The Wicker Man
Demons 1 and 2
Stagefright
Monday, September 26, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
It's Fri-eee-day
This week I watched:
Ghostbusters
Joseph Campbell: Sukhavati
Suspiria
Profondo Rosso
The Black Cat
Ghostbusters
Joseph Campbell: Sukhavati
Suspiria
Profondo Rosso
The Black Cat
Monday, September 19, 2011
Weekend Wrapup
Joysticks - Unfunny sex comedy, in which the kids beat the big bad businessman and then one of them fucks the bad guy's wife at the end. Good shots of classic video games though, and Napoleon Dynamite's Uncle Rico as a punk named King Vidiot.
Fraternity Vacation - You can look at Tim Robbins and think, "that guy's going far." Not really. It's a much better movie than Joysticks, though.
Carnival of Souls - Before I started watching horror movies every day and posting in my horror blog, this was my favorite horror film. That's not to take anything away from Carnival, it's just that I've seen so many now that I can't pick a favorite. It's definitely my favorite 60s horror that's not 2000 Maniacs or The Whip and the Body.
Watched it in color, with the Mike Nelson commentary. Herk Harvey is scary when the movie is in color; he really looks other worldly and you can see how the makeup influenced so many other films. The ghouls contrast so much more creepily when they are the only ones in black and white (well, greenish white anyway). Not my favorite Mike commentary, but still good as at this point he's like an old friend.
The Social Network - Finally got around to watching this one; took me a couple of days as I started it Wednesday and finished it today (Monday). At first I felt sorry for Mark Zuckerberg (I have a soft spot for aspies, being the mother of one) and then I didn't when I saw how vengeful he was. Aspies can be taught to be responsible for their actions and to consider other people's feelings.
On the other hand, it was refreshing to watch someone screw someone over in business for personal reasons rather than greed. I can empathize with hurt feelings, but not with the mindset that there is no amount of money that is enough. The "nothing personal, just business" way of thinking puts flames on the sides of my face. What kind of world do we live in where a guy can rob one bank and get life in jail, but a bank exec can rob thousands of people and get a tax break? If Jesus is coming, he'd better come on.
Back to the movie, the best part was that I discovered that "California Love" was a cover of a kickass song called "West Coast Poplock" which played during the ziplining off the roof scene and which I can't stop listening to. Even my cat loves that song. He goes and lies down right in front of the speaker and grooves on the bass.
Fraternity Vacation - You can look at Tim Robbins and think, "that guy's going far." Not really. It's a much better movie than Joysticks, though.
Carnival of Souls - Before I started watching horror movies every day and posting in my horror blog, this was my favorite horror film. That's not to take anything away from Carnival, it's just that I've seen so many now that I can't pick a favorite. It's definitely my favorite 60s horror that's not 2000 Maniacs or The Whip and the Body.
Watched it in color, with the Mike Nelson commentary. Herk Harvey is scary when the movie is in color; he really looks other worldly and you can see how the makeup influenced so many other films. The ghouls contrast so much more creepily when they are the only ones in black and white (well, greenish white anyway). Not my favorite Mike commentary, but still good as at this point he's like an old friend.
The Social Network - Finally got around to watching this one; took me a couple of days as I started it Wednesday and finished it today (Monday). At first I felt sorry for Mark Zuckerberg (I have a soft spot for aspies, being the mother of one) and then I didn't when I saw how vengeful he was. Aspies can be taught to be responsible for their actions and to consider other people's feelings.
On the other hand, it was refreshing to watch someone screw someone over in business for personal reasons rather than greed. I can empathize with hurt feelings, but not with the mindset that there is no amount of money that is enough. The "nothing personal, just business" way of thinking puts flames on the sides of my face. What kind of world do we live in where a guy can rob one bank and get life in jail, but a bank exec can rob thousands of people and get a tax break? If Jesus is coming, he'd better come on.
Back to the movie, the best part was that I discovered that "California Love" was a cover of a kickass song called "West Coast Poplock" which played during the ziplining off the roof scene and which I can't stop listening to. Even my cat loves that song. He goes and lies down right in front of the speaker and grooves on the bass.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Eagle vs Silver Fox
Eagle vs Silver Fox (1980) is one of the best bad kung fu flicks I've seen. You are free to interpret that statement as you wish. There's a pretty good pre-credits fight between the titular Silver Fox and some guy who is hiding a piece of paper with a message which Fox wants. Right before he kills the messenger by kicking him in the chest three times, Silver Fox jumps up and grabs the guy around the neck with his bent leg and kicks him in the head with his other leg, which was pretty impressive.
The credits are hilarious, because the words fly to the front of the screen out of trees, a guy's shin, and, in the case of the executive producer's credit, out of a guy's ass.
Next we see another group of guys receiving a message to transport from some guys at a monastery. The message looks like two Chinese characters on a sheet of paper; I don't know why one of them doesn't just memorize it, but I guess then the movie would be over. Of course, Silver Fox (who is the villain here, by the way) sends another group of dudes to get this message too, and during the fight we see one of the bad guys doing some shifty eyes. When they get back to Silver Fox they don't have the message because they threw all the bodies in the river. But Fox doesn't punish them for this bit of genius. Somehow he knows that the shifty eyed guy was working against him and let one man escape with his life, so Fox crushes his throat.
Some old dude finds the guy who was let go with his life lying by the riverside and takes him to his house, then begins coughing. Next we see a bunch of assholes walking along, jumping around and being obnoxious on their way to one of those inn/teahouses you see in every one of these movies. My husband was pretty impressed when I said there was gonna be a fight in the teahouse and I turned out to be right; that's because I've seen a couple of kung fu movies. The owner of the place was cowardly and the gang leader talked like Snidely Whiplash.
The guy who fought them all before they could really do any damage, but after they ran off all the customers, was of course the man who escaped from Silver Fox's guys earlier. The fight was cool, because he fought two of them by throwing chicken at them and making them catch it in their mouths, and a third guy got thrown up the bannister and then slid back down and racked himself on the newel.
I should tell you now that in the teahouse there is a pickpocket character who starts off as a man with a female dubbing the voice, leaves, and comes back with the same female voice actor doing the dubbing but now the actor is female too. She robs the hero, he robs her back, and then she follows him off down the road. Then things get nonsensical. They meet an old man and the pickpocket lady asks him for some food. He kicks her ass, and then starts telling our hero a long story about his own training that ends up being a flashback back to the coughing guy who rescued the hero. Then we get a long boring training sequence including the trainee standing in a river while a Sousa type march plays. Then he accidentally kills the trainer, we go back to the present, and there is some more fighting with a different roving band of jerks. The lady man falls in the river, goes to change clothes, then is peeped on by some itchy guy who appears from behind a bush. Then we learn that the chick was supposed to have been disguising herself as a guy! This is the first time I've ever seen that plot device used when the character was played by a man in an earlier scene. Even Tommy Wiseau used actors of the same gender when a character was inexplicably played by two actors in The Room.
Oh boy. Now the leader of the first gang meets up with a member of the second gang at the teahouse, and they commiserate about having been beaten up by our hero and pickpocket. "Ha, ha, you got beat up by a girl." "You got beat up by a girl too! Wait, that was a girl?" Then it comes out that all the marauders are part of the original group who killed the second messenger. They probably were different actors in the beginning too, since I didn't recognize them.
Hero guy tries to teach pickpocket lady that fighting is wrong by, what else, fighting her. He even takes her hand and hits her in the face with it. Thankfully, he doesn't say "why are you hitting yourself?" while he does it.
Back at the teahouse, a bald thug from the beginning joins the other wounded thugs, only his voice actor has changed from the dumbass "which way did he go, George" guy to Bob Hoskins. There's another fight with these thugs. Pickpocket lady beats Bob Hoskins/Lenny with a spoon and Hero chokes the other two. The old guy from earlier appears on top of a rock.
The bodies get back to Silver Fox somehow and as they lie on the lawn Bob is taken to task for having survived. Fox opines that "everything you want done, you must do yourself." Fox surmises that the hero and the pickpocket are after him right before receiving a note to that effect. The henchmen beg him to let them kill the two, who are meanwhile hanging out with the old guy and have now admitted to each other that they know they are old acquaintances who have been betrothed since they were younger. Hero plans to fight Fox to the death tomorrow and I can't fucking wait. The girl tearfully begs to go to the fight too and the old man laughs maniacally.
Then in a lovely blue-colored day to night sequence (we know it's night because of the cricket sounds) the old man finds two new thugs outside and beats the shit out of them while trying to keep them quiet. I guess he doesn't want to wake the lovers? He actually takes one guy's hand, holds it over his head and spins him around like a dance partner.
