Week of Saturday July 28 through Friday August 3, 2007

Saturday, July 28, 2007
House on the Edge of the Park - 1980

Directed by Ruggero Deodato, who previously gave us Cannibal Holocaust. Here, he's trying to outdo Wes Craven's Last House on the Left . Interestingly, both LHonL and HotEofP feature David A. Hess as the lead actor. Guess he kinda made a career of playing psycho killers.

God, the music in this thing sucked! You sure can tell this was done by Italians. And even by 1980 standards, every single person in this movie is A FREAK!

Brutal, ugly, and well done, if you like this kind of thing. And it has a good twist at the end that I, for one, didn't see coming.

Other extras include interviews with Ruggero, where we learn that this was shot in 3 weeks, right on the heels of Cannibal Holocaust. There is an interview with David Hess & Family. Here he claims that this isn't a copy of LHOTL. Has he not seen the movie? Also, interestingly, the woman he rapes at the beginning of this movie is his wife.

Finally, there's an interview with Giovanni Lombardo Radice, who played the young kid sidekick to David Hess's character. He sounded like a gay Italian. Which is pretty amazing, considering that he doesn't sound like that in the movie. Now THAT'S acting!

Sunday, July 29, 2007
The Host - 2006 S. Korea

WOW! Absolutely marvelous! A classic monster movie with effects and a creature done by Peter Jackson's (King Kong, LOTR) FX Co, Weta Workshop. And this director knows that it's important to CARE ABOUT THE CHARACTERS! That makes this movie an absolute delight to watch.

There's a commentary with director Joon-ho Bong and a friend (I didn't catch his name). He makes an interesting observation that I think is very telling. They show the monster right off (unlike conventional wisdom, which holds that you must build suspense by NOT showing the monster until late in the game). He said that they show the monster right off, so they can concentrate on THE FAMILY. Very nice.

Other extras include Deleted scenes, deleted news clips, and the Director's Reflections. This was a collection of apologies for those inconvenienced by shooting, or who's efforts are unseen in the final film. This was very different and kinda funny.

Monday, July 30, 2007
Shadow Puppets - 2007

Spike! (James Marsters) and then 40 minutes in, we get Tony Todd (Candy Man and several recent movies I've seen). And I didn't even recognize her, but the leading female character is Jolene Blalock (T'Pol on Star Trek: Enterprise).

And speaking of Star Trek, the William Shatner acting award goes to Jolene Blalock!

This movie was not nearly as bad as the folks in IMDB say. These guys don't know what BAD really is. They oughta go watch Geek Maggot Bingo by Nick Zedd. Now, I'm not saying it's great, but it's not THAT bad. Are there logical holes? Oh hell yeah. Does it feel like a cheap Cube ripoff? Yup.

Commentary features writer/director Michael Winnick and cinematographer Jonathan Hale. Good technical, very complimentary to the actors. " Tony Todd is a Teddy Bear, but he's a big scary dude". And he admits that it's Alien meets Cube, and said that's how he pitched it to the financiers. And it is! Intended as a 30 day shoot, but ended up having to do it in only 21 days.

Only other extra is a featurette of Director and Cast Comments. Which again was VERY complimentary. They sure loved one another. But overall, pretty entertaining.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007
The Straun House - 2005 aka Dr. Rage

It's very sad to say, the best part of this movie, was the DVD menus. Yep, it was all downhill from there. You would think that a movie that features Karen Black and Andrew Divoff (Wishmaster) would be good. But it's not. It's stupid. And then I look in IMDB, and see that the director (Jeff Broadstreet ) is the guy who did that godawful Sexbomb.

Well, the last 15 minutes ALMOST makes up for the stupid first hour and 10 minutes. It's like it wished it was Re-Animator (They even thank Stuart Gordon in the credits).

Commentary has the director, composer, actor playing Larry, and actor playing Morbious. A twelve day shooting schedule, at a cost of $70K to get it into the can. A very middle of the road commentary. Not great, but not terrible.

Which is more than can be said for the rest of the extras. There's a Fangoria Panel at Weekend of Horrors, which was intolerable. And a behind the scenes featurette that was not very good. And a blooper reel that wasn't very funny (which is pretty unusual for a blooper reel). You know, you gotta work hard to make a blooper reel not funny.

Stay away from this, unless you want to test your pain threshold. Or rent it, and skip to the final twenty minutes.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007
SWV Damaged Double Feature
The Shame of Patty Smith - 1962 aka Doctor, Please Help Me

Hey, look at that! Associate Producer Ib Melchior! And man, is this eye-opening. It's hard to believe that there was a time when abortion was illegal, even in case of rape. Actually, it's pro-abortion as both doctors give soliloquies against the evils of laws against abortion. It's pretty funny, the Swedish doctor actually being SURPRISED that it's illegal. But then, this was back when smoking in the hospital was okay. Time travel back to the 60's sure would be weird.

And there's Bruno VeSota. He's in The Wild Wild World of Batwoman, The Haunted Palace, and The Devil's Hand. He's probably best known as the sheriff/husband in Attack of the Giant Leeches. He's in 52 B movies, a great character actor.

This is actually better than your usual exploitation fare. Probably due to the touch of Ib Melchior. And the cross at the end is a nice touch.

You've Ruined Me, Eddie - 1960 aka The Touch of Flesh

This is much more your standard exploitation fare. Poor acting, poor script, poor cinematography. This is a small town drama for small minds. I sat there watching it, and the thought struck me, "Good god, every single person in this town is a NUT!" And in the end, we have a startling example of PRE-pardum insanity. You gotta love it.

This being a Something Weird Video disc, there is the usual boatload of extras. Trailers by the truckload, an old book pitch (yes, they used to sell books who's subject matter went along with the exploitative movies - and $2.00 in 1960 is what? like $50 now? Expensive books. Weren't novels like a quarter back then?), and an educational "scare" flick - too much affection. Beware, sex = babies = ruined life. This was a great SWV disc. An entire evening of fun!

Thursday & Friday, August 2 & 3, 2007
Penn & Teller - Bullshit, Season 4 - 2006

Warning. Politically and religiously charged statements ahead. Easily offended folks might want to stop reading now. Remember, it's just my opinion. Opinions are like assholes. Everybody's got one, and they usually stink.

Disc 1 -
Boy Scouts (I can't believe they have ruined scouting. I LOVED being in scouts when I was a kid.) And scouting in the 1970's, like the Navy, was VERY against racism. Now they prejudice, only against gay and atheists. Makes me sick.
Prostitution (I've been for the legalization of Prostitution for decades. I am really tired of the "Prohibition" mentality. It didn't work with alcohol, and it isn't working for drugs and prostitution. Once again, while talking about protecting people, they make things worse. They ought to watch The Shame of Patty Smith.)
Death Penalty (this may be the first one I disagree with)
Cryptozoology

Disc 2 -
Ground Zero (once again, government ineptitude makes me angry)
Pet Love (YIKES!)
Reparations (does anyone really think this is the right thing to do, except for folks looking for a handout?)
Manners (this would be excellent, but why do the strippers have tops on?)

Disc 3 -
Numbers
Abstinence (for sex?!? Are you crazy? Once again, government messing things up. Makes ya sick. Not abstinence as an alternative. They insist that it's the ONLY thing. Sheesh!)

Bonus features are a single featurette, labelled More Penn & Teller, which was just 30 seconds of them saying Bullshit in different ways, different takes than were used in the show.