Prince of Space (1959)

Prince of Space (1959)
I'm going to follow up my last post on RiffTrax Live with an episode of the show that started it all, Mystery Science Theater 3000!
Prince of Space is from season 8, which means it's a Mike episode from the Sci-Fi Channel era. I watched Prince of Space back in the fall so it's been a while since I've seen or written about a MST3K episode.
This MST3K fodder is a 1950s Japanese kids show that has been poorly edited together and given a bad English dub. Prince of Space reminded me of another Tokusatsu (a Japanese term for a speculative fiction movie with a lot of special effects) superhero movie featured on MST3K, Invasion of the Neptune Men. Prince of Space is a little better than that movie, which isn't saying much of course!

The silly villain Krankor (pictured above) is pretty memorable. Krankor makes an "appearance" in a host segment and is even featured in this episode's stinger!
Prince of Space is not that far off in tone from American serials of the time though with even cheaper production values. While this movie is pretty bad, it's still watchable for how ridiculous it is.
This episode has some fun host segments, my favorite being the one where Mike gets turned into a robot which looks like a ventriloquist's dummy.
2/10

Dungeons & Dragons (2000)

I've been busy with work and classes so expect future posts to be brief. I'll still try to get a couple posts up each month but I won't get back on track until the summer.

Dungeons & Dragons (2000)
I've never played the board game Dungeons & Dragons and this movie doesn't want to make me try it any time soon. Of course to be fair I'm sure this movie is nothing like the game.
Dungeons & Dragons features one dungeon scene and little screen time for the dragons so it doesn't really live up the its title. I came into the movie expecting a generic sub-par PG-13 fantasy movie and it was still disappointing.
Thora Birch is dressed up as a cross between the child-like Empress from The Neverending Story and Queen Amidala from Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Despite being an empress, Birch's character doesn't have a lot to do and isn't in the movie much despite being one of the bigger names in the cast. Oscar winner Jeremy Irons plays the main villain, Profion, but like Birch has less screen time than expected. The scenes with Irons as funny because he hams it up, a welcome respite how unentertaining the rest of the movie is. Profion has an evil henchman named Damodar (played by Bruce Payne) who is just as over the top as Irons. I won't even get into the lead actors (which include Marlon Wayans) as I just found them boring, like much of the movie.
Dungeons & Dragons feels like a TV movie despite having a $45 million budget. I'm surprised this poor film got released in theaters but not surprised at all that it was a box office bomb. Director Courtney Solomon managed to survive this disaster as he later directed An American Haunting (2005) and has a film coming out this year titled Getaway starring Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez. I wouldn't be shocked if we saw a future movie with the Dungeons & Dragons title to cash-in on the board game, especially since increased popularity of fantasy films (The Lord of The Rings, Harry Potter) and TV shows (Game of Thrones) in the last decade. Hey, it couldn't be much worse than this one!
2/10

The Killing of Satan (1983)

The Killing of Satan (1983)
There are some bad movies that need to be seen to be believed. As one would expect from such a ridiculous title, The Killing of Satan is a perfect fit for this category. The Killing of Satan is a Filipino horror/fantasy exploitation movie about Christianity and the dangers of the devil. Despite the obvious religious themes this movie features plenty of violence, nude women, and snakes (which I hope were rubber) being slapped then tied into knots. One of the most memorable scenes involves a guy running in front of a boulder for some reason then getting crushed by it. Our main character is named Lando but he is nothing like Lando Calrissian as he uses Catholic magic to fight demons and eventually Satan himself in a silly final battle! Despite the poor filmmaking, bizarre moments (which can be seen on YouTube), and obvious heavy handedness, The Killing of Satan is certainly memorable and not as boring as I was expecting for strange z-grade cinema. Bad movie aficionados like myself will have some fun with the material and add The Killing of Satan to their list of conquered films while average movie goers simply won't believe this really exists.
2/10

Fugitive Alien (1987)

Fugitive Alien (1987)

My last couple of posts have been related to MST3K and RiffTrax. Before I move on to other stuff here is another MST3K episode!
Fugitive Alien is a movie made from episodes of a late 70s Japanese TV show called Star Wolf. The show seemed to be the Japanese version of Star Trek combined with Star Wars. For example, the Arabic area the crew visits reminded me of how original Star Trek series often went to planets that modeled themselves on different time periods, usually a result of the shows small budget and the need to re-use sets and props. Considering the low budget perhaps one could even say that Fugitive Alien is the Japanese Space Mutiny!
The episodes of Star Wolf are poorly stitched together with bad dubbing. If I was probably just watching the show itself (and with subtitles instead of the bad dub) it would probably just be cheesy fun but as is its hard to figure out what is even going on. Despite its major flaws, at least Fugitive Alien is never boring, which I consider to be the worst flaw of bad movies.
Fugitive Alien is from the third season MST3K so it has Joel as the host. MST3K would feature the sequel Star Force: Fugitive Alien II on the show later that same year. The host segments are fun with the first appearance of the Jack Perkins character (based on the real Jack Perkins, host of the TV show Biography) who would later host MST3K in syndication as The Mystery Science Theater Hour. Although the movie is a big mess, Joel and the bots have a blast with the material and make it very enjoyable.
There were a bunch of great riffs in this episode but some of the best were the recurring jokes about everybody being named Ken and the catchy "He tried to kill me with a forklift!" song.
2/10

RiffTrax Live - Manos: The Hands of Fate

RiffTrax Live - Manos: The Hands of Fate
I'm a big fan of the TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000. Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett, three of the main riffers from that show, now do RiffTrax. RiffTrax is basically the same sort of riffing style from MST3K, but the material is a mix of new films along with the older low budget movies. While RiffTrax are usually bought and downloaded online, the guys also do RiffTrax Live in which they perform live and have the event simulcast across the nation. I've enjoyed MST3K since I was a kid and love the recent RiffTrax stuff, so when I heard Mike, "Servo," and the second Crow T. Robot were going to riff Manos: The Hands of Fate live and in theaters I couldn't resist!

