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Ack wrote:

Jake Armitage wrote:

Ack wrote:I also like a good (or bad) spaghetti Western, and I sometimes review them. Unfortunately, they seem to get the least attention amongst the few cult fans I talk with, but hopefully they'll get their due once again.

Heh - peplums are even more overlooked.Sones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5L9pA4fqnw[/quote
Yeah, they had an interesting evolution from sword and sandal to sword and sorcery in the 1980s. I tend to favor the later product because of the influence from Schwarzenegger's Conan the Barbarian, but when I want some cheesy fantasy, this is my go-to area.

The original peplums had a lot going against them - (some of them were actually pretty good (the best IMHO was "The Trojan Horse" with Reeves and Barrymore)) since the versions we got were generally really butchered with bad dubbing, miserable quality prints and the reduction from the original perspectives. (Although not a true peplum, the Reeves "Thief of Bagdad" was not bad - the parts were certainly much better than the whole.)

I find the whole AIP "Sons of Hercules" saga a pretty unique chaper in film history - where various and sundry movie heroes became sons of hercules via translation. I grew up watching those on Saturday afternoon tv in the early to mid sixties and loved them,

One of the peplums (I have forgotten which one) actually had the enemy soldiers wearing WWII German helmets that had been adorned with makeshift decorations.

The mainstream movies were doing much better with fare such as "Jason and the Argonauts" and the "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad" - even some of the lesser productions such as "Jack the Giant Killer" (1962) and "The Magic Sword" were not shabby at all.

God, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. I had a high school video production class that required we cut a trailer for that using two VHS players. I must have watched that film thirty times in one week. It's tough to go back to, so I'd rather seek out the schlock like Hercules and the Captive Women.

Speaking of schlock, I figured I'd also link my review of Out of the Dark (1989), a trashy erotic thriller about a guy in a clown mask who murders phone sex operators in LA. The ending is terrible, but I still find this movie deliciously gross.

Ack wrote:God, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. I had a high school video production class that required we cut a trailer for that using two VHS players. I must have watched that film thirty times in one week. It's tough to go back to, so I'd rather seek out the schlock like Hercules and the Captive Women.

Speaking of schlock, I figured I'd also link my review of Out of the Dark (1989), a trashy erotic thriller about a guy in a clown mask who murders phone sex operators in LA. The ending is terrible, but I still find this movie deliciously gross.

Heh - the ship used in the Seventh Voyage of Sinbad was the replica of the Santa Maria (well the top decks only - the thing is not capable of anything other than a really short ocean voyage - (a three hour tour where the tiny ship gets tossed?)) which is based in Barcelona. For the storm scene they used fireboats shooting water from the harbor. Unfortunately Barcelona at the time dumped all of its raw sewage in the harbor - most of the cast and crew on the ship got really sick as a result but had to keep shooting the film since they were on a very tight schedule.

I have Out of the Dark on laserdisc. Laserdiscs for some reason had a lot of cheap erotic (very often they just hinted at being erotic) movies released - many of which still (Out of the Dark included) haven't been released on DVD. (One of the reasons I have kept my laserdiscs is because there are some real gems there that still aren't available on DVD,)

Finally saw The Frighteners and enjoyed it. It kinda felt like an R-rated Beetlejuice in places.

Last night, my wife and I watched the first Sartana movie, gloriously titled If You Meet Sartana, Pray for Your Death. It was so awesome, and it was pretty much non-stop action and awesome spaghetti western imagery. Loved it.

Yeah, dude. Keep watching them, but focus on the "official" films first. There are also a few crossovers, but they're unofficial.

Also, I went back to Ghanaian cinema. Because I hate myself. Ananse (2010), the Ghanaian Spider-Man.

So last night I decided to watch a movie, that was recommended to me as one of those 'so bad is good' movies from the 90's.

And that movie is the Ice Cream Man, a cheap horror schlock from 95' starring Clint Howard and directed from some porn director that never did anything else mainstream (thank god).

It is very hard to believe that the movie wasn't intentionally trying to be funny, horror comedy is a thing after all, but regardless of intent, it often passes the line of ridiculous and unintentional comedy.

The most off putting thing about the movie was something I didn't expect, the kids.

Just like the first part of the TV Movie 'It' (the 90's one not the new Cinema release) a group of kids are the real heroes, and a lot of scenes are spend following them, in complete 90's cringe (says the guy who was around their age at the time).

I always find that kids 'nerf' anything they are in if they feature prominently (except Game of Thrones) is hard to know if that was the case here, but given how prominent the kids are to the story and screen-time, and how often adults are presented as incompetent buffoons, I wonder who this movie was targeted towards, kids of the 90's that legally weren't supposed to watch it?

Not that the 90's low-budget gore is anything to write home about, and in fact can add to the comedy (intentionally or not) on some scenes.

Not sure if this was the best movie to start the year with (here's to four more before December) and I'm not sure if I should be recommending this movie to anybody, but if you have nostalgia for pure 90's disposable horror schlock, with a dose of comedy, you can watch the movie in its entirety on YouTube for free (cause god knows why you would pay for it).

There was an interest in my thoughts on The Green Inferno, so here we go! My review has gone live.

One thing that I love about Eli Roth is his work to bring attention back to forgotten horror films and subgenres. I'm not saying it's always timely or well done (Death Wish...), But I respect a desire to focus attention in areas that are being forgotten.

Finally saw Spider-Man: Homecoming, which was awesome. Easily the best live-action adaptation of the famous webhead. Tom Holland is as much a better Peter Parker than Tobey Maguire as he is a better Spider-Man than Andrew Garfield.

Also I watched Shocker recently. It was okay.

Ack wrote:There was an interest in my thoughts on The Green Inferno, so here we go! My review has gone live.

One thing that I love about Eli Roth is his work to bring attention back to forgotten horror films and subgenres. I'm not saying it's always timely or well done (Death Wish...), But I respect a desire to focus attention in areas that are being forgotten.

Aha! Thanks! You got the same message out the movie I did, which eases my mind a bit. The others I saw the movie with thought I was crazy.

I was actually surprised with how toned down his version of Death Wish was compared to the original. One of the biggest cases of him leaning away from the dark bits of what he makes.