Fishmen & Their Queen [DVD] [1995] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Yes

After watching Sergio Martino's "Island of the Fishmen" (or "Screamers" if, like me, you first saw this on a New World video tape), I never would've thought this would be the Martino film that would get a belated TV sequel almost twenty years after debuting. Seriously, the guy's made how many awesome giallo films, and THIS is the go to movie?!Anyway, this thing is a legit train wreck. Most of the movie is made up of stock footage from scenes stolen from "...Fishmen" and another Martino piece of ridiculousness called "2019: After the Fall of New York" (an "Escape from New York riff in case you're wondering). I'd say about a third or less of the film is new scenes. And that would be just dandy with me--I like Jerry Warren and Bruno Mattei!--if the new movie they were stitched together for was even remotely interesting.Unfortunately, this saga of two petulant children that escape a destitute city ruled by knights on horseback and end up on an island ruled by an beautiful, evil sorceress is pretty lame. It's basically a kids movie that throws it some really weird bloody bits and frequent murder. I probably would've loved this crap as a kid, but I was pretty stupid as a child. Wouldn't recommend this to anyone.

What were the makers of this film thinking? O.K., it was made for Italian television in the mid nineties but the film doesn't quite know what it wants to be. In the first half hour , we are subjected to every conceivable genre film from 'MAD MAX' to 'LAND OF THE LOST'. The sets are quite good but what ruins it is the juvenile storyline which makes this look like a Saturday Morning fun fest for the kids. Director Sergio Martino does what he can with the materials that he has ,however, this is not a sequel to the superior 'ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN' although they seem to resemble them. Mya releases it in a full screen transfer which looks like one of those old VHS Wizard Video rentals from a decade ago. For hardcore Martino fans only , the 2 stars is for the quality of the transfer alone. If you must know, the queen on the DVD cover is gorgeous actress Ramona Badescu and the eroticism that she exhudes in her painfully short scenes makes the mind boggle as to what the makers of the film thought they had in store for the kiddies watching this tortuous affair.