THE DIRTY DOZEN (1967)

Great Britain, 1944.  A US Major (Lee Marvin) is given orders to select twelve men from the local military prison, train them, then go on a suicide mission behind enemy lines to kill as many German officers as possible.  This will create disruption in the chain of command right before the D-Day invasion.  The men who survive the mission will be pardoned.

Watching THE DIRTY DOZEN today, it's dated as fuck, but still entertaining.  The story was definitely cool and the action scenes were reminiscent the covers the the men's adventure magazines of the 1950's, but I was mainly fascinated by the all-star cast!  I mean, this thing is pack from floor to ceiling with big names.  Charles Bronson, Donald Sutherland, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine...pretty much every scene had somebody awesome in it.

I also found the film to be interesting from a historical perspective.  I'd love to know more about it.  For example: I'm curious how many films previous to TDD showed American soldiers so gleefully killing not only Nazi officers and soldiers, but also the women with them?  Did the subversive feel of the film have something to do with the Vietnam War?

Younger audiences would probably find the whole thing boring, but it's definitely worth a viewing for fans of (older) WWII movies and movie nerds.

Side note: IMDb lists Dick Miller as "MP at Hanging (uncredited)", but I couldn't find him.

Part 2 - The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission
Part 3 - The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission
Part 4 - The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission

THE GREEN SLIME (1968)

Pre-dating both ARMAGEDDON and ALIEN (by many years), THE GREEN SLIME tells the story of some brave men who drill holes into an approaching "global killer" asteroid and blow it up before it can collide with the Earth.  Unfortunately, while they were on the asteroid they picked up a hitchhiker in the form of an icky green slime.  Once they are back on their space station, the green slime grows into a nasty-looking creature that uses it's blood as a defense mechanism by reproducing whenever it bleeds.

That might sound thrilling, but THE GREEN SLIME is not what you would describe as "a well-made film".  The special effects are dated beyond belief, the sets look painfully cheap, the supporting actors often look confused, there's an endless supply of plot holes and worst of all: the ludicrous jockeying between the two officers in charge of the space station.  They literally argue the entire film!  It's ridiculous.  At one point all of the creatures are completely trapped in a confined area and the one dude goes out of his way to disobey the other guy's orders to not open the hatch and, of course, the monsters then proceed to wreck the entire space station.  What an idiot.  He does this over and over!

I remember seeing THE GREEN SLIME on TV (I think it was on Dr. Paul Bearer's "Creature Feature") when I was very young and it freaked me out, but watching it again now 30+ years later...it's pretty bad.  I did get a number of laughs out of it though.

Recommended for fans of cheesy 1960's sci-fi cinema.