I was fortunate to be managing a theater when the second wave of 3D hit theater screens. Much like the first wave that took place in the fifties these films made the decision to use the special effect in gimmicks rather than integrate the format into the story. Items were thrown at cameras, things were dropped at them and there was even an eyeball that popped out of someone's head towards that camera in Friday THE 13TH 3D. Because the effects were gimmick related and due to the bad format being used that required glasses that gave viewers headaches it soon died. Newer technology has made the format popular again but even that is beginning to wane.The first major release during that second wave of 3D wasn't from a major studio but was actually a spaghetti western that came from Italy. COMIN' AT YA! used a tried and true story and then rounded it out with enough items aimed at viewers that many who had only heard of 3D rushed to theaters to experience it for the first time. It became an immediate hit and soon other movies followed suit only to disappear for reasons I stated earlier. But this little movie that renewed interest in the format should be included in the history of movies for that reason alone, that it brought it back to life.Now MVD has brought the film to DVD for the first time. Not only that it's being offered in 3D as well as blu-ray for those who own 3D televisions. This makes it the first time you can see the film that way since it was released back in 1981.The story is simple enough. The wedding of gunslinger H.H. Hart (Tony Anthony) and his bride Abilene is interrupted by Pike and Polk Thompson (Gene Quintano and Ricardo Palicios) who shoot Hart and kidnap his bride. The duo is kidnapping women to be sold into white slavery. What is interesting to note about this sequence is that it is incredibly obvious that Quentin Tarantino used this sequence when filming KILL BILL. At moments it seems shot for shot the same as the killing of the bride from that film.The rest of the movie revolves around Hart tracking down the bad guys and trying to retrieve his wife. When Hart discovers that the brothers are taking women from all around with the intent of selling them into the brothels of Mexico, he makes it his mission to save them all. A back and forth between his taking out men, being captured, escaping and taking them on again follows until a climactic battle that takes place in a ghost town.At only 91 minutes the first question that should be asked is is there enough of a story here to make a feature length film or is it all gimmicks? The answer is yes, the story is well thought out and lives up to the movies of the time, westerns that were slowly disappearing even from Italy. Westerns for the most part always offered up simple stories of good guys versus bad. It was a formula that worked so why tinker with it? But the amount of 3D effects in the film at times slows down what we get to see. Not only that, some of the gimmicks might leave you scratching your head as to why someone thought that was something people wanted to see. But that's because we've grown accustomed to the current wave of 3D films where the 3D is incorporated into the story itself rather than just tossed in to be called a 3D movie. The novelty has worn off and it now accentuates the story rather than propels it. Knowing that the use of it in this film makes more sense where it is used simply to show 3D.There are several ways that are used to display the effect here, some good some head scratching as I mentioned. Among the bad are seeing things like beans of coins dropped from above towards the floor where the camera is located. Better usage comes from items like a snake hanging down from a board or arrows flying through the air towards the camera. Those were eye popping moments where audiences ducked while watching the film.Tony Anthony does a great job here and should have become a bigger star than he was. Having made more than one spaghetti western, including several that involved the same character only known as the Stranger, he was a recognizable face. Why he left acting behind I've yet to discover. He did invent a low cost 3D projection lens that was cheaper than the conventional lenses being used at the time so perhaps he made enough off of that to retire early. If such was the case it was a loss to fans of the genre and of Anthony.This release offers little in the form of extras but with both a regular blu-ray and 3D blu-ray included in the mix it's worth it for fans of 3D and for collectors alike. Even if you don't enjoy the format but love those old spaghetti westerns it's worth adding to your collection. The end result is a fun film that can be enjoyed either way. Now for fans we have to sit and hope that TREASURE OF THE FOUR CROWNS comes out as well.

