thebaldphoenix Reviews

Submersion of Japan (1973)

The original is a GEM of a movie. Tidal Wave? Well, not so much

[8/10 · 20 March 2022]

I don't know WHAT some other reviewers on here were watching...but it certainly could not have been the original "Nippon Chinbotsu" (aka" Submersion of Japan")...but probably the Roger Corman cheapie-chopped version known as "Tidal Wave".

To which...if it were "Tidal Wave" (made, as always...by schlockmeister Corman...to make a quick buck piggybacking on the coattails of the Mid 70s disaster craze)...then yep (aside from the Special Effects...which are amazing in either version), then I grant you..."Tidal Wave" is pretty bad.

But the Japanese Original? Is EVERY BIT on par (if not better than) The Towering Inferno and Earthquake...combined.

The Towering Inferno was also "talky". So to whomever said that Chinbotsu was "talky"...fails to realize that the BEST disaster films always flesh out the characters and the actors actually ACT. (Not just jump out of skyscraper windows or roll down hills in a train car attacked by Killer Bees).

As for the SpFX? For its time...they are of ELITE caliber. The tidal wave sequences, volcanic eruptions are "Cecil B DeMille/Irwin Allen" level...all the way.

The original (of course) wouldn't "translate well to American Audiences", and is exactly why Corman bought it up/chopped it up, dumbed it down..tossed Lorne Greene in it and released it as "Tidal Wave".

But the ORIGINAL version of this film.... IF you can ever be fortunate enough to see it or get your hands on it...is "The Poseidon Adventure...of Japan disaster films".

It is simply...an epic and the very best disaster film they ever made.

But same as "The Japanese often seem to LOVE American Made Disaster Films" (Poseidon, Towering Inferno, Earthquake...ALL made big bucks in Japan, long after they ended their US box office runs...but they ALSO EVEN seem to like the ones that tend to bomb. Japan gave some "extra legs" to pathetic films like The Swarm and Meteor.

So, in retrospect...simply because "Tidal Wave" was a cheeseball chop chop version released here by Corman and his garbage-makers...should NOT cause any disdain to the epic that Nippon Chinbotsu is and was.

That original film...deserves a NEW RELEASE HERE. For it was a masterwork.

All in the Family: Gloria's Boyfriend (1974) Season 4, Episode 19

Typical Season 4 Mediocrity. Fair...at best.

[5/10 · 11 March 2022]

By the time Season 4 of AITF rolled around, the show had already strayed too far from its initial concept that made it the greatest show of all time during Seasons 1/2 (parts of 3), here and there in 4. And had to be reinvented later on in the series.

That being...TOO MANY SECONDARY/UNNECESSARY CHARACTERS that take away from the 4 person stage play intimacy that made it great.

Enter "Georgie" the bag carrier.

Richard Masur IS a very good character actor, but as "Georgie"? He is worse than 80s Era sitcom bad.

Meathead always overactive as it is.

Gloria gets too many lines.

(As both of them constantly are written to OVERpraise "someone who actually got a job". Meanwhile, Mike never has one.

Gloria is a part time freeloader too.

And they constantly take advantage of Archie's ignorance (especially during this season).

And the actor playing George's dad (later to play almost the same type of character in Jaws 2)...simply is not a good actor.

While this episode provides some good one liners (AITF...even at its worst...always did) and this "meh" episode is still better than anything aired on TV since? It was still vastly below AITF standards.

5 stars out of 10.

One of their "bottom 25 of all time"

Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)

Ol Irwin should have stuck w the original script. His "WB era".

[5/10 · 29 January 2022]

Well...PTPA is (for lack of a better term) a "dead stick in the water".

While I think Sally Field is pompous anyway...I do have to agree with her when she states that THIS is the worst film she ever appeared in.

Irwin Allen (by now) had jumped ship from Fox to Warner Brothers, and WOW...did his product churn-out...suffer.

The Swarm...Beyond...and then the ridiculous When Time Ran Out. All Warner Brothers.

Almost as if Warners simply gave Irwin Allen "free reign" over these films.

And he is certainly NOT a director. At all.

Amazing producer. Garbage director.

Whereas the original Poseidon Adventure is a masterwork...this "sequel" is more like a bad TV movie "in name only" extension.

(Kind of like those bad "movie of the week" things they would churn out. This one is even lesser in quality than SST: DEATH FLIGHT (not an Irwin Allen flick...but a carbon copy tack-on of the Airport Series, made for TV).

