FRIDAY AFTER NEXT (2002)--Directed by Marcus Raboy.  Stars Ice Cube, Mike Epps, John Witherspoon, Bebe Drake, K.D. Aubert.  If you're wondering whether sexist humor, racial stereotypes, drugs and homophobia are still appropriate fodder for comedy in the 21st century, FRIDAY AFTER NEXT is your answer.  As politically incorrect as it is loud, FRIDAY AFTER NEXT is the third in the FRIDAY series (following, imaginatively enough, FRIDAY and NEXT FRIDAY) and was written and co-produced by its star, rapper Ice Cube, under his Cube Vision banner (one source of entertainment is to count the number of times Mr. Cube's name pops up during the opening titles).  I have seen neither of the original FRIDAY movies, but I'm not sure it matters.  All that seems to be carried over from the other films are a few of the characters and a lot of racket.

Cousins Craig (Ice Cube) and Day-Day (Mike Epps) are rudely awakened early on Christmas Eve to discover a thieving Santa Claus in their ghetto apartment, swiping not only their presents, but also the rent money hidden in a stereo speaker.  The bumbling cops (including the movie's only white character) are little help, and neither is their shrill landlady (Bebe Drake), who gives them until the end of the day to pay up their back rent or else face the wrath of her just-released-from-prison son Damon.  The gag here is that, after twelve years in the joint, hulking Damon (Terry Crews) has forsaken women for scrawny men, and if the boys don't pay up, a brutal rape is in their future.  Nobody thought this was objectionable when it happened to Larry Miller in THE NUTTY PROFESSOR II (when his attacker was a, er, hamster), so it's difficult to slam director Marcus Raboy and Ice Cube for it.

The scanty plot gives the boys jobs as security guards at a rundown strip mall, where they interact with the rest of the cast, which includes their boss Moly (Maz Jobrani), who owns a donut shop (where, of course, the cops hang out instead of looking for the sticky-fingered Santa); pint-sized Money Mike (Katt Williams), a squeaky-voiced runt in pimp threads; his foxy girlfriend Donna (K.D. Aubert), the object of Craig's eye; and the boys' raucous families, who own a chicken-'n-rib joint ("So good, it makes you wanna slap yo' mama!").

Like BARBERSHOP, another urban comedy starring Ice Cube that came out just two months ago, the best parts of FRIDAY AFTER DARK involve the good-natured give-and-take among its characters, who, blood relatives or not, all make up a large dysfunctional family unit, best illustrated in a ribald party sequence at Craig and Day-Day's crib in which the whole cast gathers for booty-shaking and roughhousing.  Unlike BARBERSHOP, which was mostly gentle in its humor with realistic characterizations, Raboy's approach to the material is lumbering, the cinematic equivalent of Karloff fleeing the villagers with torches.  He and Ice Cube seem to have run out of ideas around the 70-minute mark and can think of no better way to wrap things up than with a long, pointless slapstick chase involving characters we haven't seen before and care nothing about.

To its credit, Raboy's film is never boring (at least not in its first hour or so) and offers some energetic, if not exactly subtle, performances.  Veteran standup comic John Witherspoon as Craig's flatulent father is particularly interesting to watch, projecting enough facial pyrotechnics and unabashed clowning to fuel two Jim Carrey vehicles and a Mantan Moreland film festival.  Ice Cube uses his solid screen presence to fine advantage, anchoring the craziness as assuredly as he did in BARBERSHOP, while Epps, picking up the slack caused by Chris Tucker's bailing out of the franchise after the first FRIDAY, looks like he studied at the Martin Lawrence Academy of Performing Arts, incorporating large enough dollops of eye-bugging, screeching and spastic activity to make one wonder whether he was replaced during shooting by a Muppet.

As crude as FRIDAY AFTER NEXT may be--and I'm talking about its clunky technical credits as much as its humor--it still contains enough solid silliness to make it a worthwhile matinee.  Its clever animated opening credits and perky Mickey-Mouse scoring by John Murphy open the picture with tremendous goodwill, and indeed the first half-hour or so contain enough fun to let you forgive the fact that it runs on fumes the rest of the way.  Just make sure you check your sensitivity at the door, since I haven't seen this many politically incorrect barbs since Dean Martin roasted Redd Foxx.

FRIDAY FOSTER (1975)--Directed by Arthur Marks.  Stars Pam Grier, Yaphet Kotto, Thalmus Rasulala, Paul Benjamin.  I don't think Pam has ever been sexier than as comic-strip fashion photographer Friday Foster in this last-gasp blaxploitationer from AIP.  In a change of pace from her previous roles as tough, streetwise mamas in COFFY and FOXY BROWN, Grier is softer and more vulnerable, trading romantic banter with her leading men and dressing up in designer duds.

On assignment for GLANCE magazine, Friday witnesses an assassination attempt on black billionaire Blake Tarr (Rasulala).  Her life is in danger too, after the killers realize that she snapped their photographs.  With the aid of her "main man" boyfriend, private eye Colt Hawkins (Kotto), Friday investigates a mysterious plot codenamed "Black Widow", a conspiracy to murder America's most influential black men--politicians, businessmen and clergymen.  Her pursuit takes her all the way to Washington, D.C., where she sleeps with a senator (Benjamin), and back to Los Angeles, where her best friend and her former boss (back when Friday worked as a model) are stabbed and shot in the back, respectively, before they can reveal the cold, hard truth about Black Widow.

Grier doesn't talk as tough as in her earlier AIP productions, but she still flashes her gorgeous body and engages in a series of chases, fights and violent encounters.  It's fun to see Pam acting playful and aiming a camera instead of a gun, but it's also true that Marks' film is not as good as the Jack Hill-directed action movies that made her a star.  FRIDAY FOSTER did not perform particularly well at the box office, despite the supporting cast, R rating and spirited action scenes, and when SHEBA, BABY also tanked the same year, Grier never again got to topline a major feature.  The name cast includes Godfrey Cambridge, Eartha Kitt, Jim Backus, Ted Lange, Carl Weathers, Scatman Crothers, Tierre Turner, Jason Bernard, Rosalind Miles and Julius Harris.  Luchi DeJesus provides the funk.  Script by Orville H. Hampton (THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE).

FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980)--Directed by Sean S. Cunningham.  Stars Adrienne King, Betsy Palmer, Kevin Bacon.  One of the most financially successful and influential horror films ever made.  Although technically not the very first "body count" film (I suppose 1964's Italian BLOOD AND BLACK LACE may have been the first), it was the first to reach a wide mainstream American audience via a major Hollywood distributor, Paramount.  Cunningham's ragged slasher has spawned ten sequels to date, as well as countless homages, ripoffs and parodies.  What's tricky about watching it today is trying to see it through 1980 eyes, when the storyline of vapid teenage camp counselors being systematically sliced and diced (courtesy of Tom Savini's makeup expertise) must have seemed fresh and exciting.  I didn't find the film to be terribly good, and it really plays more like a copy of F13, rather than the massively influential moneymaker that it is.

