd. The story is simple, but functions in the basic sense. At its heart, it's an anti-war and nuclear film. Does it actually work in that sense? No, not really. Aside from some rather forced sounding pacifist dire tribe, the action and absurdity on screen takes precedent. You're not here for intellectual content, you're here for bad acting, non-stop action and some tasty blood and guts. There's something happening pretty much all of the time. From Hugo Stiglitz giving us an acting masterclass on how to use the same facial expression for every emotion and situation to defaced super-strengthed ghouls slicing off nipples and following dinner table etiquette by wiping their mouths after slurping down a serving of blood. Speaking of bloodshed, there's gore by the bucket loads. Sure, the camera may occasionally linger a bit too long to expose the crudeness of certain gore gags, but it's just going to make you chuckle even more.

  As I briefly touched on it earlier, acting isn't anything to shout about, especially the mighty Hugo Stiglitz. That being said, the likes of Mel Ferrer, Francisco Rabal (Speed Driver) as well as eye candy such as Maria Rosaria Omaggio (The Cop in Blue Jeans) and Sonia Viviani (Women's Camp 119) all add something to the film. Even though this is a wonderfully absurd film, one thing is for certain; Stelvio Cipriani's (A Bay of Blood) score is a genuinely accomplished and effective piece of work and actually one of Cipriani's greatest. Overall, this is another winner from Umberto Lenzi. Say what you will about him in terms of his personally and his artistic vision and capabilities, he knew how to create an entertaining film. What more can I say? I am fan of this film for the right and wrong reasons. At this point, you've probably skimmed over the review looking for the most important information; is this Arrow Films release better or worse than the Raro Video release?

  Guess what? You're pretty much getting both transfers on this release. Out of the two, Arrow's new 2k restoration looks much sharper and vibrant, but suffers from irreversible print damage. The second transfer, the one Raro used for their release, is taken from a 35mm reversal dupe negative and although the print damage isn't there, it's a much softer transfer. Sound is of high quality on both versions and. Those who are privy to pointlessly complain about Arrow releases need not bother because you are warned about the damage before you even decide which version to watch. Arrow could have just lazily used the same Raro print or just use their own, but the fact you get to choose from the two is very commendable. In terms of on-disc extras there's an entertaining commentary track from former Fangoria editor Chris Alexander, interviews with Umberto Lenzi and Maria Rosaria Ommagio, Eli Roth (Hostel) unashamedly fanboying about the film and Umberto Lenzi, original theatrical trailer, alternate opening titles and a featurette about the restoration issues. Unfortunately, the lengthy interview with Lenzi that appeared on the Raro disc is nowhere to be seen, but the long list of extras here more than make up for it. As always there's wonderful newly commissioned artwork, this time from Graham Humphreys and a booklet featuring writing from John Martin (The Seduction of the Gullible: The Truth Behind the Video Nasty Scandal). The Raro booklet has a piece by Chris Alexander that doesn't appear here. All in all, the Arrow release is arguably the most definitive out there. It may be missing one or two extras, but wether this is the first time you're buying the film or the 3746328468^th time; this is a release you need to own.

Nightmare City is available as a DVD & Blu-Ray combo pack from Arrow Films.

PDx

23rd Century DVD Review: Thunder Squad (1985, Umberto Lenzi)

"Call it bravery... Call it courage... Call it guts. Whatever you call it, they've got it!"

Before I start the review I would like to give a few words about the DVD release of this film. From what I gather, the label 23rd Century is a grey market label based in Manchester. I am yet to do major research so you can expect a full post some time in the future. From what I read, these guys put out mainly public domain titles that are mostly ported from degraded VHS tapes. I thought I would celebrate this label and labels like that because for me personally, this is the way you should be watching these crap-tastic gems and not on sparkling blu-ray transfers. I apologise to all you HD elitist fascist types out there but that's just the way I see it. Anyway, welcome to the first 23rd Century review. If you want to see what titles this label has to offer, check out this awesome blog.

Thunder Squad is a 1985 action flick by the cult maestro, Umberto Lenzi and stars the equally iconic Antonio Sabato. The story is pretty simple. A South American rebel leader is taking refuge in Florida and finds out his son has been kidnapped! A crack team of five mercs are assigned the task of finding and rescuing the child. Once they save the kid (no it's not a spoiler... you should know the formula of these films enough by now) things get a little "complicated" to say the least and our band of grunts have to fight their way through hoards of henchmen. Will they survive? What actually happens? That's something I will leave for you to find out for yourselves! Yeah, I'm mean but what can you do?

