HK AND CULT FILM NEWS

CHFB Forum Gives Readers the Bird For Thanksgiving!!!

2009-11-26T19:29:00.000-08:00

Hey, it looks as though the lovesick Frankenstein monster and his unwilling bride got together after all!

Either that, or the delightfully twisted imagination of artist Kerry "Count Gamula" Gammill has come up with yet another great seasonal banner for the Classic Horror Film Board, this time a wickedly amusing take-off on Norman Rockwell's famous Thanksgiving painting.

As a grandmotherly Elsa Lanchester parks the bird on the table, you can almost hear Boris Karloff intoning in his familiar low, growling voice: "We belong fed." Let's just hope nobody bites into that monstrous turkey and screams: "It's ALIVE!!!"

Here's to a Happy Thanksgiving in the House of Frankenstein--and we here at HK and Cult Film News join the CHFB in hoping you and yours had one in your house, too!

THE SACKETTS -- movie review by porfle

2009-11-26T13:58:00.000-08:00

There were other made-for-TV Westerns before it, but THE SACKETTS (1979) is the first big multi-part cowboy epic that I can think of. It came out a full ten years before the LONESOME DOVE series and, though it isn't nearly as good, it does lay the groundwork for this type of sweeping TV Western.

The story follows the adventures of the three Sackett brothers, Tell, Orrin, and Tyrell. Tell (Sam Elliott) is the loner of the bunch, and we're introduced to him as he is forced to flee his mining job after gunning down a crooked card dealer (James Gammon) who happens to be one of the dreaded Bigelow brothers. Knowing that the other Bigelows will be after him for revenge, Tell disappears into the mountains, where he stumbles onto a rich vein of gold and starts his own one-man mining operation. When he totes a large bagful of the shiny stuff into the aptly-named town of Purgatorie to trade for cash, it doesn't take long for some of the less scrupulous denizens to try and surgically remove him from his new-found riches.

Meanwhile, his brothers Orrin (Tom Selleck) and Tyrell (Jeff Osterhage) have left their Tennessee homeplace to avoid a bloody feud between the Sacketts and another clan, and are headed West with a cattle drive. When they reach Abilene, Orrin falls for the golden-haired daughter of an ambitious politician named Pritts (John Vernon), who aims to drive all the Mexicans out of Sante Fe. Tyrell, of course, falls in love with a lovely Mexican lass (Ana Alicia) whose father, Don Luis (Gilbert Roland), is the main stumbling block in Pritts' plans. When they all get together in Santa Fe, the situation soon turns deadly and guns start a-blazin'.

The script is a combination of two Louis L'Amour novels, "Sackett" and "The Daybreakers", and it isn't a very smooth blend, crosscutting between the two barely-related stories the way you might switch channels back-and-forth between two movies that are on at the same time. The stories overlap only twice--once near the end of the first segment when the three Sacketts run into each other in Purgatorie, and again for the big finale as the Bigelow brothers finally catch up to Tell and he's reunited with Orrin and Tyrell to fight them off.

This awkward overlapping of the two stories bothered me the first time I watched THE SACKETTS, along with some jarring hand-held camerawork (no Steadicam here), an endlessly irritating and inept musical score by Jerrold Immel, and a strange performance by Mercedes McCambridge that makes Ma Sackett look like she's either perpetually tipsy or tetched in the head.

But further viewings have helped me to get over the various minus points and begin to appreciate all the good things about this movie. Despite its somewhat rough-hewn quality, THE SACKETTS is an engaging Western with lots of authentic atmosphere, good characters, and a terrific cast.

For starters, there's Sam Elliott and Tom Selleck, who I think are the two best Western actors of the past twenty or thirty years (with the exception of Clint Eastwood, of course), and Jeff Osterhage, a lesser-known actor who does a fine job here. Glenn Ford plays Tom Sunday, the ramrod of the cattle drive who later joins Orrin and Tyrell in their own cattle venture and eventually ends up as their enemy, and his intense, masterful performance (watch his face twitch in those close-ups!) is a joy to behold.

This can also be said for the great Ben Johnson as Cap Roundtree, who becomes Tell's gold-mining partner. Paul Koslo is a hoot as the blowhard would-be gunslinger Kid Newton. The Bigelow brothers are played by Jack Elam, Slim Pickens, Gene Evans, and James Gammon, and also appearing in the cast are the likes of L.Q. Jones, Ruth Roman, Pat Buttram, Shug Fisher, and Buck Taylor, in addition to the aforementioned John Vernon and Gilbert Roland. (Louis L'Amour himself does the opening narration.) If you're like me and you love great character actors as much as A-list stars, this is the kind of "all-star" cast that will put a smile on your face.

I can't give THE SACKETTS a super high score due to its various deficiencies, and the fact that it's not the polished effort that later TV Westerns like LONESOME DOVE would be, but it has enough going for it to get a solid three-and-a-half out of five spurs. The final shoot-out alone is worth waiting for--it's almost as much fun as the bullet-riddled free-for-all that ended OPEN RANGE. And that cast--awesome. There's one scene which features Sam Elliott, Tom Selleck, Glenn Ford, and Ben Johnson sitting around a campfire, and I thought "Damn...I wish I was sitting around that campfire, too."

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Anchor Bay Entertainment goes "BEYOND SHERWOOD FOREST" -- on DVD February 23, 2010

2009-11-25T13:44:00.000-08:00

Twelfth Century England was a tantalizing mixture of heroism and villainy. While there was tyranny and black magic, there was also romance and beauty – there was Sherwood Forest . And there was also a hero: the outlaw archer known as Robin Hood. On February 23, 2010 , Anchor Bay Entertainment will release the Syfy Channel movie Beyond Sherwood Forest for an SRP of $19.97 that will please rich and poor alike.

Starring Robin Dunne (“Sanctuary,” “ Dawson ’s Creek”) and Erica Durance (“Smallville”), Beyond Sherwood Forest is a story of danger and derring-do, of fantasy and phantasms. The Sheriff of Nottingham has unleashed a hideous winged monster – a tortured forest spirit – to destroy the gentle towns and woods of England , massacre Robin’s men and capture his Maid Marian. Hearts will run cold with fear and streets will run red with blood. Can The Prince of Thieves and his gallant men defeat this beast from another world and her cruel master?

Directed by Peter DeLuise (“Kyle XY”, “Stargate SG-1”), Beyond Sherwood Forest also features a band of stars such as Julian Sands (“24,” “Bollywood Hero”), Katharine Isabelle (Freddy vs. Jason) and David Richmond-Peck (“V,” 2012). With a sly combination of science-fiction, myth and realism this is a story that takes the viewer through torrid skies and shadowy lands; beyond history, beyond fable…Beyond Sherwood Forest!

BEYOND SHERWOOD FOREST
Street Date: February 23, 2010
Prebook Date: January 21, 2010
Catalog #: P2418
UPC #: 0 1313 82418-8 7
SRP: $19.97
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action
Rating: NR
Run Time: 93 Minutes
Bonus Features: Behind-The-Scenes Feature; Theatrical Trailer

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"Chai Lai Angels: Dangerous Flowers" Arriving On DVD December 15 From Magnolia Home Entertainment

2009-11-24T13:42:00.000-08:00

ACTION HAS NEVER BEEN SO SEXY! From The Creators Of Ong-Bak, Five Sexy Spies Star In The Electrifying Thai Action Comedy, Chai Lai Angels: Dangerous Flowers, Arriving On DVD December 15 From Magnolia Home Entertainment under the Magnet Releasing label.

Code named Rose, Lotus, Poysien, Spadix and Hibiscus, the five “Chai Lais” (Thai for “gorgeous”) are charged with the perilous assignment to combat evil terrorists, foil a kidnapping and recover a national treasure. A mission unlike any they have known, the quintet of high-heeled undercover agents must use all their ingenuity and prowess to save the day. The heroines combine their unique abilities with ninja kicks and seductive stunts in a highly entertaining battle for victory.

Get a dose of girl power and sexy stunts with "Chai Lai Angels: Dangerous Flowers."

Actors: Jintara Poonlarp, Bongkoj Khongmalai, Supakson Chaimongkol, Bunyawan Pongsuwan, Kessarin Ektawatkul
Directors: Poj Arnon
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: Thai, English
Subtitles: English, Spanish
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)
Number of discs: 1
Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Magnolia Home Entertainment
DVD Release Date: December 15, 2009
Run Time: 102 minutes

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Journey to the outer reaches of terror in "PANDORUM" -- coming to DVD and Blu-ray January 19 from Anchor Bay Entertainment

2009-11-23T15:26:00.000-08:00

DENNIS QUAID AND BEN FOSTER ARE ANYTHING BUT ALONE IN OVERTURE FILMS’ "PANDORUM"

On DVD and Blu-ray Tuesday, January 19 From Anchor Bay Entertainment

BEVERLY HILLS, CA -- Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster join Cam Gigandet, newcomer Antje Traue and martial arts phenom Cung Le in Pandorum, the terrifying sci-fi thriller from the creators of the Resident Evil film franchise, available on DVD and Blu-ray Tuesday, January 19th from Anchor Bay Entertainment (Pre-Book December 17th). Directed by Christian Alvart (Antibodies), Pandorum tells the story of two crew members stranded on a spacecraft who quickly--and horrifically--realize they are not alone.

Featuring a supporting cast that includes Eddie Rouse, André Hennicke, and Norman Reedus, Pandorum is the latest collaborative effort by Robert Kulzer, Jeremy Bolt, and Paul W. S. Anderson, the producers behind the hugely successful Resident Evil movie franchise. SRP is $29.98 for the DVD and $39.98 for the Blu-ray edition.

Justine Elias of The Boston Globe said "Pandorum is a dark, disquieting dream worth watching out for." Added Fangoria’s Tony Timpone, "Pandorum is a fever dream mash-up of sci-fi, horror and mystery that will keep you guessing till the action-packed finish."

In Pandorum, two astronauts awaken in a hyper-sleep chamber aboard a seemingly abandoned spacecraft. It’s pitch black, they are disoriented, and the only sound is a low rumble and creak from the belly of the ship. They can’t remember anything: Who are they? What is their mission? With Lt. Payton (Quaid; Vantage Point, The Express) staying behind to guide him via radio transmitter, Cpl. Bower (Foster; 3:10 to Yuma, Alpha Dog) ventures deep into the ship and begins to uncover a terrifying reality. Slowly the spacecraft’s shocking, deadly secrets are revealed--and the astronauts find their own survival is more precarious than they could ever have imagined.

The Pandorum DVD and Blu-ray bonus features include The World of Elysium: Behind-the-Scenes Featurette; What Happened to Nadia’s Team; Flight Team Training Video; Audio Commentary with Director Christian Alvart and Producer Jeremy Bolt; Deleted & Alternate Scenes; Still Galleries; Theatrical Trailer; and Sneak Peeks.

Anchor Bay Entertainment (www.anchorbayentertainment.com) is the home entertainment division of Starz Media, LLC. It includes the Anchor Bay Films and Manga Entertainment brands. It distributes feature films, children’s entertainment, fitness, TV series, documentaries, anime and other filmed entertainment on DVD and Blu-ray formats. It is the exclusive distributor in the U.S. of the theatrical titles from Overture Films. Headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, Anchor Bay Entertainment has offices in Troy, MI, as well as Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Starz Media (www.starzmedia.com) is a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation attributed to the Liberty Capital Group.

Overture Films (www.overturefilms.net) develops, produces, acquires, and distributes feature length, theatrical motion pictures worldwide. The studio is a wholly owned unit of Starz Media, a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation attributed to the Liberty Capital Group NASDAQ: LCAPA, LCAPB), a tracking stock group of Liberty Media Corporation. Its affiliated companies, Anchor Bay Entertainment and Starz Entertainment, make the films available domestically to viewers via home video, premium television, Internet and other outlets.

PANDORUM DVD
Street Date: January 19, 2010
Pre-book: December 17, 2009
Cat. #: DV80013
UPC: 0 1313 80013 9 9
Run Time: 108 minutes
Rating: R
SRP: $29.98
Format: 2:35:1 / 16x9
Audio: Dolby Surround 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

Bonus Features:
The World of Elysium: Behind-the-Scenes Featurette
What Happened to Nadia’s Team
Flight Team Training Video
Audio Commentary with Director Christian Alvart and Producer Jeremy Bolt
Deleted & Alternate Scenes
Still Galleries
Theatrical Trailer
Sneak Peeks

PANDORUM BLU-RAY
Street Date: January 19, 2010
Pre-book: December 17, 2009
Cat. #: N3066
UPC: 0 1313 83066 8 5
Run Time: 108 minutes
Rating: R
SRP: $39.98
Format: 2:35:1 / 16x9
Audio: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

Bonus Features:
The World of Elysium: Behind-the-Scenes Featurette
What Happened to Nadia’s Team
Flight Team Training Video
Audio Commentary with Director Christian Alvart and Producer Jeremy Bolt
Deleted & Alternate Scenes
Still Galleries
Theatrical Trailer
Sneak Peeks

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DVD
Blu-Ray

THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS -- movie review by porfle

2009-11-22T19:48:00.000-08:00

I saw the 2001 Vin Diesel remake of this when it first hit home video, and now I can't remember a friggin' thing about it. Except it had some hinky CGI car-driving shots in it. They gotta use CGI just to show people driving cars now? They can't get actual stunt drivers to do actual cool car stunts? Anyway, I do remember one single zoopy-doopy CGI shot of Vin Diesel driving a car. Real memorable flick there.

Of course, it wasn't really a remake--it just used the same cool title. The original THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS (1955) was the historic first film released by American International Pictures, the undisputed kings of the low-budget exploitation flick during the 50s and 60s, and one of the first films produced (and co-written) by the legendary Roger Corman. It was co-directed by Edwards Sampson (MONSTER FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR) and the film's star, John Ireland (RED RIVER), and probably didn't cost very much to make, since most of the running time consists of people driving around, walking around, having picnics, and reacting to some ragged stock footage of auto races.

Ireland plays Frank Webster, an independent trucker falsely accused of running another trucker off the road and killing him, when this was actually the other trucker's intention--(hmm, "other trucker" sounds kinda dirty somehow)--since lone wolf Frank was cutting in on a big trucking company's business. Well, Frank breaks out of jail and takes it on the lam with half the cops in the state hot on his trail.

When he meets free-spirited racing enthusiast Connie Adair (Dorothy Malone) on her way to participate in a big race, he kidnaps her and heads for the border in her souped-up Jaguar with her as his beard. It turns out that the cross-country race will end in Mexico, so he enters it. Along the way, he and Connie fall in love (awwww) when she realizes he's really a nice guy who only acts mean and tough when he's kidnapping people and threatening to kill them.

Bruno VeSota, who played living-doll Yvette Vickers' cuckolded husband in ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES and popped up in about half a million other things later on, turns up in an early diner scene in which innocent fugitive Frank practically puts him into a coma. Another familiar face, Iris Adrian (BLUE HAWAII, THAT DARN CAT!), plays Wilma the gabby waitress. And during Frank and Connie's picnic interlude, who should turn up as the park caretaker but silent-film star Snub Pollard, whose movie career began in 1915. Pretty interesting cast, if you're warped like me.

The first half of the movie consists of Frank and Connie driving around and arguing a lot while evading the police, often while sitting in front of a screen with highway footage projected on it. The best thing about this is getting to look at the gorgeous Dorothy Malone. Holy schnikes, was she ever hot. You may remember her as Bob Cummings' girlfriend in the original beach party movie, BEACH PARTY. Or not. Anyway, she was definitely easy on the eyes, and she gives a lively performance as Connie, constantly griping about being hungry and tired, and throwing the keys out of the moving car and trying to get away every time Frank turns around, and generally getting on his nerves as much as possible. Which he deserves, since he's pretty much of a horse's ass, actually.

When they get to the place where the big race is being held, Connie runs into an old acquaintance, Faber (Bruce Carlisle, who was only ever in one other movie, FEMALE JUNGLE, thank god), who has the hots for her and starts trying to squeeze ol' Frank out of the driver's seat. Faber is a huge, irritating turdhead who is so creepy that he even makes Frank look like a barrel of laughs in comparison. When the race starts, Faber and Frank go at each other like characters out of the old "Wacky Races" cartoon all the way to Mexico.

And just as you're thinking "Die, Faber, die!" he crashes, setting up the startling ending that is dripping with irony. Well, maybe not dripping. More like a faint irony condensation around the rim. So when this happened I checked the running time to see how much time was left for the wrap-up, and it said forty seconds. Forty seconds? Yikes--when this movie decides to end, it doesn't let the screen door bang its sprockety ass on the way out.

One more thing I feel compelled to mention: right before the race, Frank decides to lock Connie in a secluded shack so she can't call the police and turn him in for his own good (she's convinced he'll get a square deal since he's really innocent, ha ha). So what's the first thing she does? She sets it on fire. I don't know about you, but setting the old wooden shack that I'm locked up in on fire wouldn't be my first idea. It would be around #11 or #12 on the list, tops.

Fortunately, a passing motorist sees the smoke and gets her out, and he's played by none other than an unbilled Jonathan Haze of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. Heck, Roger Corman himself even turns up early on as a state trooper. But, please--if you ever find yourself locked in a wooden shack, don't set it on fire right off the bat just because Dorothy Malone does it in this movie, because chances are that in real life, the guy who played Seymour Krelboin isn't going to toodle by and let you out.

So, while THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS isn't exactly an edge-of-your-seat nailbiter, it's fun to watch if you're into low-budget exploitation flicks from the 50s, and especially if you're a Roger Corman fan. And it actually has real people driving real cars. You even get to see Dorothy Malone tearing ass down the highway in one scene, which is cool in some weird sexual way that I can't even begin to explain. Plus, it was made twelve years before Vin Diesel was even born, so there's absolutely no danger of him being in it.

Buy it at Amazon.com

PAPER HEART -- DVD review by porfle

2009-11-21T10:55:00.000-08:00

There are documentaries--films which record actual events as they happen--and mockumentaries like THIS IS SPINAL TAP, which spoof them. And then there's PAPER HEART (2009), which only partially succeeds at being both.

Comedienne and musician Charlyne Yi (CLOVERFIELD, KNOCKED UP), who executive-produced and co-wrote the film, stars as herself. The idea is that Charlyne not only doesn't know what love is, but she doesn't really believe in true love at all. So she takes off on a cross-country odyssey with director Nicholas Jasenovec (portrayed in the movie by actor Jake Johnson) and a film crew to ask really-real-life couples to talk about their love experiences.

During this time, Charlyne meets Michael Cera (played by Michael Cera, Yi's actual boyfriend at the time) and they start to fall for each other. Eventually Charlyne and Michael chafe under the constant scrutiny of the film crew and want to pursue their burgeoning courtship in private, to the chagrin of director Nick. Will Charlyne find the meaning of true love with a camera crew following her every move?

PAPER HEART has little trouble convincing us it's a real documentary early on, as Charlyne and Nick hatch the idea for the film and set off on their quest. Yi merely has to be herself here, and she's cute and funny--a natural. Despite being a washout as an interviewer, her gawky charm endears her to the various couples she meets and encourages them to open up and reveal some warm, moving anecdotes about themselves. She also wins over a group of yakky kids in a playground and a raunchy gang of bikers and their chicks in a dive bar. These sequences are very appealing and the stories are sometimes augmented by funny re-enactments using crude paper dolls and crayola-scrawled scenery.

It's only when the contrived situation of her meeting and being wooed by the boring Michael sets in that the film starts to get bogged down. This is especially true when, having separated from Michael after he's unwilling to continue with the film project, a distraught Charlyne has to quit being herself and actually act. This is hard enough in a fictional setting, but it's even harder to be convincing when you're pretending that you aren't really acting. (All three leads seem artificial in these plot-moving scenes.) It's something that even much better actors are often unable to do--just think of all those fake "man-in-the-street" interviews you've seen that never quite capture the impression of real people talking. Also, the sound quality and multiple camera angles in these scenes are just too good to come off as on-the-fly documentary footage.

As the fictional story nudges its way to the forefront, we begin to look forward to the brief real-life interludes. One highlight occurs at a wedding chapel in Las Vegas that features its own Elvis impersonator. Another takes place in an empty courtroom as a male judge and a female lawyer recount their long-term love affair with a quiet, deep-seated affection. A visit with two gay guys in New York gets serious when one of them becomes emotional about the death of a former lover. These heartfelt segments, capturing genuine examples of true love that leave a lasting impression, only make the sham-doc parts of the movie seem even more shallow.

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with 5.1 Dolby surround and English and Spanish subtitles. Extras include featurettes "Paper Heart Uncut" and "The Making of Paper Heart", deleted scenes, an interesting live musical performance by Charlyne, the music video "Heaven" by Charlyne and Michael (who also scored the movie), and brief interviews with various actors and comedians about their views on love.

PAPER HEART is fun to watch when it's dealing with real people and their compelling love stories, but loses its lighthearted charm when it goes from doc to mock. Maybe it should've just been done as a straight documentary--Charlyne Yi has the bubbly personality to carry it for real, and who knows? They might've captured a serendipitous finale that resonates much more than the cute but hollow paper-doll fantasy that ends the movie.

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DVD
Blu-Ray

THE TED NEWSOM INTERVIEW

2009-11-19T20:58:00.000-08:00

(NOTE: This interview originally appeared in May 2007.)

Ted Newsom is a showbiz powerhouse--just check out his extensive credits on IMDb sometime--and to describe him requires scads of hyphens to separate words like producer, writer, director, and actor. He's worked with some of the greatest names in the horror/sci-fi genre, and his films include titles such as THE NAKED MONSTER and WHISPERS FROM A SHALLOW GRAVE.

With all this to his credit, I decided to interview him about his appearance as an extra in an episode of the Saturday morning TV series "Jason of Star Command" back in 1978, because I just watched and reviewed the entire series on DVD and there are certain things that I just "gots to know." Ted, being the gentleman that he is, asked, "You're who, now?" and then graciously offered his recollections of this and numerous other fascinating experiences for us to enjoy. Why, I remember it as though it were only yesterday...

porfle: How did you wind up as a space cadet? Were you familiar with the previous series, "Star Academy", from which "Jason" was spun off?

TED: I'd seen the previous show in passing, but I wasn't hugely interested. An over-the-hill Jonathan Harris was not my idea of something I gott-sta watch. However, I did think Pamela Ferdin was cute. She's big into animal rights now. I've never met her, but I've married her several times in my imagination. We have three kids and seven dogs. She was called Pamela Franklyn for a long time as a kid, you know, but when the English actress Pamela Franklyn started working in Hollywood, apparently she had a prior claim to the name or something. I've met her, but we don't have any kids or dogs.

Seriously, I didn't pay a great deal of attention to the show, though I liked the idea of having a wholesome live-action superhero kid's show on TV. That was the time when Filmation was doing Shazam and Dyna Girl and all that. I thought they shoulda, coulda done far more sophisticated shows, even on the level of the old SUPERMAN show, instead of writing down for kids. But times had changed. Networks had strict do's and don'ts. I have no direct experience with this vis a vis Filmation, but I did slide into it years later, very briefly. Wayne Berwick and I got a chance to go into Marvel Productions to pitch some stories for their animated show that was going to have Mandrake the Magician and a bunch of King Syndicate characters. The first question I had for the exec was, "Can we kill anybody?" "Oh, yeah," he said, "We're syndicated." Meaning they weren't limited by network restrictions on violence in kids' shows. But it turned out to be nonsense. They couldn't kill anybody, even in syndication.

Still, Filmation made the attempt to do some sort of quality work for a specific market, under restrictions of budget and censorship. If JASON is out on DVD twenty--no, thirty--years later, apparently they succeeded.

porfle: As a diehard Trekker, I have to ask about the beloved James "Scotty" Doohan (JASON's "Commander Canarvan"). Did you get to know him?

TED: Briefly interacted with him, and I wish I hadn't been so shy about it. When I started, I think they'd already been shooting for about a week or two, and most of Jimmy Doohan's stuff was done. Likewise, Sid Haig's stuff. But I did chat with Scotty, cadged cigarettes off him when I was out (I smoked Marlboros, but I settled for his Winstons). I was happy to see him working, and I got the idea he was happy about it, too.

The next year, before I learned I'd become persona non grata at Filmation, I briefly saw Doohan's replacement, John Russell, at Filmation. Unlike Doohan, he didn't look happy at ALL. I'm sure the thought ran through his head, "I used to be a star. I was at Warner Bros., for keeriist sake, and I'm at some rinky-dink little outfit in the Valley with my face painted blue." There was none of that attitude from Jimmy Doohan. But then, his face wasn't painted blue, either.

Understand, there's a hierarchy on a set, and you pick up the vibe quickly. Extras are on the bottom rung. Don't bother the actors. Don't bother the crew. Just listen to what the AD tells you and do it.

I just remembered that he'd said he had a job lined up after he wrapped JASON. And I think that may have been the STAR TREK movie, the first one...in one or the other of its incarnations.

porfle: It seems as though it would take a good sense of humor, collectively, to put this kind of stuff over--not to mention a healthy appreciation for the absurd. Was it a light-hearted set?

TED: It was business-like rather than a constant party. I can't remember any big gaffes or bloopers; I don't recall anyone busting up over blowing a line, nor any grand practical jokes or anything like that. The director (and, I believe, co-creator of the show) was a guy named Art Nadel, and I really wish I would've been able to talk to him. He did one of those dreadful latter-day Elvis films. But he was working and I was a space cadet.

porfle: What was the layout of that big warehouse where all of the sets were built? And how much of the post-production and visual effects were done there?

TED: Filmation's main offices were in the San Fernando Valley in, I think, Reseda, on Sherman Way, with a big ol' sign flashing that said "Filmation!" In contrast, the Filmation live-action studio was a rather smallish industrial building in Canoga Park, which is a suburb in the far west end of the San Fernando Valley. This particular area was industrial, with assorted nondescript office buildings with mid-sized companies. One, across the street from Filmation, was a cosmetic company which, I learned later, was where Gloria Jean worked as a receptionist. She was briefly a big kid star in the 1940s at Universal. NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK is the only one anyone remembers. No, I never met her.

The front of the live-action place was a very anonymous, one-story block building. You'd never know they made sci-fi stuff in there. The front rooms of the building were offices: the reception area, an office for Lou Scheimer, probably one for Art Nadel (although I can't remember ever seeing him anywhere but on the floor).

The rear of the building was the production area. There were basically two sets when I was there, the Space Academy set (which I thought was pretty neat), which was just the main room and an adjoining L-shaped hallway. I don't think there was any "practical" equipment in the big control room. That is, none of the buttons and levers and switches worked; the blinking lights were operated by the FX guy or the gaffer.

The other set was the "planet" set. It was neat, although of course I never worked on that set, since I was a lowly peon space cadet and there was so much to do back at Space Academy, like walk down a hall or look at a clipboard. But the planet set was neat. It was probably thirty-five or forty feet long and about twenty feet deep. The cyclorama was changeable, and I seem to recall there were several, all hanging and semi-permanent. To change the planet, you changed the sky, from black to blue, or orange, or whatever. There were often phony rock pieces used there as well.

The effects department was Adjacent of Star Command...sorry...adjacent to the big stage. That's were they did the miniatures. It was a separate, and very small, production unit from the live-action crew. A great guy called Chuck Comisky was the head effects guy, and I liked him. I thought the miniatures were great. As I recall, I may've actually gone there originally to get a job on the FX crew rather than as an extra.

In the back of the building was a small scene dock and storage area. There were more prop boulders and things, some assorted sci-fi-ish things which I can't recall, and, I think, some unused flats.

On the south side of the building was the shuttle set. I think this may have actually had its own enclosure. THAT was cool. Leather seats. Neat chairs. Lots of switches and buttons. In retrospect, the interior looked and felt like a big RV. I remember I wished I had access to it to make a space movie. And it was a complete prop, inside and out. It wasn't as if the exterior was one thing and the control & passenger set was a separate deal.

It was probably very hot during that time, since it was summer in the San Fernando Valley, but I can't remember anybody passing out from prostration, or even complaining.

porfle: Can you remember any shots you were in that ended up on the cutting room floor?

TED: Yes, dag blast it. One and only one time, I was in a tight two-shot with Charlie Dell at a control panel. I think he was supposed to be looking below frame at a panel showing the Space Academy was being drawn into the Sun (or some other foolish melodramatic gimmick). Anyway, I actually was asked to do a silent bit, such as it was. We both looked at the screen seriously. I looked at him grimly and walked off, and he had some dialogue. And yes, they cut it out. I asked the editor if I could get a clip or a frame or something of the shot, but he didn't have it (I may've asked this the next year, actually, and all those trims would have been vaulted or tossed away long before).

The other thing that got cut out had nothing to do with me, but it happened while I was there, and boy did Scheimer raise a stink! Understand, Roseanne Katon had a couple of weeks on the show as a space princess. Beautiful girl, and that summer, she was PLAYBOY's Playmate of the Month. Apparently none of her people had bothered to tell Filmation that this was pending. Ol' Scheimer raised holy hell. He thought the network would cancel the show or something because of bad publicity.

So, there were these guys animating the stop-motion creature, a thing that looked kind of like a Harryhausen mooncalf. And to do this properly, you take photographic tests for exposure, running the camera for a few feet at one exposure, then another, then examining it to see what's best. Well, they had cut out a small photograph of an exquisitely nude Roseanne Katon from PLAYBOY and put it into the model set, standing by a rock where the live action would be inserted later by optical printing. So the test shot showed this multi-armed insectoid glop monster and this gorgeous young black woman, stark naked and smiling. Yeeeoowwee!

Scheimer raised hell again.

Oddly enough, I saw her years later on the set of a CBS nighttime soap opera where a friend of mine was doing extra work. I didn't say hi--there's a question of protocol, and here I wasn't even a space cadet, just a visitor. She was playing a "nice" girl who was revealed to be "bad" because she'd modeled nude. And I think they actually used the interior of the Playboy shoot inside a dummy generic men's magazine. Never saw her again, although, we've married several times and have five kids and three cats in my imagination.

porfle: What were the craft services like? Were you well-fed?

TED: The spread was generally pretty good. Again, there's a hierarchy. The main production people and the cast get fed first, but that just makes sense. But I don't remember that ever being an enforced rule. Lunch was picnic style, mostly sans tables. We'd all go outside where the catering people had set up the food line, then find a spot under a tree or something.

The most memorable lunch I had at Filmation was the next summer, when I was visiting. Julie Newmar was the guest villainess, evil queen of one thing or the other. I've always thought she was one of the sexiest beings with two or less legs, and whatever it was she had on showed a great deal of them. I admit to the old "drop the pencil on the ground and crane your neck to see" trick. Yes, sadly and memorably, she was wearing underwear. I can't remember what was served for lunch.

Susan O'Hanlon was nice, as I recall. I think she was pretty enough and well-built enough to have gotten far more work than she did. I didn't speak a lot to her, just a few minutes doing bits of interview for a story I was writing on spec for Starlog. I was smoking a pipe off and on during this time, trying unsuccessfully to stop smoking cigarettes. Late in the game, I noticed she'd taken up smoking a pipe, a corncob, of all things. She was far too young and pretty to be L'il Abner's Mammy. I think she was married, at the time, to the son of George O'Hanlon, who was the voice of George Jetson.

porfle: Did Charlie Dell, who portrayed "Professor E.J. Parsafoot", ever show up on the set drunk, or under the influence of powerful prescription medications?

