10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Sorry, no redeeming qualities here!, February 8, 2008
This review is from: The Tormentors (DVD)
The Tormentors is one of those 70s movies that is just plain awful. Actually, the best part of the DVD is the front cover artwork! Poor acting and directing, a fragmented-yet-predictable story-line, student-level filming and editing, non-original dialogue, and truly uninteresting characters make for a 78-minute snore-fest! I kept waiting for some redeeming qualities that would make the viewing experience worthwhile, but sadly none shined through this lackluster bomb. Even the abduction and assault scenes were totally unconvincing and poorly choreographed. When this film debuted in 1971, the producers were obviously trying to capitalize on what was perceived to be the topics of the day (free love, pseudo-gurus, the psychedelic scene, etc.), none of which was portrayed realistically. Don't be deceived by the "R" rating, as it is barely PG-13 in content by today's standards. I had purchased this DVD because it was distributed by the Platinum Disc folks, who had previously issued the engaging "Cyclone" film (not the disposable shark-related movie of the same name) with Heather Thomas and Jeffrey Combs, and hoped it would be at least of equivalent quality. Not even remotely close! As a fan of sleeper B-movies with a revenge theme ("Savage Streets", "I Spit On Your Grave", "Dudes", etc.) I wish I could say something good about this movie, but I just can't. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
So bad it's hilarious, May 19, 2010
This review is from: The Tormentors (DVD)
I've seen this movie at least five times. It's one of my favorite so-bad-it's-fantastic obscure productions. This has to be the most laughably absurd of the original biker movies put out say between 1966 (when "The Wild Angels" came out and blew people away) and 1974 (with the release of "The Northville Cemetary Massacre", probably the last film in that glut of drive-in biker operas).
This almost isn't a biker film, really, but there is motorcycle riding. Neo-Nazis in California (portrayed by actors with intermittent German accents...no, I take that back, intermittent pale imitations of German accents) ride bikes and rob banks, then return to their headquarters, supposedly bankrolled by some sinister right wing industrialist. This place is like Bechtersgarden meets The Playboy Mansion on a budget, as hot German frauleins sashay around the pool while the Nazi dudes goosestep around in their cheap ass uniforms and try to keep their German accents going.
During a bank robbery gone bad, they shoot the hot bank teller, the girlfiriend of our hero, Anthony (nee Fred) Eisley, king of bad movie roles. The cops are no help and they warn our hero to stay out of it and let them do their jobs. Dude has to "get the word on the street" so he goes to a psychedelic head shop to get the low down from the owner, his very own Huggy Bear. Funniest scene in the movie. Dude decides that he must infiltrate the Nazis and become one of them to get his revenge.
Meanwhile, the local Hippies are following around a guy dressed as Jesus, who preaches at the local love-in. Well, that dates the movie to a certain moment in time, doesn't it, kids? The Nazi believe somehow they can get the Hippies to ditch the Jesus guy and start following them blindly. How they are going to do this is never adequately explained, turn a bunch of unwashed hippie pacifists into goose-stepping Neo Nazis who follow all orders. The Nazis decide to discredit "Jesus" and he gets thrown in jail. Meanwhile, the head Nazi's right hand man is suspicious of his "new recruit" Fred, and tries to dig up some dirt, as Fred waits for the right moment to bring the hammer down and call in the cops.
I love the sheer wrongness of this film. Supposedly it was filmed in 1968 or 69, but never saw the light of day until a VHS release in 1981. Too bad, I'm sure drive-in theater audiences would have had a blast with this. As it is, you can now recapture the looney insanity of this lost piece of psychedelic hippie era effluvium.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Not That Great, February 2, 2007
I am friends with the "evil" actress in this movie (Inger Wegge), although her name is mis-spelled in the movie credits as Inga Wege. It is interesting, but some of the nude scenes are so ridiculously drawn out, that they detract from the story. This was in the early 70s when gratuitous nudity was spattered all over the silver screen. Too bad. This actually would have been a decent movie if Hollywood knew when to say "cut!" on the nudy scenes.
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