It is common for movie theaters to play trivia before a film starts. This was parodying by RiffTrax Live with humorous trivia and jokes. Once we got started there was a brief introduction of our heroes who performed live from a theater in Nashville, Tennessee. The guys then told us that we would be getting a couple of shorts before the movie! There was a short seven minute film from the late 70s titled Welcome Back, Norman and another short from the 70s about kids making toys of out cylinders, both of which were great riffing material. Besides the two shorts we were also greeted with a prune juice commercial!
The main attraction was Manos: The Hands of Fate, a film that languished in obscurity until it was re-discovered by the MST3K crew. I've seen the Manos episode of MST3K more times than I thought humanly possible and practically know the jokes by heart. Mike, Kevin, and Bill brought their A-game to RiffTrax Live and scripted all new riffs to put on a show completely different than the classic MST3K version. The MST3K episode featured two different riffers: Trace Beaulieu as Crow and Joel. The MST3K version of Manos originally aired in 1993, so the RiffTrax Live version allowed for some updated references for 2012 to stuff like Twilight, Toddlers & Tiaras, and Michael Vick.
Obviously there were no silhouettes this time but instead we actually got to see the guys riffing which was pretty cool. The movie would cut back and forth from a full screen of the movie to a split screen showing the guys alongside Manos.
Mike, Kevin, and Bill still have it and are perhaps even better than ever! This was a fantastic experience and I would highly recommend it especially to any MST3K/RiffTrax fan or bad movie lover. The next movie the guys are doing for RiffTrax Live is Birdemic this October.

Just in case you were wondering my thoughts on Manos: The Hands of Fate, it is a truly terrible film created by people (mainly writer/director/producer/actor Harold P. Warren) who had no idea how to actually make a movie. But is it the worst movie ever made? I'd actually say no. It has a bizarre charm that enables it stand out and even though it can be boring at times, I have seen films that are even more boring (Red Zone Cuba, Creeping Terror, Snowbeast). Torgo is a memorable character, and there are plenty of movies that don't have one of those. Maybe I have just seen it too many times, but Manos does has a strange charm since that as bad as it is, I can't hate it. Right now my pick for "worst movie ever" would be Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny, which I discovered thanks to the RiffTrax. The worst Hollywood movie I've ever seen would probably be Cool as Ice, which I reviewed on this blog, or perhaps Mac and Me.
RiffTrax Live Manos: 11/10
Manos: 2/10

Three Bad Movies

Jersey Shore Shark Attack (2012)
This is the second movie released in 2012 that I saw! I'll get to the other 2012 films I've seen in my next few posts. Of course while I saw those in theaters, this movie made its premiere on the SyFy Channel!
Jersey Shore Shark Attack is both a Jaws rip-off and parody of MTV reality show Jersey Shore at the same time. I don't think it will surprise anybody that this movie has poor acting and terrible special effects. However, I didn't expect that Jersey Shore Shark Attack would feature two actors from Goodfellas: Tony Sirico and Paul Sorvino! Both actually do a good job in their roles here considering the material. I would hope that they are getting better offers than this, but maybe these guys just have a good sense of humor.
I must mention that Joey Fatone, formerly of boy band 'N Sync, has a great cameo appearance!
Jersey Shore Shark Attack was produced by Fred Olen Ray who has directed and produced tons of low budget B-movies and exploitation flicks. I've never seen an Olen Ray movie before but keep in mind this is the guy who brought us Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers and Reptisaurus!  
Jersey Shore Shark Attack is not really a horror movie but more of a comedy with jokes that are hit or miss. Some scenes like the one with Joey Fatone or the line "Is that spaghetti sauce?" (referring to blood) are hilarious. However, others attempts at humor fall flat or too padded with boring scenes.
The writing was actually better than I expected in terms of the parodies and jokes. We even have some character development and a use of Chekov's Gun, or harpoon in this case. Unfortunately the basic rule of "show, don't tell" us violated in a major way once. I guess the reason for that is that the budget didn't call for a flashback so a character just tells a long story about what happened instead!
Our main characters are Jersey Shore knock-offs who are almost as unlikeable as their real life counter-parts. Despite this face it seems that the movie thinks we should actually root for them. The attempt at solving this problem of main characters who are easy to hate is that the villains are annoying snooty, rich, yuppies but I just wanted to see everybody eaten by the albino sharks!
While this is not a good movie, I must give it some credit for being entertaining enough. Too many bad movies are just plain boring so when a dumb fun one comes around I can't hate it too much. I could even see Jersey Shore Shark Attack getting a cult following someday, though I think this movie will be forgotten about once the popularity of Jersey Shore fades away.
Oh, and I love the tagline on the above poster: "Forget The Avengers, we have a new contender for best film of the summer." That must be a joke, taken out of context, a fake quote, or the critic just got really drunk!
I'll finish this review the same way the movie ends:
Fin
3/10

No Holds Barred (1989)
I'm not a wrestling fan but have always found it interesting. Professional wrestling features good guys, heels, larger than life personalities, a mixing of reality with fantasy, has always had a large dedicated fan base. If you think about it like that it is no different from the world of film!
Although Hulk Hogan made his film debut in Rocky III as Thunderlips, No Holds Barred is the first movie to feature Hogan in a leading role. Not surprisingly Hogan plays a professional wrestler (named Rip) who is not much different from Hulk Hogan himself. A rival TV network tries to get Rip to wrestle for them but Rip refuses to break his existing contract at any price. This leads Brell, the sleazy head of the World Television Network (played by Kurt Fuller who was in Wayne's World and many other movies), to start his own wrestling competition called "Battle of the Tough Guys." This wrestlers are extremely violent and play by no rules. For some reason they even have a midget in a cage over their ring! Eventually a mysterious huge guy named Zeus wins the tournament and demands to fight Rip. Fuller's performance as Brell reminded me of Q from Star Trek: The Next Generation but as without the god powers and more of a scumbag. Brell likes to call Hulk Hogan a "Jock Ass" which is pretty funny though it gets irritating after a while. Besides Hogan and Fuller, Jesse Ventura has a cameo (as himself of course!) and I also recognized David Paymer who has been in tons of films and TV shows.
The most outrageously hilarious scene of the movie features the now infamous line, "Dookie?!"
Check it out here!
As you can tell from that clip, a lot of dialogue is grunting and yelling. I guess it makes sense in a movie about wrestling. I wasn't expecting Shakespeare, but its still pretty funny.
This is the 3rd Hulk Hogan movie I've seen after Santa with Muscles and 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain. I have reviewed all on this blog and as you could probably guess, this is my favorite Hulk Hogan movie so far!
The weekend No Holds Barred came out in theaters in 1989 it debuted second in the box office behind Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade!
The first act is hilarious and engaging but the movie looses steam purely from an entertainment standpoint after that. These are still some amusing parts but after that the pacing slows down and the fighting gets repetitive. Although No Holds Barred is a bad movie its still a lot of fun. I watched it with a friend who is a wrestling fan and we have a blast. This is Hulk Hogan's Bloodsport though I still prefer that Van Damme flick to this one!
4/10

Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders (1996)
Ernest Borgnine died last week at the age of 95. He is one of my favorite actors as I love his roles in The Wild Bunch, Escape from New York, and many more films and TV shows. In honor of the late, great Oscar winner I watched the MST3K episode Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders with a friend.
The framing story of this movie features Borgnine as a grandfather telling stories to his grandson. The first story involves a couple with fertility problems who meet Merlin at his store. The husband doesn't believe he is really a wizard so Merlin gives him a book of spells to prove it. The man messes up the spell, fights a cat, then turns into a baby which his wife decides to raise. Then the grandfather tells another story about a toy monkey that can kill people when it clangs its cymbals which was stolen from Merlin's shop. Merlin tries to find the toy monkey before too much damage is done!
This movie is a stinking mess but at least there is an explanation. Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders was made out of the per-existing films The Devil's Gift (1984) with new footage stitched in. The monkey story obviously looks older than the other footage. The segments with the monkey is also said to rips off a Stephen King short story and I can't say I'm surprised.
Both stories are surprisingly violent, especially for what appears on the cover to be a family fantasy film.
Although this movie is terrible, its a great MST3K episode. This one is from Season 10 so its a Sci-fi Channel Mike episode. I loved the re-curring riffs on the infertility subplot and the geriatric grandfather.
2/10

Even though all these movies sucked, at least I enjoyed watching them for different reasons!
Next Up: Summer TV shows

Four More Bad Movies

The Day the Earth Froze (1959)
I saw this movie via the show Mystery Science Theater 3000 which featured it along with the short Here Comes the Circus (1946). This episode was from the fourth season so it was a Joel episode.
The movie itself is a poorly dubbed Finnish/Soviet Fantasy adventure based on Finnish mythology.
Although this is a bad movie it is unintentionally amusing and the riffs were very good. I never heard of this MST3K before so I'd say its an underrated episode. If you're are a fan of MST3K but haven't seen this one yet give it a watch.
2/10

Gigli (2003)
Although I do remember Gigli bombing when it came out and hearing how bad it is, I never saw it. While at the time I wondered if it was really that bad, I'm kinda glad I saw it now because I can say yes, this movie does indeed suck!
From a technical standpoint Gigli not as bad as say Battlefield Earth, but at least that was more fun to watch in all its glorious stupidity. Even though Gigli features both Al Pacino and Christopher Walken, the two are not used properly and could have replaced them with anyone. The movie is incredibly dull as not much happens. Scenes are very long and usually take place in the same areas. I remember one scene in particular where the camera went back and forth to the same two shots so many times in a row I lost count. I know this movie had a beleaguered production, but that is no excuse to get lazy and the end result looks amateurish.
Clocking in at a full two hours this movie is about 30 minutes too long for the plot. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if it was shorter but the story really drags on with tons of scenes where nothing really happens and the conversations just drone on and on.
Despite having an estimated $74 million budget (production and marketing costs), Gigli only made back about $7 million worldwide. Not quite Pluto Nash territory but still a gigantic box office bomb.
Deep down I actually feel there was some potential here. I think if someone re-wrote the script for director Martin Brest, the movie was shorter, and did not star Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez (and therefore didn't try to cash in on their relationship) it actually could have been good. Over $24 million went to Bennifer which is over three times what the movie made in theaters. I have seen Affleck in other movies and while he's not a bad actor, he is awful here. I'm not too familiar with JLo so maybe she has performed better in other movies but she is just as bad as Affleck here.
To be fair, the mentally challenged kid was well acted by Justin Bartha (National Treasure, The Hangover) but not tactfully written. The kid's obsession with "Baywatch" was funny though. Gigli was Bartha's first movie so I am impressed that his career was able to survive being in this flop.

Gigli feels like its trying to copy Tarantino's style but falls flat on its face. For example, the movie uses the word "fuck" 124 times and for the most part the use of the word is completely unnecessary and just thrown in there it make it seem gritty. I've only seen Tarantino's first two movies but he broke a lot of screenwriting rules. However, he still did such a good job with stuff like dialogue that his touch worked. But Brest is not Tarantino and this movie fails miserably. Now to be fair Brest was around before Tarantino so who knows, maybe they both influenced each other.
In what should be no surprise, Gigli won six razzie awards including a grand slam of worst picture, worst actor, worst actress, worst director worst screenplay. It easily won worst on-screen couple.
As I alluded to earlier, director Martin Brest also wrote the script. Brest has directed some good movies but never wrote the script for those and that seems to be the problem here. To be fair this movie did have a difficult production with Brest battling the studio for control. Brest lost and and it was re-cut by the studio before being released. For example, a bunch of scenes in the trailer are not in the movie. Apparently Brest originally intended for the movie to be much longer (160 minutes!) but also darker and violent. However, the producers wanted to cash in on the tabloid craze of "Bennifer" and therefore turn the movie into more of a romantic comedy. A director's cut has never been released and I doubt I would watch it, but its probably better than the theatrical version. Still, you can only polish a turd so much.
The only other movie I've seen by Martin Brest is Beverly Hills Cop which I did like. I'll have to watch some of his good movies as I've been recommended Midnight Run and Scent of a Woman.
Looking at Brest's filmography it is clear he has talent and has made good movies. Brest hasn't made a movie since and even though Gigli is terrible I think that is a shame. Unfortunately pretty much everything that could go wrong did, which is a recipe for disaster. And if you look up Gigli in a thesaurus you will find the word disaster!
There are many movies worse than this from a technical standpoint that are still much more watchable. Gigli is not the worst movie ever but its certainly down there. As for Hollywood movies this is one of the worst I've seen but its still better than Cool as Ice.
2/10

The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends (2007)
Not many movie franchises get to 13 movies. Of course all the sequels after the original (a classic animated children's movie) were to direct to video, but I must still give them credit for making so many as I imagine this means the sequels sold well. As a kid I loved the first one and stuck around until about the sixth movie. What can I say, like most children I loved dinosaurs!
I watched this movie with a bunch of friends as a joke, and even though its a kid's movie, its still a bad kid's movie. Some people give bad kids movies a pass by saying they are simply meant for children, but that is just a slap in the face to the good kids movies out there.
There isn't much of a plot here, basically Littlefoot and his dino buddies have to help some dumb dinosaurs go back to their home, Berry Valley. The story is essentially a dumb-downed version of the original with far less tension and aimed at an even younger audience. The animation is mediocre at best and while the songs are annoying, they are completely forgettable which I guess is a good in a way because I'm glad I don't remember them!
Cuba Gooding Jr. and Sandra Oh voice two of the stupid dinosaurs. I know they are talented, but they have absolutely nothing to work with here.
I can't really recommend The Land Before Time XIII to anyone. If you liked these movies as a child, just re-watch the original. If your kids want to see this it can't hurt, but start them out with the first and perhaps the some of the early sequels as they are all much better that this thoughtless franchise cash-in.
2/10

Girl Happy (1965)
I had never seen an Elvis movie before so I didn't really know what to expect coming into this.
Elvis made over thirty movies between 1956 and 1969. By 1965 the Beatles just started to hit and Beach Party movie fad was in full swing. As a result of these new developments Elvis is given a band (one member is played by Bing Crosby's son, Gary Crosby) and we have the spring break beach setting of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Shelley Fabares, Harold J. Stone (X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes), John Fiedler (Piglet from Winnie the Pooh) were actors I recognized in this movie. All were also in different episodes of my favorite TV show, the Twilight Zone.
Besides those other actors, Girl Happy features Jackie Coogan as a police officer. Is he the only actor to be in movies with both Charlie Chaplin and Elvis Presley?!
Although this movie is technically a musical, I found none of the songs memorable.
For some reason this movie was not filmed on location and it is obvious they filmed Girl Happy on sets.
Despite these drawbacks and the dated 60s lingo this is watchable if you're in the mood for a silly little movie. Elvis steals a boat and puts it in a swimming pool!
4/10

After all these bad movies its time to switch gears. My next post will be on three great movies!

