the thirsty dead (1974)

aka Blood Hunt.
"The girl most likely to be sacrificed to a pagan god."
The streets of Manila are home to a gang kidnapping beautiful young girls off the streets. Conjecture is that it is the work of white slavers, unfortunately for the girls it's worse; a death cult in need of young blood to keep them immortal.
Not as bad as most make out, but nearly!

my name is shanghai joe (1973)

aka Il mio nome è Shangai Joe. To Kill Or Die. Shanghai Joe. The Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe.
"Just give me a chance and I'll show you the best cowboy in Texas."
Shanghai Joe (Chen Lee) moves from China to become a cowboy, and encounters nothing but racism. Until Stanley Spencer (Piero Lulli) hires him to prevent his cattle from being rustled. Unfortunately Joe finds that the cattle are actually Mexican slaves, and disagreeing with the idea, sets out to help the Mexicans. Spencer then puts $5000 on Joes head and a bunch of mercenaries are intent on collecting it, including Scalper Jack (Klaus Kinski), Pedro the cannibal (Claudio Undari) and Burying Sam (Gordon Mitchell).
Substituting a martial arts administering Chinese hero for the Django character, makes an interesting twist.

the return of ringo (1965)

aka Il ritorno di Ringo.
"A man who is not afraid can only die once."
Montgomery Wood (Giuliano Gemma) is a soldier who returns home to find his family murdered and his property taken Mexican bandits. With nothing left Wood goes undercover disguised as a Mexican, hell bent on revenge, but then he finds he has a daughter!
Interesting take on the revenge story, with the hero being much more reticent and thoughtful than most.

samson in king solomon's mines (1964)

aka Maciste nelle miniere del re Salomone. Maciste in King Solomon's Mines.
"One day you will be king."
Prince Vazma (Loris Loddi), heir to the throne and King Solomon's mines flees his country fearing for his life. Samson (Reg Park) tries to help him, but is captured and forced to work as a slave in the mines. How can Vazma free Samson so he can help fight the usurper.
Reg has the muscles, but apart from that, there is little to recommend this run of the mill adventure.

the defector (1966)

"You have to go tonight!"
An American scientist James Bower (Montgomery Cliff) is sent to East Germany to help in the defection of a Russian scientist, but enemy agents find out about him and Bower gets caught up in a web of deceit.
A gaunt looking Cliff in his last role, adds a melancholy air to this lackluster espionage tale.

the white warrior (1959)

aka Agi Murad il diavolo bianco.
"It's all my fault."
Hadji Murad (Steve Reeves), a 19th-century Chechen chieftain gains fame as leader in the tribes fight against the invading forces of the Russian Czar. Then the Czar sends Princess Maria Vorontsova (Scilla Gabel) to negotiate with him, but he is captured.
From a story by Leo Tolstoy, and with photography by Mario Bava, this is a poor historical drama. with very little action; possibly an attempt to get Reeves out of the Peplum that made him famous.

the adventures of hercules II (1985)

aka Le avventure dell'incredibile Ercole. Hercules II.
"Great deeds make us immortal."
Hercules (Lou Ferrigno) is sent to earth to retrieve the Seven Thunderbolts of Zeus, which have been stolen by some renegade gods. Hercules hooks up with a couple of fiesty types (Milly Carlucci & Sonia Viviani), and they undertake to save the earth.
Cozzi adds some cheesey Sci-fi special effects to the mythical story, with dashes of Clash of the Titans, Star Wars and many other popular films of the previous ten years. Episodic, but not in a good way.

spartacus and the ten gladiators (1964)

aka Spartacus e gli invincibili 10 gladiatori.
"By all the Gods he's crazy."
Fed up with their life in the Roman Colosseum, a band of gladiators escape, and team up with a rebel in the hills; Spartacus (Alfredo Varelli). But Rome is not going to let them live peacefully, and send soldiers get them back.
Run of the mill adventure, offering nothing new to the genre.

pancho villa (1972)

"If only we could meet head on, just once."
When Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa (Telly Savalas) is double-crossed in an arms deal planned by his comrade Scotty (Clint Walker). He and Scotty plan to raid a U.S. cavalry fort in retaliation, thus becoming the only Mexicans to invade the U.S.
Comic western, featuring some furniture chewing acting, possibly to distract from the mediocre script.

lake placid 3 (2010)

