Yoram Globus Movies

This sword-and-sorcery fantasy is about Han (Lou Ferrigno), a "hulk" of a man who is chosen by a village of desperate women to defend them against the half-god Nicerote (Dan Vadis). Nicerote comes into the village on a yearly basis to slaughter any boys who may have reached adult status, and he demands an onerous tribute. Han agrees to the women's request then searches out the gladiator Scipio (Brad Harris) and the female warrior Julia (Sybil Danning to add to his lean-and-mean team. Meanwhile, he gears up for a showdown with Nicerote. The plot lines here follow the basic story of the Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa and The Magnificent Seven which successfully copied Kurosawa's tale. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this slick exploitation, martial arts fantasy from schlockmeisters Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, an evil ninja is killed off in a sandtrap on a golf course in Phoenix -- the police riddle him with bullets, foolishly thinking that is the end of it. But as he is dying, the ninja throws a smoke bomb and, hidden by the dark cloud, he crawls into a phone-company van driven by the acrobatic Christie (Lucinda Dickey of Breakin'). As he dies there, his soul possesses her body, much to the consternation of her boyfriend, Secord (Jordan Bennett). Christie periodically uses exotic Eastern skills to slaughter the evil ninja's foes until good ninja Yamada (Sho Kosugi) comes to her rescue. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Filmed in 1984, I'm Almost Not Crazy: John Cassavetes was released in 1989, the year of the subject's death. Filmmaker Michael Ventura follows Cassavetes around as the actor/director labors on his final film, Love Streams. This is warts-and-all material; Cassavetes makes no attempt at diplomacy if something displeases him, nor are the actors averse to putting in their two cents' worth. Cassavetes' real-life wife (and Love Streams star) Gene Rowlands is among the peripheral characters in this stream-of-consciousness documentary. Running 60 minutes, I'm Almost Not Crazy... still finds time to include a capsule biography of John Cassavetes and an assessment of his key films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of a string of Ramboesque films dashed off in the '80s, Missing in Action is yet another entry that attempts to exploit the lingering public bitterness over the outcome of the war in Vietnam. Colonel Braddock (karate champion Chuck Norris) travels to Vietnam on a mission to recover lost POWs. A former POW himself, Braddock has the saavy and bad temper to kill droves of communists at a time, not to mention the inclination. Together with former war comrade M. Emmet Walsh, he sets off for the POW camp where Americans are supposedly still held. Of course, there are lots of nameless, faceless Asian communists, and of course, every one of them dies in violent fashion. The chop-socky, shoot-em-up, explosion-a-minute action quickly wears thin. Missing in Action is a crass, dopey film that ultimately fails to connect with anything interesting in the realm of fact or fiction. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

In this fast-paced, often complex murder mystery, a psychiatrist's patient and later his secretary are killed, yet the police seem unable to come up with any answers so the doc takes matters into his own hands. Roger Moore is Dr. Judd Stevens, a rather meek Chicago psychiatrist whose patient is killed while wearing a jacket borrowed from Stevens. After Stevens' secretary is brutally slain, Lieutenant McGreavy (Rod Steiger) is certain that Stevens is guilty and is ready to prove it, but when his vendetta gets too obvious, he is taken off the case. That leaves his partner Angeli (Elliott Gould), a much more sympathetic cop, to continue on with the investigation. Even then, the killings continue, so Stevens gives up on the police and goes for help to a wacky P.I. (Art Carney) who lives surrounded by clocks and at first seems like a hopeless nitwit. As Stevens continues in his pursuit of the killers, life is complicated by a Mafia bride who seeks his professional help and clues that lead increasingly to the Mafia and cops on the take. The acting may be a bit uneven, and Moore might have fared better if allowed a little Bond action, but the movie is engaging enough to maintain interest throughout. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Sam Firstenberg directs Sho Kosugi in the martial arts action film Revenge of the Ninja. Kosugi plays a former ninja assassin whose family is killed by other ninjas. He begins life anew in America, but unexpectedly comes to work for drug traffickers who he must face off against. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Although it is based on an intriguing premise -- Dale (Brooke Shields), disguised as a man, takes the place of her late father in a 1927 car race through the Sahara -- this film perversely falls flatter than a blow-out, and just as quickly. After starting the race and because of tribal warfare, Dale winds up a prisoner of the thug Rasoul (John Rhys-Davies) but is appropriately rescued by a dashing sheik (Lambert Wilson). Then after she is back in the race, she is captured and thrown into a leopard's cage by another desert villain. The Indy 500, this is not. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Faye Dunaway stars in Michael Winner's labored re-make of the 1945 swashbuckler, which was co-scripted by Leslie Arliss, the original director of the 1945 film. Dunaway is Lady Barbara Skelton, a lady of the royal class, who becomes a highway robber, taking up with Captain Jerry Jackson (Alan Bates), a highwayman and her lover. Because of a notorious whiping scene in which Lady Barbara and Jackson's girlfriend (Marina Sirtis) take horsewhips to one another, tearing their clothing to strategically-placed ribbons, the film was held back from release because Winner refused to cut the salacious footage. After corralling author Kingsley Amis, and directors John Schlesinger, Karel Reisz, and Lindsay Anderson to attest to the redeeming social value of the scene, the scene stayed in the film. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In this 3-D adventure, a knock-off of Raiders of the Lost Ark, a mercenary history professor and his crack team of commandos head out to retrieve four stolen crowns said to possess the power of good and evil. It will not be an easy task as the crowns are being held by a mad cultist. The second three dimensional collaboration between Tony Anthony, Gene Quintano, and director Ferdinando Baldi, this follow-up to Comin' at Ya! was not nearly as successful as their first outing. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Paul Kersey's (Charles Bronson) self-appointed one-man vigilante squad goes bi-coastal in Michael Winner's sequel to his Death Wish. Kersey has taken up residence in Los Angeles, but lunatic violence follows him across the country like toilet paper sticking to his shoe. Kersey's Spanish cook is immediately gang-banged and killed, while his daughter, still suffering from a catatonic stupor after her brutal rape in the first film, finds herself raped yet again. Vincent Gardenia as New York detective Frank Ochoa, reprises his role from the first film here -- traveling to Los Angeles to locate Kersey but finding death waiting for him off a LA freeway ramp. After all this mayhem, Kersey cannot cringe in hiding for long, and once again he loads up his tube socks with rolls of quarters and goes hoodlum hunting. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A beautiful deaf-mute is courted by both her riding instructor and personal guardian in this hot-and-heavy romance story. ~ All Movie Guide

A medical student decides to enter the world of boxing and dives into a life of superficial values and corruption in this remake of the 1947 classic. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

This lurid, misogynist slasher opus employs the usual "20 years later" motif in its presentation of a heavy-breathing maniac (Chip Lucia) who has been relentlessly stalking the now-grown object of a jilted childhood crush (former Playboy playmate and '80s television staple Barbi Benton). He finally tracks her to the hospital where she has arrived for a routine physical and switches her x-rays with those of a terminally ill patient in order to buy more time in which to plan the ultimate realization of his revenge. His actions are timed to coincide with Valentine's Day, exactly 20 years after he murdered her brother (depicted in one of the most hilariously contrived death scenes in horror film history) in retaliation for laughing at his timid attempts to woo her. While Benton is dutifully stripping down for gratuitous head-to-toe examinations, the killer is busily roaming the halls in surgical garb, slaughtering doctors, nurses, and patients alike with a wide assortment of medical equipment. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide