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Pretty Good

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

I had expected some sort of Gothic horror film, but I must have been confused with another film. This is a psychological drama mixed with some exploitation elements, but neither genre really comes off as it should.Donald Pleasance is a fun and charismatic actor, and the other two blokes, playing one little person and one brute, do their jobs well enough. Muriel Catalá and Carmen Sevilla are very easy on the eyes, and they even show a little nudity, but on the whole, that element is pretty disappointing.The story is in itself interesting and entertaining enough, though a lot of scenes come up short considering what they could have been. The fact that I was watching a poor VHS quality version, didn't help either, I suppose.5 out of 10.

Donald Pleasance stars as a man who is searching for a hidden treasure. After he gets out of prison for murdering the man who hid it, he heads to the house where he knows it is and confronts the man's mentally unstable daughter who knows the location. In the process he uses her extended family to help in his plight. This is one odd film. It actually reminded me a lot of the Italian film SEWER RATS, which came out the same year. The performances here are all good, especially from Pleasance and Michael Dunn, a midget who had appeared with Pleasance in the THE FREAKMAKER the previous year. Carmen Sevilla, star of THE GLASS CEILING, provides the hotness as an unsatisfied wife who comes onto Pleasance (she must be really feeling unsatisfied!). The end revelation is okay, but you can see it coming from a mile off thanks to Gonzalo Suárez's direction. If you are going to reveal the mystery location of the item currently being sought, don't show it 7,000 times during the course of the film. We get it!

"What the hell" is a phrase you will likely find yourself uttering frequently during this film. Donald Pleasence and "little person" Michael Dunn (The Mutations, Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks) are the only non-Spanish participants in this film as far as I can tell. At least theirs are the only voices that do not seem dubbed into English.This is not a film for the average viewer. A normal person is likely (and advised) to turn this film off in the first 5 minutes. But those who like very strange and frequently inept movies could get some laughs out of this one.There is so much nonsensical crap in this movie that I'm not even going to try to recount it here - it wouldn't be funny anyway, for the sheer idiocy of it you must see it.This is not a contender for one of the worst films ever (anything by Ray Dennis Steckler would probably beat this one for that title) but it IS bad. And more than just bad, it is weird. The tone shifts regularly and chaotically from being mean spirited to (an attempt at being) tender. And the characters (particularly Michael Dunn) say and do things that make you wonder what the makers of this were thinking.In short, not the worst film I've seen nor the weirdest. But it is a unique combination of the two.