Reviews (28)

Low Budget But Worth Every Penny
Van Damme portrays a streetfighter who gets caught up in the middle of a raw fighting hard hitting circuit.He keeps fighting to raise money for his brothers family who needs the money or they'll become homeless.The storyline is cheap and the flick itself is low budget but the fight scenes are supurb and the acting on Van Dammes part is excellent.In my opinion of course this movie is the greatest low budget action film available on the market today,if you like martial-arts films instead of explosions and basic killing spree action films than lionheart is your ticket to everything you want to see...Enjoy!

Another amazing van damme movie...WHAT A SHOCKER!!!
Let me just say....this is one of VAN DAMME's cheeziest but amazing movies other than kickboxer, bloodsport, and double impact.. But cheezy is good in this case... Van DAmme escapes from a military base in North Africa...and arrives in L.A. To visit his dead brothers wife. Since he is broke when arrived to L.A. he has to fight in order to make a living....!!! WHat a great Plot...so far.... Later on in the movie he becomes close with his brothers wife...and stays in L.A. The Action is pretty cool with good fight scenes....IF ur a true Van damme Fan you would buy this even if u never saw it....I mean just look at the cover for goodness sake!!!

Great fight scenes
This is one of Van Damms best. After hearing of his brothers death in America, Van Damm escapes the legeon in Africa to head for Los Angeles were he becomes a fighter in a no-holds-barred underground fighting circuit to raise money for his sister in law an his neese. There are many fights in different settings, wearhouses, parking garrages, fitness studios etc. I love the fight were Van Damm and another in shape guy have to fight at a pool party with lots of beutifull women standing around wearing nothing but G-string bikinis. The two must fight in an empty inground swimming pool with just a couple of feet of water in the deep end. they fight in speedos and bare feet. After a good fight Van Damm finally knocks the poor guy out cold in the water and draggs his lifeless body out of the water so he wont drown as the crowd of onlooker surounding the pool cheer for him. Personally, I would have rather he left me in the water to drown than to have to wake up and face all of those beutifull bikini clad women that I just got my you know what kicked in front of. In the end Van Damm fights the champion for enough prize money to make his family financially secure for life. Great movie.

One of Van Damme's VERY BEST-The Legionnaire Avenger
Do not be misguided by the fact that this movie was shot back in 1989, and thus be led to assume that this is another one of the low budget, b-movies that Van Damme used to make in the 1980's.

AWOL/Lionheart, is arguably his best film ever.

The story begins in what is a typical modern Legion Etrangere camp somewhere in North Africa. Van Damme plays a ranker soldier, Leon, who is serving in one of the Legion's crack North African detachments. Here, we get the very rare glimpse of what is like to be a modern Legionnaire: Both the scenery and camp are very realistic, rigid discipline prevalent, with emphasis being put on the soldiers' perfect fitness through physical training and manual labour.

Suddenly, Leon receives a letter from his only brother's wife who lives in the USA, informing him that his brother was beaten to death by some villains, and that she needs someone both to avenge his death and take care of her and her little daughter.

Rigid almost inhuman discipline in the Legion is once again underlined, when Private Leon asks to see his Commanding Officer, an impressive blond Frenchman, every inch a soldier. After hearing the reasons why Pvt. Leon asks for a leave, his CO coolly denies on the grounds that he firstly needs him "down here", and secondly that Pvt. Leon's contract with the Legion excludes furloughs.

From here onwards, the movie ceases to be static, and becomes a fast paced action adventure, as we follow Van Damme's risky escape from the camp to some North African muslim seaport, where he seeks to obtain passage on one of the Merchant Ships there, to the USA. In the meantime, his French CO has reported him as AWOL, and he has ordered two of his best NCO's to locate and return the deserter back to his unit.

Van Damme evades his pursuers, and signs on a 1950's Steam Turbine General Freighter as a Wiper, in order to pay for his passage.

When he finally arrives in the USA, we see him wandering the streets of New York, dressed in Navy fatigues looking for a job. He finally makes his way under a bridge, where the odd black bookmaker is staging a no-holds barred street-fighting tournament of sorts. The bookmaker, seeing Van Damme's incredible physique, suggests that he should fight in the next match in return for a fee. Asking his name, Van Damme replies slowly in French, "LE-ON", whereupon, the bookmaker hears "Lion" and proclaims him the "Lion". Thus, a new street-fighter star is born.

Van Damme, keeps fighting for profit, and his successes attract the attention of a gorgeous Nordic-American female manager, who is organizing fights for the entertainment of the Jet-Set NYC citizens. She falls in love with him, and acting as his manager, arranges his participation in high-class private fighting matches for the rich. Van Damme wins fame and glory, but his mind is always with his dead brother, and his widow and daughter.

