Visitors Review

Latheman-9 (2012-05-22 21:04)

As bad as only Roger Corman can make them.

Some film makers, such as Ed Wood, produce movies so bad that they havea peculiar charm in spite of their overwhelming flaws. And then there'sRoger Corman."Deathsport" was meant to ride on the coat tails of its successfulpredecessor "Death Race 2000," using motorcycles in place ofautomobiles as principal motif. However, although it does feature thesame leading man (David Carradine), it lacks two key elements from thefirst film -- the self-caricature known as Sylvester Stallone, and thearch humor of director Paul Bartel who went on to direct cult favorites"Eating Raoul" (1982) and "Lust in the Dust" (1985). Principal directorAllan Arkush, on the other hand, was soon relegated to the wasteland oftelevision. Roger Corman wears his producer's hat for "Deathsport" butis also listed as an uncredited director. One noteworthy point: listedin the credits for "guitar" is Jerry Garcia. Could it really be THEJerry Garcia of Grateful Dead fame?This film should be seen by anybody interested in learning how NOT tomake a movie. It is bad in so many ways that the 1000 word IMDb commentlimit precludes me from even beginning to describe them. I would ratethis film as low as possible if it weren't for two redeeming features:hilarious trailers for other Corman productions (in the video version),and completely gratuitous full frontal female nudity. Rating: 2/10.

(2012-05-22 04:26)

Psychedelic Post-Apocalyptic Motorcycle Mayhem

Holy Mozzarella! I can not believe this was *not* made by Italians.It's about as bonkers as Castellari's THE NEW BARBARIANS. And it'sdefinitely far more warped. David Carradine plays some kind offuturistic hippie-warrior (they call them Range Guides, or MysticalNomads if you will). He gets captured, imprisoned and forced to playthe Deathsport game. He escapes on a silver bike, together with hisfellow-hippie love interest and some blond dude who can't act. The restof the movie they get chased by the evil Richard Lynch on a bike. Oh,and there's mutants running around the wastelands too. Bonkers, I tellyou.There are a few charming matte-paintings to behold (mainly of twofuturistic cities). Lots of psychedelic color schemes, full frontalfemale nudity and utterly spaced-out sounds. Will you just listen tothose motorcycles when they fly by? They either sound like they'rescreaming or farting. Even those plastic see-through swords ofCarradine & his girl make undefinable "weesh"-sounds. Those bigred-laser-beaming hand-blasters are pretty mind-boggling too. Peopleand things get all red and vanish into thin air when they get hit.One of the highlights is the sequence where Carradine (on his bike)gets chased by Lynch and his henchmen (also on bikes, of course). Theydrive into some abandoned military domain, and end up driving some sortof improvised but pre-arranged race circuit. There's really noexplanation as to why it's there. It's just there, although itshouldn't be. Plus, during their pursuit, things just keep blowing upand randomly catch fire.In the end, Carradine and Lynch get to face off one another during aweirdly edited sword-boss-fight. The outcome? Evil Lynch getsdecapitated and Carradine gets the girl. I love it when a movie endsthat way! Well, not just any movie, of course. Only the ones that starDavid Carradine as a womanizing hero. Well, "womanizing" probably isn'tthe exact word; as she's more like some soul-mate or something. Butwhatever, he gets the chick and that's what counts.