TED: His colossal bouts with alcohol and drugs are Hollywood legend. Or San Fernando Valley legend. There was the time he tied two old ladies together to Johnny Weissmueller, using a half-hitch knot. The Las Vegas episode where he used a stolen Apache string-bow to fire a flaming arrow into the open mouth of the giant waving cowboy at the Frontier Hotel. Many's the time he would berate the director with language that would make a sailor blush. He and Brod Crawford used to hit each other in the face with shovels for fun while guzzling Sterno straight from the can. Throwing an epileptiform fit in front of the Viper Room. Vomiting on Hugh Hefner's carpet slippers.

No, that was all somebody else. Charlie Dell was a very sweet guy. It was a silly and stereotypical role, as I guess they all were on the show, but he was very polite and kind to me. In one of my more or less politic and sensible moments, I complimented him on a scene. I said something like, "Given the material you were working with, I thought that was a really nice performance." He said thanks. Actually, that may have been the scene in the show that I'm actually in (in the background, out of focus, of course). That seems to me about the longest single scene the "Parsafoot" character had.

I saw him in something else on TV a couple years later, a brief, rather Franklin Pangbornian role, and I remember thinking, "I'm glad he got some work. He's a good actor."

I hope it's not cause and effect, but doing a live-action series for Filmation seems to have been the kiss of death for anyone who ever did one, except Sid Haig, and even he spent about two decades in the wilderness. Ever see the guys who played Captain Marvel? Nope, except at autograph shows. Dyna Girl? And I think Les Tremayne's last notable gig was on SHAZAM. It's not a reflection on anyone's talent, it's just weirdly consistent.

I thought Craig Littler ["Jason"] did pretty well within the circumstances. They tried, on their little budget, within their limitations, to make an old-fashioned swashbuckling, Errol Flynn hero, a ready smile and (badly written) quips, stalwart, quick-witted. And I think he deserved more. The only other thing I know of that he starred in was a Filipino horror movie called SUPERBEAST, where he did a Jekyll & Hyde character. That, and a very long-running TV commercial for an upscale mustard. Two expensive limos are driving 'way out in the boonies, and one pulls along side the other. The windows roll down, and inside each is a millionaire, one old, one young. The young one was Craig Littler, who says, "I beg your pardon. Do you have any Grey Poupon?" That ran for years, nationally. I was happy for him, because an actor gets paid every time those things run. But other than that, nothing. I'd think he, and Charlie, and Susan, would probably do OK at autograph or sci-fi shows nowadays.

porfle: Does anyone ever come up to you and say, "Hey! You were the guy over Professor Parsafoot's shoulder in that one scene"?

TED: Oh, all the time. ALL the TIME. Sheesh. Fans. I have to beat them off with a stick. If that's your idea of a good time.

Heck, I don't even know if people ever went up to Littler or Dell and recognized them, even at the time, with or without the Parsafoot eyebrows. I'd see these guys on TV and recognize them, but the show had this little niche-quality, disregarded status. It was a Saturday morning kids' show. I'd imagine the very low profile of the show was what the guys involved in SUPERMAN in 1951 were imagining. People telling George Reeves or Jack Larson, "Oh, it's a kid's show, nobody'll ever see it. Take the money and run." In that case, of course, it turned out just the opposite. But also, in that case, it began with some meat to the scripts, which was not the case with JASON.

porfle: You weren't given much to do in that scene, but I noticed that in one shot you raised your right eyebrow. Was that scripted, or was it an ad-lib?

TED: My idea. That's acting. Seriously. I thought about picking my nose and flicking the booger onto the back of Charlie Dell's head, but he was too nice a guy.

I really did want to do SOMEthing, because I'd been acting on stage since I was about 15. But when you're an extra--"atmosphere" players, to use the more polite term--your job is to be anonymous. And I think it was a SAG show, which means if you give an extra something extra--like specific physical business, or heaven forbid, a line of dialogue--the person has the right to expect you apply to SAG for membership, or at the very least, expect a bump in pay. And that never happened once while I was there.

There was some question, by the way, about me shaving off my mustache. I was about 26 or 27, and someone questioned whether a "space cadet" would be old enough to shave, I guess. Like anyone would ever notice...

porfle: So, what's the story on that blonde space cadet? She's only shown in long shots, but as far as I can tell from my DVD player's zoom-in and frame-advance functions, she seems rather, as Mr. Spock would say, "fascinating."

TED: I noticed her, too, when a friend gave me a bootleg copy of the series a couple years back. Beats me. I do remember a girl named Noe, because I worked with her a couple of weeks. Vietnamese, petite, very quiet. Given when the series was shot, about 1978 I think, I'd expect she probably came over here with her parents after the war. Her name was pronounced "Know-ee." Well, my last name is Newsom, and invariably when people spell it, they spell it "Newsome," which has always annoyed me. I drove Noe home one night and said, "We really ought to get married. You'd make the perfect wife for me. When they asked you your name, you could say, 'Newsom, Noe.' And they'd spell it right for a change." I think she laughed. And I think, in that, she was being polite.

I was happily married at the time, by the way. My wife Marsha and I lived about six blocks from the Filmation studio, so I could walk to work. On the days I did work, anyway.

porfle: Is Sid Haig ("Dragos, Master of the Cosmos") really an evil megalomaniac in real life?

TED: He's really a certified hypno-therapist. Seriously. I loved him in SPIDER BABY. Really and truly, he's terrific. I met him years later at some con and told him I'd "worked with him", or at least on the same show, and said, in all seriousness, he's always been one of my favorite actors. I'm happy for his resurgence in popularity through the Rob Zombie films.

porfle: What was Filmation boss Lou Scheimer like?

TED: Nice to me...when he thought I was going to help him. While I was doing this extra work--which by the way was not every day, it was maybe two or three days a week, stretched out over a month or two--I got the idea to do an article on the show for a new magazine that'd come out, something called STARLOG. So he had me into his office, was very open and nice, showing me the storyboard sketches he'd done for one sequence (the stop-motion monster sequence, I think). And I believe it was he who actually drew the sketches. He seemed like a very nice man. Then. So I wrote a little five or six page article and made copies to give to him and a couple of the other actors as a courtesy. I think Susan O'Hanlon read it. In fact, I recall her puffing that corncob pipe while reading it. This was near the end of the shoot. The tone of the article reflected Scheimer's stated goals for the show, filtered through my on-set experience. It was generally fun and upbeat: gee whiz, here's a company that's going to try to bring the fun of a Saturday afternoon serial back to TV.

But there was one line, one lousy line, in the story that set him off. I wrote, "Though the science in the stories wouldn't fool a seven year old (floating down to the surface of a planet without being burned up on re-entry, for instance), the show looks like a promising return to the fun and excitement of CAPTAIN VIDEO and BUCK ROGERS." Apparently Scheimer went through the roof. "What's he trying to do! Ruin my show!?! I never want him anywhere near here again!!!" I didn't know this at the time. Only a year later, when they started up production on the second season, did FX guy Chuck Comisky explain to me that I was utterly unwanted around Filmation, on orders of Scheimer. I was the guy who tried to torpedo the show. Sheesh. And the irony was, the article never saw print, ever. I think Fred Clarke rejected it for CINEFANTASTIQUE as too minor a show to bother with, and I don't think I ever heard from STARLOG at all. So this guy had this great big hissy fit over nothing.

I saw the guy once, a few months later. I was working in a multiplex movie theater nearby, and he came in with his wife or something. I think he recognized me, because he glared at me. I've always thought that was incredibly petty. The one line was so innocuous--and not untrue--but he was furious. I'd needed the money, too.

I think they sold it. I know it doesn't exist anymore. Tough.

porfle: Have you run into any of the old cast or crew over the years?

TED: There was a guy named Berwick, I forget his first name. Tall, good looking, very polite. He was either one of the rare featured players on the show (like, one line every six shows or something), or whatever. He was engaged to Art Nadel's daughter, either then, or slightly later. I remember him, because he worked as an assistant director on a little film for Irv Berwick, who was a teacher of mine, and through Irv, I got to know Irv's son Wayne. Wayne's become a good friend forever; we co-directed THE NAKED MONSTER. But the JASON OF STAR COMMAND Berwick guy was no relation to Wayne and Irv, it was just a coincidence of names. Or maybe he was actually acting in the film for Irv. But that was the only person I've ever run into after the fact. Except Sid Haig. And I've already exhausted my one Sid Haig anecdote.

porfle: What were the immediate benefits of your appearance on the show?

TED: A much-needed check for anywhere from seventy to a couple hundred dollars. I was just married, living on the GI Bill while going to college, and my wife Marsha was working full-time. The fact that we had an apartment within six blocks of "work" was very nice, and I got such a kick out of "working in the business," even in such a minor and forgettable capacity.

I went down the next summer to see if I could continue in some capacity. That's when Chuck Comisky told me I was not wanted at all, not as a space cadet, not as a member of the FX crew, not as an air-breathing entity anywhere in the building. Elephants never forget, and neither did Lou Scheimer. I did get a job for my friend Ram Anand, though. He did a day or two as an extra (with a beard, for goodness' sake), and several days in a big hairy snow monster costume in the series of shows with Julie Newmar and Angelo Rossito. At least I got to meet with and speak with Little Angie. I asked him about working with Bela Lugosi, and he said, "Oh, Bela was nice. We did lotsa pitchures together. He said to me, 'Angie, from now on, I want you in all my pitchures. That way, when they see you on screen, they'll think of Lugosi!'" And he laughed.

Funny thing about that. Years later I interviewed a guy named Johnny Legend, who knew Tor Johnson. He said Tor recalled Bela saying to him, "Tor, from now on, I want you in all my pitchures. That way, when they see you on screen, they'll think of Lugosi!'" Lugosi's lucky he didn't work with Prince Randian or the Hilton Sisters.

porfle: This being early in your career, did you learn anything that helped you later on in your own film endeavors?

TED: Seriously? Yes. The very businesslike atmosphere on the set was impressive. Actors should know their lines (they all did on JASON); you can make something big look much grander if you've got talented people around you. And I learned not to give courtesy copies of articles to the subjects. I hope I learned NOT to be a big jerk if you're a producer.

From the sweat I saw pouring out of the monster costume when Ram did his snow-creature bit, I learned the obvious. Do not wear a rubber monster suit yourself when it's the middle of summer. That lesson held me in good stead when I shot the effects for THE NAKED MONSTER.

porfle: Did you have any idea whatsoever that, almost thirty years later, this little Saturday morning sci-fi show would even be remembered by anyone?

TED: Seriously, I am not surprised at all. My "part" in the show is so marvelously minor, I get a perverse kick out of even bringing it up. I thought the show had the potential to be more successful than it was. It was well-cast, they had some good writers (even working within the non-scientific children's fantasy restrictions), and it was competently directed. Some of the aspects were cheesy, like the limited amount of sets, but I thought what WAS there looked as good on screen as vintage STAR TREK. I think the chintzy synthesized music score makes it SOUND rinky-dink and very much of its era. They could have done better. If it were me, I'd have farmed the music out to somebody to record with an orchestra on the cheap in Europe, or just used stock library music to make it feel BIGGER.

Obviously the first incarnation of JASON was successful enough to spawn the second season, where they did a full half-hour. I'm not privy to the machinations of why this was re-cast. It was probably a question of availability and price negotiations. As you know, they only brought Charlie Dell and Craig Littler back, and Sid Haig, of course. I believe Jimmy Doohan, by that time, had already done the first STAR TREK movie, so price-wise he was probably out of the question, or disinterested in devaluing whatever cache his name had. I don't know if they asked Susan O'Hanlon back, but having watched these things, there was so little in the scripts for her to do as an actress, I wouldn't begrudge her taking a pass.

porfle: Since then, you've enjoyed a long and varied career on both sides of the camera. What are you working on now that we can look forward to?

TED: I've spent months re-editing and re-mixing FLESH & BLOOD, THE HAMMER HERITAGE OF HORROR for English release. This should dovetail with the recent (as of May 2007) purchase of Hammer. Other than the one broadcast in 1994, it's never been seen in England--or most of the world, for that matter.

I started a project about a year and a half ago called IDOL PURSUITS, a screwball comedy on a deceptively low budget, considering what kind of production value we've got so far on screen: action in Sedona, Arizona, with beautiful scenic backgrounds, sequences on a cruise ship at sea, locations in Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlan, a biplane, hang-gliding. It's sort of like THE LADY EVE. Brinke Stevens, whom I've always loved as a performer, does a sort of Barbara Stanwyck turn in a double role. She's always been wonderful in those, like TEENAGE EXORCIST (which we co-wrote) and NIGHTMARE SISTERS. I play the lead, a professorial nerd. I never expected anyone else to cast me in a Cary Grant role, so I figured I'd better do it myself. (Cary Grant in BRINGING UP BABY and MONKEY BUSINESS, that is.)

Last year I did a number of acting jobs for Fred Olen Ray, and he's a joy to work with. Acting is fun. Writing is, too, when you get paid. I still have a script I need to finish, a Sinbad adventure, which I'm writing with Ray Harryhausen and a partner as yet to be publicly announced. There's another very unique script I need to finish, too, but the past year or so has been frenzied.

porfle: If you were me, what would you have asked you that I neglected to ask?

TED: You covered everything.

porfle: Thanks for spending some quality time with us today, Ted! It's been a pleasure.

TED: Is that a question? Very hard to answer. But we got married several times and had three kids and four cats.

Steven Seagal is "THE KEEPER" - On DVD January 19, 2010

2009-11-18T19:17:00.000-08:00

REAL LIFE SHERIFF AND FILM ACTION STAR WITH OVER 2 BILLION IN BOX OFFICE SALES... STEVEN SEAGAL IS BACK IN "THE KEEPER"

A High Impact Thrill Ride Arriving Exclusively On DVD January 19th From Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

LOS ANGELES, CA -- (November 17, 2009) -- Iconic film action hero Steven Seagal (Hard to Kill, Under Siege) delivers his own form of justice in The Keeper, igniting on DVD January 19, 2010 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Steven Seagal unleashes his wrath--and his fists--in this fast-paced thriller about an ex-cop caught in a web of deceit, racism and murder. Chock full of high-octane stunts and eye-popping action, The Keeper is a nonstop adrenaline rush. Double-crossed by his rogue partner and forced to retire, Los Angeles street cop Rolland Sallinger (Seagal) accepts a gig guarding the beautiful daughter of a wealthy businessman.

But when mobsters kidnap the girl, Rolland’s job turns from protector to hunter as he untangles a dangerous web of lies and murder. Now, in a race against time, Rolland must use his wits, weapons and brute force to get her back--before it’s too late. With a supporting cast that includes Luce Rains (Public Enemies) and Kisha Sierra ("In Plain Sight"), The Keeper was written and produced by Seagal and directed by Keoni Waxman (I Shot A Man In Vegas). The Keeper will be available on DVD for the suggested retail price of $22.98 U.S. Prebook date is December 8.

About Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
A recognized global industry leader, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC (TCFHE) is the worldwide marketing, sales and distribution company for all Fox film and television programming on DVD, Blu-ray Disc (BD) and Digital Copy as well as acquisitions and original productions. The company also releases all products around the globe for MGM Home Entertainment. Each year TCFHE introduces hundreds of new and newly enhanced products, which it services to retail outlets -- from mass merchants and warehouse clubs to specialty stores and e-commerce - throughout the world. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC is a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, a News Corporation company.

Follow TCFHE on Twitter @foxhomeent

The Keeper
Street Date: January 19, 2010
Pre-book Date: December 8, 2009
Pricing: $22.98 U.S.
Catalog Number: 2261555
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Screen Format: Widescreen -- 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio
Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Surround
Subtitles: English, French and Spanish
Feature Run Time: 94 minutes
Closed Captioned: Yes

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"GHOST MACHINE"and "INALIENABLE" Coming Soon To DVD From Anchor Bay

2009-11-18T13:39:00.000-08:00

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN VIRTUAL FUN BECOMES REAL TERROR?

ANCHOR BAY ENTERTAINMENT REVS UP "GHOST MACHINE"

Materializing on DVD December 22nd

BEVERLY HILLS, CA -- One of the ancient rules of horror films--never disturb the spirits of the dead--gets a 21st century jolt of adrenaline when Anchor Bay Entertainment premieres Ghost Machine on DVD December 22nd. Starring a hot cast, including teen heartthrob Sean Faris (Forever Strong, Never Back Down), Rachael Taylor (Transformers, Shutter) and Luke Ford (The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor), Ghost Machine promises a technological journey into extreme horror! SRP is a translucent $26.97, and pre-book is November 19th.

A group of young U.S. military techs borrow a top-secret combat simulator for a weekend of unauthorized gaming. Alcohol, spliffs (a cigarette of multiple types of leaves) and virtual pornstars get the evening off to a cracking start. They set up the system inside an abandoned prison used for the torture of post-9/11 prisoners and discover that someone--or something--has uploaded itself into their A.I. software. A deadly new player has now joined the game: How do you survive the final level of lock-and-load virtual reality when escape is impossible, slaughter is uncontrollable and the enemy is unstoppable? The ultimate battle begins inside the...Ghost Machine!!!

Bonus Features:
• The Making of Ghost Machine
• Interview with Writer Sven Hughes
• Theatrical Trailer

About Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment is the home entertainment division of Starz Media, LLC. It includes the Anchor Bay Films and Manga Entertainment brands. It distributes feature films, children’s entertainment, fitness, TV series, documentaries, anime and other filmed entertainment on DVD and Blu-ray formats. It is the exclusive distributor in the U.S. of the theatrical titles from Overture Films. Headquartered in Beverly Hills, CA, Anchor Bay Entertainment has offices in Troy, MI, as well as Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Starz Media (www.starzmedia.com) is a controlled subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation attributed to the Liberty Capital Group.

GHOST MACHINE
Street Date: December 22, 2009
Pre-book: November 19, 2009
Cat. #: 0 1313 16364-9 9
UPC: DV16364
Run Time: 100 Minutes
Rating: R
SRP: $26.97
Format: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)

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Anchor Bay Entertainment and science fiction legend Walter Koenig present INALIENABLE on DVD January 19th 2010

"A brilliant piece of work." --Sliceofscifi.com

Anchor Bay Entertainment joins forces with science fiction legend Walter Koenig ("Star Trek") to present an unforgettable thriller that explores science, the universe and moral justice. Inalienable, written by Koenig and premiering on DVD January 19, 2010, includes celestial foil "O-card" packaging that is truly out of this world! SRP is a heavenly $19.97, with a pre-book date of December 17, 2009.

In the film, scientist Eric Norris (Richard Hatch, "Battlestar Galatica") discovers his body is host to a parasite from another world. With the shocking revelation that this microscopic intruder also carries his DNA, Norris confronts the possibility that he might "give birth" to a new son to replace the one lost in a tragic accident years earlier. But will this birth represent a new fusion of human and alien--or spell doom for the entire human race?

Inalienable boasts a "who’s who" cast of sci-fi favorites: Koenig, Hatch, Erick Avari ("Heroes", "The Mummy", "Independence Day"), Marina Sirtis ("Star Trek: The Next Generation"), Richard Herd ("V"), Gary Graham ("Alien Nation"), and Alan Ruck ("Spin City", "Twister, "The Happening").

Inalienable
Street Date: January 19, 2010
Pre-Book Date: December 17, 2009
Catalog #: DV16682
UPC: 0 1313 16682-9 2
Run Time: 105 minutes
Rating: Not Rated
SRP: $19.97
Format: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio: Dolby Surround 5.1

Buy it at Amazon.com

JASON OF STAR COMMAND: THE COMPLETE SERIES -- DVD review by porfle

2009-11-17T19:21:00.000-08:00

There's nothing like a show that's both stupid and cool at the same time to bring out the kid in me. That's the feeling I get watching this boxed set of the entire run of JASON OF STAR COMMAND, a live-action sci-fi series from Filmation that ran for two seasons on Saturday mornings starting in 1978. By that time, I had taken to sleeping in on Saturday mornings instead of jumping out of bed to watch TV. But now, through the magic of DVD, I can catch up on what I missed out on the first time around.

Originally just one segment of a 90-minute show called "Tarzan and the Super 7", JASON began as a throwback to the old cliffhanger serials like "Flash Gordon" that used to get the kids flocking back to the theater week after week (with hefty doses of STAR WARS, "Star Trek", "Battlestar Galactica", and "Lost In Space" thrown into the mix as well). And like these old serialized adventures, each eleven-minute chapter has a sensational title such as "Attack of the Dragonship" or "Marooned in Time" and is open-ended, with Jason and his good-guy companions facing certain death at the hands of the evil Dragos (who has dubbed himself "Master of the Cosmos") to keep kids in the late 70s eagerly tuning in from one Saturday morning to the next.

A spin-off of an earlier Filmation production called "Star Academy", and using many of the same sets, models, and costumes, this series centers around the adventures of a secret branch of the Star Academy, located on a city-sized spaceship built on an asteroid, whose job is to protect the galaxy from evildoers like Dragos. Their number-one guy is the brave, adventurous Jason (Craig Littler, who is currently the Gorton's fisherman), described as a "soldier of fortune" even though he isn't one (if he ever made any profit from any of these exploits, they must've been paying him under the table).

He's really Han Solo Lite, right down to an almost identical set of threads and insoucient (though properly sanitized) attitude, and since Han is a soldier of fortune then, by golly, I guess Jason is, too. But he's also a true-blue, straight-arrow good guy type who feels right at home spouting lines like: "You overestimate yourself, Dragos. Never, on all the planets of the galaxy, has evil won out over decency and honesty--and freedom." Tell 'im, Jason!

The female lead in season one is the button-cute Susan O'Hanlon (PRIVATE PARTS, "All My Children") as Captain Nicole Davidoff, Star Command's leading computer expert. She was replaced in season two by Tamara Dobson (CLEOPATRA JONES) as a super-strong alien named Samantha. Charlie Dell (FIGHT CLUB) plays the brilliant but eccentric science officer, Professor E.J. Parsafoot, who shares comedy-relief duties with a couple of cute droids (of course) named Wiki and Peepo.

Season one's "Commander Canarvin" is none other than the redoubtable James "Scotty" Doohan, who then left to do STAR TREK:THE MOTION PICTURE and was replaced in season two by well-known Western actor John Russell (PALE RIDER, THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES) as the stern, blue-skinned Commander Stone. And along the way we see such familiar faces as Julie Newmar, Angelo Rossito, Francine York, and Rosanne Katon in guest roles.

Dragos, the most rotten guy in the universe and sworn enemy of all that is decent, is portrayed by Sid Haig, best known these days as "Captain Spaulding" from Rob Zombie's HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES and THE DEVIL'S REJECTS. He wears a red and black outfit with black platform boots and a cape, and a silver headpiece that makes him look like he just placed dead last in a Borg costume contest. Haig is the Darth Vader of the series, revelling in his various dastardly schemes with eye-rolling delight and frequently letting loose with his trademark maniacal laugh ("MWAAAH- ha-ha-ha-ha-HAAAAAA!!!")

Dragos has the ugliest spaceship in screen history, the dreaded Dragonship, which resembles a mechanical bulldog with a papier-mache' dragon head stuck on it, and his enslaved minions look like a bunch of diseased Wookies with really bad hair. Most of his schemes are along the lines of trying to disable Star Command's defense shields and sending it plunging into a sun or something. MWAAAH- ha-ha-ha-ha-HAAAAAA!!!

The production values would be laughably bad by theatrical standards, but for a Saturday morning kids' series from the 70s they're impressive--cool, even. Much of it consists of STAR WARS-style visual effects done on the cheap, by some of the same technicians, with ingenuity compensating for lack of budget. The model work is good for the most part, and some of the planet sets rival those that Captain Kirk used to wander around in, as do the Star Command interiors. John Beuchler, who went on to make quite a name for himself as a creature-maker as well as a director, populated the series with a multitude of hastily-made but impressive monsters and aliens.

My favorite aspect of the show, however, is the use of stop-motion animated monsters. I love this stuff, from the Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen classics right down to the jerky dinosaurs from BEAST OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN or TV's "Land of the Lost", and JASON features four or five stop-motion animated creatures with a lot of personality. Which, for me, raises the show's appeal to an even higher level.

With the second season, the show was plucked from the "Tarzan and the Super 7" line-up and given its own half-hour time slot. While the episodes continue to form a loose overall story arc, individual plotlines are wrapped up in just two or three episodes. Dragos gets a brand new Dragonship, and, thank goodness, it's sorta cool and nowhere near as butt-ugly as the first one. He also gets a whole menagerie of beastly Beuchler-built cronies, and they all maniacally laugh their heads off just like Dragos--I think maybe it's catching.

Tamara Dobson fits smoothly into the cast and seems to genuinely enjoy portraying the mysterious Samantha--she and Littler have a good chemistry together--while the fine actor John Russell's no-nonsense demeanor as Commander Stone, who strongly disapproves of Jason's cavalier attitude toward authority, gives the series a welcome and unexpected touch of gravitas. The only drawback is that as Jason and Stone gradually warm up to each other later on, Russell begins to smile more often, which is one of the scariest sights in television history.

The three-disc set includes both seasons of the show and some nice extras. The highlight is a half-hour documentary called "The Adventures of Jason of Star Command", which features interviews with producer Lou Scheimer (sadly, his partner, Norm Prescott, as well as Tamara Dobson, are no longer with us), stars Craig Littler and Sid Haig, John Beuchler, and others involved with the production. It's packed with interesting anecdotes and information about the show. There's also a six-minute special effects demo reel, a photo gallery, episode scripts in PDF format, an episode guide/trivia booklet, and several trailers for other Filmation DVD sets that bring back a lot of Saturday morning memories.

I accidentally found an Easter egg. Put in disc 2 and wait for the menu to appear. Hit "stop", then "play." Some leftover interview footage of guest star John Berwick that wasn't used in the documentary, lasting two or three minutes, should then appear. I tried this with the other two discs but no luck. If you should happen to find any more, let me know.

And last but not least, three of the episodes contain lively commentary tracks with Scheimer, Littler, and Beuchler, among others. But careful, Mom and Dad--at one point, one of them gets so excited about viewing the old series again that he drops the "F" bomb! OOPS!

Scriptwriters include original "Star Trek" vets Samuel A. Peeples ("Where No Man Has Gone Before") and Margaret Armen ("The Paradise Syndrome"). The stories are fast-moving, simple, and often pretty dumb--in a bad-Roddenberry moment, Captain Kidd even pops up in one episode--but they're also a lot of fun, and not nearly as obnoxious as "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" (with the despicable "Twiki") or the original "Battlestar Galactica" tended to be.

Basically a live-action version of the kind of cartoons Filmation is known for (but without the crummy limited animation), JASON OF STAR COMMAND is corny, cheesy pulp sci-fi for kids, pure and simple, but it's done with such a goofy, unabashed earnestness and childlike sense of adventure that I couldn't help enjoying just about every minute of it.

Buy it at Amazon.com

RESIDENT EVIL: THE DARKSIDE CHRONICLES FOR THE Wii SHIPS TODAY

2009-11-17T11:42:00.000-08:00

Wii Owners Get Their Resident Evil Fix as the Latest Installment to the Series Combines Frantic First-Person Arcade Shooter Action with 2-Player Co-op Gameplay

SAN MATEO, Calif. — Nov. 17, 2009 — Capcom®, a leading worldwide developer and publisher of video games, today announced that Resident Evil®: The Darkside Chronicles is now shipping to all North American retailers for Wii™. The latest installment in the Resident Evil® franchise, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is a follow up to the successful Resident Evil®: The Umbrella Chronicles that took the series’ infamous characters and storylines and turned the gameplay on its side with new on-rails arcade shooter gameplay. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles takes this gameplay to a whole new level in terror as the camera now mimics the first person view creating a more dramatic and immersive horror experience.

The addition of a full 2-player co-op experience only adds to the game’s level of depth, as players can now shoot zombies with their friends throughout the game. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is rated M for Mature by the ESRB and has a suggested retail price of $49.99 at all major retailers across North America.

For a taste of the action, players can also check out Capcom’s Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles official interactive trailer at http://www.gametrailers.com/video/experience-the-darkside/57808. For the first time in a video game trailer, the audience will be able to engage in the action they see on screen by being able to shoot the zombies with a click of their mouse. Before players purchase the game, they can try it out at Gametrailers.com.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles sends a full cast of characters into a world where the lines between good and evil are blurred and the potential to go to the dark side lies within everyone. Leon S. Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Jack Krauser, Steve Burnside, and Chris Redfield all play their part in an engrossing storyline that will fill in the missing pieces from Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. This new chapter in the Resident Evil series retraces the terrifying ordeals of Resident Evil® 2 and Resident Evil® Code: Veronica, but this time from an all-new perspective. A vibrant new South America part of the story pairs Jack Krauser with Leon S. Kennedy as they hunt down Javier Hidalgo, a drug lord connected to the Umbrella Corporation.

The game’s on-rail, arcade shooter gameplay first featured in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, has been radically upgraded in Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. To create a more terrifying and cinematic experience, the camera mimics the first person point of view and at times, zombies surround players so they must rely on each other to advance. Combined with an eerie soundtrack and a new graphics engine utilizing state-of-the-art technology, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles delivers the most fun and accessible horror game on Wii yet.

BORN TO FIGHT -- DVD review by porfle

2009-11-16T20:27:00.000-08:00

Panna Rittikrai is the godfather of Thai action flicks--he's written, directed, choreographed, and/or starred in fifty of them over the past twenty-five years, most notably ONG-BAK and THE PROTECTOR starring his protege' Tony Jaa. (I know all this stuff because I just looked it up on the Internet.) In 1984 he directed and starred in his first film, BORN TO FIGHT, (aka Gerd Ma Lui), featuring some of the most amazing stunts I've ever seen. Which is good, because if this movie had to get by on its acting, story, and production values, it would probably be lining a cat box somewhere at this very moment.

Panna plays Tong (or "Tony" as he's called in the badly-dubbed English soundtrack), a former cop who has been called back into action to protect Sianfong, a lawyer for a wealthy Hong Kong family. Sianfong has come across some documents revealing that Tungseung, the Yang family's eldest son-in-law, has been embezzling from the family fortune for years. Tungseung puts out a contract on Sianfong and enlists his old gang, the Green Dragons, to carry it out. After Sianfong flees to Thailand, Tong must track him down and keep the Green Dragons from getting their mitts on him.

The opening scenes of Sianfong discovering the documents and subsequently having to flee for his life look like an old Super-8 home movie from the 60s that somebody dug out of their closet. The source print used for this DVD is pretty beat-up, which only compounds the overall ineptness of the direction and photography. I'm willing to cut low-budget filmmakers a lot of slack, but this is as bad as it gets--I kept expecting to see the MST3K guys at the bottom of the screen, doing a running commentary.