After doing a lot of digging, he finally manages to locate his brother widow and daugter, whereupon one of the most touching scenes of the movie take place, when Van Damme meets his brother's daughter and widow, amid hugs and celebration.

But, his pursuers from the Legion, follow close behind, looking for a chance to seize him. Finally, they manage to track him down, in some makeshift arena where Van Damme is about to meet the late World Wrestling Federation Champion Andre the Giant, in a match to the death, which would be the culmination of his career as U.S. fighter. As the match progresses, we see the two Legionnaire NCO's, formerly his bitter enemies, having changed into stalwart supporters of his, witnessing first-hand his bravery and fighting skill.

After the match is over, the French NCO's make themselves known, and take Van Damme into their custody, despite his brother's widow protests. Then follows the most touching scene in the film, with Van Damme hugging his brother's daughter, tears flowing in his eyes. The scene is so compelling, that even the tough French Legionnaires, after looking each other, cannot avoid to shed the odd tear.

After putting Van Damme in the car, the French NCO's drive only about half a mile down the road, when the car stops suddenly, and Van Damme is set free, in order to return to his dead brother's family.

A truly great movie, one of Van Damme's few movies, which I enjoyed seeing over and over again. The movie will be loved by, not only from those who admire the French Foreign Legion, but from martial arts fans as well, not to say anything of Van Damme's fans, who will absolutely love it. It is one of these rarest of the rare low budget movies that, having started with meager resources, by luck and hard work are turned into pearls.

The hero's devotion and love to his only brother, deeply touched me, and I think also struck a chord deep within the souls of all who saw it. I do not think that there is a single man, who would let his dead brother's wife and daughter suffer, no matter if one was half the planet away from the other. Sometimes, duty to the dead brother's family comes first from duty to country.

A truly outstanding movie:buy it.

Van Damme doing his thing
His earlier work is what has always appealed most to me and I was not disappointed with this one. It's kinda cheesy, but it's a Van Damme flick, so what were you expecting?
It's a lot like Bloodsport and Kickboxer in regards to the story line. ... Read more

Description

Swamp Girl (1971, 78 min.) - An alcoholic old doc tries to sell an abandoned baby girl to two degenerates, but the deal turns deadly and the blonde-haired little gal grows up to become the legendary Swamp Girl of the Okefenokee. Her pretty young teenage life is turned upside down when she is forced to search the swamp for a psycho prison escapee hiding in the Okefenokee. Naturally, it all gets nasty as Swamp Girl battles Convict Girl in an exploitation-film-fight-to-the-death that comes complete with catfights, quicksand, country-western crooner Ferlin Husky, a sadistic detour to a snake farm, and a truly wacky twist ending! "Swamp Country" (1966, 98 min.) - When a blonde floozy is found strangled at The Swamper Motel, an innocent stranger gets accused--but not before he clobbers deputy Lyle Waggoner and flees on foot into the Okefenokee. It's all just another day in Swamp Country, presented here in widescreen Techniscope! ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Great DVD package!
Buy this! It is one of the best something weird titles out there. All three movies on this dvd are great and go together perfectly. The trailers are hilarious. Worth the money.

Talkin' Bout' Swamp Country!!!
Both these movies are very fun and entertaining if you like these kind of B to C grade 70's fare. These are like exploitation light...for they are in no way soft core or very violent or profanity ridden. The short subject "Swamp Virgin" is actually better than either film. The whole package goes to together very very well!!

A Movie You Can Sink Yourself Into
Swamp Girl is an excellent movie, which I would give 4 stars on its own. Swamp Country is not as good and would get 3 stars on its own. Both movies are low budget films made to be shown at southern U.S. drive-ins, but deserve a wider audience. Getting the two movies together on one dvd with all the extras earns them the elevation to 5 stars.

Swamp Girl is a really fun movie with great characters and even greater locations. Although the print is a bit scratchy at times, the shots of the swamp are magnificent, and you actually feel like you're there in a hostile but beautiful environment, a sense that you don't get with the occassional helicopter shots of the outskirts of swamps you sometimes see in big budget pictures. No, these movies take place in wild, untamed regions. I don't want to spoil the fun of learning how the Swamp Girl wound up being raised in the swamp, or give away any of the fun twists, but you will get to see her go up against nature, progress, rednecks, and an escaped female prisoner and her boyfriend while making use of the swamp environment.

