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Blu-ray Review: The Daimajin Trilogy (1966)

A giant samurai statue goes a-rompin’ and a-stompin’ in The Daimajin Trilogy, a new box-set release covering Daiei’s classic kaiju creation courtesy of the sexy devils over at Arrow Video (along with MVD Entertainment)! First up comes 1966’s Daimajin: In medieval Japan, peasants cower in fear as the Earth trembles. These rustic folk believe that this is the result of a giant imprisoned within a nearby mountain attempting to make a jailbreak somewhere in this town (they are right btw)… As that is going on, the samurai lord of the village falls victim to samurai treachery, which causes his children to flee deep into the wicked woods that surround the village. They soon find themselves at the shrine of that aforementioned giant, the god Daimajin (played to perfection by Chikara “Riki” Hashimoto who would essay the role for the entire series); a huge-ass solid stone samurai that proves that in this particular village a hard man is indeed good to

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DanXIII

Aug 22, 2021

MoviesReviewsThriller

Blu-ray Review: The Brotherhood of Satan (1971)

With a film involving Satan that begins with child characters, you just know you’re going to be getting one of them sing-song, “la la la” type of main theme, and boy howdy The Brotherhood of Satan does not disappoint there… there’s also footage of a car being crushed by a tank while unholy screams ring out, so there’s that bit that is also not disappointing. Following that, Ben (Charles Bateman), his girlfriend Nicky (Ahna Capri), and Ben’s young daughter K.T. (future Brady Bunch Hour alum Geri Reischl) resume their cross country vacay after being caught in one of those realistic movie downpours where the rain goes in multiple directions at once… but that once again grinds to a halt when they discover the aftermath of a grizzly car “accident” and are forced to seek the assistance of the local sheriff (L.Q. Jones and his amazing hair), who already has his hands full dealing with the half-crazed inhabitants of Hillsboro who’s

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DanXIII

Aug 21, 2021

ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller

Blu-ray Review: Blind Beast (1969)

Michio (Eiji Funakoshi) is your typical artist; he lives with his mother, is blind, and lives in a bizarre studio filled with a surreal tableau containing titanic sculptures devoted to the senses… and tits n’ ass… lord the gigantic tits n’ ass that studio-space contains… He’s also not above kidnapping a mother fucker outright if kids thinks she’s hot… That is exactly what he does to beautiful model Aki (Mako Midori), who is naturally really not that into it… and promptly attempts to escape, which you’d think would be easy given that her captor, I don’t know… can’t fucking see her and all… but, alas she fails… more than once… Before you can say Stockholm syndrome, Aki begins to really dig on the sadomasochistic shenanigans ol’ Michio is laying down… so much so that she begins to take things even further. Fondling of statue ass ensues. Comprised of a darkly sexual tone (while not being overly graphic… for the most

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DanXIII

Aug 20, 2021

ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller

4K-UHD Review: Cat O’ Nine Tails (1971)

Blind crossword puzzle author (is that what people who create those things are even called???) Franco (Karl Malden, proving he walked the streets of Rome before those of San Francisco) is taking a stroll one night with his young niece Lori (Cinzia De Carolis) when he overhears a plan to blackmail a scientist who works at a top secret genetic institute…well, not too top secret if they are blabbing about it right out in the damn street and all…oh, and there’s a robbery in there somewhere as well. Anyway Franco eventually teams up with a journalist by the name of Carlo (everyone’s favorite ‘not-quite-Charlton Heston’ James Franciscus) to solve the case, but there ends up being a metric shit-ton of the ol’ murder biz about, so these two dudes are most likely in way over their heads… Admittedly, I’ve never been the biggest fan of the giallo genre; they’ve always played out more like a typical murder mystery with a

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DanXIII

Aug 15, 2021

ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller

4K UHD Review: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)

Slammin’ Sammy (Tony Musante) is one of those American “writer” types… he’s also completely devoid of the creative spark, so he’s parked his ass down ol’ Italia way in the hopes that a change of scenery will give his juices a jolt! Speaking of “jolting” things, our man Sam gets a real eyeful when he spies the ol’ murder biz goin’ down in a fancy-ass art gallery (really, there are seldom any other kind), but the victim, one Monica Ranieri (Eva Renzi), turns the tables on her faceless assailant who flees into the night (but not before being a real prize-winning dickus to ol’ Sam and Mony-Mony via some electronic doors and slow torture). Enter: Inspector Morosini (Enrico Maria Salerno) who gives our man Sam-I-Am some static, as he holds the writer in Rome in the hopes he will help crack the case with the absolute unending terror he witnessed and all… but the killer at large is more than

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DanXIII

Jul 30, 2021

ForeignMoviesReviews

Blu-ray Review: Vengeance Trails Collection (1966 – 1970)

