J-Men Forever (1979)

not as good as all the hype

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

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

I grabbed the DVD as soon as it was released. Until then, I only had a well worn VHS copy of an old Night Flight broadcast, so the disc was a welcomed addition to my library. There are a few extras on the disk, one of which is an interesting interview with Commando Cody (George Wallace), who interviewer Proctor insists on calling "Commander".Proctor and Bergman also discuss their making of JMF. One disappointment was Bergman's completely unnecessary comments about the war in Afghanistan and the war on drugs. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that a guy who has made a living with his counterculture humor would have such a reflex attitude toward "the establishment", but I wish he had kept his ill conceived beliefs to himself. Funny and creative he is. Intelligent and astute he is not. To make matters worse, the entirety of the Proctor/Bergman dialog is plagued by oft-occurring audio dropouts (the rest of the disk is OK).That said, it's still well worth buying. J-Men Forever is a hilarious movie and is one of my favorites.

I first saw this when broadcast on USA Network's "Night Flight" program in the early 1980's. I was so struck by it at that time that I wrote a letter to the USA Network trying to find out how to procure a copy. They never answered. I recently discovered it for sale and although my humor has changed a bit in the last 20 years and I had forgotten most of it, it is still a riot and I am glad to have it in my DVD collection. The idea of stringing together various black and white footage and changing the dialogue is great. This was all done with analog equipment obviously, but it would be a great project to do now with the digital stuff. Some folks, whose humor would run counter to this, would be put off by it but if you like something funny and different, this is really unique.

A bizarre villain, as well as a master of disguise, known as the Lightning Bug is planning to eliminate all easy listening and classical music to be replaced by whining banal rock. Its up to the J-Men and stock footage from Republic serials to save the day. The movie is hilarious, even if you never seen a serial in your life. The footage is intercut in the story flawlessly. The only setbacks are the actual filmed scenes and the fact that the film wasn't any longer. If your a serial fan though, this DVD is for you. Rating- 9.PS- The extra includes an interview by Philip Proctor with George Wallace, lead in the 1952 serial Radar Men from the moon. Judging from the way the interview went, Proctor didn't have all of his facts straight entering the query.

Anyone who is familiar with the old serials would be familiar with the characters used in this film. Commando Cody becomes Bullethead. Captain America is known as lone star. Captain Marvel and other heroes also appear. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes odd humor.