Roger Corman Movies

Two actors who owe their entire careers to the western genre seek revenge against a legendary screenwriter who once mistreated them on the set of an early film in this eclectic send-up of The Searchers from Repo Man director Alex Cox. Mel and Fred have been acting in westerns since as far back as either man can remember, but the one thing they recall above all is the terrible mistreatment they suffered as children while working on the film "Buffalo Bill vs. Doc Holliday." In those days, celebrated screenwriter Fritz Frobisher seemed more like a real-life monster than a master storyteller, and seemed steadfast in his determination to make the two child actors suffer as much as humanly possible. While chances are good that Frobisher has long forgotten his fateful transgression, Mel and Fred have been harboring their bitter grudge for years now. One day, the vengeful duo discover that Frobisher is set to make a personal appearance at a special movie screening in Monument Valley - the very sight where John Ford's famous westerns were filmed - and eagerly begin packing their bags for the ultimate revenge road trip. Despite the fact that Mel and Fred have been waiting for this day since the last time they set eyes on the sadistic scribe, things suddenly take an unexpected turn that leave the fate of all involved hanging on their knowledge of Euro-Western maestro Sergio Leone. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

"It feeds on fear!" read the advertising tagline for this Roger Corman-produced shocker. What could be scarier than a rogue crocodile, except maybe a rogue dinosaur? How about a combination thereof -- a DinoCroc? Hoping to create a cheap alternative to expensive prescription medicines, the greedy Gereco Corporation genetically manipulates a small supply of DNA from a prehistoric creature called the Sarcosuchus. Suddenly revived and very hungry, this ancient "DinoCroc" kills indiscriminately (in some very gory scenes that border on the grotesquely hilarious), but has a special fondness for human flesh. Professional herpetologist and crocodile hunter Dick Sydney (Costas Mandylor) is brought in from Australia to stop the rampaging beast, with the grudging assistance of female scientist Paula Kennedy (Joanna Pacula) and the more willing cooperation of Sheriff Harper (Charles Napier) and his ever-imperiled daughter, Diane (Jane Longnecker). Along the way, the viewer is treated to gratuitous dollops of sex and bad language, which along with the excessive violence earned the film an R rating in its original form. The climax is right out of the movie Them, with a bit of urban legend-spinning thrown in. Filmed under the title PrimeEvil, DinoCroc was given a very, very limited theatrical release before it aired over the Sci-Fi Channel on April 24, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based upon Peter Biskind's book of the same name, this BBC-produced documentary traces the rise of a generation of Hollywood filmmakers who briefly changed the face of movies with a more personal approach that pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable onscreen. Influenced by such European directors as Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, and Federico Fellini, the movement kicked off in the mid-'60s with two films directed by Arthur Penn: Mickey One and Bonnie and Clyde. (The latter had been offered to both Godard and Truffaut before it wound up with producer/star Warren Beatty and Penn.) What really kicked it into gear was the unexpected success of Easy Rider, a biker-road movie that became that rare film phenomenon: acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival and a huge commercial success. Film school graduates, the first generation brought up with movies as their main cultural reference, flooded the studios (whose own regimes were changing) with production chieftains such as Robert Evans of Paramount and David Picker at United Artists; they approved risky-looking projects and allowed relatively untested filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola to take on heavyweight movies such as The Godfather or Hollywood newcomers like Britain's John Schlesinger to make quirky stories like Midnight Cowboy. Enriched by success with their TV show The Monkees, producer Bert Schneider and director Bob Rafelson formed a company that produced not only Easy Rider but seminal '70s films such as Five Easy Pieces and the Oscar-winning Vietnam War documentary Hearts and Minds. Another godfather to the new movement was producer Roger Corman, who gave early career opportunities to Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich, and Jonathan Demme on low-budget projects that allowed them to learn their craft.

