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Fallout (1999)
Solid B-Movie - they don't make them like that anymore... or do they?
I see the movie gets bashed around here pretty hard. Is it for a good reason? That depends. Depends on whether you need a 100 million dollar budget to keep you amused. Because, except for the budget, this movie has all the traits of typical summer blockbuster ("Armageddon", anyone?). And so, it's a solid B-movie - to boot. B-movie. No Oscars for this baby, that's for certain. But... Yesterday I tried to watch "Attack of the Clones". Which probably had a budget 100 times larger than "Fallout"'s. I stopped after five minutes. Though I paid good money for that DVD, I simply couldn't go on. Today, while shopping for groceries, I picked up "Fallout". It sold for and equivalent of $2 (at least 5 times less than the Star Wars movie). Frankly, I didn't expect much. And, oh yes, I didn't GET much, that's for sure. But I've got far more than I did from that bloated vanity-fest from George Lucas, didn't I?
But let's get back to the budgets once more. Everyone says - the script's a trash. Is it? "Armageddon" got 5.6 stars on IMDb (as of this writing). How's "Fallout" worse? In fact, I thing "Fallout"'s script has far more coherence - and makes far more sense (AND common-sense) that "Armageddon"'s. No forced love-interests. No sexist imagery (oh yes, one of the main characters is a woman, BUT - unlike in "Armageddon" and countless other movies like that - here she actually saves the day, AND doesn't get "love interested" ;) by Daniel Baldwin... uh, that would qualify for a horror ;) ) While not perfect, the science here is certainly more in touch with reality than "Armageddon"'s (or "Space Cowboy"'s and the like) - or any other "Science" Fiction movie in recent memory. Also, the script doesn't really even contain that many clichés...
As for acting - it's certainly no "Citizen Kane", but - but I found the acting at least serviceable. Even from Daniel Baldwin, who certainly should look for some other means of support ;) Also, a big surprise from the movie are it's special effects. To my surprise - no CGI here! Only very solid and quite beautiful (and very detailed!) miniature models. Feels a little like watching "2001"'s younger brother...
All that makes "Fallout" - in my opinion - a great B-movie. That has to be seen - and judged! - in context of other B-movies. B-movies the likes of which I haven't seen made for a long time... A small gem of entertainment. Cheap entertainment, but entertainment that surely shows that it's makers REALLY CARED about their creation.
Not everyone has a $100,000,000 to spend... But everyone is able to do their job right. I think "Fallout"'s makers did.
Una nuvola di polvere... un grido di morte... arriva Sartana (1970)
Perhaps not a western masterpiece, but a watchable (and sometimes unusual) movie nonetheless
Sartana comes around for another case of Wild West crime mystery. This time it's a search for a well-hidden cache of gold (and $2 million in counterfeit money) - and it seems that half the neighborhood is looking for all of it, too - including (but not limited to!) corrupt prison warden, sheriff, a bunch of his deputees, self-proclaimed general and his army for hire, brothers, wives, partners, lovers and friends of deceased gold/money owners, federal agents, false federal agents, elderly gamblers/inventors, gambling house owners and the Apache (well, at least, their cave is involved). As you can probably imagine, with such a ridiculously vast array of characters, the "mystery" gets so muddled that you simply don't care about all the double-, triple- and quadruple-crossings going on all the time. A more talented director and/or writer COULD have been able to pull this thing off (probably by making some plot elements less pronounced than the rest), but as it stands, unfortunately, the whole thing suffers from the lack of consistent pacing - and some order or structure to what's going on.
Though certainly not a masterpiece, the movie is still watchable and holds a certain undeniable entertainment value - and has a lot of shootouts and a really large body count (just think about the sheer number of people competing to get their hands on that gold who are certain to get killed before the final confrontation), complete with Django-like multi-barreled gun massacre the likes of which you probably won't see anywhere else. Also, while perhaps not brilliant, the music - like in many spaghetti westerns - is quite good, and adds a lot of atmosphere to the proceedings.
Strangely, some supporting actors from the previous Sartana movie ("Have a good funeral, my friend - Sartana will pay") - namely, the undertaker (now turned gambler?) and Chinese servant - make appearances here - though it isn't clear if they are supposed to play the same characters they did in the previous installment. And how the hell did Sartana get the Alfie back, what with all the exploding in sheriff's face Alfie did fifteen minutes earlier? Anyway, if you are looking for an easy (if not necessarily very intellectually stimulating) way to spend 90 minutes of your life, give this one a try; perhaps even if you are not a spaghetti western fan - as the whole thing sometimes resembles more a Sherlock Holmes mystery than a typical western.