cult film freak: April 2018

Written by James M. Tate / 4/26/2018 / No comments / 2018 , action , dwayne johnson , new

CLASSIC CULT VIDEO GAME 'RAMPAGE' AS A MOTION PICTURE

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Kong-like Ape, Wolf & Lizzie Liz from 1986 arcade YEAR: 2018</u></td></tr>
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Upright. Those were the days. When monsters, no matter what they really were... Those were the days, that's all: When huge deadly creatures stood upright, just like in one of the coolest 80's arcade games ever created  — where the player controls either a giant pissed-off Gorilla, Wolf or some kind of Lizard: All of them destroying city buildings while swatting military copters...<br>
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Since the re-imagining of MIGHTY JOE YOUNG or worse yet, Peter Jackson's multi-million dollar vanity remake of his (and history's) favorite b-movie adventure, KING KONG, these modernized titular apes were just that. Apes. Getting around with four arms and backs bent. Same with the new PLANET OF THE APES trilogy where the victimized simian wears a scowl like a teenager punished for something he didn't do...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Ralph Wolfs down A Building</u></td></tr>
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Enter George, a physical clone of the others and donning the same pathetic, misunderstood expression: An albino gorilla who'd been rescued from poachers by the nicest of trainers, Dwayne Johnson as Davis, another <i>gentle giant who can kick ass when needed </i>role for the former wrestler formerly known as The Rock...<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UBiRVVeiBlw/WuKxORVE2MI/AAAAAAAA1gA/ov1QyYIM5dY-cZ4kbfyJ59L35BMvscyJgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-04-26%2Bat%2B10.10.26%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="694" data-original-width="218" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UBiRVVeiBlw/WuKxORVE2MI/AAAAAAAA1gA/ov1QyYIM5dY-cZ4kbfyJ59L35BMvscyJgCLcBGAs/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-04-26%2Bat%2B10.10.26%2BPM.jpg" width="100"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Grade: B—</u></td></tr>
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He and a few other humans, including an embarrassingly awful Jeffrey Dean Morgan as a rough yet helpful G-Man, not even trying to shake his WALKING DEAD Negan persona — still sounding like a stoned used car salesman who was once a stoned southern preacher... Along with a meaningless villainous vixen and a pretty ingenue who'd once worked for a nefarious scientific corporation that...<br>
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Ugh, it's all so confusing... But when the movie based on the video game actually becomes like the video game, allowing the trio... Ape, Wolf and Reptile... to RAMPAGE through the city — thankfully for the audience it stays that way, and for a nice little while, too. The CGI is good, which is no surprise given how cable shows and even commercials all have equal quality special effects nowadays...<br>
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But once again, the problem is — these creatures, no matter how monstrous, just aren't monsters. Nor are they even creatures. They're simply animals. Altered and blameless, dangerously enlarged versions of what they'd been (except one sprouts wings for absolutely no reason). And because of the sappy relationship between our muscular, huggable human star and the dullest aggressor, even in the video game (the wolf was always a personal favorite), the previous cool stuff is soon enough dead and forgotten. Leading to that aforementioned <i>one word</i> that... while it might be a stretch for modern audiences to absorb (at first)... could bring the classic Creature Feature genre literally back on its feet again... And that's, Upright! <i>Those were the days</i>...
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2018, action, dwayne johnson, new

CLASSIC CULT VIDEO GAME 'RAMPAGE' AS A MOTION PICTURE

Kong-like Ape, Wolf & Lizzie Liz from 1986 arcade YEAR: 2018 Upright. Those were the days. When monsters, no matter what they really...

