Comin’ at Ya! (Ferdinando Baldi, 1981)

Alright, you may have seen me post about this in the “DVDs I just bought” section. I just first heard about this film via Alex Cox’s YouTube intro of a spaghetti (I think it was My Name is Nobody). It sounded interesting enough so I searched out a disc. I was surprised to see that Rhino put out a 3-D version DVD in 1999 since I’ve never heard this mentioned anywhere previously. Also, it appears to be a region 0 disc and it comes w/ two pairs of 3-D glasses. The film itself was released in 1981 so this is a pretty late spag.

The story concept is similar to BLINDMAN. In Comin’ At Ya, a young couple’s wedding is broken up by a pair of outlaw brothers who steal the bride and leave the groom for dead. The outlaw brothers are en route to sell the Bride and other abducted women at an auction to Mexican brother owners. Of course, the Husband survives and furiously chases after them in hopes of saving his bride.

Tony Anthony re-teams w/ Baldi here, playing the husband character H.H. Hart.

I honestly was not expecting much of out of Comin’ At Ya, and I picked up the DVD for about 10 bucks purely out of curiosity. Overall, I think it is a decent Spaghetti, but not top 20 material or anything (or anywhere close to it). It takes a while for the action to get going (approx 40 mins) and you’ll roll your eyes at some of the obvious 3-D gimmicks (hands reaching at the frame, emphasis on swooping bats, etc). There is some unique action in the last half, which I won’t spoil, but it isn’t unique enough to warrant searching this title out.

The acting is okay. I like Tony Anthony in Blindman, but he’s going through the motions here and part of that can be blamed on the bland character. We get about the same from everyone else.

The story is one note, really – the race to save the stolen bride. Thus, even at 85 mins (it says 91 mins, but the last 6 mins is just “highlights” of the “great” 3-D moments replayed) the pace feels overly long. There is violence against women, but in small doses – and not to the extent of Blindman. It is kept fairly tame since this was a “commercial” release in 81. You do see a retread on the “corraling” of escaping women scene as they race across the desert from Blindman. However, it is much shorter here and much less violent.

The direction is fairly nice, but again the 3-D gimmicks tend to muck things. We get a lot of slow motion. Tonally, the films feels like a Baldi film, but visually it is not that strikingly spaghetti until the final showdown scenes. There’s a lot of slow-mo used as well.

And the score, like the film, is just average.

I read that the 3-D in this film during its release was quite good. Unfortunately, the 3-D wasn’t that great off a regular television. Some shots did extend off the screen, but very minimally. I wouldn’t recommend picking this up just for the novelty factor of watching it in 3-D.

My final rating would be maybe 2 stars, at best. If you’re purely curious like me, I would recommend not spending over 5 bucks. Even at 10, I feel a tad gyped. It makes a unique item to have on your self to pull out and say “Hey, I got a 3-D spag western”…except, of course, if someone urges you to put it in. :slight_smile:

It’s just a very average film…also – the disc only has a 3-D version so you can’t watch a regular cut that doesn’t have 3-D coloring/wavy crap all over it.


For more info visit:
DATABASE ENTRY: Comin' at Ya! - The Spaghetti Western Database

Give Comin’ at Ya! your rating out of five stars!
  • 5
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1

0 voters

I have seen this one and I agree.

There are too much aesthetically useless shots, which only sense is to serve the here much overused 3-D effects. There is also too much unimaginative filmed slow motion, and some weird, not working ideas, like for example an attack of bats, which are obviously lousy animated models.
Also the baddies have no charisma and are therefore uninteresting. Even Anthony looks uncomfortable in his costume and lacks the charisma of his previous SWs.

Still it retains some of the Blindman qualities, and there was the potential to make a much better film. After all it’s more interesting than Get Mean which is a completely idiotic and boring movie

Nevertheless, disappointing for both, Anthony and Baldi.

This must be one of the absolute last spaghettis, and the only one with 3-D effects?

Haven’t seen it myself.

That’s usual with 3-d films, in House of Wax for example there’s overlong shots of guy playing with this toy (what’s the name of this toy? Also used in Comin’ at ya) it’s awkward scene, especially if you’re watching it without the 3-d effect.

Average movie but still much better than I had expected. I just found the whole 3-d very distracting. It made my eyes sore.

i have only seen the first two “Stranger” films myself.

sucks, I am blind from one eye so it can’t works right for me… And if that movie is bad I gues sI should avoid it a any cost…

[quote=“ITFOR, post:6, topic:320”]sucks, I am blind from one eye so it can’t works right for me… And if that movie is bad I gues sI should avoid it a any cost…[/quote]Film itself is okay. If you can find it as a normal version (if there is one?) you should give it a try. By the way, funny thing is that Andre De Toth who directed House of Wax, one of the most famous 3-d films, was also blind from one eye.

