PANIC IN YEAR ZERO! (1962)

Ray Milland and family (wife Jean Hagen, daughter Mary Mitchel and son Frankie Avalon) leave Los Angeles early one morning to go on a fishing trip.  After they're only a few miles out of town a nuclear explosion levels all of L.A.  They soon hear on the radio that major cities all over the world have also been blown to smithereens.  Father Milland goes into panic mode and starts gathering up all the supplies he can get his hands on, even if it means armed robbery!  Eventually they move into a secluded cave way off in the woods, but they're not totally alone.

As far as apocalyptic films of the 1960's go, PANIC IN YEAR ZERO! is entertaining.  The action starts off immediately and keeps going at a steady pace for the entire film.  My biggest complaint though, and the reason I'll probably never watch it ever again, is it's just too dated, low-budget and tame.  There's talk of looting and violence, but practically none of it is shown on camera.  The tagline in the poster even promises "An ORGY of LOOTING and LUST..." but that doesn't happen at all.  Not even close!

PIYZ! is interesting from a historical point of view to see the filmmakers vision of what the collapse of society would look like, but nowadays it just seems naive.  Worth a watch, but it's nothing to get excited about.  The snazzy music by Les Baxter was sweet though.

If you need me I'll be in my room reading Robert McCammon's "Swan Song".

Hard to believe, but I think that's Paul Gleason from THE BREAKFAST CLUB and DIE HARD.

Not sure what's going on here, but Frankie straight up gives the camera the bird for 7 seconds.

REIGN OF FIRE (2002)

REIGN OF FIRE opens kinda alright in 2002 with a teenage boy being the first person to see a dragon rising up out of the ground.  Then, during the opening credits, we're told about how badass the dragons are and how all of the military forces in the world couldn't defeat them and how they fought tooth and nail in all of these super badass battles until finally....in 2020 everything has been burned up and now all we're left with is a bunch of half-starved survivors cowering in a blown up castle doing absolutely nothing.  Just waiting to die.  The leader of this band of nobodies is Christian Bale who somehow, in this grim environment, has found enough energy and protein to get yoked.

Then, in rides the equally yoked up Matthew McConaughey as an American soldier with a small army consisting of soldiers, a few armored vehicles and even a helicopter!  Some macho, alpha male posturing happens followed by a small dragon skirmish to show the viewer how these American studs deal with the dragons.  It's mildly exciting.  After that, more alpha male stuff happens until the boss fight at the end.  Yawn.

I went into REIGN OF FIRE expecting tons of dragon versus human action.  Droves of helicopters versus a thousand flying dragons, well-armed soldiers fighting dragons in awesome street combat scenes....nope, instead we get a handful of stragglers quivering in fear and then some soldiers dudes that end up only killing two dragons total!  Double yawn.

Mediocre acting by Bale and McConaughey (I honestly expected better from both of them), weak story, okay special effects, lame dragon vision, fake as fook looking tattoos, nearly all male cast, young Joffery, unsatisfying beginning, middle and ending.  It's easy to see why this tanked at the box office after it's opening weekend.  Skip it.