TODAY I WATCHED (Movies, TV Shows) 2016

tohostudios wrote:

Required Fields wrote:

Kung Fury  (2015)...



A Miami cop gets a mission in which he is sent back in time to kill Adolf Hitler.

That's the one with David Hasselhoff isn't it?

That looks hilarious.

yeah it is that one, and it's f*cking funny. but i still think the best "kill hitler" show/movie is Danger 5. it's not for everyone though.

here's a clip:

"The Exterminator" (1980)


This cult revenge saga stars Robert Ginty as a shell shocked Vietnam vet who turns New York street vigilante after his friend is paralyzed by muggers. Christopher ("Pieces") George is the NYPD officer trying to track him down.
In other words, this is yet another cheap, ultra-violent variation on the "Death Wish" formula, with a way bigger mean streak. The script and performances are negligible and the direction is occasionally klutzy, but the action is brutal and the late '70s New York mean street location shots are a vivid time capsule of the days when the city was a lot sleazier and scarier than it is now. Essential grindhouse viewing!

ROH

"Exterminator 2" (1984)



Robert Ginty's back for another round as the Vietnam vet vigilante, flame-throwering the living sh*t out of the members of a vicious New York street gang led by a suitably crazed Mario Van Peebles. Less brutal and more over-the-top cartoonish than the original (think "Death Wish 3") but still an entertaining slab of action trash.

Started binge-watching Season 2 of Gotham before season 3 starts in a few weeks.

Man, the kid who plays the young Joker is magnificent in the role.

Also, last week I watched this...

Outlaw Force (1988)...



A country music singer's wife is raped and murdered and his daughter kidnapped. He more or less does what he can to get revenge on the bad guys - someone called him the "redneck version of The Punisher" in one review I saw online. There's one part of the movie where it shows him performing one of his country songs in full. The song can be heard here, and it has two or three hilarious lines in the lyrics.

Required Fields wrote:

That's been getting some pretty good reviews for a horror movie.

Our Brand is Crisis

"The Day the Earth Moved" (1974)



A pair of aerial photographers (Jackie Cooper and Cleavon Little) shooting pix in the Nevada desert determine that a massive earthquake is going to hit a tiny town in the middle of nowhere - but in tried and true disaster-movie fashion, the town's residents don't believe them till it's too late, requiring them to fly back on a last minute rescue mission. An entertainingly cheap, but ultimately forgettable made-for-TV movie that was obviously trying to ride on the coat tails of the then-current big budget flick "Earthquake!"

Fat Freddy wrote:

"The Day the Earth Moved" (1974)



A pair of aerial photographers (Jackie Cooper and Cleavon Little) shooting pix in the Nevada desert determine that a massive earthquake is going to hit a tiny town in the middle of nowhere - but in tried and true disaster-movie fashion, the town's residents don't believe them till it's too late, requiring them to fly back on a last minute rescue mission. An entertainingly cheap, but ultimately forgettable made-for-TV movie that was obviously trying to ride on the coat tails of the then-current big budget flick "Earthquake!"

That's been popping up on my my recommendation list. Haven't puuled the trigger on it yet.

"Screamers" (aka "Island of the Fishmen," 1979)



19th century shipwreck survivors wash ashore on an uncharted tropical island, which they soon learn is populated by former Bond girl Barbara Bach, a mad scientist, and a horde of mutant half man/half fish creatures. Naturally, mayhem ensues.

Roger Corman's New World Pictures purchased this 1979 Italian sci-fi/horror adventure mish mash and subjected it to major re-editing (even shooting an entirely new prologue) before they finally released it in the U.S. in 1981. It's somewhat infamous for its misleading ads which promised that viewers would see "men turned inside out," even though no such scene occurs in the film. Schlocky, trashy fun!

007 wrote:

That's been popping up on my my recommendation list. Haven't puuled the trigger on it yet.

The picture quality is pretty crap, but that's OK because so was the movie. Haha.

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Screamers" (aka "Island of the Fishmen," 1979)



19th century shipwreck survivors wash ashore on an uncharted tropical island, which they soon learn is populated by former Bond girl Barbara Bach, a mad scientist, and a horde of mutant half man/half fish creatures. Naturally, mayhem ensues.

Roger Corman's New World Pictures purchased this 1979 Italian sci-fi/horror adventure mish mash and subjected it to major re-editing (even shooting an entirely new prologue) before they finally released it in the U.S. in 1981. It's somewhat infamous for its misleading ads which promised that viewers would see "men turned inside out," even though no such scene occurs in the film. Schlocky, trashy fun!

I used to see this in the video stores all the time back in the day.  I remember the lurid cover.  I'd always pick it up then read the back and go "Oh yeah, this one.  Sounds dumb." and put it back.   Never did see it.

Apparently the blu ray version of this film actually contains three versions, the original Italian version, the Corman recut version and the re-recut version which does have the inside out man scene in it.  Check out this review:

Quote :

Screamers is a recut of the 1979 Italian film, l'isola degli uomini pesce (aka, Isle of the Fishmen). This DVD's excellent special features include several interviews with people involved in the recut and its marketing, explaining the why of it.

Roger Corman was given the opportunity to distribute L'Isola Degli Uomini Pesce, but the film, while horror, is a rubber-suit monster movie. Corman believed that American horror fans at the time were mostly interested in slasher films. So Corman cut some 20 minutes out of the Italian film, and filmed an additional 15 minutes (mostly a prologue). The additional scenes and some of the poster artwork (the monster's fingernail resembled a slasher's knife) allowed Corman to market the film, now retitled Something Waits in the Dark, as a slasher film. His trailers (included in the DVD) implied that Screamers is mostly about monsters that rape women.

Corman later re-remarketed the film as about "a man turned inside out," re-retitling it Screamers. The newly shot "inside out" footage used in that trailer was not used in the re-recut film, causing a riot at one Georgia drive-in. So Corman inserted that very brief footage (which makes no sense in any version of the film) to please audiences.

The special feature interviews include Corman, and people involved in directing, editing, and marketing the new scenes and film versions.

It's all very interesting from a historical perspective. Even so, I think Corman was wrong to recut the film. As a horror fan, while I enjoy Screamers, I prefer l'isola degli uomini pesce.

I first saw Screamers over 30 years ago on broadcast TV. Later as an Embassy VHS cassette. Then I bought the Italian DVD (available only on PAL), and now this Blu-Ray Screamers.

The Corman prologue is okay, but unnecessary. It adds nothing to the film. Screamers is about 89 minutes long, L'Isola Degli Uomini Pesce is 95 minutes. This means the Italian version has about 20 minutes you won't find on Screamers (which has 15 minutes you won't find on L'Isola Degli Uomini Pesce).

The core story remains the same. The year is 1891. Rackham (Richard Johnson) is a white land baron who owns an uncharted Caribbean island. Primitive black natives obey his every whim. He's hired a well-intentioned mad scientist, Dr. Marvin (Joseph Cotten), to turn the natives into fishmen, so as to harvest undersea gold from the lost civilization of Atlantis. Amanda (Barbara Bach) is Dr. Marvin's beautiful daughter, who communicates with the fishmen, who love her.

The hunky Claude (Claudio Cassinelli), a doctor on a prison ship, crashes onto the island, along with several prisoners. He uncovers Rackham's evil scheme, even as the fishmen kill off various people.

If you've seen Screamers, you're missing a lot (20 minutes) from the original film. A few scenes are missing entirely, but mostly its scenes that have been trimmed. Things that are implied in Screamers are explicitly stated in L'Isola Degli Uomini Pesce.

SOME OF WHAT'S MISSING ...

* We sense that Rackham has the hots for Amanda, but it's never explicit in Screamers. But in L'Isola Degli Uomini Pesce he speaks of his jealousy for her, calls her his wife, and later admits that she's "not yet" his wife.

* We sense that Dr. Marvin might be in trouble in Screamers, whereas in L'Isola Degli Uomini Pesce, Rackham explicitly states that he keeps Amanda in line by threatening to kill Marvin.

* We sense that Shakira and Amanda are at odds in Screamers, but in L'Isola Degli Uomini Pesce Amanda explicitly accuses Shakira of spying on her.

* Quick action events (e.g., the killing of Francois; the attempted rape of Amanda by another prisoner) are drawn out in L'Isola Degli Uomini Pesce, allowing for drawn-out suspenseful buildup, or drawn-out chase scenes.

* There's a voodoo ritual scene in Screamers, but two such scenes in L'Isola Degli Uomini Pesce.

* During dinner, Claude diagnoses Rackham of misanthropy. In L'Isola Degli Uomini Pesce, Claude later changes his diagnosis to paranoia.

* Additional dialog between Claude and Amanda, and between other characters. The missing dialog is usually a line or two here and there. Trims from scenes rather than missing scenes.

* The final scene/credit roll of Screamers has a fishman swimming ominously underwater. In L'Isola Degli Uomini Pesce, the credits roll over a shot of Claude and Amanda embracing on a raft, a beautiful pink sky behind them. Corman opted for horror, the Italians for romance.

* One of the BIG differences (allegedly) is the transformation of Jose into a fishman. Claude and Amanda are horrified to find Jose-as-fishman in a laboratory tank. Corman redid the fishman, replacing his version with the Italian version. Supposedly because, Corman thought, his version was more gruesome, and more like "a man turned inside out." I disagree. Both fishmen are equally gruesome. It was an unnecessary bit of work on Corman's part.

Some people, Corman included, think that L'Isola Degli Uomini Pesce is too slow moving, and that the trimming, with the addition of the prologue, makes for a faster-paced, more gruesome film. I don't think so. I find that the original version is well-paced, and makes for a richer film, with the characters and their relationships more fully developed.

I like both versions, but I prefer the Italian.

Film students should enjoy watching and comparing both versions, studying how films can change by what's left in or taken out. Is anything lost when those lines are lost? It's a ripe topic for discussion and analysis.

toho wrote:

I used to see this in the video stores all the time back in the day.  I remember the lurid cover.  I'd always pick it up then read the back and go "Oh yeah, this one.  Sounds dumb." and put it back.   Never did see it.

Haha, same here. I remember seeing the TV commercials when I was a kid, promising that you would actually see "men turned inside out," and I was like "Eeeeewww!" Later I would see it in video stores all the time but I never pulled the trigger on it.

I watched it on YouTube and it was pretty decent quality - looked like it was ripped from a DVD. From the review you posted above, it appears that I saw the first "recut" Corman version without the "inside out" scene pasted in.

It sounds to me like Corman took a lot of the fat out of the movie, which is fine by me...a lot of Italian flicks do tend to meander, with tons of unnecessary sub plots that overly complicate things.

Might be interesting to see the "uncut" Italian version sometime just for comparison's sake, but I'm not gonna go nuts looking for it. I enjoyed this one.

FF, did you ever do a Hubpage about the old ma and pa video stores, similar to the one you did about Hastings?

I sort of feel sorry for people who never got the pleasure of wandering around  the first floor of a house or a cramped rented space in a strip mall, looking for some obscure video cassette to watch.  I don't miss the Blockbusters of the world but those private little video shops always had some Z-grade flick I'd never heard of (typically with outstanding artwork to hide the fact that the movie was crap) and I remember the joy of racing home to watch it, hoping against hope that I'd stumbled across a hidden gem that I could tell my friends about.  And every once in a while I struck gold.  Like with C.H.U.D.  or Motel Hell.  Sure everyone knows about those movies now but back then no one had heard of them.

It's an experience very similar to the old record store browsing we old timers miss.  Except video store browsing was riskier because there were no "preview posts" and frequently no real point of reference like you'd have with obscure bands where you could at least look at song titles or the producer and probably get some idea of what kind of music it was.

tohostudios wrote:

FF, did you ever do a Hubpage about the old ma and pa video stores, similar to the one you did about Hastings?.

Not exactly, but I *did* write one celebrating the demise of Blockbuster Video when they went under.

http://hubpages.com/entertainment/Farewell-to-Blockbuster-Video

hahaha!  I forgot all about that commercial with the rabbit and the hamster. 

I always hated Blockbuster for all the reason you mentioned, particularly the fact that they drove the small shops out of business.  Like you local shop, the ones in the towns I lived in during the 80s and 90s always had a lot of the obscure, Z-movie horror movies I loved.  But I did do the used buy up thing at Blockbuster like you did too. I bought a bunch of previously-viewed movies supercheap at Blockbuster.  The one I used to hit up in Chesterfield, MO used to do extra-special sales where you could get 3 or 4 movies for $10.

Boy I miss those old ma and pa shops.  And the one I used to go to when I lived in CT also had a porno section behind a gate.  They had to "buzz you in".  And just like their "regular" DVD selection they had obscure and amateur pornos too.  And the store personnel were just as knowledgeable about that section as they were about the rest of the store.  Man I miss that place...

Oh, and a funny Blockbuster story.  One time when I was wandering around the store in Murfreesboro, TN I couldn't find anything I wanted to rent.   Then I stumbled across "Caligula" in the "documentary" section.  Of course I knew right away what I wanted to watch that night.  I'm convinced the idiots who ran the store had no idea what they had with that flick.

Date night with the missus yesterday.  We ended the night by seeing:

The Celebrity Roast Of Rob Lowe

Monday Night Raw

Over the weekend, I watched a whole bunch of Mel Brooks movies. It kinda bummed me out to see just how many of the actors were dead.

Gene Wilder
Zero Mostel
Harvey Korman
Madeline Kahn
Marty Feldman
Dom DeLuise
Clevon Little
Gregory Hines
Ron Carey
Slim Whitman
Alex Karras
John Candy
Joan Rivers
Dick Van Patten

Only Mel, Cloris Leachman and Terri Garr are still hanging in there. God Bless you, Mel Brooks. Thanks for the laughs

"Silver Hawk" (2004)


This Hong Kong action flick is kinda like an Asian "Batgirl." Miss Lulu Wong (Michelle Yeoh) is a glamorous fashion model by day, but when her city needs help she changes into a motorcycle ridin', butt kickin' kung-fu super hero called Silver Hawk. Silly as hell, but loaded with lotsa fancy stunt work and impressive martial arts fight scenes. If nothing else, it's an interesting example of how the traditional "super hero movie" formula has translated in other parts of the world.

"Q: The Winged Serpent" (1982)



Summoned by an ancient ritual, a giant winged Aztec serpent God arrives in New York City, takes up residence atop the Chrysler Building and begins snacking on unlucky Manhattanites. Fortunately, the NYPD - led by David "Kung Fu" Carradine - are up to the monster-fightin' task.
Larry ("It's Alive") Cohen's tongue-in-cheek cult classic creature feature looks like it was made on a budget of six bucks and a broken cracker but it gets great mileage out of its gritty early '80s New York locations and its charmingly cheap-n-cheesy monster effects.