By 1981, the heyday of the Spaghetti Western was over..that golden era finished..played out...& pretty much left for dead. A few interesting stragglers trickled out..."Mannaja" in '77..Lucio Fulci delivered "Silver Saddle" in '78.. & Michele Lupo's "Buddy Goes West" in '81. The previously bustling sets in Almeria & other Spanish locations were abandoned...& allowed to fall into disrepair. Director Ferdinando Baldi & Producer/Actor Tony Anthony, who ten years earlier had collaborated on adapting & bringing the blind swordsman "Zatoichi" to the Spaghetti West..resulting in the entertaining ........"Blindman",.............decided to do it again.......... filming a loose remake of Blindman in Spain.Producer Tony Anthony decided to film it in 3-D...to give it life... to make it stand out...& that's precisely what it did. Originally called YENDO HACIA TI (GOING TOWARDS YOU) ,... Filmways picked up the film for North American distribution, re-named it COMIN' AT YA! ...it wound up making a bundle at the box office...grossing $12,000,000 in the USA...becoming the 23rd highest grossing Western ever among all post 1980-present Westerns... & sparking a modest 3D revival.Anthony stars as H.H. Hart...who's not given any backstory but I'd project him as a former gunslinger. His wife, Abilene, is played by the gorgeous Victoria (TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN!) Abril. Gene (TREASURE OF THE FOUR CROWNS) Quintano plays the sleazy leader of the bad guys, Pike...unfortunately he plays it badly, in a terrible performance.. Quintano also had a hand in the script. Pike's fat, disgusting brother, Polk, is played by Ricardo (ARK OF THE SUN GOD) Palacios.After an opening credits sequence in which beans spill all over the camera, bullets fire at the audience, a snake slithers out of a basket.., and hands reach out for the viewer's face... this recycled, slightly fiddled & diddled with clone of "Blindman"....... ....gets going as Hart embarks on a rescue mission after his wife is kidnapped, he lies shot & left for dead......the priest shot & killed... by the Thompson brothers (Gene Quintano, Ricardo Palacios)...in the little border chapel...as they exchange their vows...anticipating and influencing the chapel massacre in "Kill Bill". We discover that the Thompsons & their gang have been kidnapping women all over the territory in order to sell them to Mexican brothels... taking them all down to Mexico to be sold to the highest bidder. Hart follows, carrying a pump shotgun , blasting his way through the bad guys, getting beaten up several times (an Anthony trademark...he always gets pummeled a lot). After capturing one of the brothers and giving him a beating. ..he then tracks down the other brother/rest of the gang, hoping to release the captive women...& save his wife. Release...escape..recapture..& murder ensue.As Hart continues on his quest, we're treated to guys falling downstairs (in slooooow motion), spinning fiery pinwheels (for the five minute recap at the end), an attack of bats, spiders, scurrying (and hungry) rats, flaming arrows (the best part...& the 3D works), and even a baby's bare bottom.As the gang kills time in a windswept ghost town waiting for Hart to show up ...it's an excuse for more gimmicks....yo-yos...paddleballs... playing cards flipped at you....as Hart, despite being greatly outnumbered... rides into town to save his wife....& exact his revenge. The explosive finale works well in 3D...or maybe I was just sufficiently cross eyed by that time. The old, abandoned, crumbling, delapidated sets work well.......conveying an air of desolation & desperation.Carlo Savina scored a lot of Spaghetti Westerns...all low budget "B" stuff. Here he contributes a spare, elegiac score......using ambient voices pleasingly. His best moments are during a 5 minute replay of its best 3D moments after the movie.....which I'm guessing was probably the original opening credits title tune.I've always liked Anthony...although he never achieved the status of a Nero, Eastwood or a Garko ... he always gave a good performance...was one of the most likable SW "heroes"..as well as being a talented writer & producer.....& Baldi...never accorded the reverence of a Leone, a Corbucci.. always delivered the goods.......never afraid to take chances.When presented in the theater...........viewers used polarized (gray lenses) to gain the 3-D experience. The DVD utilizes Anaglyph 3-D, centering around the wearing of glasses with red and blue lenses...to effect the illusion of depth. It's best to view the movie in a fully darkened room with the red lens over the right eye...as it appears to be Reverse Anaglyph. The close, foreground shots don't work too well...........the foreground objects that are supposed to loom out at you are always breaking up & tend to produce a "ghosting" effect, which ruins the overall illusion. ..The 3-D actually works best............producing pretty good depth effects, in the regular shots...the medium & background shots.Could it stand on its own...w/out the 3d...something to be watched & watched again? No. The story...pretty much paint by numbers, point a--> point b--> point c.............doesn't warrant repeated viewings. That being said...I'll watch it again........not for the story..but for the 3D.In 1983...Baldi & Anthony collaborated on another 3D movie.."Treasure of the Four Crowns "....which marked the final on-screen performance by Tony Anthony, though he continued working for a time as a television producer. From his experience working on the 3D film techniques for this movie, Tony Anthony now manufactures specialized lenses for the medical industry.Grab some buttered popcorn......a Giant Coca-Cola...an x-large box of Junior Mints...& check it out.

I saw "Comin' At Ya!" when it was released in 1981. Remembering that it was highly entertaining, if cheesy, I happily threw down my 14 bucks for the DVD re-release. If you're thinking about buying it, three words: Don't do it.Rhino has converted the film to the red/blue 3D process (as opposed to the polarization process--if you've seen the 3D movies at Disneyland or Universal Studios, you know what I mean), and the results are horrible. Not only does the 3D not work, the red and blue lenses ruin the color (red/blue 3D is better suited to black and white movies or monochromatic comic books). I gave up the glasses after ten minutes, muted the colors on my TV, and fast-forwarded to the fight scenes. It wasn't even worth the 14 dollars I paid for the DVD, and I'm taking it back.I'm very disappointed with Rhino for even releasing the DVD with the shoddy 3D. It's as if someone said, "Yeah, the 3D doesn't work, but who cares? They'll buy it for the gimmick." If you absolutely must see it again, rent it or con a friend into buying it. Because it is absolutely not worth the money.As for the movie itself--c'mon, rubber bats on wires; flaming arrows; spears bouncing along on half-taut wires as they come "right at you"? That's what 3D was made for. The director uses every excuse to throw things at the camera, and then some. Most of them defy logic. But it might make a good party game to predict what object on screen is going to come at you next."Comin' At Ya!" is pure 3D cheese, and I loved it. Just don't expect good 3D.

This "polarized required glasses" movie has the best 3D effects that I have ever seen. I have seen it once back in the summer of '81 with a bunch of friends, and have been waiting for it to come to video. Some of the 3D effects will take you out of the storyplay at some points at times. I remember it had a sad ending, but overall, I did like the movie. If this movie comes to video, please leave a comment here.