When the Green Dragon boys show up at a warehouse on the trail of Sianfong, we get our first taste of the kind of action we can expect from BORN TO FIGHT. And although the camerawork and editing leave much to be desired, the fight choreography and stunts are awesome. Rarely have I seen stuntmen risk physical injury with such abandon. These guys actually punch and kick the crap out of each other, with several of the best blows repeated, at various speeds, up to three times--and sometimes we see two different takes of the same stunt back-to-back.

As the movie progresses and Tong proves to be a magnet for every two-fisted punk who lays eyes on him, the stuntwork keeps getting cranked up to a point where we often see things that we doubt the stuntman was able to walk away from. One guy wrecks his motorcycle, flies over the handlebars, and crashes through a billboard onto solid ground several feet below it. Another motorcycle gag shows the stuntman doing a head-on with a pickup truck and flying over it, again landing on solid ground. Not only do these guys eschew wirework and other fakery, they also work without a net.

A 35-minute bonus featurette called "Fearless Maniacs" shows young men coming from all over to audition as stunt performers in this and other films like it, and I got the impression that they'd do anything to be in the movies, regardless of the possible consequences. This suspicion seems to be borne out by the reckless abandon displayed by the stuntmen in many of these hair-raising action scenes.

The hand-to-hand fights are filmed in long takes with extensive choreography that is expertly performed, especially by Panna Rittikrai. He may not be much of an actor, but as a fighter he really knows his stuff and gets plenty of chances to demonstrate it. I haven't mentioned the plot of this movie much, and I'm not going to because it really doesn't matter. It's just an excuse for a succession of fights and stunts, all of which are a lot of fun to watch. Besides, the story is boring, and Tong's comedy-relief sidekick, Ruay, makes Jerry Lewis look like Sir Cedric Hardwicke.

I can't give BORN TO FIGHT a very high score because, as a movie, it's just awful. But the fights and stunts that appear frequently throughout are sufficient reason to give it a look--especially if you're an aficionado of either Asian action cinema or really bad movies.

Features:
Languages: Thai (Dolby Digital 2.0 - Stereo - Dual Mono)
English (Dolby Digital 2.0 - Stereo)
Subtitles: English
Full Screen/Stereo/Mono
Interview With Tony Jaa & Panna Rittikrai (16 mins.)
Interview With Producer Chokchai Melewan (4 mins.)
"Fearless Maniacs" Featurette (35 mins.)
"Ong Bak" Spoof (14 mins.)
"Ong Bak" Commercial Spoof (33 secs.)

Buy it at HK Flix

BAD MOVIE POLICE DOUBLE FEATURE: ZOMBIE COP & MAXIMUM IMPACT -- DVD review by porfle

2009-11-15T14:44:00.000-08:00

Tempe Entertainment hits bad movie fans with their worst shot once again with BAD MOVIE POLICE DOUBLE FEATURE, the fourth in their BMP series which has previously offered such non-hits as GALAXY OF THE DINOSAURS, CHICKBOXER, and HUMANOIDS FROM ATLANTIS. This time we get a double-dose of disaster with a couple of quirky quickies, ZOMBIE COP and MAXIMUM IMPACT, which, depending on your tolerance for no-budget shot-on-video schlock, should have you either giddy with delight or scrambling for the "eject" button.

The two films, which were originally shot in the early 90s with a combined budget of around $5,000, really aren't that bad, and re-releasing them under the "Bad Movie Police" banner seems to be simply a way of making them more appealing by playing up their camp value. Heck, any time someone can take such a small budget and limited resources and manage to make something that resembles an actual movie that is even mildly entertaining, I have to give them credit.

The first film is ZOMBIE COP, which tells the story of two cops, Gill (Michael Kemper) and Stevens (Ken Jarosz), who track down an evil voodoo master named Doctor Death (James Black). Gill and Dr. Death manage to shoot each other, but before he dies Death puts a voodoo curse on Gill which will cause him to rise from the grave and stalk the earth as a zombie. Gill makes his way to Stevens' apartment and, after a brief "Oh my god, you're supposed to be dead!" exchange, Stevens lends Gill an old cop uniform and some gauze to wrap around his head to make him less conspicuous (!!!) and before you know it, Zombie Cop is on the beat! The partners then go on the prowl for Dr. Death, who has also risen from the grave and is planning to turn a bunch of schoolkids into zombies or something.

Michael Kemper actually looks pretty cool in his Zombie Cop getup and seems to enjoy playing the role, especially when blasting bad guys with his pump shotgun or reciting his catchphrase: "Your rights have been waived!" There's plenty of no-frills action along the way, including a lengthy car chase which is pretty impressive considering that most movies this cheap wouldn't even attempt something like that. Some of the comedy relief is pretty lame--the towel-headed convenience store clerk who is constantly being robbed, a character inspired by Apu of "The Simpsons", doesn't generate much hilarity--but Dr. Death's panicky, inept henchman Buddy (Bill Morrison) is amusing. And I really liked this throwaway gag from a TV news report: "Meanwhile in Hollywood news, the proposed new 'Frankie Kroger' movie, that would feature 'One Day At A Time' star Bonnie Franklin as Kroger's mom, has been canned. When asked why, studio officials report that Ms. Franklin's appearance on the screen was...just too scary for the kids."

The second feature in our double-bill is the generically-titled MAXIMUM IMPACT, which also stars Ken Jarosz and James Black. Jarosz is insurance salesman Jerry Handley, who is attending a conference in Cleveland, and Black plays Mr. Huntsacker, an underworld flesh peddler who will be providing the "entertainment." Jerry declines such indulgences, since he's engaged to be married in a month to his fiancee' Jan (Jo Norcia), but his childhood buddy Phil (Scott Emerman) is rarin' to go.

Unfortunately, Phil arrives just as Mr. Huntsacker is looking for someone to star in a snuff film that has been commissioned by a millionaire sicko, and ends up with a gun barrel in his mouth. Jerry witnesses the deed and rescues Tonya (Christine Morrison) who was tricked into doing it. The perturbed Mr. Huntsacker sends a hit squad to Jerry's house and the dirty rats execute Jan right there in front of the Christmas tree. Jerry, who seems to have undergone some kind of extensive military training in the past and happens to have an arsenal full of automatic weapons and grenade launchers in his basement, goes into full-scale revenge mode, with entertaining results.

MAXIMUM IMPACT is a low-fi version of the typical Hollywood action-revenge flick and manages to be pretty entertaining. Ken Jarosz is an okay lead, while James Black delivers the kind of performance that would lead to a successful acting career in films and TV series such as SOLDIER and "Six Feet Under." Bill Morrison returns as Mr. Huntsacker's scarfaced trigger man George, and Michael Cagnoli is pretty amusing as his bumbling toady Bernie. Considering that the budget on this movie was a little over $2,000, it delivers a fair amount of action and suspense along the way.

Both films were directed by Lance Randas and feature many of the same cast and crew. Each one features a lively commentary track with producer J.R. Bookwalter and various other participants. The picture and sound have been newly-remastered for DVD, and if the 90-minute running time listed on IMDb for ZOMBIE COP is correct, it looks as though they've been trimmed a bit, too, since each film here runs barely longer than an hour.

If you demand high production values in your cinematic entertainment, and stories that don't fall apart if you take them seriously, then by all means steer clear of this DVD. Otherwise, you should have a lot of fun with this latest entry in the BAD MOVIE POLICE series. It takes me back to the old days of watching cheapo double-features in my local grungy movie theater, but without the sticky floors.

Buy it at Amazon.com

SHOW ME THE MUMMY:A Look At The Classic Universal "Mummy" Series by porfle

2009-11-13T09:58:00.000-08:00

(The Mummy/The Mummy's Hand/The Mummy's Tomb/The Mummy's Ghost/The Mummy's Curse)

Run! Or at least walk real fast! Here comes the Mummy--again!

Yes, I figure this is as good a time as any to take a look back at the classic original Universal Studios "Mummy" films that started it all back in the 30s and 40s. Let's see what we can dig up, shall we?

(Warning--this article contains a sarcophagus-load of spoilers!)

THE MUMMY (1932) stars Boris Karloff, receiving sole over-the-title billing here only a year after FRANKENSTEIN plucked him from relative obscurity. He plays Im-ho-tep, an Egyptian prince who was mummified alive for the sacrilege of trying to use the Scroll of Thoth to bring his dead Princess Ankh-es-en-amon back to life. Thousands of years later his tomb is discovered by archeologists led by Sir Joseph Whemple (Arthur Byron), and when a junior member of the team reads aloud from the Scroll of Thoth, the mummified Im-ho-tep returns to life in one of the creepiest and coolest scenes in the Golden Age of Horror and drives the poor guy stark raving mad when the crumbling corpse emerges from his sarcophagus, grabs the scroll, and shuffles off to Buffalo (or its Egyptian equivalent, anyway).

Jack Pierce's makeup job on Karloff here is magnificent, but after a few wide shots and one really great close-up, we never get to see it again. For the rest of the film Karloff appears sans wrappings (but with another fine, densely-wrinkled makeup job by Pierce) under the guise of the fez-headed Ardeth Bay, a mysterious Egyptian who shows up years later to lead the archeological team of Whemple's son Frank (David Manners) straight to the tomb of Princess Ankh-es-en-amon. With the recovery of her mummy and the Scroll of Thoth, Ardeth Bay plans to bring his ancient princess back to life--until he discovers that her soul has been reincarnated in the body of young Helen Grosvenor (the fascinatingly-eccentric actress Zita Johann), whom he now begins to lure into his sinister clutches. Sir Joseph Whemple and his son Frank discover Bay's intentions and try to foil them, with the help of a wise old expert in the Egyptian occult named Dr. Muller (Edward Van Sloan).

Unlike FRANKENSTEIN and THE WOLF MAN, there was no basis in literature or folklore for the character of the living mummy. In fact, the original script by Nina Wilcox Putnam was based on the life of French mystic Cagliostro, who claimed to have been several centuries old. But due to the sensation caused by the discovery of King Tut's tomb, the script was changed to take advantage of the public's mummy-mania at the time and offer Karloff as the undying Im-ho-tep. It was also heavily influenced by the previous year's DRACULA with Bela Lugosi, containing many of the same story elements right down to the almost-identical characters played by Edward Van Sloan and David Manners, and the replacement of the crucifix with an Egyptian ankh as a talisman against evil.

The cinematographer on DRACULA and a major influence on its look (especially in the early scenes in Dracula's castle) was German filmmaker Karl Freund, and THE MUMMY marked his first official stint in the director's chair. He gave the film its beautifully somber, almost expressionistic look and a deliberately-paced restraint that make it, as it has often been called, a "tone poem" of horror as opposed to the more lurid and over-the-top offerings in the genre. Today, many viewers might find it too slow and boring to sit through. But if your attention span encompasses an old-style form of storytelling that offers a wealth of exquisite subtlety and mood over visceral sensation, not to mention a great performance by Karloff, you will most likely find THE MUMMY to be one of the finest horror films ever made.

Strangely enough, it took Universal eight whole years to get around to making a sequel. But in 1940, they finally came up with THE MUMMY'S HAND, which, as it turned out, had nothing to do with the original story. This time, a couple of down-on-their-luck archeologists, the dashing Steve Banning (Dick Foran) and his pudgy comedy-relief sidekick "Babe" Jenson (Wallace Ford) are about ready to give up and leave Egypt when they stumble upon a clue that leads them to the ancient tomb of the Princess Ananka. But the tomb is guarded by the undying mummy of Kharis, who, like Im-ho-tep, was mummified alive for sacrilege. In lieu of the Scroll of Thoth, however, Kharis is kept alive by the fluid of boiled tana leaves, given to him over the years by a succession of High Priests who are dedicated to preserving the sanctity of the princess' tomb. The archeological expedition, which includes financial-backer and stage magician The Great Solvani (the lovable Cecil Kelloway) and his daughter Marta (the even more lovable Peggy Moran), is menaced by the Mummy until Steve and Babe locate the High Priests' temple and, in the exciting finale, vanquish the evil Professor Andoheb, current High Priest of Karnak (George Zucco) and set fire to the Mummy.

By this time, Karloff had better things to do than shuffle around wrapped head-to-toe in gauze, so actor Tom Tyler took over the title role. Better known as the title character of one of the greatest serials ever made, 1941's THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN MARVEL, as well as a prolific Western star, Tyler brought an eerie presence to the role of the homicidal Kharis. In the movie's trailer and in some of the wider shots of the film itself, Tyler's eyes are menacing and expressive, yet in his close-ups they're masked to appear solid black. Some prefer this and consider it scarier-looking, but I think he looks much more impressive without the special effect. Anyway, this time the Mummy remains mute and leaves his wrappings on, thank goodness--no fez for Kharis--as will also be the case in the subsequent sequels.

Other precendents for the future films are set here as well. THE MUMMY'S HAND begins with an old priest handing down his knowledge and responsibilities to a successor, and relating the history of Kharis and Princess Ananka through flashbacks from the first film. Here, scenes from THE MUMMY are combined with new shots of Tom Tyler replacing those of Karloff to depict Kharis defiling the tomb of Princess Ananka and being condemned to a living death. This is a scenario we'll see again. Another is the discovery of "a greyish mark...like mold" on the throats of the Mummy's victims. And finally, there's the inherently lovelorn and amorous nature of these new-model High Priests of Karnak, who just can't seem to keep their hands off the leading ladies. George Zucco sets this precedent in motion by developing a high-school crush on the captive Peggy Moran and planning to give her and himself the old tana-leaf injection until Steve and Babe show up just in time to stick a fork in his scheme.

With THE MUMMY'S HAND, the series was already double-bill fodder with a running time of only 67 minutes. Even so, the expedition doesn't even reach the desert until the halfway point, and the Mummy makes his initial appearance several minutes after that. But the comedy bits and character scenes leading up to that are fun, and once the action gets started it never stops. The scene of the Mummy coming to life before the horrified eyes of expedition member Dr. Petrie (Charles Trowbridge) and strangling him as the gloating Andoheb looks on is one of the high points of the entire series. The cast is fine and the film as a whole is a polished, competent effort that stands on its own as one of the most likable horror films of the forties.

In 1942 came the follow-up, THE MUMMY'S TOMB, which brought a surprisingly downbeat and decidedly unsentimental aura to the series. Gone was the comedy relief, along with the exotic Egyptian setting itself, and with it the security of knowing that certain characters were immune from the Mummy's wrath. This is powerfully illustrated early on as the Steve Banning character from the previous film, now thirty years older and living in peaceful retirement in the quiet New England town of Mapleton, is visited in his bedroom one night by a vengeful (and somewhat singed) Kharis and strangled to death. The next night his elderly sister Jane, whose misfortune is to be of the same bloodline as a defiler of the Princess Ananka's tomb, meets the same fate. And when Babe (whose last name has somehow changed from Jensen to Hanson) hears the news and comes to Mapleton to pay his respects, sure enough the Mummy runs into him that very night, corners him in an alley, and gives him the old five-finger chokeroo. Even when I saw this as a kid, I was aghast that these characters were getting killed off--this was eighteen years before Janet Leigh's fatal shower in PSYCHO proved that no one was safe.

Well, Steve Banning's goofball son John (John Hubbard) survives and goes skipping merrily through the woods with his fiancee' Isobel (the lovely Elyse Knox, who happens to be actor Mark Harmon's mom) while the new current High Priest of Karnak, Mehemet Bey (Turhan Bey) scarfs an eyeload of her and falls head-over-heels in love just like his predecessor. So, using Kharis as a sort of proactive go-between, he orders him to kidnap Isobel and bring her to the cemetary where he works as caretaker so they can share tana-leaf cocktails and go sailing off into eternity together. Which doesn't seem quite right to Kharis, but he does it anyway (in later films he'll get righteously fed up with such tomfoolery). But this eventually brings the whole town down upon them and, in a fiery finale, John rescues Isobel while the Mummy is trapped on the balcony of the Banning home as it goes up in flames.

THE MUMMY'S TOMB establishes Universal's new horror star, Lon Chaney, Jr., as the Mummy for the remaining three films in the series, and the tall, beefy actor is definitely the most intimidating incarnation of Kharis. He's big, mean, and vengeful, and somehow Chaney is able to convey this through the rubber mask now used by Jack Pierce to create the character, with a combination of body language and hand gestures along with his imposing physique. The film itself is a lean one hour long, with a full eleven minutes devoted to a recap of the previous film as recounted by Steve Banning to his disbelieving houseguests right before his final encounter with Kharis, and there's also the traditional passing of the baton from one High Priest to another. This time, it's George Zucco again, who somehow survived being shot two or three times by Babe and managed to keep his job after having failed so miserably, handing things over to the young Turhan Bey, who proves to be a not-so-great choice himself. But somehow, even with its brief running time and generous padding, THE MUMMY'S TOMB manages to generate a good deal of monster-type entertainment. It also adds a curious element to the series' timeline--if THE MUMMY'S HAND takes place in the forties, then how come THE MUMMY'S TOMB, which is supposed to be about thirty years later, also takes place in the forties? Hmm...

Not long after these events, however, comes THE MUMMY'S GHOST (1944), which opens with George Zucco's now-ancient Andoheb yet again breaking in another High Priest and hoping for the best. (They're the High Priests of Arkam instead of Karnak now, for some reason--new management, maybe?) This time it's John Carradine, who made movies like this mainly to support his theater habit, as Yousef Bey. When Andoheb asks him, "You are Yousef Bey?" it sounds like he says "Useless" instead of "Yousef", which turns out to be pretty accurate. With the Bannings and Babe all out of the way (except for the surviving John Banning, who is inexplicably given a free pass), Yousef is charged with a new mission: go to America, where the Mummy is still running around in Mapleton, and bring him and the Princess Ananka back home to their resting place in Egypt. Instead of brewing tana leaves to keep the Mummy alive, since he apparently doesn't need them for that purpose anymore, they're to be used now to lure him in the same way the aroma of a Brontosaurus steak used to lure Fred Flintstone.

The usual flashbacks are dispensed with this time as Andoheb gives Yousef a quick verbal rundown of the story thus far, which he hands off to the previous film's Dr. Norman (Frank Reicher of 1933's KING KONG) to finish in a lecture to his skeptical Egyptology students back in Mapleton. Unfortunately, Dr. Norman brews up a batch of tana leaves himself during a home experiment that night and the Mummy shows up to kill off yet another familiar character before chugging the concoction like a frat rat at a keg party. His presence somehow attracts a sweet young Egyptian college student named Amina (Ramsay Ames), who sleepwalks to the scene of the murder and passes out on Dr. Norman's lawn, then becomes a suspect when she's discovered there the next morning. Her stuffy boyfriend Tom (Robert Lowery, who played a dour Batman in the 1949 serial BATMAN AND ROBIN) whines to the local sheriff about this to no avail, then thoughtfully leaves his dog Peanuts with Amina to help cheer her up. (In one scene it sounds like he says, "Come on, Penis" to the dog--sorry, but this just sounds funny to me because I can't stand the stiff-arsed Tom character).

Yousef Bey's seemingly simple task is made more difficult when he and the Mummy reach the museum where Ananka's body is kept. For just as Kharis reaches out to touch it (he actually cops a feel--really!), it crumbles to dust as her spirit flees to another body. Whose body, you ask? That's right--Amina, who is the physical reincarnation of Princess Ananka, and now serves as the vessel of her living soul as well. So the Mummy kidnaps her and brings her to the abandoned tower where he and Yousef are hiding out. (For some reason, they pick the one place in town with the most steps for the slow-moving Mummy to have to walk up and down.) Yousef, of course, takes one gander at the lovely, bound Amina and goes ga-ga, his priestly vows flying out the window as he grabs for the tana fluid and professes his eternal love to her. The Mummy overhears this sacrilege, however, and turns him into a priest-Frisbee. Meanwhile, Penis--I mean, Peanuts has managed to lead Tom and the other townsfolk to their hideout, and while making his escape with the now rapidly-aging Amina, the Mummy wanders into a swamp and they both sink into the quicksand as the horrified Tom and Peanuts look on.

At 61 minutes, THE MUMMY'S GHOST is a pretty eventful little film with some good Mummy action. A lengthy subplot about Inspector Walgreen (Barton McClane, THE MALTESE FALCON) investigating Dr. Norman's murder and setting a trap for the Mummy at Norman's house goes nowhere, since the Mummy never shows up there again. (It was a dumb idea, anyway--dig a big hole in Norman's yard, cover it with leaves, and hope the Mummy falls in. "Duh.") But the Mummy's angry rampage at the museum after Ananka's body crumbles to dust and his killing of the museum guard are memorable, as are some good, spookily-lit closeups of him during the movie. Chaney's performance is energetic and effective, regardless of the fact that he hated playing the mute, heavily-wrapped character. Plus, the murder of Dr. Norman and the downbeat ending continue the unsentimental, anyone-can-die attitude of the series.

Continuity flies out the window faster than a Mummy-propelled John Carradine in 1944's THE MUMMY'S CURSE, the final film in the series. Timeline? While this one takes place twenty-five years after the events of the last film, it's still the forties. Mapleton? Never heard of it. Now, the Mummy and Amina are buried beneath a bayou in Louisiana which is being drained by land developers. Don't look at me--I don't know how they got there. But the workers start dying, and a Mummy-shaped hole is discovered by Dr. James Halsey (Dennis Moore), who is investigating on behalf of the museum against the wishes of the gruff foreman, Pat Walsh (Addison Richards).

Halsey's assistant is the delightfully-named Dr. Ilzor Zandaab (Peter Coe, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN), and it doesn't take long to find out that Zandaab is the new High Priest of Whatever, sent to finish the job that all the other idiots so overwhelmingly screwed up. This guy's different, though--he's hardcore, and nothing, not even Walsh's beautiful daughter Betty (Kay Harding), can sway him from his task. His eyes gleam with purpose as he narrates the extensive flashbacks (they're back!) for us, and if anybody has a chance of getting this long-standing Mummy business straightened out once and for all, it's this guy. He is my hero. One catch, though...he has a shifty-eyed henchman, Ragheb (Martin Kosleck), and sure enough, the henchman falls for Betty and screws everything up in the end. Somehow, I think Amon-Ra has a sick sense of humor and is just messing with these guys.

Comedy relief returns to the series--sorta--in the form of Cajun Joe (Kurt Katch) and a stereotypically-black swamp worker named Goobie (Napoleon Simpson), who exclaims at one point, "De Debbil's on de loose and he's dancin' wiff de Mummy!" Later, after some reconsideration, he amends this to observe, "De Mummy's on de loose and he's dancin' wiff de Debbil!" (Well, I did say "sorta.") Cajun Joe meets his end in a shot that graced the cover of at least one monster mag back in the 60s, while another likable character, Tante Berthe (Ann Codee), a singer who owns the local bar where everyone hangs out, gets hers while valiantly trying to keep the Mummy from grabbing a young girl found wandering around earlier in the swamp.

Played by Virginia Christine, who was "Mrs. Olson" in the old Folger's coffee commercials ("It's mountain grown!"), she turns out to be Amina herself. Her resurrection from the drained swamp is one of the most impressive, and downright odd, sequences in the entire series. Caked in dried clay, she struggles to break loose from her burial place and then staggers blindly through the woods, her head turned upward to the blazing sun as it glows through her closed eyelids, until finally she descends slowly into the water to cleanse herself. This is such a strangely beautiful, almost surreal sequence, it almost doesn't even fit into a relatively ordinary film like THE MUMMY'S CURSE, and is without a doubt the most memorable thing about it.

The Mummy has a lot more screen time in this film than in most of the others as he keeps trying to apprehend the fleeing Amina and killing anyone who gets in his way. He finally catches her and takes her to the abandoned monastery where he and Zandaab have been hiding out (and yes, it has about a hundred-and-fifty freaking steps for him to schlepp up and down), where he discovers that Ragheb has kidnapped Betty and has her tied up and ready for the old tana-leaf treatment. He's already killed Zandaab, who remained faithful to the cause to the bitter end (my hero!) and is duking it out with Dr. Halsey when the Mummy steps in and makes him sorry he ever went off-mission. Ragheb flees into a cell and locks the door, and the Mummy goes into a rage, ripping the bars out of the wall and bringing the roof down on both of them in a hair-raising scene that serves as a worthy end to this great character's involvement in the series. While discounted by some as the weakest "Mummy" film, I find THE MUMMY'S CURSE to be one of the most entertaining and unusual entries of all.

If you're into classic horror and especially the Universal monster flicks of the thirties and forties, and for some reason have managed to miss out on these movies after all these years, you can't go wrong with the "Mummy" series. From the undisputed classic Karloff original to the less prestigious but still totally cool programmers that followed, they remain some of the most highly-entertaining and rewatchable monster films that Universal Studios ever produced. So stick THE MUMMY--THE LEGACY COLLECTION (which contains all five films plus some cool extras) into your DVD player, pop some popcorn, brew up some tana leaves, and have some fun. It is the will of Amon-Ra!

Buy "The Mummy: The Legacy Collection" at Amazon.com
Buy "The Mummy" at HK Flix

"JENNIFER'S BODY" - On Blu-ray Disc and DVD December 29

2009-11-11T20:39:00.000-08:00

SHE’S EVIL… AND NOT JUST HIGH SCHOOL EVIL… MEGAN FOX STARS AS A KILLER CHEERLEADER IN "JENNIFER’S BODY"

Written By Academy Award® Winner* Diablo Cody, The Wickedly Sexy Horror Arrives On Blu-ray Disc And DVD December 29

Featuring An All-New Unrated Extended Cut Too Sexy and Gruesome For Theaters

LOS ANGELES, CA – (November 6, 2009) In every school there’s one girl, every girl wants to be friends with…and every guy would die for. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment presents a “student body” with a ferocious bite when Jennifer’s Body arrives on unrated Blu-ray Disc (BD) and DVD December 29. Sexy temptress Megan Fox (Transformers) is hotter than hell as Jennifer, a gorgeous, seductive cheerleader who takes evil to a whole new level after she’s possessed by a sinister demon. Steamy action and gore galore ensue as the male student body succumbs to Jennifer’s insatiable appetite for human flesh. Now it’s up to her best friend (Amanda Seyfried; Mamma Mia!) to stop the demonic diva’s reign of terror before it’s too late!

Fueled by the satiric wit of Oscar®-winning writer Diablo Cody (Juno), the sexy horror directed by Karyn Kusama (Aeon Flux) features a strong supporting cast of young Hollywood stars including Adam Brody (“The O.C.”), Johnny Simmons (Hotel For Dogs) and Chris Pratt (Bride Wars) as well as J.K. Simmons (Juno) and Amy Sedaris (“Strangers With Candy”). Killer bonus features include an unrated extended cut packed with more sex and terror in addition to writer and director commentary, deleted scenes, gag reel, video diaries, a Megan Fox PSA and much more. Jennifer’s Body will be available on Blu-ray (BD) as a two-disc release featuring a Digital Copy version of the extended cut for the suggested retail price of $39.99 U.S. / $49.99 Canada and available on standard DVD for $29.98 U.S. / $43.48 Canada. Prebook is December 2.

Blu-ray (BD) Features: (Catalog # 2263164)
Disc One
--Theatrical Widescreen Feature Film
--Audio Commentary with Director Karyn Kusama and Writer Diablo Cody
--Extended Widescreen Version
--Audio Commentary with Director Karyn Kusama
--Deleted Scenes
--Dead Boys (Jennifer Check Is Gross/ Needy Confronts Jennifer/ Who’s Cindy Crawford?/ Needy Faces The Band/ Ass, Gas or Grass…)
--Gag Reel
--Jennifer’s Body: The Dead Pool
--Video Diaries (Megan Fox and Johnny Simmons/ Amanda Seyfried/ Diablo Cody/ Dan Dubiecki)
--Megan Fox Is HOT
--Megan Fox “Peer Pressure” PSA
--Fox Movie Channel Presents ‘Life After Film School’ With Writer Diablo Cody

Disc Two
--Digital Copy of Jennifer’s Body (Extended Version)

Standard DVD Features: (Catalog #2263151)
--Theatrical Widescreen Feature Film
--Audio Commentary with Director Karyn Kusama and Writer Diablo Cody
--Extended Widescreen Version
--Audio Commentary with Director Karyn Kusama

About Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
A recognized global industry leader, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC (TCFHE) is the worldwide marketing, sales and distribution company for all Fox film and television programming on DVD, Blu-ray Disc (BD) and Digital Copy as well as acquisitions and original productions. The company also releases all products around the globe for MGM Home Entertainment. Each year TCFHE introduces hundreds of new and newly enhanced products, which it services to retail outlets -- from mass merchants and warehouse clubs to specialty stores and e-commerce - throughout the world. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC is a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, a News Corporation company.

Follow Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment on Twitter @FoxHomeEnt

JENNIFER’S BODY
Street Date: December 29, 2009
Pre-book Date: December 2, 2009
Screen Format: Widescreen – 1.85:1
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio; Spanish, French and Portuguese Dolby Digital with English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Cantonese, Mandarin and Thai subtitles (Blu-ray (BD))
English 5.1 Dolby Digital; Spanish and French Dolby Surround with English, Spanish and French subtitles (Standard)
Total Run Time: 102 Minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Closed Captioned: Yes

*2008; Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen; Juno

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THE OPEN ROAD -- DVD review by porfle

2009-11-10T22:43:00.000-08:00

The DVD cover, with a smirking Jeff Bridges and a dweeby-looking Justin Timberlake, makes this look like one of the worst movies ever made, but THE OPEN ROAD (2009) is actually pretty good. This old-fashioned road picture starts out slow and then, surprisingly, it stays slow, but if you settle in and let it grow on you, you'll probably start to like it.

Justin Timberlake is no Luke Perry but he's not bad as Carlton Garrett, a minor-league baseball player who really wants to be a writer but is following in the footsteps of his famous dad, Kyle "Lonestar" Garrett (Jeff Bridges). When Carlton's mom, Katherine (Mary Steenburgen), suddenly needs open-heart surgery, she refuses to go under the knife until her estranged husband Lonestar is at her side for good luck. So Carlton, along with his should-be girlfriend Lucy (Kate Mara), goes to a baseball convention in Ohio to fetch him back home to Texas.

The irresponsible Lonestar proves to be a handful, however, and it's hard to get him to commit to anything including actually reaching their destination. During the long, tension-filled road trip (they don't take a plane because--well, it doesn't matter), father and son hash out their differences while Carlton and Lucy sort out the reasons for their non-relationship. It's one of those journeys of discovery you've always heard tell about, and by the time they've taken the circuitous route down to Texas they've had themselves a heap of dramatic confrontations, revelations, and overdue realizations.

If you have to see Justin Timberlake in a movie, it's nice to see him playing a real person, which he does a pretty good job of simulating. In fact, his performance is very nicely low-key and restrained. Kate Mara is very sweet and likable as Lucy and we want to kick Carlton for neglecting her all those years and taking her for granted. Jeff Bridges, of course, could play gruff-but-lovable in his sleep by now, just as Mary Steenburgen can get by simply by dialing up that glowing, crinkly-eyed smile and syrupy voice.

It's nice seeing Harry Dean Stanton pop up all-too-briefly as Carlton's grandfather. Also look for Lyle Lovett as the bartender at the Peabody Hotel and Ted Danson in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo as the manager of Carlton's baseball team. (Danson only has a few lines and, since they're never in the same shot together, it's possible he and Timberlake weren't even in the same vicinity at the time.)