ROBERT BLAKE AND ELLIOTT GOULD 'BUSTING' CORNELIA SHARPE

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi70N9WrdO5-fdFZx4rLCxHIc9XD_okkSxHa-E_iRDZ6HtUzZmvhTyMY6vy1e0ryVc3O-xDO2t8fj1goZ0nua_dHDCtMPRuGw7KN4GruLBM21X24DIN1UXox9_QXhYGWTbamAEl6vgP62YQ9teznXnDv209LFqnQqTogGTQY0kM46ZA_LX0CJCwco6s7A=s1500" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="981" data-original-width="1500" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi70N9WrdO5-fdFZx4rLCxHIc9XD_okkSxHa-E_iRDZ6HtUzZmvhTyMY6vy1e0ryVc3O-xDO2t8fj1goZ0nua_dHDCtMPRuGw7KN4GruLBM21X24DIN1UXox9_QXhYGWTbamAEl6vgP62YQ9teznXnDv209LFqnQqTogGTQY0kM46ZA_LX0CJCwco6s7A=w400-h261" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Cornelia Sharpe in BUSTING Year: 1974 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table>Starring Elliott Gould and Robert
 Blake as determined vice  cops BUSTING hookers, making a scene in a sex shop and, as the curtain opens, dogging a
high price call  girl: Enter the insanely gorgeous Cornelia Sharpe, who the year before played cop Al Pacino's girlfriend in SERPICO...<br>
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Liken to a mazy Film Noir, the proverbial shoes stick on her, and eventually stumble upon a monopolizing, untouchable mega-pimp 
played by underrated  Allen Garfield backed by henchman Sid Haig who, it 
turns out, doesn't  have much to do since his boss owns the courts <i>and</i> 
the cops (Sid stated in our podcast interview that the script was being rewritten the entire time, but on the Blu Ray commentary, a much too soft-spoken Peter Hymans seemed to feel all went pretty smoothly and, other than a lot of deliberate improvising by Gould and especially Blake, production flowed according to his own script: the only trouble he had was with the Gay Community after the release).<br>
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hanging around (after being punished) at the bottom...<br>
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Meanwhile, their immense hatred for Garfield's Rizzo is more than the audience can 
feel or relate with given the little time to establish his power and 
villainy... We have to take their word, which is far too much dialogue 
about a guy who seems pretty-run of-the-mill in the heavy department... But it's entertaining as they wait, and wait for a lead: like by waiting inside a filthy public restroom to nab random perverts: showing the kind of torturous meantime (vice) cops go through that most movies leave out, or edit down to a springboard for an upcoming action sequence... <br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Cornelia Sharpe in Busting</u></td></tr>
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But casual viewers, don't despair — there's more than a touch of mainstream thrown in as a long FRENCH 
CONNECTION-style chase (here on foot) takes place in-and-out of a large outdoor  bazaar, which helps make future CAPRICORN ONE director Peter Hyams' grungy exploitation an addictive pleasure, but not a guilty one — while far from sublime, like, say, BULLITT, or even MAGNUM FORCE, it's still a decent entry...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>The lovely Cornelia Sharpe</u></td></tr>
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Robert Blake, amazing in IN COLD BLOOD, plays the epitome of a second-banana... sans the usual sidekick comic relief since he and Gould share similarly caustic, world-weary attitudes, with just-enough chemistry to seem more than two actors thrown together...<br>
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And, for a device/activity, Blake dangles an omnipresent unlit cigarette in his mouth — warming up for an upcoming cop TV-series featuring a cockatoo? Only it's Gould who (at one point) dons the schlocky costume/fake accent gag. Overall, his performance is natural and 
easy with some fifth gear intensity when needed...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Fans watched this for years before any disc </u></td></tr>
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And, as usual, maybe wanting to appeal to younger (stoned) audiences who weren't big law enforcement buffs, Gould harbors (beyond "hip threads" and a bushy mustache for undercover purposes) some residual 1960's-era hippie spite, at one point actually referring to two uniformed cops as "Pigs!" And of course the partners work for an irritable, lecturing police chief, and a baffled desk sergeant (Richard X. Slattery)...<br>
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Also, for fans of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, Peter Hyams would direct the cold-war-leaning sequel, 2010: THE YEAR WE MAKE CONTACT, and there's a rare glimpse at the original's cerebral centerpiece, Dr. Heywood Floyd ala character-actor William Sylvester (played by Roy Scheider in the sequel) as a defense lawyer in a grungy courtroom displaying all of that decade's cinematic street trash: from junkies to whores to pimps to trannies and, in the previous scene, a hopped-up, sexually-charged homosexual in a gay bar, seeming intentionally overplayed byAntonio Fargas, making a lusty, physical pass at Blake as if political-correctness would never take over Hollywood (Hyams basically apologizes in the commentary) — and such "blatant stereotyping" would not be allowed. Who knows, maybe that kinda thing kept this buried treasure buried for so long.<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Busting William Sylvester who played Floyd on 2001: A Space Odyssey, here he's a lawyer for Cornelia Sharpe</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Elliott Gould and Robert Blake in BUSTING </u></td></tr>
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action, allen garfield, cop, elliott gould, exploitation, richard x. slattery, robert blake, seventies, sid haig, william sylvester

