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Damnation Alley, a review by Achim

Damnation Alley (1977/United States) Shout! Factory (United States) Director: Jack Smight Writing: Roger Zelazny (Original Material By), Alan Sharp (Screenwriter), Lukas Heller (Screenwriter) Length: 91 min. Video: Widescreen 2.35:1 Audio: English: PCM: 7.1, English: DTS-HD Master Audio: 6.1 (Discrete), English: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo, Commentary: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo Subtitles:

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Stars:
Jan-Michael Vincent as Tanner
George Peppard as Denton
Dominique Sanda as Janice
Paul Winfield as Keegan
Jackie Earle Haley as Billy

Plot:
The world is devastated by a nuclear holocaust, causing the Earth to tilt on its axis and bringing vast meteorological chaos. As the weather stabilizes, mutated insects start to emerge, preying on the survivors. Luckily, the remaining crew at a U.S. Air Force bomb shelter in the Mojave Desert picks up radio signals coming from Albany. The crew's commander, Major Eugene Dalton (George Peppard, TV's The A-Team), unveils two armored vehicles he has constructed and announces a plan to corss "Damnation Alley," the hundred-mile-wide strip between areas of radiation hazard, to join the other survivors. They set off, taking on two civilians — a novice singer they find in the ruins of Las Vegas and a wild teenager (Jackie Earle Haley, Watchmen) — along the way. The journey is also beset by giant mutated cockroaches, storms and crazed survivalists, making for some hair-raising encounters in this post-apocalyptic thriller.

Extras:

• Audio Commentary
• Feature Trailers
• Featurettes

I had wanted to see this film for 30 years, ever since I saw the pictures of the could tank they drive and the giant scorpions that threaten them. Seeing that this was a 20th Century Fox film, yet distributed by Shout Factory leveled my expectations, which was a good thing. This film is "forgotten" for a reason, it has aged incredibly bad. There are three interesting scenes in it (scorpions, cockroaches and hillbillies), otherwise the film outstays its welcome even at only 90min Too many scenes just have nothing happen in them. A post apocalyptic road movie that bores the hell out of us. They could have redeemed some if the badness with a proper ending, but instead went with something that even defies the film's own logic

Rating:

(From The Movies from Within My Lifetime on August 7th, 2011)

Gestapo's Last Orgy, a review by Jimmy

Title : Gestapo's Last Orgy (1977)

Overview
Under the iron-fisted rule of Commandant Starker is a special prison camp for women frequented by pleasure-seeking Nazis on leave. Disechanted with the usual Nazi decadence, the Commendant develops a fatal attraction to a beautiful prisoner, Lise, who seems underterred by the nastiness that surround her. It becomes his goal to break her will by subjecting her to some of the most unspeakable tortures and atrocities ever witnessed, including a banquet scene your mind won't easily erase. Years later, Lise lures the Commandant back to the scene of the hate-crimes for some serious closure. One of the sickest entries of the Naziploitation genre, GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY takes a rather artistic approach to its utterly repellent subject matter.

My Impression
The first naziploitation film was released in 1969 with Love Camp 7 (a movie that I really recommand) and because this movie was a huge success in Canada (mostly here in Quebec), another movie like it was produced by Cinepix (a French Canadian studio) and what is this film? Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS (another recommandation)... After it a new genre was borned.

Most of those movies are crap, just watch most of the italian productions of this genre and you will agree with me here. This one even if it have a really big reputation as a really disguting movie isn't a part of this italian crap wagon. Sure it have if part of despicable actions (rape, foetus eating, torture,...) but it have something more to it that made it better. It's a love story (not a boring woman love story movie), it's a revenge flick and it's an artistic film (I find it as good as Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom). Sure those movies aren't for everyone, but if you can forget that the core subject is not pleasant you will like it. Just take those movies like any other WIP film is the perfect way to appreciate them.
 
Rating :

(From My Alphabet Marathon Review on November 24th, 2008)

Twilight Zone, a review by addicted2dvd

37. King Nine Will Not Return (9/20/60)
WWII Captain James Embry (Robert Cummings) finds himself next to a crashed plane in a vast desert. Where is his crew? And why are futuristic jet planes flying overhead?