It may not be the most action packed or violent film of it's type (It's only a 15 rated movie) but it sure kept my attention for it's run time. I would say this s a classic example of "so bad it's good" cinema. There are many moments that stand out in this one including an obscenely terrific sequence where I kid you not, psychoanalysts are used to telepathically locate where the kid is being held captive. If I didn't have a beer belly, I would have broken my jaw on the floor at how terrific that is. Another highlight for me is the absolutely terrible German accent used for Werner Pocath's character. I have no idea if the Austrian dubbed his own voice or not but either way... it's one of the most painfully awful yet amazing accents I have heard! It definitely gives the cliché Nazi evil genius voice we all know and love a run for it's money. It's another one of those films where there are just tiny moments of absurdity that will have you yelping with laughter and disbelief all the way through!

Overall, I genuinely enjoyed this piece of euro trash. It's stuff you have seen before so even though I haven't really given too much of the story away, you won't be too surprised by the plot. That being said, it's fairly solid. The DVD itself is what you would expect it to be. It's clearly a rip from some VHS so the quality of the picture isn't amazing but it's passable to those who waste time stressing about that. You are supposed to see these films like this in this way, it's part of the novelty. There are no special features at all and it boasts one of the worst DVD menus of all time which had me laughing before I even pressed play. The most important thing is that the film is uncut (from my comparing the run times to the IMDB page and various blogs. You really have no excuse not to pick this up if you see it in your local charity or pound shop. Saving pennies and enjoying cinema does not get any better than this!

Hopefully you enjoyed this little review. I am hoping to get my hands on more of these titles because it's a great way to see some really obscure gems that you can pay obscene amounts for on import. Just leave your snobbery and brain at the door for these. If anyone has some good suggestions of other 23rd Century releases or similar grey market labels, let me know!

PDx

5 Of My Favourite Directors

I have always wanted to do a list like this but at the same time I know I'm going to hate the outcome. To pick only five from a whole list of directors who have had an impact on me personally is a real bitch but hey, I like lists in general and any excuse to get something up on the blog is OK for me. I will tell you now that these are in no particular order and this list could be completely different in a few hours! I'm sure you guys feel me on that one. Let's get started shall we?

Radley Metzger

My first experience with Radley Metzger was The Private Afternoons Of Pamela Mann. After experiencing the intelligence and sophistication of this film I had to see more and look into the world of Radley Metzger. His earlier films are European drenched soft core classics and his later films (under the name Henry Paris) are hardcore classics that are considered the best of the genre. What I love about Radley's work is just how classy and beautiful they are. Don't get me wrong I love 70's roughies where the sex is dirty and the characters are scuzzier than the toilet from Trainspotting but every so often, I do appreciate to be intellectually cared for. Basically, if you like 70's high end Italian cinema you should definitely seek him out. Films to look out for are Camile 2000, The Opening Of Misty Beethoven and Score amongst MANY others.

Umberto Lenzi

To many, Umberto Lenzi could be considered a hack director. This is entirely unfair because aside for being infamous for films like Cannibal Ferox and the fact that he has directed around 65 films over his career Lenzi is a true genius in my eyes. For those who primarily know him for his horror and cannibal stuff I would definitely suggest looking at his poliziotteschi efforts because they really do show just how amazingly talented Lenzi is as a director. You also just have to see the many interviews up on Youtube and you will definitely appreciate how his mind works. I love him for making films that gross me out and make me unintentionally laugh but I adore him for providing me with some of my Italian crime flicks. You should check out The Cynic, The Rat, The Fist, it's one of my personal favourites!

Lucio Fulci

Here is a director who needs know introduction to any of you gore hounds out there. All I need to say about Fulci is he was the king of gore and yeah, some of his films made no sense but man did he know how to make an interesting and entertaining film. I did a whole piece of him a couple of days a go (as of writing this) to celebrate his work on the anniversary of his death. Please check out that post if you are a Fulci fan. Films I would definitely urge you to check out are Conquest and Black Cat.

Michael Haneke

I remember first watching the Americanised shot for shot remake of Funny Games and really not liking it. Needless to say, my first taste of Haneke was a very bitter one. That was one of the many times in my life where I become a dick and disregarded his other work... until I actually watched it and actually see what he was trying to say in his films. After watching a couple of his films in my Film Studies course I thought it was only fair to give him a chance and I picked up the ten film box set from Artificial Eye. After watching more of his work and actually listening to interviews and what he has to say... I was just blown away and slapping myself at the same time. What Haneke does is challenge his audience both during and after most of his films. You are ultimately the person who has to finish the film the way you see it. At first I thought he was just a self obsessed academic who completely had his point lost in ridiculous cinematic moments but now I am finding myself spending hours reassessing the film I just watched. A director that pushes the boundaries but never goes past them just for the sake of it. Be careful what film you start with but highlights from his filmography include The Piano Teacher, Caché and Benny's Video. In fact do yourself a favour and pick up the fantastic box set from Artificial Eye!

