Reviews

Jessica Alba goes full metal jacket in Indonesian director Mouly Surya's Hispanic-themed action thriller "Trigger Warning" and shows she is no slouch. Our resourceful heroine tangles with chainsaw wielding madman in domestic terrorists who are selling high-tech, military-grade weapons from an Army Depot! Cast as a U. S. Special Forces commando with combat experience galore, Parker (Jessica Alba of "Sin City") takes a leave of absence to go home-in a town named Creation--and attend her father's funeral. During a bullet-riddled showdown in the scorching sands of Syria's Badiyat al-Sham Desert, she had received a phone call from her former high school sweetheart, Sheriff Jesse Swann (Mark Webber of "Green Room"), about her dad's tragic demise. When she sits down with the lawman in the Swann County Sheriff's Department, he hands her a suicide note her father Harry (Alejandro De Hoyos of "The Contractor") had left behind on his bedside nightstand. According to Jesse, Parker's father killed himself with a live hand grenade in a mine shaft he had been excavating when he wasn't running a local bar. Reservations notwithstanding, Parker concedes her father's death as accidental. Later, after she discovers weapons have gone missing from the local U. S. Army armory, she changes her mind about her dad's death. Meantime, she encounters Jesse's father, incumbent conservative Senator Ezekiel Swann (Anthony Michael Hall of "The Breakfast Club"), on the campaign trail. Eventually, she learns the senator has set-up a gunnery range on his estate and allows his house guests to waste ammunition on a gunnery range in his backyard. Predictably, the weapons are government-issue! Earlier, she had seen Senator Swann's obnoxious younger son, Elvis (Jake Weary of "Animal Kingdom"), obliterate a Mexican taco wagon with a shoulder-fired, rocket-propelled grenade (RPG).

Now, Parker has second thoughts about her dad's death. She learns Senator Swann is up to his eyeballs in a conspiracy to sell million-dollar, high-tech weaponry because he needs the millions his illegal arms sales generate to fund his re-election campaign. As it turns out, Elvis had stashed some of those weapons in Parker's father's cave. When Parker's father discovered them, Elvis murdered him and covered up his death as a suicide. By this time, Parker has notified a colleague in CIA, code-named 'Spider' (Tone Bell of "Dog Days"), about this treachery. Jesse arrests Parker for nearly killing Elvis and puts her in jail. They torture Parker after she reveals she has video evidence connecting them not only to her father but also to the theft of those weapons. Apparently, Elvis thought Harry's surveillance cameras were not recording his skullduggery. As it turns out, those cameras recorded evidence of their nefarious deeds and dumped them off-site. Now, Parker must break out of jail before it is too late. Worse, she is appalled to learn Jesse condoned what Ezekiel and Elvis were up to but looked the other way. When he tries to convince her to agree to a cover-up, she refuses.

Mind you, there's plenty of rough and tumble gymnastic action. With Alba acquitting herself competently when she takes down guys twice her size. Scenarists John Brancato of "The Game" and Josh Olson of "A History of Violence" penned the by-the-numbers screenplay which "Babysitters" scribe Halley Wegryn Gross rewrote. Altogether, they have churned out a predictable but entertaining little actioneer that gives Alba a chance to play rough. She wields a machete with considerable flourish. Nothing is easy for our redoubtable heroine as she struggles to get to the bottom of her father's death. Jesse finds himself caught in the middle between his arrogant brother Elvis and his unsavory father. Elvis has brokered a deal with individuals who are on the classified FBI's terrorist list. Once our heroine realizes her father was murdered, she sets out to exact vengeance. At one point, she confronts Jesse and urges him to turn himself, the senator, and his younger brother into the authorities. Predictably, family ties outweigh the law, and Jesse goes along with his father. Earlier, he had tried to bribe Parker by buying her property. Mind you, Parker was no more going to sell than Jesse was going to make it simple for her to do.

"Trigger Warning" had such a troubled production history and Netflix shelved it for three years. Meantime, Alba had been absent from the screen for five years. Her 2019 thriller "Killers Anonymous" (2019) was her last film. Now, she looks far more mature. The action choreography of the close-quarter combat scenes look plausible. Parker's willingness to hurl herself into breech and fight the Swanns says a lot about her tenacity. She is like a mongoose when she goes after the Swanns. As murder mystery revenge thriller, "Trigger Warning" makes the grade. Comparably, it is no "Peppermint." Surya doesn't waste time with comic relief, and she maintains enough momentum so the action doesn't stall. The basic plot is no great shakes. The death of a loved one that brings the hero or heroine from afar to say goodbye is boilerplate. Of course, we know no matter how stiff the odds are, Parker will survive and her adversaries will grovel. The villains-the entire Swann family-both father and sons-lack the savagery of genuinely despicable villains. Indeed, they beat the living daylights out of Parker, but they don't kill innocent men or women. Our heroine is fearless even when she has her back to the wall while taking a beating. Altogether, "Trigger Warning" qualifies as a guilty pleasure.

"Blindman" director Ferdinando Baldi's violent, mafia-themed, narcotics-trafficking thriller "The Sicilian Connection," starring Ben Gazzara, Steffen Zacharias, and Fausto Tozzi, qualifies as a slam-bang, action-packed saga. Gazzara plays Joe Coppola, an audacious New Yorker who flies to Sicily to establish an opium/morphine/heroin pipeline from Turkey via Sicily, with the Big Apple as the final destination for his drugs. Gazzara is ideally cast as a thick-skinned criminal who has been dealing in drugs for years. Now, Coppola sets out to make his big splash. Nevertheless, in the tradition of all mafia-themed, Euro crime stories, treachery is rampant, since nobody can be trusted, and surprises constantly keep both the criminals and the authorities on their toes. When Baldi helmed this exciting little actioneer, he stuck to the venerable Hollywood edict that crime cannot pay. In other words, nobody succeeds in this complicated, multi-million-dollar venture which could serve as a companion piece to Robert Stevenson's "To The Ends of the Earth" (1946) with Dick Powell, a Treasury Agent who follows the trail of opium from China to Egypt and finally New York. Baldi collaborated on the script with "Hell Raiders of the Deep" scenarist Duilio Coletti, and they keep the surprises coming in this 100-minute gangland opera but never wears out their welcome.

The opening scene of "The Sicilian Connection" is a genuine showstopper. Indeed, this gruesome encounter serves as a template for everything that ensues. An intrepid police inspector interrupts the funeral of a high-ranking mafia figure. He demands to examine the funeral permits. Not surprisingly, the mafia soldiers and the family attending the funeral are not amused. Nevertheless, they endure his interference without protest. Just when they think this suspicious cop is going to let them proceed with their funeral, he demands to eyeball the corpse. It seems the corpse was embalmed in Turkey, so now the inspector insists they strip the body. According to the dead man's papers, he died of a respiratory ailment. Imagine the cop's curiosity when they open the funeral shroud and find that the corpse has a gash running from his throat to his navel. Whoever stitched the dead man's chest did a sloppy job. You can see through the crevice in the corpse's torso to something in his chest cavity. As it turns out, the inspector was correct in assuming that packets of cocaine were stashed in the corpse. By this time, the mafia lieutenants overseeing the funeral have had enough of their nosey cop. Just as the inspector is congratulating himself on his discovery, he seems to have forgotten that he is alone, by himself, surrounded by the mafia. Suddenly, the mafia soldiers seize him and thrust his protesting arms and legs atop the dead man. Despite his cries of protest, the fear-stricken man struggles in horror as the mafia thugs screw the nails down on the coffin lid and bury their soldier with the crying inspector in the ground.

The next thing we know, we are introduced to Joe Coppola in a Sicilian restaurant. He asks for some coke, and the owner of the restaurant slips him a couple of packets of coke in a folded napkin. Coppola inquires about the whereabouts of a mafia kingpin with whom he can conduct business. Everything treats Coppola with considerable suspicion until they establish his credentials and then they educate him about not only the difficulties of selling him the large quantities that he wants but also the extreme cost and the various people to whom he must ingratiate himself. No, "The Sicilian Connection" is not without some shooting and killing, but it covers the logistics of smuggling the narcotics from Europe into New York.

This is truly an insightful thriller with an ending that you won't expect.

Mike Lowery (Will Smith of "Independence Day") and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence of "Blue Streak") reprise their roles as the two, loose-cannon Miami PD detectives in co-directors Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah's "Bad Boys: Ride Or Die," the follow-up to "Bad Boys for Life." "Bad Boys for Life" scenarist Chris Bremner & Will Beall of "Gangster Squad" have drummed up a humdrum finale to the "Bad Boys" franchise. Little about this half-baked, formulaic, by-the-numbers, crime thriller, bristling with some bullet-riddled firefights and unsavory villains is remotely surprising. Bremner & Beall bog down what could have been a cathartic conclusion to the series with bouts of lowest common denominator humor. This time around Mike and Marcus spend more time shooting the bull a la "Amos and Andy" than shooting the villains. Marcus is clownishly over the top looney tunes in this outing. After he suffers a near death experience, Mike's partner believes he cannot die. A nightmare he had while he was recuperating in a hospital emergency room fostered this delusion. He imagines he entered the land of the dead, but as it turns out, he isn't dead. Think of similar movies, such as "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941) and "Heaven Can Wait" (1978), where the hero died, but the powers-that-be realized admit their mistake and grant him a new lease on life. While he imagines he is in the land of the dead, Marcus encounters the late boss, L. A. P. F. Captain Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano of "The Fugitive") on a higher plane. Meanwhile, Howard, who died at the hands of Mike's son, Armando Aretas (Jacob Scipio of "The Outpost") in the previous "Bad Boys" shoot'em up," leaves our heroes a video message.

Mind you, this is the familiar ploy in crime thrillers where the heroes receive some kind of message from the dead person who posted it in the event of his demise. Turns out Miami PD is plagued with corrupt cops at the highest level who have been in cahoots with the Mexican cartels! One of the white-collar criminals at the top of the heap who orchestrated not only Captain Howard's death but also sealed a deal with the cartels is Lockwood (Ioan Gruffudd of "The Fantastic Four"), a close friend of Lowery. Later, he tries to justify his criminal activity to his girlfriend, Kelly (Vanessa Hudgens of "Spring Breakers") when he tells her that his accomplices and he collaborated with the cartels so they could learn about any terrorists entering the country. Now, these dastards are trying to besmirch Captain Howard's legacy. Predictably, Howard's wife and daughter are not amused by this turn of events. Naturally, neither Mike nor Marcus are going to sit still for this skullduggery.

Basically, "Bad Boys: Ride or Die" picks up the plot where "Bad Boys for Life" left off after Mike discovered he had a son with a cartel moll. You know a franchise has gone on too long when the heroes are to contend with their offspring. The gunfights are noisy, the scenery is exotic, and the cliches are spring loaded for maximum impact without endearing us to our crazy heroes. The camaraderie between Mike and Marcus sinks to an all-time low with their buffoonish antics. For example, when our heroes see Captain Howard's video confession, Marcus leaps to the absurd conclusion that Howard is alive on the other side! After he is told that he isn't dead when he meets Howard on the other side in his dreams, Marcus indulges in more idiotic behavior. Believing he cannot be die, Burnett cavorts shamelessly through street traffic making an ass of him while Mike struggles to convince him otherwise. Altogether, "Bad Boys: Ride or Die" qualifies as the worst entry in the film. The only redeeming feature about it is his son-in-law, Reggie (Dennis Greene of "Bad Boys 2"), proves that he is an invincible Marine. Original "Bad Boys" director Michael Bay has a cameo as a Porsche driver early in the action. Disappointing from start to finish, "Bad Boys" deserved a better send off.

