PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 553

One Under The Sun is a 2017 movie about a mission to Mars. It's pretty boring and hard to get to the end of without speeding it up a bit. It was on Amazon Prime so it didn't cost anything. Avoid it.

The Atomic Zombie Space Creeps is a 2017 alien invasion movie that's pretty amateurish. The aliens have turned some humans into zombies. One guy hasn't turned yet, he tries to help a zombie woman, he also meets an alien that disagrees with the invasion. They travel together in a car, heading to DC, until a passing alien ship stops it with a ray. It turns off the nano tech in the zombie woman and the Earthman still wants to bring her dead body along. Some of the script ideas just makes no sense. It's a slight bit better than the first movie but it's still not more than a 3 to me and that's being generous. There's a bit of a space battle and that was nearly nice to look at. Lucky it's only 54 mins. I wouldn't need to see it again.

Those Were The Days 1934

Those Were The Days is a 1934 Will Hay film that is part of The British Film series from Network. I hadn't seen it before and as I'm interested in getting all of Will's films I ordered one. I paid $6.12 less than a month ago and it's now $7.24 from the Amazon Global Store. That's Amazon US selling stuff that's shipped from Amazon UK. Sometimes it's cheaper to go through the AUS site but usually I wind up looking there because AUK isn't shipping that DVD to the US. Without proof, it seems that there are more titles that ship to the US than not, I rarely find one listed as not available for shipping to the US, usually an Amazon partner will sell it and ship it from their location.

Those Were The Days is a farce that started out as a play called The Magistrate. It was written by Arthur Wing Pinero. Four writers: Jack Jordan, Frank Launder, Frank Miller and Fred Thompson, worked on getting it to the screen. I'm a big fan of Frank Launder and seek out his films. I suspect most of the 21 films he wrote before this one are going to be hard to find on DVD. I actually have seen Josser In The Army and didn't care that much for it, mostly because of the main star of the picture Ernest Lotinga, he didn't appeal to me.

Thomas Bently is the director. Most of Thomas's films were silent, he started directing in 1912 and worked until 1941. I haven't seen much of his other work. I know I've seen his 1937 film Murder At The Baskervilles with Arthur Wontner as Sherlock Holmes and I did like his 1934 crime film The Scotland Yard Mystery.

In Those Were The Days Will is a strict magistrate who has a son that's a bit of a tearaway. Will's married to a wife with a secret, she lied about her age and her 15 year old son is really 20. John Mills plays the son. He gets Will to go with him to the music hall where we see some of the acts of the era. Nice that some of these acts got committed to film so people can see what passed for entertainment at the time.

There's plenty of noise as more of the family show up at the music hall. A fight breaks out and the mom and her sister are arrested. They get sentenced to 7 days in the pokey by Will. He didn't recognize them as they were heavily veiled. They won't have to serve any time as the whole story comes out in the end. It's a good reminder not to lie to your spouse, it always seems to catch up to people at the most inopportune time. I enjoyed it and would watch it again.

Big Legend 2018

Big Legend is a 2018 Bigfoot movie. A guy and his girlfriend go camping and she's taken by Bigfoot. We jump a year and the guy is getting out of a mental institution. He packs up some guns and heads back to the woods. Sure enough Bigfoot is still there and still a murderous prick who will eat you. The guy meets up with another guy who fills him in on some background on Bigfoot. The area is posted with markers that were nailed to the trees by the ancient locals. They mean don't go in that part of the woods. They do.

It's a man monster slugfest with plenty of running in the woods and some gory bits. I found I enjoyed it more than some of the other Bigfoot movies I've seen recently. It's not Abominable good but I don't feel bad for paying 4 bucks for it. I'd watch it again.

Big Legend is written and directed by Justin Lee. This was his first feature, one of four that came out in 2018, he had directed some TV and a few shorts before this. He's only had one movie out this year but another has been completed and another's in post production. I haven't seen any of his other work. I thought he did a good job and delivered a good solid film.

Kevin Makely plays the guy, he's a more likeable guy than you find in many a horror movie. Adrienne Barbeau has a small part as Kevin's mom. Todd A Robinson plays the other guy in the woods and Skotty Masgai plays The Beast. That's how he's credited in the film. Lance Henriksen plays a guy who shows up at the end of the movie, he's putting together a team to hunt monsters and he wants to know if Kevin will want to join him. Be nice to see some more monster hunting.

Friday Night Movies 753

I had seen The Terrornauts back in 1993 and I had watched it again in 2010 for a Science Fiction Sunday post. I couldn't remember anything about it. This last week I received a DVD from the UK that's part of The British Film series from Network. It has two versions of the film on it, the original theatrical release at 74 mins and the re-release at 58 mins. The copy I had seen came from the Sci-Fi channel back in 1993. I recorded it off the TV and transferred that VHS tape to a DVDr, it runs 69 mins. We watched the 74 min version, it's image isn't as cleaned up as the shorter version but it was still watchable. I like the poster above, it's sure more exciting than the film.

The Terrornauts came out in 1967 and was produced by Amicus Productions. It came out on a double bill with They Came From Beyond Space. The Wikipedia says that the double bill has been called "the two worst films the company ever produced". John Brunner adapted the Murray Leinster novel The Wailing Asteroid for his screenplay. The Wikipedia synopsis for the novel helps show all the changes that Brunner put in and that might be the reason that he hadn't done any more film screenplays. A couple of his stories were adapted for episodes of Out Of The Unknown but he didn't write the screenplays.

The film is directed by Montgomery Tully. I've seen a handful of Montgomery's 40 films, Battle Beneath The Earth, Master Spy, The Electronic Monster, Scotland Yard Dragnet and The Key Man. Some of them are in The British Film collection.

That's our crew of space travelers. Left to right we've got Stanley Meadows, Patricia Hayes, Charles Hawtrey, Zena Marshall and Simon Oates. Simon heads the project collecting radio data from space. He believes there's something out there and it turns out he's right. Stanley is his co-worker on the project, Zena is the office manager, Charles is an accountant come to check the project books for the funders, and Patricia is the tea lady.

The aliens come to Earth and steal the projects building, taking the five people in it to a space station out among the asteroids. The only sentient being is the robot and he doesn't say much. The robot tests them and they learn that the aliens that built the station have been in a long war with the Enemy. Now the Enemy is headed for Earth, Simon has been chosen to battle the incoming fleet. He's got the robot and a whole lot of missiles.

They win the day and return to Earth via a transporter device. It's a clumsy movie with barely adequate special effects. It's almost more interesting for what it is than for the story. It's not often you seen an accountant and a tea lady in space. There's probably a good reason for that. I'm glad to have a nicer copy of the movie and I hope to make time to see it again in a few years.

I wouldn't bother with The Mermaid: Lake Of The Dead again. It's a 2018 Russian horror movie that's pretty much devoid of mermaids. It's just a ghost story and it's about average. Some guy's father leaves him a cottage by a lake, he tells the son to sell it but he goes there weird things happen. Eventually they subdue the ghost and movie is over. Not going to see it again. I liked the recent Polish movie about mermaids better, at least, the Lure has some mermaids. Vicious creatures to be sure but a much more interesting film in the end.

Leprechaun 1 - 7

I breezed through the first 7 Leprechaun films over the last two days. I have box set that I picked up a while back but hadn't gotten around to watching yet.The set I have is out of print now but there's a new 8 film set that will be coming out October 8 with a pre-order price on Amazon of only $13.99.

It's a fun series with Warwick Davis in the title role as the gold loving leprechaun. He's short, ugly and he turns into a murderous little prick when you come between him and his gold. He's got a rather dark sense of humor and loves murdering people.

Leprechaun 1993  Written and directed by Mark Jones. Mark started his career in 1977 with an episode of the kids show Ark II. I saw that series a couple of years ago and it wasn't very good. Mark stayed in kids TV for most of his career. It's mostly not stuff I would watch. He did do a few episodes of The A-Team, I have that set to watch someday. most of his other work I haven't seen. He didn't work on the Leprechaun series after the first movie.

