Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another Slice of Strangeness from Jess Franco, March 15, 2004
THE DEVIL CAME FROM AKASAVA is another terrific piece of work from Jess Franco. I think that in many ways, this is one of his most ambitious and taught thrillers. It's Franco doing the spy game for us as only Franco can, with the lovely Soledad Miranda as a gorgeous agent and Franco himself playing a nebulous character that always seems to be on the periphery of the action. The action centers on a stone that turns other stones into gold. Naturally, several global parties are after this most precious of rocks. In between, we have many Jess Franco staples played out: the gorgeous performing woman ogled by a mesmerized crowd, the black humor surrounding a body in need of disposal and its long trek toward a final resting place, the shootouts and chases, the voyeuristic camera that makes love to the luscious starlet (in this case, Soledad Miranda in the shower, onstage, in bed, etc.). One final observation: THE DEVIL CAME FROM AKASAVA includes the kind of snazzy wild jazz soundtrack that is an integral part of Jess Franco's best films. This is a circa 1970 picture. If you're into offbeat European cinema from that era, here's a true winner from one of the maestros!
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5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
This psuedo-plot of a movie stinks, February 26, 2005
This movie is a rotten tomato.
It is a German version of Modesty Blaise except instead of showcasing fashionable clothes at any available opportunity as it does in the original, it showcases the main character, Jane Morgan, a secret agent from Scotland Yard, in as few clothes as possible for really no apparent sensible reason, other than she is posing as a dancer from Jamaica whose dancing partner is a chair. The movie is filmed with very stylized shots that do not work and do nothing to propel the plot forward. Most of the time, you have no idea what is going on, who is the bad guy, who is shooting who, whose back-of-the-head are we looking at, etc. etc. In addition to not being able to follow the plot, there are too many holes in the story. For some strange reason, the bad guy shoots and kills Morgan's sidekick but doesn't take aim at Morgan who is lying asleep next to the guy. Maybe he likes her dancing? I don't know.
A film that tries to be very stylized but is really much about nothing. Don't waste time on this one.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Average Franco, September 18, 2006
"The Devil Came from Akasava" was made around the same time and with much of the same cast as "Vampyros Lesbos" and "She Killed in Ecstasy". It's not as psychedelic nor as good as either of those, but it's still a very watchable Franco film. Soledad Miranda is good as usual and the underrated Ewa Strömberg also does a very good job.
Those who expect to see a horror movie or a sleazy sexploitation film are likely to be disappointed. This is more of a spy movie. If you take it for what it is it's not bad.
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