PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 668

Doctor Who 0048 The Space Pirates. Six part story that aired March 8 to April 12 1969. Written by Robert Holmes and directed by Michal Hart. Audio CD linking script by Micheal Stevens, read by Frazier Hines. The last of the missing serials, only the second episode remains in the archives. Hopefully they'll get around to making an animated version. I had seen the second episode back when I watched the series the first time. Today I listened to the audio CD.

The Tardis gang winds up on a space beacon that's blown apart by space pirates for salvage. The Earth Space Corps are after the pirates. The Tardis gang is separated from the Tardis and works to get to it. 

There's the usual running about and yelling. There's plenty of entertaining characters. I enjoyed it for the most part and wished I could see the video.

Robbery 1967

Robbery 1967 Based on The Robber's Tale by Petra Fordham, screenplay by Edward Boyd, Peter Yates and George Markstein, directed by Peter Yates.

It's a fairly good version of the 1963 train robbery that netted the robbers the biggest pile of cash stolen on British soil. Stanley Baker leads the gang of 16 men that robbed the train. There's an exciting robbery and car chase at the start of the movie, Stanley needs some start up money for the big train robbery. We get to see a lot of the set up behind the robbery, some of the men are more trouble than others. The robbery goes off fairly well but the police are too close for most of them to get away. A big chunk of the £2.6 million, that's about £56 million now, was never recovered. The leader of the robbery was never caught, some of the ones caught got 30 years, a few got away with no charges due to lack of evidence.

I bought the Network Pal Blu-ray from the UK, you need a multi format player to play it. I bought a new one from 220 Electronics in Illinois. Recommend by a local who's bought from them in the past, his new Blu-ray from 220 came the very same day as mine did. I bought an LG player for $130. It plays all regions for DVD and Blu-ray. Kino Lorber has a Blu-ray of the movie in the US, it hasn't got the extras the UK disc does but it does have a commentary that the UK disc doesn't have. I did watch the making of and enjoyed that. There's some interviews and behind the scenes material that I might watch yet, hard to know, so many things to watch. There's also a nice booklet in the case. For me the most interesting of the extras is the 1965 German film The Great Train Robbery. Originally it was a 3 part TV production that was edited together and released as a feature film. It's sadly in need of restoration but it's watchable and rather interesting.

The Laughing Dead 1990

The Laughing Dead 1990 Written and directed by Somtow Sucharitku under the name SP Somtow. This is Somtow's first feature film as a director, the other was called Ill Met By Moonlight, which I've not seen. Somtow once wrote an episode of Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers and 4 episodes of Dinosaucers. I've seen the former but not the later.

I saw this back in 1990 when a local guy got a VHS tape from the director. The film didn't get a US release but Somtow showed it at SF conventions a few times. It did eventually show up on DVD, usually packaged with another film, recently there's been a Blu-ray release.

It's 80s Asian horror transplanted to the US southwest and mixed with Mexican mythology. Somtow plays the evil Dr Um-tzec, he loves sacrificing people and ripping their hearts out. He's got his eyes set on the son of Father Sullivan. The Father is leading an archeology expedition to Mexico. Dr Um-tzec seems a bit weird at first but soon enough his true nature comes apparent. There's the typical sort of slaughter with a fair bit of gore. They did pretty well for a small budget and a group of film makers that haven't had much experience. From the making of documentary Somtow wasn't supposed to direct but the woman hired stepped down and he was forced to direct. Some others helped.

I remember liking it on the first watch, much of that like was the fun of seeing it in a group and enjoying the appearance of several SF authors in the cast. You may or may not have heard of any of them: Tim Powers, Tim Sullivan, Gregory Frost, Larry Kagen, Wendy Webb, Arthur Byron Cover, William F Wu, Len Wein. Edward Bryant, Forest Ackerman, Bill Warren and his wife Beverly. After seeing it now, the rose off the bloom, I can see why it scores a 4.2 on the IMDb. It's entertaining but it's still below average. It's nice seeing it widescreen and with a nicer image than that old VHS tape. You can check out the copy on YouTube, you might like it, at least you'll know if you might want to spend the money on the Blu-ray. It's a stonking $35 on Amazon. It's hardly worth that.

Friday Night Movies 867

Spookies 1986 Written by Thomas Doran, Brendan Faulkner, Frank Farel, with additional material by Ann Burgund, directed by Brendan Faulkner, Thomas Doran and Eugenie Joseph.

The Wikipedia has an explanation about the making of the film:

Spookies started out as a feature film entitled Twisted Souls, written and produced by Frank Farel, Brendan Faulkner and Thomas Doran and directed by Faulkner and Doran.^[1] Principal photography for the film began at the Jay Estate in Rye, New York in late summer of 1984 and finished in October of that same year.^[1] Twisted Souls was being edited when creative and legal issues between the producers and the financial backer prevented final post production work (final editing, scoring, post-effects, etc.) from being carried out.

The original Twisted Souls footage directed by Faulkner and Doran consists of all the travelers who arrive in two cars and all the monsters and effects they encounter within the house. The monsters include: the demon Ouija girl, the muck men, the spider woman, the snake demons, the hallway demon and the Grim Reaper.^[1]

In 1985, the financial backer of Twisted Souls hired Eugenie Joseph to direct more footage, which was pieced together with the finished footage from Twisted Souls to create Spookies.^[1] The added scenes, written by Ann Burgund (under the name Joseph Burgund), feature an entirely different cast and include all the footage of the boy looking for his birthday party, the man in the tree, the cat-man, the old magician, the girl in the coffin, zombies, the witch in the basement/cave and the little blue boy.^[1]

The end result is a below average silly horror film with annoying characters. The original monsters are fairly interesting with decent make up. The additional monsters are much less interesting, with the zombie horde only slightly more interesting than the living. There's a watchable copy on YouTube for those are interested in seeing the film but less interested in spending money on the new Blu-ray. I won't be bothering with the Blu-ray myself, there are plenty of other films I want to buy first.