ROBERT BLAKE AND ELLIOTT GOULD 'BUSTING' CORNELIA SHARPE

Cornelia Sharpe in BUSTING Year: 1974 Rating: **** Starring Elliott Gould and Robert Blake as determined vice cops BUSTING hookers, makin...

PETER O'TOOLE RETURNS TO THE DESERT-SET EPIC FOR 'MASADA'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGGuAg9P5FmsWFI2_ZOccL83T6VlknMWNqhWLsELH8C-YUunA9DAdHKr3jtHCnD0qs8R2mpdzoGD4AQVP0UukZmp81aKdmkjksGYrImzMH1N2r3MWdamkmr_gubM_RfGuZCNBGyDkLzAHOuFZf8VFzNVh-BX8IbBV4A2AQUf-XS_lto-eB6QTM8hbKEw/s320/91704644_938463719916138_5073433069042532352_n.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="286" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGGuAg9P5FmsWFI2_ZOccL83T6VlknMWNqhWLsELH8C-YUunA9DAdHKr3jtHCnD0qs8R2mpdzoGD4AQVP0UukZmp81aKdmkjksGYrImzMH1N2r3MWdamkmr_gubM_RfGuZCNBGyDkLzAHOuFZf8VFzNVh-BX8IbBV4A2AQUf-XS_lto-eB6QTM8hbKEw/s1600/91704644_938463719916138_5073433069042532352_n.jpeg" width="286"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year: 1982 Rating: ****</u><br></td></tr></tbody></table>It doesn't get much better than suffering along with Peter O'Toole as a vulnerable Roman general weeding out a small yet tight band of Jewish rebels that, because of the nature in which this true life story winds up, are <i>still</i> considered Zealots (albeit more like idealists), a label usually only pinned on Christians... <br>
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As the leader of that group, TV miniseries staple Peter Strauss uses a booming Shakespearian stage voice, seeming more driven on behalf of history than the story at hand...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Peter O'Toole and David Warner in MASADA</u></td></tr>
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And not <i>only </i>while yelling down to the five-thousand-strong Roman army waiting beneath he and his 900 followers' mountaintop fortress of... MASADA —like many TV epics, it's a hit and miss venture...<br>
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The hits have mostly to do with O'Toole's Cornelius Flavius Silva, making judgments outside his tent or philosophizing inside with either sneaky friend-turned-foe David Warner or sexy slave love-interest Barbara Carrera...<br>
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The latter, while nice to look at, seems exactly what her character is — fiction placed within a history biopic, and that especially includes Strauss's Eleazar ben Yair — only God knows who led these particular Israelites to hold their ground while <i>antagonizing </i>the opponents below (the teleplay's based on a historical novel THE ANTAGONISTS)...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Warren Clarke and Ken Hutchison in MASADA: ****</u></td></tr>
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For example, in one scene, the rebels splash loudly in a pool within their unreachable haven — of endless food and water — while the beleaguered Romans are allowed only three drinks per day in the scorching heat...<br>
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Meanwhile, Strauss's guttural rants are narrowed into clever (yet sometimes unrealistically fathomed) mind-game tactics...<br>
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A good thing because not only does O'Toole... a veteran of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA... fit the desert terrain, he can handle the stage-like dialogue naturally while another ARABIA veteran, Anthony Quayle, is a wise and patient Roman engineer, progressively building an earth-massed ramp to reach the fortress where a monstrous construction, looking like a Trojan Horse with a ram's head, awaits to finish the job.<br>

anthony quayle, biopic, clive francis, david warner, eighties, ken hutchison, miniseries, peter o'toole, peter strauss, tv movie, warren clarke

PETER O'TOOLE RETURNS TO THE DESERT-SET EPIC FOR 'MASADA'

Year: 1982 Rating: **** It doesn't get much better than suffering along with Peter O'Toole as a vulnerable Roman general weeding ou...