The ORIGINAL script was actually quite intriguing, too. And proved to be quite successful years later, when used in Stallone's film "Daylight". (About a collapsed bridge tunnel...original Poseidon Survivors gotta get our, Yada Yada Yada. You know the drill).

But why Irwin decided to 1) have PAUL GALLICO write a book to base the sequel on, then 2) not USE the source material and 3) then decide to DIRECT it?

Bomb city is what he made here.

Of course...it is one we "Irwin Allen Completists" gotta have for the collection...but it is bad. Real bad.

Karl Malden was a very good actor. But he is awful here. Simply awful. 5 times WORSE awful than he was in (same year's) OTHER disaster dud...Meteor.

And Michael Caine (serviceable). Telly Savalas is well "Kojak in a cool suit". Peter Boyle? Lol. He is so over the top that be makes Ernest Borgnine (in the original) appear as if he is "MARTY refined".

Mark Harmon...Angela Cartwright and Shirley Knight...B Actors tossed in at that time.

And JACK WARDEN? Arguably the BEST actor in the entire film...has about 12 lines.

Anyhoo...whereas The Swarm was a "so bad it was good garbage" that you HAD to see to believe how bad it was, well...BTPA is the "forgotten one" that is simply just...boring.

Deterrence (1999)

Exceptional brinksmanship thriller with Top Flight Performances all around.

[10/10 · 29 January 2022]

Rarely, is a film made...that is as timely "then" as it is...right now.

Now...more than ever...this film needs to be watched.

Kevin Pollack, a surprising choice (granted) to be cast as POTUS, gives a tour-de-force performance, in director Rod Lurie's low budget masterpiece.

A claustrophobic setting, mixed with tension filled twists and turns, filmed in an almost documentary style way, gives Deterrence the feel that THIS would also make one amazing stage play too.

If you haven't seen this one? You're in for a treat.

No, I am not gonna "give the ending away...nor describe the film in detail" as so many others below already have.

But the film is a 10 star GEM here.

There need to be MORE films made like this.

Creepshow: Night of the Living Late Show (2021) Season 2, Episode 5

Creepshow Vengeance at its FINEST! Well done Nicotero, et al

[10/10 · 5 October 2021]

Any one rated this episode "below" a 6? Makes me ask two questions: "What in the WORLD were you watching?" AND "Do you UNDERSTAND Creepshow, at all?" (If you are still "learning" what Creepshow is all about, then I can give ya a pass. And recommend...BEGIN with the original MOVIE. My pre-teen has really gotten into this series. (She now calls it "her show". Lol. It comes on too late to watch during a school night...but she catches up on them via DVR).

And her very 1st "horror film" we ever introduced her to? About age 6 or 7? Was the original CREEPSHOW.

Witty, creative, spooky-yet-tongue-FIRMLY in cheek, with hammy acting and a loving homage paid to all horror comics and prior classic horror that came before it. Creepshow (and even its lesser sequel Creepshow 2) are GEMS. (And NOW the series. Absolutely heads and tails above the equally classic "Tales from the Crypt" we used to love as kids back in the day. Nicotero and team have created a MASTERWORK series.

And as a descendant of George Romero and Tom Savini? Greg Nicotero has created a series that does honor to not only the original comics, but also to the classic movie.

And "NIGHT OF THE LIVING LATE SHOW" may very well be...the BEST episode yet, in a line of excellent vignettes that Creepshow the Series has had so far.

Someone mentioned "well, it didn't need Justin Long". What DOES that mean? Every episode has at least ONE star in it. Usually a classic scream queen or a creative bit of casting, for an actor to play against type, or truly go "over the top" and have some fun.

Long was fine in this episode. He got to play his usual "fast taking/con man-type/charmer" self...and get his COME-UPPANCE-DUE in a fantastic twist of fate at the end.

The intertwining of the old Horror Express film (honesly...what horror fan does NOT love seeing Christopher Lee AND Peter Cushing, playing to today's audience?) And then? The end. Where the scorned wife goes nuts (after the actress played her perfectly-refined the entire episode)...dropping F Bombs and screaming "I HATE this movie! Who the Hell ever saw Horror Express?" (She was right. Hardly anyone did)...BUT...what better twist of fate to drop her virtual-reality-philanderer hubby Long into than with the legendary cast of the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD? At the climax of the film?

Priceless gems 1 and 2 here. And a way for kids (OUR kids age) now to be introduced to "Lee, Cushing and NOTLD"? All at once?

That is how the fun of "horror" lives on. And THAT is what Creepshow is all about.

