Game of Death A.K.A. The Game of Death, 死亡遊戲, 死亡游戏 (1978)

A Chinese kung fu directed by Robert Clouse, starring Bruce Lee, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
The version that I watched involved the hero in conflict with a crime syndicate, including motorcyclists with striped suits. There are other versions with different plots.
This is the yellow and black tracksuit film and Bruce Lee's last film. Hence, the historical significance of a mediocre kung fuvie. I think I saw the 1972 version a long time ago, which did not include the gangsters. The other main point to note is Bruce Lee's death. In the beginning of the 1978 version, his character is acting in a movie and a light almost falls on him. There was also a scene in which Bruce Lee's actual corpse was shown in his coffin. The only part of the film that I liked was the main character going up floors of a building to face other kung fu masters. This obviously includes the climax fight against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (also his replacement in re-shooting). The image that I have chosen was to illustrate the main fight and is not from the 1978 version that I watched. If you're into Chinese kung fu films at all, you have to see this at some point because of its historical significance. However, it is not that great a movie. I rate it adequate.

Laserblast (1978)

An American science fiction directed by Michael Rae, starring Roddy McDowall and Keenan Wynn.
A young man finds an alien rifle in the desert and starts blowing stuff away, but turns into a monster in the process. There are a pair of aliens and a government agent looking for the weapon.
I thought this was funny. Dude blows up the bullies, the cops, a Star Wars sign and (most importantly) that goddamned pinball machine! The production quality was low, video gritty and special effects were cheesy. What else would one expect from a Charles Band production? In some films, characters point a gun and I really want them to blow something or someone to kingdom come, but they don't. Not here. This guy just lets it fly at whatever gets in his way. The stop motion aliens were pretty cool and I wish they had more screen time. There is not really much else to say. It was fun to watch, so if you want cheap thrills, this is it. I rate this good.

Starcrash (1978)

An American science fiction directed by Luigi Cozzi, starring Christopher Plummer and David Hasselhoff.
An evil count threatens peace in space with a giant weapon. A pair of adventurers must find a crashed ship and defeat him.
Beautifully hokey! The hour and a half duration flew by because of the absurd style. The plot was not written or communicated very well, but ran along the lines of a general heroic adventure story. The shallow characters fit this film very well, but would have been a detriment to any other piece. Dialogue and acting seemed like a "let's get this in one take" situation was happening. Like the plot, they were not written well. I thought the sets and costumes fit together very nicely. Everything was very colorful and bold. Camera-work was predictable, but showed what was going on decently. The shot compositions looked more like 1940s than 1970s. I'm thinking The Thief of Bagdad (1940). Same goes for the compositing work. Some people would say that the special effects were a joke, but I found that joke highly amusing. I would not want good special effects for this. The tiny models and sloppy compositing pretty much made the film for me. Audio was not too shabby. I could hear everything, but the music was mixed way too loud at some points. I would best describe the style as akin to Flash Gordon (1980) and Barbarella (1968). IMDB gives it 3.9/10, AllMovie has a 1.5/5 AllMovie rating with 3/5 user ratings and Rotten Tomatoes has 33% tomatometer with 38% audience score for an average of 40%. Although I agree that this is not classy or refined, it has such innocent charm that I would argue for a better grade. I rate it awesome. Only watch this if you know what I'm talking about and agree that B movies can be more fun than Hollywood blockbusters when seen from the correct perspective.

Krabat - The Sorcerer's Apprentice A.K.A. Čarodějův učeň (1978)

A Czechoslovakian animated fantasy directed by Karel Zeman.
A homeless boy is lured by crows to work at a mill. There, the master teaches him and the other apprentices magic from a grimoire. On one of the boy's missions as a crow, he sees a girl. He sneaks back to see the girl and they fall in love, but this is against the will of the master and he devises quests and missions to try to stop the boy.
Crazy animation style. The hour 12 duration seemed a little longer because of the slow pacing and placid presentation. The plot was typical of folklore and mythology, but good. The few main characters were also typical of ancient tales. There were also extra apprentices who did nothing. There was very little dialogue, but the heavy narration told the story very well. The animation looked like mostly cut and illustrated paper. There were also live video elements composited in as well as traditional "cartoon" style animation. I would call it mixed media and this was very good. The audio was mixed well, with vocals higher than music and a little bit of foley sound effects. The whole thing seemed very bleak and northern. This has a 7.8/10 rating on IMDB and someone wrote a really positive user review. I agree. I rate this awesome because of the story and mixing various types of animation.

