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Did you people see the same film I saw?

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

I can understand why this is the last of the films, but I have to wonder how five of these things got made. I am guessing that the other films were a bit better as even the Dracula films that Lee starred in started to go down in quality as the series progressed, but even so, none of them were as badly done as this film was. I have never seen any of the other Fu Manchu films so I really cannot say for sure if the quality in them is any better. The whole premise of the films just does not seem very good as they are all focused on the villain rather than the hero. It is like if in the James Bond films had the exact same enemy every time and Bond was more behind the scenes and did not really do much. The action is nearly nonexistent and the same can be said for the plot too. There are also periods when the color of the film will change and then there are a couple of scenes that looks as if they are from other movies included here as well. Just a huge mess of a film, then again, it is the fifth film of the series. Back in the day, sequels generally garnered less money than their predecessors so the budget would continually get cut so that may explain some of it, but not the totality of it! The story shows Fu Manchu sinking a boat with some new process that creates ice in the water; wow, that is so new and innovative. The boat he sinks seems to be a part of a different film. It is in this scene that one of his henchmen tries to stop Manchu by refusing to pull a lever. The diabolical Fu Manchu has servants who will die for him by letting a doctor remove their heart, but a lever is too much! Soon he takes over a castle and Nayland Smith is off to Istanbul to stop the evil madman! I guess James Bond is way too busy stopping way more nefarious villains so the more bureaucratic Nayland Smith is sent instead because you do not really need anyone with the skill set of Bond to take out this villain! Doctors are kidnapped and a dam that also seems like it is in another film is collapsed before we reach the awesome conclusion where no one really does all that much to stop Fu Manchu's plans.This made for a rather good episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 which is how I saw the movie. When I got the set of DVDs containing this episode I thought this may have been one of those films that was borderline good that they have done over the years. Seeing Christopher Lee was the star is one of the main reasons. I generally love seeing him in anything; however, this film was really bad. I only give it a two because of Lee. The jokes are aplenty, but I do believe they exaggerated how bad this film was. It was not worse than Monster-a Go Go or quite a few others they have done. Just kind of a poorly edited film that liked to change color schemes a bit too much.So this is not really a good film, and it did mark the final film of the Christopher Lee Fu Manchu films. Lee is a fine actor, but he is also one of those actors of a bygone era where they actually felt that acting was a job so they appeared in as many movies as possible. Today there are stars that will appear in a film and not do so again for multiple years. I cannot speak for the other films, but if this is as low as they got I somehow doubt the other films are Oscar worthy.

What word can I use to describe The Castle of Fu Manchu? I'm really struggling to come up with a word. "Boring"? "Lifeless"? Those two are accurate, but they're not quite what I'm looking for. I'm looking for something more damning and derogatory to describe this godawful movie. Ah-ha, there it is, the word I've been looking for: "godawful".The Castle of Fu Manchu is the final installment of the Christopher Lee-starring Fu Manchu series, and story-wise it's the worst of 'em all. The plot goes something like this: the massively evil Fu Manchu, along with his henchmen and his daughter Lin Tang, plan to destroy the world by turning its seas into ice. To do this, he needs special kinds of crystals to be developed -- crystals made of opium. One man can make them happen, and his name is Dr. Heracles. Fu Manchu kidnaps Dr. Heracles along with a cardiologist, Dr. Kessler and his assistant. Our hero, the incomparable Naylan Smith, a police officer from Scotland Yard, is tasked with saving the kidnapees and taking the detestable Fu Manchu down. There is probably more to the plot, but my memory of this crap show is rather foggy.The plot is so messy that it's hard to really tell what's going on. The character development is so minuscule that the characters' appearances are basically inconsequential. Even Fu Manchu, the main villain of the film, is rarely shown, and when he does appear, the plot barely advances. One particular scene makes absolutely zero sense: the opium crystals are supposed to turn the ocean into ice, but when they are put to use on a dam, they cause the dam's wall to implode and a flood ensues which kills all of the dam's workers. There was no ice to be seen in that whole segment. It is stuff like that that makes this film a very frustrating viewing.The biggest problem with The Castle of Fu Manchu, though, is the pacing. This film is painfully slow. At times it feels like it is moving in slow motion. Among the worst of the tedious scenes is an unbearably slow five-minute heart transplant that could have easily been condensed to a minute. Ironically, this boring film does feature some action. There are plenty of fight scenes, but they are slow, poorly choreographed and fake looking. The slowness makes this 90-minute film feel like a three-hour one. This is perhaps the most boring film I ever seen.There's not much to say about the performances of the actors and actresses. They were just there. Even the late, great, Christopher Lee couldn't improve the quality of this film. His masterful screen presence is nullified due to the lack of development of his character. Tsai Chin, a very pretty and talented actress, also felt bland as Fu Manchu's daughter. The same goes for just about every other character. It's as if everyone phoned in their performances, but I think no matter how much effort was put into this, the plot and general dull atmosphere of the film would make everyone seem dry.The only positive thing about The Castle of Fu Manchu is its photography. There are some very pretty scenic shots of Fu Manchu's castle, which is the main setting of the film. Despite being pretty and colorful, there is a fault to the cinematography: the constant use of zoom. To call this film "zoom-laden" is an understatement. It seems as if during every shot there is zooming in and/or out, and a lot of it is pointless and improves nothing. Despite that, though, the film is very easy on the eyes, thanks to the film's director of photography, Manuel Merino, and the scenery, which at times is picturesque.All in all, The Castle of Fu Manchu is purely and simply a bad movie. There is very little redeeming quality to this flick. I'd even go so far as to say it's one of the worst films I have ever seen. It's not as bad technically as films like "Manos: The Hands of Fate" or "The Creeping Terror," but it's so unbearably tedious that it makes those films seem entertaining. I recommend this film to those who are interesting in really bad movies, because in terms of awfulness, this film does not disappoint.

