Escape Plan (2013)

Film Title: Escape Plan
Released: October 18, 2013
Directed by: Mikael Håfström
Written by: Miles Chapman & Jason Keller (as Arnell Jesko) based on a story by Miles Chapman
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwazenegger & Jim Caviezel

Plot: A man who has made a business of testing prison security systems by breaking out of them is double-crossed on a job and has to find his way out of the most secure prison on earth.

IMDb: 6.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 49/100
My Score: 3/5

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

The 2013 film Escape Plan stars Sylvester Stallone as security analyst Ray Breslin, a man so good at designing secure installations that his handbook on the subject is considered the bible by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He is paid millions of dollars by individuals wishing to test their systems, a service he performs by being incarcerated in their facilities and breaking out of them. When he is double-crossed on a high-risk job for the CIA, he has to escape from the most secret and secure prison ever conceived called the Tomb. To complete his plan, he enlists help from some fellow inmates (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Faran Tahir) while trying to survive the viciousness of the warden (Jim Caviezel) and his head guard (Vinnie Jones). The story was a actually a bit more convoluted than I was expecting, with some decent twists and turns I didn't see coming. Mostly a mystery/thriller whose action component doesn't really show up until the final act, Escape Plan is the first film in which the two action titans Stallone and Schwazenegger have starred opposite each other for an entire film. Although they both appeared in The Expendables and The Expendables 2 before this one, Schwazenegger's roles were considerably smaller than Stallone's. It was nice to see the two of them share the screen for so long, reminiscent of Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro in the John Avnet movie Righteous Kill. But much like Avnet's film, it may be remembered only for the casting choice. If that happens, I think it would be a shame since the film has more to offer than just the actors assembled, which is pretty admittedly pretty impressive and includes Sam Neill, Amy Ryan, Vincent D'Onofrio, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and Graham Beckel.

The Whistler (1944)

Film Title: The Whistler
Released: March 30, 1944
Directed by: William Castle
Written by: Eric Taylor based on a story by J. Donald Wilson
Starring: Richard Dix, Gloria Stuart & J. Carroll Naish

Plot: A depressed man hires an unknown killer to assassinate him. When he has a change of heart, he scrambles to call off the hit but has no way to do so.

IMDb: 6.6/10
My Score: 3/5

The Whistler was a long-running anthology mystery series on the west-coast regional CBS radio network from 1942 to 1955. The character of "The Whistler" was a kind of all-knowing, all-seeing entity that would narrate the stories and sometimes comment on the proceedings. In 1944, Columbia Pictures adapted the show into a film series that would eventually have eight entries in all. The first film, simply called The Whistler, stars Richard Dix (who appears as a different main character in seven of the eight films) as a wealthy businessman whose wife was lost at sea. Three years have passed and he has only grown more depressed since the incident so he hires an assassin (J. Carroll Naish) to kill him, not having the fortitude to do it himself. But when he receives the good news that his wife is alive, he needs to call off the hit. Desperately looking for the middleman who was his contact, he discovers that the man was shot right after their initial meeting and that he now has no way of contacting the killer directly. What ensues is a cat and mouse game with plenty of shadowy photography, dames with a grudge and crazy killers. I found this movie very entertaining, with enough twists and turns to keep me guessing, and am looking forward to watching the others in the series. Gloria Stuart co-stars as Dix's secretary who is in love with him, though Dix is oblivious. The film was an early effort of great B-movie director William Castle, only his third feature. The three main actors were all nominated for Oscars in their careers: Dix for Best Actor in 1931 for Cimarron, Stuart for Best Supporting Actress in 1998 for Titanic (she played Old Rose) and Naish twice for Best Supporting Actor; once in 1944 for Sahara and again in 1946 for A Medal for Benny. Watch the opening sequence below.

One Mysterious Night (1944)

Film Title: One Mysterious Night
Also known as: Behind Closed Doors (UK)
Released: October 21, 1944
Directed by: Budd Boetticher
Written by: Paul Yawitz based on the character created by Jack Boyle
Starring: Chester Morris, Janice Carter & Richard Lane

Plot: Inspector Farraday recruits Boston Blackie to help him find a stolen diamond.

