'Comin' At Ya!'
(Tony Anthony, Gene Quintano, Victoria Abril, Ricardo Palacios, Lewis Gordon, et al / DVD / R / (1981) 2016 / MVD Visual)
Overview: Tragedy strikes as two ruthless brothers kidnap a bride during her wedding. Hurt and angry, H.H. begins his quest to find the love he lost, and take vengeance upon the wicked. That's right, one and all, he's Comin' at Ya!
DVD Verdict: Released as the "first 3D film" of the early-mid 1980s cycle, the film's actual title 'Comin' At Ya' had absolutely nothing to do with the film's story and relates purely to the 3D gimmick of the picture!! Things to watch out for that were, well, "comin' at ya" in 3D included: darts, snakes, guns, beans, rats, spears, grasping hands, spiders, a bowling ball, bats, gun barrels, swords, cowboys falling down stairs, a spinning yo-yo and pinwheel, gold coins, apple peels, flaming arrows and a baby's bottom!!
However, the movie was not the first ever 3D western as a number of them had been made during the 1950s though it has been claimed that the film was the first-ever 3D spaghetti western. The movie was also a co-production which was financed by three countries: Italy, Spain and the USA and was originally filmed in single-strip 3-D format and used the Optimax III camera system therein.
Now, onto the actual film and boy, what a film this is. Indeed, today you might say it's more of a cult film experience, but that depends on who you talk to, I guess. Anyway, The 80 minute plot (which, without the endless assault of blatant 3D effects, would probably clock in at just over a half an hour!) is very slight. In an opening flashback, Hart and his girl Abilene rob a Wells Fargo bank, get attacked by mercenaries, get married and get attacked once again; this time by white slave traders who take Abiline and leave Hart for dead.
Hart survives, though and sets out to find her. The bad guys lump Abiline in with a group of other women that they intend to use, abuse, and sell into prostitution across the border into Mexico. Eventually, Hart and his Scottish preacher sidekick capture the head bad guys brother and use him as leverage to get his new wife back. Phew, yep, that's about it, save for the actual ending which I won't spoil here, trust me.
Interestingly enough, Carlo Savina scored a lot of Spaghetti Westerns. All low budget "B" stuff and here he contributes a spare, elegiac score using ambient voices pleasingly, in truth. His best moments are during a five minute replay of its best 3D moments after the movie - which I'm guessing was probably the original opening credits title tune.
Anyway, 'Comin' At Ya' was also the debut film as an actor playing Pike for Gene Quintano as well as his debut produced screenplay with Quintano co-writing the screenplay. Closing this review out, how about a bit of lesser-known trivia: During the bat attack sequence, several of the women's screams heard are recycled screams from the English dub track to Dario Argento's 'Inferno' (1980)! This Standard Presentation version has been sourced from a 4K master, boasts a frame by frame digital conversion of the original print, sourced from a brand new internegative and new 5.1 surround sound enhanced for 16x9 TVs.
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