Explorers 1986 Written by Eric Luke and directed by Joe Dante.

I've had the DVD on my Amazon Wishlist for ages but it always got pushed further down the list by other films. I remember liking it when I saw it in the theater when it came out but upon seeing it now I'm liking it less. Especially the third act with the aliens, mostly embarrassing.

I deleted the DVD from my Wishlist, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't bother watching it again. I'd watch something like The Last Starfighter instead. That was more fun.

The Cheap Detective 1978

The Cheap Detective 1978 Written by Neil Simon and directed by Robert Moore. Robert only directed 3 films, all of which were written by Neil Simon. He worked in theater and TV as an actor and a director, he died of AIDS related pneumonia in 1984.

I didn't care for this send up of The Maltese Falcon that much. It's got a good cast and it's packed with jokes but many of the gags fall flat on my ears. I bought a used DVD a long while ago, now I'm disappointed. Oh well.

Third Time Lucky 1932

Third Time Lucky 1931 Based on the play by Arnold Ridley, screenplay by Sidney Gilliat, Angus MacPhail and H Fowler Mear, directed by Walter Forde. Arnold is the writer of the 1923 play The Ghost Train which got made into a movie with Arthur Askey. Arnold is mostly remembered for playing Private Godfrey in Dad's Army. One of my favorite characters in the series.

Sidney Gilliat is one of my favorite film makers, he's written and/or directed quite a number of entertaining films, some favorites being The Lady Vanishes, Night Train To Munich, Green For Danger and the St Trinian's series.

The Reverend Arthur Fear takes is upon himself to help his ward, she's being blackmailed by a man who has some incriminating letters of her visit to the room of a young man. Nothing happened but it could break up her engagement if they got sent to her fiance. Turns out the fiance is in league with the blackmailer.

Reverend Fear goes to the blackmailer but he's rebuffed. He decides to sneak in and steal the letters only to be confronted first by Gordon Harker playing a thief and second by the blackmailer. Gordon and the Reverend manage to escape but the blackmailer is on their trail. The movie ends with a shoot out in the middle of the church's fate.

Quite entertaining in the end.  I found a copy online but that source has disappeared.

Sleepy Eyes Of Death 6: Sword Of Satan 1965

Sleepy Eyes Of Death 6: Sword Of Satan 1965 Story by Renzaburô Shibata, screenplay by Seiji Hoshikawa, directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda.

Nemuri Kyoshiro finds himself in the middle of the fall of the Iwashiro Clan. A woman offers herself for some money and he goes along with her. Instead of sleeping with her Nemuri questions her on her choice to raise money. Turns out her son is the heir to the Iwashiro Clan. Trouble is her son's not in the dead Lord's house and an Inspector from the Shogun is coming to see the boy. If there's no heir the clan would be disbanded.

Nemuri is annoyed by her, he leaves her with a gold piece and some harsh words, the next morning he finds out she's killed herself. He vows to help her son, the boy is living with a carpenter and that's what he wants to be. The clan has other ideas and kidnaps the boy with the help of a woman called Orin who's trying to get revenge on Nemuri for killing her brother.

Orin helps the clan against Nemuri but he's way too good for their men, they fall in great heaps on the ground. Orin leads Nemuri into further traps. The one in a temple is quite entertaining.

It's a black mass for Satan with a naked sacrifice. Nemuri slaughters many of the brethren. Nemuri is the son of a Chinese woman and a white missionary. He has a grudge against the missionaries and a general hatred for the rich and powerful.

There's plenty of action as Nemuri is attacked over and over again. He defeats the baddies and kills most of the clan. The boy leaves with Nemuri. Another entertaining entry in the series. Half way through the dozen films.

Mortal Combat 2021

Mortal Combat 2021 Story by Oren Uziel and Greg Russo, screenplay by Greg Russo and Dave Callaham, directed by Simon McQuoid. Simon's first film, he's been making commercials.

Bigged up, fancier version of the previous films. More CGI effects and the characters have much flashier costumes and powers. I liked the first Paul WS Anderson film from 1995, the followup film was directed by John R Leonetti and it's just not as good.

There's some backstory and plenty of action. The action goes on and on until all the baddies are finished for now. Mostly entertaining bu nothing special going on. I found a copy on the Internet Archive but it's long gone. That saves me buying a copy of the disc. I don't see re-watching this anytime soon.

Science Fiction Sunday 667

Doctor Who 0036 The Evil Of The Daleks Seven part story that aired May 20 to July 1 1967. Written by David Whitaker, directed by Derek Martinus. Only the second episode survived, I had watched that back in 2012 when I went through the series for the first time. I listened to the audio version of the story just a few weeks ago. Here's that post.

The new 3 disc DVD from the BBC has plenty of material to get through. The 7 episodes are animated and presented in color and B&W. There's commentaries on the episodes, episode 2 has 2 commentaries. The Telesnaps version of the story is on the third disc as well as more making of material.

I watched the color version first, then the B&W version with the commentaries on, then the Telesnaps version followed by all the extra material. It took most of the day and well into last night. I enjoyed the animated versions well enough but more enjoyed the Telesnaps version. At least you can see the real actors.

The extras are up to the usual standard of the BBC. Sadly there aren't many of them still alive from the 60s and they have to fill in some material from other sources. Still, it's nice that they collect what they can and save it with the episodes. All in all entertaining.

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.