Search - Comin' At Ya! on DVD

Set Up is Important

Randy A. Riddle | Mebane, North Carolina USA | 10/19/1999

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Originally, this was released to theaters in color, but using Polarized glasses for the 3D effect. The glasses looked gray, but allowed you to see two images (left and right) both projected on the screen at the same time (with corresponding Polarized lenses on each projector). This is how all of the "classic" films are done in the theater.This video version uses what is now the only widely available means for producing 3D on television: red and blue glasses. (Polarizing lenses are difficult, if not impossible, with a TV screen.) The result is about par for the course with most color films in 3D I've seen on TV (such as the 3D showing of John Wayne's "Hondo" a few years back.) Black and white films (such as "The Mask") fare better with red/blue glasses, since there's no color in the actual film to throw off your eyes."Comin' At Ya" wasn't shot well in the first place -- the plane of focus changes to fast and too often and most of the film is spent sticking things into the lenses of the camera. But, it's still fun nonetheless.Two points about the DVD release:In my copy, the lenses in the glasses were reversed; it took awhile for me to figure out that *duh* the red lens goes over the right eye.Secondly, adjustment of your TV set is critical to get any effect at all. The tone of the reds and blues must match the glasses fairly closely and the color intensity on your set probably needs to be turned town slightly. On practically all TV presenations I've seen of 3D films, a segment is shown with a test pattern to allow you to adjust the color on your TV for the movie. (Even if your set is calibrated, it probably still needs tweaking to match the glasses you have, since there are variations in these things.)Rhino should include such a test segment on future releases.If you're a fan of Spaghetti westerns, it's well worth a look and is considered by afficionadoes as a "late entry" in the Spaghetti western cycle.All in all, it's a pretty good presentation of the film, and the film itself has limitations in its 3D format."

RHINO SHOULD STAY OUTTA THE 3RD DIMENSION!

Nathan Martin | Ft. Worth, TX. United States | 04/30/2000

(1 out of 5 stars)

"First of all, I had never seen this film in any version, until I bought the DVD release. After sitting through the opening credits, it became clear to me, that since Rhino(again) has no idea whatsoever, about releasing 3-D films on video(and now, DVD), that they shouldn't have bothered in the first place.Secondly, this edition is a complete insult to the film in question, as NOTHING works about the 3-D process, despite it's letterboxed presentation. Sad, as I am a huge fan of 3-D films, not the IMAX ones, but the real ones("JAWS 3-D", "FRIDAY THE 13TH, PART III", "AMITYVILLE 3-D", "CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON", "PARASITE", "HOUSE OF WAX", "METALSTORM: THE DESTRUCTION OF JARED-SYN", "HONDO", et cetera). I guess I will never get a chance to see this particular film in it's proper acceptance. Ho-hum.For those of you, who are interested in purchasing it, PLEASE, do not. Unless, you enjoy a double-image presentation, reminiscent of the reception to the local PBS channel, in my home town. There is no need to adjust anything on your television to view this DVD/video, as you will only be wasting your time, after, of course, your money.I'd also like to take an opportunity to thank Rhino for another wasted 3-D video release, "ROBOT MONSTER". They've managed to make a "so bad, it's fun" film, completely incomprehensible.I relish the olden days of Rhino Video, when the likes of Johnny Legend ruled the show."

A fun spaghetti western that does not pretend to be great.