The plot is fairly simple, drawing as it does from a variety of influences, including PSYCHO, BLACK CHRISTMAS and the Italian horror movies of Dario Argento and Mario Bava.  Seven good-looking teens (presumably college aged) hire on to serve as summer camp counselors at Camp Crystal Lake, nicknamed "Camp Blood" by the locals because of a pair of unsolved murders that occurred there more than 20 years before that has left the facility abandoned until now.  Haunted by the camp's grisly legend, as well as the drowning death of a young boy named Jason Voorhees that happened a year before the murders, the seven kids decide to spend the two weeks before the campers are due to arrive drinking, getting high and having sex.  And by now, you all know what happens to teens who engage in that sort of activity in a remote area where a serial killer may be loose.

What's surprising about F13 all these years later is how tame Savini's gore effects seem.  Whereas they were quite notorious in 1980, leading to much controversy and protests, the FX were clearly cut somewhat to appease the MPAA and earn the film an R rating for Paramount.  He's done better work elsewhere, such as in the unrated MANIAC and DAWN OF THE DEAD, but those films were likely seen only by horror buffs.  Paramount's push and the R rating opened Savini's craft up to countless audiences who had probably never seen throats slit or bodies slashed with such graphic impunity, and the shocking death of one character who has his throat punctured by an arrow was probably quite a shocker to them.  F13's secret weapon may be Harry Manfredini, however, the composer whose "ch-ch-ch-ch ha-ha-ha-ha" score has since been copied to death.  Manfredini's music is very good and keeps one's nerves consistently jangled, even when not much is happening on screen.  That much of F13's success is due to Manfredini's music is clear when you consider he became typecast as a "horror composer" and was invited back for nearly all the sequels (Fred Mollin did Part 8 and Graeme Revell 2003's smash FREDDY VS. JASON, which pitted Voorhees against A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET monster Freddy Krueger [Robert Englund]).

FRIDAY THE 13TH does what it sets out to do--kill many young people in relatively shocking fashion--and it does so reasonably well.  The killer's revelation had long been spoiled for me (by SCREAM, if nothing else), and the very effective final shock was a staple of the period (see PHANTASM, CARRIE...) and was reenacted in I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, as well as FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2.  Film is also notable as one of Bacon's first films, although it's the perky King who is the star.  It was the 18th highest-grossing film of 1980.  Also with Harry Crosby (son of Bing), Laurie Bartram, Peter Brouwer, Mark Nelson, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan, Rex Everhart, Ronn Carroll, Irwin Keyes and Ari Lehman.  Filmed in New Jersey.  Screenwriter Victor Miller went on to become an Emmy-winning writer on ALL MY CHILDREN.  Associate producer Steve Miner made his directorial debut on PART 2 and continues to work steadily as a Hollywood director.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 (1981)--Directed by Steve Miner.  Stars Amy Steel, John Furey, Warrington Gillette, Kirsten Baker.  Even though FRIDAY THE 13th's denouement seemingly left the story with nowhere to go, new screenwriter Ron Kurz (EYES OF A STRANGER) and director Miner (a long-time associate of Sean Cunningham, who directed the first film) crafted an even better horror film than the trendsetting original.  PART 2 is better directed and contains more and better shocks.  The gore is less (Savini was replaced by Carl Fullerton, who likely went easy on the red stuff with an R rating in mind), but the murders are more interesting.  Plus, Steel, who plays the heroine, is a sharper (heh) and more sympathetic lead than F13's drippy Adrienne King.  Even though the story is more or less a retread of the first film, the final half-hour really is a barnburner, a suspenseful, even scary ride that kept me in suspense right down to its final shock.

PART 2 takes place, not at Camp Crystal Lake, but at the next summer camp down the road, where--gee whiz--more teenage counselors gather to prepare for the camp's grand opening and the arrival of this year's kids.  Once again, the counselors are bumped off one by one in variously bloody ways--a machete to the face, throat slashing, really any sharp instrument will do.  The killer is the deformed, psychotic and presumably indestructible Jason Voorhees (Gillette), who rips and tears his way through the cast out of revenge for his dead mother, whose head he keeps on the mantel inside his dilapidated shack.  There's little more to add, other than that PART 2 offers, besides a higher body count, a bit more nudity than the original (thanks to the pneumatic Baker), another terrific Harry Manfredini score and Connecticut locations.  Miner does a good job keeping the terror well-paced, and earned the right to direct the next sequel too.  Also with Adrienne King (reprising her role from the original F13), Stu Charno, Lauren-Marie Taylor, archive footage of Betsy Palmer and Walt Gorney back as Crazy Ralph.  Though not as financially successful as FRIDAY THE 13th, PART 2 did well enough to lead to a third movie, which was lensed in 3D and released during the summer of 1982.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III (1982)--Directed by Steve Miner.  Stars Dana Kimmell, Paul Kratka, Richard Brooker.  After flirting with the idea to use the process on its next STAR TREK film, Paramount instead decided to shoot its third FRIDAY THE 13TH thriller in 3D, an idea that led to it becoming one of the highest-grossing entries of the series.

On the day after the events of FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2, more young people head out to the Crystal Lake area to party, get high, have sex and die.  The Virgin Who Vanquishes Jason At The Climax is Chris (Kimmell), whose groovy van (complete with shag carpeting) contributes to the exciting finale, as it runs out of gas and threatens to fall through a wooden bridge with masked madman Jason Voorhees (Brooker) in foot pursuit.  Chris' comrades include her sex-crazed boyfriend (Kratka), a perpetually horny couple, a Latina, a fat nerd prankster and a racially diverse trio of bikers who pop into the story for the sole purpose of becoming Jason fodder.  The more creative gore effects include a spear in the eye and an eyeball being squeezed from its socket; that said, PART III is less gory than its predecessors.

In terms of story and structure, writers Martin Kitrosser and Carol Watson pretty much follow the tried-and-true formula created by Sean Cunningham in the 1980 original.  Characterization and logic go out the window and are replaced by a body count of a dozen or so.  What differentiates this sequel from the others is the 3D, which appears to have been well-handled by Miner (FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2), who shoves as much as he can into the camera lens, be it a sharp blade or a potful of popping corn.  I say "appears", since I have only seen the film in 2D on DVD; however, the novelty of seeing ordinary items thrust into my face for no apparent purpose whatsoever lends a campy sheen to the film, and Gerald Feil's cinematography is clear enough to enjoyed without the benefit of cardboard glasses (which is more than can be said for many 3D features of the era).

Harry Manfredini returns to score the proceedings, replacing his sinister-sounding main theme with a driving disco number that punctuates the in-your-face opening titles.  Betsy Palmer, Amy Steel and John Furey appear in flashback footage.  Also with Tracie Savage (later an award-winning Los Angeles TV news anchor), Larry Zerner, David Katims, Catherine Parks, Rachel Howard, Nick Savage, Jeffrey Rogers and director Miner as a newscaster.  Filmed in California, the third different location to represent the Crystal Lake area; fitting, perhaps, since Brooker was the third different actor to essay the Jason Voorhees role.  Paramount released FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER two years later, but you know better than to believe that, right?

FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER (1984)--Directed by Joseph Zito.  Stars Kimberly Beck, Corey Feldman, Peter Barton, Crispin Glover, Lawrence Monoson, Ted White, Joan Freeman.  A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!  You don't really believe this was the final FRIDAY THE 13TH, do you?  I doubt that Paramount thought so either, considering the film's hokey final scene.  Two things stand out about this fourth film of the FRIDAY franchise.  One is that it's gorier than parts 2 and 3, thanks to the return behind the camera of makeup effects guru Tom Savini, who created the bloody demises on the original F13 (and worked with director Zito on THE PROWLER).  Odder is that the film with the most professional and recognizable cast (up to that time at least) should also contain the least amount of characterization.  Barton, who had just come off a couple of network TV series (like THE POWERS OF MATTHEW STAR) and is billed as if he were the male lead, has perhaps the least amount of screen time among the main cast.

THE FINAL CHAPTER (snicker) opens the day after the events of PART III, meaning that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th films occur within the same week.  You'd think the local hospital would be a lot busier than it's shown to be.  Jason Voorhees (White, the fourth actor to portray the role), still wearing his signature hockey mask, is taken to the morgue, presumed dead following the bloodbath that closed PART III.  Fooled ya!  After "waking up" or whatever he did, he wipes out a pair of horny hospital workers and returns to the Crystal Lake area to kill even more young people.  These kids have rented a country home located across the road from the Jarvis family--pretty Trish (Beck), her little brother Tommy (Feldman) and their mother (Freeman).  The six college kids--four guys and two girls--as well as a fat hitchhiker, a camper and a pair of twin hotties, are no match for Jason, as he slashes, pokes, hacks and smashes his way through the cast, leaving only Trish (who doesn't skinny-dip or have sex, making her the obvious candidate for Final Girl status) and Tommy (not even Jason kills little kids...does he?) to stop his reign.

Barney Cohen's screenplay is nothing if not efficient, stripping away all but the bare essentials of a plot and giving the cast just enough to do to keep them from becoming bored with their characters.  The MPAA must have been more lenient with Paramount this time around, since more of Savini's creations are spared the cutting room floor.  Machetes smack into foreheads, bodies hang from doorframes, heads are smashed and bodies are gutted.  Zito also directs some nifty stunts, including a couple of high falls that appear as dangerous as they are thrilling.  In addition to the gore, FINAL CHAPTER offers more nudity than any of the previous films (although not, alas, Beck, who bared all in 1976's MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH).

Despite the promise of a "final chapter", Zito provides room for a sequel, which occurred just a year later.  Another lengthy precredit sequence provides flashback footage of Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Rex Everhart (FRIDAY THE 13TH), Amy Steel, Lauren-Marie Taylor, John Furey, Tom McBride (PART 2), Dana Kimmell, Nick Savage, Jeffrey Rogers (PART III) and others.  Also with Erich Anderson (who's still active in television guest shots), Bruce Mahler, Judie Aronson, Lisa Freeman, Wayne Grace, Barbara Howard, Alan Hayes and twins Camilla and Carey More.  Music by Harry Manfredini.  See Crispin Glover dance and make out!  Filmed in California and Minnesota.  Zito and Savini later teamed up on RED SCORPION.

FRIDAY THE 13TH: A NEW BEGINNING (1985)--Directed by Danny Steinmann.  Stars John Shepherd, Melanie Kinnaman, Shavar Ross, Carol Locatell, Ron Sloan.  Paramount took the FRIDAY THE 13TH in a new direction with the fifth entry in the profitable slasher series.  At the end of the previous film, subtitled THE FINAL CHAPTER (shyeahhhh, right...), madman Jason Voorhees appeared to be very clearly dead, hacked to bits and definitely unable to continue in additional movies.  The solution concocted by scripters Martin Kitrosser (who helped kill Jason in the fourth movie), David Cohen and Steinmann is not very satisfying, concocting some frankly ludicrous plot machinations that turn the increasingly bland franchise into an episode of SCOOBY-DOO.

Tommy Jarvis, 12 years old and played by Corey Feldman in THE FINAL CHAPTER, is now a teenager (Shepherd) suffering from psychological trauma as a result of the horror he experienced in that film.  He experiences bad dreams and hallucinations, and finds it difficult to relate to other human beings, choosing instead to remain a loner with just his homemade monster masks to keep him company.  His nightmares continue at his new home, a halfway house for trouble teens that happens to be located close to Crystal Lake, where Jason Voorhees was believed to have drowned nearly 30 years earlier.  Hours after Tommy's arrival, the killings begin again.  Bodies are torn, ripped, slashed and hacked apart by a mysterious killer with Jason's unique M.O.  But Jason is dead, right?

A NEW BEGINNING is among the weakest films of the franchise, despite one of the series' highest body counts (about 25) and boob counts (six).  Steinmann (SAVAGE STREETS) delivers a lot of killings all right, but they're neither creative nor gory.  Instead of Tom Savini, who provided THE FINAL CHAPTER with one of the series' wettest entries, special makeup effects artist Martin Becker was retained to sprinkle a bit of Karo syrup across the throats of the actors, instead of the horrifying sights that the slasher genre is expected to offer.  I'm not saying that blood and gore is the end all and by all of a good horror movie, but let's face it--we're not watching a FRIDAY THE 13TH movie for anything else.  Steinmann's direction offers little suspense or thrills, and is further weighted down by some of the franchise's worst performances, particularly Rocatell and Sloan as a hillbilly family that never saw a hunk of scenery it didn't like to chomp on.  Harry Manfredini is back as composer, although his formula appears to be wearing thin after five movies.  Stuntman Tom Morga portrays the killing machine who may or may not be Jason.  Also with Richard Young, Marco St. John, Debisue Voorhees, Caskey Swaim, Bob DeSimone, Rebecca Wood, Tiffany Helm and Dick Wieand.

FRIDAY THE 13TH, PART VI: JASON LIVES (1986)--Directed by Tom McLoughlin.  Stars Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke, C.J. Graham, David Kagan.  Onscreen title: JASON LIVES: FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI.  After the disappointing narrative of the fifth FRIDAY THE 13TH movie, which promised a "new beginning", Paramount brought in writer/director McLoughlin (ONE DARK NIGHT) to bring the series back to its basics and--most importantly--bring back its hockey-masked horror icon, machete-wielding Jason Voorhees.

Tommy Jarvis (Mathews), the emotionally disturbed young man played by Corey Feldman as a kid in the fourth movie and John Shepherd as a teen in the fifth, is still unable to put his memories of Jason's killing sprees behind him.  He chooses to exorcise his demons by visiting the Voorhees grave on a dark and stormy night in a witty precredit sequence that stands as one of the most thrilling and frightening scenes of any FRIDAY THE 13TH movie.  Tommy's plan doesn't quite work out the way he had hoped, as a bolt of lightning turns the maggot-ridden corpse of Jason into a pissed-off zombie, who leaps out of his coffin to resume mowing down the residents of Forest Green, the town formerly known as Crystal Lake.

