PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 80

I was up too early and watched four films Sunday morning. It was an all morning long alien invasion kind of day. I didn't feel like doing anything, my last two weekends were filled with LEGO and I was getting behind in my movie watching. I started with a classic. Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, with Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter, is a 1956 film directed by Don Siegel. The movie opens with an excited Kevin telling some other men about his recent experience. Aliens are invading, taking over our bodies, we must stop them! They think he's crazy loco. In his flashback Kevin's returned home from a business trip to find some of his patients acting rather strange. At first he doesn't think much of them claiming that their relatives are imposters. The imposters look the same. What could be wrong with his patients? His psychaitrist pal says it's mass hysteria but the story gets weirder and weirder. Kevin's friend King Donovan finds a dead guy and drags it into the house. Who wouldn't. The dead guy is kind of weird looking, ill defined somehow. That's the first big clue to the puzzle. Soon they find a pod and figure out the whole plot. Aliens are taking over, one human at a time, soon it'll be you. The whole town is done for and Kevin and Dana are on the run and barely able to stay awake. That's when the pods get you, when you sleep. Dana snoozes and it's just Kevin left to save the world. The ending has a positive note that wasn't in the original shoot. There wasn't any Kevin in the hospital at the beginning or the end of the film. He comes home, discovers the plot and winds up screaming a warning on the freeway. It's an iconic scene, that one on the freeway, that's helped put this movie at the top of many best science fiction lists. Shot quickly, in 23 days for under $400,000, the movie turned out to be popular right from the start. It made a million in the first month and nearly 3 worldwide for the first year. That low budget didn't hinder this movie much. The effects budget was only $15,000, the seed pods are paper, the fake humans are rubber and their transformation effected with soap bubbles, but the effects work well. The creepy story overshadows everything. It's a universal horror, some hideous thing taking over your body or soul while you sleep, that's shared by many people in many countries. I've seen this movie many times and still enjoy it.

Invasion of the Neptune Men is a 1961 Japanese film with Sonny Chiba as a costumed super hero in a flying car spaceship. It's the shorter US version of Uchū Kaisoku-sen (Space Hypership) with less World War 2 bombing footage. According to the Wikipedia the destruction from the spaceships attacking in the last half of the movie comes from real footage of Toyko being bombed by the Allies. Thus the Hitler building. Something nice for the kiddies, huh. Some of you might have seen the movie on Mystery Science Theater 3000. The boys ripped on it pretty hard but truth be told it nearly broke the guys on the Satellite of Love, they were whinny sobbing babies at one point. I am made of much stronger stuff than those bots. I mearly laughed at the bad editing, poor dubbing and stupid story. Pathetic pan and scan. I'm immune! I feed from the Internet Archive. Willingly! Some kids are camping in the country when they are attacked by pointy helmeted guys. A small space ship flies through the air, lands, and rolls on wheels to where the boys are cowering. It's so obviously a tricked out car it's sad. Out pops Sonny. He knocks the aliens about with some poor chops and kicks. They wonder off. The kids escape and the invasion continues. You can read more about the story line at Monster Crap. It's a site that inducts poor science fiction and monster movies into it's dubious hall of fame. It is a crappy movie, that is for sure, it does belong there. The movie gets a well deserved 1.7 on the IMDb. I'm thinking that the original version might not be much better than the cut up version because what's left is not much good. There's a bit of a laugh factor here but there isn't much else going for the movie. Japanese science fiction movies are a pretty mixed bag, some are pretty entertaining and some are pretty darn bad. Here's one of the bad ones that people should give a pass on, except for the MST3K version. I enjoy your pain boys, really I do. Almost as much as I like the headpiece on the costume on the Neptune men. That's some pointy headed goodness, right there.

The aliens aren't pointy headed in the Invasion Of The Saucermen. They have round heads and sharp fingernails that inject alcohol into their victims. It's a 1957 science fiction comedy starring Steven Terrell, Gloria Costillo and Frank Gorshin. Steven and Gloria are driving on some back country lane when some aliens show up. They hit one and leave the body when they go report to the police. Frank shows up, discovers the alien body, and gets injected for his trouble. He's dead, from alcohol poisoning, when the kids return with the police. Of course the alien body is gone and the boys in blue think the obvious and arrest the teens. How are they going to get themselves out of this mess. Soon enough the aliens start showing up more and the chase is on. The kids eventually figure out a way to kill the aliens and the day it saved. It's a fairly entertaining B-Movie but not a great one.

