The Manual (2017) – A very well-produced 30-minute short, The Manual is the story of James, very likely the last human alive on Earth, who has been raised since toddlerhood by an android servitor known only as “Machine.” Machine has been diligent about teaching James from “The Manual,” an ebook of scripture which affirms a divine plan and afterlife for both humans and androids, but as a lonely adult, James is questioning what he’s been told his entire life.
The last-minute twist to the plot is a little maddening, because it’s not a resolution or a reinterpretation of what has come before so much as a first-act turning point that sets up the rest of the story… which we don’t get.
Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971) – The title sounds like a setup for a raunchy comedy, but when you then see that it’s a Hammer Production, you realize it’s going to be taken pretty seriously. Mashing together Stevenson’s novel (published in 1886), the Whitechapel murders (which took place in 1888), and the grave-robbers Burke and Hare (which actually took place back in 1828, but who’s counting?), Ralph Bates as Dr. Jekyll realizes that the secret to longevity is tied to female hormones… which turns him into Martine Beswick! The effect only last a few hours at best, and it’s not really clear why Jekyll keeps experimenting on himself when he really doesn’t remember anything that happens why he’s “Sister Hyde,” so there’s no useful data to be gained, but after he’s done it a few times, Sister Hyde’s strong personality starts manifesting itself at will, and there’s an internal battle which manifests an external body count. (Funny how the hair length changes so dramatically between Jekyll and Hyde.)
Avenging Force (1986) – An exquisite slice of ’80s Cannon Group cheese: Produced by Golan and Globus, starring Michael Dudikoff and Steve James (from the first two American Ninja movies), written and co-starring James Booth (who wrote and played the heavy in Pray For Death), directed by Sam Firstenberg (who directed Revenge of the Ninja, Ninja III: The Domination and the first two American Ninja movies), also co-starring John Ryan from the It’s Alive moves and Marc Alaimo, best known (to me) as Gul Ducat from ST:DS9… and I’m recognizing all of those names in the credits and saying, “What’s wrong with me that I recognize all of those names??”
Oh, the plot? Ex-Secret Service agent Steve James is running for Senate in Louisiana, a power-hungry racist secret society called Pentangle is opposing him, and James’ former partner Michael Dudikoff is on hand for moral support and to deal out the whupass as necessary. The top leaders of Pentangle also like to have a manhunt in the bayou every so often, so you know this is going to end up with Dudikoff as part of a “Most Dangerous Game” riff. In fact, this would be a fun one to watch as a double-feature with Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Hard Target.
Abandoned movies: Tarkan and the Blood of the Vikings.
Ahh, I have fun college memories of “Avenging Force” from one of our bad movie nights.