Week of September 17 - 22

Sunday, September 17, 2006
Satanic Yuppies – 1996 (aka Evil Ambitions)

Bill Hinzman! (for those of you not taking notes, Bill was the first zombie in the cemetery in Night of the Living Dead). I love it when he’s in a movie. And speaking of love, there’s Debbie Rochon! YEAH!

If you think yuppies are scum, wait til you see Satan. PERFECT!

No subs, but there is a commentary with writer/director (Mark Burchett) and several actors (including Satan, Randy Rupp). Here we learn that it was a 3 week shoot, for about $15K. There, see what you can do when you care? This movie is better than MANY that spent 10-20x as much.

Wish they had a sound guy for the commentary, as some folks are REALLY hard to hear.

Other extras include interviews, which were kind of self-serving. And a news parody, which was VERY funny.

MST3K E212 – Godzilla vs. Megalon - 1973

A very early episode with Joel and the bots. And it has Jet Jaguar. What more can you ask for?

Monday, September 18, 2006
Psychotic Tendencies

I have rented half of a 4 movie box set from Brentwood. I own lots of these box sets, but they are really repeating themselves, so I am only renting one of two discs, that has two movies.

Jack’s Habit – 2005

Shot on video with a budget of $15K, according to IMDB. The writer/director/Producer/Editor (C. Alec Rossel), hasn’t done anything except shorts, which isn’t necessarily bad, but might explain some of the weaknesses.

The angst cop is the best actor in the whole affair. And the ending is a little darker than I expected, but this is nothing to write home about, or rent, for that matter.

Nightmare – 1987

Hey! This is Blood Harvest! And the sound isn’t even synced in the 5.1 version. The stereo version is okay, but neither the soundtrack nor the transfer are as good as the Blood Harvest DVD.

For those of you who don’t know, this is the movie with Tiny Tim as a crazy clown. Of course, it’s easy for Tiny Tim to portray a crazy guy, he IS crazy.

Tuesday, September 19
Crucible of Horror – 1971

WOW! What a snooze fest. The first thirty minutes are NOTHING but talking, (except for one brief whipping). Hey, there’s Michael Gough (who was Alfred in the first 4 Batman movies).

And the ending is a pure WTF moment. The writer must have been channeling David Lynch, because I have NO idea what happens in the ending.

MST3K E503 – Swamp Diamonds – 1955

Another Joel episode. Mike Conner’s sixth movie, back when he was still going by Touch Conners (that is SO weird).

Ladies and gentlemen, Beverly Garland (a favorite actress of the MST3K guys, according to their book). And she’s playing a bad girl, which is unusual.

And this movie represents Roger Corman’s directorial debut! A good time will be had by all.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Shadow: Dead Riot – 2006

This movie features two famous folks. Tony Todd (Candyman) and Erin Brown (Misty Mundae). If you can wrap your head around those two appearing in a movie together, you are ready for this flick. Actually, this is the second non-softcore role I’ve seen her in, and she does a passingly fair job again.

The blood of Erin Brown brings forth zombies. Many religious people might think that true of Misty Mundae. And this movie has another goofy mutant baby. Shades of Dumpster Baby.

This is great! It’s a zombie movie with a moderately novel plot! It combines my two favorite genre’s, Zombie and WIP.

Alas, there is only one extra, a Making of Featurette. Here we learn that they were inspired by The Story of Ricky-O. Very international cast. And Bill Nintzman again!

MST3K E810 - Giant Spider Invasion - 1975

Barbara Hale - Della Street from old & new Perry Mason TV Shows.
Alan Hale Jr - Skipper!

This is a favorite of mine. The dogging on Alan Hale Jr just cracks me up. And the movie is SO crappy, it's easy to join in.

Thursday, September 21
The Minotaur - 2006 (UK)

Rutger Hauer - a small part for such a "big" actor.
Tony Todd (again!). A big week for him. Good thing I really like him.

Novel, bloody, and excellently done. This is pretty cool movie, actually. Subtitles, commentary, and deleted scenes. The commentary was fairly technical and interesting. It features the director (Jonathon English, don't feel bad if you've never heard of him, he has 7 credits, and I've never heard of any of the others) and editor (Eddie Hamilton). Seven companies involved, shot in Luxemburg in an 8 week shoot. Cost $7M, or 5.5M Euros.

An excellent little rental.

Friday, September 22

No movie tonight, the wife and I went to the Charlie Band Road Show in Dallas tonight. A great time, but too much of it was a repeat of last year, even down to the jokes. The good news is that last years we only saw a tee shirt of a topless girl. This year, we got three topless chicks in a hot lez scene.

And I can't believe that someone has $1000 to spend on a Puppetmaster puppet. As nifty as I think they are, I WISH I had a thousand dollars of disposable income to spend on a doll. And no Full Moon DVDs I didn't already have. Ahhh, the trials of owning over a thousand DVDs.

Saturday, September 23
Jiguko (Hell) - 1960 - aka The Sinners of Hell

The Japanese vision of hell, complete with a devil who causes evil to happen. Poor Shiro, everything bad happens to him.

They even have a version of the river Styx, called Sanzu.

Great visuals, especially the last half hour, where it really kicks in. In fact, if I have a complaint about this movie, is that there's too much character development at the start, before the torture in hell starts.

Extras include subs (obviously), as the only dialogue is Japanese, Building the Inferno featurette, and interviews.