Werner Herzog

The thing I love most about Herzog is how he can take a story or personal account, turn it into an almost documentary style film that has a sense of fantasy to it. I know bigger Herzogians than myself will probably be shouting "That's not what he is about!" but that's how his films make me feel. I will admit some of his recent documentary work such as Into The Abyss really doesn't do it for me and just feel like opinionated video essays more than anything. I am of course nitpicking. The term "dangerous filmmaker" gets thrown around a lot but it fits perfectly with Herzog... on a literal scale. The technical feats and dedication to his films Aquirre: The Wrath Of God and Fitzcarraldo shot in Peru are testament to that. Filming in an almost inaccessible location and living off the land to make a film is just astonishing. Herzog really throws himself into his films and doesn't take advantage of the director role. Giving up his rights to luxuries such as trailers and studio lackeys. His early films have a fractured and rough feel to them which appeals to me and talk about breathtaking visuals! Some of the most genuinely beautiful landscapes in cinema can be found in Herzog's films throughout. I have so much time and respect for Herzog and his films touch me in a way most others have never done so. My all time favourite has to be The Enigma Of Kasper Hauser and another one worth checking out is the beautiful Heart Of Glass.

PDx

The Cynic, The Rat And The Fist

 When you hear the names Umberto Lenzi, Thomas Milian, John Saxon and of course Maurizio Merli all linked with one production, you know it's going to be a feast of violence and action. That is exactly what you get with this 1977 poliziotteschi classic. Maurizio Merli is on top form as the no nonsense retired cop Leonardo Tanzi who isn't afraid to go outside of the law to dish out the justice, one bullet or backhand at a time. Tomas Milian plays as Luigi "the Chinaman" Maietto who has recently escaped jail and is seeking his revenge om Tanzi for putting him in the slammer in the first place. John Saxon plays as Franco Di Maggio, a high flying mob boss who is conducting business with the recently escaped Maietto.

After surviving a hit put out by Maietto, Tanzi decides to play along and play dead so he can go outside of the law and sort out Maietto once and for all. What follows is a showcase  of tough talking, shoot outs and some signature hands on justice from Maurizio Merli. The body count is high in this film, which is to be expected from the director that gave us such films as the infamous Cannibal Ferox. Some of the highlights include John Saxon perfecting his golf shot with an informant, Tomas Milian ordering some repair work via a wrench, Maurizio Merli having a 3 on 1 tussle over some coffee and a brilliant fight prison fight scene. They are just a few of the many adrenalin pumping scenes of violence in this film. No man or woman is safe but you already knew that.

 The story isn't that important to a film like this but there is a strong one here. It's a case of our hero doing what he can to survive and get to the Chinaman before he gets him first. Tanzi tries to drive a wedge in between the two gangsters. Will he succeed? Who will come out on top? Is there a happy ending? I'm sorry people but that is something for you to find out for yourself. All I can say is, it's quite a ride!

Overall, this is a high octane, unapologetic gem of a crime movie. All our actors are on top form playing as some of the most genuinely engrossing and likable characters put on screen. The dialogue is spot on and there are some fantastic one liners, especially from the Chinaman. That being said, there are some moments in the American dub that are great for the wrong reasons but it's the tiny details like that which adds to the charm of this film. The violence is fantastic and doesn't let up. If you have yet to delve into the sub genre that is Italian crime, this is a great ambassador of the genre and you will find yourself wanting to watch this again and again. One of the other highlights is the fantastic score from Franco Micalizzi which just helps the action flow and sparks images of being involved in your own shoot outs in your head. Umberto Lenzi is well known for his exploits in the horror genre but it's films like this, Almost Human and Violent Naples that really show how much of a great director he is.

 If you can, I would highly recommend you try and seek out the absolutely gorgeous German DVD from Film Art, the transfer is great and there is a wealth of special features. You can however watch this on Youtube for free and there are easy to get box sets from Allegro that you can pick up for pennies on Amazon. The quality isn't the best on those but they are great if you want that added rented VHS feel which doesn't harm the film at all.