Swamp Country is about a man wrongfully accused of a murder escaping into the swamp until he can clear up his name (there's also a brief subplot about a musician being kidnapped, and a love quadrangle). This film also has some great shots of the swamp and great characters, and is filled with some excellent, catchy tunes (very Johnny Cash). Unforturnately it is longer than it should be and drags in places, otherwise I'd give it a higher rating, but it is still worthwhile viewing for fans of old B movies (it was made around 1971, but has the feeling of a low budget crime short from the 1940s).

Swamp Virgin is an old short from the 1940s using the story of a love triangle as an excuse to show extremely interesting footage of one method used to catch alligators (have a young boy tied to a rope swim out into the swamp in order to attract them (he must be a good swimmer), pull him back to shore before he can be harmed, then shoot the alligator). Swamp Virgin is filled with excellent underwater photography and may have had a good budget for its time. Plus there is a swamp buggy race (very interesting contraptions, and each looks completely different) and trailers to such swamp-related classics as "Attack of the Giant Leeches" and "The Alligator People" from the days when they knew how to make fun trailers.

Don't expect any true masterpieces, but you do get over 3 1/2 hours of films filled with quicksand, snakes, alligators, bears, wild cats, mobsters, rednecks, music, southern accents and all sorts of other fun stuff.

SWAMP EXPLOITATION!! RECOMMENDED VIEWING
I bought this dvd and was very pleased to see to very odd features from the swamps. The first feature is Swamp Girl starring Ferlin Husky and Claude King, both of whom were country music singers of the 60's. Ferlin sings a song about a swamp girl and Claude stars as the sheriff. Claude King had a hit country song with the tune Wolverton Mountain. As the swamp girl you have sexy Simone Griffeth. She is very good in the role and most people probably remember her as David Carradine's assistant in Death Race 2000. Two convicts force our swamp girl to take them out of the swamp and needless to say they meet horrible deaths. Things get even more complicated with the arrival of the female convicts parents.
The second feature is Swamp Country and the title tune is sung by Baker Knight and isn't too bad at all. The story involves a sexy woman murdered at a motel and the innocent man persued into the swamps. Rex Allen plays the sheriff here, you might remember him as the narrator for some classic Disney films. As his deputy is none other then Lyle Waggoner from the Wonder Woman show. Great entertainment here as well with over 3 hours of good movies and extras. The extras include trailers, and a bonus featurette called Swamp Virgin. Recommended viewing. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

what did you expect?
look people, this is 60's animation! what did you expect, rich animation and awesome stories? if you start watching this expecting AKIRA, you will be dissappointed. however if you watch this expecting speed racer, you will enjoy it. besides, its Ultraman for goodness' sakes!

it was.... OK
it's a basic old cartoon every episode has the same plot: a monster comes the earth defence force trys to fight it then the main charitor turns into ulraman beats up the monster and saves the day

Don't bother.
The animation is of poor quality, as is the story lines. Don't waste your money! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Call it Jurassic Apocalypse. King of B movies Roger Corman beatSteven Spielberg's dinosaur monster mash to the theater by weeks with this nasty preemptive knock-off. Diane Ladd (yes, the mother of the star of Jurassic Park) plays a chilly genetics scientist who gives up a career in biological warfare to build a better chicken and emerges with a giant meat-eating lizard bred from ancient DNA and poultry embryos. Think of her as a misanthropic Earth mother, spreading her genetic virus across the country through supermarket chicken eggs, and hatching her scaly brood in unsuspecting women (the birth scenes echo the earlier Corman sleaze classic Humanoids from the Deep). Director Adam Simon, who adapts John Brosnan's novel, bounces between self-consciously serious scenes of scientists and government officials huddled in impossibly dark control rooms and hilariously phony foam-rubber monsters hunting the high desert for food on the hoof. The highlight is a veritable meat market of human flesh featuring protesting hippie environmentalists chained to construction equipment ("Greetings, green brother." Chomp!). Behind the buckets of blood and gore is a sinister, cynical "end of the world" thriller with sharp references to Dr. Strangelove and Night of the Living Dead. It's far more subversive and sinister than your average rampaging dinosaur movie, and, in its own perverse way, more fun than Spielberg's infinitely more polished classic.--Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (17)

Movie over Jurassic Park
This one of the best dinosaur movies I have ever seen. Not even Jurrasic Park III was this good. A scientist has genetically created velico raptors and 1 tranasaruas rex which you only she for about 15 percent of the film.

This is what happens there is a malfuction on of the laser cords malfuctions. One of the raptor escape gets lose and kills some people. The police man and his girl friend check out the murder.

They trace it to Uniscore were there they are later captured and prision buy Hades a scum bag. He even killed on of his employes because he thought her had lost his vision and forgotten his vision. Hades himself eventually dies is devour at the end by the T-rex after it escape from is storage area.