My Thoughts:
This is an episode I have seen before. Not sure if I saw it during a Sci-Fi Marathon or if it was on one of the volume dvds I used to have. It is a right good episode.. I really did enjoy it. At least the add on the tail end of this one was finally something different! The add attached to this one was for The Andy Griffith Show! I was starting to get tired of seeing the same couple over and over again. Extras attached to this episode include an Isolated Music Score and an interview with Buzz Kulik. Neither of which I checked out.

38 The Man in the Bottle (10/7/60)
A discontented curio shop owner thinks he's finally found happiness when a genie he discovers in an old bottle grants him four wishes. But be careful what you wish for.

My Thoughts:
This is an episode I never seen before... but one I really liked a lot! On the tail end of this episode was an advertisement for a show I never heard of before... some show called My Sister Ilene. And was just a very short clip so I wasn't able to get a feel for it. The only extra attached to this episode is an isolated music score... which of course I didn't bother with.

39. Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room (10/14/60)
Ordered to commit a murder he doesn't want to perform, a small-time hood nervously looks in the mirror and sees the man he might have been - confident, strong...and determined to get out.

My Thoughts:
This is an episode I know I have seen before because I remember bits and pieces of it... but it must have been a very long time ago because I didn't remember the most of it... was a pretty good episode... but I have seen better. Extras attached to this one is an isolated music score, Interview with Doug Heyes and a Twilight Zone Radio Drama starring Adam Baldwin.

40. A Thing About Machines (10/28/60)
Mr. Bartlett Finchley (Richard Haydn) despises any sort of machine, and he'll experience a new kind of terror when he learns the feeling is mutual.

My Thoughts:
And here is another episode I never seen before... was a pretty good episode... I enjoyed it... though I wouldn't classify it as one of my favorites. The clip attached at the tail end of this episode was for giving donations to your favorite political party.No real extras attached to this episode... just that Isolated Music Score thing.

41. The Howling Man (11/4/60)
During a walking trip of central Europe following WWII, Ellington loses his way. Exhausted, he comes upon a monastery where an insane monk claims he's captured the Devil himself! Atmospheric music by Bernard Herrmann gives strength to this devilish tale.

My Thoughts:
This is yet another one I have never seen before now. It is a bit different but enjoyable. The clip attached to the tail end of this one if another clip of that show My Sister Ilene. The only extra for this episode is an interview with Douglas Heyes.

42. The Eye of the Beholder  (11/11/60)
Janet's hideous face has made her an outcast all her life. As she awaits the results of her last-chance surgery, she ponders the consequences of failure - to be banished forever to a village of freaks!

My Thoughts:
Now this one... this is one I have seen multiple times... and is one of my favorite episodes! It seems like every time there is a Twilight Zone marathon on TV this is one of the episodes they must show... and is a very good episode. There is a nice amount of extras attached to this episode... you get an Audio Commentary with Donna Douglas, Interview with Maxine Stuart and Douglas Heyes, Isolated Music Score, Rare Color Photos, and Alternate Ending Titles. A great setup for what is in my opinion one of the best episodes!


Episodes I seen for the First time on this set include:

   1. Judgment Night (Episode 10)
   2. And When The Sky Was Opened (Episode 11)
   3. What You Need (Episode 12)
   4. I Shot an Arrow into the Air (Episode 15)
   5. The Hitch-Hiker (Episode 16)
   6. The Purple Testiment (Episode 19)
   7. Elegy (Episode 20)
   8. Mirror Image (Episode 21)
   9. A World of Difference (Episode 23)
  10. Long Live Walter Jameson (Episode 24)
  11. People Are Alike All Over (Episode 25)
  12. Execution (Episode 26)
  13. The Big Tall Wish (Episode 27)
  14. A Nice Place to Visit (Episode 28)
  15. Nightmare as a Child (Episode 29)
  16. The Chaser (Episode 31)
  17. Mr. Bevis (Episode 33)
  18. The Mighty Casey (Episode 35)
  19. A World of his Own (Episode 36)
  20. The Man in the Bottle (Episode 38)
  21. A Thing About Machines (Episode 40)
  22. The Howling Man (Episode 41)

(From Twilight Zone on February 5th, 2008)