Robert Meeks | Winchester, KY United States | 11/18/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First off let me state that I am reviewing "Comin' at Ya" from the perspective of someone who has seen it in the theatre. With regard to the DVD, I do own a copy and can agree with many reviewers that color films do not give a good 3-D effect when viewed in an anaglyph presentation. The main problem of the presentation is the color. Since the objective of the 3-D presentation is to completely seperate the images that the left and right eyes view respectively, you can see that red/blue glasses (also red/cyan) cannot accomplish this. Since each eye is seeing parts of both images you end up with double images. This is simply because the red and blue block each other but cannot block out some of the colors in both images effectively giving each eye two images to view. Irregardless of this, those of us who are fans of 3-D and 3-D movies are just happy to have a copy of the movie and will muddle our way through a viewing for what effect we can get. The year was 1981 when "Comin' at Ya" was released to the theatre. I was in high school at the time and like others my age who saw the commercials for "Comin' at Ya" was wondering what this was. It was a Friday afternoon when I had finished work at the mall. I happened to check out the theatre and that movie "Comin' at Ya' was playing. Since the commercials (a good ad campaign) had me curious, I decided to see it. That day I had one of the most fun experiences if not the most fun I had ever had in a theatre. The audience was filled with both types of 3-D viewers, the screamers and the cheerers. The guy behind me was shouting "don't do it", I on the other hand was shouting "do it" (this was in the opening scene when Tony Anthony was pointing a shotgun at the audience). "Comin' at Ya" made no pretense as to what it was; it was a 3-D movie that was simply going to throw everything at you and use a simple plot so you would not miss anything while you were busy ducking. This was an entertaining, interactive thrill ride that lasted 90 minutes and left you wanting more. Dan Symmes in Cinefantastique magazine referred to "Comin' at Ya" as bad 3-D (due to vertical and horizontal convergence) and since viewers like myself had not seen good 3-D we were apparently too ignorant to know the difference. Well smack me in the face with a brick, I along with the rest of the audience were too stupid to know that we really weren't enjoying ourselves. My thoughts toward his remarks involve the words egotistical and jealous. Tony Anthony wanted to make a 3-D movie. Not only in 3-D but entertaining as well. "Comin' at Ya' was an experimental film that took a basic western plot of the bad guy steals good guys bride, so good guy tracks down bad guy and applies several forms of justice (western justice...he..he). They made a fun movie that was soley responsible for revamping the interest in 3-D movies only to have it put down by those who tried to copy what they did and most of them failed miserably and destroyed any interest in 3-D movies. "Comin' at Ya' succeeded in the task of simply being a movie that was a lot of fun for an audience and did not pretend to be anything else-Bob"

Lighten up! This is still fun! :-)

Brett D. Cullum | Houston, TX United States | 08/02/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Most of the reviewers seem to say this movie is bad and the 3-D did not work for them. I got a copy of this, and surprisingly the movie is not THAT bad and the 3-D works! Comin At Ya was billed as "The First 3-D Movie of the 80s!". It was actually made in Italy, and was put in 3-D just to give it an edge in theatres. It's a spaghetti western! The plot is about a gang of woman-stealing banditos that raid small border towns looking for girls to sell to Mexican whorehouses. They pick the wrong man's wife to steal at a wedding, and he goes after them to save all the women! It's a basic plot, and R-RATED. Not for the kids, unless you let them watch this sort of thing. I saw most all of these movies in the theatres - Comin at Ya, Metalstorm, JAWS 3-D, Amityville 3-D ... etc! Back then they used the polarized lenses which were gray. On DVD they have to use anaglyph 3-D which means you wear red-blue glasses. Both in the theatres and on TV the worst part always comes when they stick something in your face. It rarely works, and you see 3 or 4 images coming at ya! But the depth of the backgrounds work pretty darn well, and now and then the effect is pretty good! The bat attack scene has some hay falling that looks good, any of the wide shots look pretty good, and they dump some beans on you that works too! Here are the tricks: - make sure the red lense is over your right eye closest to your right hand- don't use other glasses than the ones that come with the set different movies have different glasses and they rarely work interchangeably- sit back at least 2 yards from the television, and make sure you are center to it. Sitting close or too far left or right kills it - adjust the colors to your liking. You should see color almost normally, but it will always look funky! - Do not view on an HDTV! It won't work- If your eyes get tired either close your right eye and watch it through the blue lens for about 10 seconds. Watch it in bursts if you get a headache. - Watch this in the dark! Daylight will not help at all. Enjoy it for what it is! The 3-D was almost as problematic in the theatre as it is here. Few people have figured out how to do 3-D well especially with these movies that were never shot well in the first place... This is a drive-in movie with a little more depth at times - think of it like that and you'll be fine!"