Monday, July 29, 2019

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#622

Some things have to be addressed head-on, no matter how painful the experience may be...and for this episode, it takes not one, not two but three co-hosts to help Des navigate these dark water.  Can Adam, Jeff and Scott keep our Master of Scarimonies when he visits the 2006 Neil LaBute monstrosity, The Wicker Man.   We’ll see if four minds can figure out how one of the greatest films of all time (there, I said it--but of Ron Hardy’s 1973 original) was reworked into one of the most notoriously bad pieces of film that ever existed.  Then I come by to pay tribute to the late Rutger Hauer by covering the 1989 American Action Version of Zatoichi, Blind Fury!

The trailers are below, as is Nicholas Cage and Neil LaBute trying to sell us on the misbegotten baby they birthed, the Zatoichi theme song, and Iron Maiden’s official video for ‘The Wicker Man!’

Listen to Dread Media #622 here

Monday, July 22, 2019

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#621

This week we look at the mind of the mentally unstable!  First up, Des and I discover The Voices, where Ryan Reynolds takes advice from his pets and somehow keeps putting the heads of attractive women (including Gemma Arterton and Anna Kendrick) in his refrigerator.  Then Rich The Monster Movie Kid travels back to Victorian Times to join Bill Nighy in his search for The Limehouse Golem.

The trailers are below (Fair warning: The Voices trailer sort of....shuffles things around a bit to imply things happen differently), as is a compilation of Anna Kendrick singing--I think she’s cute, so deal with it--,  Nighy ranting about Marmite, and a vintage clip of Screaming Lord Sutch--he was kind of the English version of Screaming Jay Hawkins--singing a song about Jack The Ripper on Top of The Pops in 1964.

Listen to Dread Media #621 here


Monday, July 15, 2019

THE MOVIE OF MY LIFE PHASE ONE: Candidates for 1977

CROSS OF IRON
Those of you who were fans of Better In The Dark know my reverence of Sam Peckinpah.  Some people say this rather unique anti-war film as his last great movie, and I can understand that given it was followed by Convoy, The Osterman Weekend and some Julian Lennon videos.  What intrigues me is that this movie’s hero is James Coburn as a Nazi, and he’s fighting against the Russians.  I don’t think this take on war was common in the 70‘s, and I’m seriously intrigued to see how Peckinpah handles it.

PETEY WHEATSTRAW, THE DEVIL’S SON IN LAW
You fans of The Honeywell Experiment have heard me sing Rudy Ray Moore’s praises, who is one of the Towering Figures of Outsider Cinema.  This is the fourth feature to star Moore and is a dramatization of one of his ‘party album’ stories.  It features the flabby Moore kung-fuing his way through the plot with the aid of The Devil’s Pimp Stick. I expect a lot of swearing, a lot of rhyming, usage of the phrase 'rat soup eating muthafucker’ and the kind of nonsensical plotting that made Dolemite a glorious experience.

GOGOL 13: ASSIGNMENT KOWLOON
One of the earliest mangas that intrigued me was this epic about a super-efficient, super-cool assassin.  I knew they had made anime and a video game about the character, but I did not know--decades before we started putting comic book adaptations front and center--about this movie casting the legendary Sonny Chiba in the role.  Considering how I was impressed with Baby Cart on The River Styx, I’m curious to see how this IP is portrayed.

WHICH WAY IS UP?
I think we can all agree that if there is a Mount Rushmore of Comedy, Richard Pryor’s face deserves to be on it.  He is one of the true Icons of Comedy.  This is the film he made as a follow up to the first of his collaborations with Gene Wilder, Silver Streak.  He plays three roles, including a preacher that is supposedly one of his legendarily funny performances...and yet, it’s not talked about.  A lot of Pryor’s films are not talked about, except for the bad ones and the ones done with Wilder.  So I want to experience some of Pryor’s film work outside of the ones everyone knows...and there you are.

Hey!  Wanna Help Support This Blog And Get Cool Goodies In Return?  Then head on over to The Domicile of Dread Patreon Page and join me on my crusade to Make The World Stranger.  For as little as a dollar a month, you’ll get new fiction and exclusive essays.  Invest a bit more, and get other stuff including advance access to my new television podcast Thomas Deja’s Watching (new episode dropping end of the week!), the Patreon Exclusive Podcast Cinematic Mirage (I plan on the first episode, focusing on Tales From The Crypt: Dead Easy, dropping later this month), movie commentaries...and even the chance to assign me articles that’ll be published on this very blog!

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#620

Nazis on the moon and monsters on a schoolground make this week’s episode lively!  First up, Des interviews the mastermind behind the Iron Sky Universe as he preps for the release of the crowdfunded sequel, Iron Sky: The Coming Race,  Timo Vuorensola!  Then I join Des to review a horror spoof featuring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost...

No, not that one.  Or the other one.  Slaughterhouse Rulez, a film that may very well feature the most gratuitous use of Margot Robbie in history.

The trailers are below, as is a piece on the possibility of Nazis actually having landed on the Moon and Nick Frost and Simon Pegg schooling you on the coming zombie apocalypse.

Listen to Dread Media #620 here

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

THE MOVIES OF MY LIFE PHASE ONE: Bugsy Malone (1976)

Color me surprised.

Everything I read about this film emphasized that it’s a weird, mishandled, borderline creepy-in-a-pervy-way experience that was not appreciated anywhere but in Great Britain.  I was prepared for a weird-ass experiment of 'What-The-Fuck’ proportions.

What I got was a really fun musical with some great Paul Williams songs that could be read as a criticism of the glamorization of the gang lifestyle.