(What is even cooler, was the "ending scene/tack ons" (the 1st person perspective Living Dead Game (looks like a PS2 game) and THEN..."The helicopter" from Dawn of the Dead...picks up the lone survivor and takes em to "The Monroeville Mall"? (Seen in the background...plain as day...the word "Monroeville" (and THIS is why Justin Long was IN this episode. You'll have to study his filmography...but Justin DID make a film in Monroeville, for Kevin Smith...(Zack and Miri...) that paid great homage to these original gems.

And after escaping the mall? They go UNDERGROUND...on the hydraulic lift? (Direct homage to "DAY of the Dead").

Brilliant. 100 percent brilliant.

Today's TV (for the most part) STINKS...on ice. It is extremely RARE when I can actually "thank a film-maker" for their work.

But on this one? Nicotero? Much thanks and Kudos. ONLY a Pittsburgher (or disciple of George Romero) can get all the in-gags and -in-jokes and references in this one.

And of course...for lovers of the old Hammer Films and Gothic Horror of the 1960 and 1970s? You get Lee AND Cushing again.

10 Stars.

Keep it ROLLING...Creepshow.

Thank you.

Halloween (2007)

To ANYONE who rated this a 1? I ask...what were YOU watching?

[8/10 · 3 October 2021]

As I sift through the "blah blah 1-star haters" of this film's "kinda reviews"...I again, must ask...what truly WERE you watching here?

With that question out of the way, I shall grant (unabashedly) that "no, this isn't your grandfather's Oldsmobile Carpenter" here.

As a critic whom ranks Halloween (1978) in the Top 5 Horror Films of All Time, I totally "get" that YOU may not wish to compare "apples to apples" here.

But THIS film is not an "apple". This Rob Zombie film is an ORANGE. (a very sweet, yet gritty/pulp-filled Orange). And it deserves a pedestal all its own.

No...it does NOT "trash the original". Not at all. (Much like Zach Snyder's 'Dawn of the Dead' remake...it IS certainly a "new take", yet appreciative and respectful of its original source material, and yet IS its "own film" in every right).

While I also shall grant that Rob Zombie simply cannot resist giving his wife a role to take her clothes off at any given point and time (he does. And do YOU truly mind? I mean, honestly? It isn't like Rob Z is married to "Kathy Bates" here). So Sheri Moon? Take em all off. Go for it baby cakes.

But aside from that "given entity" in just about ANY Rob Zombie film...it is the BACKSTORY here that makes 'Rob Zombie's Halloween" a magnificent feat.

Zombie goes very, very DEEP into the mind of madness. Taking (what Carpenter made to be a mindless/soul-less/machine..."with the blackest eyes, the Devil's eyes"...and (literally) tells the tale of "what made Michael Myers..."Michael Myers".

That...alone? Is worth every bit of your time. Absolutely and hands down. Tyler Mane is (again...hands down) THE BEST "Michael Myers" of all time. His performance alone of a young, bullied, tortured, trapped and wayward child...is nothing short of brilliant, if not "Overlooked-Oscar Worthy".

We once praised a young Linda Blair for this EXACT type role. Same with a young Sissy Spacek. And dare I go so far as to say? We ALSO heaped praise upon that kid who played "Gage" in Pet Sematary.

Yet TYLER MANE here is scarier and more-believable than even Linda Blair.

I strongly-suggest (those whom knee-jerk-gave this film a 1 star review) that YOU rewatch this film with an OPEN mind.

I will cede that "Malcolm McDowell is NOT as good as Donald Pleasance" and that "Danielle Harris seems a bit out of place". But she IS quite good, nonetheless.

But his film DOES have SYBIL DANNING in a cameo! That alone, is good for 3 stars But Zombie knows his cinematography and also captures the absolute gritty and disgusting 'realism' of a serial killer.

And he GIVES the serial killer a reason to BE it.

Watch it again and RE-review it.

This film is 8 stars...period.

Gritty, real and nasty. To its core.

Anyone else? Would have ruined this film.

But when it comes to "grindhouse/realism/gutter-realism"? Absolutely...you want Rob Zombie on the job.

You want a ship to overturn or a building to blow up? You hire Irwin Allen.

Wanna portray the Mob? Hire Coppola or Scorcese Wanna go deep/mental/weird? Kubrick.

But if you TRULY want to understand "trailer trash monsters?" Then you definitely hire Rob Zombie.