IMDb: 6.1/10
My Score: 3/5

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

The seventh in Columbia Pictures Boston Blackie series of films, One Mysterious Night shakes things up in more ways than one. First of all, several new actors are present in roles previously established in the series by other actors. Present as ever are Chester Morris as Blackie, Richard Lane as Inspector Farraday and George E. Stone as Blackie's sidekick the Runt but the newcomers to the series include Lyle Latell as Farraday's assistant Detective Matthews, Harrison Greene as Arthur Manleder and Joseph Crehan as pawnbroker Jumbo Madigan. Another change is the formula of the script as One Mysterious Night actually has Morris working with Lane on the case instead of at odds with him (although, by the middle of the movie Lane is as much chasing after Morris as he is the real culprits). The film opens with a famous diamond being stolen from its display case in broad daylight. The police are baffled and when asked by reporters, Lane says that the only person possibly responsible is Morris. The story gets printed and then brought to the attention of Morris who heads right down police headquarters to talk to Lane. It turns out the story was Lane's way of getting Morris' attention and to ask for his help in the case. Morris goes undercover but is recognized by a beautiful reporter (Janice Carter) and "arrested." He then tells Lane to let the reporters know that he "escaped," allowing him to keep up his rogue persona to the real culprits. Relentless on the case is Carter, who complicates things for Morris more than once. One Mysterious Night is a bit of a shot in the arm for the series and nicely changes the predictability that the scripts have fallen into. The change in so much casting is bit disheartening, though, as I had come to enjoy the familiarity of Blackie's extended cinematic family. Co-starring Robert Williams and William Wright as the crooks behind the caper and Mark Roberts (billed as Robert E. Scott) and Dorothy Malone as a brother and sister embroiled in the robbery. Malone won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Written on the Wind in 1956. Director Budd Boetticher (billed here in his first credited directorial role as Oscar Boetticher Jr.), was known later in his career for a string of westerns starring Randolph Scott, but was also nominated for an Oscar for his story of The Bullfighter and the Lady in 1951, which he co-wrote with Ray Nazarro and James Edward Grant. Watch the opening sequence below or the whole movie here.

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012)

Film Title: Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning
Released: September 22, 2012 (Austin Fantastic Fest)
Directed by: John Hyams
Written by: Jon Greenhalgh, John Hyams & Doug Magnuson based on a story by Moshe Diamant & John Hyams based on characters created by Dean Devlin, Christopher Leitch & Richard Rothstein
Starring: Scott Adkins, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren & Andrei Arlovski

Plot: After a man recovers from a severe beating in which his family is murdered in front of him, he goes on a quest to find the one responsible but soon discovers that nothing is what it seems.

IMDb: 5.0/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 51/100
My Score: 3/5

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is the sixth film in the Universal Soldier franchise but only the third to be recognized as canonical. John Hyams, director of the previous film Regeneration, returns to helm this entry, which he also co-wrote. Also returning are stars Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren and Andrei Arlovski. In past installments, the main character has been Luc Devereaux, usually portrayed by Van Damme, but his time, however, the focus is on series newcomer Scott Adkins. In the opening sequence, filmed in first-person perspective, Adkins is awoken by his young daughter telling him that there are monsters in the house. At the urging of his wife, he searches the house and discovers a group of masked individuals in his kitchen that proceed to viciously beat him with a crowbar. His wife and child are then dragged into his view and one of the assailants (Van Damme) removes his ski-mask before shooting the woman and little girl in the head. Fast forward nine months and Adkins awakens in a hospital from a coma. He is visited by an FBI agent (Rus Blackwell) that asks him if he remembers the attack and the man who killed his family, showing him a picture of a Van Damme for clarification. Adkins is released from the hospital and proceeds to piece together the gaps in his memory, said to be caused by his head injury, and to track down Van Damme for revenge. What follows is bit of fresh air for the franchise but the results fall somewhat short of the intentions, not quite reaching the heights it aims for. A few decent plot twists, which really shouldn't be that surprising to anyone familiar with the series, a couple of excellent fight scenes (the Adkins/Arlovski fight in the sporting goods store is definitely a highlight) and more blood and guts than the entire rest of the series combined try to compensate for the weaker points of the film. Repeated several times is an almost nauseating strobe effect that should be a concern to anyone who suffers from epilepsy and Adkins and female lead Mariah Bonner, who plays a stripper, have zero chemistry. I mentioned in my review for Regeneration that one doesn't watch a Universal Soldier film for depth. As if in response to that criticism, Day of Reckoning attempts not just to be a action film but also a violently gritty psychological thriller full of conspiracies, dilapidated locations and seedy characters, including prostitutes, governments agents and a memorable disfigured guy who has an office inside of a meat locker. Having now watched every film in the series, I realize that the script recycles many tropes from the previous entries, like cloned soldiers, messianic leaders and sleeper UniSol agents infiltrating the government. Not a terrible entry but also not as entirely new as it would appear at first glance.