To make it better like python 1 and 2 and Predator 2 the goverment are inevolved. Hades program at one point has been sponsored by the goverment but after one of the raptors escaped and killed some people abadon the project.

But Hades contiunes to do his research buy getting foreign funding from Iraq. The goverment figures out that he reactivated project and send armed marines on a seek and destroy mission.

Shortly after entering the building the secretary under the sherrif order shuts of the power. By the time the power is turn back on the raptors and the t-rex are loose.

There are two fun parts in the move that rip of Aliens. One when a lady in the chopter turn around there is a rapter in the helicopter it kill her then like in aliens the helicopter hits the ground and blows up instantly.

The other rip of Aliens is at the end when the police officer fight the T-rex

Not as good as the Jurrasic Parks,but its fun
A good movie,but has very poor effects.The dinosaurs look so fake.The Jarrasic Park serries had great effects.Other than that its a very good movie.Good acting and a good plot.One of the most goriest movies ive ever seen.A group of scientest create a lot of raptors and one t-rex.1 of the raptors escapes and kills five locals and two policemen.The shierf and his girlfriend investigates the killings and go check out the building were the dinosaurs were created.The head scientest(Dr.Hyde)is actually rooting for the raptors,and lock them in a room were the raptors will come and eat them.Like in Python 1 and 2 the government are involved and they send about 10 soldiers there to kill the raptors.Before the shierf went to Dr.Hydes labs and got locked up,he told the electric company to turn off the power at exactly 3:00 PM.So when the power goes out the door comes open were they were trapped and the lazers that were keeping the raptors from escaping go off.Now the dinosaurs are free in the building and are killing the soldiers and scientest.One of the raptors gets in the helicopter and kills the women driving it and it blowsup. They send another helicopter and the surviving soldiers and scientest escape.The t-rex eats Dr.Hyde in the end and the sheirf kills the T-rex.The soldiers blow up the building and the raptors die.A good movie to rent and even buy if you like.Thanks for reading!

SPLICE AND DICE
RAPTOR is a collection of scenes spliced from the three previous CARNOSAUR movies, and that in itself loses the movie at least two stars!!!
THE STORY: Banal and derivative, incoherent, and since it uses so much footage from the above mentioned movies, how can one judge this script on its own?
THE DIRECTION: Tepid and unimaginative.
THE CAST: Tim Abell was the only one I enjoyed in this movie; his supermacho Delta Force leader was the only life like performance. Teresa DePriest can't act; Corbin Bernsen overacts; and Eric Roberts and Melissa Brasselle are zombielike.
OTHER ASPECTS: The music by James Horner (why would this future oscar winner even do this?) It's banal at best. The special effects are mediocre, and the movie's climax rips off the third Carnosaur movie so blatantly, it's abysmal.
Shame on Roger Corman for stooping so low.
The two stars are mainly for Tim Abell!!!

See Three Terrible Movies In One Even More Painful Experienc
I have to admit that "carnisaur" has been a guilty pleasure for me and friends. Although rediculously bad I didnt think it could get any worse...until now. Thanks to "raptors" I now no longer feel a reason to live. This movie was brutal in every aspect of film. I do enjoy B-movies every now and then, but when I rent one, I dont expect to see three other movies spliced together like a chinese fire drill. Every rule is broken in this movie: Bobcats tractors teleport from factories to deserts and transform into gigantic forklifts, a total lack of RAPTORS in the movie, the murders of random characters from other movies because it is sliced to horribly, and it becomes pitch black after 3:00 in a matter of minutes. I guess what I am trying to elude to is that I feel horriblly betrayed and cheated: the director's comentary even goes great lengths to avoid commenting on the issue of the blatantly obvious splicing and errors. Unfortunately, if you are looking for a good B-movie laugh...I recommend the originals first...then only then you will understand the true monstosity that is "raptor"

How the heck did they bag JAMES HORNER for this?
CARNOSAUR was a true landmark in my 17 years of watching movies, in that it was the first one that I could not finish in one sitting (I had to take 2 breaks). The crummy special effects and gratuitous gore are not the problem (movies like BAD TASTE prove it can be done and be good). The problem was its utter rediculouslness, its tendancy to introduce characters for the sole purpose of killing them in death scenes that are far more revealing and even longer than the ones that introduced them. It was way to dark and gloomy to be considered campy fun. In a word, it bit.

But now here is RAPTOR, a Roger Corman movie that feels some need to re-make CARNOSAUR, this time sans human-incubation plot, with half of the film being stock footage of the 1993 abomination and the other half being brand new, 2001 abomination.

The surprise in this movie is that James Horner is on the credits. What a fun little excercise this must have been for him. (But no, the music isn't anything remarkable) ... Read more