While the frequent murders are just as bloodless as in A NEW BEGINNING, McLoughlin at least counterbalances the lack of gore (and nudity, for that matter) with a welcome sense of humor and a greater variety of gags, including the franchise's first car stunts.  Cooke is a terrific Final Girl, fun-loving and likable, and it's a shame that McLoughlin chose to focus more on the dour Tommy Jarvis character than her Megan, who's also the daughter of the local sheriff (Kagan) who believes Tommy is to blame for the sudden rash of deadness going on around Forest Green.  Harry Manfredini certainly seems rejuvenated, lending the atmospheric opening sequence a dramatic score that prepares the audience for a spooky thrill ride.  That the rest of the film, as interesting as it is, never quite lives up to its opening is not Manfredini's fault.  Look for WELCOME BACK, KOTTER star Ron Palillo (!) as a Jason victim.  Also with Renee Jones, Tony Goldwin, Tom Fridley, Alan Blumenfeld, Ann Ryerson and Darcy DeMoss.  Graham becomes the fifth different actor to portray Jason in six films.  Filmed in Georgia, which is why Camp Crystal Lake looks nothing like the Camp Blood of FRIDAY THE 13TH.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII--THE NEW BLOOD (1988)--Directed by John Carl Buechler.  Stars Lar Park Lincoln, Terry Kiser, Kane Hodder, Susan Blu.  Paramount skipped a year in its FRIDAY THE 13TH series, presumably because no Fridays in 1987 landed on the 13th day of the month.  Jason Voorhees (stunt coordinator Hodder) meets CARRIE this time, as the hockey-mask-wearing killing machine, last seen chained to a rock at the bottom of Crystal Lake, is once again resurrected from the dead to face a blond teen with telekinetic powers.  As a child, Tina (Lincoln, a regular on KNOTS LANDING at the time) accidentally killed her drunken wife-beater of a father just by wishing him dead.  Years later, Tina is undergoing psychiatric therapy under the tutelage of Dr. Crews (Kiser), whose brilliant idea of treatment is to take Tina and her mother (Blu) back to the Crystal Lake cabin where her trauma first began.  Wouldn't you know that the cabin next door is being rented out by a group of partying teens, who get high, have sex, argue and...well, you know what happens next, I reckon.

Continuity and plot logic are given short shrift in the screenplay by Daryl Haney (XTRO 3) and Manuel Fidello (presumably a pseudonym).  FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI established that the community of Crystal Lake had changed its name in an effort to forget its bloody past.  Plus it seems unlikely that the corpses of Jason and Tina's father would still be floating around the bottom of the lake all these years later.  That said, Buechler, a special makeup effects artist by trade who contributed to Jason's new look, as well as directing the film, manages to add a new twist or two to the FRIDAY formula, primarily ditching Jason's familiar hockey mask during the climax and showing off a creepy new visage akin to the rotting cadaver Jason actually was by that time (remember he was dead and buried at the open of PART VI).  The action is strictly formula stalk-and-slash; by the seventh entry, the basic plot still hadn't changed even an iota.

None of the performances are noteworthy, although Lincoln as the requisite Final Girl gives Jason a bit of a "what for", thanks to her FIRESTARTER powers.  THE NEW BLOOD offers slightly more gore and nudity than the previous film, although most of it was hacked out by the MPAA to get an R rating.  Filmed in Alabama, the sixth state to host one of these.  Also with Heidi Kozak, Elizabeth Kaitan, William Butler, Susan Jennifer Sullivan, Kevin Blair and Jennifer Banko.  With the next movie, in which Jason invaded New York City, Hodder became the first performer to play Jason in back-to-back films.  He played Jason four times altogether, before director Ronny Yu replaced him in FREDDY VS. JASON.  Fred Mollin takes over composing chores from Harry Manfredini after six films, although some of Manfredini's cues from PART VI were used on the soundtrack.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN (1989)--Directed by Rob Hedden.  Stars Jensen Daggett, Peter Mark Richman, Kane Hodder.  "Jason takes Manhattan"--that's a joke.  It takes about 70 minutes for the action to come anywhere near New York City, and when it finally does, the back alleys and backlots of Toronto fill in for the Big Apple.  A few shots of menacing masked madman Jason Voorhees (Hodder) roaming Times Square are impressive, but too few too late to save the last and worst of Paramount's FRIDAY THE 13TH thrillers.

Somehow, through some truly idiotic plot machinations courtesy of writer/director Hedden, Jason finds himself escaping his watery grave at the bottom of Crystal Lake and on a cruise ship bound for New York City.  Well, it isn't really a cruise ship, it's actually a rusty old freighter, and the only passengers aboard are a (unusually small) group of high-school graduates and their very uptight teacher (Richman).  Our heroine is Rennie (Daggett), who has an unnatural fear of the water, thanks to being tossed into Crystal Lake as a child and pulled under by a ten-year-old Jason.  Never mind that, according to the FRIDAY THE 13TH chronology, Jason was ten years old thirty years before this movie could have taken place, although all eight Paramount features play pretty loosely with continuity.  The usual slash-and-hack antics ensue until a handful of survivors manage to row (!) their way past the Statue of Liberty, only to meet up with Jason again in the sewers armed with a barrel of toxic waste!

While PART VIII is truly too stupid for words, I believe that it would probably have a better reputation if it hadn't overpromised and underdelivered.  If you make a film called JASON TAKES MANHATTAN and design the trailers and one-sheets in such a way that audiences expect Jason to, well, "take" Manhattan, you'd better not spend an hour on a cheap-looking ship and another half-hour on unconvincing Canadian sets.  The New York City setting is the only thing that sets this entry apart from the others; the script, acting and gore effects are routine at best.  Not even the score is worth listening for, since Fred Mollin replaced Harry Manfredini's familiar "ch-ch-ch-ch ha-ha-ha-ha" with a bland synth score.

Not surprisingly, this was the end of the line for Jason as far as Paramount was concerned.  New Line bought the franchise and delivered the under whelming JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY in 1993 and JASON X in 2001, but it wasn't until 2003's monster hit FREDDY VS. JASON, which pit the familiar hockey-masked legend against A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET wiseguy Freddy Krueger, that the FRIDAY THE 13TH franchise scored its all-time biggest success.  Also with Vincent Dupree, Barbara Bingham, Scott Reeves, Gordon Currie and Kelly Hu (X-MEN 2).

FRIGHT NIGHT (1985)--Directed by Tom Holland. Stars William Ragsdale, Chris Sarandon, Roddy McDowall, Amanda Bearse. Atmospheric and genuinely scary horror film mixes a generous helping of laughs with the gore. Teenager Ragsdale suspects his new neighbor (Sarandon) of being a vampire. Girlfriend Bearse is skeptical--that is, until Sarandon kidnaps her. Ragsdale goes to TV horror film host Peter Vincent (McDowall in an homage to horror movie legends Peter Cushing and Vincent Price) for help in getting her back. Sarandon is a terrifically sexy and scary vampire. Richard Edlund provided the eye-popping visual effects. Holland's directorial debut was followed by FRIGHT NIGHT II.

