Eddie Romero Movies

After escaping from a Vietnamese POW camp where they had suffered for five years, five American soldiers attempt to get out of the country before being spotted by Russian and Vietnamese troops in this tale of survival from Filipino filmmaker Eddie Romero. As the five escapees descend upon a remote whorehouse in hopes of collecting the supplies needed to reach freedom, a group of desperate prostitutes plea with the men to transport them to freedom and a troupe of Russian soldiers complicate their fragile escape plan. When the desperate group stumbles across an abandoned airplane deep in the jungle, they must bring the battered aircraft back to life long enough to escape the jungle and fly to freedom. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A young Filipino living at the end of the 19th century has his own agenda for his life -- he wants to travel and experience new places. His agenda is cut short when he inadvertently gets involved with a whole underground of marginal characters, including one priest who is a father in both the clerical and secular sense of the term and needs to find his son. Both the young man and the priest gain in following and power as the Filipino revolt against the Spaniards grows. Complicating everything is an attractive woman, and the young man will soon have to decide which direction he really wants to take -- that of a revolutionary leader, or the solitary wanderer that still resides somewhere inside him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

One of a cluster of late-1970s films about the Vietnam War, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now adapts the Joseph Conrad novella Heart of Darkness to depict the war as a descent into primal madness. Capt. Willard (Martin Sheen), already on the edge, is assigned to find and deal with AWOL Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), rumored to have set himself up in the Cambodian jungle as a local, lethal godhead. Along the way Willard encounters napalm and Wagner fan Col. Kilgore (Robert Duvall), draftees who prefer to surf and do drugs, a USO Playboy Bunny show turned into a riot by the raucous soldiers, and a jumpy photographer (Dennis Hopper) telling wild, reverent tales about Kurtz. By the time Willard sees the heads mounted on stakes near Kurtz's compound, he knows Kurtz has gone over the deep end, but it is uncertain whether Willard himself now agrees with Kurtz's insane dictum to "Drop the Bomb. Exterminate them all." Coppola himself was not certain either, and he tried several different endings between the film's early rough-cut screenings for the press, the Palme d'Or-winning "work-in-progress" shown at Cannes, and the final 35 mm U.S. release (also the ending on the video cassette). The chaotic production also experienced shut-downs when a typhoon destroyed the set and star Sheen suffered a heart attack; the budget ballooned and Coppola covered the overages himself. These production headaches, which Coppola characterized as being like the Vietnam War itself, have been superbly captured in the documentary, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. Despite the studio's fears and mixed reviews of the film's ending, Apocalypse Now became a substantial hit and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Duvall's psychotic Kilgore, and Best Screenplay. It won Oscars for sound and for Vittorio Storaro's cinematography. This hallucinatory, Wagnerian project has produced admirers and detractors of equal ardor; it resembles no other film ever made, and its nightmarish aura and polarized reception aptly reflect the tensions and confusions of the Vietnam era. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

In this actioner, three courageous female revolutionaries on a South American island grab their rifles and begin searching for a clever bandit. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Two female prisoners, one black and one white attempt to escape a women's reformatory in this violent exploitation film that is a cheap knock- off of The Defiant Ones. The black woman is in for prostitution while her blonde counterpart was involved with a radical group. They escape after lesbian guards make passes at them. Though chained together, the two manage to make their way through the Filipino jungle to a camp filled with revolutionaries and drug smugglers. There more action ensues as the crooks engage in a climactic battle with a crooked cop. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Dashing adventurer Matt Farrell (John Ashley) is captured and taken to a remote island in the South Pacific, where he is meant to become the newest victim of Dr. Gordon (Charles Macaulay), a mad scientist who is crossing humans and animals in an attempt to create a race of "superbeings." The doctor's daughter, Neva (Patricia Woodell), is assisting in the nefarious experiments, though she has begun to doubt the legitimacy of her father's scientific work. Gordon's main henchman, Steinman (Jan Merlin), would like nothing more for Farrell to escape, as he views the handsome captive as a worthy adversary and longs to track him through the jungle as human prey. When Neva falls in love with Farrell, she betrays her father and frees him, fleeing with a group of Gordon's experiments, bestial homo sapiens who have been crossed with bats, panthers, antelopes, and other animals. Meanwhile, Farrell captures the doctor and makes his way through the jungle to meet up with Neva on the island's dock, where they intend to make their way to freedom. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide

Jack Hill directed this alternately brutal and campy look at desperate women behind bars. An American named Collier (Judy Brown) has been convicted of murder in the Philippines and is sentenced to a grim women's prison in the jungle, where a mysterious German woman, Miss Deitrich (Christiane Schmidtmer), is the warden, and her head guard, sadistic Lucian (Katheryn Loder), keeps her charges in line through intimidation and violence. Collier shares a cell with tough-talking bisexual prostitute Grear (Pam Grier), hard-boiled political prisoner Bodine (Pat Woodell), thick-skinned but good-humored Alcott (Roberta Collins), drug-addicted Harrad (Brooke Mills), and tight-lipped Ferina (Gina Stuart). Bodine's boyfriend is the leader of an underground revolutionary faction, and when she learns he and his comrades are in danger, she begins to plot an escape for herself and her cellmates, with travelling peddlers Harry (Sid Haig) and Fred (Jerry Frank) becoming her unwitting collaborators. Meanwhile, Lucian is stepping up her torture of the prisoners at the behest of a mysterious masked stranger, and Collier is determined to find out who is behind the systematic brutality. The Big Doll House was the first "Women In Prison" exploitation epic produced for Roger Corman's New World Pictures; it was a big hit on the dive-in and grind house circuit, and spawned dozens of imitations (which are still being produced today). By the way, that's Pam Grier singing the theme song! ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Roger Corman's New World Pictures distributed this seedy Filipino monster mess about a lecherous American soldier (John Ashley, no stranger to Filipino horror films) who saves his miserable hide during World War II by selling his soul to Satan. Everything works out fine until some years later, when Ashley tries to back out on the arrangement and is subsequently slapped with a werewolf-type curse that has him sprouting hair in unwanted places and stalking villagers by night. The werewolf attacks are remarkably gory -- throats are ripped, faces pulverized, and intestines spilled -- but still manage to be boring. No special method for exterminating the supposedly indestructible beast is devised; apparently he gets tired of being shot repeatedly by the police and just keels over -- as does the film itself. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

What would a Filipino horror film be without leading man John Ashley? During most of Island of Living Horror, Ashley takes a back seat to the voluptuous female cast members. These delectable damsels find themselves on the menu when a group of cannibalistic vampires run rampant. Ashley and his bride (Beverly Hills) are put out by this situation, and do their best to send the vampires whence they came. Island of Living Horror was also released as Brides of the Beast, Brides of Blood, and (more wittily) Grave Desires. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This adventure is set in the Philippines and chronicles the exploits of two men who survive a plane crash in the jungle. One of the men is an avaricious killer who has come to the islands to search for a fortune in diamonds. The other is an international adventurer. Now they must somehow overcome their vast personal differences and desires to survive in the steamy wilderness ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this WW II adventure set in the Philippines, Filipino guerrillas take on the last of the Japanese forces remaining on their islands. The Japanese have come to retrieve a gold bullion shipment and have taken over a convent. A rebel leader breaks into the convent and meets a beautiful American who is being protected by the nuns. Naturally they fall in love just before the final battle begins. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Set in the Philippines, this thriller centers on the desperate attempts of a loving American father to save his son from ruthless kidnappers. He is unable to do it alone and so calls up his wife's former lover, an ex-FBI agent to assist. Unfortunately, the former agent is devious and greedy. Fortunately, his new girl friend isn't. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide