Death Dimension (1978)

Such a frustrating disappointment

hyped garbage

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Death Dimension (1978) ** (out of 4)A mad scientist known as The Pig creates a bomb that when it explodes it can freeze anything close to it. Detective J. Ash (Jim Kelly) is asked to try and track down the people behind it before it falls into the wrong hands.Al Adamson was the master at creating ultra-cheap movies for the drive-in circuit. He could make just about any type of genre and more times than not he was able to mix the various genres into one crazy little film. He created some good movies like Dracula VS FRANKENSTEIN as well as countless really awful ones. DEATH DIMENSION is pretty much cheap non-sense that fans of the blaxploitation and martial arts genres should enjoy.Obviously, if you're walking into an Adamson picture, you shouldn't be expecting high art or a quality picture. Basically what you want to do is just sit back, turn your brain off and just enjoy what's in front of you. Storywise the film is certainly a mess and it rarely makes too much sense but if you're a fan of Kelly and his martial arts style then there are plenty of fights here. The fights certainly aren't going to rival ENTER THE DRAGON but they're fun enough for this type of action picture.There's obviously nothing ground-breaking here but for a cheap drive-in picture it at least has some energy and some charm.

Poorly written and directed; you get the impression this flick was done on a budget that relied on a bounced check. Probably in its day, this film that was also released as DEATH FACTOR, was just perfect for the screens of discount priced theaters. Exploiting the rash of "black" movies and also those relying on martial arts to lure viewers. Karate expert Jim Kelly stars as Lt. Ash, who is involved with the investigation of a re-known scientist being murdered after creating a "freeze bomb". The top suspect is The Pig(Harold 'Odd Job' Sakata), a widely known whore-monger. The cast also features: George Lazenby, Aldo Ray, Terry Moore and Myron Bruce Lee.

Considering the film stars Jim Kelly (from ENTER THE DRAGON), Harold "Odd Job" Sakata and George Lazenby (the one-time James Bond), you'd think that this would be a much better film. Instead, it just slowly slogs its way to the ending--the very, very bad ending. In fact, I couldn't wait for this listless film to end.Well, folks, this should NOT really come as a surprise if you consider who is responsible for this film. It's from the "master" of schlock, Al Adamson--one of the most pathetically bad film makers of all time. In fact, for Adamson this IS a very good film--and that's what makes his career all the more sad. If you don't believe me that this is one of his better films, just try watching Dracula VS. FRANKENSTEIN, HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS, HELL'S BLOODY DEVILS and FIVE BLOODY GRAVES! Ugghh...to quote Colonel Kurtz, "the horror".This film begins with a lady scientist (is there any other type?) escaping from Odd Job, I mean Sakata, who is working on a freeze bomb. Considering that she has the formula on her, the baddies are all out to get her...fast. To combat them, instead of sending out the Marines, police or FBI, two lone guys are sent to combat this organization of evil (I guess the budget wouldn't allow more). Kelly and a nobody nicknamed "Myron" Bruce Lee go in search of evil and somehow blunder into it by the end of the film. But considering how dull all this is, you really could care less and just want the whole thing to end. And, when it does end, it ends in one of the silliest scenes. Kelly apparently is a HORRIBLE shot with a handgun--missing at least 20,308 times during the last 10 minutes of the film. Yet, once the boss baddie gets on a plane and flies away to freedom, Kelly hits the plane and it miraculously blows up--even though he's hundreds of yards away and it's only a snub-nosed .38 caliber gun! Naturally, I hated the film. Unfortunately, this isn't one of the more unintentionally funny Adamson films, nor is his other teaming with Kelly (BLACK SAMURAI). See it if you are an Adamson completist, but otherwise don't bother.Oh, and a final thought. In the scenes with the "lucious prostitutes", this may sound catty but they seem to be about the ugliest professionals in film history. Where did they get these women? Prison?!

While this looks better than a lot of other Al Adamson movies, nothing else good can be said about this. This is an incredibly boring movie. Ridiculously padded, fight scenes so lame they aren't even funny, dull direction, etc. Even fans of Kelly will be hard pressed to get through this. No wonder they had to give this movie so many alternate names - they had to keep fooling people, when each new title soon became box-office poison after word-of-mouth spread around!