Entre ficheras anda el diablo - La pulquería 3 (1984)iMDB Rating: 5.3
Hermelinda linda (1984)iMDB Rating: 5.6Live action feature based on the Mexican comic about the exploits of a witch living in the outskirts of 'Bondojia', when a ruthless small time politician tries to steal their land to buid up a luxurius condo.
Shapath (1984)iMDB Rating: 4.2The Commissioner of Police is impressed with the diligence and bravery by one of his officers named Vijay, and asks him to re-locate to a lawless town by the name of Shona Pur, which Vijay accepts. He arrives there incognito, and is faced with several challenges, including lackadaisical policemen, who have never arrested anyone. He sets out to put things right. He meets with a young woman by the name of Shanti, who is on the look-out for buried treasure. Vijay and Shanti both fall in love with each other, and both set out to locate this treasure. In order to do this they will have to go through underground caverns, snake-pits, and a gang of thieves who are known to kill anyone who get in their way.
Srivaariki Premalekha (1984)iMDB Rating: 8.3One of the best comedy movies of all times
I have seen over 10,000 movies in over 25 languages. This movie is in my list of top 10 comedy movies anywhere. I never tire of watching it - again and again. However, the movie will be entirely lost on someone who is not a native of Andhra Pradesh, its culture, and most importantly the language.
A genre creating, mold breaking movie with superb direction supported by excellent acting. When this movie came out, most of the actors were relative unknowns. Comedy equaled slapstick routines and overacting previously typically segued from the rest of the plot line. In Srivariki Premalekha, comedy was situational and intricately woven into the plot line. There were only a handful of movies that previously could have qualified for this. Misamma, Gundamma Katha are two that come to mind.
Poochakkoru Mookkuthi (1984)iMDB Rating: 7.0This movie was remade in Hindi as Hungama
This is one of my favourite malayalam comedy movies. Good comic timing by all the actors in this movie. Somehow could not appreciate the Hindi version Hungama. Any malayalees who have see Hungama, but not the malaylam version, then it is highly recommended to see this original version.
Sukumari, Nedumudi Venu, Shankar, Mohan Lal, Sreenivasan, Kudravattu Pappu, Soman and others all have done an excellent job of playing their characters to the hilt.
Its a comedy of errors and with multiple plots.
Watch this version to roll with laughter.
Hermelinda linda (1984)iMDB Rating: 5.6Live action feature based on the Mexican comic about the exploits of a witch living in the outskirts of 'Bondojia', when a ruthless small time politician tries to steal their land to buid up a luxurius condo.
Desperate Teenage Lovedolls (1984)iMDB Rating: 5.9The rise and fall of an all-girl punk rock band in Hollywood in the 1980s.
Micro-budget classic
Desperate Teenage Lovedolls is one of the great unheralded no-budget movies. It deserves to be put on a shelf with Jim Van Bebber's Deadbeat At Dawn, Scooter McCrae's Shatter Dead, Buddy Giovinazzo's Combat Shock, and John Waters's Mondo Trasho. While not quite as extreme as any of those masterpieces, it has a curious naivety and punk-rock verve that makes it irresistible.
The story follows the rise & fall of a grrl punk rock band from the gutter to the stars and back. It features all the clichés - sleazy managers, drugs, murder, gang fights, Felix the cat, you name it. There's plenty of great punk rock on the soundtrack, and Redd Kross both back the Love Dolls and play roles in the movie.
The whole thing manages to wrap up in well over an hour, leaving us wanting more. Fortunately there's a sequel. I'm hoping for Part 3.
Zhi zhuan yi jian (1984)iMDB Rating: 6.8THE SUPREME SWORDSMAN - A fairly intense late swordplay film from Shaw Bros.
THE SUPREME SWORDSMAN (1984) was part of the final wave of swordplay films to come out of Shaw Bros. before it wrapped up feature film production in 1985 to focus on television series production. This one's surprisingly focused on its theme and has a relatively small number of main characters. It has the usual hyperactive swordfighting, but few of the fantastic flourishes found in most Shaw costume pictures from that period. Jason Pai Piao plays a swordsman who wants to be Supreme Swordsman and acquire 100 swords from other heroes by killing them in duels and taking their swords. Early on, he reaches 99 and sets his sights on a particular sword and swordmaster. However, the real Supreme Swordsman (Wang Jung), handily defeats Jason, sending him on a quest for a better sword and, in the course of it, finding another key swordmaster (Ku Feng) leading a reclusive life and keeping hidden the treasured Cold Eagle sword of Jason's own Black Magic Clan. Jason, furious at being kept out of the loop on the clan's treasures, now wants that sword. Ku Feng's son, played by Derek Yee, gets into the act and at about the one-hour mark goes off for some needed training in order to take on Jason. And then Jason comes back into the film for the final set of duels.
The first hour had a great deal of momentum, but goes off on a tangent when Derek undergoes new training with a trio of crazy old monks (including kung fu regular Lee Hoi-sang), one of whom has a pretty granddaughter (Li Tien-lang) who becomes Derek's companion. By the time Jason comes back into the fray for the final battle, the initial momentum has dissipated and the film never quite picks it up again.
Still, Jason and Derek have good parts and Ku Feng has one of his best late Shaw roles. Yuen Wah has a good part as well, playing a defeated opponent who becomes Jason's reluctant assistant. The film's got a lot of well-staged action and is one of the few martial arts films made at Shaw after 8-DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER that focused on a distinct martial arts theme to the exclusion of other plot elements, in this case Jason's pursuit to be the best in his field and defeat all others. The director, Li Pai-ling (aka Keith Li),was making his directorial debut, having been an assistant director beforehand. It's not among the best of late Shaw swordplay films (I'm quite partial to BASTARD SWORDSMAN and RETURN OF THE BASTARD SWORDSMAN myself), but it's a bit different from the others and does have its distinct pleasures.
