Treasure of the Four Crowns

[Alan Smithee]

Anyone see this one?
A cheap Raiders knock-off done in 3-D.
The first 20 minutes is suppose to "out do" Raiders opening minutes. But I don't think I've laughed so hard in a long time.

[Menard]

Hey Alan, love your movies.

I never saw TREASURE OF THE FOUR CROWNS at the theatre when it came out. I do have a copy on VHS but have only watched about the first 20 minutes.

TREASURE OF THE FOUR CROWNS was done by the same people who did COMIN' AT YA IN 3-D. I did enjoy that as I saw it at the theatre in 3-D in 1981. I do have the 3-D version of COMIN' AT YA IN 3-D on DVD in anaglyph 3-D.

[Alan Smithee]

I haven't seen Comin At Ya but i hear it is baaaad.
Did you like it in a way it was so bad it was good? Or did you think it was a genuinely good movie?

[Menard]

COMIN AT YA was one thing, a 3-D experience. In the theatre it was a great experience. Take away the 3-D, and you don't have too much left. They did not pretend it was anything else. They just simply threw everything at the audience while keeping a simple stortline so nobody missed anything while they were busy ducking.

COMIN AT YA revamped the interest in 3-D movies. Several so-called experts put it down. Others decided to make 3-D movies and effectively bored the hell out of audiences and proceded to kill any interest in 3-D movies.

COMIN AT YA was simply the most fun I have had watching a movie in a theatre, but that is the only way to watch it.

[Jack Corbett]

They ripped off Raiders of the Lost Ark?

[Menard]

'Ripped off' and 'tried to duplicate but failed' are two different expressions.

TREASURE OF THE FOUR CROWNS is a RAIDERS inspired 3-D movie that takes place in the present time and nothing near the budget or effects.

COMIN' AT YA is a spaghetti western in 3-D.

Personally I wouldn't mind a RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK rip off, if it were any good.

[Alan Smithee]

There was a bevy of 3D movies in 1983. Probably the least was this one or Metalstorm. There was also Jaws 3D, Amityville 3D, and Spacehunter. Spacehunter, while I never saw in the cinema, holds up well. It's not Grade Z junk like Jared Synn.

[Jack Corbett]

I think you mailed your reply as I was writing mine.


"Do ya feel lucky, punk?"

[Menard]

SPACEHUNTER was one of the few I enjoyed of the 3-D movies I saw and holds up well, as you mentioned, without the 3-D.

Another one I enjoyed was PARASITE, which was released in 1982.

Quite a few 3-D movies were released in 1983 which was the 30 year anniversary of the release of BWANA DEVIL which was Arch Obeler's first 3-D movie that sparked the 3-D movie craze in the fifties.

Of course FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III, IN 3-D holds up well without the 3-D because it sucked so bad in 3-D.

[Alan Smithee]

Ha, I forgot about the Friday the 13th in 3D. As for Spacehunter, I wonder if they decided on doing it in 3D at the last minute. Because watching it (I have it on DVD, and saw it initially on HBO more than 20 years ago) there isn't any obvious objects thrust at viewer. I wonder if the producers decided since 3D was back in vogue that they'd release it in 3D. Either way, it's a watchable, campy and fun, little, forgotten movie.

[Jack Corbett]

Jaws 3-D...

(shudders)

[Alan Smithee]

Saw that gem in the theatre. I loved it then, and hate it now.

[Menard]

It was intended for 3-D. There are scenes where the effects are played to the camera but not to the degree of COMIN' AT YA or TREASURE OF THE FOUR CROWNS. I realize that she was only 15 at the time, but Molly Ringwald never looked better than when she was in 3-D.  (:

[Alan Smithee]

Yeah, the thrusting of stuff into the camera was more subtle. Whatever happend to Molly Ringwald? She was all the craze in the 80's (to a certain degree) then was reduced to the "Where are they now?" catagory.

[Menard]

She is still active in the cinema, but in smaller roles, straight-to-video, or small release films. It seems that no matter how hard we may try, we cannot get the Brat Pack to go away. It even appears that Anthony Michael Hall's career has been on the upswing. Who would have thought that to be possible?

But Molly was always adorable.

Do you remember her, with a bad hairstyle, on the first season of the TV show THE FACTS OF LIFE?