After Midnight with Boston Blackie (1943)

Film Title: After Midnight with Boston Blackie
Released: March 18, 1943
Directed by: Lew Landers
Written by: Howard J. Green based on a story by Aubrey Wisberg based on the character created by Jack Boyle
Starring: Chester Morris, Richard Lane & Ann Savage

Plot: Boston Blackie is accused of killing a recent parolee over some stolen diamonds and sets out to clear his name.

IMDb: 6.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: No score
My Score: 3/5

After Midnight with Boston Blackie is the fifth in Columbia Pictures Boston Blackie series and the second to be directed by the prolific Lew Landers. Chester Morris returns as Blackie along with Richard Lane as police Inspector Farraday, Walter Sande as his assistant Detective Mathews, George E. Stone as as Blackie's sidekick the Runt and Lloyd Corrigan as affable millionaire Arthur Manleder. When Diamond Ed Barnaby (Walter Baldwin) is paroled, he goes after his stash of diamonds to give to his daughter Betty (Ann Savage). But when his former criminal partners (Cy Kendall, Al Hill and George McKay) get to him first, Savage contacts Morris to help her find her father. When Baldwin is killed while on the telephone with Lane, the inspector automatically assumes Morris' complicity. There's also a subplot thrown in of Stone trying to get married to burlesque dance Dixie Rose Blossom (Jan Buckingham) but the nuptials keep getting interrupted by the main plot line. The heavies in After Midnight are no strangers to the series. Cy Kendall, who appears as nightclub owner Joe Herschel, is also recurring character Jumbo Madigan in Alias Boston Blackie and Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood and George McKay also appeared in Alias as Roggi the Clown. Mostly fun and fast paced in the style that the series is known for, After Midnight was the first Boston Blackie film that I actually cringed while watching. This is due to a scene in which Morris sneaks past Sande by using soot from a car's tailpipe to make him appear to be a black musician. While I'm not sure that it quite constitutes blackface, I still found myself wincing while watching it, especially when he delivered lines in a racially stereotypical voice. I understand that it was a vastly different time period socially but still for me, watching the film from my modern social perspective, it still stings. What do you think? Watch the clip which I'm referring to below or the whole movie here and let me know your thoughts.

Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood (1942)

Film Title: Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood
Released: November 5, 1942
Directed by: Michael Gordon
Written by: Paul Yawitz based on the character created by Jack Boyle
Starring: Chester Morris, Richard Lane & Constance Worth

Plot: When his good friend Arthur Manleder needs help in California, Boston Blackie doesn't hesitate to jump on the first airplane. But Inspector Farraday doesn't trust Blackie one bit and follows him out west.

IMDb: 6.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: No score
My Score: 3/5

Boston Blackie Goes Hollywood, Columbia Pictures' fourth Boston Blackie movie, changes up the scenery by transferring most of the action to California from New York. The gang's all here again: Chester Morris as Blackie, Richard Lane as police Inspector Farraday, George E. Stone as Blackie's sidekick the Runt, Walter Sande as Farraday's dim-witted assistant Detective Matthews, Lloyd Corrigan as lovable but gullible millionaire Arthur Manleder, and Cy Kendall as pawnbroker Jumbo Madigan. Just as he and Stone are preparing to go to Florida on vacation, Morris receives a telegram from Corrigan letting them know that he's in trouble. After some misadventures they head to California with Lane and Sande right behind them. This was the first film in the series that I was actually annoyed with, particularly the writing. Normally Farraday keeps an eye on Blackie to make sure that every action he performs is on the up and up, ready to nab him the moment he goes back to his life of crime. This time however, Farraday actually breaks into Blackie's apartment looking for evidence to use against him, obviously breaking the law in the process. This goes against everything that the character stands for and makes Farraday out to be the crook. Aside from this glaring bit of poor writing, the rest of the film is pretty fun, with Morris and Stone donning disguises and confronting gangsters in traditional Boston Blackie fashion. Co-starring Constance Worth (who had a small part in the series' first film, Meet Boston Blackie) and Forrest Tucker (who is probably best known as Sgt. O'Rourke on the 1960's sitcom F Troop). This marked the feature length directorial debut of Michael Gordon, who would go on to direct Cyrano de Bergerac with José Ferrer, who an Oscar for the titular role, and Pillow Talk, which won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, with Rock Hudson and Doris Day. Watch the opening sequence below (the burglar turns out to be Farraday).