FROM BEYOND (1986)--Directed by Stuart Gordon.  Stars Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Ted Sorel, Ken Foree.  The makers of RE-ANIMATOR (minus Bruce Abbott) try to make lightning strike twice.  It doesn’t entirely work, because Gordon, producer Brian Yuzna and the cast refuse to take the follow-up far enough.  Gordon’s hesitance to plumb the gory, kinky depths that made RE-ANIMATOR a popular and critical success really sinks FROM BEYOND, as technically well-made as it may be.  Mad doctor Pretorius (Sorel) invents a “Resonator,” which allows murderous creatures from another dimension to cross over and munch down on us here on Earth.  The doctor is killed when one of them eats his head, and his assistant, Crawford Tillingham (Combs), is accused of his murder and committed to an asylum.  Psychiatrist Katherine (Crampton) believes Tillingham’s story, however, and returns to the Resonator, along with cop Bubba (Foree), to continue Pretorius’ experiments.  Filmed at Empire Pictures’ Roman studio, FROM BEYOND is entertaining, occasionally gory fun that at least doesn’t forget to take Crampton’s clothes off.  Combs and Foree (DAWN OF THE DEAD) keep their genre fandoms alive and kicking with their amusing performances.  But there’s nothing here to rival the most memorable scenes in RE-ANIMATOR.  Sorel’s role seems tailor-made for David Gale; I wonder why he wasn’t cast.  Based somewhat loosely on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft.  Music by Richard Band.

FROM DUSK TILL DAWN (1996)--Directed by Robert Rodriguez. Stars Harvey Keitel, George Clooney, Quentin Tarentino, Juliette Lewis. Full-throttle, blood-flowing, ass-kicking horror flick capitalizing on the hyper-kinetic style of director Rodriguez and a quirky, fast-moving and frequently funny screenplay by Tarantino, who also co-executive produced and plays a leading role. Psycho brothers Seth (Clooney, still on TV's ER at the time) and Richie Gecko (Tarantino) are on the run to Mexico after robbing a bank and killing a number of cops and hostages. They hijack a motor home containing a minister (Keitel, who delivers an excellent understated performance), who has recently started to question his faith following the death of his wife, and his two teenage children played by Lewis and newcomer Philip Liu (why Keitel has one child of Chinese heritage is never explained). After a close call at the Mexican border, the party of five heads for a sleazy desert roadhouse called the Titty Twister, a filthy rundown pit catering to bikers, truckers and malcontents, where Clooney is to meet his underworld contact. The second half of the film is basically one bloody set piece as the group discovers the Titty Twister is inhabited by vicious vampires, which prey upon the bar's customers for their intake of human blood.

Robert Kurtzman's KNB Group wrings every last penny out of its special effects budget with exploding heads, spurting veins, detached limbs and other gross-out FX skillfully rendered. References to ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, HORROR OF DRACULA, etc. abound as Rodriguez and Tarantino pay homage to their favorite exploitation films. Clooney takes advantage of his big-screen leading man debut by investing Seth Gecko with a generous amount of charisma, although some may be disturbed at the film's portrayal of a vicious robber and murderer as a hero to be rooted for. And what a classic exploitation cast: Michael Parks, Fred "The Hammer" Williamson and makeup FX guru Tom Savini have a terrific time in their best roles in years, Cheech Marin plays three different characters (!), John Saxon and Kelly Preston appear in brief cameos, and sexy Mexican soap star Salma Hayek delivers a scantily-clad snake dance ten times as erotic as anything in SHOWGIRLS. May be too gory for mainstream fans, but horror buffs should embrace it as the fun-filled, big-screen bloodbath that recent studio filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola, Kenneth Branaugh and Neil Jordan didn't have the guts to make.

FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2: TEXAS BLOOD MONEY (1999)--Directed by Scott Spiegel. Stars Robert Patrick, Bo Hopkins, Duane Whitaker, Brett Harrelson. Straight-to-video sequel really has very little to do with Robert Rodriguez's 1996 bank-robbers-vs.-vampires flick. It also isn't terribly original, repeating a number of ideas, concepts and even shots from the original, but it certainly isn't dull, and horror fans should be entertained. Redneck bank robber Patrick teams up with escaped con Whitaker (who co-wrote the screenplay with Spiegel) and three other buddies to rob a Mexican bank. Along the way, Whitaker stops off at a sleazy roadhouse called the Titty Twister (the scene of the original film's mayhem), and is turned into a vampire. This leads to other cast members becoming members of the undead with unquenchable thirsts for blood and a gory action-packed standoff between the robbers and police, led by Texas sheriff Hopkins (who must have had a few WILD BUNCH flashbacks). Spiegel, a longtime friend and collaborator of Sam Raimi (THE EVIL DEAD), reaches deep into the Raimi handbook in an effort to liven up the proceedings, placing the camera inside beer coolers, shotgun barrels, electric fans and even beneath a cowboy hat. The camera trickery grows tiresome after a while, but you have to like the energy generated by Spiegel and his cast. Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino served as executive producers for this Dimension release. Also with Muse Watson, Raymond Cruz, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen and Bruce Campbell in cameos and Spiegel as a porn-film director. Dick Dale and Davie Allen and the Arrows contributed some of the very cool surf-rock tunes to the soundtrack. Look for FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 3: THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER, a prequel set in the 19th century.

FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 3: THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER (2000)--Directed by P.J. Pesce. Stars Marco Leonardi, Michael Parks, Rebecca Gayheart, Ara Celi, Temuera Morrison, Lennie Lofton. This prequel to the original FROM DUSK TILL DAWN is structured exactly like its parent, right down to its 1st-half-its-a-western-2nd-half-a-gory-vampire-flick outline, setting of a dusty Mexican cantina called the Titty Twister, and use of a killer and a grizzled father figure as its heroes. In 1914, outlaw Johnny Madrid (Leonardi) escapes from the gallows, and is pursued into the desert by the vicious, scarred hangman (Morrison) and his posse. Madrid is accompanied by his gang and the hangman's gorgeous daughter Esmeralda (Celi). Temporarily escaping the hangman's clutches, Madrid's gang holds up a stagecoach containing a pair of missionaries (Lofton, Gayheart) and alcoholic author Ambrose Bierce (Parks), who's on his way to join Pancho Villa's troops. All the characters eventually end up at the Titty Twister, which is run by vampires hungry for a nights meal.