At daylight our hero meets Bob and another bald dude in a field. He says he wants to fight Silver Fox, not two boiled eggs. He jumps up and stands with one foot on each of their heads. They put him in a coffin. He climbs out and fights them with gratuitous reverb sound effects, then sends them back on a wagon covered in burlap to where Fox is ill-advisedly hosting a premature victory party. He orders the burlap removed, then he and the music act like we're supposed to be surprised that dead henchmen are in fact revealed. I don't know how the Fox dude made it to this movie, which is a sequel, he is so dumb.
Hero arrives and Fox asks if it is his custom to come announced. Hero asks if he needs an invitation to come and kill him! (Oh, snap). The old man displays some more appearing powers, and uses some kind of tickle fu on some bad guys, then sits down and eats Fox's huge feast while watching pickpocket lady fight some guys with swords. Fox seems to have the upper hand, even dealing Hero a very dusty foot to the face and later standing on his thighs like they're doing a cheerleading stunt and smacking him in the face. Finally the old man helps out and they kill Fox just as the movie reveals that he is the reincarnation/ghost of the dead trainer. And you thought the bad guys were gonna win! Last line of the film, from the old man: "merciful Buddha, I thank you."
Like I said, this is a good bad movie. It's not even so bad it's good; it's in the odd condition of being good and bad at the same time. You can find it on DVD as a Black Belt Theater release. Unlike many such old kung fu DVDs, this one has trailers and deleted fight scenes. I recommend you do if you like fighting for the sake of seeing the choreography, but not if you enjoy a good plot.
The credits are hilarious, because the words fly to the front of the screen out of trees, a guy's shin, and, in the case of the executive producer's credit, out of a guy's ass.
Next we see another group of guys receiving a message to transport from some guys at a monastery. The message looks like two Chinese characters on a sheet of paper; I don't know why one of them doesn't just memorize it, but I guess then the movie would be over. Of course, Silver Fox (who is the villain here, by the way) sends another group of dudes to get this message too, and during the fight we see one of the bad guys doing some shifty eyes. When they get back to Silver Fox they don't have the message because they threw all the bodies in the river. But Fox doesn't punish them for this bit of genius. Somehow he knows that the shifty eyed guy was working against him and let one man escape with his life, so Fox crushes his throat.
Some old dude finds the guy who was let go with his life lying by the riverside and takes him to his house, then begins coughing. Next we see a bunch of assholes walking along, jumping around and being obnoxious on their way to one of those inn/teahouses you see in every one of these movies. My husband was pretty impressed when I said there was gonna be a fight in the teahouse and I turned out to be right; that's because I've seen a couple of kung fu movies. The owner of the place was cowardly and the gang leader talked like Snidely Whiplash.
The guy who fought them all before they could really do any damage, but after they ran off all the customers, was of course the man who escaped from Silver Fox's guys earlier. The fight was cool, because he fought two of them by throwing chicken at them and making them catch it in their mouths, and a third guy got thrown up the bannister and then slid back down and racked himself on the newel.
I should tell you now that in the teahouse there is a pickpocket character who starts off as a man with a female dubbing the voice, leaves, and comes back with the same female voice actor doing the dubbing but now the actor is female too. She robs the hero, he robs her back, and then she follows him off down the road. Then things get nonsensical. They meet an old man and the pickpocket lady asks him for some food. He kicks her ass, and then starts telling our hero a long story about his own training that ends up being a flashback back to the coughing guy who rescued the hero. Then we get a long boring training sequence including the trainee standing in a river while a Sousa type march plays. Then he accidentally kills the trainer, we go back to the present, and there is some more fighting with a different roving band of jerks. The lady man falls in the river, goes to change clothes, then is peeped on by some itchy guy who appears from behind a bush. Then we learn that the chick was supposed to have been disguising herself as a guy! This is the first time I've ever seen that plot device used when the character was played by a man in an earlier scene. Even Tommy Wiseau used actors of the same gender when a character was inexplicably played by two actors in The Room.
Oh boy. Now the leader of the first gang meets up with a member of the second gang at the teahouse, and they commiserate about having been beaten up by our hero and pickpocket. "Ha, ha, you got beat up by a girl." "You got beat up by a girl too! Wait, that was a girl?" Then it comes out that all the marauders are part of the original group who killed the second messenger. They probably were different actors in the beginning too, since I didn't recognize them.
Hero guy tries to teach pickpocket lady that fighting is wrong by, what else, fighting her. He even takes her hand and hits her in the face with it. Thankfully, he doesn't say "why are you hitting yourself?" while he does it.
Back at the teahouse, a bald thug from the beginning joins the other wounded thugs, only his voice actor has changed from the dumbass "which way did he go, George" guy to Bob Hoskins. There's another fight with these thugs. Pickpocket lady beats Bob Hoskins/Lenny with a spoon and Hero chokes the other two. The old guy from earlier appears on top of a rock.