Movies I Want to See: The Blue Elephant (2014)

The 2014 Egyptian film The Blue Elephant was released in its home country on July 28. Directed by Marwan Hamed and written by Ahmed Mourad based on his best selling novel of the same name, the movie stars Karim Abdel Aziz as Dr. Yehia Rashed, a psychotherapist who works with the criminally insane. After his best friend is admitted as a patient, Dr. Rashed gets pulled deeper and deeper into a terrifying new world. The book has been a bestseller in Egypt since its publication and the film is getting rave reviews in Egypt. I have no idea what's being said in the trailer but it looks like it could be pretty amazing.

Murder By Phone (1982)

Film Title: Murder by Phone
Also known as: Bells, Hell's Bells, The Calling
Released: December 1982
Directed by: Michael Anderson
Written by: Michael Butler, John Kent Harrison & Dennis Shryack based on a story by George Armondo, Michael Butler, Dennis Shryack & James Whiton
Starring: Richard Chamberlain & John Houseman

Plot: Some one is killing people using the telephone. When one of his former students becomes a victim, environmental professor Nat Bridger tries to unravel the mystery and stop the madman responsible!

IMDb: 5.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: No score
My Score: 2/5

Murder by Phone, also commonly known as Bells, is a 1982 Richard Chamberlain vehicle directed by the Oscar-nominated Michael Anderson. Chamberlain is Nat Bridger, an environmental professor who gets embroiled in a serial killer's rampage when one of his former students is murdered. Personal favorite John Houseman is Stanley Markowitz, Chamberlain's mentor who puts him up at his house while Chamberlain is in town to speak at a symposium. While investigating the girl's murder, Chamberlain encounters a hard-nosed cop (Gary Reineke) and uncovers a series of murders involving telephones. When he goes to the phone company to make inquiries into the matter, he is brushed off none too subtly by the powers that be who are trying to keep the situation under wraps. Of course this only strengthens his resolve to get to the bottom of things. This is a silly but interesting premise and the movie really doesn't live up to the potential of it. Chamberlain is stiff and unrelateable and even the indomitable Houseman seems to struggle with the thin plot. The ideas of an evil telephone company and killer telephones are pretty good ones and would have succeeded better if played tongue-in-cheek. The result, however, is a preposterous but inventive, poorly scripted and ultimately forgettable film. Not even the killer is memorable and the script doesn't even really explain his motivations for killing people. Sara Botsford co-stars as Chamberlain's love interest. Watch the good bits of the movie (the death scenes) below or the whole movie here.

Alias Boston Blackie (1942)

Film Title: Alias Boston Blackie
Released: April 2, 1942
Directed by: Lew Landers
Written by: Paul Yawitz based on the character created by Jack Boyle
Starring: Chester Morris, Adele Mara & Richard Lane

Plot: Boston Blackie needs to track down a wrongly-convicted prison escapee before the revenge-minded convict or the police do something foolish!

IMDb: 6.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes: No score
My Score: 3/5

Alias Boston Blackie is the third film in the Columbia Pictures Boston Blackie series. Reprising their roles from previous film, Confessions of Boston Blackie, are Chester Morris as reformed jewel thief Boston Blackie, Richard Lane as his friendly nemesis police Inspector Farraday, George E. Stone as Blackie's sidekick the Runt, Walter Sande as Farraday's assistant Detective Matthews and Lloyd Corrigan as good-natured millionaire Arthur Manleder. Its Christmas Eve and Morris has decided to give the inmates at the prison did time in some holiday cheer in the form of a variety show. Lane and Sande hitch a ride on the bus with the performers so Lane can keep an eye on Morris at the prison. An inmate named Joe (Larry Parks) is the brother of a chorus girls in the troupe, Eve (Adele Mara). He uses the opportunity to escape, planning to take his revenge on the men that set him up and landed him in prison with a 15 year sentence. He ties up the clown in the act, donning his make-up and wardrobe, and leaves with the cast back to the city. When the escape is discovered, Lane believes Morris to be involved and Morris has to track down Parks before he kills his targets or before the cops get to him, as Morris has discovered Parks is innocent. So far I haven't been disappointed with this series and even three movies in the schtick hasn't grown old yet. I believe that this is due largely in part to the brief running times of the films, usually between 60 and 70 minutes each. There's not a lot fluff added to pad the movies and the result ends up feeling more like episodes of a fun, old time detective television series than feature films. Alias Boston Blackie marks the first appearance of Jumbo Madigan, a shady pawnbroker who aids Blackie in his adventures by providing him with information on various nefarious figures. Cy Kendall is Jumbo this time around, one of only two actors to play the part. Director Lew Landers, who began his career as Louis Friedlander, proved to be incredibly prolific and is credited with over 130 feature films (this film was already his 51st in a career started only eight years prior) and over 200 episodes of various television series, including Topper, The Adventures of Superman, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, Maverick and Bat Masterson. Paul Fix co-stars as one of the hoods Parks is after and a very young Lloyd Bridges has a uncredited bit part as the bus driver in the beginning of the film. Watch Bridges in the opening sequence below or watch the whole movie here.

Confessions of Boston Blackie (1941)

Film Title: Confessions of Boston Blackie
Released: December 8, 1941
Directed by: Edward Dymtryk
Written by: Paul Yawitz based on a story by Jay Dratler & Paul Yawitz based the character created by Jack Boyle
Starring: Chester Morris, Harriet Hilliard & Richard Lane

Plot: When he's accused of murdering a man at an auction, Boston Blackie goes into action and uncovers a ruthless ring of art thieves.

IMDb: 6.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes: No score
My Score: 3/5

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Confessions of Boston Blackie is the second of Columbia Pictures Boston Blackie series and has Chester Morris and Richard Lane reprise their roles as reformed jewel thief Boston Blackie and his friendly nemesis, police Inspector Farraday. The movie opens revealing that a group of art counterfeiters are copying a valuable statue owned by Harriet Hilliard in an effort to steal the original. She is auctioning the family heirloom to raise money for her sick brother. Morris is invited to the auction by his millionaire friend Arthur Manleder (Lloyd Corrigan) and Lane is on hand with his partner, Detective Matthews (Walter Sande). When Hilliard investigates the fake statue at the auction and discovers its a replica, one of the thieves (Ralph Theodore) tries to shoot her, only grazing his intended target but killing one of his partners, the owner of the art house. Of course Lane immediately assumes Morris is guilty of the crime and takes him into custody. In the confusion, Theodore hides the body inside the hollow statue but much to his dismay, Corrigan buys the fake and has it transported it to his home. Morris manages to get free from his captors and eventually uncovers the truth of the matter with the help his sidekick, the Runt (George E. Stone), and Corrigan, ending with a gunfight between Morris, Lane, Sande and the crooks in their secret hideout. There is also a subplot involving Morris being blackmailed by Joan Woodbury. Keeping in tone with the action/comedy of its predecessor Meet Boston Blackie, Confessions is a lot fun and introduces more of the peripheral characters that appear regularly in the rest of the series. Corrigan is great as the easily flustered but good natured Manleder and Stone is the definitive Runt, playing him in every film of the series except the first and last. Sande has a bit part as a cop on the boardwalk in Meet but is given a bigger role here and plays it lovable but dim. Director Edward Dymtryk was nominated for an Oscar for his 1947 film Crossfire and Hilliard is known the world over as the Harriet of Ozzie and Harriet. Consistently named one of television's top moms from the golden age of television, she starred on the long running sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet and is the mother of Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famer Ricky Nelson. Watch the opening sequence for the movie below or the whole fun-filled adventure here.

House on Haunted Hill (1999)

Film Title: House on Haunted Hill

Released: October 29, 1999

Directed by: William Malone

Written by: Dick Beebe based on a story by Robb White

Starring: Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Peter Gallagher, Chris Kattan, Ali Larter, & Bridgette Wilson

Plot: An eccentric tycoon offers $1,000,000 each to five strangers if they stay in a haunted house overnight and survive to tell the tale.

IMDb: 5.6/10

Rotten Tomatoes: 27/100

My Score: 2.5/5

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

House on Haunted Hill is an expanded remake of the 1959 William Castle classic of the same name. It was the first film from Dark Castle Entertainment, a production company started by Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis and Gilbert Adler, with the intention to remake Castle's films for a new generation. Geoffrey Rush is an amusement park tycoon who throws a birthday party for his antagonistic wife Famke Janssen in a haunted house that used to be an insane asylum. Each of the five guests attending is offered $1,000,000 each if they can stay alive until morning. Needless to say, very few actually do. While the film pales when compared to the original, it succeeds in a number of places on its own merits. For instance, the opening scene with the fake elevator crash is a nice little freak out moment. The effects are high quality, too, but one would expect nothing less from KNB. The performances throughout are decent, with Rush and Janssen in constant competition to see who can chew up more scenery, but the standout performance for me was Chris Kattan as the overly nervous owner of the house. On the downside, the photography often becomes jarring and shaky with sweeping, tilting camera moves. I understand that this is supposed to correlate with the psychological state of the actors in the horrific scenes in which it occurs but its comes off as kitschy and is distracting. The major fail for me, though, was how the film takes the supernatural route. The first film worked so well because everything that happened was staged in order to cause panic among the guests for nefarious means. This version, however, retains most of the plot elements from the original, including the adulterous wife and her secret lover scheming to kill her husband, but in the end there is a darkness, an evil that actually exists and succeeds in killing just about everyone. This one deviation takes away the main element of what made the original so good. Musician Lisa Loeb, James Marsters and one of my favorite characters actors, Jeffery Combs, co-star. Peter Graves also briefly appears as himself hosting a television series called "Terrifying But True!!" At the 2000 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, Taye Diggs won for Best Supporting Actor - Horror and Janssen was nominated for Best Supporting Actress - Horror.

Shock Waves (1977)

Film Title: Shock Waves
Also known as: Death Corps, Almost Human (UK)

Released: July 15, 1977

Directed by: Ken Wiederhorn

Written by: John Kent Harrison, Ken Pare & Ken Wiederhorn

Starring: Peter Cushing, John Carradine & Brooke Adams

Plot: A group of tourists on a pleasure cruise run aground on a deserted island. They soon discover that the self-exiled Nazi commander who lives there is being attacked by undead soldiers that he sent to a watery grave years before.

IMDb: 5.7/10

Rotten Tomatoes: No score

My Score: 2.5/5

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Shock Waves is the 1977 directorial debut of Ken Wiederhorn, who also co-wrote the film. It stars Peter Cushing and John Carradine in really ancillary roles and focuses more on the group inadvertently trapped on the island. Carradine is the captain of a small vessel that has taken a group of vacationers on a pleasure cruise. Their ship is damaged by a the rotting remains of a "ghost ship" it encounters and they must head to a nearby island for repairs. On the island they believed was deserted, the group encounters Cushing, an SS commander who tells them they need to leave at once. But after they tell him of the mysterious soldiers they have seen lurking between the trees, he tells them that it is too late; the Death Corps have arrived! The premise of the film is decent but the execution lacks quite a bit. Carradine doesn't survive the first twenty minutes but Cushing is good in the scenes he's actually able to act in, not just run around in circles looking for the "zombies" he sent to the bottom of the ocean decades before. I disagree with the assertion that these guys are actually zombies in any sense in which we are familiar with so I refer to them as the Death Corps, which is what Cushing calls them. There are some pretty glaring inconsistencies regarding the rules of the universe presented in the film. For example, Brooke Adams seems to kill one of the Death Corps by knocking off his goggles. Okay, goggle removal equals death, I can live with that. But not more than a few scenes later, there are several other Death Corps members clearly running around without their goggles with no negative effects. The underwater photography of the Corps members walking toward the island is nicely done and the first shot of them rising from the water as a group on the beach is significantly creepy. But once the action switches to the jungle and rivers, there are repeated shots of Corps members going into or out of the water over and over and over again, weaken the impact each time. The one thing I liked the most was the repeated human errors. Every time the castaways almost made their getaway, it always was human folly that caused the escape to be foiled. Heightened emotions, lack of training or something similarly human was to blame no the monsters, as is so common in most horror movies. Watch the trailer below or the whole movie here.