So, an accountant and dentist go on a camping trip. One of them has sex with an alien and one of them has sex with her space ship. Which one do you guess did which? You can't tell from the title. Invasion Of The Space Preachers is a 1990 Troma Release directed by Daniel Boyd. I think Boyd called his movie Strangest Dreams and Troma probably added the rest to hype it up when they bought it. I think I can recognize the artful hand of top Tromaman Lloyd Kaufman. I have a dvdr copy I made from the old Rhino laserdisc I got on clearance for a couple of bucks. It's a low budget comedy film made by a college professor who puts the alien invasion smack into the hills of West Virginia and puts the aliens up against some well armed rednecks. Our heroes, the dentist and the accountant, find an alien lying next to a spaceship. The alien is hurt and needs a place to rest and heal. They move it to the barn near where they are camping. In the middle of the night the alien survival suit pops open and a naked blonde woman pops out. There's a bit of bare backside for those that like that sort of thing. Next day the guys meet up with the blonde alien chick and after a while figure out she's the alien. They meet up with a bunch of locals and go to a bar. Alien chick tells them her sad story. She's on a mission of vengence. Some crappy alien guy killed her brother and fled to this planet. Turns out he's hiding right near here as a radio preacher. He's got a hypnotic message in his broadcast and dreams of world domination. Don't we all. He almost pulls it off when he gets a satellite uplink from a more powerful broadcaster. His plans are foiled by our heroes, the alien girl and those gun tottin' rednecks. Nothing puts those alien sons-o-bitches in their places like a hail of hot lead. The dentist decides to leave with the alien girl. The accountant is sad, he's loosing his best friend and the best sex he ever had. That was a hot space ship for that guy. A fun film. I don't think I need to upgrade to the Troma dvd, which you can buy from Troma but not Amazon, at least not today.

Friday Night Movies 274

 
Il Grande Silenzio or The Great Silence was something that Sperhauk saw recommended by one of his favorite movie bloggers. It's a 1968 spaghetti western starting Jean-Louis Trintignant and Klaus Kinski. It's directed by Sergio Corbucci who had directed Django two years earlier. I liked that movie a lot better than this one but according to the Wikipedia TGS is considered by critics to be Corbucci's masterpiece. Go figure. It's set in 1899 Utah during the Great Blizzard. Unusual for a western the whole movie is set in snow. That was kind of cool and some of the scenery is pretty astounding looking, all isolated and snow capped mountain filled. It's the Spanish Pyrenees Mountains filling in for Utah. The main theme of the story is pretty common for a western, the town is being controlled by scum who put bounty on the local poor who step out of line. Since they are the law, it's all legal like. There's a pile of poor folk hidden in the mountains that are being hunted for the cash on their heads. Klaus, the top creep in a group of bounty killers, what the citizens calls bounty hunters, keeps reminding us that they are doing everything legal when they gun down their victims. Wanted dead or alive! The bounty hunters are just a bunch of sadistic killers who kill with great glee. Jean-Louis is a gunslinger with a grudge against bounty hunters. His parents were killed by them and Jean-Louis had his throat slit to keep him from talking. He survived but can't speak. He's on a path of vengence, traveling the country, hunting bountry hunters whom he goads into gunfights. He's fast, so he can kill them while staying within the law by letting them draw first. Everyone is so legal there. Makes me laugh. Klaus and Jean-Louis meet in Snowcap and things go from bad to worse as the movie unfolds. It ends poorly for the side of good as everyone is gunned down and the bounty killers ride off into the snow. I'm not a big fan of the bad guy getting away, I like a movie where the good guys win, especially in a western. I like the more traditional western and this is not that sort of movie. Lots of people seem to like it over at the IMDb where it scores a 7.8. There's a nice score by Ennio Moricone. It's still a pretty good movie, especially if you like the bleak nihilisticness of it all, but it's not one that I would want to watch again. I'd watch Django again, I even bought a copy. To me that's more entertaining.

 
Malice In Wonderland is something Joe picked up on NetFlix. It's a 2009 movie directed by Simon Fellows, a guy I hadn't heard about before. His last two movies were Until Death and Second In Command, both Jean-Claude Van Damme actions films, and before that it was 7 Seconds, a Wesley Snipes action film. Malice In Wonderland is sort of an action film, sort of a crime film, sort of a romantic comedy, covered over with a light wash of Alice In Wonderland. It's pulled into the modern day and there's a lot of rushing about, but hardly anything happens, and it seems kind of dull at times. There's a sense of unreality though we are in familiar surroundings. A girl, Maggie Grace, whom some might remember from Lost, or Taken or the 2005 remake of The Fog, is running from a couple of guys at the start of the movie. She runs into the path of a cab and is knocked down. Whitey, the driver, is in an aggitated state, he's late, for a very important date. The gal, dazed but mostly unhurt, can't remember who she is and asks Whitey for some help. He's got a job to do, picking up a special tie for a guy's birthday, so she'll have to ride along. The main characters of the book are transformed into urban types. Whitey is the white rabbit, he's got two watches and mutters. The mad hatter is a mobile madam, prone to verbal outbursts, with a semi trailer house of ill repute. Tweedledee and Tweedledum are bouncers at a posh club with flames shooting up the front of the building. That's where the big bad guy has his party. The caterpillar is a pimp with his hooker at his side. They offer a ride. Smoke pours out of his car when they open the windows, so much that it can stop the cops chasing them. They were smoking some big joints. The red queen is the main bad guy. He's just out of prison and he's developed a taste for young boy bum. That special tie from earlier? It's not an article of clothing. It's a young Thai boy with boobs. Now that's special! The young bikini clad boy/girl is packed into a giant cake for the party, tossed onto of Whitey cab and he's off. There are these odd elements in the story and sometimes they are pretty entertaining but the short 87 minute movie seems much longer. Glad I got to see it but it's another in a long list of movies I'm pretty much not going to see again.