The bodies get back to Silver Fox somehow and as they lie on the lawn Bob is taken to task for having survived. Fox opines that "everything you want done, you must do yourself." Fox surmises that the hero and the pickpocket are after him right before receiving a note to that effect. The henchmen beg him to let them kill the two, who are meanwhile hanging out with the old guy and have now admitted to each other that they know they are old acquaintances who have been betrothed since they were younger. Hero plans to fight Fox to the death tomorrow and I can't fucking wait. The girl tearfully begs to go to the fight too and the old man laughs maniacally.
Then in a lovely blue-colored day to night sequence (we know it's night because of the cricket sounds) the old man finds two new thugs outside and beats the shit out of them while trying to keep them quiet. I guess he doesn't want to wake the lovers? He actually takes one guy's hand, holds it over his head and spins him around like a dance partner.
At daylight our hero meets Bob and another bald dude in a field. He says he wants to fight Silver Fox, not two boiled eggs. He jumps up and stands with one foot on each of their heads. They put him in a coffin. He climbs out and fights them with gratuitous reverb sound effects, then sends them back on a wagon covered in burlap to where Fox is ill-advisedly hosting a premature victory party. He orders the burlap removed, then he and the music act like we're supposed to be surprised that dead henchmen are in fact revealed. I don't know how the Fox dude made it to this movie, which is a sequel, he is so dumb.
Hero arrives and Fox asks if it is his custom to come announced. Hero asks if he needs an invitation to come and kill him! (Oh, snap). The old man displays some more appearing powers, and uses some kind of tickle fu on some bad guys, then sits down and eats Fox's huge feast while watching pickpocket lady fight some guys with swords. Fox seems to have the upper hand, even dealing Hero a very dusty foot to the face and later standing on his thighs like they're doing a cheerleading stunt and smacking him in the face. Finally the old man helps out and they kill Fox just as the movie reveals that he is the reincarnation/ghost of the dead trainer. And you thought the bad guys were gonna win! Last line of the film, from the old man: "merciful Buddha, I thank you."
Like I said, this is a good bad movie. It's not even so bad it's good; it's in the odd condition of being good and bad at the same time. You can find it on DVD as a Black Belt Theater release. Unlike many such old kung fu DVDs, this one has trailers and deleted fight scenes. I recommend you do if you like fighting for the sake of seeing the choreography, but not if you enjoy a good plot.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Zombi 2 again
This is my second time watching my Shriek Show 25th anniversary Zombi 2 DVD. Who knows how many times I've seen the movie period, but I think this is the second time I've mentioned it here. Since I probably should say something different to you every time Zombi 2 shows up here in my moviegoer diary, I'll tell you that the scene in which Susan strips off to go scuba diving with the zombie and the shark tickles me every time.
The reason I'm amused is because to begin with Peter is absently staring at her, like you do when it's the first time you see a particular woman get nuuuuuuude. He's not really leering, though, because he knows her shriek show hair under that pink cap makes her kind of meh. Anyway, Anne looks a little bit eye roll-y at the exhibitionism, so Peter picks up on it and averts his eyes because he likes Anne. Then Fulci cuts to Brian shoveling some nasty unidentified food into his mouth with his bare hands and looking like he's completely oblivious not only to the silent drama the little strip show has brought on but to the stripping itself. So you know that she's showing off all the time to the point that the thrill is gone. "Oh, that's just my wife, nude again. *yawn* Pass the hot sauce, wouldya?"
Also, I can't look at Al Cliver without thinking about David Warbeck on the Beyond commentary talking about Cliver being a self-described dumbass. Gotta go; it's time for the eye splinter.
P.S. I also watched The Beyond with commentary tonight. Watching it reminded me that last night I dreamt I was in New Orleans at one of those bars that sells like 76 different kinds of mixed drinks in styrofoam cups. In my dream one of the drinks was called the "Kenny Rogers." I ordered a "Kenny Rogers" but had to change my order since the price, which hadn't been on the menu, was over $140!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
True Stories
I have to highlight True Stories as one of those movies that inspires me. As it finishes washing over me I feel I could create music, fiction, and gorgeous sets. True Stories seems so densely packed I rediscover a scene every time and it becomes new to me.
My favorite scene takes place when Louis Fyne visits Pop Staples's character for the first time. Pop has a soothing voice even when speaking, and I can imagine trusting him with the voodoo of my love life. The best scene with a song in it is the fashion show. I love the way in which it and the lip sync scene has actors that look like regular people.