Bridges keeps things amusing with his gregarious and irresponsible character, constantly telling stories and lighting up whenever he's recognized by a fan (usually in a bar). His clashes with the nervous and irritable Carlton during the trip generate some interesting drama although thankfully it's never allowed to get mushy or maudlin. The same goes for Carlton and Lucy's tentative overtures toward each other, which are played with just the right touch of restraint.

When one of the characters does fly off the handle or get emotional, the screenwriter never goes for bathos or cheap sentiment. Thus, the more dramatic twists and turns in the story are easy to take. By the same token, although we get a steady succession of amusing lines and dialogue exchanges involving Bridges' character, nothing's ever played for cheap laughs and there are no blatant attempts at comedy. The story is firmly rooted in reality at all times and is all the more interesting for it.

As director, Michael Meredith gets the job done without drawing attention to himself. He's interested in telling the story well, not impressing us with his artistry. Natural southern locations are well utilized and nicely photographed. The score by Charlie Sexton compliments the action and is augmented by some well-chosen songs.

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby surround 5.1 and English and Spanish subtitles. Extras include a commentary with writer-director Michael Meredith and Jeff Bridges, a brief making-of featurette, and trailers.

I thought I would hate this movie but it's surprisingly watchable. Neither a heavy drama nor a silly comedy, THE OPEN ROAD is a pleasantly entertaining odyssey in which a dysfunctional father and son, forced to get to know each other again, learn to become a little more functional.

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DVD
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QUIET NIGHTS OF BLOOD AND PAIN -- DVD review by porfle

2009-11-10T09:52:00.000-08:00

"He's back from the war...but he can't stop killing!" Great tagline, though it doesn't give any hint of the thoughtful intentions underlying the gore in Andrew Copp's no-budget indie feature QUIET NIGHTS OF BLOOD AND PAIN (2009). Nothing wrong with a socially-conscious blood 'n' guts flick, of course, although here the different sensibilities tend to clash.

William (Loren S. Goins) is an Iraq war vet who's suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to the horrors he's witnessed and the acts of violence and torture he was made to commit. This, unfortunately, is exacerbated by the fact that he's a raving loon who thinks he's still on a mission to eliminate all terrorists, traitors, and subversives from the streets of Hometown, USA. Meanwhile, Adrienne (co-producer Amanda DeLotelle), another troubled ex-soldier, is struggling with her own inner turmoil while seeking help from a sympathetic Viet Nam vet named Ray (Ray Freeland). After William foils an attempt by two assailants to rape Adrienne in an alley, he begins to stalk her.

DeLotelle is not a polished actress, but she seems to feel the character deeply and has a way of evoking our sympathy. In fact, Adrienne's story is the most interesting part of the movie and she has two or three scenes that are especially effective. DeLotelle's acting style is so unaffected as to seem remarkably natural--in several long takes she's able to hold our attention as she struggles through one emotional ordeal after another.

Goins, on the other hand, has a talent for expressing repressed rage that erupts in either wild screaming jags or swift, brutal violence. Both he and Adrienne are often seen agonizing over their inner demons in the solitude of their bedrooms. While she wakes up crying and contemplates suicide, he has fits of extreme animalistic fury that would give Travis Bickle pause. I like the part where he starts doing pushups and banging his head on the floor with each downstroke.

Andrew Copp is a capable director and this homage to the killer-vet films of yore, which had a total production time of almost two years, looks pretty good considering its budget. (Sound quality not quite so good--some dialogue is hard to make out.) Much of the effectiveness of individual scenes is, of course, largely dependent upon the actors he has to work with. Some are stiff, awkward, and/or just plain bad. Others get the job done well enough. Filmmaker and "Freak Forum" podcast host Henrique Couto gives a particularly realistic performance in his short role as a janitor being waterboarded to "confess" by William. I also liked Juliet Fromholt as the girl at the bus stop who, in a nicely-done scene, clumsily tries to engage William in a conversation about the war.

There's not much to the story besides showing us the lives of two emotionally-devastated but very different war veterans who eventually cross paths with tragic results. Copp's portrayal of their difficulty in fitting back into society after doing their duty is most effective when we see for ourselves the pain Adrienne and William are going through, and much less so via bland speechifying such as the kind heard at Ray's group counseling meetings or his private chats with Adrienne. The seemingly wise Ray's use of mind-altering drugs to help Adrienne find her "spirit guide" seems a little ill-advised, although this does lead to a pretty nifty hallucination sequence.

These "message movie" segments alternate with the splatter flick that QUIET NIGHTS also wants to be, and somehow it's not as interesting. In relatively tame scenes, we see William eliminating some war protesters and a couple of bookstore clerks displaying "subversive" titles, and in the main setpiece, he breaks into the house of a couple with "MoveOn.org" bumperstickers on their car, ties them up, screams at them, and then dispatches them. Eventually, William gets it into his head that Adrienne has somehow betrayed her country and must be punished, and it's here that the bloody violence finally has some real impact. By the final shot and abrupt fadeout, the film has definitely made an impression.

Some of the wound makeup is good, especially the blood-spurting throat gashes, and there's a really effective burn makeup in the scene with William being negatively influenced by his deranged Gulf War-veteran brother Daniel (Copp). A disemboweling during the home invasion scene is distractingly less successful.

The movie was shot using a Panasonic DV-30 with an aspect ratio of 1.33. Extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette, a lengthy look at Copp's dark graphic art during a gallery exhibition, and trailers for this and three other Copp films.

As with most indie filmmaking on this budget level, the appeal comes from seeing how much the filmmakers are able to accomplish with so little to work with. If barebones production values and largely non-professional actors are a problem, you won't want to go near this. If not, however, then you may find it interesting to watch. With QUIET NIGHTS OF BLOOD AND PAIN, the gore is the least relevant factor while the characters are interesting and even a little moving.

Buy it at Coppfilms.com

SPREAD -- DVD review by porfle

2009-11-07T20:45:00.000-08:00

I'm going to make a shocking admission: I haven't been following Ashton Kutcher's career very closely lately. So when I saw the DVD cover for SPREAD (2009), I thought: "A movie about sports gambling? Deviled ham? Proctology?"

Actually, a lot of it is about just what you might think, you naughty people, but what it really means is the kind of easy-livin' set-up (as in, "nice spread") a narcissistic young hustler like Nikki (Kutcher) manages to finagle himself into by sweet-talking a rich single woman like Samantha (Anne Heche) into being his sugar mama.

Sam can't resist this cute boytoy who can service her like a sex machine while also playing on her maternal instincts. Nikki uses her credit cards, her material possessions, and her willing body till the wheels come off. But when Nikki falls for a beautiful girl named Heather (newcomer Margarita Levieva) who's just as much of a player as he is, all of his usual tricks backfire on him. Sam finally gets fed up with Nikki's constant promiscuity and kicks him out, leaving him homeless. When he tries to have a real, meaningful relationship with Heather, he finds that he's unable to give her what she's really looking for. Moral: two hustlers can't get anywhere hustling each other.

SPREAD isn't a comedy but it's light on the drama, too. The story's involving enough to keep us interested without engaging us all that much on an emotional level. This fits Ashton Kutcher's acting style since it doesn't go very deep--he manages to look pained when called upon to express anguish or despair, but that's about it. He's at his best when strutting about being irresistible to women or pumping away during the pneumatic, unromanticised sex scenes.

Nikki's opening narration tells us about all the thousands of pretty young hopefuls like himself who pour into L.A. every day looking to make it big. He's not interested in being a movie star, though, just living the good life--or rather, moving in on someone else's. With Samantha, he gets to lounge around the pool all day or have parties in her mansion when she's away, managing to have sex practically every time he turns around. We just know this isn't going to last.

These early scenes are like a wish-fulfillment fantasy for the viewer as we see Nikki coast past long lines into exclusive clubs and breeze through parties being a babe-magnet. He shares his secrets of romantic success with us, but the catch is that you have to look like Ashton Kutcher in order for them to work. As for me, I don't think they'd get me past the opening credits.

Anne Heche is holding up well these days and seems to have fallen off the lesbian wagon for good. We can't really sympathize too much with her character since Sam is good-looking, extremely wealthy, and able to attract guys like Nikki just by flashing her American Express card in public. Margarita Levieva is good as Heather, the mysterious object of Nikki's desire who stokes his interest by playing hard-to-get and then keeps him in the dark about whether or not she'll settle for him or continue to pursue romance in a higher tax bracket. Sebastian Stan (THE EDUCATION OF CHARLIE BANKS) plays Harry, Nikki's sometime-roommate upon whom he depends when things get rotten. Look for Maria Conchita Alonso in a small role as a wealthy matron.

Director David Mackenzie manages to make Jason Dean Hall's lean, straightforward script look pretty good. There are way too many songs on the soundtrack, though--I hate it when every emotional moment instantly sparks yet another sappy emo ballad to tell us how we're supposed to feel.

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby surround 5.1. English and Spanish subtitles are available. Extras include three featurettes--"Living the Dream: The Making of SPREAD", "The World According to Nikki", and "Behind the Scenes with Ashton Kutcher"--a commentary track with Kutcher, Heche, and Levieva, and a trailer.

Fairly effective on a superficial level, SPREAD isn't all that different from a lot of softcore DTV flicks with similar themes but manages to rise above them with a capable cast, good production values, and a director who knows how to move the camera. Definitely not essential viewing, but I did find it to be a pleasant enough diversion.

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SCARLET: THE FILM MAGAZINE #3 -- review by porfle

2009-11-07T10:11:00.000-08:00

If you were a reader of the late Richard Valley's "Scarlet Street" magazine then chances are you'll want to check out its successor, SCARLET: THE FILM MAGAZINE. And even if you never heard of Valley's long-running journal of all things fantastic and horrific, but are a serious classic movie fan with a desire for in-depth coverage, SCARLET is a worthy effort which definitely merits your attention.

It's taken me awhile to get around to reviewing it because this isn't the kind of magazine you just breeze through. While lavishly illustrated, there's no filler or extra-large print to make you think you're getting more than you are, and no puff pieces. There's enough information and insight here to keep the average reader engrossed for days.

As publisher Kevin G. Shinnick relates in his opening comments, issue #3 (Spring 2009) of SCARLET turned out to be somewhat of a tribute issue due to the passing of Forrest J. Ackerman, Robert Quarry, and Linda Miller. Ken Hanke's "Farewell to the Master" explores the ways in which Uncle Forry's "Famous Monsters of Filmland" introduced young fans to horror and sci-fi films in a relatively impartial manner, encouraging us to form our own opinions as our critical sensibilities matured. This is augmented by reminiscences by Joe Moe, Angus Scrimm, Carla Laemmle, and others.

Joe Moe, Tim Sullivan, and Fred Olen Ray offer their thoughts on the passing of Robert "Count Yorga" Quarry, who died at the age of 83. Artist Linda Miller is remembered by her friend Max Cheney (aka The Drunken Severed Head) in a fond tribute featuring several of her beautiful paintings from classic horror films. Especially intriguing is Linda's imagining of the death of Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive) in the original ending to BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

David Skal and Jessica Rains' "Mr. Rains Goes to Burbank" is the latest chapter in their continuing saga of the great Claude Rains and his distinguished film career. "Vampires and Space Probes and Snails...Oh, My!" is Lelia Loban's detailed look at the little-seen classic RETURN OF DRACULA with Francis Lederer and the Sputnik-inspired sci-fi quickie THE FLAME BARRIER.

With "The Cross and the Cauldron", Paul Leggett offers a thoughtful examination of the interaction of horror and Christianity over the years. Scott Essman's interesting interview with Elias Merhige about his surreal film THE BEGOTTEN succeeds in making me want to see it as soon as possible. Likewise with Ken Hanke's article on the film adaption of Clive Barker's MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN with Vinnie Jones (one of my favorite actors, dammit) and Ted Raimi.

"But wait--there's more!" as they say in all our favorite infomercials, and indeed this issue is generously stuffed with dozens of reviews of films, books, and music to pique the interest of your typical horror/ fantasy/ sci-fi/ mystery fan. And since that's pretty much what I am, SCARLET: THE FILM MAGAZINE #3 piqued me to pieces.

To order, send check or money order (made out to the magazine) for $8.95 to

SCARLET THE FILM MAGAZINE

PO BOX 2092

CLEONA, PA 17042-2092

Just Announced - "STAR TREK: The Original Series" Season 3 on Blu-ray December 15 from CBS and Paramount Home Entertainment

2009-11-06T20:18:00.000-08:00

NEVER BEFORE RELEASED ALTERNATE VERSION OF
STAR TREK PILOT TO DEBUT ON BLU-RAY

Unearthed After 40 Years, The Episode Anchors Bonus Features Of
STAR TREK®: THE ORIGINAL SERIES SEASON THREE Blu-Ray Release
On Sale December 15

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (November 6, 2009) - An unaired alternative version of the original STAR TREK pilot, found after 40 years, will be available to the public for sale for the first time ever as part of the STAR TREK®: THE ORIGINAL SERIES SEASON THREE Blu-ray disc collection.

The newly discovered version of the original pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," includes an alternative monologue by William Shatner, as well as different theme music and closing credits. It is presented in three parts with 1970s-style act breaks and was obtained from Magic Picture Home Entertainment GmbH. The Blu-ray set will be released on December 15 from CBS Home Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment.

Featuring all 24 episodes of the legendary third season, the six-disc set is presented in pristine 7.1 DTS-HD Master audio and superior picture quality offering the best possible home viewing experience. The BD-Live enabled discs also offer seamless branching allowing fans to toggle between watching these classic episodes as they were originally broadcast, or the newly remastered versions with enhanced special effects and sound for the best of both worlds. Also, every disc is Mobile BluTM enabled. Once downloaded, Mobile BluTM allows fans to turn their iPhones and iPod Touchs into Blu-ray player remote controls and download content for on-the-go entertainment.

In addition to the alternate version of the show's original pilot and interaction via BD-Live, the set includes new featurettes from Star Trek-themed panels at ComicCon International 2009 including "The Anthropology of Star Trek" and "The World of Rod Roddenberry," plus a 20-minute piece hosted by David Gerrold, the writer behind the classic episode "The Trouble With Tribbles."

Premiering in 1966, STAR TREK®: THE ORIGINAL SERIES aired for three seasons and launched a worldwide phenomenon for numerous television series and feature films that continues today. The series starred one of the most pivotal casts in television history including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig.

STAR TREK®: THE ORIGINAL SERIES SEASON THREE BLU-RAY will be available for the suggested retail price of $118.99 US and $136.99 CAN. The set is presented in the original 4:3 aspect ratio with English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, English Original 2.0 Mono, Spanish 2.0 Mono and French 2.0 Mono sound. The DVD is not rated in the U.S. and rated G in Canada. The total running time is 22 Hrs., 31 Min. The breakdown is as follows:

Disc One:
Spock's Brain
The Enterprise Incident
The Paradise Syndrome
And the Children Shall Lead
Is There In Truth No Beauty?
Special Features:
Preview trailers for each episode
BD Live enabled, Mobile-Blu™ enabled

Disc Two:
Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
The Tholian Web
Plato's Stepchildren
Special Features:
Preview trailers for each episode
BD Live enabled, Mobile-Blu™ enabled

Disc Three:
Wink of an Eye
The Empath
Elaan of Troyius
Whom Gods Destroy
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
Special Features:
Preview trailers for each episode
BD Live enabled, Mobile-Blu™ enabled

Disc Four:
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
Requiem for Methuselah
The Way to Eden
Special Features:
Preview trailers for each episode
BD Live enabled, Mobile-Blu™ enabled

Disc Five:
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
All Our Yesterdays
Turnabout Intruder
Special Features:
Preview trailers for each episode
Life Beyond Trek: Walter Koenig
Chief Engineer's Log
Memoir From Mr. Sulu
Captain's Log: Bob Justman
BD Live enabled, Mobile-Blu™ enabled

Disc Six:
The Cage
The Cage (Extended Version)
Special Features:
Where No Man Has Gone Before (The Unaired Alternate Version of the Pilot)
David Gerrold Hosts "2009 Convention Coverage"
"The Anthropology of Star Trek" Comic-Con Panel 2009
"The World of Rod Roddenberry" Comic-Con 2009
Billy Blackburn's Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories
Part 3
"To Boldly Go..." Season Three
Collectible Trek
Star Trek's Impact
BD Live enabled, Mobile-Blu™ enabled

CBS Home Entertainment manages the worldwide DVD business for the CBS Corporation across all lines of content including current hits and classic series from the vast CBS library, as well as new releases from Showtime Video. CBS Home Entertainment products are released on the CBS DVD label.