Gore fans should be happy with the frequent bloodletting (The KNB Group did especially fine work on a face which is blown off its skull by a shotgun blast), but the film's biggest thrill is a surprisingly strong performance by Parks (THEN CAME BRONSON), who was equally as memorable as a murdered Texas Ranger in the original DAWN. Parks's laconic delivery makes the most of the screenplay's best lines, and it's wonderful to see this veteran actor tear into such a meaty role. Robert Rodriguez, who directed and co-wrote the first DAWN, and Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote and starred in it, serve as executive producers, with Rodriguez also penning the story with his brother Alvaro, who soloed on the screenplay. Music by Nathan Barr. Also with Danny Trejo (reprising his role as tough bartender Razor Blade Charlie), Sonia Braga, Orlando Jones and Jordana Spiro. Director Pesce is credited as Man in Bar, although his scene was left on the cutting room floor (this has apparently been reinstated for the DVD). Filmed in South Africa in 1997 on a $10 million budget, DAWN 3 was released directly to the video market in early 2000.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963)--Directed by Terence Young. Stars Sean Connery, Daniela Bianchi, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya, Pedro Armendariz. Second go-round for Connery as James Bond. This time 007 is assigned to escort a defecting Soviet agent (Bianchi) to safety, but a SPECTRE assassin (Shaw) plans to kill them both in an effort to discredit both sides. Bianchi isn't much of an actress, but she's a fetching heroine. Lenya is creepy as SPECTRE's Rosa Klebb, and Martine Beswicke appears as a gypsy. One of the best in the Bond series features very little of the exotic gadgetry that was soon to characterize the Bond films. The highlight is a brutal fight between Connery and Shaw on a train that was skillfully edited by Peter Hunt and terribly edited for television. Taut screenplay by Richard Maibaum. Music by John Barry. Theme performed by Matt Monro.

FROM THE HIP (1987)—Directed by Bob Clark.  Stars Judd Nelson, Elizabeth Perkins, John Hurt.  Although this ludicrous legal drama looks as though it were written by someone who didn’t even know where the local courthouse was located, much less been inside a courtroom, it was actually David E. Kelley’s first produced screenplay.  Television producer Steven Bochco liked Kelley’s script so much, he invited the Boston attorney to join the writing staff of L.A. LAW.  From there, Kelley blossomed into one of TV’s most heralded writer/producers, launching such shows as THE PRACTICE, PICKET FENCES, CHICAGO HOPE, BOSTON PUBLIC, ALLY MCBEAL and BOSTON LEGAL.

Weathers is supposed to be some sort of anti-hero, a blue-collar sort who finagled his way into the big time, but he’s actually something of a cheat and a scoundrel, although charming Perkins works very hard as his girlfriend to convince us that he’s a lovable sort—if she loves him, how can we not?  I didn’t believe any of the outrageous courtroom antics, which Kelley is still trying to pull off on television twenty years later.  I loved the supporting cast however:  Darren McGavin, Nancy Marchand and Allan Arbus as the law partners, Dan Monahan (Peewee from Clark’s PORKY’S) and David Alan Grier as Nelson’s prankster buddies, Edward Winter as Nelson’s oily first client, Ray Walston as the slow-burning judge, Art Hindle as a cop, and Hurt, who brings a touch of terror to what is essentially a very light film.  FROM THE HIP and Nelson’s previous star turn, BLUE CITY, were flops with critics and the public, and he never again headlined a major studio film.

THE FUGITIVE (1993)--Directed by Andrew Davis. Stars Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones, Jeroen Krabbe, Andreas Katsulas, Sela Ward. Strong performances by Ford and Jones anchor this box-office blockbuster based on the 1963-67 TV series starring David Janssen. Ford takes the Janssen role as Richard Kimble, a Chicago physician who is wrongly convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of his wife (Ward). In a spectacular sequence, the bus transporting Kimble to prison collides with a train, and Kimble is freed. He sets out on a frantic search for the one-armed man (Katsulas) he suspects of being the real killer, while being pursued by obsessive FBI agent Gerard (Jones in the Barry Morse role). Tight direction by Davis and a character-driven plot by writers David Twohy and Jeb Stuart made this a favorite with critics and audiences. Jones won a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar; film was nominated for Best Picture.

FUGITIVE MIND (1999)--Directed by Fred Olen Ray.  Stars Michael Dudikoff, Michele Greene, Heather Langenkamp, Barry Newman.  Ray's low-budget films are almost always cheap-looking and filled with familiar supporting players, but this SF/action hybrid is surprisingly boring too.  Dudikoff stars as a regular Joe with a nice suburban home, a pretty wife (Greene) and a decent job as maintenance man for the GenCom Corporation.  At least, that's what he thinks.  A few bad dreams start to jog some old memories, as he slowly comes to realize he's the victim of GenCom brainwashing, much like Arnold Schwarzenegger in TOTAL RECALL.  He's actually Robert, an ex-Special Forces officer and derelict who has been manipulated into assassinating a powerful senator at the behest of GenCom chief Newman (VANISHING POINT).  The sets are flimsy, the shooting schedule quick, the action dull, and the story pointless, but you might get a kick out of seeing Greene (L.A. LAW), Langenkamp (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET), BUCK ROGERS star Gil Gerard (who probably wore his own clothes, since he never changes them), Ian Ogilvy (AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS), John Putch, Gabriel Dell, Robert Quarry, David Hedison, Judson Scott, Kim Ray and Richard Gabai.

FULL TILT BOOGIE (1997)--Directed by Sarah Kelly. Stars George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Juliette Lewis, Michael Parks, Harvey Keitel. This entertaining if not particularly illuminating documentary chronicles the behind-the-scenes activities of the cast and crew involved in the making of FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, the 1996 vampire flick which provided Clooney (THREE KINGS) with his first major film lead. FDTD, which was co-written and co-produced by co-star Tarantino and directed by Robert Rodriguez (THE FACULTY), was made on a ten-week shooting schedule on a soundstage and on California desert locations. Kelly, a production assistant on the Tarantino-produced KILLING ZOE, followed the cast and crew around filming the on-stage work as well as the off-stage shenanigans. Oddly, she chose to focus mostly on the little people like the craft service guy, the grips, the electricians and even the stars' personal assistants rather than the marquee names. Whether this was a deliberate choice made by Kelly to differentiate her documentary from similar puff pieces or she just wasn't allowed contact with the stars (Keitel refused to participate at all before finally relenting to a ten-minute interview conducted by Tarantino rather than Kelly), FULL TILT BOOGIE benefits from the blue-collar point of view, providing a glimpse at the people who are so important to a film's production, yet are rarely given a chance in the spotlight. If you've ever wanted to see Clooney practice his Danny Thomas impression or listen to Tarantino brag he could have sex with any woman he wanted, this is the movie for you. Also with Fred Williamson, who talks a bit about his own experience as an independent filmmaker; FDTD producer Lawrence Bender; Rodriguez, who mostly strums his guitar in silence; and an interesting subplot concerning the (non-union) film's problems with IATSE. Oddly absent is Salma Hayek, so memorable in DAWN as snake-dancing Satanico Pandemonium.

THE FUNHOUSE (1981)--Directed by Tobe Hooper.  Stars Elizabeth Berridge, Cooper Huckabee, Miles Chapin, Largo Woodruff, Kevin Conway, Wayne Doba.  Hooper, who spent much of this era getting fired from horror projects like THE DARK and VENOM, puts together a reasonably creepy film this time out.  I wish it didn't take so long to get started, but once it does, the scares and edgy atmosphere are top-notch Tobe.

