Directed by Lance Randas/additional material by
John Treacy
This is one series that lives up to its name. I’ve
seen a lot of cinematic dreck in my lifetime, but very few films that have
actually seen legitimate release are as bad as ‘Galaxy of the Dinosaurs’.
It belongs to that most heinous class of offender, the comedy that isn’t
funny. There’s not one laugh. Zero. Zip. Just a bunch of lame jokes
trying to somehow tie together stop motion dinosaur footage from an actual
35mm film with shot on video scenes of bad actors walking aimlessly about
and uttering inane dialogue. Thanks to the wonders of modern post
production, this doesn’t look as bad now as it probably did when it was
originally released on video. But even post production can’t disguise the
fact that the dinosaurs are in some sort of rocky dessert terrain, while the
human characters are in the woods.
There’s just nothing to redeem this turkey, and
Tempe Video head honcho J.R. Bookwalter knows it. That’s why he created the whole ‘Bad Movie Police’
concept. Hotties Ariauna Albright and Lilith Stabs star in a short framing
sequence where they arrest the perpetrators of cinematic crimes.
Unfortunately, ‘GAD’ director Lance Randas appears to have escaped their
clutches. Anyway, the framing sequence was entertaining enough to almost
make suffering through ‘Galaxy of the Dinosaurs’ forgivable. Almost, but
not quite. Actually, I’d like to see a feature length ‘Bad Movie
Police: The Movie’ that just cannibalizes some of the footage from disasters
like ‘Galaxy...’ and others ala ‘Hollywood Boulevard’. That might actually
be kind of fun. (Bob Ignizio)
Hammer Films revitalized the horror genre in the late
fifties with their updated takes on Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Mummy.
By the seventies, however, their brand of gothic horror was becoming
increasingly irrelevant. ‘Captain Kronos’ was an attempt to do something a
little different. While it doesn’t stray too far from the classic Hammer
formula, it updates things a little bit with its title character. Captain
Kronos (Horst Janson) is a bit of an anti-hero in the mold of Clint
Eastwood’s “Man with no Name”. He travels from town to town with his
hunchbacked assistant Grost (John Cater) on a mission to exterminate the
undead. Along the way he hooks up with the mandatory love interest played
by Caroline Munro. Kronos has been summoned to investigate the strange
deaths of several young women who have all died looking like old crones.
Knowing that there are several different varieties of vampire, each with
their own way of killing and their own specific ways of being destroyed,
Kronos sets out to figure out exactly what it is he’s dealing with and how
to eliminate it.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that this had
been a big influence on the recent French film ‘Brotherhood of the Wolf’.
It’s much more of an action/adventure film than a straightforward horror
flick, with lots of sword fighting and such. The film’s ‘R’ rating is a bit
of puzzlement as there’s no nudity, and the violence is much less graphic
than any number of ‘PG’ horrors released around the same time. It’s a
shame, because I think the best audience for the film would probably have
been adolescents. It’s a pleasant enough piece of entertainment and fairly
original, but overall I’d say it’s strictly ‘B’ movie stuff. I enjoyed it
for the time wasting popcorn movie that it is, but I doubt I’ll feel the
need to pull it out and watch it again. The DVD also contains an audio
commentary with genre historian Jonathan Sothcott , director Clemens, and
actress Munro. (Bob Ignizio)
This is the last of the Frankenstein films
produced by the British Hammer Films studios. Hammer's series
focused on the obsessive Baron (played by Peter Cushing), not his
creations. Thankfully, unlike the last few entries in Hammer’s Dracula
series, ‘Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell’ is a dignified swan
song. A young doctor (Shane Briant), following in the Baron’s
footsteps, is caught at work and sentenced to a mental institution. It
just so happens that the Baron himself resides in the same institution.
By gaining certain bits of information, he has been able to blackmail
the director into letting him more or less run the place. Of course
he’s still keeping up with his experiments, but his hands are badly
damaged from a fire and the mute girl (Madeline Smith) he has been
training to do his handiwork for him isn’t quite as adept at sewing
stitches as one might like. The Baron quickly takes the young doctor on
as his assistant, and before long yet another horrible creature has been
assembled from the bodies of various unfortunate inmates.
While this isn’t exactly a scary or horrifying
film, it is very well made and quite fun to watch. Cushing is his usual
excellent self in the role of the Baron, and director Fisher, who
started the series with ‘Curse of Frankenstein’ back in 1957, knows how
to handle the material. The script may not be the best in the series,
but it isn’t bad either. The DVD also includes an audio commentary with
genre historian Jonathan Sothcott and stars Madeline Smith and David
(‘Darth Vader’) Prowse, who plays the monster. Unfortunately this is
the slightly cut US release version, which means it’s missing some gore,
but if you’re a Hammer fan you’ll still probably want to pick this up.
