PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Taskmaster US Season 1

Taskmaster US Season 1 The series was produced for Comedy Central in 2017 and aired April 27 to May 18 2018. Reggie Watts is the host with series creator Alex Horne in the assistant spot.

The contestants are Lisa Lampanelli, Freddie Highmore, Ron Funches, Dillon Francis and Kate Berlant. I'm not familiar with anyone other than Freddie. I've hardly noticed what's going on in stand up in the US since Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn.

There were 8 episodes of the US version of Taskmaster and only the one season. The episodes were only a half hour with 22 mins of actual show. The prize task has been changed to one contestant bringing in a prize to win. There were a couple of filmed tasks and one stage task.

There was fairly good banter in the studio parts and a lot of being annoyed with Alex during the filmed parts. I got a few laughs but it's not as consistently entertaining as the UK version or the version from New Zealand. I'm sure my liking of the UK contestants is a big part of my enjoying that series more then the US version.

I'm glad to have seen the US version but I'm guessing I'll be less likely to get back to them before I watch the UK and NZ versions a few more times. I'll also have the versions from Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Norway to watch. That's a lot to episodes especially since those Scandinavia countries are still producing programs.

Friday Night Movies 866

Big Bad Wolf 2006 Written and directed by Lance W Dreesen. I hadn't remembered seeing this back in 2006. That post is in the title above. I didn't think it was going to be such a short while before I saw it again. It's still about average. I probably don't need to see it again at this point. That's an ugly poster.

The Snake Girl And The Silver Haired Witch 1968 Based on the comic Hebi Onna by Kazuo Umezu, screenplay by Kimiyuki Hasegawa, directed by Noriaki Yuasa. The comic was published in the US under the name Reptilia in 2006. The director is also the director of the first series of Gamera films.

A young orphan girl called Sayuri finds out that her parents are alive and they want her to come live with them. They live in a nice house, the mother is an amnesiac from an accident and the father is a scientist specializing in snake venom study.

When Sayuri arrives at the house she's greeted by an ambulance, the maid had just died from a heart attack. The father has just learned he's got to leave right away for an opportunity to study a rare snake in Africa. He's gone until the very end of the film.

The next night Sayuri finds a snake in her bed but after her mother and the housekeeper arrive it's gone. There's also someone in the attic, looking at Sayuri's bed through a hole in the ceiling. Things start to get more and more serious and deadly for Sayuri. She's a plucky girl who stands up to danger in the end.

It moves a bit slowly for me but I was still entertained enough to order the Arrow Blu-ray. I'll want to watch it again.

Elves 1989

Elves 1989 Written by Jeffrey Mandel, Mike Griffin and Bruce A Taylor, directed by Jeffrey Mandel.

Some stupid girls have a pagan ritual in the woods and Kristen's blood activates an ancient evil elf. He's an ugly bugger but he's got a plan for world domination. He's going to mate with Kristen and produce a race of elves from her womb. Unbeknownst to Kristen, her grandfather is an ex-Nazi, there are some active Nazis in town and they've come looking for Kristen. Dan Haggerty plays a ex-cop with a drinking problem. He gets a job as a department store Santa and stumbles into the elf Nazi nuttiness. He helps Kristen fight the elf and the Nazis.

It's a below average movie for me, there's nothing that stands out here. Elf guy is pretty poor, he's hardly articulated. There's a bit of nudity, a bit of gore, plenty of running about and a cliche ending. You can check it out on YouTube but there's no real reason unless you've interested in seeing as many genre films as you can.

Tales Of Robin Hood 1951

Tales Of Robin Hood 1951 Story and screenplay by Leroy H Zehren, directed by James Tinling. One of two pictures Robert L Lippert made for R & L Productions. It was Tinling's last film, though it seems to be cobbled together from the episodes that were shot. Tinling moved into TV and worked through 1960 before retiring. The last work he directed were 5 episodes of Fury. I can't say many of the 50 plus films he directed are ones I've seen, only Mr Moto's Gamble and Charlie Chan In Shanghai for sure.

The first part of the film has Robin's father killed and Robin is taken to live in hiding by the King's right hand man Will Stutely. Robin grows up in the forest and becomes the notorious Robin Hood. Robert Clarke plays Robin and Whit Bissell plays Alan. Robert produced, co-wrote, co-directed and plays the lead in The Hideous Sun Demon. I remember seeing that as a kid and realizing there's not always salvation if your accidentally turned into a monster.

As the film plays out Robin meets Friar Tuck, Maid Marion, Little John and a good number of the baddies. There's sword fighting, arrow shooting and plenty of running through the woods. The production is typical of a TV shoot of the time. The 1955 British TV series with Richard Greene was along the same lines but had a better budget. It did well enough to wind up with 143 episodes by the time they finished. I saw the series when I was a kid and have enjoyed it all over again as an adult.

Nothing too special about Tales Of Robin Hood but it was still entertaining enough to get to the end. Might be more for the RH fan, there's a copy on YouTube for those that might like a go.

Mazes And Monsters 1982

Mazes And Monsters 1982 Based on the novel of the same name by Rona Jaffe, screenplay by Tom Lazarus, directed by Steven Hilliard Stern.

A TV movie about the dangers of role playing games. It's based on a poorly reported real incident about a guy who played Dungeons and Dragons, he disappeared and the media blamed the game. He was just suicidal and didn't get any help, he succeeded on his third try.

