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Comin' at Ya
Italy / Spain / USA 1981
produced by Tony Anthony, Gene Quintano (executive) for C.A.U. Productions
directed by Ferdinando Baldi
starring Tony Anthony, Gene Quintano, Victoria Abril, Ricardo Palacios, Lewis Gordon, Luis Barboo, Charly Bravo, Joaquín Gómez
story by Tony Pettito (= Tony Anthony), screenplay by Wolf Lowenthal, Lloyd Battista, Gene Quintano, music by Carlo Savina, special effects by Goffredo Unger
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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The old West: It should have been the happiest day for Hart (Tony
Anthony) and Abilene (Victoria Abril), as they were getting married in a
beautiful little ceremony ... but enter a bunch of outlaws led by brothers
Pike (Gene Quintano) and Polk (Ricardo Palacios), who shoot Hart and leave
him to die while they dake Abilene captive to sell her at the slave
market. Thing is, Hart doesn't die, and he's pretty good with the gun, and
he wants Abilene back. Now he knows going after the whole gang is too big
a risk - but going after the weakest link, Polk, actually proves to be a
walk in the park, and soon enough he has plucked him out of a desert
whorehouse, tortured him and made him his captive. And then he invites
himself to a sex slave auction at Pike's gang's headquarters and takes
Pike captive, figuring the gang would do nothing as long as he's in his
power ... but he's overpowered, and the whereabouts of Polk are tortured
out of him - and Pike pretty much arrives just on time before Polk is
literally eaten alive by a bunch of rats. Polk then wants to release his
anger on Hart and torture him to death ... but Polk's blind rage helps
Hart free himself, kill Polk, and then finally try to go after Pike to
free Abilene. But while Polk has been an utter idiot, Pike's actually a
clever man, and with Abilene as his hostage and his men in hiding, he
thinks he can create the ultimate death trap for Hart - but thie seems to
be a game where both players have multiple aces up their sleeves ... Comin'
at Ya is really a movie that carries its concept in its title - and it
doesn't disappoint on this front, either: Basically, Comin' at Ya
is credited with starting the 3D revival in the early 1980s, and the title
doesn't lie, during the film tons of things are coming at ya, from guns to
arrows to playing cards to yo-yos and everything in between. Back then, 3D
was seen pretty much as a gimmick (and in hindsight, deservedly so), and
its main purpose was to throw things at the audience to make them flinch
... and the film's just amazing about that! As opposed to 3D productions
from let's say the 2010s, it just uses the technique to thrill the
audiences by adding an extra layer of excitement to the
theatergoing-experience rather than to wow everyone with the prowess of
nowaday's CGI ... and that's great, really, as this way the audience gets
something out of the experience rather then asking themselves if the
premium ticket price was even worth it. Now all that's not to say Comin'
at Ya is a perfect movie, it's story, while not being dumbed down to
the point of annoying, is pretty simplistic even if it had been a
spaghetti Western from 15 years earlier, and probably wouldn't have been
greenlighted without it's 3D gimmick, and even the 3D effects are often
overdone - especially in the scene leading up to the finale where
everybody seems to be compelled to drop something onto the camera quite
leisurly, or a bat attack that made no sense at all, narratively. But at
the same time, the whole thing is at least directed with a feel for
atmosphere, and features plenty of suspense and exciting setpieces - so if
you're in for spectacle, and for the fun that 3D once has actually been,
then do yourself a favour by watching this movie!
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