(Bob Ignizio)
A white bread family gets stranded in the middle of
the dessert where they are stalked by a not so white bread family of
cannibals. In order to survive, the family members must reach deep
inside themselves and unleash their own dark side. This is not a fun,
rollercoaster ride of a horror movie; it’s a serious horror film with
something to say. As with his previous film, ‘Last House on the Left’,
Wes Craven does an excellent job of showing the dehumanizing effects of
violence. Unlike most horror films these days, the characters are well
defined and interesting, and there are no obvious tip-offs as to which
ones will survive their ordeal. The violence is brutal and realistic,
and the characters feel like actual people. Even the cannibals are
fully fleshed out characters, not just mindless killing machines. For a
perfect example of how Hollywood just doesn’t get it, watch this
back-to-back with ‘Wrong Turn’.
In addition to providing a quality presentation of
this classic horror film, Anchor Bay has included a number of good
extras on this 2 disc set. First off there’s an alternate ending. You
can see what Craven was going for, but it just doesn’t quite work and
I’d imagine that’s why he didn’t use it. There’s also an audio
commentary with director Craven and producer Peter Locke, and an
excellent documentary on the film that includes interviews with most of
the surviving cast. But wait, there’s still more, including a career
length documentary on Craven, trailers, TV spots, and if you have a DVD
Rom drive, the original screenplay. (Bob Ignizio)
This is one series that lives up to its name. I’ve
seen a lot of cinematic dreck in my lifetime, but very few films that have
actually seen legitimate release are as bad as ‘Galaxy of the Dinosaurs’.
It belongs to that most heinous class of offender, the comedy that isn’t
funny. There’s not one laugh. Zero. Zip. Just a bunch of lame jokes
trying to somehow tie together stop motion dinosaur footage from an actual
35mm film with shot on video scenes of bad actors walking aimlessly about
and uttering inane dialogue. Thanks to the wonders of modern post
production, this doesn’t look as bad now as it probably did when it was
originally released on video. But even post production can’t disguise the
fact that the dinosaurs are in some sort of rocky dessert terrain, while the
human characters are in the woods. 
Hammer Films revitalized the horror genre in the late
fifties with their updated takes on Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Mummy.
By the seventies, however, their brand of gothic horror was becoming
increasingly irrelevant. ‘Captain Kronos’ was an attempt to do something a
little different. While it doesn’t stray too far from the classic Hammer
formula, it updates things a little bit with its title character. Captain
Kronos (Horst Janson) is a bit of an anti-hero in the mold of Clint
Eastwood’s “Man with no Name”. He travels from town to town with his
hunchbacked assistant Grost (John Cater) on a mission to exterminate the
undead. Along the way he hooks up with the mandatory love interest played
by Caroline Munro. Kronos has been summoned to investigate the strange
deaths of several young women who have all died looking like old crones.
Knowing that there are several different varieties of vampire, each with
their own way of killing and their own specific ways of being destroyed,
Kronos sets out to figure out exactly what it is he’s dealing with and how
to eliminate it. 
This is the last of the Frankenstein films
produced by the British Hammer Films studios. Hammer's series
focused on the obsessive Baron (played by Peter Cushing), not his
creations. Thankfully, unlike the last few entries in Hammer’s Dracula
series, ‘Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell’ is a dignified swan
song. A young doctor (Shane Briant), following in the Baron’s
footsteps, is caught at work and sentenced to a mental institution. It
just so happens that the Baron himself resides in the same institution.
By gaining certain bits of information, he has been able to blackmail
the director into letting him more or less run the place. Of course
he’s still keeping up with his experiments, but his hands are badly
damaged from a fire and the mute girl (Madeline Smith) he has been
training to do his handiwork for him isn’t quite as adept at sewing
stitches as one might like. The Baron quickly takes the young doctor on
as his assistant, and before long yet another horrible creature has been
assembled from the bodies of various unfortunate inmates. 
A white bread family gets stranded in the middle of
the dessert where they are stalked by a not so white bread family of
cannibals. In order to survive, the family members must reach deep
inside themselves and unleash their own dark side. This is not a fun,
rollercoaster ride of a horror movie; it’s a serious horror film with
something to say. As with his previous film, ‘Last House on the Left’,
Wes Craven does an excellent job of showing the dehumanizing effects of
violence. Unlike most horror films these days, the characters are well
defined and interesting, and there are no obvious tip-offs as to which
ones will survive their ordeal. The violence is brutal and realistic,
and the characters feel like actual people. Even the cannibals are
fully fleshed out characters, not just mindless killing machines. For a
perfect example of how Hollywood just doesn’t get it, watch this
back-to-back with ‘Wrong Turn’. 