"A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master" director Renny Harlin helms the reboot of scenarist Bryan Bertino's home invasion horror franchise "The Strangers" with the first entry in the new trilogy "The Strangers: Chapter 1." Mind you, publicity for the trilogy stipulates that the newest film is not a prequel to the previous pair of chillers. For the record, "The Strangers" came out in 2008 with Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as the first ill-fated couple. "The Strangers: Prey At Night," with Christina Hendricks and Martin Henderson followed a decade later. Now, Harlin is officially listed as the director of the two forthcoming sequels "Chapter Two" and "Chapter Three." "Due Date" scribes Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland penned the rather lackluster script about a clueless couple of city slickers from New York, Maya and Ryan (Madelaine Petsch and Froy Gutierrez) traveling cross-country by car for Maya's job interview in Portland with an architectural firm. No, these two aren't married. In fact, they've been dating for five years but Ryan hasn't taken a knee to make Maya an honest woman. Predictably, the three masked assailants from the original movie-Scarecrow, Doll-Face, and Pin-up--show up to send shivers as well as blades into our cute little couple. Although the story takes place in a small town in Oregon, Harlin and company filmed the action in the Central European country of Slovakia. Looking at the scenery, you wouldn't know it since everything looks just like the states. Sadly, "The Strangers, Chapter 1" doesn't qualify as either white-knuckled or different. The filmmakers observe all the usual cliches, with only a few scenes that stand out of this 91-minute opus. Once again the victims of this mayhem are so oblivious to everything happening around them that it is difficult to conjure up a tear or two of sympathy for them. Mind you, despite some occasional touches here and there, nothing in this reboot will come as a surprise for anybody who has seen the first two "Strangers" sagas.

Latin sensation Gilbert Roland plays O' Henry's charismatic Mexican troubleshooter The Cisco Kid, a gunslinger who straddles the line between being a saint and a sinner, in Old California. Basically, he is a bandit on horseback with a gang of twenty loyal followers. In this installment of the Monogram Pictures' franchise, The Cisco Kid takes an interest in a young Frenchwoman, Jeanne Du Bois (Ramsay Ames of "The Mummy's Ghost"), who is masquerading as a man. It seems her dad has died and left her with a pile of silver, and she plans to do something with it, but isn't sure what she will do. She arrives at her destination via a wooden sailing ship. Cisco learns about her from a former accomplice, Sailor Bill (Glenn Strange of "Gunsmoke" fame), who alerts the Latin bandit about her and her stash of silver. No long after these two meet, Cisco steals her silver from a strongbox during a robbery. She is heading to a town to meet one of her father's criminal associates, Doc Wells (William Gould of "Beasts of Paradise"), who owns lots of land and has allowed an epidemic to ravage the surrounding countryside. Essentially, Doc has blackmailed his accomplice, Dr. Juan Valegra (Martin Garralaga of "The Gay Cavalier") into withholding a remedy to staunch this epidemic. Once these two greedy villains have depleted the population of Mexican farmers, they plan to sell the acreage to investors who are aboard. Basically, this is what Du Bois plans to do until she meets Cisco and falls madly in love with the rascal. Of course, everything works out splendidly in this tidy, little, 77-minute, black & white oater with veteran director William Nigh of "Forever Yours" at the helm. Roland would star in several of Cisco Kid B-movies. He brings a sense of class and presence to these otherwise nondescript westerns. Initially, Cisco has no idea that Jeanne Du Bois is posing as a gentleman, and he treats her like a young man who doesn't know enough about the pleasures of life. For example, Cisco introduces her to tequila. She had order wine at the cantina, but Cisco convinces her tequila is a better choice. One of Roland's trademarks in his acting was the elaborate business that he brought to performing certain chores. In "Beauty and the Bandit," Roland demonstrates not only how to light a cigarette by using his thumbnail to scratch the sulfur wooden matches and ignite a flame. Once he was scratched the match alight, he holds the bottom of it in his thumb and ignites his cigarette. No sooner has he taken a puff or two off the cigarette than he puts it atop his ear the way a clerk would put a pencil, and indulges in his favorite past time of licking salt off his hand and chasing it with the tequila. Mind you, he takes his time as he performs this routine of drinking the tequila while the cigarette burns on his ear. No, he doesn't burn his ear because he doesn't allow the cigarette to go unattended. Of course, like Zorro, Cisco plays games with the Rurales. He has fun making buffoons of them, but they don't take it too badly. In the end, the Captain (George J. Lewis of "Radar Patrol vs. Spy King") warns Cisco that he must leave before they have to arrest him for his borderline shenanigans.

Director George Armitage's "Miami Blues" qualifies as a quirky, little, off-beat, crime thriller laced with bouts of humor and bursts of violence and. Armitage adapted "Miami Blues" from a series of novels by the late Charles Williford about Miami Police Detective Sergeant Hoke Moseley. Fred Ward plays Hoke with a good ole boy demeanor. Mind you, he isn't the kind of spit and polish cop who you'd set out to imitate. First, he is as blue collar as they come. Second, he is a bachelor. Third, he drives a beat-up car. Fourth, he lives in a cramped apartment. Fifth, he isn't worried about his wardrobe. Character actor that he is, Ward is a splendid fit as Hoke. He can be congenial, but he can be tough. Although he was the protagonist of several Williford novels, Hoke isn't the man to watch in this dandy 96-minute epic. Instead, the man of the hour is Frederick J. Frenger Jr. (Alec Baldwin of "The Hunt for Red October"), because he serves as the catalyst for everything that happens in this frivolous, fast-paced noir comedy.

Having recently been released from California's notorious San Quentin Prison, Frenger jumps on the first flight out for sunshiny Miami, Florida. Before he leaves the airport terminal, Frenger breaks the finger of a Hare Krishna who is harassing tourists. Incredibly, the poor slob dies from shock! Hoke is handed the case. Meanwhile, Frenger embarks on a crime rampage and hooks up a cute, sassy, bubble-brained, Southern prostitute, Pepper (Jennifer Jason Leigh of "Rush"), and they become a couple. Afterward, Pepper has good memories of her time with Frenger. First, she likes it that he loved her home cooking. Second, the ex-con refrained from smacking her around like a punching bag. Nevertheless, Frenger is flawed from the first. Not only is he a pathological liar, but he is also a career criminal. He doesn't have the least compunction of treading the straight and narrow. Instead, he prefers to take advantage of the other criminals. We watch him as he knocks off a gang of pickpocket thieves and thwarts redneck convenience store bandit.

If you can look past his gleaming eyes and charismatic grin, you'll know he is a dead man walking. It is only a matter of time until Hoke tracks Frenger down and quizzes him about the airport incident. Hoke meets Pepper, shares supper with the amorous couple, and helps them deplete their supply of booze. Later, the audacious Frenger attacks Hoke at his modest apartment, nearly breaks the sergeant's neck, swipes his badge, steals his false upper teeth, and lands him in the hospital. Three quarters of the way through "Miami Blues," Pepper figures it out. She spends too much time hoping for the best out of Frenger, but all she gets is the worst. Eventually, Hoke tracks down Frenger when he tries to sell a coin collection he stole from an apartment. The gruff old dame who eyeballs the coins introduces Frenger to her shotgun wielding bodyguard. Frenger doesn't like the way the guy looks at him and blows a couple of holes in him for the sheer delight of it. The old dame chops off two of his fingers with a machete. Frenger doesn't bat an eyelash and shoots her in the shoulder. In a showdown in the sunny streets of Miami, Hoke takes down Frenger. Although it never takes itself seriously, "Miami Blues" musters more than enough spontaneity to keep you watching it right up to the end credits with Norman Greenbaum's Top 40 hit "Spirit in the Sky." Suffice it to say, "Miami Blues" has a lot of spirit!

Jennifer Lopez suffers grievously in her heroic efforts to save mankind from a rogue A. I. in "Rampage" helmer Brad Peyton's straight-to-streaming sci-fi saga "Atlas" that dreams of making mankind take a knee. As it turns out, this clash of titans is largely personal. Indeed,data analyst Atlas Shepherd (Jennifer Lopez of "Hustlers"), our caffeine craving misanthrope, knows her adversary, Harlan Shepherd (Simu Liu of "Arthur the King"), as only a sister could a brother. Technically, Harlan is a cunning android who amounts to a futuristic Fu Manchu sans the facial hair and fingernails. He is the sharpest robot on the block, and he qualifies as a worthwhile, first-rate villain, too. Seems these two grew up together. Sadly, Harlan took advantage of Atlas' gullible sincerity and managed to reprogram himself, so he could mastermind an armed revolt and kill millions of people. Think of Thanos with far less screen time. That's a severe weakness since the best villains is often far more interesting that the protagonist. About the only thing interesting in this derivative nonsense is Atlas' ironic predicament. She abhors Artificial Intelligence with a passion and joins a combat mission to destroy Harlan. However, she must synchronize herself with an inquisitive on-board A. I. computer, Smith (voice of Gregory James Cohan), for "the mech suit" she occupies during the mission. At the same time, the beleaguered Atlas totes around enough guilt for two people in this Armageddon-esque showdown set in 2043 on a remote planet somewhere "in the Andromeda Galaxy." Harlan has fled from Earth to this volatile planet before he makes his final move against mankind. Atlas winds up seated in a giant robot that does a whole lot of stomping. This heavily armed module resembles the flawed police robot from the original "RoBoCop." This sophomoric sci-fi saga explores the controversial issue of trusting Artificial Intelligence and the prospective problem it poses. Nevertheless, Peyton and freshman scribe Leo Sardarian and "Star Trek: Discovery" scribe Aron Eli Coleite appear cautiously optimistic about mankind's relationship with A. I.. Had Ms. Lopez been far less histrionic, then the outcome might of "Atlas" might have been more tolerable.