"In this world it's the people you have to worry about, not the animals."
Game warden Nathan Bickerman (Colin Ferguson) moves his family to Black Lake, the site of a number of deadly crocodile attacks. The family are assured that the crocs are gone, but we already know that there are young ones in the lake, and it's not going to end happily.
Made for TV movie, follows a basic plotline, and throws in some basic cgi crocs. We've seen this all before, done better. Oh and did I say that some of the characters act so illogically, and are so, SO dumb as to be infuriating, and you root for the crocs.

kick-ass (2010)

"You want to play?"
Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) dreams of being a superhero, and decides to act out his fantasy. Unfortunately with no skills, he is soon in the hospital, but fortunately, when he re-tries, a young girl (Chloë Grace Moretz) and her father (Nicholas Cage) come to his aid, and they are the real deal...
Brilliantly realised comic book fantasy, with action, and comedy enough for all, as long as you can take the gore and killings perpetrated by an 11-year old girl.

the proud and the damned (1972)

aka Proud, Damned and Dead. Welcome bastardi!
"There is nothing in life worth more than honours."
A squad of ex-confederate soldiers, led by Will Hansen (Chuck Connors) cross into Mexico on the run from the Union. There they inadvertently get involved with a town's struggle against the local General.
A meandering plot, that gets mired with sub-plots about their love struck relationships, and so-so direction make this of interest to only the most hardcore western fan.

slave girls from beyond infinity (1987)

"You inhuman fiend."
Daria and Tisa (Elizabeth Kaitan & Cindy Beal) escape from a prison in space, but have to land on a nearby planet. Unfortunately this puts them in the clutches of Zed (Don Schribner), who uses the planet to play the Most Dangerous Game, and the girls become his latest prey. Can they use their wits to out fox Zed and survive?
A tongue in cheek film, for those who need nothing more than voluptuous women in bikini's to keep them happy.

nazi love camp 27 (1977)

aka La svastica nel ventre. Living Nigtmare.
"A piece of chocolate can mean life."
A German couple, one Jewish (Sirpa Lane), one Aryan (Roberto Posse), fall in love. Unfortunately the war interrupts. He is sent to fight, whilst she is sent to serve as a prostitute in a love camp. There she is fortunate that she catches the eye of the commandant, who charged with creating the best brothel in the third Reich, arianises her and makes her the madam. Meanwhile her prewar love believes she has died...
Its lurid title suggests something more low rent; it cannot escape its origins, but is one of the better made Nazisploitation's out there.

love camp 7 (1969)

"For the next five days you are going to be whores for the 3rd Reich..."
World War II and two female agents (Maria Lease & Kathy Williams) go undercover at a Nazi 'love camp' to obtain valuable information from a scientist being held there.
Hailed as the first Nazisploitation, this is in reality poor in every respect, and the unsavory acts depicted are just plain nasty. As entertainment, this fails on so many levels.

last cannibal world (1977)

aka Ultimo mondo cannibale. Cannibal. Jungle Holocaust. The Last Survivor. Carnivorous.
"It's very dangerous here."
Oil prospector Robert Harper (Massimo Foschi) is looking for some missing coleagues in the jungle of the Philippines, when he is captured by a cannibal tribe. After much humiliation he manages to escape and attempts to find a way home.
Standard fare for the Italian cannibal genre: The usual mix of gruesome eating scenes, mixed with animal cruelty.

no room to die (1969)

aka Una lunga fila di croci.
"I ain't doing it for the money." bounty hunter Brandon (Anthony Steffen) comes to a Texan border town in search of those illegally transporting mexicans across the border. Also in town is the Preacher (William Berger), and when Brandon saves his life branden suggests they team up...
Run of the mill western, with lots of the set pieces from better Westerns, enlivened by a double cross motif, but what lets it down is the prosaic direction and lack of charisma from the stars.

willie dynamite (1974)

"This is a business baby, a production line..."
Willie (Roscoe Orman) is a pimp, who believes he's created the ideal business model, seven girls, who he aims to use to become number one player in New York city. But whilst trying to keep the other pimps and cops off his case, he is dogged by the toughest social worker (Diana Sands) you'll ever meet, who is determined to make him change his ways.
Not your average blacksploitation, but one that plays with the cliche's running through the core of this tragedy.

x: the unheard music (1986)

"Led Zeppelin doing Robert Johnson songs isn't a good influence, but Robert Johnson is."
From out of the Hollywood punk scene of the late 70's came a band called X, who tell their story in an imaginative and interesting way, with a fine use of archive footage.