Raja Aur Rana (1984)iMDB Rating: 6.6Ranbir Singh (Pran) is a honest and diligent police inspector, who is successful in nailing the notorious Teja (Ajit), and sending him to jail Unfortunately for Ranbir Singh, Teja escapes from jail, and kills Ranbir's son, Munna. Ranbir is heartbroken. Ranbir's friend, Rajinder Singh (Ashok Kumar), also a police inspector, comes to console Ranbir, and they together decide to go undercovr as Rana and Raja to locate Teja, who has many hide-outs within India as well as abroad, and also goes by many assumed names, including Heeralal. These two are indirectly aided by police inspector Vijay (Puneet Issar) and his girlfriend Geeta (Alokh Soundh), whose dad was killed by Teja's goons. Vijay has a rather spoiled brother, Shakti Singh (Shakti Kapoor), who ultimately ends up on the wrong side of the law, and is a disappointment to both Vijay and his mom (Chand Usmani). Teja finds out about Vijay and decides to lure him with the charms of one of his girls, Lucky (Madhu Malhotra). Meanwhile the ...
Raja Aur Rana (1984)iMDB Rating: 6.6Ranbir Singh (Pran) is a honest and diligent police inspector, who is successful in nailing the notorious Teja (Ajit), and sending him to jail Unfortunately for Ranbir Singh, Teja escapes from jail, and kills Ranbir's son, Munna. Ranbir is heartbroken. Ranbir's friend, Rajinder Singh (Ashok Kumar), also a police inspector, comes to console Ranbir, and they together decide to go undercovr as Rana and Raja to locate Teja, who has many hide-outs within India as well as abroad, and also goes by many assumed names, including Heeralal. These two are indirectly aided by police inspector Vijay (Puneet Issar) and his girlfriend Geeta (Alokh Soundh), whose dad was killed by Teja's goons. Vijay has a rather spoiled brother, Shakti Singh (Shakti Kapoor), who ultimately ends up on the wrong side of the law, and is a disappointment to both Vijay and his mom (Chand Usmani). Teja finds out about Vijay and decides to lure him with the charms of one of his girls, Lucky (Madhu Malhotra). Meanwhile the ...
Trellos eimai oti thelo kano!.. (1984)iMDB Rating: 5.7Psaltis Returns!
Stathis Psaltis continues his 80's era with this film. Although not as good as "Vasika Kalispera Sas" it is still a classic one! Mike Vidas is played with much nerve from Psaltis and while the jokes seem sometimes a little (or a lot) excessive it still manages to make people laugh. Stathis Psaltis continued with comedy movies in the 80's and this made him very popular in Greece. It is fair to say however that movies like that do not stand a chance if compared with the Greek comedies of the 60's and the 70's. Teta Douzou and Kaiti Finou were the teen stars of their decade but by no means were they able to reach the publicity and magnitude of the previous decades film stars such as Zoi Laskari, Magda Karagianni, Maro Kodou or Aliki Vougiouklaki. What this film manages to do is give you some enjoyable moments of the madness and hyperbolic behavior that most Greeks had that time. If Vidas is compared with a Greek person of the 00's will definitely look like a caveman!
Cobra Thunderbolt (1984)iMDB Rating: 5.5A crippled war veteran creates an advanced battle tank and gets the attention of terrorists. They kidnap his wife for the exchange of the vehicle's blueprints, so he asks his daughter and best friend for help to battle the bad guys.
Purana Mandir (1984)iMDB Rating: 6.8Suman lives a wealthy lifestyle along with her widower dad, Thakur Ranvir Singh, and an unmarried aunt, Damyanti, in a palatial house in Bombay. They are direct descendants of Raja Hariman Singh of Bijapur. When Ranvir finds out that Suman is in love with a middle-classed male, Sanjay, he expresses displeasure and forbids her to ever see him again. When she persists, he tells her that there is a curse on the entire family - a curse that was inflicted 200 years ago by a blood-thirsty, flesh-eating demon named Samri. This curse impacts only women in their family, who are hideously transformed after giving birth to their firstborn, and die a painful death. Treating this as mere superstitious, Suman and Sanjay, along with Sanjay's friend, Anand and his wife, Sapna, set out to Bijapur to unearth and put an end to this rumor - not knowing that soon they will resurrect a virtually indestructible Samri - who is out to kill the remainder of the Singh family before wrecking havoc on the region ...
One of the Best Films to come out of India
I remember my parents renting this from our local Hindi video library in the 1980s. I remember seeing the poster in the shop window and Saamri's grotesque face staring lustfully at Arti Gupta's body. We used to love this movie when we were kids because it was really scary. I hear it was a tremendous hit and people in Bombay were crazy for it. The Ramsay Bros. are fantastic filmmakers and know exactly which buttons to push in order to get the right response from the audience. More than this, they had really fantastic stories that were based on old Indian myths and superstitions and delivered them with plenty of style and energy. Much like the Hammer Horror films of Britain, the Ramsay Bros. had a visual aesthetic that was uniquely their own and has never been replicated. It's a shame that they no longer make movies and have chosen instead to concentrate on India's burgeoning television market. At a time when I really couldn't hack watching glossy Bollywood musicals or listening to soppy Hindi love songs, the Ramsay Bros. movies were about the only thing we could watch collectively and really enjoy. 'Purana Mandir' is a perfect example of good Hindi commercial movie-making and deserves to be hailed as a Horror classic.