Two things brought this movement to an end: Some individual filmmakers' personal excesses (such disastrous flops as Dennis Hopper's follow-up to Easy Rider, appropriately titled The Last Movie, and Scorsese's New York, New York), and the studios growing fascination with special effects-driven B-movies. An outgrowth of two box-office and marketing juggernauts -- Jaws and Star Wars -- the resulting films became entertainments rather than personal statements of the directors. Narrated by William H. Macy, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls features vintage clips of Coppola, Scorsese, Beatty, George Lucas, Sam Peckinpah, Roman Polanski, Robert Altman, and Pauline Kael. It also includes original interview material with Penn; Corman; Bogdanovich; Hopper; Picker; writer/directors John Milius and Paul Schrader; actresses Karen Black, Cybill Shepherd, Margot Kidder, and Jennifer Salt (the latter two shared a house in Malibu, a social center for young filmmakers); actors Peter Fonda, Kris Kristofferson, and Richard Dreyfuss; producers Jerome Hellman, Michael Phillips, and Jonathan Taplin; editor Dede Allen; production designer Polly Platt; writers David Newman, Joan Tewksbury, Gloria Katz, and Willard Huyck; cinematographers Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmond; agent Mike Medavoy; and former production executive Peter Bart. Among the films discussed are Rosemary's Baby, The Wild Bunch, Mean Streets, American Graffiti, The Rain People, Midnight Cowboy, M*A*S*H, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, The Last Picture Show, Shampoo, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull. (Three interviewees -- cinematographer Gordon Willis, critic Andrew Sarris, and writer-director Monte Hellman -- listed in the Variety review of this film, were not included in this version from a screening on Bravo.) ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

In the late '60s, American culture experienced a period of change as the youth movement challenged conventional attitudes about politics, sex, drugs, and gender issues, while the advancement of the Vietnam War found many citizens questioning the actions and wisdom of their government for the first time. As American attitudes continued to evolve, so did the American film industry; as costly big-budget blockbusters nearly brought the major studios to the brink of collapse, smaller and more personal films such as Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, and Five Easy Pieces demonstrated there was a ready audience for bold and challenging entertainment. As the '60s faded into the 1970s, American cinema moved into an exciting period of creativity and stylistic innovation, which led to such landmark films as The Godfather, MASH, The Last Picture Show, Shampoo, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Chinatown, and Taxi Driver, and new freedom for directors and screenwriters. Ironically, however, it was another pair of big-budget blockbusters directed by students of the new wave of filmmaking -- Jaws and Star Wars -- which brought the studios back to power and put an end to Hollywood's flirtation with offbeat creativity. A Decade Under the Influence is a documentary which explores the rise and fall of new American filmmaking in the 1970s, and features interviews with many of the key directors, screenwriters, and actors whose work typified the movement, including Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, Roger Corman, Dennis Hopper, Jon Voight, and Julie Christie. A Decade Under the Influence received its world premier at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, and an expanded version of the film was later shown on the premium cable outlet The Independent Film Channel; the documentary was the final work of co-director Ted Demme, who died shortly before the film was completed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

