I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

disgusting, overrated, pointless

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

I can understand why this is the last of the films, but I have to wonder how five of these things got made. I am guessing that the other films were a bit better as even the Dracula films that Lee starred in started to go down in quality as the series progressed, but even so, none of them were as badly done as this film was. I have never seen any of the other Fu Manchu films so I really cannot say for sure if the quality in them is any better. The whole premise of the films just does not seem very good as they are all focused on the villain rather than the hero. It is like if in the James Bond films had the exact same enemy every time and Bond was more behind the scenes and did not really do much. The action is nearly nonexistent and the same can be said for the plot too. There are also periods when the color of the film will change and then there are a couple of scenes that looks as if they are from other movies included here as well. Just a huge mess of a film, then again, it is the fifth film of the series. Back in the day, sequels generally garnered less money than their predecessors so the budget would continually get cut so that may explain some of it, but not the totality of it! The story shows Fu Manchu sinking a boat with some new process that creates ice in the water; wow, that is so new and innovative. The boat he sinks seems to be a part of a different film. It is in this scene that one of his henchmen tries to stop Manchu by refusing to pull a lever. The diabolical Fu Manchu has servants who will die for him by letting a doctor remove their heart, but a lever is too much! Soon he takes over a castle and Nayland Smith is off to Istanbul to stop the evil madman! I guess James Bond is way too busy stopping way more nefarious villains so the more bureaucratic Nayland Smith is sent instead because you do not really need anyone with the skill set of Bond to take out this villain! Doctors are kidnapped and a dam that also seems like it is in another film is collapsed before we reach the awesome conclusion where no one really does all that much to stop Fu Manchu's plans.This made for a rather good episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 which is how I saw the movie. When I got the set of DVDs containing this episode I thought this may have been one of those films that was borderline good that they have done over the years. Seeing Christopher Lee was the star is one of the main reasons. I generally love seeing him in anything; however, this film was really bad. I only give it a two because of Lee. The jokes are aplenty, but I do believe they exaggerated how bad this film was. It was not worse than Monster-a Go Go or quite a few others they have done. Just kind of a poorly edited film that liked to change color schemes a bit too much.So this is not really a good film, and it did mark the final film of the Christopher Lee Fu Manchu films. Lee is a fine actor, but he is also one of those actors of a bygone era where they actually felt that acting was a job so they appeared in as many movies as possible. Today there are stars that will appear in a film and not do so again for multiple years. I cannot speak for the other films, but if this is as low as they got I somehow doubt the other films are Oscar worthy.

The last of the 5 Fu Manchu movies with Christopher Lee begins with almost 3 minutes of footage taken from „Brides of Fu Manchu" - telling us openly that they were running out of ideas. The sinking vessel and the dam burst are taken from other movies as well, obviously. The story makes only 2 potentially interesting attempts at human conflicts: when Omar is tempted to sell Smith to Fu Manchu in exchange for his girl, and then the "heart transplant by murder" scene. To my chagrin, both chances to score were wasted for a much too quick solution! The first 60 minutes are lazy, sloppy, disappointing, but during the last 20 minutes, Franco suddenly speeds up everything. The caverns below the Castle of Fu Manchu are full of psychedelic lights (green, red, purple), smoke and water are pumped into them, while the heroes must runs for their lives - it turns out to be quite some compensation. Nevertheless, the other Fu Manchu film by Jess Franco ("The Blood of Fu Manchu" aka "Kiss of Death") is clearly the better one. Voted 7/8/5/7/4 for the five movies.

Director Jess Franco and producer Harry Alan Towers delivered a pretty decent thriller with THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU. Unfortunately, the same team failed miserably with this awful, incoherent disaster.The movie opens with the evil genius (again played by Christopher Lee, looking uncomfortably bored throughout) announcing to the world his plans to freeze the Earth's oceans. We then cut to a ludicrously out of place sequence stolen from an old German movie about the Titanic sinking. The shipwreck footage is in black and white, while the rest of the movie is in color. No explanation is even attempted! The rest of the movie seems to have been edited together from leftover footage from an aborted Fu Manchu project. The story goes nowhere, and the movie comes to such an abrupt conclusion, it almost seemed like the print I was watching was missing a few scenes! But, I look at Blue Underground's gorgeous new DVD proves that, no, that was the movie just as Franco and Towers made it.There's none of the bizarre trashiness of BLOOD OF FU MANCHU here, just a yawn inducing series of brainless exposition and scenes of people running down dark corridors. The only thing that really makes the Blue Underground DVD worth the purchase is the terrific documentary featuring interviews with Frano and Lee.The scariest thing about THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU is that it's a truly terrible movie, yet it's far better that 90% of Franco's other work! Skip it unless you're a die-hard completist.

I cannot believe how bad this movie is!! I should have expected it coming from Jess Franco, the schlockmaster of Eurotrash but I wasn't even prepared for the intense pain that this film caused. What in the hell was Christopher Lee thinking? Granted, he has been in some bombs but this has got to be the very bottom of the barrel. Richard Greene had pretty much become a has-been when this film was made but,unless he was desperate for money, he should have known better. I often wonder how actors can hold their heads up after appearing in films of this caliber....it must be absolutely humiliating.The faults of "Castle" are just too numerous to mention but a few of them go something like this: they were obviously having power failures during filming since the shots are either totally dark or green; the actors can't act (even Lee is bad here) and the badly written dialogue often doesn't match the "action"; the fight scenes involving overweight, over age Greene are embarrasing to watch: the premise of the story (freezing the oceans or whatever they were attempting to do)is feeble; and then there is the "doorway to eternity" which leads to the front porch! Huh?So......if you are looking for a movie so bad that it is good, this is not the one. Watch "Plan 9 From Outer Space" for those kinds of laughs. "Castle" is harmful to small children and animanls and should be avoided at all costs.....even if you are a Chrisopher Lee fan.