Saddle up to this new collection of cowpokes wanderin’ Revenge Road; Vengeance Trails, which comes our way courtesy of Arrow Video (along with MVD Entertainment) and contains four big features for us to slap our putrid peepers on! Kicking things off we have 1966’s Massacre Time; which tells the tale of ol’ prospectin’ man Tom (Franco Nero, Django himself) who heads home to peep that tyrannical douche Scott (Giuseppe Addobbati) has taken over his land, along with a gang of hench-type folks lead by Scott’s son; the diabolical… Jason ((Nino Castelnuovo)… the evil names could admittedly use a bit of a punch in this one cats n’ creeps… Adding to Tom’s static is some additional family trouble in the form of his brother Jeff (George Hilton), a drunken lout who blames Tom for all their woes… though to be fair, that kinda goes both ways. The problem is, Tom will need Jeff’s help if they are to overthrow Scott and

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DanXIII

Jul 15, 2021

ForeignMoviesReviews

4k Ultra-HD Review: Django (1966)

Django begins with a mother fuckin’ banger of an opening where our titular hero (Franco Nero) drags a coffin through a muddy hellscape as what is inarguably the greatest opening theme in the history of mother fuckin’ anything belts out of your speakers like a hot blast of lead to your eerie earholes! Soon Django comes upon Maria (Loredana Nusciak), a woman beleaguered by Mexican revolutionaries, subsequently rescued by a racist, ex-Confederate posse, and then put to the torch by the same… well, at least she would have been if not for the lightning gunwork of our hero, himself a soldier of the North at one time. The duo soon wander into a dilapidated nightmare of a town… a town caught in the middle of the war between those two faction mentioned up yonder, though the local saloon/whorehouse is considered neutral territory… and it’s there he runs afoul of the leader of those Confederate soldiers, Major Jackson (Eduardo Fajardo)… who’s

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DanXIII

Jul 11, 2021

IndieMoviesReviewsThriller

Blu-ray Review: Threshold (2020)

Beleaguered teacher Leo (Joey Millin) hates his job, is estranged from his sister Virginia (Madison West) and going through a divorce… but, at least one of those things is about to change as Leo’s mom calls to tell her he needs to pick his sister up as she’s made her dramatic reappearance. Everything fails to come up Leo however, as his sister appears to be going through substance abuse withdrawal, though she claims this is the result of being bonded to a male member of some sort of coo-coo cult that performed a revoltin’ ritual to get her off drugs. I’m going to say she was probably better off high off her tits… Leo of course thinks this a heapin’ helpin’ of complete festering bullshit, but he agrees to take Virginia to seek out the man, and hopefully end her ability to see and feel what he does (and vice versa) on the stipulation that she trots her ass straight

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DanXIII

Jun 27, 2021

ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller

Blu-ray Review: Years Of Lead: Five Classic Italian Crime Thrillers 1973-1977

Coming from a period of massive social upheaval in 1970’s Italy, the “Years of Lead” as they were called, inspired filmmakers of the time to dip their toes in all-manner brutal crime pictures (the poliziotteschi genre), and our fine fiends at Arrow Video have collected some of them in the aptly named Years of Lead collection, a series of five films on Blu-ray that represent the era to a “T”! First up comes 1975’s Savage Three which concerns Turin-based computer programmer Ovidio (Joe Dallesandro), and his two pals Peppi (Guido Di Carli) and Giacomo (Gianfranco De Grassi); a trio of bored-ass mother fuckers that aren’t above starting a soccer riot, stealing a car, and riding folks down if they like their wheels better… ya know, just for kicks! Making matter worse, the men all have shitty home lives, and are in danger of being replaced by machines at work, which in turn fuels larger and larger crime sprees featuring those

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DanXIII

Jun 13, 2021

ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller

Blu-ray Review: Irezumi (1966)

Otsuya (Ayako Wakao) has it all, being the daughter of a well-off merchant type back in the days of yore down Japan-way. Not content to live a life on Easy Street, Otsuya falls head over ass for one of her father’s employees (read dirt-poor bastard), Shinsuke ( Akio Hasegawa) to be precise. Anyway, the dynamic duo decide to beat feet and elope, because you can bet demons to diamonds that Daddy Dearest would never approve of that bit of bad romance. Speaking of “bad”, that whole eloping idea was right shit and long story short; Otsuya ends up a prostitute who’s fortune gets even more like a puddle of puke when she meets a shady-as-fuck master tattooist who decides Otsuya’s ivory-white skin would make one hell of a canvas for his latest work; a big-ass monster spider with a human face, and right on her back that shit goes. Along with her new ink comes the ire of nearly fuckin’

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DanXIII

Jun 12, 2021

Arrow Video

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