Rightly criticized as the worst of the '60s Fu Manchu films. It's cobbled together from other films (inlcuding past Fu Manchu films) with a new story line thrown in. Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) plans on putting crystals into the world's water supply, freezing humanity and...it's never really clear why, but it doesn't matter. This is an awful film. Jesus Franco must have had his eyes closed directing this one. Lee appears bored senseless and Richard Greene is back as Nayland Smith. Tsai Chin is also on hand as Lee's equally nasty daughter. The script, if you can call it that, features far too many characters, some with seemingly interchangeable names...it's not really possible to keep track of them. Maria Perschy, who worked previously with the likes of John Huston & Howard Hawks plays "Marie" but is frequently referred to as Ingrid. Her hair color also appears to change inexplicably. Franco himself plays Inspector Ahmet.

In every television show there are high points....... And there are low points......... And everyone has their own opinions and what someone may consider bad, others may decide is good.So with that out of the way, this is one bad mamma jamma movie and I mean bad in the "it is terrible" way not bad in a 1970's way that it's cool. Why this movie is so bad...... (how bad is it?) This movie is so bad that Mystery Science Theater 3000 can't even salvage it! They are making fun of this movie and one of the robots is crying that he can't take this movie anymore!I was hoping at the beginning part that it would be a laugh fest and they would be riffing all over the movie like Get Smart riffed "The Craw", that's "The Claw" and his "Razor Brazer", that's "Laser Blazer" Now that was hilarious. So with that reference in mind, I was hoping this would be a good episode of MST3K.But because the writers for that show are all big time liberals and politically correct, there is a sad lack of Chinese gutter humor, instead it's referenced mainly to the British (that's liberal writers for you). Either that or really there is so little dialog from the Chinese characters including Dr Manchu that they just could make any jokes out of that material.Either way, along with Ring Of Terror, this is on the LOW side of MST3K for funniness. Movies that were so boring that the comedians couldn't even riff them enough to be entertaining.Now if I had to watch this movie without MST3K? Ah, no way, it would have turned off after 30 minutes TOPS.If you want to see a good Fu Manchu movie see "The Mask Of Fu Manchu" with Karloff, it's awesome, this deserves to be in the bottom 150 movie list of all time. If you want to see a bad Fu Manchu type movie thats still fun, see "Battle Beneath The Earth" MST3K would have done a lot better to riff that movie, although MGM probably wouldn't let them so they picked this public domain turkey instead.You have been warned, now go in peace, and move along. Zero stars out of 10 if I could vote that way. 4 stars with the MST3K, this is even one of their worst episodes.