Kudos to Blue Underground for their new David Carradine DVDs--CANNONBALL and CIRCLE OF IRON (which carries its original title of THE SILENT FLUTE on the print and in many of the supplements). I saw CIRCLE OF IRON many years ago on HBO, and didn't like it much, so I was surprised by how much I liked it this time around. Boasting gorgeous Israeli location footage and a surprising amount of humor, IRON belies its ponderous premise in offering an entertaining and reasonably well-paced action movie that manages to present a peaceful point of view. The film's pink elephant is Jeff Cooper, who's both too old and too inexperienced to carry a film of this nature. While he handles the requisite action scenes okay, he seems miscast in more dramatic moments or when interacting with the veteran supporting cast members. Of them, only Carradine gets much screen time (he's practically in every scene, since he plays four roles--and does it very well); Roddy McDowall, Christopher Lee and Eli Wallach only worked a couple of days apiece, with Eli garnering top honors as a deranged doctor attempting to melt away his genitals in a vat of oil. CANNONBALL is a good film too, but I think THUNDER AND LIGHTNING is a better one, and I'd like to see it hit DVD.

GOLD OF THE AMAZON WOMEN is a ridiculous adventure film made for NBC. I'd love to see how the network promoted it. Shot mostly in Trinidad and produced by Alfredo Leone (LISA AND THE DEVIL), GOLD is one of the most ragged made-for-TV features ever made, goosed along by a campy teleplay by Stanley Ralph Ross (who wrote for BATMAN and WONDER WOMAN) and a rambling, improvisational performance by a likely drunk Bo Svenson. The cast--which includes Anita Ekberg, Richard Romanus and Donald Pleasence--seems to be having a fairly good time, and the dialogue seems to indicate that none of this is to be taken very seriously, as does a laughable scene in which a warpainted Svenson frugs with a sexy native bellydancer. While Svenson (soon to be on NBC's WALKING TALL series) and Pleasence could play this junk in their sleep (and might well be), Ekberg is stiff, unconvincing and not terribly attractive as the Amazon queen. Watch this one late at night for some quickie laughs.

And what can I say about Media Blasters' SAMURAI COP except...go watch it! SAMURAI COP is this year's THE STABLIZER, a wildly inept and excruciatingly painful film that ranks among the funniest and most entertaining Bad Films ever made. Robert Z'Dar, known at the time for his title role in the MANIAC COP trilogy, is not the Samurai Cop, but rather a Japanese (!) assassin in the employ of a Japanese gangster in Los Angeles. The titular cop is Joe Marshall (wooden block Matt Hannon), an undercover detective from San Diego who teams up with a jive black partner (Mark Frazer) to bring down seemingly the entire Yakuza. Not only do basics like story logic, characterization and visual style go completely out the window, but also, oh, minor attributes such as establishing shots, sound effects and continuity. The longhaired Hannon must have gotten a haircut during the four-week shooting schedule, because he appears in several scenes wearing a ludicrous wig. Much of his time is wasted in senseless sexual banter with every woman he meets (what scene can match the "Do you want to touch me?" scene for jawdroppingly silly excess?) or good-natured racial banter with his partner Frank. The stunt work and excessive shootouts are marked by their lack of energy, and the dialogue is completely wretched, with highlights being the implausibly forward nurse who comes on to Joe and the hilariously foul-mouthed police captain. SAMURAI COP is startling in its awfulness, failing to reach a level of competency in any department. An absolute must-see for bad-movie fans who think they've seen it all.

I watched CIRCLE OF IRON recently as well, and I ended up enjoying it. I thought Carradine did an outstanding job in his multiple roles, and I actually thought Cooper was OK (probably a case of lowered expectations due to the surfeit of negative reviews blasting his performance). I would have dearly loved to see James Coburn and Bruce Lee in the roles as originally intended, though.

I just worked my way through two boxed sets, the FRIDAY THE 13TH set (which I comment on elsewhere) and the STAR TREK SEASON ONE set, which reminded me of how much I love that show. My wife got the TREKKIES 2 documentary for me for my 40th birthday last week, but I haven't had a chance to watch it yet.

Also got THE ALAN CLARKE COLLECTION, which I haven't started on either, and a copy of an 80s kung-fu flick called FORCE: FIVE that sounds great. Has anyone seen FORCE: FIVE? It's supposed to be a low-budget rehash of ENTER THE DRAGON, directed by Robert CLouse, and starring a bunch of legit martial arts experts, including the guy who played Master Han in the classic TRIAL OF BILLY JACK.

FORCE: FIVE is on DVD?? David, can you provide some info about the disc--widescreen, extras, nice print? Perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised, since other films distributed by American Cinema like THE OCTAGON and A FORCE OF ONE were recently--and quietly--released on DVD.

I'd buy FORCE: FIVE. Clearly there's a lot of silliness inherent in it, but it is quite fun and features plenty of cracklin' chopsocky action. Actual martial arts stars like Joe Lewis, Richard Norton ("Thank God for Black and Decker.") and Benny "The Jet" Urquidez may not be the world's greatest thespians, but Clouse uses them wisely, and if you aren't annoyed by the many blatant similarities to ENTER THE DRAGON (including a hand-to-hand climax in a smoke-filled basement that's ripped from ENTER's famous mirrored room sequence), you should find FORCE: FIVE to be a dandy time. Oddly, Bong Soo Han had already spoofed his role when he played the heavy in A FISTFUL OF YEN, KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE's parody of ENTER. Stephen J. Cannell might have picked up a few of Clouse's ideas when he created THE A-TEAM, which also features an organized squad of specialty soldiers, including a slightly mad helicopter pilot who has to be rescued from prison. Female lead Pam Huntington, beautiful but clearly no fighter, was famous as TV's "Charlie" girl in commercials. And Amanda Wyss, billed here as "Mandy Wyss", became popular in '80s teen comedies like FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH and BETTER OFF DEAD.

Oops! I didn't mean to imply that FORCE: FIVE is on (legit) DVD, as I ordered it from a grey-market dealer. Sorry about that. Although, the way my buying habits usually run, whenever I spring for a bootleg (not too often, but occasionally), a legit DVD is announced soon after!

Thanks for the thumbs-up on FORCE: FIVE, Marty; I seem to recall you writing about either the South African kung-fu flick KILL OR BE KILLED or it's sequel (KILL AND KILL AGAIN, I think?) when there was a thread on the KARATE: HAND OF DEATH DVD, which included one of the KILL movies in the trailers section: would you recommend one or both of these? I recall really enjoying the trailer, but I don't remember if the movie was well-received.

Speaking of the classic FORCE: FIVE, a good friend of mine recently picked up the poster for me and I noticed somebody ripped it off big time. Gotta love those Italians!

I've probably written about both of those James Ryan South African martial-arts flicks. Both are a lot of fun, but KILL AND KILL AGAIN is probably a little bit better. This is a fast-moving kung-fu flick that doesn't take itself too seriously, and although the performers aren't the best actors around, they're decent enough, and the many karate battles are well choreographed. It certainly isn't dull. It also has a screwy campy plot concerning a mind-control drug made from potatoes and an army of kung fu zombies. KILL OR BE KILLED is probably better than I think it is, but the prerecord VHS presents it in a dark, cropped print that makes the action a bit difficult to follow. It's still good fun, but inferior to its sequel.

Has anyone seen JAGUAR LIVES, which casts FORCE: FIVE star Joe Lewis against Christopher Lee, Barbara Bach, Donald Pleasence and John Huston?!

Jason Voorhees is in ZOMBI 3?