William Gibson's one and only film "Piranha," reuniting "Laredo" co-stars William Smith and Peter Brown, qualifies as a half-baked spin on the venerable survivalist saga "The Most Dangerous Game." Brother and sister, Art Greene (Tom Simcox of "Shenandoah") and Terry Greene (Ahna Capri of "Enter the Dragon"), hire a local, Jim Pendrake (Peter Brown of "Lawman"), to serve as their tour guide in the jungles of Venezuela. Terry is a wildlife photographer with an antipathy toward firearms. Later in the story, her brother Art fills Jim about her sour attitude. Apparently, their mother shot their father in cold blood. Mind you, he had cheated on his wife, so in a fit of rage, she blew his head off. Tragically, Terry witnessed the murder. Since then the sight of guns evokes those painful memories. They encounter Caribe (William Smith of "Any Which Way You Can"), a seasoned hunter who sums up his love of hunting, "I can taste the very soul of every animal I hunt... what I hunt becomes a part of me... and lives on in me. Someday I'll be outhunted. And everything that I will become part of that hunter..." By the time, this slow-burn, but tedious 95-minute melodrama has worn out its welcome. Caribe loves to kill animals much to Terry's chagrin. Near the end, Caribe kills Terry's brother and beats poor Pendrake half to death. Predictably, Terry adapts to this horrific predicament. Earlier, she complained to Jim about packing a pistol. Nevertheless, he saved not only Terry's life but also her brother when she shot a venomous snake poised to strike them. Now, she has gotten hold of Caribe's rifle, and she blasts him into eternity. Although the location photography and the stock footage of wildlife provide considerable atmosphere, Richard Finder's screenplay is light on drama until the final quarter hour. The use of stock footage pads out the action and provides a sense of atmosphere. Incredibly, we never see any piranha. What a letdown! Apparently, neither Gibson nor his writer lacked the resources to stage a piranha feeding scene. As it turns out, Piranha is Caribe's nickname. Smith is appropriately maniacal as the hunter gone mad. Gibson could easily have whittled twenty minutes out of this lethargic saga. Whether he knew it or not, Gibson paved the way for those grisly Italian-produced horror movies, like Sergio Martino's "Slave of the Cannibal God," which featured live footage of animals eating animals. Although it doesn't redeem the film, the wildlife unit shot film of an incredibly monstrous anaconda. No, this anaconda is far larger than the one Jennifer Lopez tangled with in "Anaconda." This reptile resembles a felled oak tree slithering through the underbrush. Presumably, the cast got a vacation out of this on-location shoot when they weren't sweating it out in the jungle. Save your curiosity for something else if you feel the urge to watch this abysmal adventure.

"High Sierra" helmer Raoul Walsh's "They Drive By Night" chronicles the trials and tribulations of the hard-luck Fabrini brothers, Joe (George Raft of "Scarface") and Paul (Humphrey Bogart of "Casablanca"), who drive around the clock to deliver merchandise around California. Eventually, since they have fallen behind on their vehicular loan payments, they must now dodge their creditors. Fortunately, Joe and Paul buy a load on their own dime rather than contracting themselves out for peanuts to a trucking firm. The profits enable them to pay off their truck. No sooner do things appear rosy than disaster strikes. Joe makes the mistake of asking Paul to take over the wheel from him because he is feeling drowsy. Mind you, Paul himself cannot seem to get enough shuteye. Earlier, Walsh showed the fate of a trucker who nodded off at the wheel. Predictably, Drifting off asleep Paul plunges their paid-for truck with its valuable into a ravine. Joe bails out at the last moment, while Paul rides the load into the ground. Miraculously, Joe survives the crash none the worse for wear. Sadly, Paul isn't as fortunate. Doctors take off his right arm. Paul's wife Pearl (Gale Page of "Crime School") had been worrying herself constantly about her husband's uncertain fate. She hates that he cannot spend more time at home with her. She dreams of them having a baby to comfort her in her loneliness. Paul argues they cannot afford a child.

Scenarists Jerry Wald of "The Roaring Twenties" and Richard Macaulay of "Across the Pacific" adapted A. I. Bezzerides' novel "Thieves' Market." The wit and spontaneity of their snappy dialogue energizes the action. Joe and Paul swap loaded words with Cassie Hartley (Ann Sheridan of "King's Row"), a waitress slinging bacon and eggs at a roadside dinner. Later, she quits because the owner cannot keep his hands to himself when he is around her. She hopes she will get lucky in Los Angeles. Happily, Joe obliges her, giving her a lift to L. A. with him where he looks for loads to buy. Eventually, Joe lands a job working for an old friend, Ed Carlsen (Alan Hale of "Desperate Journey"), who owns a trucking outfit. Initially, Ed saw Joe and another irate trucker tangle over who would land a load from Ed. Remembering his old friend, Ed invites Joe up to his second story office. Carlsen's big heart is matched only by his eternally happy outlook. Ed's trophy wife, Lana (Ida Lupino of "High Sierra"), squandering his cash like confetti, throttles the drama into high gear in "They Drive By Night." She yearns to sprawl in Joe's arms. She convinces Ed to hire Joe, but not as a trucker. Instead, she convinces Ed that Joe can do more for them in the office than out on the asphalt.

Afterward, Lana drives Joe crazy with her passes at him. He shuns her like poison. First, he refuses Lana's advances because Ed is his good friend. Second, Joe has eyes only for Cassie. He furnishes her with room and board. After he drove her to L. A., Joe passed out in Cassie's bed. Instead, Cassie had to bed down for the night in a chair. Now, the Production Code Administration forbade showing a couple sleeping in the same bed. Eventually, Joe hires Paul, and business begin to boom. During a party at Ed's new estate, Ed boasts about one of his novel gadgets. He has installed a photo-electric eye in his garage. When he approaches the garage, the vehicle breaks the light beam of the mechanism. This prompts the garage door to retract, allowing the motorist to enter and park their vehicle. Walsh and his writers go out of their way to emphasize this novelty. Later, after he is so sloshed he cannot drive, Ed has Lana drive them home. When she parks in the garage, she realizes Ed has passed out. Lana lacks the strength to remove him from the vehicle. Instead, she leaves him in the car with the engine running. Ultimately, Ed dies from carbon monoxide, and Lana knew exactly what she was doing when she let him die.

The Production Code stipulated nobody was above the law. Lana confesses her guilt to the District Attorney. Initially, the D. A. rules it as a case of accidental death. Later, after Joe continues to ignore her advances, Lana convinces the D. A. that Joe threatened to kill her if she didn't kill her husband. The D. A. swallows this lie without blinking and has Joe arrested allegedly for his part in the murder. Clearly, Walsh and company appropriated the complicated murder subplot from another WB film, Archie Mayo's Latino thriller "Border Town" (1935) with Paul Muni and Bette Davis. Nevertheless, Walsh makes more comprehensive use of it. Although Lana insists to the D. A. that Joe drove her to kill Ed, she cannot cope with her own sense of guilt. The electric eye technology haunts her. She discovers the facility where she is being held boasts such technology. Every time she encounters an electric eye, she feels overwhelmed by her guilt, like Shakespeare's Lady MacBeth. During Joe's trial for his complicity in Ed's murder, Lana melts down in court. The judge dismisses the murder charges against Joe.

The cast is first-rate, and Walsh's fast-paced, no-frills direction maintains momentum. Lupino is riveting in her portrayal as Lana. The tacked-on murder and trial seems rather contrived but inevitable. Humphrey Bogart was still confined to thankless second-string roles at this point in his career. Meanwhile Raft played the level headed big brother who used his brains to get ahead. This ranks as one of the Raft's more sympathetic roles. Alan Hale steals the show with his antics. Altogether, "They Drive By Night" qualifies as an above average Walsh effort.

Altogether, Rowdy Herrington's superficial but slam-bang, knuckle-smashing fracas of a film "Road House" qualifies as predictable but entertaining guilty pleasure from fade-in to fadeout. Nevertheless, this crowd-pleasing saga with fisticuffs galore is one hundred percent satisfying. Cast as a legendary bar bouncer with a Ph. D. from NYU in philosophy, a lean, mean Patrick Swayze plays James Dalton, a fluffy-haired hardcase with a grim past who winds up contending with a genuinely larger-than-life, sadistic villain who lords it over a small town where he demands fealty from everybody. Basically, Wesley takes a tenth of their profits and deploys several persuasive hooligans who have no qualms about how they take that ten percent. Brad Wesley is the unscrupulous town boss, and he has the local constabulary on his payroll, so he can do as he pleases without fear of arrest. Wesley has an incredible trophy room in his river side estate with virtually every animal known to man decorating both walls and floors. As Dalton's despicable nemesis, Ben Gazzara radiates so much evil that his comeuppance comes as the ultimate catharsis. For example, when the owner of the local Ford dealership shows Wesley some spine, the latter dispatches his goons in a monster truck, and they drive it headlong into auto showroom, crunching several new cars as if they were Miller Lite beer cans!

Meantime, Frank Tilghman (Kevin Tighe of "Another 48 HRS") owns the Double Deuce bar, but so many fights break out and wreck the joint that customers are leery of partying there. Tilghman hires Dalton to clean up his establishment. Our hero summarizes his philosophy to his fellow bouncers: "All you have to do is follow three simple rules. One, never underestimate your opponent. Expect the unexpected. Two, take it outside. Never start anything inside the bar unless it's absolutely necessary. And three, be nice." Dalton drives out those insiders on Tilghman's payroll who have skimming off Tilghman and selling narcotics in the bar. Predictably, Dalton isn't the most popular guy afterward, and the showdown between Dalton and Wesley is inevitable. No sooner has Dalton been slashed by some of Wesley's hoods in a bar fight than he winds up in the Emergency Room at the local hospital. The statuesque Dr. Elizabeth Clay (Kelly Lynch of "Drugstore Cowboy") attends to his wounds, and she takes a liking to him. Later, these two wallow in the sack much at Dalton's house much to Wesley's chagrin. Wesley once had a thing for Elizabeth, but she walked away from him. If things weren't dire enough, Dalton summons his older but none the wiser mentor, Wade Garrett (Sam Elliot of "Tombstone"), to help him bust heads. Not only does Elliot steal the show right out from under Swayze, but he also serves as the sacrifice goat that prompts our hero to take down Wesley.

Meantime, "Out for Justice" scenarist David Lee Henry, aka R. Lance Hill, brings the plot to a boil when Dalton tangles with obnoxious Jimmy (Marshall Teague of "Armageddon") Wesley's chief henchman, who boasts lustily about how he has raped convicts in prison. Battered and badly beaten himself, Dalton triumphs over this braggart when rips out Jimmy's throat. This knockdown drag out fight between these two titans ranks as the highlight of the action. "Die Hard" stunt coordinator Charles Picerni surpasses himself with his combat choreography as well as other acrobatic stunts. During the finale, everybody who suffered under Wesley's thumb assembles at his estate for the explosive finish. Although Dalton has all but beaten Wesley to a pulp, the crafty villain surprises him with yet another gun. Before this maniacal menace can put a bullet into our unsuspecting hero, several businessmen who have suffered grievously under Wesley's Draconian despotism blast Wesley repeatedly with their shotguns and send him to kingdom come! "Road House" has been compared to venerable old Hollywood westerns because our heroic outsider enters another setting where his antagonist has ruled without fear of contradiction.

Before he helmed harmless Disney movies like "The Absent-Minded Professor" and "Son of Flubber," director Robert Stevenson made one of the earliest, semi-documentary, anti-narcotics epics. Initially, the Production Code Administration (PCA) not amused at the prospect of Hollywood depicting opium smuggling. According to the third commandment of the Code: No movie could deal with "the illegal traffic in drugs." Presumably, the film was made and produced because it focused on the ultimate efforts of the police to thwart the smuggler and destroy their opium. Furthermore, the filmmakers adhered to the rules that the criminals could not profit from their dishonest endeavors. Oddly enough, the Code also usually rules against anyone committing suicide. Virtually every one of the narcotics criminals took their own lives once they were exposed as criminals.

The first-rate, white-knuckled, noir-themed thriller "To The Ends of the Earth" is as captivating a saga from start to finish now as it was when it came out. This exciting, eye-opening, 109-minute, black & white, Columbia Pictures' classic spans the globe. Moreover, it provides audiences with a primer about not only the evils of opium but also the way organized crime has sought to use this infamous flower to enslave mankind.

Stevenson and scenarist Jay Richard Kennedy of "I'll Cry Tomorrow" chronicle the unflagging efforts of a Federal Bureau of Narcotics agent, Commissioner Michael Barrows (Dick Powell of "Murder My Sweet"), to track down the opium and arrest the smugglers. Everything gets off to a hair-raising start when Barrows, attached to the San Francisco Treasury office, learns about a suspicious Japanese freighter, the Kira Maru out of Shanghai, that has attracted considerable attention since it appeared off the coast of Peru. Barrows summons the Coast Guard when the tramp is sighted off the California coast. As they pursue it, Barrows stares at it intently with a pair of binoculars. He watches as the Kira Maru plies into international waters, beyond the twelve-mile jurisdiction of the Coast Guard.

Imagine Barrows' shock when he witnesses the villainous captain jettisons100 or more Chinese slaves, shackled to a chain, sending these ill-fated souls plunging to their collective deaths in the ocean with a chance of rescue. Clearly this constituted an early example of human trafficking since these unfortunate people were going to be used to harvest the poppy plants. This devastating act of homicide burns itself indelibly into Barrows' brain cells and prompts him to launch an investigation. He travels to Shanghai to contact the Japanese and complain about the captain. Indeed, a court convenes and the captain, who isn't in attendance, is tried and convicted and given 30 days detention if or when the authorities manage to catch him. Naturally, Barrows is upset about this travesty of justice. He argues that such a light sentence is what is typically given to a person convicted of reckless driving. As he is leaving the courthouse, he encounters Commissioner Lum Chi Chow (Vladimir Sokoloff of "The Magnificent Seven") who asks Barrows if he can meet with him at his office. He hands Barrows his business card; Chi Chow sells rugs. When he shows up at Chi Chow's business, Barrows learns Chow is a Chinese Commissioner of Narcotics and he plays a recording about a man who died recently. This individual had told the British and Egyptian narcotics authorities in Cairo about a place where slaves were taken to harvest poppies.

As it turns out, the fields where the poppy flowers were grown were rose fields. The Egyptian authorities were unable to investigate the property, but Barrows and his two opposite numbers in British and Egyptian narcotics enforcement visit the farm after dark. Barrows unearths a poppy from dirt by the rose bushes. The roses had been grown to prevent the authorities, who had scheduled flights over the fields, from spotting the opium plants. The Egyptian narcotics chief sets out to stop the caravans of camels transporting the opium to a slaughter house. Barrows and the British Narco chief steal like phantoms around the farm. They notice the telltale indications that poppies were harvested and cooked. Stains on the forefingers of the workers, who were sleeping when our heroes caught glimpses of them, provide proof. Before they can get away, the land owner stops them. When he learns our heroes not only have proof but also agents to back them up, he leaps to his death from the cliff our heroes had scaled earlier to get a look at the rose fields without attracting attention to themselves. Repeatedly, every time Barrows and company confront members of this worldwide opium ring, these fiends commit suicide. Barrows and company learn the camels and going to be driven to a slaughterhouse. Later, when the unsuspecting camel driver halts the camels for the night, our heroes slip in and the use portable but primitive X-ray technology to scan the bellies of the camels. Presto, they find containers in the bellies of the camels! Barrows and company. Once the camels have been slaughtered, the opium is shipped off to Havana, Cuba, where Barrows convinces the Narcotics Bureau chief to let the shipment go through. Predictably, the Bureau Chief isn't happy, but he obliges Barrows.

Altogether, Stevenson doesn't wear out his welcome, and "To The Ends of the Earth" qualifies as a snappy little black & white saga with a slam-bang finale you won't forget!

Basically, "The Fall Guy" amounts to an exercise in slick, glossy, predictable pablum. The film lacks both heart and soul, and the stunts were second-rate. I was hoping for something with greater energy and stamina, like "Atomic Blonde," but from a stunt guy's perspective. After all, David Leitch helmed "Atomic Blonde" and then "Bullet Train." This stunt-laden saga suffered from a superficial sense of humor, and the stunts lacked a sense of spectacle and spontaneity. Mind you, Jonathan Sela's widescreen cinematography looked great, and this 'blockbuster' boasted a wet dream of a cast and a budget, but Drew Pearce's writing was consistently underwhelming. The relationship between our good old boy hero Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling of "Drive") and the despicable villain, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson of "Kick Ass") that he doubled never pulled me into the action. "The Fall Guy" never generated the devil may charisma of the venerable Burt Reynolds movie "Hooper." What should have been an adrenaline-fueled, white-knuckled, high octane escapade boiled down to an ineptly made, incoherent, wannabe blockbuster. Universal should have gotten a franchise out of it. Remember, the Glen A. Larson television series lasted several years, but this gutter-ball of movie missed its mark. It reminded me a horse that stalled getting out of the gate and ran at the tail end of the pack. I felt sorry for poor Ryan Gosling.

A sterling cast, strong direction, atmospheric scenery but a dire shortage of adrenaline rushes underwhelms Phil Karlson's "Rampage," superficial safari saga about big game hunting versus big game trapping. Droopy-eyed Robert Mitchum stars as Harry Stanton, a professional wildlife trapper who catches exotic animals for the Wilhelm Zoo in Germany. As the film unfolds, the zoo curator informs Stanton that great big game hunter Otto Abbot will organize the safari and arranges for the American to meet this world-renowned big-game German hunter at his palatial residence. Confident and supremely self-assured as always, Mitchum appears perfectly natural as Stanton. He advocates capturing rather than killing wildlife. Long before animal conservation and political correctitude gained traction, Mitchum's Stanton displayed respect not only for jungle beasts but also for the customs of the Malaysian tribe that participate in the hunt. Indeed, the filmmakers embrace the theme of animal conservation that John Huston's "The Roots of Heaven" (1958), an arthouse epic about the slaughter of African elephants drummed up. Later, once our protagonists reach Malaysia, we watch the elaborate traps Stanton uses to ensnare two big cats. Basically, Stanton hides his sprawling nets inconspicuously in the foliage, then signals squads of marching natives raising an uproar to drive the frightened cats into the nets. Sometimes, the animals escape Stanton's best laid efforts. For example, the climax of the action occurs during a chaotic incident when Stanton traps not only himself but also his infuriated prey in the same net. Unlike the two tigers he trapped earlier, this beast is reputed to be half-leopard and half-tiger and nicknamed "the Enchantress."

Meantime, Anna (Elsa Martinelli of "Hatari!"), Abbot's statuesque mistress, a gorgeous girl far younger than he, accompanies them to Maylasia. She embraces Abbot's big game hunting lifestyle. Moreover, she knows how to shoot a rifle and riddle the bullseye every time. Actually, she surpasses Abbot in the accuracy of her marksmanship. For the time, the story behind their provocative relationship must have seemed risqué. While many a May-December relationships occurred in private life, the controversy of such a relationship on screen for the public sphere in a 1960s era film is curious. According to Anna, Otto took her from her mother, raised her, and later seduced her! Eventually, Stanton raises the issue in a playful way when he vows to take Anna away from Otto. Surprisingly, Otto encourages Stanton's amorous designs to seduce Anna. However, he assures Stanton that Anna will abandon him! Anna and Otto both deliberately dare Stanton to do take his best shot. Meanwhile, Stanton finds himself stunned by the traditions of his native guide, Talib (Sabu Dastagir of "The Elephant Boy"), who notices Stanton sleeps alone in his tent. Imagine Stanton's surprise and shock when Talib graciously offers to share his wife with him! Appearing genuinely embarrassed by such as prospect, Mitchum shows some genuine spontaneity when Talib's wife agrees to bed down with him. This is the one of only moments when our hero loses his cool. The second one is when his helicopter shuts down in flight.

When Stanton isn't alienating Anna, he clashes with the egotistical Abbot. These two titans circle each other politely enough but champion their primary differences. Stanton traps animals because he thinks they look better alive. Abbot shoots them because he prefers to display them as trophies in his game room. Predictably, once they have arrived in Malaysia, the riff between Stanton and Abbot deepens, until Abbot's self-loathing generates suicidal sentiments on his part after his failure to kill a rhino with his first shot. The moment that Otto realizes he is no other the great white hunter occurs when he brings down the beast with his second shot. Compared with Harry and Anna, Otto Abbot emerges as a more interesting character because he undergoes change over time during the safari. Essentially, Stanton remains the same man he was from the start, and little in "Rampage" ruffles his feathers. Nothing about Harry changes throughout the action.

Nevertheless, "Rampage" has other problems. You can tell when the stuntman steps in for Mitchum to tangle with the "the Enchantress." The helicopter ride out to the safari rendezvous doesn't make your blood simmer. Briefly, the chopper's engine conks out, and Stanton starts praying. Moments later the pilot solves the problem. Black projection is used for the shot of our heroes in the chopper. The incident doesn't raise your blood pressure. Clever editing in the confrontation with the "Enchantress" makes it appear like Mitchum is in the thick of it, lunging with a flaming torch at a big cat in a cave. The giveaway is you never see Mitchum in the same shot with the snarling beast.

Elmer Bernstein's blustering orchestral soundtrack punches up the film, but a tight budget didn't give Karlson the same coverage that Howard Hawks enjoyed in "Hatari!" Scenarists Robert I. Holt of "White Comanche" and Marguerite Roberts of "True Grit" based their screenplay on Alan Caillou. "Hell Is For Heroes" lenser Harold Lipstein photographs the action against some grand scenery, but all too often it seems the producers were trying the pull the budget out from under Phil Karlson, since some scenes come off half-hearted. Sometimes, when a film founders for lack of clout, the phrase 'feed the tiger' comes to mind. The plane should have crashed but not killed anybody. Otto should have died. The rubber snake that Stanton shoots is phony. A close up of a real snake inserted with Mitchum blasting it along with screams from Martinelli would have amped up a dull safari hiking scene. Altogether, "Rampage" qualifies as above-average, but it suffers from not enough white-knuckled action scenes.

Director & co-scripter Sidney J. Furie's "Iron Eagle" qualifies as the ultimate example of teen wish fulfillment. After his aviator father Colonel Ted Masters (Tim Thomerson of "Uncommon Valor") is shot down over enemy airspace, imprisoned by an anonymous Arab nation situated on the Mediterranean, and then sentenced to die, his dynamic son Doug Masters (Jason Gedrick of "The Heavenly Kid") appropriates an U. S. A. F. F-16 fighter and single-handedly delivers his father from the jaws of death. Okay, nothing about "Iron Eagle" is remotely credible when you consider how incredibly preposterous this aerial dogfight epic is. Colonel Masters and another pilot were flying when they encountered enemy aircraft that warned Masters that he had violated their airspace. The other pilot managed to escape without injury, but Colonel Masters bailed out and was captured. When Doug learns about his father's misfortune, he rushes to a base intelligence officer and learns to his chagrin nothing is going to be done to bring him home. Now, Doug is a pilot himself and he can do wonders with a single-engine Cessna aircraft. He earns his aviator's wing after he hooks up with an Air Force Reserve officer, Charles 'Chappy' Sinclair (Louis Gossett of "An Officer and A Gentleman"), and persuades a reluctant 'Chappy' to help him rescue his dad while the U. S. Government is weighing the situation but doing nothing. Doug activates his young friends, both male and female, to gain access to flight plans and other mission necessary information for him. Chappy takes Doug aloft and teaches him how to handle an F-16. Of course, only in a movie like "Iron Eagle" could a high school senior and his friends have the run of the airbase and access to classified information about Colonel Masters and the country detaining him. In real life, nothing like "Iron Eagle" could every happen. Nevertheless, the magic of movies usurps the lack of logic. Furie with co-scribe Kevin Alyn Elders of "Iron Eagle 2" provide a rip snorting but reckless actioneer that neither slows down nor wears out its welcome. Interestingly enough, "Iron Eagle" was released in January 1986, long before Tony Scott's "Top Gun" with Tom Cruise came out in May! The soundtrack boasts some great vocals. For the record, the Israel Air Force repainted their F-16s and let the filmmakers use them for some stimulating aerial maneuvers.

Most Spaghetti westerns are derivative, imitating the genre's box office champs, specifically Sergio Leone's "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" and Sergio Corbucci's "Django," and then later the "Trinity" horse operas. "Man from Oklahoma" director Roberto Bianchi Montero's "Two Faces of the Dollar" borrows marginally from Leone's classic, but contains more plot and morality than those superficial, straightforward, gunnery range Spaghetti westerns. Mind you, "Two Faces of the Dollar" has no shortage of violent shootouts in the grand Spaghetti western tradition. Moreover, the filmmakers observe some of the now defunct Production Code rules. The film depicts cold blooded murder, premediated larceny, and reflects the venerable Production Code edict: crime doesn't pay. Meantime, this 95-minute sagebrusher also crowds out gunplay with the logistics of an elaborately planned gold heist. Think "Mission Impossible." Kudos to lenser Stelvio Massi. His first-rate, widescreen cinematography along with his novel use of zooms and pans enhances the film's spectacle. Later, Massi would ascend to the director's chair and distinguish himself with various poliziotteschi crime thrillers, notably "Convoy Busters" and "Emergency Squad." At the same time, Giosy and Mario Capuano's flavorful orchestral score evokes memories of Leone's "For A Few Dollars More." What our anti-heroes set out to accomplish mirrors John Huston's revered crime classic "The Asphalt Jungle" (1950). Surprisingly, the Italians embrace a 'crime doesn't pay' note, in the context of "The Asphalt Jungle!"

Story and screenplay scribes Alberto Silvestri of "Nick the Sting" and Franco Verucci of "No Way Out" conjure up a vivid gallery of characters. Furthermore, they pose stiff obstacles our thieves must contend with before they get away with the gold. First, they introduce us to a bespectacled professor, Matthew (Jacques Herlin of "Secret Agent Super Dragon"), who idolizes clocks. He has devised an audacious plan to steal a fortune in gold stored at Fort Henderson. Although it remains under lock and guard in a separate room, Matthew orchestrates the theft in broad daylight inside the fort during a camp inspection. He has recruited three accomplices, two men and a woman. First, he convinces a sharp-shooting gunslinger, Django (Maurice Poli of "Battle of the Damned," aka Monty Greenwood), who prizes the qualities of a Navy Colt revolver, to join him. Second, he enlists the aid of a disgraced army officer, the treacherous Blackgrave (Gérard Herter of "Adios, Sabata"), who shares Django's relish for Navy Colts. Blackgrave must impersonate the colonel scheduled to inspect the fort. Once they enter the fort, Blackgrave and Django perform all the heavy lifting and later the ensuing gunplay when they cross the border. Third, he solicits the help of a buxom babe, Jane (Gabriella Giorgelli of "Moving Target"), who relies of her charms to seduce lusty males. This turns out to be the first flaw in Matthew's plan. He chose Jane because she knew the former quartermaster. After her arrival at the stockade, the current quartermaster informs her about Felix's death. Initially, the new quartermaster insists she leave. Naturally, she appeals to him and hangs around long enough to carry out her part in the robbery. Moreover, Matthew has painstakingly created a persona for himself that will enable them escape with the gold, even under the noses of a fort bristling with soldiers! Earlier, at the local bank, Matthew tried without success to cash in bags of dirt he had mistaken for gold. He has done it so often everybody considers him a fool. Indeed, Matthew grooms this persona until the thieves possess the gold. Earlier, Blackgrave had turned his horse loose in the desert, so he flag down the stagecoach transporting Colonel Talbert (Andrea Bosic of "Sandokan the Great") to Fort Henderson for his camp inspection. During their conversation, Blackgrave assembles his Navy Colt. He guns down the officer traveling with Talbert without a qualm. Afterward, he faces off with Talbert in an old-fashioned duel and kills the colonel. Fortunately, during their conversation, Blackgrave had learned from Talbert that the latter had never visited Fort Henderson, so nobody would be able to challenge his identity. Indeed, after he kills the colonel in a duel, Blackgrave dons Talbert's uniform and masquerades as him. At the fort, he informs the commandant that he plans to rest before he launches his inspection. Meantime, posing as a drunken Mexican, Django charges recklessly into the fort and picks a fight with a brawny sergeant. Promptly, the soldiers lock him up in the guardhouse. Later, Django tempts a guard to enter his cell when he catches the soldier admiring his watch. Django overpowers the guard and prepares to play his part in helping Blackgrave steal the gold.

Basically, Blackgrave and Django work inside the fort to remove the gold. Blackgrave dodges an inquisitive officer, Lt. Benjamin Sinclair (Andrea Scotti of "Operation Poker"), who may have recognized him from his shady past. Meantime, Django struggles with another sergeant who tries to thwart his efforts to steal the gold. Later, when a soldier discovers Jane and tries to alert the post about her, Blackgrave gunned him down in front of everybody. Blackgrave justifies shooting the soldier because he recognized the man as an arsonist. Meantime, to facilitate loading the sacks of gold onto Matthew's wagon, Blackgrave orders the fort commander to dispatch troopers to help Matthew load up. Montero and his writers rarely let Matthew and his accomplices off the hook. Once they have left the fort, greed prompts them to double-cross each other. Later, after they reach the border, they discover Lt. Sinclair has hired a gang of desperados to help him seize the gold. A nighttime gunfight in an abandoned border town ensues, with our protagonists mowing down the villains. Nevertheless, unexpected trouble lies ahead for Django, Blackgrave, and Matthew. "Two Faces of the Dollar" ends on an ironic note for a Spaghetti western: crime doesn't pay.

"The Rangers" director Roberto Bianchi Montero fared much better with "The Battle of the Damned," his sophomore entry into World War II men on a mission genre than he did with his initial actioneer "The Rangers." Fewer problems crop up with his North African combat epic that borrows liberally from Armando Crispino's "Commando" (1968), starring Lee Van Cleef and Jack Kelly and Andre de Toth's "Play Dirty" (1969) with Michael Caine and Nigel Davenport. According to IMDB. COM, the release dates for "Battle of the Damned" are inconsistent. First, it was released as early as April 1969 in Italy, and then later showed up on screens in the Netherlands in April 1970, then in France May 1970, and finally in West Germany during September 1972. Later, this movie was re-released in Spain in December 1973.

In "The Battle of the Damned," an experienced, combat savvy U. S. Army officer, Captain Bruce Clay (Dale Cummings of "Samurai Cop"), receives orders to deploy with a squad of soldiers into the scorching North African desert to destroy a remote Nazi fuel dump for enemy tanks. Basically, Captain Clay is reminiscent of the officer in "Commandos" that Jack Kelly played who is ridiculed by his sergeant for being a glory seeking leader willing to sacrifice men so he can win a medal. One of Clay's team, Corporal Marwell (Maurice Poli of "Two Faces of a Dollar") complains about his commanding officer's willingness to sacrifice his men so he can attain higher rank. Derivative as it is, "The Battle of the Damned" qualifies as one of those nihilistic military epics where everybody winds up dead at fade out in the grand tradition of suicidal mission movies such as the Oscar-winning "The Bridge on the River Kwai" (1957) "633 Squadron" (1964) and "Play Dirty." Interestingly, Montero lensed his movie in Egypt. According to IMDB. COM, the Egyptians loaned the filmmakers surplus British Archer tank destroyers to substitute for German Panzers. As many as six of these massive vehicles are seen in the big battle sequence. Basically, the Americans plunge into the desert during the day rather than under the cover of nightfall, which would make made better sense. However, had they gone in under cover of darkness, the eagle-eyed aviators in a two-seater 'Messerschmitt' aircraft roaming the desert would never have spotted them. The suspense grows initially out of the clash between the Americans on the ground and the Germans in the air. A similar crisis confronted Richard Burton and his commandos in Henry Hathaway's "Raid on Rommel" (1971) when an Allied fighter attacked his men in the desert during the day. Although our heroes knock the Messerschmitt out of the sky, they fail to kill these two pilots. These two tenacious souls follow them doggedly on foot to an oasis and later manage to reach the same objective that our heroes have been sent to destroy. Colonel Kleist (Gérard Herter of "Hornet's Nest"), the lead officer in the Messerschmitt, doggedly pursues the commandos. Eventually, Kleist shows up at the fuel dump and warns his fellow Germans about these saboteurs, but even this early warning comes tragically too late. At one point, however, the Germans look like they had a chance to thwart the Americans, particularly when Sergeant Dean (Luciano Catenacci of "The Biggest Battle") must die to repair the damage done to his explosives. Among the cast, future Spaghetti western and crime star Fabio Testi plays Private Terry Wilson, the soldier responsible for maintaining radio contact with their home base.

"The Battle of the Damned" won't go down in history as an especially memorable entry in the annuals of World War II actioneers, but it is tolerable enough to watch once. Completists in the European World War II movie genre will appreciate this adventure more than most spectators.

Filipino film director Pedring A. Lopez's fearsome but formulaic female revenge thriller "Maria," headlining Christina Reyes, makes the gun-toting, blade-wielding, karate chopping dames in "La Femme Nitika," "Peppermint," "Atomic Blonde," and "Anya" look like Girl Scouts soliciting for their annual cookie drive. Clocking in at a nimble 90 minutes, "Maria" never wears out its welcome, though it relies primarily on an inventory of cliches to propel its ballistic yarn. Several factors distinguish this low budget actioneer and enhance its spectacle, principally a persuasive cast, acrobatic combat choreography, atmospheric settings, a sympathetic heroine, thoroughly despicable villains, and some extreme violence in its depiction of its unsavory subject matter. Sensitive souls who abhor graphic violence should skip this bloodthirsty carnage in this martial-arts action thriller.

"Maria" follows the unfortunate fate of a Filipino assassin formerly known as the Black Rose assassin Lily. Our courageous heroine staged her own death, so she could quit the cartel, disappear into obscurity, and start a family. Guess her hormones were crying out to her. Now, after seven years, things are looking pretty rosy for our protagonist. Maria has married Bert (Guji Lorenzana of "Silong") who is a decent guy. They have a rambunctious daughter, Min-Min (Johanna Rish Tongcua of "Once Before") and they indulge her every whim. Predictably, Lopez presents a portrait of domestic family bliss fuzzy with sentiment. Meantime, the Black Rose cartel that Maria deserted is monitoring a controversial gubernatorial race. They don't like the way things is shaping up and they send their henchmen out to cover it. Maria's old lover Kaleb (Germaine De Leon of "Here Comes the Boom") from her Black Rose days reacts with understandable shock when he spots her in a picture at a rally taken by one of his henchmen. Immediately, Kaleb informs his father, the chieftain of the Black Rose cartel, Ricardo (Freddy Webb of "Etiquette for Mistresses"), about his alarming discovery. Although Kaleb vows to liquidate the dame himself for her treachery, Victor (KC Montero of "Kubot: The Aswang Chronicles 2") has nothing but contempt for Ricardo's son. Nevertheless, Kaleb and his gunmen crash Maria's house without warning and gun down not only Bert but also kill Min-Min! Now, there is no going backwards. Maria vows to rub out her enemies with extreme prejudice, no matter how long it takes her. She convinces her mentor, Greg (Ronnie Lazaro of "Gospel of the Beast"), to provide her with not only sanctuary but also furnish her with an arsenal of weapons to wage her own private war. The only thing keeping Greg from suffering reprisals for aiding and abetting Maria is a gentleman's agreement with the Black Rose cartel. Imagine that: honor among these thieves.

You've seen this kind of high body count thriller dozens of time. What "Maria" lacks in originality, Lopez more than compensates with blood, gore, and more. Moreover, this predictable but exciting yarn never runs out of steam. Of course, Maria whips everybody's butts! No surprises there! Nevertheless, the violence in the cartel scenes is pretty toxic. Ricardo loves to torture those whom he suspects are traitors within his ranks. Moreover, he is prepared to do some rather vile things. We see two hefty fellows strung up like beef in a slaughter house who have been beaten half to death. The cartel chieftain is chewing them out before he has two cute little babes with automatic pistols clean the wax out of their ears with lead! The CGI splashes of blood are brief but punctual! Later, the cartel torture a naked man strewn on a table. After beating the poor soul to a pulp but not enough to loosen his tongue, they resort to a mechanical enema, thrusting a rod up his anus. Yes, the guy screams like a stuck hog. Indeed, if you've ever endured a prostrate biopsy, you can sympathize with this fellow's plight. Granted, these scenes are excessive, but they prove that the Black Rose cartel is not a Sunday School outfit. Their indifference to murder in all forms is clearly sociopathic. Sensitive souls may shrink from these scenes. If ever a mob needed massacring, the Black Rose does and it gets its just comeuppance. As the alpha female, Christina Reyes lives up to her reputation and thwarts her old employers. Word is a sequel is in the works, too.

No, "Earth and Blood" director Julien Leclercq's remake of "The Wages of Fear" doesn't eclipse the black & white, 1953 Henri-Georges Clouzot's original starring Yves Montand. Nevertheless, Leclercq generates more than enough thrills and chills to keep spectators poised on the edge of their collective seats during its brisk 104-minute runtime. This taut tale chronicles the Herculean efforts of a group of desperate men and one-woman driving trucks laden with Nitroglycerin across virtually impassable terrain to snuff out a calamitous oil well fire started when terrorists attacked the site. Meantime, Leclercq's version should not be dismissed entirely as disposable. Television scenarist Hamid Hlioua and he have reimagined this classic Man versus Nature showdown with similar but different predicaments. Shrewdly, they have altered elements of Clouzot's masterpiece without tampering with the basic premise. This sprawling spectacle of men against insurmountable odds accomplishing a well-nigh incredible mission amounts to a tribute to the original yarn.

One major difference is the setting. Unlike the South American locales for both Clouzot's classic and William Friedkin's dazzling remake "Sorcerer" (1977), Leclercq and Hlioua shift the setting to an anonymous Middle Eastern country bristling with armed rebels, corrupt soldiers, and lethal minefields. Specifically, Leclercq lensed this nerve-racking epic in Morocco with its sprawling desert wastelands and craggy mountains. Our heroes and heroine must brave an obstacle course consisting not only of an arid desert with mountainous terrain but also trigger-happy gunmen manning roadblocks or gimlet-eyed female snipers who kill without a qualm. Were it not harrowing enough, the drivers must cover about 500 miles in under 20 hours to deliver a sufficient amount of deadly nitro to extinguish the blaze. Two trucks transporting enough nitro to blast in the countryside in another Grand Canyon constitute part of this small convoy. Several armed guards accompany these intrepid truckers, but at least one of them is untrustworthy. Everybody flashes credentials that identify them as medical relief personnel. Similarly, they plaster their vehicles with medical relief insignia. Appropriately enough, Leclercq and Hlioua whittle down the number of characters from the get-go until only a couple survive this white-knuckled odyssey with its nail-biting timetable. Essentially, the premise hasn't changed completely since the 1953 original. An oil well fire rages out of control in the middle of the desert. Leclercq and Hlioua up the ante. Now not only will the well eventually explode, the explosion will obliterate an entire village of innocent souls. The clock is literally ticking as our heroes and heroine embark on their mission of mercy.

The heroes in Leclercq's version differ considerably. In Clouzot's original as well as the 1977 Friedkin remake, the protagonists were destitute individuals. Owing to their extreme character flaws and the hand of fate, these men turned their backs on civilized society and fled to a sanctuary deep in the South American jungles. They gambled that neither the authorities nor any other adversaries looking for payback would follow them to the ends of the earth. In the Netflix remake, the protagonists are siblings in slightly better circumstances. Fred (Franck Gastambide of "Restless") and Alex (Alban Lenoir of "AKA") have reconciled themselves after a tragic incident that landed Alex in prison after he killed several soldiers. Initially, a wealthy client had paid Fred to get him aboard a flight out of a country teetering on the brink of a revolution. Before they could leave, the military gunned down Fred's client. Earlier, before this man of affluence died, he had paid Fred for his services. When his client wasn't looking, Fred caught a glimpse of the huge stacks of currency cached in the safe. Since the military knew nothing about this loot, Fred wasn't about to leave it behind for them to discover.

After the soldiers shot his client, Fred told Alex about the loot. He convinced his reluctant brother to blow the safe. With this fortune, Fred assured Alex they could return to Paris and live like kings. Incidentally, Alex has a wife and child to consider. Fred had posted himself outside the building as a guard and had watched in mute horror when the soldiers stormed it. Alex had commenced the countdown to blow the safe when the soldiers surprised him. This part of the plot appears in a flashback to explain why the brothers were separated. Afterward, the military arrested and imprisoned Alex in a barbaric prison where he was forced to fight to survive. Since he is an explosives expert, the corrupt oil company bribed prison officials to release Alex. The brothers resolved their differences and embarked on this journey of hardship. Basically, the relationship between Fred and Alex amounts to this remake's weakest element because it is contrived. Another big difference between Leclercq's film and the earlier versions is a woman, Clara (Ana Girardot of "Saint Amour"), accompanies them on this road trip through Hell. Clara is Fred's girlfriend, and she comes along for the ride as one of the medical assistants.

Of course, Leclercq's "Wages of Fear" suffers from other contrivances. At one point, a bandit with a machine gun mounted atop a pick-up truck careens after the convoy. The gunner pours a hail of lead into one of the trucks. Miraculously, none of his ill-aimed bullets hit nitro in either of the two trucks. Had either truck been hit, the entire convoy would have been atomized in a fiery cloud of smoke. Predictably, the villains could not destroy the convoy, otherwise the movie would concluded on an anticlimactic note. Later, the brothers must clear a road of land mines using a web of chains to find the mines. Although it has its share of weaknesses, Netflix's "Wages of Fear" qualifies as an entertaining epic with a first-class cast and several genuinely harrowing moments.

No, "Earth and Blood" director Julien Leclercq's remake of "The Wages of Fear" doesn't eclipse the grim, black & white, Henri-Georges Clouzot original made in 1953, starring Yves Montand. Nevertheless, Leclercq generates more than enough thrills and chills to keep spectators poised on the edge of their collective seats during its brisk 104-minute runtime. This taut tale chronicles the Herculean efforts of a group of desperate men and a woman driving trucks laden with Nitroglycerin across treacherous terrain to snuff out a calamitous oil well fire. Earlier, terrorists had sparked this blaze when they attacked the site to keep it from being resupplied. Mind you, Leclercq's version should not be dismissed entirely as disposable. "Cannabis" scenarist Hamid Hlioua and he have reimagined this classic Man versus Nature showdown with similar but different predicaments. Shrewdly, they have altered elements of Clouzot's masterpiece without tampering with the basic premise. This sprawling spectacle of men against insurmountable odds accomplishing a virtually impossible mission amounts to a tribute to Clouzot's masterpiece.

The chief difference between this version and previous ones is the setting. Unlike the South American locales in both Clouzot's classic and William Friedkin's dazzling remake "Sorcerer" (1977), Leclercq and Hlioua shift the setting to an anonymous Middle Eastern nation bristling with heavily armed rebels, corrupt military officials, and lethal minefields. Specifically, Leclercq lensed this epic in Morocco with its sprawling desert wastelands and towering mountains. Our gritty heroes and heroine must brave an obstacle course consisting not only of an arid desert with mountainous terrain but also trigger-happy gunmen at roadblocks and gimlet-eyed female snipers who kill without a qualm. Were it not harrowing enough, the drivers must cover about 500 miles in under 20 hours to deliver a sufficient amount of nitro to quench the blaze! Two trucks transporting more than enough nitro to excavate another Grand Canyon constitute part of this small convoy. Several armed guards accompany these intrepid truckers, but at least one of them is untrustworthy. Everybody displays credentials that identify them as medical relief personnel. Similarly, they plaster their vehicles with medical relief emblems.

Appropriately enough, Leclercq and Hlioua whittle down the number of characters gradually from the get-go until only a couple survive this white-knuckled odyssey with its nail-biting timetable. Basically, the premise hasn't changed much since the 1953 original. An oil well inferno rages out of control in the middle of the desert. Leclercq and Hlioua have upped the ante considerably. Now not only will the well eventually explode, but also the explosion will obliterate an entire village of innocent souls. The clock is literally ticking as our heroes and heroine embark on their mission of mercy. The heroes in Leclercq's version differ considerably. In both, Clouzot's original and Friedkin's remake, the protagonists were destitute individuals. Owing to their extreme character flaws and the hand of fate, these men turned their backs on civilized society and fled to a sanctuary deep in the South American jungles. They gambled that neither the authorities nor any other adversaries looking for payback would follow them to the ends of the earth.

In the Netflix remake, our protagonists are siblings caught up in slightly better circumstances. Fred (Franck Gastambide of "Restless") and Alex (Alban Lenoir of "AKA") have reconciled after a tragic incident that landed his brother in prison. Initially, a wealthy client had paid Fred to get him aboard a flight out of a country teetering on the brink of a revolution. Before they could leave, the military gunned down Fred's client. Earlier, before this man of affluence died, he had paid Fred for his services. When his client wasn't looking, Fred caught a glimpse of huge stacks of currency which were crammed in the safe. Since the military knew nothing about this loot, Fred wasn't about to leave this payday behind for them to discover.

After the soldiers shot his client, Fred told Alex about the cache. With this fortune, Fred assured Alex they could return to Paris and live like kings. Moreover, he convinced his reluctant brother to blow the safe because the risks were minimal. Unlike Fred, Alex has a wife and child to consider. Fred had posted himself outside the building as a guard and had watched in mute horror when the soldiers stormed it. Alex had commenced the countdown to blow the safe when the soldiers surprised him. This part of the plot appears in two flashbacks that explain why the brothers were separated. Afterward, the military arrested and imprisoned Alex in a barbaric prison where he was forced to fight his fellow prisoners to survive. Since he is an explosives expert, the corrupt oil company bribed prison officials to release Alex. The brothers resolved their differences and embarked on this journey of hardship. Basically, the relationship between Fred and Alex amounts to this remake's weakest element because it is rather contrived. Another major departure from Leclercq's film and the earlier versions is a woman, Clara (Ana Girardot of "Saint Amour"), who accompanies them on this road trip through Hell. Clara is Fred's girlfriend, and she comes along for the ride as one of the medical assistants.

