Movies I Have Seen Lately

[The Baron]

Saw a Takashi Miike picture called The Great Yokai War. "Yokai" is a Japanese term for monsters from folklore, as opposed to the more familiar kaiju. It's a kids' picture, about a young boy from Tokyo sent out to live in the countryside with his older sister and his intermittently senile grandfather. When a vengeful spirit appears, the boy gets caught up in a war between warring groups of yokai and must find his courage to become the "Kirin Rider", the hero who will set everything to rights. It's not a bad picture - nothing deep, but an amusing story. Some of the yokai are really trippy, Japanese folklore can get pretty "out there", apparently.

[The Baron]

I find it flows a little better, because it doean't have the intrusive scenes with Raymond Burr and the army guys.

Jeff of Earth-J said:

"Just curious, have you ever seen the original Japanese version of this, Godzilla (1984)?"

I have not. Is it significantly different? 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

It's already in our cart. Thanks!

You know, I generally like sequels that come out decades after the originals.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

THE SCREAMING SKULL (1958, b&w): Back to Tracy's list. This movie starts with a warning and an assurance that the producers will pay the burial expenses for anyone who dies of fright while watching the movie. Let me assure anyone reading this post: it's not that scary. But it is moody in a low key kind of way, like Carnival of Souls. A couple of newlyweds move into the mansion inherited by the groom's first wife, who died accidentally on the premises. the gardener is Mickey, who was devoted to the first wife and grew up on the estate with her, the son of the original garner. Mickey is lame in one leg, mentally slow, and the prime suspect when the "ghost" of the first wife begins terrorizing wife #2. There is a painting of wife #1 still hanging in the house, and it reminds wife #2 of her own mother. the only other two characters are the local pastor and his wife, friends of the family. There are a couple of twists toward the end, making for an enjoyable B-flick that perhaps takes itself a bit too seriously. 

[The Baron]

I've only ever seen the MST3K version of this.  I must see that my opinion of this episode has improved since I wrote this. It's grown into one of my favorite episodes tp re-watch.

Jeff of Earth-J said:

THE SCREAMING SKULL (1958, b&w): Back to Tracy's list. This movie starts with a warning and an assurance that the producers will pay the burial expenses for anyone who dies of fright while watching the movie. Let me assure anyone reading this post: it's not that scary. But it is moody in a low key kind of way, like Carnival of Souls. A couple of newlyweds move into the mansion inherited by the groom's first wife, who died accidentally on the premises. the gardener is Mickey, who was devoted to the first wife and grew up on the estate with her, the son of the original garner. Mickey is lame in one leg, mentally slow, and the prime suspect when the "ghost" of the first wife begins terrorizing wife #2. There is a painting of wife #1 still hanging in the house, and it reminds wife #2 of her own mother. the only other two characters are the local pastor and his wife, friends of the family. There are a couple of twists toward the end, making for an enjoyable B-flick that perhaps takes itself a bit too seriously. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Oh, I didn't know MST3K spoofed this one. I see from your post it was one of the later ones. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

ATRAGON: This is it: the last of the non-Godzilla Toho movies to introduce a kaiju later featured in Destroy All Monsters which i have not seen. another thing to cross off my "bucket list"! I expected to enjoy this movie, but I didn't expect to enjoy it quite as much as I did, despite it being quite different from what i had expected. I expected it to by a typical Toho kaiju movie, but what it is instead is a Toho tokusatsu movie with a kaiju in it. In this case, the ancient Mu empire plots to reclaim the surface world. Good stuff! 

[doc photo]

Blood of Dracula as seen on Svengoolie. This film was part of American International's "Teenage" monster series. Supposedly the title was intended to be I Was A Teenage Vampire which would have been a better fit since there is very little blood and no Dracula in the movie. The other teenage monster films have a certain entertainment value, Blood of Dracula however is downright awful.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

THE BEAST OF YUCCA FLATS: This movie looks quite familiar to both Tracy and me. Was it an MST3K? I suspect we saw it last year when we binged 30 or so MST3Ks we recorded. I have the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, but the problem with that is 1) it's incomplete, and 2) there no index (!). Lines such as, "There's a flag on the Moon. Who planted it?" are hard to forget. At 53 minutes, I hesitate to call it a "movie" in the first place. that's more like an episode of a TV show without commercials. But it does star Tor Johnson, which bespeaks of the quality of the film.

TOR! TOR! (from Josh Alan's sadly unproduced musical on the life and movies of Ed Wood)

CAST

Tor! Tor!

Hear the crowd roar

Super Swedish Dinosaur

Tor! Tor!

He's paid to be mean

Lobotomized eyes

Of a 400 pound Mr. Clean

A very bad dream

TOR

I eat Swedish meatballs

And wrestle my foes to the floor

CAST

What a sight!

What a smell!

He's a vision of hell

Atomic Age thespian 

Wrestling zombie dumbbell

More! More!

Toreador

Nordic Viking man of war

TOR

It's hard to be mean

Make everyone scream

And scare 'em again

I have to pretend

For big silver screen

I come from behind

Swedish Frankenstein

It's time to be fed

My enemy's head

It bobbles off spine

TOR

I eat Swedish meatballs

And wrestle my foes to the floor

I am Tor!

Mighty Tor!

[The Baron]

The Beast of Yucca Flats was Show 621, it should be in the episode guide.  Coleman Francis makes Ed Wood look like John Ford.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Ah, got it.

Yeah, that entry pretty much sums up the movie. 

[Richard Willis]

I Was a Teenage Werewolf (seldom mentioned as starring Michael Landon) was referenced in the novel It by Stephen King. Some of the many real and imaginary horrors the entity who called itself Pennywise sent against its victims were (unstated) takeoffs on the Universal monsters. The werewolf one sported the high school jacket Landon wore in his movie.

doc photo said:

Blood of Dracula as seen on Svengoolie. This film was part of American International's "Teenage" monster series. Supposedly the title was intended to be I Was A Teenage Vampire which would have been a better fit since there is very little blood and no Dracula in the movie. The other teenage monster films have a certain entertainment value, Blood of Dracula however is downright awful.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER: Inspired by The Autobiography of Mr. Spock, I have decided to watch a couple of relevant movies. This one doesn't usually rate very highly in fan polls I have seen, but there are some parts of it I like very much. (I certainly like it more than fan favorite Stark Trek IV: "The One with the Whales.") 14 years pass between Star Trek: The Motion Picture (one of my personal favorites) and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, whereas Star Trek II through V take place in the relatively compressed timeframe of three years (2285-2287). One non-Spock-related thing that V has in common with TMP is that they are both beginnings. Most of DC's second Star Trek series fit in continuity between V & VI.