Tom Hanks plays a college student who has a psychotic breakdown during a game of Mazes and Monsters played in a cavern. He comes to believe he is his character. He nearly jumps off one of the Twin Towers but his friends arrive just in time to save him.

I didn't care for it much and wouldn't want to watch it again. It is a good reminder that people should stay out of caverns that aren't set up for visitors.

Everly 2014

Everly 2014 Story by Yale Hannon and Joe Lynch, screenplay by Yale Hannon, directed by Joe Lynch.

Salma Hayek is mistress to an Asian crime lord and scumbag. He finds out she's working with the police against him and sends some men to kill her. They fail, so more and more come, they all die. The police are bought off and no help. They just want to contain the mess to the one building.

There's plenty of action set pieces with blood and gore. The dead bodies pile up. There's also a lot of sadistic torture activity, including a visit from a guy called The Sadist, he likes acid in the face. It's all style and noise, if you strip out the action scenes there's little story left. I didn't like the characters much. Sadly, I've bought the DVD, it was only a couple of bucks, and I'm doubting I'll want to watch it again. Live and learn.

Science Fiction Sunday 666

Doctor Who 0047 The Krotons Four part story that aired December 28 1968 to January 18 1969. Written by David Maloney and directed by Robert Holmes.

After watching the serial today I read my old post from 2013, link above, and I still think the story is about average. There's nothing too astounding about any of it and the big alien robot guys are still pretty funny looking. I'm happy to sit through the episodes without bothering to look at all the extras. I'd looked at them in the past and they really eat up the time, still I'm glad they are there. Next time I watch the series I'll do the extras too.

Doctor Who 0048 The Seeds Of Death Six part story that aired January 25 to March 1 1969. Written by Brian Hayles, directed by Michael Ferguson. Script editor Terrance Dicks rewrote episodes 3-6 but is uncredited on the episodes. Terrance is credited on the VHS and the US DVD but not the UK DVD. The Wikipedia says that Terrance thought the script needed some punching up and the delay in Frazier Hines leaving the show caused some rewrites. The Tardis trio will call it quits at the end of the 6th series, only two more serials to go.

The return of the Ice Warriors is a bit more entertaining than the previous serial. There's certainly more going on, not that it couldn't have been a 5 or even 4 episode story. It seems more padded than I remembered. Nice big sets though.

I see from my old post that I hadn't listened to the commentaries on the episodes. Sometimes I skipped the commentaries, some busy Sundays I didn't have time to get to it all, occasionally I had to get the disc back to the library on a Monday, Doctor Who DVDs often had a wait list and that meant no renewals. I'll be getting to those commentaries tomorrow, too late now.

The Bite Season 1

The Bite Season 1 A new virus has attached itself to Covid-19 and it's turning people into flesh eating zombies. It's a pandemic show, most of the scenes are carried out between people over Zoom.

The series was created by Robert and Michelle King, I hadn't heard of them, but I read they did a show called The Good Wife. I looked it up and I didn't think I wanted to watch it. Sounds like it's a melodrama with a lawyer in it. I've only liked a few law shows, Perry Mason is a favorite, I did like Kingdom and The Brief.

Someone I know passed along The Bite and I watched it. It's a virus zombie flick that hangs a ton of melodrama on a thin premise. There's so much personal baggage the zombie flick gets lost. I didn't care that much for the characters. There's a bit of humor. That's something. I got through it and was annoyed at the cliff hanger. Not going to watch it again.

Kung Fury 2015

Kung Fury 2015 Written and directed by David Sandberg. A Swedish Kickstarter funded film that pokes fun at the 80s martial arts cop movies. They raised $630K and produced a half hour long short.The IMDb says there is a Kung Fury 2 in post production.

As the movie opens Miami-Dade policemen Kung Fury, played by David Sandberg, and his partner Dragon are in an alley fighting a red ninja. The red ninja gets the drop on them and slices Dragon nearly in half. Kung Fury is then simultaneously struck by lightning and bitten by a cobra, he gains super kung fu powers.

The movie jumps ahead to 1985, Kung Fury's boss tries to hook him up with a partner. KF's not going to lose another partner, so he quits. Shortly after Hitler arrives in 1985 and slaughters many in the police station. KF goes after Hitler by going back in time. He winds up in the wrong time but manages to get some help from some Viking ladies and Thor. It's all out cray cray after that.

I laughed fairly often, they pack a lot of gags into a short time. There's a nice HD copy to watch on YouTube, see the link above. Probably not for everyone.

Friday Night Movies 865

Fish Story 2009 Based on the novel by Kotaro Isaka, screenplay by Tamio Hayashi, directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura.

As the movie opens a giant comet is due to crash into the Earth. A guy in a record store tells a couple of other men that a song on an obscure record is going to save the world. The rest of the movie is about that band and the song. It's a long dense story told in a non-linear way. I enjoyed it but haven't decided if I want to buy the movie or not. I'm not sure if I want to watch it again.

Commando Ninja 2018 Written and directed by Benjamin Combes. He's a pretty talented Frenchman, besides the writing and directing he did the cinematography, editing and art direction. He produced a fine looking film on a budget of €31,953 and that includes a lot of nice CGI and practical sets and props. The film was fan funded using Kickstarter and filmed over a couple of years.

It's an amazing flight of fantasy that parodies action films of the 80s. It delivers plenty of action, gore and gags. There's one surprise after another. I had a blast and think it's just the sort of thing the right person would like. You can see it for free on YouTube. There's a Blu-ray and I'm putting it on my Wishlist. I'll want to watch this again.