Of course, Leclercq's "Wages of Fear" suffers from other contrivances. At one point, a bandit with a machine gun mounted atop a pick-up truck careens after the convoy along a switchback road. The gunner pours a hail of lead into one of the trucks. Miraculously, none of his ill-aimed bullets strike the nitro in either of the vehicles! Had either truck been hit, the entire convoy would have been atomized in a fiery cloud of smoke. Now, the villains could not have destroyed the convoy, otherwise the movie would concluded on an anticlimactic note. Later, the brothers must clear a road sewn with land mines using a spider web of chains to find the mines. Although it suffers from its share of weaknesses, Netflix's "Wages of Fear" qualifies as an entertaining epic with a stalwart cast and several genuinely traumatic moments.

"West of Shanghai" director John Farrow's psychological melodrama "Where Danger Lives" ranks as one of the best all-time film noir thrillers. Furthermore, "Out of the Past" tough guy Robert Mitchum plays a different kind of noir protagonist. Instead of a blue-collar, gun-toting hardnose, Mitchum is cast as a professional, a doctor with a pleasant bedside manner, who neither brandishes a pistol nor beats anybody to a pulp with brass knuckles. Indeed, the first time we lay eyes on him, he is telling an adolescent girl encased in an iron lung a bedtime story about Elmer the Elephant. Nevertheless, like a quintessential noir male, Mitchum swallows every lie this duplicitous dame, Margo (Faith Domergue of "This Island Earth"), conjures up. Mitchum delivers one of his finest performances as Dr. Jeff Cameron, a caring, compassionate, human being who epitomizes the essence of the Hippocratic Oath. His first encounter with the treacherous Margo occurs when this suicidal siren, looking absolutely stunning, is brought in a hospital examination suite. Margo bewitches Jeff, enough that he forfeits all interest in his current girlfriend, nurse Julie Dorn (Maureen O'Sullivan of "Tarzan"), who he had been planning to wed. Comparably, unlike Margo, Julie is neither mysterious nor deceitful.

Unfortunately, Jeff is helpless when he comes under the spell cast on him by his leading lady. Domergue gives an equally stalwart performance as the addled dame who leads the clueless Mitchum astray. Later, Margo decides to ditch Jeff to board a plane with her father, Frederick Lannington (Claude Rains of "Casablanca"), and leave Jeff behind. The good doctor refuses to let Margo out of his sight. Boldly, he hires a Yellow Cab to take him out to Margo's elegant estate. While he visits there, our protagonist learns to his chagrin that Lannington isn't Margo's father as she has told him. Instead, Lannington is her husband! Jeff is thunderstruck by this dramatic reversal. She tells Jeff that she married Lannington for his money, and he reciprocates and admits he married Margo for her youth. Lannington ushers Jeff in for drinks. A brief but savage fight erupts between these two with Margo watching the two men clash over her. Frederick seizes a fireplace poker and wields it like a madman, clobbering our hero repeatedly. Finally, Jeff knocks Frederick flat on his back with a fistful of knuckles to chin. The older man staggers backwards from the impact and collapses unconscious by the fireplace.

Frederick's violent blows to Jeff's head mark a turning point. "39 Steps" scenarist Charles Bennett and "All Through the Night" writer Leo Rosten send Jeff into a bathroom. Farrow stages this scene so we see not only Jeff but also his reflection in a huge mirror while he is bathing his head wounds. For the rest of "Where Danger Lives," Jeff suffers miserably from the adverse effects of a concussion. Later, he warns Margo that his condition will progressively deteriorate. Eventually, he might not be able to walk. Indeed, Jeff's prediction comes true, as he steadily go downhill until he pales by comparison to his former self. Actually, this scene serves a pivotal function. Never again is Jeff the same person after his fracas with Frederick. When he comes back to examine Margo's husband, she informs him that her jealous husband is dead. Initially, Jeff is incredulous. Frederick was still breathing when Jeff left him to bathe his own wounds. Together, Jeff and Margo become a fugitive couple on the lam. They set their sights on the Mexican border, but they must sell Margo's Cadillac for a vehicle less conspicuous because the police know about it. Ironically, Jeff and Margo never cross the border.

"Where Danger Lives" slackens its own suspense when a radio newscaster reveals the cause of Frederick's death. No, he did not die from a blow to the head. Instead, he died from being smothered under a pillow. Later, Margo in a fit of desperation tries to smother Jeff with a pillow. She doesn't has enough time to asphyxiate him, because she wants to catch a ride across the border with a theatrical troupe. Despite being nearly suffocated to death, Jeff survives the ordeal and pursues Margo. Now, our misguided hero is in deplorable condition. Wanting nothing more to do with Jeff after she has sold a prized bracelet to get a ride across the line, Margo is shocked to see him staggering after her. Palming a small caliber handgun from her purse, Margo fires several shots at him. An observant lawman nearby blazes away at her with his revolver and Margo goes down. "Where Danger Lives" winds up with a happy ending. Not only is Jeff cleared of Frederick's murder, but also he rekindles his romance with Julie. John Farrow never lets the momentum slacken in this tense, 82-minute film noir thriller.

"Hound of the Baskerville" director Sidney Lanfield's black & white horse opera "Station West," starring Dick Powell, Jane Greer, Agnes Moorehead, and Raymond Burr, looks like a dusty little western, but otherwise it sounds like a gritty film noir thriller. Indeed, this 83-minute movie qualifies as a traditional oater, derived as it was from Luke Short's novel of the same name. Nevertheless, despite all the usual trappings of a standard issue western, "Station West" featured smart aleck dialogue seasoned with irony straight out of an urban film noir movie. Stars Dick Powell and Jane Greer had appeared in several film noir outings. Indeed, when he latter produced his 1950s TV series "Zane Grey Theater," Powell had made a name for himself in paranoid crime movies. Ultimately, "Station West" would constitute the only western Powell made during his career. Meantime, when his own theatrical career ran out of steam, Lanfield wound up helming several major television westerns, including "Rango," "Pistols and Petticoats," "Whispering Smith," "The Tall Man," "Tales of Wells Fargo," and "The Deputy." Indeed, "Station West" was Lanfield's only oater. Greer appeared in noirs such as "Out of the Past," "The Big Steal," and "They Won't Believe Me." Two years before she made "Station West," Greer had starred in "Sunset" (1946). Later, she would appear in a "Bonanza" episode, a "Stagecoach West" episode, and three episodes of Powell's "Zane Grey Theatre." Interestingly enough, Raymond Burr was cast as a corrupt attorney, too. However, this was long before he would headline the CBS-TV series "Perry Mason." A U. S. Army lieutenant named Haven (Dick Powell of "Murder My Sweet") has been dispatched to track down several missing cavalry uniforms as well as solve the murders of two soldiers who were escorting a wagon laden with bullion. Nobody has a clue about who robbed and killed the soldiers. Haven arrives as an undercover agent to unravel the mystery. Anybody who has perused the novel "Station West" may be surprised when they watch the cinematic adaptation. First, the chief villain has undergone a gender change. Instead of Charlie being a tough guy, Charlie (Jane Greer of "The Big Steal") is now a duplicitous dame. In film noir thrillers, the duplicitous dame often topples the flawed hero because he cannot control himself around her. This was not the case with Haven. Second, scenarist Frank Fenton, who wrote a classic film noir "Out of the Past" and Winston Miller who penned "My Darling Clementine" teamed up for this sagebrusher. Each brought a different set of sensibilities to the film. Third, the novel took place in a western setting covered with ice, whereas the film is set in a scenic western landscape of Sedona, Arizona, under a blazing sun. Some characters have been deleted, and some aren't the same as they were in the novel. As Mrs. Caslon, Anges Moorehead is a mine owner, yet another female addition to the narrative who was not present in the novel. As a competing mine owner, she is in cahoots with Haven's superior officer, Captain Iles (Tom Powers of "Double Indemnity"), and Iles doesn't trust Haven. Haven sets out to blow the lid off the town when he baits Charlie's toughest hardcase, Mick (Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams of "Dodge City") in a knockdown, drag-out bout of fisticuffs. Everybody had expected Mick to whip him, but Haven surprised everybody.

Charlie decides to hire Haven to run her stagecoach line, and our hero learns how lawless the town is when he tries to smuggle some of Mrs. Caslon's bullion out. The villains are waiting for him when he fords a stream and rob the coach. Furthermore, they murder Haven's shotgun guard, James Goddard (Regis Toomey of "Guns of the Timberland"), who was a Wells Fargo agent. You can tell the Production Code was in force when "Station West" was produced. When the villains kill Goddard, you see the bad guy holding him at gunpoint. The camera shifts from a medium two-shot of the villain and the shotgun guard to just the shotgun guard, and then the guard is gunned down. Basically, you don't see the outlaw standing in the same frame with the doomed shotgun guard. Similarly, the opening shot of the movie has the camera prowling over the corpses of the two slain soldiers. We don't see them die.

Interestingly enough, the fight between Mick and Haven is quite violent for 1948, and it is surprising the filmmakers got away with it. Altogether, despite some changes from the novel, "Station West" qualifies as an offbeat but entertaining shoot'em up with sturdy cast, scenic exteriors, and lots of intrigue.

An action comedy with a Peckinpah inspired title, Chilean writer & director Ernesto Diaz Espionoza's "Bring Me the Head of the Machine Gun Woman" qualified as half-baked hokum from fade-in to fade out. You know a movie is in trouble when the eponymous heroine spends more time off screen rather than on it. Our DJ protagonist, Santiago (Matías Oviedo), is a weenie who lives with his mom. He is seated on a toilet in a stall one day when he eavesdrops accidentally on a private conversation among some intimidating Argentine thugs. They are hatching a plot to kill the eponymous character. The hoodlums discover that Santiago has been listening to them, and the chief thug Che Longana gives him an ultimatum. He has 24 hours to learn the whereabouts of the Machine Gun woman and report back to him or die. Bumbling, stumbling, and fumbling everything miserably, our clueless hero doesn't stand a chance against these homicidal mobsters. When he approaches a gun store dealer about buying a gun, he doesn't have any preference about models and betrays his ignorance about firearms in general. Hilariously, the gun store dealer refuses to sell our lame-brained hero a genuine gun. Instead, he trusts Santiago just enough to sell him an obvious BB-pistol! Who would tote any gun if it didn't work adequately?

