Catchup - Reviews and Such

Game of Death (1978)
Robert Clouse's 1978 attempt to slavage the remnants of Bruce Lee's unfinished epic are turned into a chintzy would-be Bruceploitation secret agent thriller more like Challenge of the Tiger (1980) and Ninja Strikes Back (1978). When original co-star Kareem Abdul-Jabaar refused to come back for more sequences in respect of Bruce, the directors replaced him with an anonymous black stuntman in wraparound shades, sideburns and afro. We get B-Hollywood stars drafted in - Dean Jagger, Hugh O'Brien, Gig Young (also doomed not long for this world) and Colleen Camp as overseeing villain, top thug, sympathetic journalist and singing love interest. The original footage is sterling, but the stunt doubles are obvious and the only saving grace really is the magnificent John Barry score, its title sequences reminiscent of the On Her Majesty's Secret Service titles.
Game of Death II (1981)  Unrelated sequel with another Hong Kong stuntman playing Bruce Lee's brother seeking revenge. Tripe.
Runaway Train (1985) - Andrei Konchalovsky's Cannon-produced, Kurosawa-written epic, excellent Alan Hume photography, realistic Oscar-nominated(!) performances from Jon Voight and Eric Roberts and great setpieces lift another potential Golan-Globus video staple action movie into an acclaimed arthouse classic.
Lust For A Vampire (1970) - Terrible Hammer horror, with cheapo Chris Lee-alike DJ Mike Raven, the usually reliable Ralph Bates in a bad wig and the wooden Yutte Stensgaard make this no match for the superior prequel, The Vampire Lovers (1970, with Ingrid Pitt as the lesbian vampire facing off George Cole, Peter Cushing and Douglas Wilmer and tasting the lovely Madeline Smith, among others) or even the Cushing-starring sequel, Twins of Evil(1971), which has two twins (the nubile Collinsons), one a vampire, the other innocent, and is disappointing.
The Lost Continent (1968) Giant molluscs, conquistadors attacking tramp steamers, Eric Porter as a frustrated captain, the lovely busts of Dana Gillespie as a teenage conquistador girl, a boy prince, killer weed, Michael Ripper as a scarred seadog, phony African coastal back projection, Nigel Stock reading the Dennis Wheatley book from which this is adapted (and no, we are not covering The Devil Rides Out, it's too polished to be trashy)
Death Line (1972) - Nice, thrilling London underground horror with Donald Pleasence in a great role as the dogged Inspector Calhoun (assisted by Norman Rossington) investigating "Mind the Doors"-screaming cannibals who eat commuters. Contains a Christopher Lee Cameo.
Dead and Buried (1982) - From the director of Death Line, American Gary Sherman, this has a young pre-Elm Street Robert Englund, Jack "Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka" Albertson and Melody "Dale Arden in Flash Gordon" Arden. Good Stan Winston f/x including an infamous syringe-in-eye shot that allowed this interesting New England gothic film (filmed in Mendocino, California, home of TV's Murder She Wrote's Cabot Cove) to be sidelined as a video nasty. Good score.
The Muthers (1978) Unmemorable Blaxploitation lady pirates in the Philippines tat by Cirio H Santiago, ex-Corman associate and starring Rosanne "Motel Hell" Katon.
Sky Riders (1976) James Coburn is sent by Robert Culp to rescue Susannah York from a load of Baader-Meinhof types (such as Kenneth Griffith and Harry Andrews) on a Greek island. Good stunts with hang-gliding, but not very trashy, despite being produced by Sandy Howard, producer of Meteor, Terror Train, Ghost Ship an The Return Of A Man Called Horse, think an American Harry Alan Towers.
Concorde Affair '79 - James Franciscus, Joseph Cotten (of Airport '77), Van Johnson and Edmund Purdom are roped into Ruggero Deodato's Airport '79 knockoff, as if things couldn't get any worse or trashier. But they do. Nice Heathrow footage, a nice companion piece to 1982 TV serial Doctor Who- TimeFlight.