Convoy (1978)

An American British action adventure directed by Sam Peckinpah, starring Kris Kristofferson, Ernest Borgnine and Burt Young.
After disagreements with police, a group of truckers set out from a truck stop restaurant. They are joined by many others.
This is one of my favorite movies. The plot is simple and has few main characters. These characters are easily differentiated and memorable. The main character reminds me of a friend from my warehouse job. The video is very clear. Things were shot in a logical fashion that included enough variety to keep it interesting. Even though it's just about people driving trucks together, they milked those trucks for all they were worth. Inside shots, outside shots, different settings and formations. The audio featured a sufficient array of music. The country theme song was contrasted by Godzilla style music in the dirt road action scene. I could hear everything that all of the actors were saying. Basically, this film checks all the boxes on my list of criteria and it does so with style. I rate it awesome for going above and beyond set standards.

Stranger in Our House A.K.A. Summer of Fear (1978)

An American made for TV horror directed by Wes Craven, starring Linda Blair.
A cousin whose parents have just died goes to stay with relatives for the summer. As she enchants everyone to like her, the family's daughter figures out that the cousin is a witch.
This was decent, watchable. Nothing was spectacular or even worth mentioning. There may have been a compositing shot of some type when the cousin was not reflected in a mirror. Overall, a mediocre flick to pass the time. I rate it o.k.

Coma (1978)

An American thriller by Michael Crichton, starring Genevieve Bujold, Michael Douglas, Richard Widmark and Rip Torn.
A female nurse is having relationship troubles with her doctor boyfriend when her best friend goes into a coma and dies after routine surgery. This sets her on alert for the next death under the same circumstances. She gets in trouble with the administration for looking into the problem, but continues to pursue it anyway.
This was really good. I liked how the plot deepened as it went and the characters were acted convincingly. The main character's growing fear is also reflected in external events. The rising action at the climax got really intense. The style was very much of the time, but that is a good style if you ask me. Camera-work and editing made sense for all of the scenes and they even got in some appropriate extremely wide and extremely close shots. Overall, this seems to be nothing special, just another hospital suspense flick from the late '70s. That is what makes it so cool when the epic plot develops into a crescendo by the end. It goes above and beyond expectations and standards. I will now stop singing it's praises and rate it awesome. Watch this!

China 9, Liberty 37 A.K.A. Amore, piombo e furore (1978)

An Italian Spanish western directed by Monte Hellman, starring Warren Oates, Jenny Agutter and Sam Peckinpah.
A man who is about to be hanged is pardoned when he agrees to kill another man who is in the way of a railroad. They meet and become friends, but the mark's wife falls in love with the assassin. The married couple get in a fight and the wife leaves the husband for dead to run away with the assassin. When the husband recovers, all hell breaks loose because not only is he after the couple, but the railroad people are after all of them.
I liked the plot, although it became a little muddy at times. The characters were good, but the main character's accent changed a few times. The pacing was right, with fast fights and slow time between them. I thought the scene with the main character removing a bullet from his own leg was good. Another amusing aspect was the bottles of booze and cocaine medicine that were omnipresent. Apparently, there is a director's cut edition of this somewhere with some nudity and maybe extra violence. Those things would have really helped to make this film great. It has that gritty western style and if we add a naked Jenny Agutter (of Walkabout (1971) fame), it would be just grand. As is, I'm rating it adequate, but I am going to search for the director's cut as soon as I finish this post.