Four Bad Movies

Season of the Witch (2011)
Guess what, I finally saw a bad movie from 2011!
Season of the Witch was actually worse than I expected. The movie is not over the top bad but just boring and unexciting. The plot is sort of like The Seventh Seal as an action movie since we have a returning crusader and his partner who must transport a suspected witch to a monastery. I'm not going to get into how historical the movie is as even though it tries to be accurate in some ways overall the movie is pure fantasy and not really trying to be historically accurate.
Nicolas Cage was alright but he is an actor who seems to be only as good as the material he is working with. When he has a good script and director he can be great (Adaptation). But when that doesn't happen the results can be disastrous (The Wicker Man). Now one could argue that actors generally do better when the writing and directing are good and worse when its not, but Cage seems to take this to the extreme.   
Ron Perlman was fun but his character, the partner of the knight played by Cage, simply doesn't have much to do.
While I'm not an expert on cinematic techniques, there appear some obvious day for night scenes that have a bluish tint. Other times its way too dark and hard to see what is going on. I would expect this from a low budget non-Hollywood movie but Season of the Witch had a $40 million budget! I guess all the money went to the salaries of Cage and Perlman. It certainly didn't go to the CGI which looks pretty bad for a mainstream 2011 movie. 
Season of the Witch isn't that bad, but there are a lot of movies worse than it which are a lot more fun to watch. For example, see some of the movies below!
3/10

Double Dragon (1994)
Double Dragon is stupid as hell but at the end of the day its watchable and fun. I enjoyed seeing this movie a lot more than Season of Witch even though that is a better movie.
The best way to describe Double Dragon is that it is along the lines of Surf Ninjas or the 3 Ninjas series but for a slightly older audience.
This movie is based on the video game of the same name which was a beat 'em up fighting game. Just because something is popular and good in its own medium doesn't mean it will make a good film. The concept just doesn't really work as a movie even though it was a fun game. I did like how the actual arcade game showed up in the movie. That *that* fourth wall!
Our main character is Jimmy Lee (played by Mark Dacascos, a dead ringer for Brandon Lee) who along with his brother Billy Lee must stop an evil ruler named Koga Shuko (played by Robert Patrick) from gaining the other half of a talisman that will allow him to rule the world. While I love Robert Patrick for his role as the T-1000 and in two awesome episodes the 1990s Outer Limits series, he is just plain silly here and feels like a 60s Batman villain.
Alyssa Milano is better known for her work on Television but plays the female lead here. The only other movie I had seen her in is Commando as Arnold Schwarzenegger's daughter! Oddly enough, like Robert Patrick she was also in an episode of The Outer Limits.
There are cameos for Vanna White and Andy Dick who appear as themselves. I'm not sure why, but this movie was so ridiculous it worked.
I was shocked to see that Paul Dini had a writing credit for the story. Now maybe he only he didn't have much to do with the final screenplay or was paid by the studio to simply deliver this dreck, but I couldn't believe that this was the same guy who won Emmy Awards for the writing on Batman: The Animated Series and Tiny Toon Adventures. I re-watched his shows Batman:TAS and Batman Beyond recently and they hold up very well as are surprisingly dark and adult for kids shows.
Double Dragon was a box office failure which shouldn't be a surprise. Still, if you need a fun bad movie to watch with a group of friends, this would be a fine choice.
3/10

Yongary, Monster from the Deep (1967)
Yongary is essentially the South Korean Godzilla. He looks a lot like Godzilla, with one of the main differences being the horns on his head. Yongary is considered to be a Kaiju film (Japanese for "strange beast" but often translated into English as "monster").
Although Yongary is a pretty bad movie, it is somewhat amusing. Yongary dances after all!
The kid who tries to befriend Yongary is pretty damn annoying but I expected that since I think these movies were meant for children and to sell toys.
The original Korean version of Yongary is lost and the film that exists is the dubbed American version. While my initial reaction to this news was "no big loss," I truly think it is a shame when any film is lost regardless of quality. Maybe a copy of the original version will turn up someday, although I'd like to see London After Midnight first!
Yongary was re-made by South Korea as Reptilian in 1999.
2/10

Wing Commander (1999)
I had actually seen this before but watched it again with some friends who enjoy bad cinema.
Wing Commander is probably one of the few movies based on a video game in which the game actually had better actors! John Rhys-Davies, Malcom McDowell, and Mark Hamill all provided voices in the games. That said, there are actually some talented actors I like in this movie such as Jurgen Prochnow and David Warner even though they just aren't given much to work with. Here is a weird piece of trivia concerning the cast: Prochnow and Warner were also both in the film In the Mouth of Madness while Wing Commander also features Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) and Freddy (Freddy Prinze Jr.) from the first two live action Scooby-Doo movies. There must have been a 2 for 1 sale on actors in the 90s!
Simon MacCorkindale, known for his TV work such as in the cult show Maninmal, has a small role as "Flight Boss."
Wing Commander was one of three movies that had Phantom Menace trailer attached to it and there are stories of people buying a ticket to the movie and leaving after the trailer. Today we have trailers for movie trailers on the internet. Oh how things have changed in less than 15 years!
Although this is a bad movie I'll give it credit for actually trying with its characterizations even though it ultimately fails. For example, there is a sub-plot that Prinze's character is discriminated against because he is a "pilgrim" but after awhile its just forgotten about. Wing Commander feels like Star Wars meets Starship Troopers with a World War II vibe. Although this sounds cool in theory, it doesn't work out and is a bit of a mess. There is plenty of action but its surprisingly boring. The alien bad guys (a race called the Kilrathi) are not shown until late in the movie. While this is usually a good tactic in film, the silly appearance of the Kilrathi who are basically cat people with Fu Manchu mustaches is a terrible pay-off. After all the build-up throughout the movie I just laughed when I finally saw the Kilthrai.
The director of Wing Commander was Chris Roberts, who also directed the video games. I guess the producers chose Roberts because he knew the material and to give credibility to the fans. I think this was part of the problem as directing a video game is a lot different than directing a film and Roberts hasn't directed anything since.
Like Double Dragon this is a watchable, fun bad movie. I never played the games so I can't say how close it is to the series though.
3/10

This post will have a sequel featuring four more bad movies.

Three Christmas Movies

I had seen parts of all these movies before, but never watched them all the way through in one sitting. Christmas gave me an excuse to watch them again, and in their entirety!

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
Both this and Mickey's Christmas Carol (nominated for an Oscar for best animated short) are the only film versions of A Christmas Carol that I have seen so far. However they are both excellent! While I usually like the Muppets more when they are playing themselves instead of characters like in this movie or Muppet Treasure Island, it works surprisingly well here. The songs are memorable as I remembered most of them while watching this again despite the fact I hadn't seen this film in years. Michael Caine plays Scrooge completely straight and would have put in the same performance without the Muppets. While this is a Muppet movie, it is also an adaptation of A Christmas Carol, and a surprisingly faithful one at that. The Muppet Christmas Carol was the first Muppet movie made after Jim Henson's death and it was great that the Muppets were able to continue at a high level of quality after his passing. This one ranks up there with The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper as my three favorite Muppet movies. I saw The Muppets (2011) recently and will be discussing it in my next post.
8/10

A Christmas Story (1983)
Every year A Christmas Story gets shown on TBS for 24 hours on Christmas Day. Like most people this was how I was introduced to the movie. And like many people I had never seen the whole movie in one sitting before. I decided to change that this year as A Christmas Story is firmly entrenched in popular culture and is even on Roger Ebert's Great Movies list. While the film has been overexposed with the Christmas marathons, a lot of people still tune in to watch it every year. Although I don't think A Christmas Story is the best Christmas movie ever, it is the best to air on a loop. The film contains many vignettes which are loosely related as they all follow Ralphie's family in the days leading up to Christmas. This makes it easy to start or stop watching whenever you want, which doesn't work with a lot of movies. Although I feel that A Christmas Story is overrated, its still an enjoyable Christmas movie. I usually don't like narration in movies but it works perfectly here and was a direct inspiration for The Wonder Years TV show. Darren McGavin, mainly known for his TV work such as Kolchak: The Night Stalker, puts in a nice performance as the father.
7/10

Santa with Muscles (1996)
I had seen the first third of this movie several years ago but couldn't bring myself to finish it. What can I say, Santa with Muscles is surprisingly boring for a Hulk Hogan flick. Armed with a group of friends who like to mock bad movies and my own higher tolerance for crappy cinema, I was able to make it all the way through this time! The plot is pretty ridiculous, the Hulkster plays a millionaire who gets amnesia and thinks he is Santa Claus. Some orphans then ask for Santa's help since a mad scientist wants to take over the orphanage for the crystals underneath the building. Mila Kunis plays one of the orphans in an early role. We also have Ed Begley Jr., Clint Howard, and Robin Curtis (Saavik from Star Trek 3 and 4). That '70s Show fans will notice that in addition to Mila Kunis, actor Don Stark (Bob Pinciotti - Donna's father) is in this movie as Lenny, Santa's elf and partner in trying to save the orphanage.
When it comes to Christmas movies, this is one of the worst. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and Santa Claus are pretty damn bad but at least they each have bizarrely amusing moments. Santa with Muscles is probably better than those two but its not as fun to watch. That said, this movie is It's A Wonderful Life compared to The Star Wars Holiday Special or Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny!
2/10

Weekly Wrap-Up (11/13)

Anybody who has read this blog can figure out that I have a pretty eclectic taste in movies. To be fair this is partially due to the fact that many I watch many popular movies I normally wouldn't seek out just to say that I've seen them and keep up with references to them. This week I watched five films and they are all pretty different so I'll just post my thoughts in the order I saw each movie!

The Invisible Man (1933)
After watching The Mummy (1932) this summer I wanted to see more Universal horror movies and finally got around to seeing another. The Invisible Man features groundbreaking special effects that hold up shockingly well for a film that is almost 80 years old. Claude Rains plays Griffin, our invisible man. I was impressed with his performance since we get to know this character quite well even though we never really see him. I had seen Rains before in Casablanca as Captain Renault. Griffin's lover Flora is played by Gloria Stuart, who is best known to modern audiences as old Rose in Titanic (1997). Having already seen that movie it was quite fascinating to see her at such a young age! The Invisible Man was directed by James Whale who also directed Frankenstein (1931) and its sequel Bride of Frankenstein (1935).
While the film's pace is a bit slow by today's standards, there is still more going on than in The Mummy (the only other movie of its time and genre I have seen to compare it to). In 2008 The Invisible Man was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
8/10

Footloose (1984)
While I was expecting this movie to be cheesy fluff, the tone is actually quite serious. However, the plot of a new guy in town who doesn't fit in and then gets in trouble because of it is pretty derivative. The movie tries to put a new spin on things with the strict local regulations on music and dance but it doesn't really work and still feels like I have seen it a million times before. Footloose is competently made and John Lithgow puts in a solid performance as the town minister, but at the end of the day the movie isn't anything special.
I knew that Lithgow and Kevin Bacon were in this movie but I was surprised to see Chris Penn and Sarah Jessica Parker in early roles. Ariel, the love interest of Kevin Bacon's character, was played by Lori Singer who is also a dancer in real life. I enjoyed the 80s soundtrack but think that this movie could have been better if it was a straight up musical instead of just featuring several montage scenes. Maybe the remake which came out earlier this year went in that direction? I don't know and frankly have no desire to see it.
5/10

I Eat Your Skin aka Voodoo Blood Bath aka Zombies (1964)
Despite the outrageous title there is no actually flesh eating in this movie. What a rip-off! This movie did not get released until six years after it was produced and was re-titled so it could be shown as a double feature with the unrelated film I Drink Your Blood. I had extremely low expectations coming into this movie and was actually pleasantly surprised. Now don't get me wrong, this is certainly an awful film, but its watchable and entertaining enough for a shlocky low budget flick. While watching this with some friends I remarked that it feels like a movie the TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000 would have featured. It turns out that I was pretty close since MST3K did riff the movie The Horror of Party Beach which was also directed by Del Tenney! This movie would have made great material for Joel/Mike and the bots to make fun. However, even if the MST3K crew were aware of this movie I bet they passed on it due to the unfortunate stereotypical portrayal of the island natives. If you like bad, campy old movies check this one out. Just be aware that it is a product of its time and doesn't feature zombies chomping on people.
2/10

Black Dynamite (2009)
While there are some great spoof movies out there (any Mel Brooks movie, Airplane) recently most of them have been historically bad (Date Movie, Epic Movie). The trailer for Black Dynamite is hilarious so I had to give it a shot. I am proud to say that Black Dynamite is up there as one of the best spoof movies of all time! This film parodies 1970s Blaxploitation films, and does it so well that it is arguably still part of the genre. While I haven't seen many Blaxploitation movies, that is not a requirement as long as one has a general familiarity of the genre and low budget flicks. Many of the jokes are intentional goofs. Some of these are humorously obvious while others are subtle but just as funny. The film stars Michael Jai White as the title character and he was also one of the screenwriters. Clearly White and those involved with making this movie love Blaxploitation (and B-movies in general) as Black Dynamite is as much a spoof as it is a loving homage. Although this movie is a silly comedy, it was painstakingly made to look, feel, and sound like it came straight of the 1970s and would probably fool people not in on the joke. If you have a sense of humor please do yourself a favor and watch this movie now! There is an animated Black Dynamite TV series featuring most of the film's cast in the works set to air in the summer of 2012 on Adult Swim. DYNOMITE! DYNOMITE!
9/10

Police Academy (1984)
Comedy is the most subjective genre of any medium, and film is certainly not an exception. I found this movie to be quite funny and wonder if its reputation has been tarnished a bit by the fact that there are seven movies in the series, with most of them said to be terrible. The plot is a mix of Stripes and Revenge of the Nerds but the reason the movie works is because the characters are fun to watch and we want them to succeed. Police Academy was Steve Guttenberg's breakthrough role and while I haven't seen him in too many movies, its ashame his career took a nosedive in the 90s. Shia LaBeouf reminds me of Guttenberg, but he is far more annoying and much less likeable than the Gutt! Former NFL player (a lot of football players became actors in the 1970s and 80s for some reason) Bubba Smith shines as Moses Hightower, while veteran actor George Gaynes plays the Commandant. The talented Michael Winslow essentially plays himself since his character Larvelle Jones can use only his mouth to create amazing sound effects with hilarious results. As much as I liked this movie I think I'll pass on the sequels.
7/10

Leprechaun in the Hood (2000)

I was busier than I expected this week and therefore only got to see one movie. The good news is that I did have time to watch some TV and will be making a Fall TV post soon. The bad news is that the only movie I saw this week sucked. Thankfully it was one of the "so bad, its good" movies which are a ton of fun to watch with a group of friends!

 
Leprechaun in the Hood (2000)
I had never seen any of the Leprechaun movies before even though I had heard of the series. The first two films were released in theaters and actually made some money, mostly due to their low budget, which I am sure is still way more than the budget for this one! What shocked me was that this was the fifth of six movies in this series! Yes, they actually made a sequel to this monstrosity called Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood. Ugh...
Anyway, Leprechaun in the Hood "stars" rapper Ice-T. While he is good on Law & Order: SUV, the material Ice-T has to work with here must have made him wish he was in Johnny Mnemonic again! The Leprechaun is played by Warwick Davis, who is probably best known for his work on the Harry Potter series in which he played Professor Flitwick and Griphook the Goblin. I also recognized actor Anthony Montgomery who played the main character, "Postermaster P," from his role as Ensign Mayweather on Star Trek: Enterprise.

The basic plot is that three young aspiring rap artists accidentally unleash a leprechaun who was imprisoned by a record producer twenty years earlier. The rappers have stolen the magic flute of the leprechaun and try to stop him from killing people and acquiring gold.
As you could probably guess, Leprechaun in the Hood was a low budget, direct-to-video movie. However, I was surprised to see just how terrible the camera work was. I didn't come into this movie expecting amazing cinematography, but a lot of the scenes just had the camera staying still on a tripod. There was one scene where characters were walking down a street talking and you could barely see them until they finally walked down in front of the camera! The absolute worst moment was a time lapse during a conversation while one guy walks closer to another! Besides the awful directing and cinematography there are several scenes featuring the main characters singing that is merely filler to waste time. Yes, I know they are struggling musicians, but it usually had nothing to do with the plot and made you just wait for what wacky thing that silly leprechaun would do next.

I'm not sure I would consider Leprechaun in the Hood a comedy-horror movie, but there is certainly a good amount of intentional humor that is funny for the most part. I laughed out loud when Ice-T pulled a baseball bat out of his Afro and when one of the characters pulls out a book called Leprechauns for Dummies! Sadly the movie is so poorly made (I didn't even get to the terrible writing or bad acting) that these scenes can't save it, despite being memorable. There are also some bizarre scenes like a transvestite getting humped to death by the Leprechaun, some tone deaf back-up singers/strippers who look like they walked off the set of Goldfinger, and a five second cameo by the rapper Coolio.
Leprechaun in the Hood is a classic bad movie in that it is awful but still watchable. This silly flick is up there (or down there!) with Troll 2 in that respect. When comparing these two Leprechaun in the Hood is more tongue in cheek, but even worse from a technical aspect (camera work, directing, and tons of pointless filler). Like Troll 2, this is another sequel that has little, if any, relation to the previous movies in its series. If you love bad movies which don't take themselves too seriously check this one out. Otherwise stay far, far away.
"Lep in the Hood, Come to do no good"
Best final scene ever!
2/10

Weekly Wrap-Up (10/2)

Waking Life (2001)
Richard Linklater directed A Scanner Darkly (2006) which I consider to be the best film adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story. Don't get me wrong, its not my favorite film based on a Dick story, just the one that captures the feeling, themes, and story of the original novel the closest. Philip K. Dick is my favorite writer and after seeing A Scanner Darkly I wanted to see another film directed by Linklater as he is also a PKD fan. I finally got around to seeing Waking Life and I must admit, I was a little disappointed. Waking Life uses rotoscope style animation similar to the style later used in A Scanner Darkly. While the animation is unique and fun to watch, the biggest problem with this film is that there is way too much dialogue with people just sitting and looking at each other. Occasionally the animation will complement the dialogue. For example, during a monologue somebody says "humans are 70% water" and he appears to fill with water. While this was cool, it didn't happen much which led to many boring scenes. The main character, credited as "Main Character" was interesting as he was trying to wake up from a dream but kept having false awakenings. However, there is more focus on discussing philosophy, lucid dreams, illusion vs. reality, than on an actual plot. But since I am somebody interested in those three topics, I did enjoy those discussions. We even got a monologue about Philip K. Dick from Linklater himself! Overall the movie didn't feel as cinematic as it should have been since much of the time I could have just listened to it on the radio. At first I hated it, but as the movie went on I did get into it. This is probably one of those films that people either love or hate, but I just liked it. Waking Life has great animation, fantastic dialogue, and good ideas but still could have been executed better. Linklater's A Scanner Darkly touches on similar themes so I would recommend that movie instead. Linklater also directed School of Rock starring Jack Black. While I liked that movie, I doubt the intended audience of that film would enjoy Waking Life!
6/10

Return to Oz (1985)
Return to Oz is an unofficial sequel to the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. However, its not quite a sequel as it also is an adaptation of the later Oz books and its not a musical. I've never read the Oz books so I don't know how close this movie is to the book sequels, but from what I understand it draws elements and characters from several of the books as well as the 1939 film. The red slippers were silver in the books and an agreement had to be made with MGM so that Disney could use them in this movie. Dorothy is about 10 years old like she was in the books, and unlike Judy Garland who was 17 when she played Dorothy. Fairuza Balk puts in a nice performance as Dorothy Gale. Balk did a good job carrying the movie, especially for a child actor.
Although this movie was a commercial and critical failure (Siskel and Ebert didn't like it), it has gained a small cult following in the years since its release. The special effects hold up surprisingly well for a 26 year old movie which impressed me. Practical effects age better than CGI, but I still gotta give credit to the SFX team. The set design is quite good as well. Oz is essentially given the post-apocalyptic treatment, which is something I had never seen in a straight-up fantasy movie before.
It was quite interesting to see a different take on the Oz story. The movie was directed by Walter Murch, and it is the first and only movie he has directed. Murch is a respected film editor and sound designer who has won three Oscars (along with several nominations) for his work on Apocalypse Now and The English Patient. While I thought he was fine, the movie probably would have been better if they brought in somebody like Tim Burton or Terry Gilliam.
Many people say that this movie is too dark for a "children's film." However, when compared to other PG 80s fantasy films its par for the course since its not much darker than The Neverending Story (1984), Legend (1985), or Labyrinth (1986).
6/10

                                        

3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain (1998)
This is one bad 90s kids movie. Even Surf Ninjas was better than this garbage! We have terrible acting and zero logic when it comes to the story. I know this was a movie meant for children, but that is never an excuse for a bad movie and an insult to the intelligence of all children. Hulk Hogan "stars" in this crapfest and if you've seen any Hulk Hogan movie you pretty much know what to expect. Jim Varney, most famous for the Earnest movies, plays a ridiculously over the top bad guy. We also have Loni Anderson as the female baddie and she hams it up even more than Varney, if that is possible.
Sadly this was character actor Victor Wong's last film. He should have gone out on a high note with Seven Years in Tibet! I guess Wong was contractually obligated to be in all of the 3 Ninjas movies. That reminds me, this is the fourth movie in this series. Why did they make so many of these movies?! I guess the earlier films are better (or at least the first one) but I have no desire to see any more of them.
Speaking of Wong, he plays the Asian grandfather of the "3 ninjas" but neither the boys nor their parents look Asian. Oh well, he is just a Mr. Miyagi rip-off anyway!
As bad as this movie is, at least its not a boring bad movie. Only watch this to make fun of it with a group of friends!
2/10

Summer Movie Round-Up Part 3 of 3

This will be the final post covering the movies I have seen so far this summer. Like the previous posts, this one includes 8 brief reviews.

I love Bill Murray, and he is at the top of his game in Stripes. Murray stole the show in Caddyshack (1980) but this time his is the leading man. Murray's character, John, loses his job and his girlfriend so he convinces his best friend Russell (Harold Ramis) to join the army with him. Ivan Reitman directed three films in a row with Bill Murray: Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), and Ghost Busters (1984), which also starred Harold Ramis. Although Stripes is a Bill Murray vehicle, we are also treated to early roles  from John Candy, John Larroquette, Judge Reinhold, and Sean Young who all add to the hilarity. The first two thirds of the movie takes place at boot camp where hi jinx ensue. However, it is the last act where the movie really shines. Murray and Ramis steal a secret government vehicle in order to meet up with their girlfriends only to have things get out of hand... and "That's the fact, Jack!"
Stripes joins a 7/10!

One of my new favorite directors is David Cronenberg. I absolutely love Videodrome (1983) and Dead Ringers (1988) and have been seeking out more of his films. They Came from Within (1975), also known as Shivers, was Cronenberg's first full-length film. Not surprisingly it is pretty raw, although since the movie is about parasites that infect the residents of a high-rise and turn them into sex-crazed zombies, it works in the film's favor. The special effects and gore are pretty good considering the low budget. Probably the best example is the horrifying bath tub scene which is depicted on the poster. It is interesting to see Cronenberg's body horror at an early stage and how the themes of flesh and technology would be further developed upon in his later films. Like most of Cronenberg's movies, this was filmed in Canada, specifically in the city of Montreal. Almost the entire movie takes place in an apartment complex. Even though it is a huge building, it leads to a claustrophobic setting since all the rooms and hallways are small to accommodate so many people, which helps add to the suspense. So far this is the weakest film I have seen by him, but I still enjoyed it. Cronenberg's next film, A Dangerous Method, will be released later this year and is about Freud and Jung.
They Come From Within infects a 6/10!

The last two round-ups have featured many movies from the last year or two, so now I get to change things up a bit with (so far) the oldest movie I have reviewed on this blog. The Mummy (1932) stars Boris Karloff as Imhotep and also features African-American actor Noble Johnson as "The Nubian." The film starts out with a fantastic scene in which the mummy is discovered in 1922. The screams are haunting and this creepy opening still holds up today. After this great beginning, the story jumps ahead ten years and unfortunately the story slows down. Imhotep pretends to be a modern Egyptian, and finds a woman who was his lover has been reincarnated. While the final scene is just as good as the first, most of the movie is dialogue heavy with not much happening. I am not asking for non-stop action, but it felt a repetitive at times. I did enjoy the flashback scene, although it was heavily cut for its theatrical release and that footage is sadly lost. Critics have never put The Mummy on the same level as Frankenstein (1931) or Dracula (1931) and although I haven't seen those films yet, I think I can see why. Simply put, not enough happens, although I think the explanation is that unlike those two films, this one was not based on a novel. I have a feeling that audiences in 1932 would have had a greater appreciation for the characters simply talking than we do today. But all things considered The Mummy is still a classic early horror film with great cinematography and atmosphere. Karloff manages to make his character an intimidating force to be reckoned with, yet one the audience feels bad for as he literally waited thousands of years to get back the woman he loves. Although Karloff had already hit the big time as Frankenstein's monster a year earlier, it was films like The Mummy that helped cement his status as a star. "Karloff the Uncanny," indeed.
The Mummy wraps up a 7/10!

I got to admit I was pleasantly surprised by Devil (2010). Although directed by John Erick Dowdle, M. Night Shyamalan is credited as a writer and producer. While I haven't seen Shyamalan's more recent films, I have not heard good things about them. However, Devil is a solid contained thriller about group of people trapped in an elevator who apparently have Satan himself in their midst. Like many of Shyamalan's films, this one takes place in the Philadelphia area, specifically center city. While I would have made the devil stuff more ambiguous, I did like it. The characters stuck in the elevator were well written and it was interesting to them interact with each other as the situation got increasingly worse. The detective investigating the situation is not played by the best actor, but I did like how his storyline coincided with one of the people in the elevator. Even if Shyamalan did direct this, I still wouldn't call it a comeback, but it is a step in the right direction.
Devil doesn't go to hell with a 6/10!

Time to take a break from horror movies and thrillers. I always thought that St. Elmo's Fire (1985) was a John Hughes film, I guess because it features so many members of the "Brat Pack" who were in movies like The Breakfast Club (1985). In fact we have almost half the cast from that movie here! St. Elmo's Fire is actually a Joel Schumacher film. Having recently watched The Lost Boys I was curious to see another of his pre-Batman Forever and Batman and Robin movies. St. Elmo's Fire is about the trials and tribulations of recent college graduates. As a recent college grad myself I felt it was the right time to see this one! Overall this wasn't really my cup of tea, although the characters were interesting and the directing was fine. What I want to know is how these seven guys and girls all became friends in the first place since they were all pretty different and it therefore felt like an unrealistic group. Also I don't understand how Rob Lowe's character got into Georgetown, but whatever. Anyway I'm glad I saw this since I had heard the quote "You cannot have the Pretenders' first album!" and now know its from this movie. Also featuring Andie McDowell and Jenny Wright (Near Dark).
St. Elmo's Fire burns up a 5/10!
   

Finally I get to write about a truly awful movie, Robot Holocaust (1986)! I first heard about this one through Mystery Science Theater 3000, so when I saw it was in available for free in HD via Comcast On Demand, I had to see it. Once or twice I had seen a MST3K movie in its original form, but never has one looked so good when it comes to picture quality. The plot (or lack thereof) is about a rebel named Neo who teams up with a robot that makes Jar Jar Binks seem like John Wayne in comparison. Together they meet up with a woman warrior, a Beastmaster wanna-be, and a rebel girl in order to defeat an evil computer ("The Dark One" although it is a glowing orange ball and not dark at all!) that has taken over the world. This movie rips off everything from The Terminator to Star Wars to Mad Max to Alien. When a movie borrows music from Laserblast, you know its going to be bad. If you took a drink every time a character uttered "the Dark One" you would be in a coma in 10 minutes. As bad as this movie was, I got through it without too much permanent brain damage so it was still watchable. I was laughing at it and cracking jokes, but I've seen some movies so boring and bad that I couldn't even do that. Robot Holocaust is still in so bad its good territory, although barely.
After watching the movie I decided to see the MST3K episode. This is a first season episode and I noticed that Joel and the bots use more sight gags in the theater than in the later seasons. Also it was interesting to see Josh "J. Elvis" Weinstein who played Dr. Forrester's original sidekick Dr. Laurence Erhardt as well as Tom Servo. Dr. Erhardt would be replaced with TV's Frank (played by Frank Conniff) and Kevin Murphy took over as Servo. I thought he was fine (he was a little annoying as Dr. Erdhart though that was the point) but that the other two were simply better fits for the show. For an early episode I was surprised about how good it was. I loved the recurring jokes about Valaria's "accent" and the Ted Nugent references. One of my favorite riffs was "In the future, all robots will act like Don Knotts!"
Robot Holocaust craps out a 2/10. Stick with the MST3K episode.

I have now seen two movies directed by Wes Craven, but still haven't gotten around to seeing A Nightmare on Elm Street. Funny how that works out. I liked Craven's The Serpent and the Rainbow (a cool zombie flick) as well as his work on the 80s Twilight Zone (the show is nowhere near as good as the original but still a decent sci-fi/fantasy/horror anthology show and better than the 2002 version). However, Shocker (1989) was a bit of a mess. Shocker is about a serial killer who comes back from the dead after being killed on the electric chair. The main problem with Shocker is that it doesn't know what it wants to be. At first the main character, Jonathan Parker, can interact with the killer in reality through his dreams. This part is kinda like The Dead Zone meets Nightmare on Elm Street. Then after the serial killer, Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi) comes back from the dead, he can inhabit the bodies of other people and the dream aspect is mostly dropped. The first two acts are played pretty seriously but the movie turns into a horror-comedy for the last act when the serial killer uses a satellite dish to go inside television programs! While this was a huge tone shift that felt out of place, I must admit, it was funny. Horace sucks Jonathan into the TV in an attempt to kill him and they run through everything from war films to Leave it to Beaver! One of the things I did like was the revelation which established a strong connection between Jonathan to Horace. Mitch Pileggi was great as a serial killer and Ted Raimi had a fun but small role. I enjoyed the 80s metal soundtrack. Although the directing was fine, the writing could have been a lot better. When Horace's supernatural powers like taking over bodies and traveling through television signals are revealed to others, they buy into it way too quickly, even newscasters! I wouldn't mind this if the story was taking place in the world of Harry Potter or something, but this is clearly grounded in the real world and these are unrealistic reactions. Also the actor who played Jonathan, Peter Berg, wasn't very good and often whispered his lines for no reason. I think I'll stay away from Craven until I get to see Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream.
Shocker shocks its way a 4/10!

I loved the first Fright Night (1985) so I had been meaning to see Fright Night Part 2 (1988) for a long time. Although this is a fantasy-horror movie, unlike Shocker it clearly takes place in the our world as the movie starts out with Charley (William Ragsdale) seeing a psychologist who tries to convince him that vampires aren't real. The first one came out in 1985 so the sequel takes place in real time, three years later. This sequel has the two main characters (Charley and Peter Vincent, host of the fictional late night horror movie show, Fright Night) return and this time they have to deal with a vengeful vampire who wants revenge for her brother in the first film. Unlike many sequels, this movie is not a rehash but instead a good continuation with some nice twists to keep the viewer guessing. Roddy McDowell was fantastic as Peter Vincent in the first Fright Night and he is just as entertaining (as always!) this time around. I only wish that his character got a bit more closure. Like the original, this one does a good job of balancing humor with creepy horror. Overall Fright Night Part 2 is not as good as the first, but still a solid sequel that will please fans of the first movie, though its not as memorable as the original. Now I just hope that the Fright Night remake is good!
Fright Night Part 2 sinks its fangs into a 5/10!

I am now caught up with the movies I have seen this summer! I therefore probably won't have a post tomorrow, but should have one up for Wednesday 6/29. See you then!