Meantime, the titular babe aka The Machine Gun Woman (Fernanda Urrejola) looks absolutely stunning. She is decked out in a provocative S & M black leather outfit that emphasizes her cleavage. She wears calf-length boots with spiked heels. Basically, she doesn't have a qualm about blasting away with her weaponry. Red blooded males will drool like babies prior to breast feeding over this wet dream pin-up in stiletto heels. It is a shame she doesn't mow down more bad guys in sight! She is an accurate shooter who never wastes bullets. Initially, she has little use for Santiago until later after she catches lead in a rodeo yard shootout. A thug catches her by surprise and shoots her in the leg. Our pusillanimous protagonist tries to fake Longana off with his BB pistol, but the villain sees right through this pathetic ruse. During the rodeo scene, Santiago slips up behind Longana (Jorge Alis), the ruffian who plugged the Machine Gun Woman, and fears for his life if Longana catches him sneaking up. Alas,afree our heroine has brandished one of her pistols, lead flies in a swarm. By a strange set of circumstances, she shoos the ill-fated Longana in the calf of his leg and he stumbles momentarily and blows his face off accidentally with his own weapon! The wounded Machine Gun Lady insists Santiago remove the bullet before she bleeds to death.

As action comedies go, "Bring Me The Head of the Machine Gun Woman" has all the characteristics of a bottom of the barrel B-movie. It's too bad Epinoza didn't give the eponymous heroine a bigger role in this otherwise lackluster saga, low body count saga. Slow-moving at times, this low-budget nonsense had a lot of potential but the comic angle undermines what might have been a better actioneer. Don't let the title fool you!

"Stranger Things" heroine Milly Bobby Brown emerges as a pretty pugnacious warrior princess in "28 Weeks Later" director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's above-average medieval fantasy "Damsel." Although she spends almost every minute in distress, she never requires the services of a man to deliver her from adversity. Our beautiful heroine finds herself in a position that foreshadows wealth, affluence, and love until the dark truth reveals itself. Indeed, she is poised to die an ignominious death in a sizzling wreath of flames from jaws of a vengeful dragon! Initially, "Damsel" unfolds like a predictable fairy tale. She is a beautiful young thing poised to become the wife of a handsome young prince. She hopes he will be kind. Not surprisingly, "Wrath of the Titans" scenarist Dan Mazeau appropriates all the usual cliches of the genre, but he stands them on their collective heads. Lord Bayford (Ray Winstone of "Beowulf") has negotiated a marriage of convenience for his adorable daughter, Elodie (Milly Bobby Brown), to a sovereign. Prince Henry (Nick Robinson of "Silk Road") will wed her in his distant kingdom under the icy eyes of his mother, Queen Isabelle (Robin Wright of "Forrest Gump"), who amounts to a Janus-faced witch. Basically, the twin ravages of starvation and ecological ruin have virtually destroyed Bayford's kingdom. His decision to give his daughter's hand to a strange prince, so his subjects will flourish is not in Elodie's best interests. No sooner has our heroine exchanged vows than the Prince ushers her up a winding path into a mountain cave.

After a brief ceremony concludes in the cave, Prince Henry gathers an unsuspecting Elodie gracefully in his arms and then without warning hurls her off a bridge into a shadowy abyss. What poor Elodie doesn't realize is a humongous dragon with a ravenous appetite awaits her when she lands with a thud. This ferocious flying reptile is herself a scorned mother, and Queen Isabelle has served her human sacrifices as part of a debt because her army slew the dragon's three offspring in the nest. The King and his army skewered the demons with their swords, and the dragon swept in and roasted in a blaze of fury. Afterward, this talkative dragon toys with Elodie. Thus ends the first half of this tolerable 110-minute fantasy. One of the features that solidifies "Damsel" as a fantasy is its loquacious dragon. Iranian actress Shohreh Aghdashloo of "Star Trek Beyond" provides the voice and gives the CGI dragon a faintly menacing personality. Elodie and the Dragon start out as antagonists but once their minds meet they become sisters.

The first half of the action chronicles the hopes and dreams of our fair heroine as Lord Bayford and Elodie's stepmom, Bayford's Queen Lady Bayford (Angela Bassett of "Black Panther") inform her of her impending nuptials. They set sail in a wooden ship for a distant kingdom. Elodie dreads her future. Nevertheless, dutiful daughter that she is, she accommodates her Lord despite her apparent misgivings. Imagine her surprise when she finds herself flung into a gloomy cavern to face a smoldering female dragon with the power of speech. Elodie survives a variety trials and tribulations in her efforts to elude death. While she wanders desperately through an inhospitable maze of caves, she encounters some exotic creatures. After her first brush with the dragon, Elodie discovers that some glow worms, slightly similar to maggots, are useful in restoring charred flesh. Eventually, her father and several men enter the cave to save her but they struggle to survive themselves. The incensed reptile dragon sets them ablaze and crushes Lord Bayford under its claw before it resumes her hunt for Elodie.

However, Elodie improvises and turns the tables on her enemy. Although she out-smarts the evil dragon, Elodie takes pity on it. She understands how the bereaved creature has been mistreated and told lies. In a reversal of fortune, Elodie saves the dragon's life, using those glow worm maggots to restore the dragon's health. Indeed, the fiendish flying flamethrower had cornered Elodie, but our heroine survived by her wits. Cleverly, she stood with her back to a huge curved rock structure. Nimbly, she sidestepped the burst of the dragon's sulfurous breath so the flames blew back onto the beast, singing it into submission! Meanwhile, since Elodie has managed to survive thus far, the evil Queen abducts Elodie's younger sister, Floria (newcomer Brooke Carter ), to serve as a substitute. The act of treachery cements Isabelle's heinous villainy.

Meantime, once Elodie befriends the dragon. She explains the circumstances of her predicament and wins the sympathy of the hideous creature. Together, they team up and take on the evil Queen. Perhaps the Queen's impending comeuppance is a little too obvious, but it is entirely satisfying. The computer-generated scenery of a fanciful kingdom looks spectacular enough, even though it is obviously synthetic. The detail in the depths of the cave during Elodie's journey of hardship looks good. The CGI of the dragon stands up to scrutiny for the purposes of this revisionist fantasy. Sadly, despite its twists and turns, nothing about the shallow characters makes them remotely memorable. Indeed, characterization is kept to a minimum. Despite the horrendous obstacle course over which our heroine triumph, we know in the end she will win out. As a Young Adult fantasy, "Damsel" qualifies as worth watching once.

Jennifer Lopez goes full metal Rambo as the dame with no name in "Whale Rider" director Nicky Caro's ballistic, high-octane, white-knuckled, action thriller "The Mother." This tale sizzles with suspenseful excitement as well as formulaic contrivance about the daughter our heroine never knew who lands in the hands of homicidal hellions with no qualms about killing. A weapons savvy lady, our protagonist had turned herself in as an anonymous informant for the FBI. Basically, she has been walking on the wild side after she served her tour of duty as an elite U. S. military sniper in Iraqi and Afghanistan with 46 kills. While she was there, she met a British soldier, Adrian Lovell (Joseph Fiennes of "Enemy at the Gates") and attraction blossomed. With nowhere to go after her enlistment, she followed Lovell to the dark side. Now, this intrepid dame lives by the skin of her teeth with danger as close as her shadow. Initially, she had been loyal to Lovell until she uncovered his evil ugly truth. He participated in a human trafficking ring. This prompted her to approach the Feds.

By this time, Adrian had also acquired a notorious reputation as an arms dealer. Naturally, Lovell wasn't amused when he learned she had holed up in an FBI safe house in suburban Indiana. She was there spilling her guts about him. Launching a surprise attack, Adrian and his henchmen wipe out almost everybody in the safehouse. Fortunately, our heroine helped Agent William Cruise (Omari Hardwick of "Kick Ass") survive this massacre. Sadly, the rest of the Feds fell in a hail of gunfire. At the time, our heroine was pregnant, but she didn't escape without a scratch. Cornering her in a shower stall, Lovell stabbed her in the stomach. Indeed, this insidious dastard nearly killed the unborn child. Nevertheless, Lovell got a taste of our heroine's fiery wrath. She improvised a homemade explosive that broiled him like a steak on a grille. Happily, not only does our indestructible villain elude the Grim Reaper here, but he also shows up again for the bullet blazing finale. As the villain, Fiennes makes a formidable villain. He is definitely no slouch.

Anyway, the FBI rush our heroine to the ER in time for her to give birth to a girl. However, they refuse to let her raise her own child. Instead, they insist she is a "death sentence" to her daughter because her life hang s in perpetual jeopardy. Now, Lovell must find her and kill her. Since she saved his life during the massacre, Cruise agrees to keep her informed about any threats to her daughter's welfare. The FBI sets our heroine's little girl up with a mixed racial couple (white hubby and black wife), and Zoe (Lucy Paez of "Silencio") grows up to be a cute but naive little darling. She likes to coast around on sneakers equipped with small wheels in the heels. Twelve years elapse in a flash, and Adrian learns Zoe's whereabouts, he dispatches a crew to abduct her. Brawny Agent Cruise alerts Zoe's birth mom about this threat. Low and behold, Adrian and his henchmen materialize in broad daylight, wound the foster mom in the arm, and kidnap Zoe. Cue the familiar action heroine tropes. Eventually, mom rescues her daughter, and they plunge into hiding in a remote section of snow-swept woods. While their await the inevitable appearance of Adrian and his gunmen, our heroine teaches Zoe how to load a bolt-action hunting rifle and trains her to be an expert marksman. Zoe acquires proficiency in perforating compact discs dangling from strings with the aid of a sniper scope.

If you're a J-Lo fan, "The Mother" is like nothing you've seen her in since the days of "Money Train" and "Out of Sight" back in the late 1990s. Nothing about "The Mother" is neither romantic nor frivolous. J-Lo is all about business here in an effort to alter her cinematic image. She looks like she could handle the hardware. The violence is harrowing, and the body count exceeds anything in any J-Lo movie. At one point, our enraged heroine water boards a contemptible cartel gunman to extract information from him about Zoe's whereabouts. Afterward, she knocks him down with enough force that he falls onto a shattered glass bottle. The bottle penetrates his neck like a skewer, and he dies! Caro maintains more than enough urgency throughout the first half-hour to hold attention. Mind you, everything about these melodramatic shenanigans is thoroughly formulaic but nevertheless satisfying. The action choreography is brisk. Indeed, action junkies may savor this shoot-em up, especially when J-Lo is pumping lead into her unsavory adversaries.

Writer & director Enzo Peri's "Death Walks in Laredo" qualifies as one the most bizarre as well as surreal Spaghetti westerns ever made. The opening scene in a saloon where our protagonist, Whity Selby (Thomas Hunter of "The Hills Run Red") has just made a killing at the poker table, but the players he took money from don't want him to quit until they've had a chance to recoup their losses. He ignores them and ambles over to the bar. They whip out their pistols and order him to stop. At once, Whity turns and shoots all four of them dead. If you look at the gun, you'll notice that the barrels have sprung out sideways. Never seen a revolver like this, but since it's an action comedy, why let reality sour the saga. After he exits the saloon, a well-dressed elderly gentleman accosts him and explains he his a lawyer. Moreover, he has a letter for Whity. It seems that it took the letter ten years to reach the lawyer and he has been searching for Whity. Basically, Whity learns he has inherited a gold mine in Laredo, Texas. Whity will encounter an agile Japanese Kung-fu expert, Lester Kato (James Shigeta of "The Crimson Kimono") and a well-dressed, French gunslinger, Etienne Devereaux (Nadir Moretti of "Hercules Against the Mongols") who has a knack for mentally paralyzing his opponents. Eventually, these three will join forces against the villain. This isn't a slap happy, laugh out loud horse opera, but it has its tongue firmly in its cheek, without acting downright silly.