Hoodoo-3

I have been a fan of Quentin Tarantino since I first saw Reservoir Dogs. I've been a martial arts fan for over 25 years. This movie had both, but it stunk. You can always expect there to be a few cheesy moments in every Tarantino film. Usually it works. This time, it didn't. The cheese ruined this film. The main characters all had ridiculous nicknames. No one in this film just bled---if someone was cut, they gushed blood like a geyser or like The Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Lastly the soundtrack and sound effects were irritating and way too loud, though this might have partly been due to a hearing impaired projector operator in my local theater. Kill Bill had a couple of things going for it, however... The action in the fight scenes were brilliantly choreographed. If you're going to see this movie just for the action, go ahead. You might enjoy it if you can get past all the cartoon violence. The other thing worth watching in this film was martial arts film veteran Sonny Chiba. He only spent 5 to 10 minutes on the screen (if that), but he was very enjoyable to watch. Like Christian Slater claimed in True Romance, he's the finest actor in martial arts films today! Unfortunately though, we didn't get to see him in action. When they talked about splitting Kill Bill into 2 separate movies, I was upset that I'd have to wait several months to see how it ends. I'm not so worried about that now. I'll wait till Kill Bill: Volume 2 comes on cable. The only way I'll go see it at the movie theater is if Tarantino re-shoots the ending to have Sonny Chiba team up with Uma Thurman's character against Bill (David Carradine).

Plan 9 From Outer Space is generally considered to be the worst film of all time. I contend that the people voting have not seen Twilight People. It's basically The Island of Dr Moreau without a budget. In this version of the story, I believe the Doctor is doing his genetic engineering for the Third Reich, as he and his assistant/security guy are Nazis. The half man/half animal creatures are bizarre. There is a bat man, an antelope man, and even a mole woman. I had nightmares about this flick for years (not because it was scary) until I found it on video and re-lived the horror of one of the most awful films of all time. The acting is bad. The writing is bad. The costumes are bad. This is a bad movie.

This movie is really rotten, but I think it's worth watching to see Sonny Chiba run up a tree, do a back flip and then kick the guy chasing him. See if you can do that when you turn 55. Also Roddy Piper is a lot better performer than your average wrestler turned actor. He'll never earn an oscar.....or a critical acclaim, but his acting is better than many of the top name action stars.