I saw this at a local theater when it was released in 1981 and I thought the 3-D was above average at the time. Like those who have seen it, I agree the over done gimmicks ruin the film, as they have to insert some effect every 10 minutes or so. The opening scenes in the barn were excellent and the rest of the film should have been shot this way. I love the score by Carlo Savina and this really helps me get through the film. Palacios is great as Polk the pervert and Quintano holds his own. Tony Anthony plays his Stranger character in a dude outfit but he still comes through. Victoria Abril is sent through the gauntlet and is above average for a female lead. I wouldn’t put this on the top of my to see list but if you have an extra $10 you want to buy something with go for it.

Watched it yesterday. I tried to use those attached 3d glasses but it made my eyes hurt so i gave it up and watched the movie trying not to pay too much attention to this 3d stuff. It turned out to be a good one. Liked Tony Anthony’s performance [i don’t get it why this guy is so often criticized for his acting, it’s quite obvious for me that his bashed performance in Stranger in Town was intentionally tongue-in-cheek one] as well as Quintano and Palacio’s ones. Carlo Savina’s score was very pleasing for the ear. Story was very minimalistic but i liked it that way. The biggest fault for me were few really awkward scenes. I watched it with my friend and when the terrible rubber-bats scene came it made me wanna hide behind the chair out of embarassment. It would be sooo much better without scenes like this one, especially cosidering there were few high level stand-out scenes [at least for me] like the aucion one. All in all i enjoyed it a lot. Well, looking at most of the other opinions, i probably have a strange taste in spags :stuck_out_tongue:

As far as I remember I didn’t find it all that bad, alk0 so not that strange :slight_smile:

BUT, as you said the 3D in this one is terrible… In fact I remember I actually had the glasses on the wrong way (NO, they were placed on the front of my face but the colors were mismatched) and I only found out after about 15 minutes I think. Not that the 3D got enormously better but I managed to sit through it with the glasses on even though a headache weren’t far off.

Some of the scenes are of course made only with the 3D effect in mind and this also goes for the bat-scene and these scenes of which there are some can be a little tiresome. The best 3D effect I remember was where someone shoots flaming arrows at Tony Anthony, that looked great. The rest is very much so-so.

The movie in itself aint half-bad and if a non-3D version (or a GOOD 3D one) would surface it would be very nice. The one on dvd doesn’t do anything for the movie alas.

Yeah, glasses that come with DVD are red & blue while they should be red & green. Luckily I have some stupid 3-D Donald Duck comic which came with proper glasses… Still, I advice to go for tape releases which are all fullscreen but at least they have normal colours. Entertaining film, not as good as The Stranger Returns (my favorite Anthony film) for example but I’d give it 3.5 stars anyway. Proper widescreen DVD would be great.

:smiley: Haha !!! I do understand ! :wink:

Gotta give this one a re-watch !

Is anyone aware of a “normal” version of this film?
I am completely blind in my left eye; so, 3-D films are pointless to me.

I would love to see one!

Actually, there is a “normal” version as Christian Kessler (Willkommen in der Hölle) calls it the “flat copy” !!! A German videorelease by International Home Video !!! I know that won’t help much.

The movie does have its moments. All in all it’s pretty boring, I think ! I like the score though !

I remember when COMIN’ AT YA was playing at my local cinema.There was a large ad(which I still have if anyone wants to see it)in the local newspaper.
I never have seen this movie but my brother did see it in 3D at the theater.I told him later that I wished I could have seen it.He replied,“You didn’t miss much”.
A couple of years later I did get to see a different Tony Anthony 3D movie(TREASURE OF THE 4 CROWNS)at that very same cinema.
At the time though,i had no idea what a spaghetti western was(i was only 12).

I think this film is very entertaining. Not great. I find it easier to watch with a fan on. One thing very distracting besides the not always perfect 3-D, is the moronic dialogue. EX. “He kicked me, he kicked me bad!” “I’m scared Hart, Real scared!” overall pretty good but nowheres near blindman.

I really think this movie is unbearable, I don’t know how I made it through the whole thing.

With recent forum topics about Anthony I decided to give this one another view.

When first viewed I watched the 3D U.S disc, and the 3D was a distraction for me. This time I viewed a fullscreen VHS ‘flat’ print.

I could concentrate more on the film this time round, and some scenes do remind me of similar scenes in Blindman at times, and even though not as strong there is still some violence towards women in this one. Anthony stills finds time to be dry and / or sarcastic at times, amongst the action, and Anthony of course does get beat up as usual.

I did not rate this film when I watched the 3D DVD, but I enjoyed the VHS quite alot, and have seen plenty worse westerns.

saw this again last night and i had seen the flat version years ago. i saw the 3d version this time and i’m the opposite of ENNIO i thought it was more entertaining this time round. yes i know it has gratious scenes just for showing off the 3d and some of the effects are awful e’g the bats attack but i thought the whole film was watchable, not great. i’ d also agree it was at times similar to blindman but nowhere near as good.