A very mixed bag of films are featured in this week’s movie review column.


I had seen this 1982 drive-in movie once on a poor transfer and this newly restored Blu-ray release certainly vastly improved the visual quality of the film.

It does not improve the artistic qualities of the production, which is just fine with me.

Simply put this is one of the most outrageously bizarre films I’ve had the pleasure of viewing. It is a kitchen sink kind of a film that contained every element that drive-in audiences demanded to see back in the day. The script and direction are just a notch above the amateur level.

Members of the Burbank Karate Club decide to take a cruise to Warrior’s Island, the resting place of disgraced martial artists. Sure, why not? What they don’t know is a sect of “monks” live the island who have the power to raise these fighters from their graves.

So we have zombies, cannibals, martial arts, nudity, lost jade mines and hippie criminals – what more could one ask? 

The star of the film is Cameron Mitchell, who at this point of his career, was accepting just about anything a producer offered. I couldn’t help but wonder what he thought of this script. 

Writer and director Edward Murphy appears in an original documentary that accompanies the film and sheds a little light on how this epic was made. 

The releasing company, Vinegar Syndrome, takes pride in finding and restoring obscure exploitation films. Many of their titles are adult features, but they do have some intriguing titles such as a double feature of Bigfoot movies and a political satire starring Mamie Van Doren and Ted Knight a few years before he gained stardom on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”

What I like about them is they work with the owner of the films who actually sees some money from the release. This is somewhat rare today when film piracy and the existence of a “grey” market is quite prevalent.


Leslie Zemeckis is obviously intrigued by the fringes of mainstream show business. Her first documentary was on classic burlesque (“Behind the Burly Q”) and her second film “Bound by Flesh” deals with a topic that some people might view as even more on the edge: the conjoined twins Violet and Daisy Hilton.

You haven’t heard of them?  From their birth to the mid-1930s they were among the highest-earning performers in vaudeville. Connected by a piece of flesh near their buttocks, the twins were attractive girls who sang and performed musical instruments.

They were ruthlessly exploited, though, by their legal guardians who became quite rich off the twins’ earnings.

Once they had freed themselves from their managers, the twins began a slow decline due not only to their own poor decisions but also to the decline of vaudeville. They appeared in two films, Todd Browning’s classic horror film “Freaks” in 1932 and in an exploitation film “Chained for Life” in 1952, which they apparently thought would give new life to their career.

Zemeckis has obvious sympathy for her subjects and she weaves archival material with interviews with sideshow experts and people who knew the Hiltons quite well.

The result is a narrative that while sad has an element of triumph as the twins found some peace during the final years of their lives. It’s a fascinating story.


I don’t know about you, but I have “go to” programs when channel surfing that I know will entertain me and the BBC series “Top Gear” is one of those.

I’m not a car enthusiast, but I love the show and this new three-disc set has the entire 21st season of the show.

There must be a lot of insanely rich people in Great Britain who can afford the vehicles reviewed on the show. In this season, Hammond test-drives a six-wheel Mercedes sport utility vehicle that cost nearly $500,000.  Those of us who drive a Hyundai Accent can live vicariously through their experiences.

 Essentially “Top Gear” is about three automotive experts – Richard Hammond, James May and Jeremy Clarkson – who evaluate cars, especial luxury models, but the show is really about the chemistry between these three guys. Routinely, the three are sent by the producers on automotive challenges. In this series, the trio is asked to drive across Burma in three trucks. 

It is these adventures, which are part travelogue, part endurance test and part slapstick that are the most entertaining.

Another standard feature is hosting a celebrity each episode who is asked to do his or her best driving a “reasonably priced” car around their racetrack.

If you need a wholly entertaining “go to” show, try “Top Gear” and this DVD set is the perfect introduction.