A dad and daughter rent a farmhouse in a small North Dakota town. Shay Duffin plays the dad and Jennifer Aniston plays the daughter. The previous owner had stolen a leprechaun's gold while in Ireland. The leprechaun followed him to the farm and killed his wife. The owner had trapped the leprechaun in a box with a four leaf clover, but before he can kill it with fire he has a stroke and collapses.

That's Warwick as the Leprechaun, he's a nasty bit of work, and funny as hell. Mark Holten plays Ozzie, he's a bit on the dim side and he works for a young guy who paints houses. Mark plays Ozzie as a grown man in the recent reboot of the series. The guys get hired to paint the house. Ozzie accidentally unleashes the leprechaun when he knocks the four leaf clover off the crate that's still in the basement. Ozzie finds the leprechaun's gold and that starts the little bastard killing, first it's the pawn shop owner that wound up with a coin, then it's back to the farm for a spot of vengeance and shoe shining. The leprechaun had been a cobbler and he likes clean shoes.

The guys give back the pot of gold but Ozzie has inadvertently swallowed a gold coin. They figure out that the farmer who had trapped the leprechaun last time might be able to tell them how to kill it. He survived the stoke and lives in a nursing home. The leprechaun hears them and gets to the nursing home before they do. Yelling and screaming for a while. With his dying breath the farmer tells the kids how to kill the leprechaun. They find a four leaf clover and put a stop to the little beast.

Mostly an entertaining film, it's pretty average, story wise, but Warwick prancing about puts it up a notch for me. I'd seen it before and I'll probably get back to it again someday.

Leprechaun 2 1994  Written by Turi Meyer and Al Septien with Rodman Flender directing. I hadn't anything else by Rodman except for Idle Hands and I remember liking that when it was new. I hadn't seen it since. Turi had directed an episode of Buffy and 3 of Angel, that's about all of his other work I've seen. Al seems to be Turi's writing and producing partner, they share many of the same credits.

Warwick plays a different leprechaun in this film. The leprechaun celebrates his 1000th birthday about a thousand years ago. He can now pick a bride and he's chosen the daughter of his human slave. The father thwarts the leprechaun and saves his daughter at the cost of his own life. The leprechaun vows to marry the man's descendant when he's allowed to marry again in a thousand years.

The story jumps to modern day LA and we join a stupid boy named Cody who works for a scumbag who gives tours of the dark side of LA. The scumbag is Cody's uncle and his name is Max. Cody's girlfriend is the lucky bride for our leprechaun though she doesn't know what's ahead for her when we meet her. Why such a nice girl hangs out with Cody is beyond me.

There's plenty of the usual running about and screaming. There's some gore and plenty of violence. The leprechaun is as cruel as the other leprechaun, at one point he plucks a homeless guys gold tooth out his mouth and adds it to his pot o' gold. Like the first movie it's got a nice sense of humor. I got a few laughs and I'll watch it again sometime.

Leprechaun 3 1995  Written by David DuBos with Brian Trenchard-Smith directing. I can't find anything on either Brian or David's IMDb listing that I recognize. It's direct to video this time.

My favorite vicious leprechaun is in Las Vegas this time. Warwick is still at it as the leprechaun. A stupid college student, John Gatins, is travelling to college in California. He gambles away all his college money and falls foul of the leprechaun. I was disappointed he survived. He was a stupid ass.

I did enjoy our murderous demon eviscerating some of the locals. The Wikipedia says it was the highest selling direct to video film of 1995. I didn't see it back then. I gave it a 4 for hiring that Gatins guy. I thought he sucked.

Leprechaun 4: In Space 1997  Written by Dennis A Pratt and Scott Alkins with Brian Trenchard-Smith directing.

I saw this back in 2011 and gave it a three on the IMDb. It's not really any better a second time through. It's still fun to see Warwick Davis going at it as the murderous leprechaun but the space element is just stupid at times. I found myself speeding up the picture during some of the more dull bits. I'll be hard pressed to not do that if I get a chance to go through the series again.

