Gino Capone Movies
- 1990
While flying over the Italian countryside, NATO pilots Dirk Benedict and Ted McGinley fall victim to a mysterious flash of blue light. McGinley is killed, apparently due to Benedict's carelessness. But while working in concert with UFO investigator Patsy Kensit, Benedict comes to the conclusion that the accident was caused by extraterrestrial powers. The source of the blinding light seems to be a treacherous mountain range. The authorities eventually clear Benedict's name, but their official conclusion is that the light flash was caused by a freak mountain lightning storm. We'll hazard a guess that the government is wrong. Up until its last reel, Blue Tornado is standard sci-fi stuff; then we venture perilously into religious mysticism....and that's all we're going to tell you at this point. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dirk Benedict, Ted McGinley, (more)
Luciano Odorisio's Italian-made exploitation film La Monaca di Monza travels into the deepest and darkest recesses of a Catholic convent, where a nobleman (Alessandro Gassman) and a nun (Myriem Roussel) engage in a passionate love affair. Little can they foresee the dangerous and calamitous consequences that this will yield -- consequences involving betrayal, vengeance, and homicide. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Myriem Roussel, Alessandro Gassman, (more)
- 1985
Carefully side-stepping a full condemnation of Italy's notorious, 1980's cult leader Ebe Giorgini, this docudrama tells the story of her rise to religious power from the point of view of a distraught father of one of Ebe's cult members. The father was never around to develop much of a relationship with his daughter, and for that reason she has taken up as a novitiate with "Mamma Ebe," whose dubious lifestyle includes two husbands, at least one probable lover, and champagne cruises on her yacht. Worse than these private details of her life are the examples of sadistic physical abuse that millionaire "Mamma Ebe" meted out to her charges when she was displeased by their actions, or the fact that she makes her novitiates work 18-hour days. After this docudrama wrapped, Ebe Giorgini was sentenced to serve time for her activities, a sentence later commuted to house arrest. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Berta Dominguez, Stefania Sandrelli, (more)
Acclaimed horror director Lucio Fulci infuses the sword-and-sorcery genre with gory decapitations, pus-squirting lesions and flesh-eating zombies in this uneven fantasy. The hero of the piece is young Ilias (Andrea Occhipinti), who, along with his bolo-swinging friend Maxz (Jorge Rivero), battles monsters, mutant tribes, and an evil queen (Sabrina Siani) on his journey to manhood. As the evil Ocron, the topless Siani wears a gold mask and bikini bottoms while writhing around on a fur rug covered with live snakes. Siani rules over a risible tribe of people in dog masks who blow narcotics up each others' noses through a straw, and conjures up wolf-warriors from her dreams to shoot poisonous straws at her enemies. The American version is missing much of the gore, but is still far too explicit for the young audiences at whom it is apparently aimed. Terrible special effects, hazy cinematography and inappropriately modernistic music by Claudio Simonetti do not make the film very enjoyable for adults either. Still, it is well-paced and Occhipinti makes a sympathetic lead, making the film worthwhile, if only for genre completists and Fulci devotees. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jorge Rivero, Andrea Occhipinti, (more)