8 stars. Is "Rob Zombie's Halloween". (Anything less, said by anyone else? Deserves to have them get stuck in an endless time warp of having to watch "Rob Zombie's Halloween 2". (Yep. It sucked.) But his HALLOWEEN Remake? Is a GEM.

Watch it and re-learn.

Babe (1995)

There are very very few "Perfect Movies". This is one of them.

[10/10 · 10 August 2021]

Amazingly poignant in its simplicity.

Stunningly choreographed and with cinematography that rivals a 'George Stevens Production".

With a script (and a STUNNING musical score) that can bring a smile and a tear to even a person made of "stone".

BABE is one of those "all time...ALL TIME" original films that (for lack of any better term)...is plainly and simply "Great".

In every way.

As a retro-reviewer, whom is never short on words...I will keep this one short and sweet.

The film is PERFECT. Period.

10 Stars.

When Time Ran Out... (1980)

Oh, IT'S BAD. Like REAL BAD. Like Perfect MST3K fodder Bad

[1/10 · 6 August 2021]

Ahh..."Irwin Allen's (cymbals crash when name appears on screen) Production of: EARTH'S FINAL FURY" (err, I mean "When Time Ran Out..." (never forget those elipses)...or is it "The Day The World Ended"?

I am sorry friends...but as a lifelong Irwin Allen fan here"? Thus is one I simply "cannot be kind to". Nor can I "take it easy" on this one. Nor is it "a misunderstood classic".

At all. In any way.

This ONE film...makes (all by itself) BOTH "The Swarm" and "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure" look like "The Godfather 1 and 2" by comparison.

The film was an expensive mess. It looks cheap, appears to have been shot thru a "crud covered screened window" (honestly....for a film in PARADISE? Why is the film so fuzzy/foggy/dimly-lit?

And then...ya get: THE CAST. (I will address the "not very special" effects later)...but the CAST. First off...Bill Holden (again) wanted "Top Billing" for this. Paul Newman should have said to Irwin "Let him HAVE it...as I am phoning in MY performance to clear my contractual obligation to appear in a 2nd Irwin Allen Film". But Holden (who actually DOES turn in a halfway decent performance...albeit with a script written by what HAD to be a 4th Grader) still did at least...try. (can't say that for the rest of the entire cast however. Unless one counts Alex Karras as an "actor").

Newman has less emotion than Michael Myers.

Jackie Bissett is SO BAD that she doesn't even look good in a tight shirt.

Borgnine and Buttons pal around the whole film with some hokey "I am gonna arrest you" subplot...and yet I love ya anyway bromance" thing going on.

Then...ya got PAT MORITA and SHEILA ALLEN as owners of a "brothel that hosts chicken fighting?" With Pat Morita spouting his lines "Where da fight? Where da fight...Mona!" (As if he were caricatures his OWN language. While "Mona the Brothel Matriarch" dresses like a wall tapestry found at a Jimmy Buffett-owned tiki bar.

Thank goodness Burgess Meredith and Valentina Cortesa are around to lend "credibility" as "The quasi Flying Walendas" to take a Half Hour to cross a bridge (that is a FOOT WIDE) carrying kids on their back, as if he were crossing a razor-thin tightrope.

Okay...so, this "not even good enough to be Irwin Allen's Production of "CAVE-IN" caliber" film had film actors in what wasn't even B-Grade Made for TV fodder back then"...went into theaters(!?!?) with movie stars reciting lines that aren't even fit for a Roger Corman Production...in a film with effects that aren't even on par with Corman.

Thusly...the EFFECTS. Lol. There were "effects"? Where?

Of course, every Irwin Allen film has to have the "mandatory helicopter exploding scene" (the LONE decent special effect)...more a stunt than an "effect". But the film is about...a VOLCANO. (Which kid's grade school project was stolen to create the "volcano"?) And it manages to "hurl Bus-Sized lava bombs....with precision accuracy...that explode on impact...enough to blow up an entire HOTEL?) They 1) look like a kid's thrown Sparkler and 2) "explode" like an atomic bomb.

My question to "defenders of this"...is EXACTLY WHAT did Irwin spend 22 Million...on?

The cast? (Doubtful. As Irwin was clever to always sign them for under-price and contractually obligated them to "appear in 2 IA films" by giving them a cut of the films Bix Office Take) The writers? Ummm...no. It is doubtful that neither Carl Foreman nor Stirling Silliphant were "commanding any type of A Grade Salary" at this point in EITHER career. (Nor did they seem to do any "writing" here as this isn't even on par with An Ed Wood script.

Am thinking THIS film (as it was originally to be a 20th Century Fox film entitled "The Day The World Ended") was held up for a LONG time as Irwin left Fox...went to Warners..made 2 bombs back to back...and this thing was held up in "Production Hell"...as even Holden looks different than he does in "Damien Omen 2" (same time frame made) and the effects are bad for even 1977. (This film says 1980) No way. The effects in "Condominium or Hurricane or Meteor" were ALL better than this. And Irwin...even in his bad films understood "set design and special effects" (Beyond The Poseidon Adventure AND The Swarm had some "hokey effects" too...but at least many were passable if not very good. And the sets were still magnificent.

Here? Whole Production looks cheap.

Like "could make it for 3 Million" cheap.

That aline would make me "go easier" on this film.

But for Irwin Allen to even LET this film fly? Is a travesty.

In no way...even following "Swarm and Beyond" could he THINK this was "good" in any way.

Those other 2? He directed and produced...so he probably thought "well...I did a good job, let em fly".

But this mess? No way.

It is boring. It has scenes that are pointless that go on for 15 minutes (the "exciting cars driving scenes to music that sounds like a tuba and one drum are playing") and has stock footage (same tidal wave that took out "The Poseidon" takes out the Backlot here.

Not one redeeming thing (except for the ridiculous "beach scene" where Bissett laughs hysterically at Newman telling some story about "selling negligees". ???? So bad...for 2 pros...that you GOTTA see it to believe it.

My guess? Is Irwin simply thru whatever profits he had left after Poseidon and Towering at this film and said "That's It...Fort Pitt".

Not even "so bad, it's good" (at least "The Swarm" is that). No. When Time Ran Into Earth's Final Fury on The Day Barbara Carrera's and James Franciscus' World Ended....is just DREADFUL.

Alice in Wonderland (II) (1985)

See this for the CAST alone. Irwin Allen could bring a cast for sure

[7/10 · 6 August 2021]

1) I can't stand the songs (shame on Steve Allen for them. Irwin must have owed Steve a favor, as they aren't even passable for a NON-Disney musical).

2) The sets are just..."weird" (grass looks like a Putt Putt green...and a lot of set pieces look like they were retrieved from "Willy Wonka" 3) Natalie Gregory is a good Alice. Even though they played on the "cute factor" too much and she always has a look of "AWE...I am acting alongside Sally Struthers" in every scene.

BUT... WOW! What a cast! Try making this film today? And it is "Titanic Money" to produce. For sheer cast and set design alone.

But this was pure "Irwin Allen" here.

Some stars are billed and (literally) on screen for 1 minute. If you thought the cameos in George Stevens' "The Greatest Story Ever Told" were akin to "The Crucifixion On the Hollywood Squares/Match Game Hour"...then you GOTTA see this.

When ANN JILLIAN and BEAU BRIDGES (both at the HEIGHT of their careers) are "downbilled" to Jayne Meadows (30 years past her stardom)...then you know you got a CAST.

Irwin even seems to have "families of the stars" in this. (Like ALL the SAVALAS family. 2/3rds the BRIDGES family...the "All In the Family" FAMILY is represented (Sally Struthers, Sherman Hemsley, George Savalas, Sammy Davis Jr, all appeared on All In The Family) and of course "Irwin Allen's Road Company Family...including his wife Sheila, and his favorite "stuntman" Ernie "I fell from the ceiling/floor into the skylight in The Poseidon Adventure" Ernie Orsatti, to costumer Paul Zastupnevich, and all of his other extras that turned up in everything he did from "Land of the Giants to Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, etc"... This production is like a cavalcade of 50s and 60s and 70s that either "once worked with Irwin" or ALWAYS worked with Irwin, even if the script was a dud (see: Red Buttons and Pat Morita in When Time Ran Out, etc).

I kept waiting for OJ to show up and save Alice's car... or Maureen McGovern to sing a song or Leslie Nielsen to appear in a dramatic role. Oh well...those 3 I guess "Irwin couldn't get". But the REST of "The By-then Game Show Circuit of yesterday's stars" he did.

Wow.

Ya gotta see it to believe it.

It is weird and wonderful.

Pure Irwin Allen.

Outrage! (1986 TV Movie)

An IRWIN ALLEN (!) production? Complete w "!" In title

[7/10 · 6 August 2021]

Admittedly, I haven't seen this film in years. And when I did, I totally missed (as there was no "cymbal crash or drum beat alert" when "Produced by Irwin Allen" appeared on the screen credits. (Irwin LOVED to have his name announced by musical instrument pause or noise).

After Irwin's prior 3 feature films all tanked (The Swarm, Beyond The Poseidon Adventure, When Time Ran Out...), Irwin just kinda faded from the scene...and began making TV shows again, a few "last gasp TV disaster movies", a VERY strange musical adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland"...and THEN came the "renamed for 1985 TV airing" "Earth's Final Fury" (this was the Original "When Time Ran Out..." RENAMED as it was so bad, they had to rename it with a few new scenes added/others edited in post, etc...to get it on TV. 5 years after it competed with "Raise the Titanic!" And "Inchon!" (Also with "!") for "worst films to see a theater between 1980 and 1981.

"Alice" (while very weird and with terrible songs) WAS "pure vintage Irwin Allen" (it had more stars in it than ALL his previous films combined and was very faithful to the story, plot-wise. (Even better than Disney). Too bad he made it a "musical". But it was rather successful nonetheless.

Then..while still kinda "just treading water" and seeking some sort of "comeback"...(As Irwin was not only an Oscar and Emmy Winner for work prior...but 2 of his films (Poseidon Adventure and Towering Inferno are the GREATEST disaster films of all time)...while his "bombs" have become cult classics now (wish Irwin would have lived long enough to see "The Swarm" become a BELOVED cult classic. But he didn't, sadly). For around the time this (strange for Irwin Allen...yet STILL "Irwin Allen-ish ENOUGH to recognize it as an Irwin Allen film"...as it has all of his "same road company players and crew" as he always had) film "OUTRAGE!" came along, his health was starting to fail.

However...to go out on a note like THIS...for Irwin Allen? Is quite admirable.

A taut, thought-provoking, well written COURTROOM drama? With some vigilante justice mixed in? This was strange area for Irwin Allen.

And as a fan of Irwin Allen to begin with...while I miss the "spectacle factor" that made him so famous...I also think Irwin MAY have been a better "mind for movie trends" than he gets credit for.

As it wasn't long after this little known/rarely seen B Movie (it is what it is) that nearly EVERY WEEK...there seemed to be a "new courtroom drama movie released". Between about 1987 and 2000. Hollywood churned em out like candy, they did.

But Irwin here, was a few years before the real trend hit. Kudos to him as Preston is excellent here. Meredith (as always) is as well...and even MEL FERRER (who, by this time in his career was "paying the bills in Italian Made slasher films of Grade Z fodder")...and it was good to see him actually ACT again.

Of course Irwin had a cast in this that was 15 years past their primes (he always did). But...he DIDN'T "direct". Thank God. (Irwin Allen...AMAZING Producer. AWFUL director)...and he left the "directing chops" to a workmanlike and capable director.

For Irwin Allen "completists", this is like "The Story of Mankind". Gotta have it. And while that one was a hokey nonsense film...THIS one is actually a straightforward and well written and well acted courtroom drama.

Both films kind of "stick out" like sore thumbs when you look at Irwin's Filmography. Yet BOTH are amazing curiosity pieces.

Irwin Allen was truly one of a kind.

He either (his whole career) "boomed or busted". There was no "in between" for him.

However THIS one...is his "in between".

It is a 'good film'. Not legendary. Never will be a "classic"...but an "in between" film that you can watch and enjoy and is well made.

Part of me wishes that Irwin could have lived another 10 years...to see "the disaster film revival" and made one of his OWN...during the mid 90s, and "go out on that one".

But he didn't. So in true Irwin Allen style...he ended on this one. (Something you truly didn't expect to see...from Irwin Allen).

Just like The Poseidon Adventure. Only on the opposite spectrum.

Hollywood said "zig"...and Irwin usually "zagged". That is what a showman does.

I recommend this one, and I understand my personal review here is "more about Irwin Allen" than it is about "Outrage!". Why? Because for HIM? This is so against his own grain, that you can tell Irwin was trying to "reinvent himself" as the man was a MAJOR player in 1960s and 1970s Hollywood. By the Mid-80s...he was simply "hanging on" and awaiting the moment that (sadly) he wouldn't live long enough to see...but DID come around. The REVIVAL of "The Disaster Movie".

For this era...while "treading water"...Irwin produced a nice little picture here to enjoy, while dreaming of a star studded (another "musical"...uggh!) Version of "Pinocchio" that never got made.

Not his schtick...but still Original.

Good film here, produced by a legendary movie maker.

Be it Dino DeLaurentiis or Irwin Allen...these 2 legends were certainly ORIGINAL.