Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Ironmaster
Collapse
X
Collapse
-
Ironmaster
Ironmaster
Released by: 88 Films
Released on: November 14th, 2017.
Director: Umberto Lenzi
Cast: Sam Pasco, George Eastman, Elvire Audray, Pamela Prati, Jacques Herlin, Danilo Mattei
Year: 1983
The Movie:
Set 'at the dawn of time,' Umberto Lenzi's Ironmaster introduces us to Ela (Sam Pasco), a barbarian that runs afoul of a man named Vood (George Eastman). Why is this a problem? Vood has learned how to use fire to create steel and how to use steel to commit murder - more specifically he kills the tribe's chief!
Vuud is kicked out, but manages to put together a rag tag group of subordinates who live with him at the base of a volcano - which makes creating blades reasonably easy by the standards of the era. Now jutting about dressed with a goofy (and amusingly fake looking) lion's head atop his dome, Vood is bound and determined to kill off the other barbarians and rule the land. Of course, Ela intends to stop that, but not before making time with a hot and heavily made-up cavewoman named Isa (Elvire Audray).
Produced by Luciano Martino and set to a seriously cool score from Guido and Maurizio De Angelis, this French/Italian co-production shot partially in South Dakota was clearly influenced by the success of Quest For Fire but Lenzi being Lenzi manages to put his own strange spin on things. Not only do we get caveman on caveman combat, but there's also a subplot involving some apeman types running around causing trouble, their apeman balls flapping around in the breeze making a strange scene even stranger. Just throw logic out the window here, it's better that way even if Lenzi and company are clearly playing things completely straight.
To be fair, if this was made on a low budget it does at least have some pretty decent production values. The locations work just fine, they're remote enough that they seem primitive, the type of place where, yeah, fine… maybe cavepeople would live here. The costumes are mostly of the loin cloth variety but they look like actual loin cloths, so the movie has that going for it. Some of the fight scenes are nicely choreographed - Lenzi was often at his best when shooting action - and the film is quick in its pace, never dull.
As to the cast? Well, one-shot male lead Sam Pasco, a model for gay stag magazines before and after working on this picture, looks buff enough but lacks charisma. He's fun to watch, just not particularly good in the role - muscular, sure, but very wooden. The stretches of the film where his character is growing closer to the very pretty cavewoman played by Elvire Audray are the last interesting in the picture. Audray doesn't bring much to the movie aside from her attractiveness, but the movie doesn't ask much more of her than that - she stands around and looks pretty, Isa is hardly a strong female character. Thankfully, there's good old George Eastman running around with a sword in his hand and a lion's head atop his frame. Eastman is in his element here, clearly having a blast hamming it up perfectly as the film's main villain. Danilo Mattei and Walter Lucchini from Lenzi's notorious Cannibal Ferox also pop up in this one, as does William Berger from Keoma, Dial: Help, Devilfish and loads more Italian exploitation pictures.
Video/Audio/Extras:
88 Films presents Ironmaster framed at 1.66.1 widescreen in a transfer taken from a 'new master restored from the original camera negative' and for the most part it looks quite nice. It is a bit soft in spots, but this looks to be how it was shot. Otherwise, the image is quite clean and boasts decent color reproduction. Detail isn't reference quality given that aforementioned softness but it certainly looks good, as does texture. Skin tones look fine, black levels are decent and there are no noticeable issues with compression artifacts, edge enhancement or noise reduction. This film has also been released on Blu-ray by Code Red but at the time of this writing that disc isn't available to R!S!P! for review.
The only audio option for this release is an English language LPCM Mono track. Again, no problems here. The dialogue is perfectly audible and the levels are properly balanced. The film's genuinely awesome score sounds nice too, with just the right amount of 'oomph' behind it when the movie needs it.
The only extra on the disc itself, aside from menus and chapter selection, is a featurette entitled Working With The Masters in which art director Antonello Gelleng and cinematographer Giancarlo Ferrando discuss their work in the film industry for Dania Films and various directors in the early days to working on genre pictures like Iron Master later on. Over the course of twenty-four minutes we learn about shooting footage of Buffalos in Yellowstone National Park, the reality of the budgets behind some of the pictures they were involved with and working with both Lenzi and Eastman.
Inside the case is a booklet that contains an essay written by Fred Andersson entitled Who Is Sam Pasco And Why Is Nobody Talking About Him? that makes for a pretty interesting read as it traces the author's efforts to track down and document the work of the mysterious leading man in film. Also included with this release is some reversible sleeve art. As this is a combo pack release, we also get a DVD version of the movie that contains extras identical to those found on the Blu-ray disc.
The Final Word:
Ironmaster is a blast. Pasco might be as wooden as a well-oiled, musclebound board but thankfully Eastman chews more than enough scenery for the both of them. There's some fun action here, some memorably odd set pieces and great sets and costumes too. It's not a particularly original film but it sure is a lot of fun. The Blu-ray release from 88 Films looks and sounds pretty decent and it includes some extras too. R.I.P. Mr. Lenzi!
Posting comments is disabled.
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (271)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4162)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2512)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (391)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (298)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (497)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Film Masters
Released on: April 23rd, 2024.
Director: Bert I. Gordon
Cast: Richard Carlson, Juli Reding, Lugene Sanders, Susan Gordon
Year: 1963
Purchase From Amazon
Tormented – Movie Review:
The late Bert I. Gordon’s 1963 horror film, ‘Tormented,’ is an effectively spooky ghost story made with an obviously low budget but no less effective for it.
The story revolves around a professional piano player...-
Channel: Movies
04-17-2024, 10:19 AM -
-
Released by: Grindhouse Releasing
Released on: March 12th, 2024.
Director: William Grefé
Cast: William Shatner, Jennifer Bishop, Ruth Roman, Harold Sakata
Year: 1974
Purchase From Amazon
Impulse – Movie Review:
Directed by the one and only William Grefé, 1974’s Impulse is one of those rare films that allows you to witness what it would be like if a really sweaty William Shatner got mad at a lady carrying balloons. Before that...-
Channel: Movies
04-15-2024, 01:20 PM -
-
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: April 30th, 2024.
Director: Andrew Legge
Cast: Emma Appleton, Stefanie Martini, Rory Fleck Byrne
Year: 2022
Purchase From Amazon
Lola – Movie Review:
Irish filmmakers Andrew Legge’s 2022 movie, ‘Lola’, which was made during Covid-19 lockdowns, is a wildly creative movie made in the found footage style that defies expectations, provides plenty of food for thought and manages to make...-
Channel: Movies
04-10-2024, 04:09 PM -
-
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Jess Franco, Jorge Grau, Pedro L. Ramírez
Cast: Alberto Dalbés, Evelyne Scott, Fernando Rey, Marisa Mell, Wal Davis, Norma Kastel
Year: 1974
Purchase From Amazon
Spanish Blood Bath – Movie Review:
Vinegar Syndrome brings a triple feature of Spanish horror films of the in this new three-disc Blu-ray boxed set. Here’s what lies inside…
Night Of The...-
Channel: Movies
04-10-2024, 04:02 PM -
-
Released by: Universal Studios
Released on: April 9th, 2024.
Director: Zelda Williams
Cast: Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Carla Gugino, Joe Chrest, Henry Eikenberry
Year: 2024
Purchase From Amazon
Lisa Frankenstein – Movie Review:
The feature-length directorial debut of Zelda Williams, 20214’s Lisa Frankenstein takes place in 1989 and follows a teenaged girl named Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) who, two years ago, lost her mother...-
Channel: Movies
04-03-2024, 03:40 PM -
-
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: April 30th, 2024.
Director: Gianfranco Giagni
Cast: Roland Wybenga, William Berger, Stéphane Audran
Year: 1988
Purchase From Amazon
Spider Labyrinth – Movie Review:
Professor Alan Whitmore (Roland Wybenga) is an American who works as a Professor of languages studies and has a fascination bordering on obsession with translating pre-Christian religious texts. He was also locked in a closet...-
Channel: Movies
04-03-2024, 03:37 PM -