Which part do you like best? Do you think you would like the company of a person like David Byrne's character, who just walks through the movie observing and rarely verbally expressing an opinion?
I hereby resolve to live in the feeling I experience whenever I watch the movie.
My favorite scene takes place when Louis Fyne visits Pop Staples's character for the first time. Pop has a soothing voice even when speaking, and I can imagine trusting him with the voodoo of my love life. The best scene with a song in it is the fashion show. I love the way in which it and the lip sync scene has actors that look like regular people.
Which part do you like best? Do you think you would like the company of a person like David Byrne's character, who just walks through the movie observing and rarely verbally expressing an opinion?
I hereby resolve to live in the feeling I experience whenever I watch the movie.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Still working my way through 2 Mill Creek 50 Packs O' Crap
Spare Parts aka Fleisch
Sisters of Death
and a real movie, Happy Accidents, the review of which you can find here: http://fantasticticket.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/happy-accidents/
Sisters of Death
and a real movie, Happy Accidents, the review of which you can find here: http://fantasticticket.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/happy-accidents/
Monday, September 12, 2011
Not too long ago, in this galaxy right here
I watched Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Terror, Family Plot, Broken Flowers, and My Bloody Valentine. And I liked them!
Saturday, September 10, 2011
And when they pulled the driver's body from the twisted burning wreck
...I had watched Pee Wee's Big Adventure again, along with Cat O' Nine Tails, Haunts, and Star Wars.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
Labor Day Weekend crap
MST3K The Movie - Sorry to hear the guys hated making this one. It would be nice to have a movie every few years from them.
Black Samurai - Possibly the best blaxploitation kung fu movie there is. There were boring parts, but the fight scenes were totally worth the wait and Jim Kelly drove a purple sportscar. Also, he flew in a jetpack!
Rest in Pieces - I liked this one a lot, which is awesome since I went to a lot of trouble to track it down. You can read a detailed review here: http://initforthekills.com/2011/09/03/rest-in-pieces-1987/
Hauntedween - I could say the same thing for this one, and you can read the review of it here: http://90shorror.blogspot.com/2011/09/hauntedween-1991.html
Paganini Horror - I will watch any Italian horror movie. I actually enjoyed this one, especially the ending, even though it was really dumb.
The Jitters - I'll probably review it just to prove to my readers that I don't actually like every movie I watch. It was pretty awful, and an insult to the hopping vampire subgenre.
Black Samurai - Possibly the best blaxploitation kung fu movie there is. There were boring parts, but the fight scenes were totally worth the wait and Jim Kelly drove a purple sportscar. Also, he flew in a jetpack!
Rest in Pieces - I liked this one a lot, which is awesome since I went to a lot of trouble to track it down. You can read a detailed review here: http://initforthekills.com/2011/09/03/rest-in-pieces-1987/
Hauntedween - I could say the same thing for this one, and you can read the review of it here: http://90shorror.blogspot.com/2011/09/hauntedween-1991.html
Paganini Horror - I will watch any Italian horror movie. I actually enjoyed this one, especially the ending, even though it was really dumb.
The Jitters - I'll probably review it just to prove to my readers that I don't actually like every movie I watch. It was pretty awful, and an insult to the hopping vampire subgenre.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell
Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell is now one of my favorite MTS3K episodes. I love so many of the lines, especially "Steve's wearing his hood!" and "Potatoes are what we eat!" The only trouble is that my mind always tries to make sense of the movies I watch, and it's an effort to just give up and let the badness wash over me, focusing only on the MSTies. Guess I'll just have to practice some more.
Cam you believe they made four Deathstalker movies? God, I miss 80s video stores.
Cam you believe they made four Deathstalker movies? God, I miss 80s video stores.
Friday, September 2, 2011
The House by the Cemetery and Victim of the Haunt
I think I watch The House by the Cemetery so often because I keep thinking that one day it is going to make sense. I read that when it first came to VHS it was presented with two reels out of order and nobody noticed. So my idea of it making sense someday may be a dream. I wonder what Americans thought when they showed up at the drive-in on Friday night and ta-da! It's Fulci! Welcome to Lucio Land!
I also watched 90s TV movie Victim of the Haunt, which you can read all about here: http://90shorror.blogspot.com/2011/09/victim-of-haunt.html
I also watched 90s TV movie Victim of the Haunt, which you can read all about here: http://90shorror.blogspot.com/2011/09/victim-of-haunt.html
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