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Stars: Lee Horsley, Richard Lynch, Richard Moll, Kathleen Beller, Simon MacCorkindale, George Maharis, Anthony De Longis, Robert Tessier, Nina van Pallandt | Written by Albert Pyun, Tom Karnowski, John V. Stuckmeyer | Directed by Albert Pyun

Albert Pyun’s The Sword and the Sorcerer is a notable entry in the sword and sorcery genre that has left a distinct mark on me since childhood thanks to its blend of camp, spectacle, and unrestrained imagination. Despite operating with a modest budget and limited resources, Pyun’s debut feature showcases a mix of ambition and creativity that put the film firmly on my radar back in the VHS rental days. Plus it starred Lee Horsley, who I knew as TV’s Matt Houston, so what was not to love?

The Sword and the Sorcerer emerged during a pivotal period for the sword and sorcery genre. The early 1980s saw a renaissance in such films,...

Peter Benchley’s follow-up to Jaws is a treasure hunt thriller starring Robert Shaw and filmed in the pearly waters off Bermuda. The exciting underwater scenes boosted the careers of Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset but the memory that stuck in the minds of millions was a particular wardrobe decision for Bisset’s siren of the deep. Who needs Spanish gold and a fortune in lost morphine? This import disc features a commentary by actress Illeana Douglas.

The Deep

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 28

1977 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 123 min. / Street Date December 30, 2020 / Available from Viavision / 34.95

Starring: Robert Shaw, Jacqueline Bisset, Nick Nolte, Louis Gossett, Eli Wallach, Robert Tessier.

Cinematography: Christopher Challis

Underwater Director: Al Giddings

Film Editor: David Berlatsky

Original Music: John Barry

Written by Tracy Keenan Wynn, Peter Benchley from his novel

Produced by Peter Guber

Directed by Peter Yates

After a couple of early 1970s shows that became enormous blockbusters —Love Story,...

Stars: Caroline Munro, David Hasslehoff, Christopher Plummer, Marjoe Gortner, Robert Tessier, Joe Spinell, Nadia Cassini, Judd Hamilton, Hamilton Camp | Written by Luigi Cozzi, Nat Wachsberger | Directed by Lewis Coates (aka Luigi Cozzi)

The entire galaxy is in peril and infamous space-smuggler Stella Star, the greatest star pilot ever to command a vessel, is its only hope. The evil Count Zartharn from the League of the Dark Worlds has constructed a weapon of unlimited power capable of destroying anything in its path. Our heroine Stella Star and her loyal crew must navigate the darkest corners of the solar system to find the Count’s hideout and bring his reign of terror to an end.

The success of George Lucas’ Star Wars in 1977 led to a myriad of clones and quick cash-ins, the most famous (or infamous) of which was Starcrash. A heady mix of Barbarella, Star Wars and even the films of Ray Harryhausen,...

Stars: Michael Callan, Joanna Pettet, Seymour Cassel, James Stacy, Pamela Hensley, Cleavon Little, Robert Tessier, Sally Kirkland | Written and Directed by William Bryon Hillman

A remake of director William Bryon Hillman’s own 1974 film The Photographer, Double Exposure is the latest slice of cinematic sleaze to be rescued from obscurity by the fine folks at Vinegar Syndrome; and unlike the majority of their releases I purchase, this was a blind-buy, Meaning I was going into this movie without any prior knowledge with what to expect, trusting in Vinegar Syndrome to deliver another fantastic flick. And that trust – as usual – was well founded.

Double Exposure stars Michael Callan as Adrian Wilde, a prolific photographer whose specialty is shooting nude models for men’s magazines. His life starts to unravel when he begins to experience strange and almost lifelike dreams in which he murders the very women he’s been photographing. What...

By Lee Pfeiffer 

Sony has released Walter Hill's 1975 directorial debut, Hard Times, on on DVD through their Sony Choice Collection. Hill was an up-and-coming screenwriter with Peckinpah's The Getaway to his credit as well as solid thrillers like The Drowning Pool, The Mackintosh Man and Hickey and Boggs. There is no evidence in Hard Times that Hill was a novice behind the camera, either. This is one of my favorite films of the period, though many retro movie fans probably haven't seen it. The story is set in 1933. Chaney (Charles Bronson) is a middle-aged drifter who ends up crossing paths with Speed (James Coburn), a fast-talking promoter of "street fights" (no holds barred matches between local tough guys with no rules or regulations). Needing some quick cash, the soft-spoken, low-key Chaney forms a partnership with the mercurial Speed. In his first match, they win big when Chaney knocks the...