Faces of Death series (1978 - 1990)

An American horror documentary by John Alan Schwartz.
Real and fictional film footage of accidents, disasters and murders is shown and narrated, accompanied by a variety of music.
Which parts are real and which are staged? I think not knowing is more fun. I viewed the films without knowing that some of the scenes were staged and learning of this cheapened the experience. The video quality changes with every segment, but the audio is mostly good. It was all the same volume level, which is most important. Plot and characters are a non-issue for this style of film and with the compilation nature of the presentation, pacing ranges wildly as well. One of my most treasured childhood memories is of repeated visits to VHS rental stores and asking my parents to rent these films for me. 20 something years later, I was somewhat disappointed that the films were not gruesome or gory enough for me, although several segments did actually gross me out. I'm rating this best and would recommend it for anyone with extreme tastes. It wasn't as nasty as Nekromantik (1987) or Earthlings (2005), but far nastier than anything else I've seen.

The Lucifer Complex (1978)

An American science fiction war film directed by Kenneth Hartford and David L. Hewitt.
In the distant future, a man sits in a computer room on an island, watching videos about war. The video that he watches concerns a war in 1986 involving Nazis and clones.
The "film-within-a-film" thing doesn't work so great here. Why must we see the guy watching the movie and narrating? It has absolutely nothing to do with the plot. The plot, by the way, is lame and not very clearly presented (big surprise there). The characters are a little difficult to identify and keep track of, seeing how everyone is wearing the same clothes and there are supposed to be multiple clones of each character. The style, amazingly, was identifiable. It may have something to do with the periodic shots of future man watching the movie with the viewer, but this movie is clearly this movie. Future man says something to a snake that is in the room with him (for no apparent reason) about punching buttons and procedes to flip switches and turn knobs, but punches zero buttons. Just an amusing little side note. I will never watch it again and would not recommend it to anyone because it doesn't make sense. Know what else doesn't make sense? I'm rating it o.k. because it has style.

Alien Zone A.K.A. House of the Dead (1978)

An American horror film directed by Sharron Miller.
A man who is cheating on his wife with another married woman shelters from the rain in the house of a mortician who displays bodies to him and relates the story of how each person died.
This film was very difficult to track down information about. The style is definitely cult '70s and the video was extremely dark and totally blackscreened in many sections. The stories reminded me of Tales from the Dark side/Tales from the Crypt pulp horror, with characters being few in number, easy to identify and short-lived. I liked how each person was killed in a poetic or ironic manner. I'm keeping this one because it's just so rare and underground that I will not be able to see it again if I don't. I rate it o.k. because it wasn't really all that great, but the back-story of the film itself makes it cooler.

The Uranium Conspiracy (1978)

An Israeli German Italian action film directed by Gianfranco Baldanello and Menahem Golan.
Spies from a few different countries are trying to steal or protect radioactive materials.
The plot was difficult to discern and the characters not memorable, with the exception of one man who had a catch phrase. The style was standard '70s, pacing fast, video was too dark in many places and the audio was in foreign languages with no subtitles. I rate it bad because it's a rotten stinking movie. Too bad nobody will get that inside joke.

My Boys Are Good Boys (1978)

An American crime drama directed by Bethel Buckalew.
A group of boys in a juvenile institution plan and execute the robbery of an armored car.
The opening theme song was extremely bad. They took what should have been a folk song and added overpowering synthesizers to it. The characters and most of the plot were indicative of a style that would typify the early '80s in comedy and adventure films. For most of the duration, I thought the plot was going alright and liked the style and characters. When the film came to an end, I was shocked by the inconclusiveness. Most of the subject matter in the plot was left hanging and what seemed to be minor plot elements finished the film. I'm rating this o.k. because of the ending. If it had ended more conclusively, it would have gotten adequate or better.

