Reviews

Sure, the story has more plot holes in it than the one hole that starts the whole downward spiral for the characters, BUT this is clearly B-Movie territory here and as such, it's quite good. The director and/or writer are obvious fans of the 1945 Classic Noir B-Movie called DETOUR (Check it out on Youtube, folks !). Same loser type guy who keeps making the wrong decisions and ends up in hopeless situation with a manipulative, crazy-ass femme fatale. Ending is different, though, since in 1945 you couldn't show the Law being defeated, while here ... (Lemme just say that, as happens often in real life, justice doesn't prevail, which is actually a nice twist !)

PLUS film has an unforgettable scene where one of the main characters that we have grown quite attached to is suddenly and shockingly killed !! Tarantino would have been proud ! (As shocking as Janet Leigh being killed in the shower after 40 minutes in PSYCHO).

For that scene alone, the film is a must see !

This episode usually gets thrown away as one of the worst OL episode ever and while I can see that the story just drags on and on, you gotta give it credit for tackling the surely-taboo-in-1965 topic of consciousness expanding drugs ! In fact, it is AMAZING that some of the dialogue spoken in this episode made it passed the censors and on the air back then ! At some point, Keith Andes tells his now Schwarzneggerian-looking-scientist-brother-in-law that he's doing things that only God should be allowed to do. The madman's answer : - What if God is too busy ? Far out, Man ! Another highlight is the groovy scene of the Asian doctor coming back from a drug-induced coma and describing in very poetic terms the effects of LSD on his perception of the world ! Cooooool stuff indeed in 1965 ! Too bad the episode didn't focus on that instead of giving us boring scenes of one character following another one in order to fill the episode's running time ...

This 2nd season episode contains everything that was good AND bad about the second season : great looking aliens, cool special FX and music and good actors doing their best with (here's the bad part) inferior material and plodding story line ... Show starts wonderfully (very atmospheric prologue scene + great surrealistic scenes of the alien appearing on the back seat of Warren Stevens's car) but then it's all downhill from here ... Kudos to Gail Kobe for her energetic acting in a thankless role (as the emotionally abused GIRLFRIEND (not wife, mind you, surely a rare instance in 1960 TV) of abusive scientist Warren Stevens). Early scene where she catches him alone in his house with Robert Webber has a definite 'gay vibe' to it (- Who's this man ? - Just a friend ... You should leave us alone now ! ) Have fun counting the number of times she faints in the presence of the aliens, or admiring the outrageously ugly dress she wears during the picnic scene (absurdly occurring in the vicinity of what looks like thousands of ants !!) :) Man, those 2nd season shows suck so bad when compared to the landmark episodes of the 1st season ...

Shot in Spain and Italy (check out all the Italian names in the credits) with American stars and director, this is one unusual psychotronic Spaghetti western ! As an actor himself, Morrow can get the best performances out of his cast but his direction is sometimes great, sometimes surprisingly sloppy. He's way too fond of hand-held 360 degree shots (something he also used many times in the few COMBAT shows he directed. While it might have been relevant in a war environment, in a western it's highly unusual and distracting for the viewer). He also often disregard the old rule of "not crossing the axis" with the camera, which makes for startling camera placement ! Only western I know that goes from western, to men-in-prison film, to film noir (check out the nighttime prison scene where all other prisoners suddenly start howling at the moon !! ) to a very nasty STRAW DOGS style revenge movie (with a Mexican Death Ceremony thrown in near the end) ! Soundtrack goes from efficient, to unusually jazzy to down right silly, the theme song being particularly atrocious ! A few years before he was to find a bloody horse head in his bed in THE GODFATHER, veteran actor John Marley (as the Old Man) shows us he could actually ride one for real ;) Finally, I don't care what the credits say, this is definitely NOT gorgeous Italian beauty Laura Antonelli playing Ria (Sledge's girlfriend) ... I mean COME ON ! This girl is borderline ugly !

OK episode which starts with a surprisingly gory (for the time) murder scene and doesn't let go (well, a little during Danny's, ahem, "undercover" work with gorgeous Barbara Luna, but who's gonna pay attention to their improbable dialogue when she's walking around in all kinds of skimpy outfits .... Man !! She's one of my favourite 60's actresses (along with Barbara Eden, Susanne Pleshette, Susan Oliver, etc) and always a pleasure to watch ) Some funny macho posturing between McGarrett and tough guy Harry Guardino who made a specialty of playing authority figures going over the edge (see his other crazy soldier role in the HUMAN FACTOR episode of THE OUTER LIMITS). As usual with HAWAI 5-0's first and second season, some technical difficulties occur with the sound whenever characters are on the beach (in this episode, some lines of dialogue between Danny and Luna are lost by the sound of waves crashing nearby !!). Subtitles may be required.