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.
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
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