Week of Saturday July 7 through Thursday July 12, 2007

Saturday, July 7, 2007
The Madman of Mandoras - 1963 aka They Saved Hilter's Brain

LOL! Why oh why didn't MST3K ever do this hurter. You gotta love a giant pickle jar with a glaring hitler head in it. And the grant finale? So obviously a wax head, it wouldn't fool a kindergartner.

Both versions are in this set. The "They Saved Hitler's Brain" cut. It seems to have an added death by car explosion to the beginning. This is the version on all the cheapie combo sets by Brentwood and such. I have it with The Frozen Dead.

The Devil's Hand - 1962

Well, crap! I've seen this. It's on Horrible Horror Vol. 2, that I bought back in Jan '05.

Shock-O-Rama - 2005

So, this SciFi film was too short, and they padded it out with the real life of Erin Brown(Misty Mundae)? And you won't hear me say this too often, but this movie has what I think are the nastiest set of boobies I've seen in a movie. (No, not Erins').

Okay, so it's an anthology of three little shorts, like Tales From the Crypt. (but with LOTS more boobage). And it features one of the worst names for a segment ever "Looney Are the Brain". Huh?

There's a commentary here, featuring actor David Fine, as well as director Brett Piper and executive producer Michael Raso. Wow, shot in 8 days! And this commentary was better than I expected, with lots more low tech "technical" info.

Sunday, July 8j, 2007
Re-Animator - 1985

One of my 5 favorite movies of all time, and now I have this new 2 disc (with highlighter) that Jeffery Combs himself signed 5 places! There are two commentaries. One I've heard before. The second one has Jeffery, cast, & crew. It's excellent.

But the real reason I moved this forward, is that Jeffery himself told me that the second disc (Re-Animator Resurectus) documentary is excellent. And he wasn't kidding. WOW. Is there a lot of cool info here. The fact the Brian Yuzna personally guaranteed the investors. And that Stuart Gordon originally thought of this as a PBS show! Yeah, right.

Tech details, behind the scenes, everything you'd ever want in regards to Re-Animator. This second disc is worth the price of the whole thing.

Monday, July 9, 2007 another SWV release
Run Swinger Run - 1967

Barry Mahon, the NYC cheapie auteur! We start off with a sniper trying to shoot a sunbather. Now why would you shoot such a nice set of boobies? We have some roughie elements, and a total lack of ability to deliver lines by the actresses.

Ahhh, the sixties. When people could have sex thru their underwear!

Kind of an anti-climatic ending. I figured it would end darker.

Sex Club International - 1967

More Barry Mahon goodness. The adventures of Lucky Bang Bang. What kind of a spy would allow himself to be named Lucky Bang Bang? What we have here is a combo spy film, sexploitation. And the folks here are WAY more impressed by the ladies than I am. They are NOT that great.

And the disc is filled up with the usual collection of Barry Mahon shorts and trailers.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Epic Movie - 2007

I had a good time watching this movie. Is it juvenile? Hell yeah? I'm sure that late teens and 20 somethings will like it a lot more than I did. But I enjoy'd spotting the references to other movies. Here's the list of what I caught:
Da Vinci Code
Nacho Libre
Snakes on a Plane
X-Men
Willy Wonka (not really an epic movie, but hey, it's funny)
Chronicles of Narnia
Mission Impossible III
Superman
Harry Potter
Pirates of the Caribbean
Star Wars
Click (once again, not really a very epic movie)

Commentary by writers/directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. I gave this commentary 15 minutes to become something more than these two just saying stupid things. But when they try to pretend that a scene is a miniature, or that an actor is actually an actress. But after 15 minutes, and they hadn't said a real thing about the movie, I gave up.

Other extras include Breaking Wind - the sounds/foley work of epic movie. Everybody loves Beaver (a stupid mock-documentary). Every single extra is as stupid as the commentary. Nothing real, nothing serious. All just fake crap.

So rent, watch the movie, and forget everything else.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007
MST3K Vol. 11 box set
E206 Ring of Terror - 1962

The first thing I notice is that Servo's missing his bubble head, it's just a pipe. I wonder what's up with that? And TV's Frank is here, so Dr. Laurence Erhardt (Josh Weinstein) only lasted one season (which is too bad, as I liked him).

Wow, that was short & dumb! And a serial at the end. Weird. This is an odd episode. I've yet to see other Season two shows, so I don't know if they were experimenting, or was something going on here.

E409 Indestructible Man - 1956

Great comments for a bad movie. Even the presence of Lon Chaney Jr doesn't save this stinker. Joel and the bots' comments do.

Thursday, July 12, 2007
E414 Tormented - 1960

Bert I. Gordon. The man who gave us The Food of the Gods, Empire of the Ants, and Earth vs the Spider. Before he got into giant animals and bugs, he did other cheapies. And he even cast his own daughter as the little girl! There's a great running gag here of "Sessions, presents!" that anyone who had a TV in the 80's will love.

This disc actually has extras. There's a wrap around for some called Mystery Science Theater Hour with Jack Perkins. I have no idea what this is from. Also, there's a Tormented Reunion! Bert I Gordon himself, the daughter Susan, and Joel Turkel (the blackmailing hipster), who was also in Blade Runner and The Shining . Very nice!

Actually, I have this movie by itself in one of my original two-fers with Lady Frankenstein that I bought on 06/16/2002! It was the 15th movie in my collection.

E1011 Horrors of Spider Island - 1960

This is a classic that, since it's from the last season, most everybody has probably seen several times. There's some interesting info in IMDB about this movie - it was a nudie originally, called "Its Hot in Paradise". I'd love to see that. There are several ladies here that look like they'd be very nice. I wonder if a print of that still exists? They cut all the nudity for TV (and thus be available for MST3K) as Horrors of Spider Island. Better known as Whores of Spider Island.

Sorry, no Friday, going out to celebrate a friend's birthday!