Warlords Of The Atlantis DVD Review

★★☆☆☆

“Warlords of Atlantis” is a pre-Star Wars Z sci-fi/fantasy film from the most famous director/actor collaborators of the genre Doug McClure and Kevin Connor and it’s there 3rd and last. It was also called “Warlords of the Deep” in some territories. You may recognize the name Doug McClure, Matt Groening was inspired by Doug for “The Simpsons” character Troy McClure.

“Warlords of Atlantis” is a bad 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea rip-off, which consists of a rag tag team of scientists/explorers who discover an ancient world under the sea. They meet these MARTIANS who live under the sea and also upsetting them they are taken capture and must find a way out of their predicament. They obviously escape somehow even though the diving bell they came down with has a hollow bottom. It magically doesn’t flood with water, explain that. Oh and the cat somehow lives…

The film is a truly awful but amusing piece of pre-Star Wars sci-fi/fantasy filmmaking with awful performances from everyone. However it does feature John Ratzenberger (known for his role on “Cheers”) who looks suspiciously like the actor who played the Replicant at the beginning of “Blade Runner” who says “I’ll Tell you about my mother” and until I checked IMDb I though it was that actor. It’s nice to see a film, which cheesy matte paintings that I wish more films now would use instead of CGI. The film’s lack of any sensible science really screws it up but it’s mildly entertainment for the film’s brisk running time.

Ian Schultz

Rating:PG
UK DVD Release: 30th July 2012
Directed By: Kevin Connor
Cast: Doug McClure, Peter Gilmore , Shane Rimmer
Buy:Warlords of Atlantis On DVD [1978]

The Night Porter Review

★★★1/2☆

The Night Porter is a very notorious cult classic that came out in 1974 directed by Liliana Cavani (Ripley’s Game). It’s a film that hasn’t age well in the proceeding years and tries to be a art film when it’s just a piece of exploitation cinema.

The story is about a Night Porter called Maxamilian (Dirk Bogarde) at a Vienna hotel, he has a dark secret he was a SS officer. He had a sadomasochistic relationship with a girl Lucia at a concentration camp, it’s suggested that she was Jewish but it’s never mentioned. Their history is all told in flashback though out the film. They rekindle their relationship many years later against a backdrop of a trial Max is about to face about his war crimes. However he has been meeting with old Nazi chums who are destroying evidence to get away clean. They eventually find out about the girl and want her dead so they hid away in a hotel room.

The film much of it’s time, it’s one of those 70s “art” films that on the edge of being a sex film or a serious art film for example I am Curious series. The film fails are both however it’s a rather interesting film about a woman despite what Max did to her still feels connected to him. Which is a rather daring story to tell. However it’s overly long would have worked a lot better a 90-minute thriller than it’s slightly less than 2 hour running time. Way many long shots of them stuck in this bedroom.

The acting by the 2 leads are quite good especially Dirk Bogarde pull off the complex role of a man who hates his past but also wants parts of it back. Charlotte Rampling’s performance as the girl Lucia is despite her great acting in flashback sequences is pretty bland, she just lying around a hotel room not doing a whole lot. The supporting cast of his Nazi chums are quite effective as well.

Overall it’s a fascinating if somewhat pretentious attempt to tell a fascinating serious story. However the Dirk Bogarde really saves it from being a bad film. It’s overly long and I rarely say that about a film. I could trim at least 20 minutes out and it would work better. It’s worth checking out but it’s not very shocking as some people may suggest.

Ian Schultz

Rating: 18
UK Re-release: 30th July 2012
Directed By:Liliana Cavani
Cast:Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling. Philippe Leroy
Buy: The Night PorterOn Blu-ray [1974]

Win The Night Porter On Blu-Ray

One of the most shocking and controversial movies ever made, The Night Porter (Anchor Bay) is a courageous and uncompromising piece of filmmaking that has come to be regarded as a classic of European cinema. This scintillatingly sexy story of forbidden love and the aphrodisiacal effects of decadence and cruelty comes to Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.

Available to buy on DVD and Blu-Ray on 30th July.  

Vienna, 1957. Max (Dirk Bogarde), a former Nazi concentration camp officer, is now employed as a respectable night porter at one of the city's most luxurious hotels. Still anguished by the guilt of his actions during the war, he attempts to relieve his conscience by devoting himself to his work while awaiting the upcoming trial of himself and his fellow Nazi officers. But one fateful evening Max's disturbing past catches up with him in the form of the beautiful and alluring Lucia (Charlotte Rampling). Now the wife of a respected American classical composer, almost 15 years earlier Lucia was a teenage concentration camp inmate and Max's lover in an aberrant sado-masochistic relationship. Bound by their memories and uncontrollably drawn to each other, Max and Lucia rekindle their bizarre love affair. But their future together becomes threatened by other ghosts from the past…

To celebrate today's release of The Night Porter on Blu-Ray courtesy of Anchor Bay we have 3 copies of the film to give away, to enter  we're not going to ask you a question just follow us at Twitter  and like us at Facebook (if you haven't done it already), Send us a quick email with your name, address with your twitter name and facebook name. E-mail them to cinehouseuk@gmail.com,deadline For The Competition is August 19th, 2012 (2359hrs).

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