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.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Oh! And I forgot to mention: for those of you not scoring at home, this is the 50th in Tracy's 50 movie pack of B-movies. Yay!

[Richard Willis]

I truly believe there will be more.

Jeff of Earth-J said:

Oh! And I forgot to mention: for those of you not scoring at home, this is the 50th in Tracy's 50 movie pack of B-movies. Yay!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"I truly believe there will be more."

Funny you should say that. As I was filing the "50 Horror Classics" away in the video closet, I found a "Strange Tales" 20 movie pack. The funny thing is, neither Tracy nor I remember buy it. This one includes plot synopses, so I can just copy those before posting my remarks. (I hate writing plot synopses.) The first one up was...

ALIEN SPECIES (1996): "A fleet of UFOs is circling the Earth and a top scientist races to discover their true intentions for the planet."

Is that the movie I just watched? Maybe I'll have to write some synopses after all. The movie opens with a young man and a young woman who discover a fleet of aliens spaceships heading toward Earth. The woman goes to report it to her boss, he grabs his granddaughter, and they all head off in a car for... somewhere. To be honest, I found it extremely difficult to pay attention. It is raining. Also on the road is a paddy wagon transporting prisoners. There is one "good" guard and one "bad" guard, and one "good" prisoner and one "bad" prisoner. The car carrying the scientist and the two young women sides off the rain slick road into a tree. The paddy wagon picks them up, then soon runs off the road itself. The seven cast members take refuge in a nearby cave. 

A huge mothership arrives over a large city. It launces several smaller fighters, and they begin attacking. Meanwhile, an indeterminate number of alien are in the cave (for some reason) where the main cast has taken refuge. There are small clothed aliens and large naked aliens. One by one, all of the cast are picked off until just the women and the "good" prisoner remain. He spends the rest of the movie speaking in catch-phrases... like every single line. Byt the next morning it has stopped raining and they make their way to the nearest city on foot to "warn" the authorities. Then, who should drive up but the doofus from the first scene.

Now the two guys and the two girls are being chased by an individual spaceship. They take refuge in an abandoned warehouse. After they have defeated the local alien, they see all the alien fighters heading for the mothership. "Wait a minute," says one of them (it doesn't matter which one), "How do we know they're really leaving." And that's the so-called "end". Tracy read online that the sequel announce at the end of the credits was never made (big surprise there), but we didn't even get tot see the announcement because the credits cut off early. Tracy looked Alien Species up online and found it rated two and a half stars (out of ten) on one site, and 3% on another. so I'd say we're off to a great start.

For those of you who would like to follow along at home, please send two box tops and proof of purchase to "Strange Tales, Earth-J." Mark the envelope "Attn: Tracy" and we will send you a checklist of all 20 films absolutely free!

[The Baron]

For those of you who can't be bothered with that, the titles are:

1. Alien Species
2. The Amazing Transparent Man (MST3K Show 623)
3. Counterblast
4. The Doomsday Machine
5. Evil Brain from Outer Space
6. Frozen Alive
7. The Head
8. Idaho Transfer
9. The Lost Jungle
10. Night Fright
11. Night of the Blood Beast (MST3K Show 701)
12. Prisoners of the Lost Universe
13. The Return of Dr. Mabuse
14. Robot Pilot
15. Star Odyssey
16. Terror Creatures from the Grsve
17. This Is Not a Test (Discussed here)
18. Unknown World
19. War of the Monsters (a.k.a. Gamera vs. Barugon) (MST3K Show 304)
20. Warriors of the Wasteland

Jeff of Earth-J said:

For those of you who would like to follow along at home, please send two box tops and proof of purchase to "Strange Tales, Earth-J." Mark the envelope "Attn: Tracy" and we will send you a checklist of all 20 films absolutely free!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Actually, we had planned to engage you as our fulfilment center, anyway, so I guess you just eliminated the middleman.

No box tops for you, though! (We were prepared to send you 10% of all requests received.) 

Have you watched all of these? Perhaps you'd care to watch along with us...?

[Richard Willis]

They take refuge in an abandoned warehouse.

What would storytellers do without abandoned warehouses?

[The Baron]

Dude, I don't have any fulfillment. I never have.  I've seen some, but not all of them.  I may as well watch along, but I can't promise to stick to your schedule.

Jeff of Earth-J said:

Actually, we had planned to engage you as our fulfilment center, anyway, so I guess you just eliminated the middleman.

No box tops for you, though! (We were prepared to send you 10% of all requests received.) 

Have you watched all of these? Perhaps you'd care to watch along with us...?

[The Baron]

I watched this tonight.  It was even dumber than Jeff made it sound.  The guy who played the sheriff was Charles Napier, i.e., this guy:

Jeff of Earth-J said:

"I truly believe there will be more."

Funny you should say that. As I was filing the "50 Horror Classics" away in the video closet, I found a "Strange Tales" 20 movie pack. The funny thing is, neither Tracy nor I remember buy it. This one includes plot synopses, so I can just copy those before posting my remarks. (I hate writing plot synopses.) The first one up was...

ALIEN SPECIES (1996): "A fleet of UFOs is circling the Earth and a top scientist races to discover their true intentions for the planet."

Is that the movie I just watched? Maybe I'll have to write some synopses after all. The movie opens with a young man and a young woman who discover a fleet of aliens spaceships heading toward Earth. The woman goes to report it to her boss, he grabs his granddaughter, and they all head off in a car for... somewhere. To be honest, I found it extremely difficult to pay attention. It is raining. Also on the road is a paddy wagon transporting prisoners. There is one "good" guard and one "bad" guard, and one "good" prisoner and one "bad" prisoner. The car carrying the scientist and the two young women sides off the rain slick road into a tree. The paddy wagon picks them up, then soon runs off the road itself. The seven cast members take refuge in a nearby cave. 

A huge mothership arrives over a large city. It launces several smaller fighters, and they begin attacking. Meanwhile, an indeterminate number of alien are in the cave (for some reason) where the main cast has taken refuge. There are small clothed aliens and large naked aliens. One by one, all of the cast are picked off until just the women and the "good" prisoner remain. He spends the rest of the movie speaking in catch-phrases... like every single line. Byt the next morning it has stopped raining and they make their way to the nearest city on foot to "warn" the authorities. Then, who should drive up but the doofus from the first scene.

Now the two guys and the two girls are being chased by an individual spaceship. They take refuge in an abandoned warehouse. After they have defeated the local alien, they see all the alien fighters heading for the mothership. "Wait a minute," says one of them (it doesn't matter which one), "How do we know they're really leaving." And that's the so-called "end". Tracy read online that the sequel announce at the end of the credits was never made (big surprise there), but we didn't even get tot see the announcement because the credits cut off early. Tracy looked Alien Species up online and found it rated two and a half stars (out of ten) on one site, and 3% on another. so I'd say we're off to a great start.

For those of you who would like to follow along at home, please send two box tops and proof of purchase to "Strange Tales, Earth-J." Mark the envelope "Attn: Tracy" and we will send you a checklist of all 20 films absolutely free!

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"What would storytellers do without abandoned warehouses?"

Use caves, perhaps (which this movie had, too).

"I can't promise to stick to your schedule."

We don't have any "schedule" to speak of, only that we watch them in disc order. Whenever there's nothing else we want to watch on TV on a given night, one or the other of use will suggest a B-movie. 

"It was even dumber than Jeff made it sound."

I was alive in 1996 but don't remember this movie at all. It was unrated, which suggests it went the straight-to-video route.

[The Baron]

I'd never heard of it, either.  This picture so feels like it ought to have been on MST3K.

Jeff of Earth-J said:

I was alive in 1996 but don't remember this movie at all. It was unrated, which suggests it went the straight-to-video route.

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

Tipton-Rosemark Academy Presents: Little Shop of Horrors.

PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod said:

I may be able to post a link to a video after the performances.

[Richard Willis]

I had to watch the whole show!

PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod said:

Tipton-Rosemark Academy Presents: Little Shop of Horrors.

PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod said:

I may be able to post a link to a video after the performances.