By Lee Pfeiffer

Probably no genre illustrates the rapid advance of cinematic screen freedoms than the biker movie. The genre debuted in 1953 with Marlon Brando in "The Wild One". The film, which chronicled the virtual takeover of a small California town by a wild motorcycle gang, was considered extremely controversial at the time. The biker film remained largely dormant until the release of Roger Corman's "The Wild Angels" in 1966, which became a surprising boxoffice and media sensation. Only a year or two before, teenage audiences were being fed a steady diet of white bread rock 'n roll films that bore little resemblance to real life. Suddenly, the biker film blatantly presented raging hormones, gang wars, drug use and group sex without apology. Young people patronized these films in droves. With social constraints falling by the minute, the biker films- cheaply made as they were- spoke to the emerging generation...

Back in 1983 Jim Wynorski shot his first film, The Lost Empire, which has itself been "lost" for several years. Finally, on April 22nd it's getting its long-awaited home video release on DVD.

From the Press Release:

In 1983 a young director stepped behind the camera for the first time and began to shoot a film which he thought might be both his first and his last. An ardent fan of "B" cinema, Jim Wynorski decided to cram this film with everything he loved.

"I got my first break doing The Lost Empire for Plitt Theatres," says Jim Wynorski. "The late owner, Henry Plitt (a decorated war hero), wanted to make a low budget sci-fi action picture as a tax loss. I never knew that when I made the show, so I put my heart and soul into the project. When it finally got completed, Plitt actually liked it enough to give...

By Lee Pfeiffer 

Twilight Time has released Walter Hill's 1975 directorial debut, Hard Times, on Blu-ray as a limited edition (3,000 units). Hill was an up-and-coming screenwriter with Peckinpah's The Getaway to his credit as well as solid thrillers like The Drowning Pool, The Mackintosh Man and Hickey and Boggs. There is no evidence in Hard Times that Hill was a novice behind the camera, either. This is one of my favorite films of the period, though many retro movie fans probably haven't seen it. The story is set in 1933. Chaney (Charles Bronson) is a middle-aged drifter who ends up crossing paths with Speed (James Coburn), a fast-talking promoter of "street fights" (no holds barred matches between local tough guys with no rules or regulations). Needing some quick cash, the soft-spoken, low-key Chaney forms a partnership with the mercurial Speed. In his first match, they win big when Chaney knocks the...

By Lee Pfeiffer

The little-seen 1983 thriller Double Exposure has been released on Blu-ray by Scorpion Releasing as a special edition. The film has an interesting background. It was originally filmed in 1971 under the title of The Photographer by director William Byron Hillman with Michael Callan cast as a photographer of beautiful women who also turns out to be a serial murderer. Hillman and Callan were frustrated that the movie received only a limited release. Twelve years later, they collaborated on a remake of the movie using the title Double Exposure. This time around, Callan served as an uncredited screenwriter on Hillman's new script and he also produced the movie, as well. Major script changes included having the main character, Adrian Wilde (Callan), not certain if he actually is a murderer. He's a generally kind and decent man who eeks out a modest living photographing models. He resides in a mobile home in L.

What’s the best movie from the late 70’s that features light sabers, an enormous space fortress capable of annihilating entire planets, wisecracking robot sidekicks, and dogfights between interplanetary spaceships? If you said Star Wars, you’d be wrong! Leave it to the wacky Italians, always quick to exploit a popular trend, to rip off George Lucas’s cash cow resulting in a film so spectacularly cheesy that over 30 years later it has actually aged better than the film it emulates. That movie is of course is the insane 1978 sci-fi “epic” Star Crash, an infamously harebrained but entertaining-as-hell Star Wars knockoff that is Not available on DVD.

Like Star Wars, most of Star Crash is comprised of a string of Flash Gordon-inspired cliffhanger adventures. Caroline Munro stars as Stella Star, an intergalactic smuggler who, along with her alien companion Akton (Marjoe Gortner), is captured by some sort of galaxy-wide...