STACY KEACH & SCOTT WILSON IN 'THE NINTH CONFIGURATION'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Good guy, Bad guys, and Linda Blatty YEAR OF RELEASE: 1980</u></td></tr>
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Writer/Director William Peter Blatty, whose novel THE EXORCIST was made into a groundbreaking horror masterpiece by THE FRENCH CONNECTION Oscar-winner William Friedkin, takes personal, independent pride in his very own picture, THE NINTH CONFIGURATION...<br>
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Mostly because the critics deemed how insanely original it is since "Robert Loggia sings Al Jolson in blackface" and "Jason Miller rehearses HAMLET using dogs" and "Moses Gunn wears superhero spandex" or "a man dressed as a nun tries exorcising a soda machine" or "an image of the crucifixion on the moon," and on and on the weirdness goes but, in the reality of this surreal anti-war, existentialist vs religion fable — set inside a castle that serves as an insane asylum, there could have been even more nutty stuff... Anything goes in a story about human beings who are seemingly without logic or limits... And in that, NINTH is actually an extremely grounded vehicle...<br>

eighties, jason miller, military, richard lynch, robert loggia, scott wilson, stacy keach, thriller, william peter blatty

STACY KEACH & SCOTT WILSON IN 'THE NINTH CONFIGURATION'

Good guy, Bad guys, and Linda Blatty YEAR OF RELEASE: 1980 Writer/Director William Peter Blatty, whose novel THE EXORCIST was made into ...

CULT WONDERMENT OF 'ROLLER BOOGIE' STARRING LINDA BLAIR

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-v9jelqGn_X8/Ws7PBEe6SAI/AAAAAAAA1Gc/7Jv4frJiwXsY-MpOc8mnELGg6SrQPd83gCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-04-11%2Bat%2B8.09.00%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="822" height="176" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-v9jelqGn_X8/Ws7PBEe6SAI/AAAAAAAA1Gc/7Jv4frJiwXsY-MpOc8mnELGg6SrQPd83gCLcBGAs/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-04-11%2Bat%2B8.09.00%2BPM.jpg" width="320"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Our very own screen-capture YEAR of Release: 1979</u></td></tr>
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B-movie/drive-in director Mark L. Lester takes a simple script and throws in enough distractions to make it, at the very least, entertaining enough to forget the novice acting of real-life skater Jim Bray, who always seems on the verge of laughter, blowing his lines, or both... yet his genuine skating talent gets him through: after all, that's why he's in this at all...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Autographed Blu Ray BoogieScore: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
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Enter EXORCIST starlet Linda Blair who... often seeming a form of pop culture exploitation by merely being cast... turns in a decent if idyllic performance as a pouting rich girl who'd rather hang around the sun-soaked beach than her parent's stuffy mansion, which includes a big preppy jerk with a crush...<br>
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But she falls for the poor dreamer underdog Bray, who teaches her how to skate and dance (hence the title), and eventually the duo, along with their skater friends, discover that mobsters are trying to extort the owner of their disco-haven rink...<br>
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Thus the low budget, formulaic, chase-around action ensues... director Lester's element... all the great camp rolling smoothly till a predicable ending. And if you expected more from a movie titled ROLLER BOOGIE, that's your problem. Because it's all about the good times of the glossy late seventies era, the skating, and seeing Linda Blair dressed for summer beach weather.<br>
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action, comedy, linda blair, seventies, sport

CULT WONDERMENT OF 'ROLLER BOOGIE' STARRING LINDA BLAIR

Our very own screen-capture YEAR of Release: 1979 B-movie/drive-in director Mark L. Lester takes a simple script and throws in enough di...