Leprechaun 5: In The Hood 2000  Written by Doug Hall, John Huffman, Alan Reynolds, Rob Spera and William Wells with Rod Spera directing. I liked seeing Ice-T but the three guys who steel from him are just straight up stupid. There's plenty of running about and yelling. There's plenty of slaughtering. Just not really anyone on the human side to care about. Warwick as the leprechaun was fun enough. The leprechaun had a good time in the hood, getting high and killing people who steal his bling. I gave it a 4, the novelty of being in the hood wears off and it's less entertaining than some of the other films.

Leprechaun 6: Back 2 Tha Hood 2003  Written and directed by Steve Ayromlooi. The leprechaun is still killing people in the hood. He goes after some pals who shared out the pot o' gold. There's not much to like about the group and I didn't mind their getting slaughtered. I gave this on a 4, it has a slow start but Warwick is totally wicked.

Leprechaun: Origins 2014  Written by Harris Wilkinson and directed by Zach Lipovski. It's a poorly received reboot of the series. There's no Warwick and it's all pretty standard stuff. There's no real humor or any reason to watch it again. I did like the poster, it's one of the best of the Leprechaun posters. It was nice that they returned to the right leprechaun in the 2018 film.

Western Wednesday 60

It's taken so long to get finished with season 4 of Maverick that the Title line memory forgot what Western Wednesday I had last done. The 59th post was for season 3 and it was posted February 6 2019. I just couldn't seem to get too excited to get back to them in any sort of hurry and not because they're bad or anything. They were fun to watch when they were on but I lacked the drive to plow through them like I might other shows. Especially ones with shorter seasons, the 32 episodes on the 8 discs of season 4 seem like a massive mountain to climb. It's an imaginary mountain but you know that imagination is a powerful deceiver.

The show has some major cast changes this season. Jack Kelly returns, he's joined by Roger Moore in the first episode, they alternate episodes like James and Jack did. Occasionally the two leads share a story. James Garner doesn't appear in any episodes but the 10th. It was actually filmed during the 3rd season but never used. There was some sort of issue with Garner and Warners that isn't spelt out in any detail on the Wikipedia. No matter he's flown the coop, for now.

Roger is Beau, a cousin who's been in England for many years. That was to explain Roger's English accent. Sadly, Roger's time on the series is short, he leaves the series after episode 25. I can't say I prefer Jack or Roger in the lead over than James Garner. It's still a watchable show but it does repeat the same sort of plots each week.

Robert Colbert appears as Brent Maverick is episode 28, he'd only be in one other episode, then he was done. Peter Breck turns up as Doc Holliday and he would play the character 4 more times in the 5th season. Jack Kelly would head the show for that 13 episode season. I suspect I can get through those, but after that there's the Maverick movie with James Garner and the series Bret Maverick with James too. There were plenty of guest stars in the show that I knew and liked: John Astin, Alan Hale Jr, Joanna Barnes, Gerald Mohr, Kathleen Crowley, Max Baer Jr, Buddy Epsen, Slim Pickens, Edgar Buchanan,  Chubby Johnson, Denver Pyle, Stacy Keach, Mala Powers, Andrew Duggan, Shirley Knight, Don "Red" Barry, Tol Avery, Lee Van Cleef, John Carradine, Dawn Wells, Coleen Gray, John Denher, John Hoyt, John Archer and Chad Everett.

I'm a bit sad that the show doesn't excite me as some other shows, past and present do. I can't get any Taskmaster lever of enthusiasm up for Roger and the other guys. Way it goes.

Jack Dee Live At The Duke Of York Theatre 1992

Jack Dee Live At The Duke Of York Theatre is a 1992 stand up show. It's Jack's earliest recorded show. He had been on stage since 1986 but really didn't break out nationally until he won the Best Stage Newcomer award in 1991. He got his own TV show the following year. The DVD isn't part of the box set that I picked up recently. It's alright but I find I like Jack better in panel shows. I never laughed out loud at the show but snickered once in a while. There are other stand up DVDs that I'll return to before this one.

Dylan Moran - Like, Totally 2006

Dylan Moran - Like, Totally is Dylan's stand up DVD from 2006. It's his second DVD after Monster - Live. It's about the same sort of stuff, Dylan shambles about the stage and goes on about what bothers him like the country, American stupid people, motorists, religion, children and more. I laughed a little bit but I don't find him as funny as some of the other comedians I like. I still wouldn't toss the DVD out, I'll get around to it sometime in the future. You can see the show in the link above.

Hands Of The Ripper 1971 Commentary & Extras

I listened to the commentary on the Network Hands Of The Ripper DVD today and enjoyed it. I've wound up with two copies of the movie. This happens all the time but mostly it happens with used DVDs from Half Price Books. I'll buy something I think I need and after getting home will find that I already have it. I return those, these two copies of Hands Of The Ripper I'll keep, they're different enough. 

The Network DVD was packed in a 4 pack of horror films called Appointment With Terror - The 70s. Who would make that appointment? Especially if you had to go back in time. Even though I had the Synapse DVD it was cheaper to buy the box set than the 3 other movies separately. The Network DVD is a 2018 reissue of the 2006 Network Special Edition DVD. Unlike the DVD cover on the upper left, the DVD I have doesn't have the Special Edition written on the top of it. It's packed in a slim case like the Network series The British Film but doesn't have that logo on it.

The Commentary is with Angharad Rees and horror guys Kim Newman and Stephen Jones. They were entertaining, Kim and Stephen know their stuff and have plenty to say. They kept Angharad talking about the film. Well worth the price of admission. Sadly Angharad passed away in 2012. There's an episode of Thriller, the UK show not the US show, with Angharad Rees. It's a murder mystery thing. I have the set to watch and shouldn't have bothered but I started it and finished it. It's about average. There's a trailer and an image gallery. I didn't bother with either. I don't always watch the trailers on the DVD. I used to watch them more often. Now I don't care much.

Since I hadn't watched any extras from the Synapse DVD yet I decided to get that done too. The picture looks better on this DVD. There's a nice 28 min featurette about the film that had interviews with director Peter Sasdy, actor Jane Merrow, Richard Klenensen, Hammer historian Wayne Kinsey, director Joe Dante, Kim Newman, Time Lucas and audio bits from Angharad Rees. The rest of the extras consist of the trailer and TV spots, the US TV introduction, a HOTR photo gallery and a Hammer photo gallery overview. Now I'm done those and they can get put away until the next time I visit them.

Countess Dracula 1971 Commentary Tracks & Extras

My copy of the 2014 Synapse Blu-ray of Countess Dracula came today so I listened to the commentary with actor Ingrid Pitt, director Peter Sasdy, screenwriter Jeremy Paul and author Jonathan Sothcott. It's definitely a different commentary than the one on the 2018 Network DVD but it's the same as the one on the 2003 MGM Midnite Movies DVD. It's still entertaining, Peter gets the most yakking done, Ingrid hardly says anything and the other two take the rest. There's nothing Earth shattering just a few good bits of film history, Peter gets a good chunk of his career in there.

I learned more general knowledge about the film from the other commentary with Ingrid, Stephen Jones and Kim Newman. Kim and Stephen had done their homework and had lots of info to depart. Ingrid chattered about what ever popped into her mind, some of her memories are vague at worst. I hadn't been listening to a lot of commentaries, I used to listen to more back in the earlier days of DVDs, but I've been enjoying these as I sort and pack some LEGO. There's a nice featurette on Ingrid and an audio interview.

The Network DVD runs about 90 minutes and the Synapse Blu-ray runs about 93 minutes. I thought there was something cut out of the Network DVD but Kim Newman says on the commentary that they are watching the complete version of the film. I read today on DVD Compare that the difference is supposed to be the 4% PAL speedup. I had heard something about this but not thought about it in a while. I though as I watched the Blu-ray that I wasn't seeing anything that I hadn't seen the other day. I had thought about watching the two at the same time to compare but I've given that idea up. Not sure that commentary was worth the price but I do have to say that the Blu-ray sure looks better than the DVD in every way.