Week of June 18

Next big push, to catch up to today!

Sunday, June 18
Varan The Unbelievable – 1958
     How is this different than Godzilla? Bigger arms, no breath weapon, but he can fly (somehow. He looks like my Sugar Glider!). This disc was subtitled with no English soundtrack. There’s even a subtitled commentary track by one of the workers on the Special Effects. There’s this weird, shorter TV (Broadcast) version that appears to be a pair of half hour episodes.

Monday, June 19
Circus of Fear – 1966
     Don’t know why this is labeled as horror. Its more a murder mystery. And you don’t see Christopher Lee’s face until the final 10 minutes (although you do hear that great voice, with a german accent!). And Klaus Kinski couldn’t have mailed in his performance more.
There’s a commentary by the director, and someone from Blue Underground, that keeps it moving. Not the best commentary, but not the worst by a long shot either.

Vicious – 2003
     About the best thing you can say about this movie is that it has Tom Savini in it. No, I take that back. The best thing is the 5 minute appearance by my favorite actress Brinke Stevens at the beginning. It’s all downhill from there. This movie is dumber than a box of rocks. Not a single new idea here. And you can tell Savini had NOTHING to do with the special effects. In fact, the only way that they ARE special effects is in the Special Ed sort of way. I can’t prove it, but I’d bet that this was made for the SciFi channel. Its that bad and stupid.

Tuesday, June 20
Battle Beyond the Stars – 1980
     Roger Corman proves that you don’t need 20 million dollars to make a SF movie. With a James Horner soundtrack (it sounds like the initial couple of Star Trek movie soundtracks, actually). It’s got an all star cast, and had a $2M budget, which for New World Pictures was HUGE! Two commentaries. The first is by Gale Ann Harde, who was an assistant to the producer (Corman), who had a lot of historical insights into who was doing what, that went on to great things (like the fact that James Cameron was promoted to do all the model work). The second commentary has Roger himself and the writer John Sayles. Its an awesome class on inexpensive, independent film making. Highly recommended for this commentary track alone (although the flick is fun too!)

Wednesday, June 21
2001 Maniacs – 2005
     Yehaw! The South’s gonna rise again! HGL’s classic (and my second favorite of his movies, after Wizard of Gore) gets a modern retelling. And here’s a big surprise, it’s great! Robert Englund is awesome as the mayor. And the gore affects are super. There are two commentaries here as well. The first is just the director (Tim Sullivan, who has done nothing you’ve ever seen before, except for being a teenage stagehand on The Aliens Deadly Spawn (a classic!) and Robert Englund himself. This is fun and info filled. Sometimes it’s hard to tell when they’re kidding or not, however. They talk often of how they are going for that “drive-in flavor” and are poking fun at stereotypes. Anyone who doesn’t get that needs to have their movie-watching license revoked. The second commentary is with Tim and some production crew folks. Its not as fun, but probably more educational. Anywho, get this movie. If I was still rating them, here’s another 5 beers. Hell, this is a sixpack. More quotable lines per minute than you can shake a stick at.

Thursday, June 22
A pair of Russian flicks from the 50’s from RetroMedia
Magic Voyage of Sinbad – 1953
     You know, if they didn’t keep calling him that, I’d never guess this guy is Sinbad. He neither acts like nor looks like Sinbad the Sailor. But this movie is great fun, in the way that all Russian movies from the 50’s were. To make fun of. To take a lesson in how to do this, see Episode 813 of MST3K, Jack Frost (one of my all time favorites, right up there with Manos).

The Day the Earth Froze – 1959
     This one’s even more like Jack Frost. Silly, insane (by modern, Western standards), hysterical. Watch and enjoy.

Queen Kong – 1976
     Holy crap, what a turkey! I know this was done tongue in cheek, but its still ridiculous. I mean, really. This is a one joke movie, involving role reversal. Only the british will think this funny.

White Pongo – 1945
     The adventures of british colonials seeking a white gorilla. Yep, it’s just as dull and boring as you’d imagine.

Friday, June 23
     CG Fish, CG Nuclear blast craters. If you can ignore the subtle slam that this entire movie is on America in the 1950’s, and nuclear testing, the actual movie itself is well done and satisfying. Is it as disturbing as the original? Hell no. It’s a good movie, but the Wes Craven original is a great movie, a classic in every sense of the word. Sometimes, polish and special effects do NOT help.

There are two commentaries here too. The first is by the director, and several others. I gave up after 10 minutes. The director (Alexandre Aja, of High Tension fame) is an arrogant, self grandising, self important French asshole. I couldn’t take his accent or his attitude. The second commentary was Wes Craven and someone from the original cast Peter Locke, who was a producer on both movies. This one is excellent. This is certainly the best of the remakes so far.