Friday June 27 through Thursday July 3, 2008

Friday, June 27, 2008
Encrypt - 2003 TV Movie

Ah, crap, this is from the Sci-Fi Channel back in '03, when everything they did was poopie. If I had known that, I would have used NetFlix's View Now option. Especially since there's no extras on this disc whatsoever. It's just a movie, which is exactly what you get with View Now.

And it's as cheap as a Full Moon Video, without the boobage. Dull and pointless.

Thundercrack - 1975

Wow. Now here's a movie for bad movie lovers. This is Forbidden Zone meets Manos! And while it kinda starts out as a 70's sexploitation thing, it slowly drifts into actual hardcore. Which can be a shock when you're not expecting it. And for the final icing on the cake, no type of sexual pairing is ignored. So if you have hang ups about certain alternate life style choices, don't bother expending the effort to hunt this puppy down (it took me a long time, and in the end, had to go to BitTorrent to find a digitization of the VHS). Still, it's another one of those movies that I can claim to have seen that almost no one else has. And I like that. Plus, it's seriously bizarre. And I love that. Hardcore sex is just the icing on this cake.

Saturday, June 28, 2008
South Park - Imaginationland Trilogy - 2008

Awesome! I'm serious, the scenes in Imaginationland are unbelievable. You could spend hours on pause, look at and identifying "imaginary" things in the background. And how did they remember all this. I can see all the easy ones, like the Thundercats, but who remembers all the Horror Cereals (Boo Berry, Frankenberry, Count Chocula) and Twinkie the Kid?

There is a commentary by Matt and Trey. It's odd, because they are obviously much older, and (believe it or not) more mature. They've come a long way since the "getting so drunk they can barely talk" days of Cannibal the Musical.

And it's amazing (if true) how "last minute" everything is in the production of South Park. How can that be. I refuse to believe that they somehow create these things in less than a week. That just seems impossible to me. Still, I liked the conversation about how all the expressions have names and numbers, so they can sort of "short hand" refer to them. I can see how that would speed things up.

Other extras include storyboards of two scenes, and 2 bonus episodes. Both deal with introductions of characters used in the movie. The very best was the Evil Satanic Animals in the Christmas story. Truly sick and twisted. Don't miss it!

Sunday, June 29, 2008
Chronicles of an Exorcism - 2008

Dull, dull, dull, dull, dull, dull. Did I mention dull. Geez o' pete, you'd think that with the core concept of Blair Witch meets the Exorcist, you'd create something that could at least hold your attention. Not these guys. It's just stupid and predictable. I could have written this thing in less than a day. Nothing novel at all. And anyone who didn't see that ending coming a mile away has obviously NEVER seen an exorcist movie.

Commentary has actor/writer/director Nick G. Miller and actor/writer/producer Matthew Ashford. So there's no one to blame here but these two. The commentary is weird in that we see them talking, and the movie is projected on screens behind them. That is the most novel thing about this whole DVD.

These guys sure are proud of the research they did and the movie itself. Me? I'm unimpressed. Too much telling us what's happening, not enough how or why.

Other extras include deleted scenes (none missed), Cast Interviews (where they tell us the same damn stories as in the commentary), and Outtakes (which weren't very funny).

Monday, June 30, 2008
Botched - 2007 Germany

Comedy/Crime/Horror/Thriller. 30 minutes in, and we've had all 4 already. This movie has more weird characters (besides the main three, who are weird enough) than you can shake a stick at. And a plot that is truly different. Must say that I've never seen anything like this before. Very fun, if you like dark humor and blood. Definitely worth a rent at least.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The Signal - 2007

This idea (all electronics broadcast a signal and everyone goes homicidal) has been done only a couple times before, but with the explosion of electronic devices in our lives (cell phones, GPS devices, etc) it really makes this concept hit home. There's just no way in today's world you could escape being exposed, unless you were backpacking in the wilderness, and even then, you might have taken a GPS or cell phone for safety.

This has good acting, and is a nice reworking of movies like George Romero's The Crazies. The only thing was that initially, I didn't like any of the characters enough to care. But in the end, it did draw me in.

Another novel aspect is that it has 3 directors, each of which did a third of the movie (basically, one did each act). This came out in the commentary, where only the directors NOT involved in the section can talk about the movie. Bizarre. But it's a good blend of tech and antedotes. A 13 day shoot, for those of you taking notes.

This disc is just loaded with extras, including the total Signal TV broadcast (in case you can't get enough flashy images and white noise. The perfect thing to put on the TV when you want a party to be over), "Signal Breakdown" where actors and directors discuss the movie (not bad, especially if you don't listen to the commentary), and then Transmissions (which were little shorts about others affected by the Signal - clever). Also, there's the whole short Hap Hargood Story, which a part of which is used in the opening credits of the movie. Deleted scenes, with intros that explain everything which was nice (none actually missed, though). And finally a making of, which after the other extras was really pretty redundant.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008
The Beast In Space - 1980 Italian

And yes, before you ask, I bought and watched the XXX version from www.DiabolikDVD.com. I'll comment on the porn aspects separately, so you can skip if you don't care or like.

There are what I assume are clips from the original Beast (which I watched several years ago, so can't tell for sure). Basically, what we have here is your standard Italian Star Wars rip off. There were, I believe, 4 of these made. All use very similar sets, and all even have the ridiculous Prince Valiant haircut robots. Why would anyone make all their robots look like Prince Valiant, with blond hair for goodness sake? Anywho, we have this Italian SciFi movie. Well, it needs to be spiced up. Lets make it a sexploitation movie. So there's lots of T&A, and a plot that involves a computer that makes people only think about sex to keep them submissive.

But I guess that just wasn't enough for someone. They then decided that what they really needed were some hardcore inserts. Of course, it's not the real actors and actresses. Hell, it's not even the same set. Or the same lighting. It is *SO* obvious that they just took some hardcore clips and making sure that we never see the actors faces, splice that into the movie. It really is hysterical. You go from an orange lit scene of a blonde woman and dark hair'd man to a regularly lit insert of a brunette going down on a guy, and then back to the orange lit standard sexploitation position, all in less than 30 seconds. I thought it was funny. Erotic, no. Exciting, nope. Laugh inducing, absolutely.

Thursday, July 3, 2008
Alive or Dead - 2008

Here we have an example of some folks who stumble upon an awesome location, and then try to make a movie around it. Alas, they fail. It's just a big, bloody, confusing mess. As I watched it, this is the note I wrote to myself. "Who? What? Anybody got a clue who is what here?"

There's a commentary by writer/directory Stephen Goetsch, producer Paul Koslo, and actor L. Flint Esquerra. This commentary should have been good, but wasn't. Too little detail and WAY too much smalltalk, too much quiet.

Other extras include a making of that actually just a collection of interviews, and then some bloopers.