Week of Saturday Aug 11 through Friday August 17, 2007

Saturday, August 11, 2007
The Being - 1983

What a cast! Take a look at this:
Martin Landau
José Ferrer
Ruth Buzzi (who knew she did anything beyond Laugh-In)
Kinky Friedman (ran for Texas Governor this spring)

Ahhh, some gore right off. I love 80's horror movies. The earlier in the decade, the better. They don't pull punches. Which is good, since no one can act in this thing except Landau, and he's hamming it up. But you don't care, as the blood and guts keep you watching.

I liked it!

The Film Crew: Killers From Space - 1954

Ladies and gentleman, the ever-popular, wooden Peter Graves. Lots of good jabs at him.

Movie - bad
Riffing - excellent

Sunday, August 12, 2007
Curse of the Aztec Mummy - 1957

Okay, this appears to be the sequel to the ever popular Robot vs the Aztec Mummy (in it's native land, Momia azteca contra el robot humano, La). Hey, is that Santos? Man, this is getting better and better. No, he's got an "A" on his chest. Ahhhh, he's The Angel. So it's Santos-lite.

Why doesn't the Bat just summon her like he did last time? According to IMDB, this comes BEFORE Robot. And that makes a little sense. I guess the amount of flashbacks (I suspect there's a movie even before this one) had confused me.

Man, the Angel sucks! Beat up twice by the bad guys. Santos he ain't! Hey, it's the snake pit shown in Robot. So all that was flashback to this movie. I can see that now, as there's more details here. And that explains why he didn't just "call" Flor". He is just hypnotising her now.

Spoiler alert. Not that anyone cares for a 50 year old movie. "Floyd" is the Angel? You gotta be kidding me! I didn't see that coming. But it does explain why he got beat up so often.

Fun for the whole family. And the english version appears to be the same as the original.

Monday, August 13, 2007
Video Violence - 1987

Ahhh, the glories of Shot on Video in the late 80's/early 90's. A nice trip down memory lane, of the days of VHS Video stores. And needing memberships. Empty boxes on the shelf, with the tapes on the back wall behind the register. God, I remember those days.

Lots of gore. Very uneven, some really good, some laughably bad.

Commentary by Gary Cohen, Mark Dolson, Mark Kwiatek, Art Neill, Paul K, David Christopher, & Uke. Lots of reminising & joking. They're having lots of fun for folks who aren't drinking. No second takes. And once again, I reiterate "NO ONE LISTENS TO THE COMMENTARY FIRST!!!!!! Stop worrying about spoilers".

Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Video Violence 2 - 1987

This one is even better, as the plot is cleverer (is there such a word?). Same uneven affects, but when it's good, it's really gross!

Commentary has same folks. Unpretentious, clever, and accurate. Gotta love the 80's. If you love the gore films of Herschell Gordon Lewis, this is the worthy successor.

Wednesday Aug 15 through Friday, August 17, 2007
The Dresden Files - 2007

An interesting series. Pity it didn't get picked up for a second season. They could have developed this into something cool. If you think of this as taking place in the same universe as the Harry Potter novels/movies, then you have a fair idea of what it's like. Magic works, but most folks don't know, and those with it keep it a secret. Sound familiar. I also think this could fit right into White Wolf's universe of Vampire the Masquerade. It has a mage component that I never read, but still. The difference between the vampire in this series and the ones in The Kindred are very small.

There were only two commentaries for the twelve episode series, which is unfortunate. In the first, we learn that this is yet another series shot in Canada. Seems like everything is shot there now days. I wonder why the unions don't scream about that? We also learn that it's a 6 day shoot per episode, which they say is fast, but seems pretty standard to me. Especially since it's so set-bound. I was amazed at what is a set in this movie. And finally, I thought it was interesting to learn that the guy playing Bob, who has a British accent, really doesn't, and the guy playing Harry, who doesn't have an accent (cause Harry's an American) DOES have a British accent in real life. The director thought it was funny how the accent switched people when they starting acting. Me too.

The only other extras are a few deleted scenes, and an Inside the Dresden Files (interviews with cast & crew, which was fair, but not great).

A definite renter.