Four dope-toking teenagers, including cute virgin Amy (Berridge, who ironically provides the film's only nudity) and her lunky date Buzz (Huckabee), visit a traveling carnival passing through their small Iowa town and get the bright idea to spend the night in its funhouse after closing.  There they witness a murder committed by the hideous mutant son (mime Doba) of the carnival's brutish barker (Conway), and spend the rest of the running time being stalked through the funhouse's dark hallways and secret passages.

It takes nearly forty minutes for the kids to reach the funhouse, a pacing problem that Hooper attempts to spice up with a few cheap scares that aren't much of a warm-up for the real thing.  But if you can hold out that long, THE FUNHOUSE manages to deliver down the stretch.  The producers found an actual carnival dating back to the 1940's and transported it to their Florida studios, so there's no questioning the film's accurately squalid setting and tone.  The makeup by Rick Baker and Craig Reardon add some punch to the second-half scares, which often play out like a remake of Hooper's TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, right down to the screaming heroine and Conway's inbred family of carnies.  Also with William Finley, Sylvia Miles and Shawn Carson.  Music by John Beal.

FUNNY FARM (1988)--Directed by George Roy Hill. Stars Chevy Chase, Madolyn Smith, Joseph Maher, Brad Gilpin. Easygoing comedy stars Chase as a big-city sportswriter who decides to move with his wife (Smith) to the country to concentrate on writing a serious novel. Lots of funny slapstick sequences occur. Gentler than most of Chase's comedies.

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF TENNESSEE BUCK (1988)--Directed by David Keith. Stars David Keith, Kathy Shower, Brant von Hoffman, Sydney Lassick. Keith directed and stars in the dull adventure as an adventurer hired by wealthy von Hoffman to guide him and his wife Shower on a jungle safari. Keith and Shower fall in love when he saves her from ruthless cannibals. Former PLAYBOY Playmate of the Year Shower has a couple of good nude scenes, which is about all that this dud has going for it. Filmed in Sri Lanka. Thank goodness this was the final adventure of Tennessee Buck.

THE FURY (1978)--Directed by Brian DePalma. Stars Andrew Stevens, Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Amy Irving. Lots of action, gore, and DePalma's typical camera tricks enliven this thriller about a young man with telekinetic powers (Stevens) who is kidnapped by evil spy Cassavetes for his own insidious purposes. Good spy/father Douglas rescues Stevens, and Cassavetes blows up real good. John Farris' script exists as a clothesline for the various violent set pieces. Also with Charles Durning and Carrie Snodgress. Look for Jim Belushi as an extra in Irving's boardwalk scene; he appears three or four times! Rick Baker performed the makeup effects.

FURY OF THE CONGO (1951)--Directed by William Berke.  Stars Johnny Weissmuller, Bill Henry, Sherry Moreland, Joel Friedkin.  Jungle Jim (Weissmuller) rescues a man named Cameron (Henry) from a plane crash.  Cameron claims to be a cop in search of a scientist from Cairo who went missing in the Congo while researching a rare animal species known as the Okongo (actually brown ponies unconvincingly painted with white stripes).  The professor, Dunham (Friedkin), has actually been kidnapped by white drug dealers and forced to manufacture a narcotic using the glandular fluids of the Okongo.  Jim helps Cameron track the Okongo, the idea being that where they find the animals, they’ll also find Dunham.  However, Jim didn’t count on Cameron not being who he claims to be, nor getting ambushed by a tribe of native women angry that their husbands were kidnapped by white men.

Producer Sam Katzman recycles footage from earlier Jungle Jim movies of Weissmuller fighting a leopard and swinging over a chasm.  New is the star’s “battle” with a giant desert spider, possibly the nadir of the entire Jungle Jim series.  This is one anemic spider, and even though it’s supposed to be dragging Jim across some rocks, it’s obvious that Weissmuller is pushing himself towards the mangy hairball doubling as the killer arachnid.  There’s a lot of running in this movie, and Berke shoots some scenes on location at Vasquez Rocks.  Also with Lyle Talbot, John Hart, George Eldridge and Randy Wescoatt.  This was the sixth in the series, after JUNGLE JIM IN PYGMY ISLAND.  JUNGLE MANHUNT was next.

FUTURE FORCE (1990)--Directed by David A. Prior.  Stars David Carradine, Anna Rapagna.  Carradine is the star of this Alabama-lensed SF movie as John Tucker, a government-sponsored bounty hunter in the near future with the jurisdiction to act as judge, jury and executioner, if need be.  A TV reporter named Marion (Rapagna) is framed for murder after she announces on the air her upcoming expose on police corruption, but when Tucker agrees to take her in to face trial, rather than killing her, they both become targets of assassination.  This Action International picture is pretty lousy, despite its interesting gimmick of giving Tucker a detachable robot arm that fires lasers and can fly.  It occurred to me that Carradine is blowing through this thing using a John Wayne impression, even duplicating the Duke's familiar gait, but what I don't understand is why the filmmakers would come up with the idea of the laser-shooting robot arm and then never use the darn thing.  At one point, Carradine walks into what he knows is a trap and ends up in a firefight with four men...so why did he leave the bionic arm locked in the back of his Jeep?  Robert Tessier and Dawn Wildsmith add support to this disposable cheapie.  The better sequel was filmed as FUTURE FORCE II, but released as FUTURE ZONE.

FUTURE HUNTERS (1986)--Directed by Cirio H. Santiago.  Stars Robert Patrick, Linda Carol, Richard Norton.  Here’s one of the strangest movies I’ve seen in awhile.  It feels like director Santiago was playing a game and attempting to make a movie with every exploitable element he could think of.  At various points, FUTURE HUNTERS is a post-apocalypse movie, a time-travel movie, a jungle movie, a kung fu movie and a biker movie.  It has futuristic ROAD WARRIOR cars, a mystical spear dating back to Christ, Nazis, scantily clad Amazon women, an alligator pit, a fight to the death, lame miniature effects, blatant continuity errors, Mongols, an exploding helicopter, exploding cars, an exploding airplane, an exploding house, an exploding temple, a wizened old kung fu master (played by a young man) with a long white beard and a gaggle o’ midgets.  Bruce Le (CHALLENGE OF THE TIGER) even shows up for a barely related martial arts battle.

Forty years after the apocalypse turned the world into an arid wasteland, Matthew (Norton) races across the desert to reach an abandoned temple containing the lost Spear of Longinus.  It’s the same spear that pierced the skin of Christ on the cross, and Matthew plans to use it to (somehow) travel back in time and prevent the big war.  He gets the spear and uses it to travel to 1986, where he passes it off to a pretty anthropologist (Carol) and her complaining boyfriend Poindexter (!) Slade (Patrick).  Matthew dies saving Carol from rapist bikers (!), and after she and Slade are later attacked by Nazis who want the spear for nefarious purposes, the couple pursues them into a lost jungle. 