Kung Fu Arts (1978)

A Chinese kung fu directed by Kuang Hui A.K.A. Kim Young.
A sick princess is cured by a monkey and forced to marry him. The cruel emperor sends her and her new husband away on a boat to die or be forgotten. The man who sent the monkey to cure the princess finds her and they return to dethrone the emperor.
It was stupid, annoying, insipid and pointless. The audio was absolutely horrible, with certain phrases like "uncle monkey, uncle monkey" being repeated endlessly and consecutively. The camera-work during the fight scenes blew donkey nards and I couldn't see what styles the fighters were using. For being named "Kung Fu Arts", one would think that there would be talk of different styles, but no. No drunken boxing, no animal styles, no tai chi. HOWEVER, the plot was coherent and the characters identifiable. These are grand achievements for a film of this genre and are not taken lightly. Note the female equivalent of epic sideburns and the boy's Tarzan costume in the picture. I'm accepting the flaws inherent in the genre and rating this o.k. because I could understand the story and knew who the main characters were.

The Image Of Bruce Lee (1978)

A Chinese kung fu crime film directed by Yueng Kuen, starring Bruce Li.
A gang of criminals is making counterfeit money. A local martial arts expert and a female interpol agent track them down to stop their criminal activities.
These lo-fi kung fuvies should be shorter. If they were about half an hour, they might actually be good. However, this was a full length feature film and hence, sucked. The only redeeming quality was female nudity (picture). I'm rating this poor.

Killer Of Snake, Fox Of Shaolin (1978)

A kung fu written and directed by Wah Man.
The demi-god daughter of a fox clan martial arts master is fought over by a suitor from the snake clan and a mortal traveler.
There was wire, magic and slow-motion fight scenes with echo on the sound effects. If you know my tastes in kung fuvies, all these things are good. The film was shot pretty well with good camera angles and high visibility (if you know what I mean?). There were also some majestic shots of mountainsides with traditional Chinese music. The snake clan characters actually used the snake animal style of Shaolin kung fu, which I thought was pretty cool. All this comes together to make a very pretty fuvie, although the plot left much to be desired. This plot that I refer to was murky with long names and developed only in the few seconds between each fight scene. There was no training scene (one of my favorite elements of classic kung fu flicks) and no barroom brawl. Oh well, you can't expect miracles from a low-budget '70s fuvie. I rate it adequate.

The Talking Parcel (1978)

An animated fantasy directed and produced by Brian Cosgrove.
A girl finds a package on a beach that contains a talking parrot who drags her off to a hidden fantasy world where she must help him save a wizard from cockatrices who have him imprisoned.
The pacing felt really REALLY rushed and the dialogue reflected this. The animation style was alright and there were some cool monsters. My main beef with this flick is the cockatrices not turning anyone to stone. I'm rating it adequate because I did actually enjoy watching it.

Buffalo Rider (1978)

An American western directed by John Fabian and Dick Robinson.

A gunslinger finds a young buffalo and saddles it. He rides to save a baby and get revenge on the men who killed the baby's parents.

The massive amounts of narration make it seem like a nature documentary, but this actually helps the film. Most of the men slinging guns in the film have forgotten the faces of their fathers and tend to miss more shots than they hit, including the main character. Sharp shooting alone does not make a gunslinger and the main character proves his worth through helping others and destroying the bad guys. I'm rating this good because I actually watched the whole thing and liked it.

Here's where you can watch it too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vf01W0J-SY

I tried to put an image on, but fucked if I know how to make it appear in the post with this inferior interface.

Drunken Master Strikes Back (1978)

A kung fu starring Ting Hwa Chung.
A pair of fools are trained by a kung fu master and get into fights in town.
This is one of the worst kung fu films ever made. It follows every stereotype including having nothing to do with drunken boxing. It may have been funny in China in the '70s, but in America now it's just lame. I'm rating it shit because I had to turn it off.

Watership Down (1978)

An animated adventure by Martin Rosen.
Following the advice of a young visionary, a small group of rabbits leave their home and try to form a new one far away. They run into a large group of rabbits in a totalitarian society. The tyrant of this civilization decides that the heroes are enemies.
I was reminded of human world war 2 stories when watching this. The political themes are very similar. Overall, the plot was decent, but the characters were difficult to pick out, all being rabbits. The animation style was representative of the time it was made, with a mostly realistic look, but some stylized scenes. I'm rating this adequate.