Comin’ at Ya! (1981)
“WARNING: The Management Is Not Responsible For Where The Screen Ends And You Begin!”
This Spanish-American Spaghetti western (if it’s Spanish then shouldn’t it be a Paella western?) directed by Ferdinando Baldi who’s other credits include Ten Zan – Ultimate Mission (1988) a film that stars 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982) And Thunder (1983) actor Mark Gregory in a film financed and filmed in North Korea with the blessing of Kim Il-sung having Mark fighting Nazi’s.
I want to see that.
Anyway Comin’ At Ya is about H.H. Hart played by Tony Anthony who’s trailing two brothers that attacked him during his wedding and kidnapped his bride.
Having amassed a sizeable number of women they then auction them off mainly to be sold to brothels in Mexico.
Being helped by a Scottish priest (I think he’s a priest) H.H. tracks one of the brothers Pike, a truly despicable character played by Gene Quintano who went on to direct several Police Academy films.
Truely evil.
Comin’ At Ya is filmed in 3D with the films title having no bearing on the film and merely being a marketing decision. In fact in America some trailers didn’t contain any footage of the film but only explained how 3D works.
The 3D effect is well… Excellent in places and a mess elsewhere especially at the start. It’s such a mess and painful on the eyes I went in and changed my 3D settings thinking my TV was at fault but this clears up mostly very early on.
In fact when the 3D works it is very good. Nice sense of depth that make some mundane shots really stand out. For instance when H.H. is talking to the Priest through the confessional window plus it helps that the priest has a nice big nose that reaches out so far that if he sneezed you would hand him a tissue.
There are some issues due to the filming method they used for the 3D mostly when something is thrust into the camera like 3D films used to do back then but despite that if you can then 3D is the way to watch it.
It really is excellent most of the time.
The director likes dropping objects on the camera so it looks like they are coming at you (no pun intended) from the screen from gold coins to what I think is frozen kernels being eaten of sweetcorn and even to a baby lowered onto the camera.
On top of this are the colour-correction techniques used with whatever is supposed to be your focal point either being in black and white or in colour.
I like how adventurous the director tried to be and for me takes what would be an average film and gives it some character.
Overall this is an enjoyable watch so if you like Paella westerns then give this a go.
On the Blu-Ray I have the picture is of a very good quality and shows how much work went into the transfer from the 4K master but the 5.1 surround, whilst very clear and great quality, rarely takes advantage of the extra channels but that can’t be helped as it wasn’t recorded in 5.1 and is still preferable to the crappy speakers you get in flatscreen TV’s these days.
The only extras are a trailer and 5 minute promo. Disappointing as I would have liked a making of documentary or even one on the restoration and 3D conversion though the film is the reason you bought it and for me that’s good enough.
If you’re a fan of these types of westerns then I recommend it and pay no attention to the cover. I have no idea what they were thinking when they added the crowd at the bottom spouting bad puns as the film tries to be serious and isn’t a Blazing Saddles (1974) ripoff like the cover misleads you into thinking.
That said the film is unintentionally funny in places especially with the toy bats on a visible wire being bounced by someone from the crew at the screaming women (with screams recycled from the English dub of Dario Argento’s Inferno (1980) or the close up of the cockerel where you can see a crew members hand holding and shaking it.
All part of its character