Santiago keeps the pace up by changing the setting every ten minutes, even though everywhere from Los Angeles to Hong Kong was shot around Manila.  There’s enough action and weirdness to keep you watching, if only to find out what wacky mayhem happens next.  One way to guess is to remember what Hollywood movies were popular in the early 1980’s; this one rips off RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, ROMANCING THE STONE, THE ROAD WARRIOR, THE TERMINATOR and RETURN OF THE JEDI, among others.

FUTURE ZONE (1990)--Directed by David A. Prior.  Stars David Carradine, Ted Prior, Patrick Culliton.  This might be the first David Prior film that I sort of liked.  I didn't like it a lot--for one thing, it wastes one tremendous concept, which I'll get to in a moment--but it's more professional-looking than other Prior films I've seen, and it has a nice leading performance by Carradine.  He's John Tucker of the Civilian Operated Police, operating out of Mobile, Alabama (where Prior's Action International Pictures had its home base) sometime in the future.  It can't be too far into the future, since, aside from a few cheapo electronic touches, like television phones, the setting looks a lot like 1990 in terms of automobiles, fashions and hairstyles.

COPs operate sort of like bounty hunters, and Tucker is on the trail of a baddie named Hoffman (Culliton).  He finds himself accidentally teamed up with a hotshot named Billy (the director's brother Ted), who's just as fast with a six-shooter as John.  What we figure out early on and Tucker doesn't is that his callow young partner is his son, who has traveled backwards in time to prevent his parents' death by Hoffman's hand.  His mother Marion is portrayed by associate producer Gail Jensen, who was Carradine's real-life wife and not much of an actress.

FUTURE ZONE was filmed as FUTURE FORCE II, but aside from Carradine, doesn't carry much over from that 1989 film.  One aspect that was present in FUTURE FORCE is Tucker's robot arm, which actually fits over his real arm and can shoot powerful electrical and explosive beams.  For some reason, even when Tucker is trapped in a firefight against ten men and armed only with a pair of six-shooters, he chooses to leave his super-cool robot arm locked in the trunk of his Blazer.  Maybe he thinks using the robot arm isn't "playing fair" or that he only pulls it out on special occasions.  All I know is that if I had a gimmick-filled robot arm to use as a weapon, I wouldn't enter any bad guy's lair without it.

The robot arm and the concept of a vigilante police force are the only SF accoutrements in David Prior's screenplay, which otherwise plays out like a standard action movie.  Carradine is relaxed and seems to be enjoying being a tough guy.  His presence also seems to have mellowed out Ted Prior, who has a nice rapport with his fatherly co-star.  Plenty of gunfire, explosives and car stunts make FUTURE ZONE an amiable viewing.  I sure woulda liked to have seen more of that robot arm though.  Also with Charles Napier, Danielle Lamprakes, Renee Cline and former Captain Marvel Jackson Bostwick.  William T. Stromberg's score sounds as though it came out of an old '50s monster movie.

FUTUREWORLD (1976)--Directed by Richard T. Heffron. Stars Peter Fonda, Blythe Danner, Arthur Hill, John P. Ryan. Scientist Ryan has a plan to replace the world's leaders with exact robot duplicates. Reporters Fonda and Danner, on a tour of the Delos amusement park featured in WESTWORLD, discover Ryan's plan and find that they, too, are marked for replacement. Good production values in this fun sequel. Also with Stuart Margolin, PASSWORD host Allen Ludden and Yul Brynner in a brief reprise of his haywire gunfighter robot from WESTWORLD.

FUZZ (1972)--Directed by Richard A. Colla.  Stars Burt Reynolds, Tom Skerritt, Raquel Welch, Jack Weston, Yul Brynner.  Evan Hunter, under his familiar pen name of Ed McBain, began writing novels about Detective Steve Carella and the fictional 87th Precinct of Isola in 1956, a series of police procedurals that continues to be published under the McBain banner nearly fifty years later.  One of the most popular was 1968's FUZZ, which introduced Carella's arch-nemesis, an extraordinarily clever and vicious criminal known only as The Deaf Man.

Hunter wrote the screenplay for Filmways' adaptation of FUZZ, which accurately captures the chaotic camaraderie and the plodding lead-chasing that goes into typical police work.  Clearly influenced by the works of Robert Altman and William Friedkin, FUZZ presents an offbeat squad of Boston detectives involved in a variety of crimes, some serious, others not so.  Besides a mysterious terrorist nicknamed The Deaf Man (Brynner) who's assassinating various Boston political figures, the 87th Precinct investigates a serial rapist, liquor store holdup men, teenagers setting fire to holdup men, and the disappearance of office supplies from their own station house.

While Hunter's screenplay manages an even balance between the character-based humor and intricate mystery aspects that highlight his novels, director Colla keeps the pace rapid and the atmosphere of the squadroom properly gritty and hectic.  Reynolds is miscast as the Carella of the novels (Robert Lansing, who played Carella in the 1960-61 TV series, is whom I picture), but is always at home in this type of lighthearted cop role, and works well with Weston (as Meyer Meyer) and Skerritt (as Bert Kling).  Turner Classic Movies' Robert Osborne claims Welch (as undercover operative Eileen Burke) refused to share scenes with Reynolds (the two reportedly didn't get along while shooting 1969's 100 RIFLES), but they do in fact appear together in the squadroom.  FUZZ's black comic tone won't appeal to everybody, but it fits snugly within the anti-police attitudes of the era and provides an entertaining film.  Also with Dan Frazer, Peter Bonerz, Tamara Dobson, James McEachin, Steve Ihnat, Stewart Moss, Bert Remsen, Royce Applegate, Britt Leach, Norman Burton, Don Gordon, Brian Doyle-Murray, Albert Popwell, Neile Adams, Richard Stahl, Charles Martin Smith and Uschi Digard.  Score by Dave Grusin; Dinah Shore performs the closing theme. 

F/X (1986)--Directed by Robert Mandel. Stars Bryan Brown, Brian Dennehy, Diane Venora, Jerry Orbach. Implausible but fun thriller about a movie special-effects expert (Brown) who is hired by the Justice Department to fake the assassination of a mobster/expert witness (Orbach). If the mob believes Orbach to be dead, it'll make him easier to protect before his testimony in court. However, Brown is double-crossed and framed for murder, and must rely on his effects (or F/X) mastery to keep him alive. Dennehy is the investigating detective. Inventive script contains many twists and turns, and Cliff DeYoung and Mason Adams are properly slimy as the Justice Department officials.

F/X 2: THE DEADLY ART OF ILLUSION (1991)--Directed by Richard Franklin. Stars Bryan Brown, Brian Dennehy. William Condon (GODS AND MONSTERS) scripted this more complex but slightly less fun sequel reteaming special-effects man Brown and detective Dennehy. This time the McGuffin is a Vatican coin collection, and both cops and killers are pursuing the duo. LANCER star James Stacy, who lost an arm and a leg in a motorcycle accident, plays a film-within-the-film cyborg. Also with Rachel Ticotin, Joanna Gleason, Kevin J. O'Connor and Philip Bosco.