No other series of films has achieved greater commercial success, or captured the attention of as many viewers, as Star Wars, its two sequels, and the continuing series of prequels. Filmmaker Tariq Jalil had long been fascinated by the passionate following the films inspired, and when the publicity machine began rolling for the release of Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace in 1999, he assembled a camera crew to document the fans who waited in line (some for as long as a month and a half) in order to be among the first to see the long-awaited film on its first day of release. Along the way, Jalil also interviewed a number of other passionate Star Wars devotees, and the documentary A Galaxy Far, Far Away examines the cultural phenomenon of Star Wars fandom, from celebrities who stop by to see the film on opening weekend (including Samuel L. Jackson, Joe Pesci, Meat Loaf, and Roger Corman) to Star Wars-inspired rapper Jam Master Jedi and a number of rabid toy collectors who nearly riot while trying to get their hands on Episode I action figures. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This silly but absorbing horror film from executive producer Roger Corman's New Concorde studio concerns four college students who accept an offer of ten thousand dollars to fix up an old house. What they don't know is that the house was owned by a cult of devil worshippers in the 17th century and that there is a gateway to Hell in the basement. Before long, severed hands are caressing the naked Susan (Suzanne Bridgham) in the shower, her boyfriend Rick (Christian Harmony) is possessed and has sex with their friend Tammy (Lauren Woodland), and goofy Owen (Don Maloney) is menaced by what appears to be a clawed ghost. It's actually Evelyn Van Buren (Teresa De Priest), a demon in human form who slept with the house's original owner, corrupting his soul and leading him to take part in vile Satanic orgies before the whole place was burned to the ground and the current home built on top of the remains. The kids bring in Professor Lamont (Roy Scheider), who reluctantly agrees to investigate and ends up getting his face gorily ripped off his skull by the vengeful Evelyn, whose direct descendant Lydia, a clairvoyant, must help the terrified students battle her ancestor before they all get sucked down to Hell. Writer/director Michael B. Druxman throws in elements of everything from The Haunting to Night of the Demons, but his primary influence seems to be the Italian cult classic L'Aldila. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Vince Connors (Michael Dudikoff) is an Air Force test pilot who has been helping to perfect the Mach 2 fighting jet, a state-of-the-art weapon which incorporates special stealth technology which makes the plane invisible to both radar and the human eye. However, a band of Libyan terrorists have somehow gotten wind of the new jet, and in a daring raid they steal the Mach 2. Connors and his partner Jannick (Gary Hudson) are quickly sent on a secret emergency mission to recover the Mach 2, where Connors discovers that the terrorists are not his only enemies. Black Thunder also features Frederic Forrest, Nancy Valen, and Richard Norton. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This softcore exploitation effort from the Roger Corman stable is a peculiar attempt to reinvent Bram Stoker's story as a T&A film featuring marauding babes in rat-pelt bikinis. The story posits an Amazonian group of Victorian-era lesbians who have formed a colony under Queen Adrienne Barbeau. Barbeau is sort of a Pied Piper to a group of vicious rats used in the women's murderous raids on men who have wronged them. In one such attack, the women capture writer Bram Stoker (Kevin Alber), who is recruited to chronicle the women's activities. But the plot is really secondary here. The main point of this film is to show scantily-clad women running around in bikinis, having swordfights and performing topless veil-dances. Barbeau is particularly over-the-top, saying things like "I am the Queen of the vermin!" and sporting hairdos which get progressively bigger and sillier as the film goes on. An amusing second-rate attempt at a Hammer-style historical horror film, this is a fun, trashy timekiller for genre fans. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

This documentary examines the first films of some top Hollywood directors, featuring interviews with the filmmakers and clips of their early student films, as well as some of their blockbuster hits. The program explores how each director learned from early mistakes, and seeks to illuminate the personalities and motivations of these successful "auteur" directors. Volume one covers Roger Corman, Taylor Hackford, Spike Lee, Paul Mazursky, Oliver Stone, and Robert Zemeckis. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide

Angel of Destruction stars female martial-arts expert Maria Ford in the title role. In the tradition of the "B" westerns of Yore, Ford sets out to avenge her sister's murderer. She's essentially a woman of peace, though she leaves a lot of her opponents in pieces. There's gore galore before she corners the killers, and it is for this reason, rather than the frequent glimpses of the leading lady's bare torso, that the film is rated R. The saving grace of Angel of Destruction, for non-chopsocky fans, is the fact that Maria Ford actually has a soupcon of acting ability. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this "sequel" to Roger Corman's 1971 Von Richtofen and Brown (produced by Corman himself), a toy World War I plane belonging to a young boy (Tobey Maguire) is possessed by the spirit of the deceased Red Baron. The possessed plane begins killing people with real bullets from a toy machine gun. The boy turns for help to his grandfather (Mickey Rooney) -- who just happens to be the man who actually shot down the Red Baron in World War I. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide

Director Dan Golden's remake of Marcus De Leon's 1992 erotic thriller Kiss Me a Killer stars Maria Ford as the femme fatale who lures a country-western singer into murdering her sadistic bar-owner husband. Executive producer Roger Corman, who also released De Leon's film, made a career of re-using similar storylines with slight alterations and passing them off as new films. This one falls short of its predecessor due mostly to Golden's workmanlike direction and the hackneyed backdrop. Golden's next job for Corman, however, was a surprisingly witty adaptation of Bram Stoker's The Burial of the Rats (1995). ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Kickboxing champ Jerry Pelt (Jerry Trimble) is the One Man Army of the title. Not that he dons khaki or anything, it's just that Jerry proves more than a match for a batalion of bad guys. It seems that a small-town bigwig has arranged for the murder of Jerry's grandfather. With the law on the villains' side, Jerry has no recourse but to kick, poke and jab away. There's hardly an original moment in One Man Army, but who goes to these movies for their plots? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide