Maniacal Movie Poster Monday #180!

Theme Week!

This week three posters for the same movie -




Battle in Outer Space  (Toho Studios, 1959)

This was brought over for American release by Columbia Pictures in 1960.

This is on record as being the first Japanese science fiction film to have the Japanese cast listed on the American posters.

I like all three posters, and in fact can't even point to a clear favorite. I haven't seen this movie - but I sure would like to!










Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!

Saturday Night at the Movies 9/6/14!

Who cares what picture we see?



Crispin Glover would - in his own way. Therefore - here's the pick:

This movie was such a huge thing when it came out - it was the first Friday to be released where I could go and buy my own ticket - and my trip to opening night with my friends is one of my fondest movie going memories.


In fact, if you'd like to read all about that night - and my experiences seeing the previous three movies - here's a link to my award winning blog post (part one of three).


I have this one in the video vault twice - once as a stand alone special edition disc and once as a part of a Ft13 boxset - so we could get this one in the machine and spinning with relative ease anytime - even tonight - if you're not too afraid of hockey masked goons to come over and see me!






Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!

Nerds Redux: Whither Gilbert?

Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise  (20th Century Fox, 1987)

Before the Camera:


Robert Carradine  (Revenge of the Nerds)
Bradley Whitford  (TV's The Good Guys)
Larry B. Scott  (Revenge of the Nerds)
Timothy Busfield  (Revenge of the Nerds)
Courtney Thorne-Smith  (TV's Melrose Place)
Andrew Cassese  (Revenge of the Nerds)
Donald Gibb  (Revenge of the Nerds)
Ed Lauter  (Death Wish III)
Barry Sobel  (Martians Go Home!)
James Hong  (Big Trouble in Little China)
James Cromwell  (Revenge of the Nerds)
and
Curtis Armstrong  (Revenge of the Nerds)
as
Booger

Look fast for:

Anthony Edwards  (Gotcha!)



Behind the Camera:


Directed by Joe Roth

Produced by Peter Bart, Richard Chew, Robert W. Cort, Ted Field, Joe Roth, and Peter Schiff

Written by Dan Guntzelman and Steve Marshall

Based on characters created by Tim Metcalfe, Steve Zacharias, Jeff Buhai, and Miguel Tejada-Flores



Three years after the success of Revenge of the Nerds - a sequel set one year later was put in play. This time out most of the nerd crew from Lambda Lambda Lambda are headed to Fort Lauderdale for a Greek Council convention. Sitting out the trip are Brian Tochi (Toshiro) and for the most part Anthony Edwards (Gilbert). Gilbert is first shown with a broken leg in a cast - preventing his character going along. I guess Edwards didn't want to do the movie but agreed to a token cameo. But then he turns up two more times before the end credits - with enough screen time eventually you wonder why he didn't just agree to be fully in the movie. It actually would have made more sense considering some of the plot developments.


But I vaguely digress.


The nerds make it to Florida with no problem - a missed opportunity as there's a scene at the airport where it looks like a prank is being set up to humiliate the boys and send them in the wrong direction - but no, they just arrive and all is well. Once they arrive you get some fun moments as they drive through the city, ogling the bikini babes and the beautiful Florida beaches. Once at the hotel, they quickly run afoul of hotel manager Lauter - who is an alumni of their enemy fraternity - and current enemy frat boys Whitford and our old pal Gibb as Ogre - the only original antagonist to show up here.

Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in a Car

On the positive side is the aptly named Sunny (Thorne-Smith), a hotel desk clerk with eyes for Carradine's Lewis. But that's where it would have been better for Gilbert to be along - so he could be the romantic nerd for this flick. Lewis is still with Betty (though Julia Montgomery sits this movie out) - Lewis puts her picture in his luggage and she does turn back up with Lewis in later sequels. So, this means Lewis's schmoozing with Sunny here is cheating, which takes away from the fun.

Crappy cellphone pic: Ed Lauter and Bradley Whitford are a little blue.

While Whitford and crew escalate their war with the nerds, little else happens other than Booger meeting his personal guru Snotty (Hong) and grossing us out. By the time the nasty frat guys strand the nerds on an island so they can vote the Tri-Lams out of the Greek Council - the movie has pretty much ground to a halt. The entire island sequence is pretty boring, though at least things brighten up a bit when the nerds track down some abandoned military equipment to effect their escape and get back to the Council meeting in time.

Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in trouble with the law.

This is the kind of sequel that hurts the very idea of sequels. It's watchable, but nowhere near as fun as the original movie. In this case, only a couple of producers were a part of the first film. The writers and director are new - and frankly, they're not as good as director Jeff Kanew and the first film's writers. I saw both of these movies in the theater when they were new - loving the first movie a lot and finding this one pretty meh.

When the hotel is called something unwieldy like"Hotel Coral Essex"
you just know something like this is going to happen eventually.

This killed the theatrical franchise - but later on they made two more sequels for TV - with some of the original writers back for both - so we'll check those out sometime down the road.





Let's Get Out of Here ?

At roughly 1:02:50 - Bradley Whitford is all done stranding nerds on an island.

Eye Candy ?

There are of course several dozen hotties in bikinis scattered among the extras, but none get showcased all that well, and Courtney Thorne-Smith just doesn't float my boat, so it's a no. Sorry ladies.

Buddha Man Sez:

"Revenge of the Nerds II - the nerds are in paradise - the viewer
is in decent movie land. Good enough."

Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Nerd, Cause I Am Outta Here!

Maniacal Movie Poster Monday #179!

Bullet to the Head  (Warner Bros, 2012)

Just watched this finally - good movie! Stallone's still got it - and here he's in the always capable hands of director Walter Hill. Add in a solid supporting cast and you have a very good and violent action flick.















Caltiki - The Immortal Monster  (Allied Artists Pictures, 1960)

I never saw this one as a kid - but take a look at this list of what you will SEE - and you'll know I want to!

Yeah, baby!













Eddie Macon's Run  (Universal Pictures, 1983)

I like those two leads, but I never managed to see this, despite it sitting on several video store shelves in front of me in the 80's. I'd definitely like to see it now.








Until next post you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!

Saturday Night at the Movies 8/30/14!

Who cares what picture we see?



Herve Villechaise wouldn't - but let's not hold it against him while we make this tonight's choice:

Despite a long list of positive elements - this 007 movie has always stood out as one of the weakest - and it's one of only two Bond movies to make the mistake of being very topical for the time they were made - this movie keeps mentioning the Energy Crisis - something that hogties it to 1974. (The other is The World is Not Enough's mention of the Millenium Bug.)



The positive elements - Roger Moore. Christopher Lee. A fine supporting cast. Beautiful locations and wild production design. The Golden Gun prop. The single greatest stunt in the series history (the 360 degree car flip).



But countering that - M seems to hate 007 in their scenes together. The film looks kind of cheap despite a good budget. Scaramanga lives on a island with a huge power plant - and one worker. They ruin that greatest stunt with a stupid slide whistle sound effect. It's pretty sexist - even for a James Bond movie. It also tries to make Roger Moore into Sean Connery - slapping Andrea (Maud Adams) and threatening to break her arm - scenes Moore is plainly uncomfortable with - and that extends to the audience, then and now. Finally, they bring back Sheriff J.W. Pepper from the previous movie, expecting us to buy the Louisiana sheriff in Thailand on vacation.



I think this movie's problems stem from one direct source: by this time the relationship between the producing team of Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli and Harry Saltzman had deteriorated so much that they were actually alternating producing the movies. After Cubby handled Live and Let Die, Harry was up to take care of Golden Gun. And I think we see where the strengths in the partnership lay - that is, entirely in the hands of Cubby Broccoli. Harry made some good movies away from Bond - the Harry Palmer movies are fine - but he couldn't make it work in the world of Ian Fleming's superspy.



Now, all that crabbing aside - even the weakest Bond movie is still a three star flick - so this is a perfectly watchable movie - and I'm always happy to sit down with it - even tonight - if you want to come back home from your vacation in Thailand and watch it with me.





Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Golden Gun, Cause I Am Outta Here!

Celebrity Endorsement: Tom Savini!

I first encountered Tom Savini's amazing makeup effects when I saw Friday the 13th in the theater. I learned his name reading about that movie, and I was excited to see other movies he worked on, like Dawn of the Dead and Creepshow.

I actually met the man in Chicago right after Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter came out.

We met back up this year in Charlotte, NC - and Tom Savini reveals that he knows all about good blogging:

Thanks a lot, Mr. Savini! Looking forward to our traditional 30 year reunion in 2044!

Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!

Maniacal Movie Poster Monday #178!

The Changeling  (Associated Film Distribution, 1980)

This is a corker ghost story - a tale well told. I haven't seen it in a very long time - I want to see it again soon.

The Scarlet Clue  (Monogram Pictures, 1945)

The Charlie Chan movies had definitely taken a step or two down the quality ladder by the time Monogram got ahold of them. But you still have Sidney Toler - along with Benson Fong and Mantan Moreland - so it's still watchable.















Frankenhooker  (Shapiro Glickenhaus Entertainment, 1990)

A wonderfully crazy horror comedy with a young man trying to get his girlfriend back together after a horrifying lawn mower accident. Things do not go well. Highly recommended for those so inclined.










Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!