Paramount Home Entertainment (PHE) is part of Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment. PPC is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. PHE is responsible for the worldwide sales, marketing and distribution of home entertainment products on behalf of various parties including: Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Studios, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, CBS, PBS and Hasbro and for providing home entertainment fulfillment services for DreamWorks Animation Home Entertainment.

Star Trek: The Original Series Season 3 Blu-Ray
Street Date: December 15, 2009
Pricing: $118.99 US/ $136.99 CAN
Catalog #: 074354
Runtime: 22 Hrs., 31 Min.
U.S. Rating: NR
Canadian Rating: G

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BLUE SEDUCTION -- DVD review by porfle

2009-11-06T11:58:00.000-08:00

Sometimes a movie is so bad it's perversely amusing, and sometimes it's just plain bad. Hovering between the two is the suspense-thriller BLUE SEDUCTION (2009), a Canadian TV-movie which, unsurprisingly, looks like a Canadian TV-movie but, unsurprisingly, bears little resemblance to the better films it's modeled upon.

As Mikey Taylor, a washed-up rock star struggling to record a comeback album, Billy Zane appears to have prepared himself for the role by sleeping under his couch cushions for a month. There can't have been much preparation or thought behind his totally lackadaisical performance, which he obviously doesn't take seriously.

Much of it looks as though he's still rehearsing, unaware the cameras are rolling. There are several instances, in fact, when he stumbles so awkwardly through a scene that you find it hard to believe the director settled for that particular take. At other times, Zane seems to be preoccupied with wistful thoughts of leaping into the nearest lifeboat and abandoning ship.

Estella Warren (PLANET OF THE APES) isn't much better as Matty, a conniving singer-songwriter who weasels her way into Mikey's recording sessions and gradually begins to take over his life for her own purposes. Some of her dialogue scenes with Billy Zane resemble screen test footage. But at least she adds some energy to the lethargic proceedings along with considerable visual interest (translation: she's hot). And it's somewhat interesting to observe the utter brazenness with which her character begins to engineer Mikey's lapse back into alcoholism and drug abuse and the ruination of his marriage to Joyce (Jane Wheeler), his long-suffering wife.

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby surround 5.1 and English subtitles. No extras except for a trailer.

BLUE SEDUCTION is a stale leftover from the FATAL ATTRACTION psycho-bitch era--even the awful songs that Estella Warren sings sound like cheesy 80s power ballads. When things, as they say, "take a deadly turn" a la PLAY MISTY FOR ME, there's a last-minute plot twist that comes as a surprise (to me, anyway) and manages to make the film even more unpleasant. Warren's character is so over-the-top nutty and Zane's is such a somnambulistic nothing that I eventually began to suspect this film to be an unintentionally unfunny attempt at being unintentionally funny.

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NOTHING LIKE THE HOLIDAYS -- DVD review by porfle

2009-11-04T10:32:00.000-08:00

Less a warm family holiday film and more of a "mi familia loca" soap opera, NOTHING LIKE THE HOLIDAYS (2008) takes its time finally gathering up all the strings of its plot and weaving them into a mildly interesting variation of a familiar story, this time involving a Puerto Rican brood in Chicago.

The dysfunctional Rodriguez family contains enough drama for at least a whole season of primetime TV (including a Christmas special). Freddy Rodriguez ("El Wray" of PLANET TERROR) is returning Iraq war vet Jesse, haunted by guilt because he survived an explosion that killed his friend and unwilling to take over the family business as expected. Another GRINDHOUSE alumnus, Vanessa Ferlito (DEATH PROOF), is his actress sister Roxanna who hides the fact that she isn't the big star everyone thinks she is. With his usual manic energy, John Leguizamo plays Mo, the white-collar businessman brother whose Caucasian wife, Sarah (Debra Messing), also a biz whiz, is happy to let her biological clock tick away as her in-laws pray for grandchildren.

Of course, various romantic dramas are explored--Jesse yearns to get back with his ex-girlfriend Marissa (Melonie Diaz), who's involved with someone else, while Roxanna considers getting serious with family friend Ozzy (Jay Hernandez) but worries about his murderous vendetta against the neighborhood guy (Manny Perez) who killed his brother. All of this, however, takes a back seat to the bombshell that gets dropped on all of their heads during a big family dinner--namely, the sudden announcement by mother Anna (Elizabeth Peña) that she's divorcing their father Edy (Alfred Molina) after 36 years of marriage because she suspects him of cheating on her.

Until that moment, I kept wondering what direction NOTHING LIKE THE HOLIDAYS was going to take. It wasn't funny enough to be a comedy, although it does manage to be fairly amusing at times. I like this exchange between father Edy and war veteran son Jesse:

"We know you've been through a lot. Your mother and me, we rented 'Coming Home.'"

"I'm surprised you didn't rent 'Taxi Driver.'"

"Yeah, we rented that, too."

Luis Guzmán certainly does his obnoxious best to comedy things up as nephew Johnny, and it's fun seeing Leguizamo play a more conservative and vaguely nerdy character. The various dramatic elements also aren't all that engaging at first, and need time to percolate before yielding much interest. As a warm and fuzzy family Christmas story, it's barely there. But Mama Rodriguez' divorce decree throws the switch on what makes the rest of it work--now everyone's worried about not only their present concerns, but the fact that this will likely be their last Christmas together as a family.

There's a good running gag about the menfolk trying in vain to cut down a big, gnarly tree in the front yard which refuses to budge, which is probably symbolic of something if you think about it long enough. Rodríguez, Ferlito, and Leguizamo get some nice chemistry going in some of their scenes together. I could do without the pandering "white people" cracks, and it's troubling to see members of the family openly insult Sarah to her face in Spanish or refer to her as "Barbie Doll", especially when she's making an awkward effort to fit in. Her character, however, gains unexpected depth when she later becomes an ally to Edy after he reveals a crucial secret to her.

The film is at its best when Molina and Peña are on the screen. Alfred Molina can convey great warmth, as is evident even in his early scenes in SPIDERMAN 2, and his performance here is the emotional heart of the whole story. Elizabeth Peña, likewise, lends a realism and maturity to her role with seemingly little effort. Among the rest of the cast, the standout for me is Freddy Rodríguez in a sensitive and soulful performance that provides interesting counterpoint to his bombastic hero "El Wray" in PLANET TERROR.

The Anchor Bay DVD is in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Surround 5.1 and Spanish mono. English and Spanish subtitles are available. Extras include a commentary with director Alfredo De Villa, producer Robert Teitel, and Freddy Rodríguez, about fifteen minutes of bloopers, a trailer, and a cast reunion featurette (minus Molina and Leguizamo).

As a comedy-drama about the importance of family, friends, and lovers, and a celebration of Puerto Rican culture, NOTHING LIKE THE HOLIDAYS comes together in its second half with a pretty satisfying payoff. Not looking for it to become a Christmas tradition, though.

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NOT FORGOTTEN -- DVD review by porfle

2009-11-03T21:17:00.000-08:00

An interesting thriller that goes in directions I wasn't expecting, NOT FORGOTTEN (2009) starts out like a bland "father searches for kidnapped daughter" TV-movie and gradually gets much darker, weirder, and more intense.

Simon Baker, who played the "Movie Premiere Pot Bust" guy in L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, stars as Jack Bishop, a mild-mannered dad who coaches his 11-year-old daughter Toby's (Chloe Moretz) soccer team. After the death of Toby's mother, he marries Amaya (Paz Vega) and they seem to have a normal, relatively happy life until the day Toby disappears during soccer practice.

A sex offender is the first suspect, but the trail soon leads into stranger territory that involves a Mexican religious cult called Santa Muerte, a prostitution ring involving young girls, and some unsavory characters who appear to recognize Jack and keep calling him "Roberto." While the police and FBI seem to be going in circles, Jack heads south of the border himself and is drawn into a nightmare of violence and deception.

I thought this might turn into a variation on Paul Schader's HARDCORE, in which crusading dad George C. Scott followed his missing daughter into the dehumanizing depths of the L.A. porn scene. But while he was a straight arrow type with clearly-defined motives, there's more to Jack Bishop than we originally suspect. It's interesting to watch how easily he casts off his civilized fascade and blends into the world of the people he's hunting as though he belonged there. Simon Baker, whose work I'm beginning to like more and more, is very convincing in the role.

Director Dror Soref, who co-wrote the screenplay with producer Tomás Romero, starts things out slow and keeps a deliberate pace all the way to the end. Instead of getting faster and flashier, the story intensifies by growing stranger and more unpredictable, unveiling its revelations one at at time. Just when you think you've got things pretty well figured out, another unexpected twist comes along.

Although NOT FORGOTTEN isn't a horror film, the Santa Muerte stuff is pretty creepy. Julia Vera is especially unnerving as Doña, a blank-eyed, bed-ridden psychic to whom Amaya takes a skeptical Jack for help. The pervasive influence of the cult over Jack's hometown creates an uneasy atmosphere, as does our gradual realization that hardly anything or anyone are what they seem.

Not being one of those hyper-perceptive viewers who see every twist coming, I was continually taken aback by the story's surprises, one of which is just how downbeat and violent it eventually becomes. The scene in which Jack confronts a suspected kidnapper in a fleabag motel bathroom, wielding a broken bottle and a really bad attitude, is riveting. While the final resolution and open ending had me mentally replaying everything that went before and trying to figure out if it all really made sense (still not sure), it was pretty effective overall.

The Anchor Bay DVD is in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Surround 5.1. English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available. Extras include a commentary track with director Soref and producer Romero, a trailer, and a brief behind-the-scenes featurette.

NOT FORGOTTEN largely eschews the usual cinematic bells and whistles and takes a more subtle approach, leading us slowly downward into a dark place like a demented tour guide and showing us all the bad things around every corner. Technically well-done, with a good cast, it's an exciting and involving thriller that should keep you in suspense till the end.

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EXILE -- DVD review by porfle

2009-11-02T23:39:00.000-08:00

For me, one of the most fun kinds of movies to watch are the ones in which an indie filmmaker with a little imagination and a passion for making movies scrapes a comparatively miniscule budget together and then goes for broke. One such filmmaker, Mike Conway, put his previous film THE AWAKENING together for less than $6,000, yet I watch it a lot more often than I do the MATRIX sequels.

His latest film, another sci-fi actioner entitled EXILE (2008), cost several times that amount yet the budget was still low enough to necessitate considerable ingenuity in lieu of wads of cash. Once again, Mike's very own backyard serves as a backlot, and I'm willing to bet most of those interiors were shot in his garage soundstage. Living in Las Vegas, Nevada means access to some nice desert scenery as usual, but here we also get some great location shots in a desolate area of Utah filled with crags, crevices, and volcanic rock.

The story returns to TERRARIUM territory (Mike's second feature, released on DVD by Lionsgate as WAR OF THE PLANETS) with a crashed spaceship on an alien planet inhabited by monsters. This time, cargo ship pilot Jason (Brian Sheridan) and his crew, Karen (Sheila Conway) and Glen (George Miklos), are hijacked by a stowaway (C.J. Hyatt) and forced to land on the planet Midlanteer, which is halfway between their warring planets of Granlibon and Kamoorsta. Jason and crew overpower the enemy soldier but are attacked by Kam fighter ships and crash-land. All three survive the crash but Jason is blinded while Karen and Glen are killed by large crablike creatures with stinger tails.

Jason soon makes a startling discovery--a towering female android named Reyna (the 6'4"-in-heels Heather Lei Guzzetta) who has been living in the hidden bunker laboratory of her recently-deceased creator. Reyna, who requires contact with a human in order to survive (something about bio-signatures that I didn't quite catch), adopts the blind Jason as a symbiotic partner and helps him stay alive against the bloodthirsty monsters and Kam soldiers who are after him. As their relationship deepens, the android eventually professes her love for Jason. But when he's captured by a search party during her absence, Jason learns a shocking secret that casts everything he thinks he knows about Reyna into serious doubt.

As is the case with all of Mike Conway's homegrown films, you have to keep the limited budget and resources in mind and make allowances whenever EXILE doesn't quite look like a Lucasfilms production. The fun part is seeing how stuff like this was pulled off in the first place. Conway gets a lot of mileage out of his After Effects program with some nifty digital trickery (particularly in the matte shots and gun flashes), and he manages some fairly cool green screen shots as well. Scott Lichfield's hideous planet monsters are nutty and fake-looking, but fun and rather ingeniously done. And as in the case of THE AWAKENING, Airsoft supplies some totally authentic-looking weaponry that adds a lot to the battle scenes.

Probably the most impressive visual elements of EXILE are the space scenes by visual effects artist James Rogers. Against a well-rendered background of stars and planets are some cool spaceships that are videogame-quality or better, with fluid movements and some interesting detail during the space battles. The cargo ship's crash landing on the planet (reminiscent of a similar sequence in PITCH BLACK) and subsequent destruction by Kam fighter ships are very well-done for this budget level. As always, one can either be dismissive of the relative simplicity of these effects or admire the fact that they look as good as they do.

With the Reyna character, Conway's script blends elements of TERMINATOR, ENEMY MINE, and Data from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" but manages to take things in an unexpected direction before it's over. Heather Lei Guzzetta is an imposing figure as always and is effective in the physical scenes. Brian Sheridan, of indie filmmaker Tiffany Sinclair's 2005 film PRAEY, gives a solid performance as Jason, while Sinclair herself is quite good as Jason's girlfriend Sira. Mike Conway's wife Sheila is her usual dependable self, with the performances of the rest of his stock company--including THE AWAKENING vets C.J. Hyatt, George Miklos, and Jake Bass--varying widely in quality. Daughter Carmen Conway does the opening narration.

The Utah exteriors look good although direction and photography at times display the somewhat rushed, unpolished quality you'd expect with such a tiny crew and harsh conditions. Fog and smoke effects are overdone in some shots, and the dubbing of the soldiers, whose faces are partially hidden by oxygen masks, is a bit awkward at times. Most of the action scenes are well-done, though, especially when Reyna goes on the offensive against the encroaching soldiers. I also like the ending, which is left intriguingly vague. All of this is accompanied by Mike Conway's own self-performed synthesizer score.

The DVD from Midnight Sun Entertainment is in 1.85:1 widescreen with stereo sound. Extras include the 16-minute "making of" featurette "Off World", a trailer, and a very brief short film entitled "Big Dreams."

As with the rest of Mike Conway's filmography, EXILE is one of those films that some will find entertaining while others can only shake their heads at how little it resembles the slick megabudget stuff they're accustomed to. As for me, I admire the audacity and tenacity of such do-it-yourself auteurs and enjoy seeing how much they can accomplish with so little to work with. It's sort of like a conjuring trick, making feature films out of thin air, and as always I look forward to seeing what Mike Conway will pull out of his hat next.

Buy it at Midnight Sun Entertainment