TIM CONWAY IN 'THEY WENT THAT-A-WAY & THAT-A-WAY'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Score: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Here it's an old school Southern CHAIN GANG setting while the team is Tim Conway, only given first billing for his popularity and the fact he wrote the story... </span><br>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Meanwhile, like when opposite Tom Bosley in GUS, the alpha male has more lines and overall input, as in recently departed Chuck McCann, more of a bully to Conway's usual deadpan idiot: the latter with the expression of a loyal dog waiting for scraps from the table that never come...</span><br>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br></span><span style="font-size: large;">The boys are hick town policeman who don't know their "asses from their elbows" in a setting popular during the 1970's with cars kicking up dirt </span>—<span style="font-size: large;"> and eventually, during the final act, there's an all-out chase scene that the title gives away: Here's IT'S A MAD MAD (etc.) WORLD styling that keeps the entire ride entertaining enough to where you may not have to suffer-through with the queasy feeling, "What was I thinking for ever liking this movie?" Time's spent (served) well enough here. </span><br>

chase, chuck mccann, comedy, prison, richard kiel, seventies, tim conway

TIM CONWAY IN 'THEY WENT THAT-A-WAY & THAT-A-WAY'

Year of Release: 1978 Back in the days of movie tie-ins, or what was mostly referred to as novelizations, the rural buddy comedy THEY WE...

MICHAEL GREENE TAKES TWO TOP BILLINGS IN 'THE CLONES'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year of THE CLONES is 1973</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Who knew there was a genre called "Psychedelic Action"... Well there isn't, 
technically, but this 1973 super low-budget science-fiction film... </span><span style="font-size: small;">not even big enough for a decent cult following...</span><span style="font-size: small;"> can't really be described any other way. The camera angles and music alone give it that tag; and you won't be bored since there's plenty of action...</span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The entire picture is one long multi-chase involving a scientist who's been cloned... or is
 he a clone who thinks he's the scientist? Visually you can figure it out so prick your ears since the sound quality is god-awful. Making otherwise talented actors tone down their skills to drive a story with expressions which are mostly worried, agitated, determined...</span><br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Goj-N5ap114/WsPatBzn9yI/AAAAAAAA1C8/B26qusmYloItpARC7WjZpyLmZn8-8MzxgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-04-03%2Bat%2B12.38.05%2BPM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="177" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Goj-N5ap114/WsPatBzn9yI/AAAAAAAA1C8/B26qusmYloItpARC7WjZpyLmZn8-8MzxgCLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-04-03%2Bat%2B12.38.05%2BPM.jpg" width="249"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>CloneScore: ***</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Enter Michael Greene playing dual-roles. He's one of those actors you've seen a million times: tall, storky: a unique character actor... This is his only 
starring vehicle... and if not, it's one of the very, very few... while other familiar faces Gregory Sierra and Otis Young play F.B.I. agents on his scurried tail. </span><br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t1TLb-RNoAY/WsPa-85xDKI/AAAAAAAA1DA/z-fVhHp1GdkskOPoBrRK1SFnT04hLVINQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-04-03%2Bat%2B12.38.05%2BPM%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="284" data-original-width="184" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t1TLb-RNoAY/WsPa-85xDKI/AAAAAAAA1DA/z-fVhHp1GdkskOPoBrRK1SFnT04hLVINQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-04-03%2Bat%2B12.38.05%2BPM%2B2.jpg"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u>On Amazon Prime</u></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">THE CLONES makes surprisingly apt use of a sparse story-line with an energetic pulse, effectively cutting back and forth to the hunted and the hunters </span><span style="font-size: small;">—<span style="font-size: medium;"> from sneaking along rooftops, traipsing through rocky terrain, stalked on rural highways, in the desert, swamps, then busting into fist fights and, of course, car chases </span>—<span style="font-size: medium;"> as if there was actually a budget in this Wrong-Man thriller including </span><span style="font-size: medium;">an idyllically romantic sailboat scene, thus providing stolen shots of both land and sea...</span></span><br>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile, the</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"> actors seem like they're merely collecting paychecks, sleepwalking through the roles while that same year, serving in heaven as opposed to this scant reign in hell, Sierra would be the hunted in PAPILLON; Otis Young would take THE LAST DETAIL with a never-better Jack Nicholson; and a year earlier, Greene bullied Woody Allen in PLAY IT AGAIN SAM. So they do have merit... The irony is, their CLONES paycheck was probably hardly worth slumming down to. </span> </span><br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Trippy Imagry from THE CLONES during a meditation sequence... ugh, stoopid hippies...</u></td></tr>
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action, gregory sierra, michael greene, otis young, seventies, thriller, wrong man