herbiehancock

Original Title : El tesoro del Amazonas Year : 1985 Director : René Cardona Jr. Writer : René Cardona Jr. , Jacques Wilson IMDb : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090200/ Genre : Adventure synopsis: An action adventure about a group of fortune hunters who search for gold and jewels in the jungles of South America. This is the Cardona film I have been waiting for! I've sludged through a few days to finally get to a fun yet exploitative film that will leave me with a good taste in my mouth as I move on to the greener pastures of Mexican horror to close out my theme month. Take Indiana Jones and throw in a surly drunk, profanity, tits, blood and gore, and you have The Treasure of the Amazon. It's not a great film, and suffers a little from Cardona's talkative down times, but this one is worth the time most definitely. Stuart Whitman plays the aforementioned surly drunk, Gringo, a man who has spent years in the jungle looking for treasures that may or may not even exist. He's...

Original Title: Guyana, el crimen del siglo Year: 1979 Director: René Cardona Jr. Writer: René Cardona Jr. , Carlos Valdemar IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080833/ Genre: Horror?, Exploitation synopsis: An horrific dramatization of the Guyana tragedy, this story traces the steps of Rev. Jim Johnson, who, after years of evangelism and good deeds, starts his own church in the United States, becomes increasingly obsessed and paranoid, and emigrates with his congregation to Guyana where he plans to create a utopia. When the United States government probes deeper and deeper into the true nature of this utopia, Rev. Johnson leads his followers where no one may have expected. For those of you who do not know, this film is the dramatization of the events leading up to and the 1978 mass suicide by the followers of Reverend Jim Johnson. It was released less than one year after the suicide of more than 900 people by their drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid. Let me put that out there again. T...

Original Title : Carlos el Terrorista Year : 1979 Director : René Cardona Jr. Writer : René Cardona Jr. ?? IMDB : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078941/ Genre : Action synopsis: Terrorist for hire, Carlos, begins to act on his own which does not please the terrorist organizations he works for. They set out many to kill him, and Carlos turns to the CIA for help, offering information for protection. Through a misunderstanding, the CIA loses trust in Carlos and kidnaps his family until he completes multiple tasks for them. Loosely based on the real-life high profile terrorist Carlos the Jackal, this story is another odd one from Rene Cardona, Jr. What felt like it was shaping up to be a standard 70s style action flick, turned into something strange mainly because is ZERO dialogue for the whole duration. Actually the only voices you hear beside grunting or groaning is the narrator that explains the progress of the story from time to time, or occasionally Carlos' voice in his head as he i...

Original Title : La horripilante bestia humana Year : 1969 (1972) Director : René Cardona , Jerald Intrator (new footage for US version) Writer : René Cardona Jr. , René Cardona IMDB : http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063090/ Genre : Horror synopsis: A surgeon attempts to cure his son's fatal disease by doing the first 'ape-to-human' heart transplant. The son seems to be cured, only to transform into a horrible beast that goes on a murderous rampage. This movie to me felt like a natural progression from my previous review of Doctor of Doom. On a literal note, Rene Cardona is at the helm once again here to essentially remake Doctor of Doom film into Night of the Bloody Apes, this time with writing help from his son, Rene Cardona Jr. Cardona, Jr. acted a bit in the 60s, and even directed a few films, but it really seems like this film, a bloodier, nakeder version of Doctor of Doom, was a real jumping off point for him to become a prolific B-movie director. So I thought it was fi...