Wednesday, November 22, 2006

"Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals" review

Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977)
AKA Emanuelle e gli ultimi cannibali

Directed by Joe D'Amato
Writing credits Joe D'Amato Romano Scandariato

Laura Gemser .... Emanuelle
Gabriele Tinti.... Professor Mark Lester
Nieves Navarro .... Maggie McKenzie (as Susan Scott)
Donald O'Brien .... Donald McKenzie
Percy Hogan .... Salvadore

Emanuelle goes to the jungle for a newspaper story. She's a journalist hot on the trail of a big scoop. It turns out there may still be cannibals in the Amazon and Emanuelle is just the babe for the job. Emanuelle, (Laura Gemser), has a lot of softcore sex in this flick. She rolls around with one or two guys. There's also a scene where Gemser and her female jungle guide are in the water washing each other off. While this is going on, a monkey is playing with their stuff on land. It's a scene that should have been more fulfilling than it was. Why there had to be a goofy monkey distracting from the females washing each other is unknown. Monkeys don't bring erotic joy. I rest my case.

So Emanuelle hooks up with a hunter and his wife that they find in the jungle. This is a good reason to have some more sex. There's a quick interracial scene between the wife of the hunter and their native companion. Soon the group runs into more natives and the gore is unleashed.

"Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals" has cannibal gore effects, softcore sex and other exploitation moments but overall it's not too exciting. Gemser has a tight body and it's great to see her naked but this flick needed a little more of everything to make it really worthwhile. Worth a look though if you love cannibal movies.

SCORE: 2 out of 4 Emanuelles

"Patriot Games" review

Patriot Games (1992)

Directed by Phillip Noyce
Writing credits W. Peter Iliff

Harrison Ford .... Jack Ryan
Anne Archer .... Dr. Caroline "Cathy" Ryan
Patrick Bergin .... Kevin O'Donnell
Sean Bean .... Sean Miller
Thora Birch .... Sally Ryan
James Fox .... Lord William Holmes
Samuel L. Jackson .... Lt. Cmdr. Robby Jackson

Harrison Ford interrupts an IRA assassination attempt against the royal family. "Pure rage" propels him to take on the terrorists. Now one of the surviving assassins wants revenge. He tries to wipe out Harrison's family. It's on now. It's Harrison Ford vs. the Irish terrorist.

Harrison Ford has to win one for all of the family men out there. When his wife gives him an order, "You just get him Jack.", Harrison obeys. He does what I think most of the people in the audience would hope they would do under similar circumstances. Kill the bad guys of course. There are many heart pulling scenes of his poor little girl in the hospital. This drives Harrison on to be a better CIA analyst and nail the bad guys. It's all for the family.

There's a brief glazing over of the IRA/Northern Ireland angle but really the terrorists could have been anybody. The politics are not important. This is a revenge thriller. Someone takes a shot at Harrison Ford's family and you know he is going to take care of business. I liked it.

SCORE: 3 out of 4 rage-filled Fords