Two years before Journey 2: The Mysterious Island made a box-office splash, Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island did not. That’s the rosiest way to put it. While both films are very loose adaptations of Verne’s 1874 novel, this is the one nobody wanted or wants to see because it’s in the other one where The Rock … Continue reading Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island (2010)
Jaws wasn’t even a year old when NBC debuted Shark Kill on May 20, 1976, making the telefilm likely the first contestant in the still-ongoing sharksploitation sweepstakes. And that’s about all William A. Graham’s (Beyond the Bermuda Triangle) cash-in has going for it. At an oil rig under repair in the Pacific Ocean, young marine … Continue reading Shark Kill (1976)
To call Cyclone by that title is disingenuous on the part of René Cardona Jr., considering that weather event takes up little more than his film’s opening. Then again, what was Cardona (Guyana: Cult of the Damned) if not a second-generation shameless opportunist? Of course he would go with Cyclone! When you’re marketing a Mexploitation … Continue reading Cyclone (1978)
Stuart Whitman is the Rev. Jim Jones in Guya … wait, what? Okay, if you say so. Take two. Stuart Whitman is the Rev. Jim Johnson in Guyana: Cult of the Damned! Yes, the inch-high-eyebrowed Treasure of the Amazon star plays the real-life deranged and delusional cult leader who convinced nearly 1,000 of his followers … Continue reading Guyana: Cult of the Damned (1979)
In Airport ’77, the third in the Airport series, a private Boeing 747 is transporting the art collection and friend of multimillionaire Philip Stevens (James Stewart, Vertigo) to the opening of his new museum. Says Stevens to a throng of reporters, “It’s going to be a real wingding.” Based on that jet alone, the old … Continue reading Airport ’77 (1977)