Yeah, sure, it is strange seeing this crime melodrama being enacted solely by kids 16 and under for the first twenty or so minutes or so....but then I found my brain adjusting to this world to the point where it seemed natural.  It help that director Alan Parker establishes the rules of this story early on and sticks to it (except for that strange scene where a Chinese Laundry seems to be populated by more adult actors) so we’re never brought out of the movie by inconsistencies.  It also helps that Parker’s script is not only genuinely funny but features dialogue that rings true to the 30's gangster movie genre without sounding parodic; there’s no 'winking’ at the camera, and the cast seem invested on creating a veracity to this story.  There were a couple of moments where I was laughing at loud at the banter.

...and there were more than a few moments when I was watching the musical numbers and speculating on the alternate Earth where Paul Williams’ career took him to Broadway rather than Hollywood.  These are not just pop songs; they’re legit show tunes that move the story along and illuminate characters.  Even the song I’m not all that keen on (and the one that I suspect gives it its ‘pervy’ reputation among people who don’t pay attention), ‘Tallulah,’ has a secondary purpose.   It is good dramaturge as well as songwriting, and I shudder to think of the awesomeness we could have had if Williams had pursued this career path.

(As a sidebar: I looked for the soundtrack on Amazon Music for it immediately after watching the film, only to find it’s out of print.  That’s two movie soundtracks on my Holy Grail list now, along with the magnificent power pop orgy that is 2002‘s Josie and The Pussycats!)

The acting, given that it’s an all kid cast, many of them not professional actors, varies but is generally okay.  There are some standouts, and I’m not just talking about Jodie Foster, who Mae Wests the Femme Fatale out of her role.  I particularly liked John Cassissi’s Fat Sam, who is hilarious and is responsible for one of the very few fourth-wall breaking gags.  But as a whole, the cast has the bantery style that marked 30‘s gangster epics down cold.  There are some sequences where Florence Garland, playing the ingenue Blousey Brown, thoroughly captures the spirit of quippy flipness that made Thelma Todd so delightful in those RKO Marx Brothers films.  It’s a pity that Cassissi and Garland didn’t pursue acting (Cassissi especially so, since he ended up in prison for money laundering).

Even though Parker never lost sight of this being a family film, I kept thinking that he was making a point about how Hollywood trivialized and glamorized crime, equating our perception of what ‘classic’ gangsterism was with kids’ playtime.  I think it works on both levels and it’s very effective no matter how you take it.  I heartily recommend it!

Hey!  Wanna Help Support This Blog And Get Cool Goodies In Return?  Then head on over to The Domicile of Dread Patreon Page and join me on my crusade to Make The World Stranger.  For as little as a dollar a month, you’ll get new fiction and exclusive essays.  Invest a bit more, and get other stuff including advance access to my new television podcast Thomas Deja’s Watching (new episode dropping in the next few days!), the Patreon Exclusive Podcast Cinematic Mirage (I plan on the first episode, focusing on Tales From The Crypt: Dead Easy, dropping later this month), movie commentaries...and even the chance to assign me articles that’ll be published on this very blog!

Monday, July 8, 2019

Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#619

With a certain celebration of the 80‘s occupying the servers of a certain streaming service, Dread Media looks from this past vantage point to the future...of the 90‘s!  Join Des and Duane as they review Boys In The Trees!  Then Des goes it alone and shares his opinions on the brand new revenger epic Rondo!

The trailers are below, as is a Lithuanian rock duo covering a song by a band called Rondo, an interview with Boys In The Trees director Nick Verso, and--since there’s nothing quite as 90‘s as Image Comics--a discussion of Gen 13 and the animated film that adapted it.

Yes, there was a Gen 13 animated film.

Listen to Dread Media #619 here

Monday, July 1, 2019

Phase GL of...THE HONEYWELL EXPERIMENT!

It’s The Summer of Slime here at the OcaDecaGonaGon, as Virginia and I welcome Western New York Literature and Movie Maven Greg Lamberson to school our lab rat on the Grindhouse Scene circa the 80‘s with the...underwhelming slasher flick Splatter University.  As you’ll learn from our discussion with Greg, this film has connections to his first movie, Slime City...plus you’ll get a eyewitness account of what it was like to work at a Times Square Grindhouse!

Btw, what we do not talk about is how Fobes Riley, the lead actress, has apparently become this Infomercial Queen....but it's true.  Just goes to show you....

You can find this illuminating chat here

So enroll in this latest experiment in boobs and bloodshed...and join us next month as we feature Greg’s legendary Cult Midnight Movie, Slime City!

Here's the trailer....
If you would like to support podcasts like this, have at least a dollar a month to spare (and that’s not much, honestly), and would like to receive goodies in return, please consider becoming a Domicile of Dread Patreon.



Meanwhile, Over At Dread Media....#618

His face is right there on the album cover for every episode of Dread Media...so this week Des and I pay tribute to the Great, Great Vincent Price by revisiting one of his iconic roles, The Abominable Dr. Phibes!  Join us as we review both the 1971 original and the 1972 follow-up, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, and discuss Price, the director Robert Fuest and the need for a great henchwoman.

The trailers are here, as is a rather bizarre television special featuring Price as his other medically licensed super villain, Dr. Goldfoot, a dissertation of how the Phibes films inspired some other films, and music by The Misfits and Dr. Phibes and The House of Wax Equations!

Watch out for the One-Handed Persuader!

Listen to Dread Media #618 here


WHEN WE WERE ULTRA: Punked By A Green-And-Purple Sci-Fi Cockroach and Other Indignities (RUNE V. 2, RUNE V. VENOM, RUNE: HEARTS OF DARKNESS, RUNE/CONAN crossover event)

  As with the other three Ultraverse titles that netted itself a second volume, changes were very apparent in the new, post-Black September ...