"COMIN' AT YA!": ARTICLE 4

Part Four in this series of articles concerning "Comin' At Ya!" appeared in the New York Times, on August 22, 1981. The author of the article is Janet Maslin.






"Comin' At Ya!"

When 3-D movies went out of style 25 years ago, they went out of style for a reason. 3-D is fun in small doses, but it wears out its welcome in a hurry. The glasses need to be fiddled with constantly, and they tend to induce double vision. Also, the thrill of imagining that a rifle, hot poker or angry bat is flying right into your face is a thrill that wears thin.

But ''Comin' at Ya!'', a 3-D movie that wouldn't be worth the time of day in 2-D, has novelty on its side, even though it's a terrible western. At least it's full of attention-getting effects, as its director, Ferdinando Baldi, works hard to position his camera under anything that's falling. Beans appear to fly at the audience. So do gold coins, a spinning yo-yo, a snake, a bowling ball and a baby's bottom.

Mr. Baldi runs out of ingenuity when no one is throwing anything, and sometimes he makes the awful mistake of letting the actors talk. ''Comin' at Ya!'', which opened yesterday at the Rivoli and other theaters, stars Tony Anthony and Gene Quintano, who are the producer and executive producer of the movie. They play two rival tough guys in the Old West.

Mr. Anthony is Hart, the good one, and Mr. Quintano is Pike, who is bad. Pike has stolen Hart's wife and a lot of other wives. He plans to sell them into white slavery, but meanwhile keeps them imprisoned in a room full of cardboard bats, who are cooperative enough to charge into the camera on cue. Cardboard actors are nothing if not cooperative.

''Comin' at Ya!'' ends with a series of explosions, which look particularly handsome in three dimensions. The same explosion appears to repeat itself about a dozen times. Whenever Mr. Baldi comes up with a special effect he likes, he uses it about that often.

The Cast

COMIN' AT YA!, directed by Ferdinando Baldi; written by Lloyd Battista, Wolf Lowenthal and Gene Quintano, from an original story by Tony Petitto; director of photography, Fernando Arribas; 3-D technical adviser, Bill Bukowski; edited by Franco Fraticelli; music by Carlo Savina; produced by Tony Anthony; the Lupo/ Anthony/Quintano Production in association with the Cale Brothers; released by Filmways Pictures. At the Gemini 1, 64th Street and Second Avenue; RKO 86th Street 2, at Lexington Avenue and other theaters. Running time: 91 minutes. This film is rated R.

H.H. Hart . . . . . Tony Anthony
Pike . . . . . Gene Quintano
Abilene . . . . . Victoria Abril
Polk . . . . . Ricardo Palacios
Old Man . . . . . Lewis Gordon