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The Blood of Fu Manchu , a review by samuelrichardscott

The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968) R0 USA DVD

Overview
From his secret lair deep within the South American jungle, international super-villain Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) and his sadistic daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin of THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU and YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE) reveal their latest diabolical plot for world domination: ten beautiful women are infected with an ancient poison so deadly that one kiss from their lips will bring instant death and lead to a global plague. Now the Asian madman's nemesis, Nayland Smith (Richard Greene of TALES FROM THE CRYPT), must desperately hunt an antidote in a savage land where rape and torture reign and the ultimate evil lies in THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU.

Maria Rohm (THE BLOODY JUDGE) and Shirley Eaton (GOLDFINGER) co-star in this wild Fu Manchu feature written and produced by Harry Alan Towers (VENUS IN FURS) and directed by the one and only Jess Franco (VAMPYROS LESBOS, EUGENIE). Released in America as KISS AND KILL, Blue Underground has fully restored THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU from its original European negative complete with additional scenes of nudity and violence!

Thoughts
I bought this for several reasons: I'm generally very happy with Blue Underground's output, I'm a fan of Christopher Lee and I'm a fan of Jess Franco. Unfortunately, this film, based on the character of Fu Manchu (whom until this film I was not familiar with) disappoints slightly. Lee overacts (not a problem), and Franco's direction is his standard nudity/violence affair (again, not a problem) but I felt that whilst the idea of Fu Manchu giving ten woman poison so that when they kiss the world's most powerful men, the men die, was a good one it was put together in a rather unconventional way without enough thought to structure. Fans of Franco and Lee might enjoy, but I would recommended a rental first. 2.5/5

(From Never Ending Movie Marathon (short reviews) on July 6th, 2011)

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, a review by RossRoy

WHAT THEY SAY

Jason Voorhees, the living, breathing essence of evil, is back for another fierce fling. Tracked down and blown to bits by a special FBI task force, everyone now assumes that he's finally dead. But everybody assumes wrong. Jason has been reborn with the bone-chilling ability to assume the identity of anyone he touches. The terrifying truth is he could be anywhere. Or anybody. In this shocking, bloody soaked installment to Jason's carnage-ridden reign of terror, the secret of his unstoppable killing instinct is finally revealed. And one you know the chilling facts, you'll see him in your nightmares. And he'll see you in hell!

MY THOUGHTS

Three words: What .... the .... Hell !! (no pun intended) What have they done? Talk about ruining a character and undermining a whole series of film! See that thing coming out of Jason' eye on the cover? Yeah, it's in the movie! (click to show/hide) And it is actually Jason! They turned Jason into a freaking parasitic symbiot! What were they thinking? It makes the rest of the series make no sense at all! (click to show/hide) Why would he stay for so many years at the bottom of a lake, when he can just possess another body? Jason has a SISTER? And a NIECE?? and a GRAND-NIECE??? And again.. Jason is basically a parasite??? What??? Ugh!! I can't even put into words my disgust for this movie. Sure, it's got some decent special effects, it more recent after all, the whole story is so silly and disconnected from it all, it's not even funny! There's a thread over at Invelos about which movie you want to burn and throw away right now? I guess this is it!

RATING

(From RossRoy's Random Viewings on October 26th, 2009)

Angel Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

2. Are You Now or Have You Ever Been
Original Air Date: 10/3/2000
Angel directs Cordelia and Wesley to investigate a mysteriously abandoned hotel in Hollywood and as they piece together the building's dark history, they discover that his interest is that of a personal nature.

Guest Stars:
Melissa Marsala
John Kapelos
Tommy Hinkley
Brett Rickaby

My Thoughts:
This is the episode that tells how they got the old hotel for their new home base. It is a very good episode. One of my favorites. And another one that shows flashbacks to Angel's past.

My Rating:

(From Angel Marathon on March 1st, 2010)