BrianG

Some movies just shouldn't be remade. Gone With the Wind, Casablanca . . . and Stagecoach. For some reason, though, Hollywood can't keep its hands off it. It was remade (badly) in 1966, and this one is even worse. It looks like a bunch of wannabe cowboys with some money decided they could make a western better than John Ford could (Willie Nelson was the executive producer of this), and they couldn't possibly have been more wrong. Everything, absolutely EVERYTHING, about this movie is pathetic. Ted Post is normally a first-rate director, especially of westerns (he did most of the "Rawhide" series with Clint Eastwood), but he either had a really bad day, or (what seems to be more likely) everyone in the cast simply ignored what he told them; there doesn't appear to be any discipline at all in this film. Everybody keeps trying to out-ham everyone else, or they're either so laid-back they're practically comatose. The photography isn't particularly good, the editing is horrendous, the scenery around Old Tucson (where this was shot) is completely wasted . . . and on and on. A really sad waste of time and money. Skip it.

Angel didn't make all that many films in her career, but she had several things going for her: she was quite possibly the most stunningly beautiful woman ever to make adult films, her enthusiasm and freshness was intoxicating, and her perfectly proportioned, natural and virtually flawless body should have been classified as the Eighth Wonder of the World. No matter how lousy the movie was--and a few of them were--any film she's in deserves a "9" rating just by the fact that she's in it. This one actually isn't bad, and I'd say it was the best of her movies that I've seen. She seems to actually enjoy what she's doing, unlike many porn actresses who appear to be just going through the motions. If you haven't seen any of Angel's films yet, definitely check this one out.

This is a real stinker, even for Lorenzo Lamas. At least his last atrocity, "Renegade," had the advantage of being made by people who knew what they were doing. This thing is so inept and shoddy in every conceivable department that even Ed Wood would be ashamed of it. The "acting" by Lamas and his cohorts (at least "Renegade" had the engaging--and competent--Branscombe Richmond as Sonny Sixkiller, Lamas' partner) is laughable, the scripts defy any kind of logic at all, the special effects appear to consist mainly of badly done overexposures, and the series doesn't know if it is a comedy, a drama or an adventure--which doesn't really matter, as it fails miserably on all three accounts. The premise is that Lamas is an immortal being whose task in life is dispatching demonic beings back to hell by means of a magical samurai-type sword. As one example of the series' stubborn refusal to follow its own conventions, it is stated that the only way Lamas can destroy the demons is to run them through with his sword; however, he is constantly seen pulling out large-caliber handguns and shotguns and blasting away at them when he finds them. All that happens is that the demons are knocked down, and keep getting back up to attack him. If that is so, then why does he continually shoot at them, if he KNOWS it has no effect? Apparently the reason is so that Lamas can be seen pulling out large-caliber handguns and shotguns and blasting away, which makes about as much sense as anything else in this show.

Anyway, the show is almost completely worthless. Good for a laugh, maybe, and every so often the producers will hire some remotely competent actress to play a scantily-clad demon and slink around, but that's pretty much about all it has going for it. The show tries to be all things to all people and winds up being nothing. Avoid it.