8683 Collectable Minifigs Series 1

 
Minifig fans are in a buzz about the new series of minifigs. They have been out in Europe for a bit and just hit the TOYSRUS stores here around May 20th. A couple of people posted they found them that thursday. I went to the ToyRUs the next day at lunch and they had a couple of cases of 60 figures. They were gone in minutes. The LEGO store put their's out on Monday May 23. It's wednesday and they are getting down to the last few cases. The guys at the store are hoping that they have more in their next shipment. They are limiting the purchase to 5 per person per day. The figures are unique to this set of 16. Each one comes in a blind bag with a few accessories and a stand.

     

You might be able to guess what's in some bags based on feel but it would be hard to guess right on most of them. Luckily the back of the package has a second bar code that tells you what's in each bag. You can download a cheatsheet from Brickset. Feedback seems to indicate that the boxes of sixty have a certain set distribution of figures. Here's a bit on that from over at Brickset. Indian 3, Cheerleader 3, Caveman 4, Clown 3, Zombie 3, Skater 3, Robot 4, Dummy 5, Magician 4, Wrestler 3, Nurse 3, Ninja 5, Astronaut 4, Archer 4, Diver 5, Cowboy 4. There's a folded sheet of paper with a checklist on one side and a generic instruction sheet on the other. Folder up it's pretty thick which helps keep you from guessing what's inside. I kind of like blind package items but understand the frustration of getting the same object over and over again. People were speculating before they were released that the packages would have random minifig parts for all of the 16 in there. That would have been a nightmare. One type per package is enough hardship.

 
I like that box and managed to get one at the TRU. I like packaging sometimes and too often want to save stuff like this. I kept every bag after I emptied them. Sometimes having a picture is as good, sometimes not. But, if I wait long enough I can sell that box for more than all the figures that came in it when they were new. Funny old world.

         
 
That's the tribal hunter, the cheerleader, the caveman and the circus clown. The costumes are all new and fun. I know the perverts over at MOCpages were thinking they needed a lot of those cheerleaders. The tribal hunter has a bow and arrow ready for some hunting I guess. I don't have any of the indians from the old wild west theme and these guys will do. The cheerleader comes with some pom poms and the caveman has a smaller version of the club that the Trolls had. The clown comes with a new horn and some whacky new hair. Everything has some potential, part wise, you'll see. I like the new hair piece on the caveman and the cheerleader has a blond version of a do that's been out in 3 or 4 colors so far. I've already seen pictures of cheerleaders with different heads and hair.

       

Here's the zombie, skater, robot and demolion dummy. That's LEGO's first zombie and it's the figure I hear most people say they want in multiples. Nicely dressed, huh. His accessories are a shovel and a turkey drumstick. I guess that drumstick is filling in for a human arm and  maybe the shovel is a human leg. What self respecting zombie would carry a shovel around, let alone eat turkey. Where's the brains in that? The shovel is a new one, gets new part number on Bricklink. It's flat at the end of the handle and much more flexible than the other version which can be found in the current Pig Farmer impulse set. The drumstick is new and longer than the old version. The skater has the regular skateboard in blue. He's also got a nice hoodie w ith a skull and crossbones on the front. His hair is new and something the kids will stick on their buddy icons. I really like the robot. He's got a great helmet that can double for steampunk spacemen or the like. He'e got a great new red eyed face and they used the mechanical arm from the Agents sets for his right arm. I wish it was the same on both arms. Someone else had the same idea over at It's All True (linked in first paragraph) and Chris Doyle had a great mashup of the robot and the clown hair. The crash test dummy comes with a wrench and a 1x2 white tile with letter and numbers printed on it.

 

      

There's the magician, super wrestler, nurse and ninja. All good costumes, that black suit could come in handy for a formal dinner party. The printing on these has been really nice, though some are complaining about the made in China figures being cheaper than than figures made else where. These seemed fine to me. The magician comes with a hat and some spare hair and a wand. The wand is shorter than the old wands and painted. The super wrestler is based on the traditional Mexican masked wrestler. He looks great. The nurse has a new hair and a syringe, 2 infact. That could be useful, get enough and make your own shooting gallery. The ninja comes with two gold pearl katanas. All figures are pretty useful for all sort of scenes. I'd go for more nurses than ninjas but I already had a few of the old ninjas so I'm good. Matt Holland from TwinLUG had some nice portraits of the magician, the wrestler and the forestman. Some guy named Vadar did the nurse, doctor and robot picture. I've always enjoyed that mad scientist face with all the grinning teeth.

     

 
      

That's the spaceman, the forestman, diver and cowboy. The spaceman has the new helmet from the Space Police theme but made white. He's got a fantastic new ray gun and for the beam a short trans blue light saber blade. The forestman comes with a bow and arrow. His hat is similar to the old hat but it's a resculpt and his torso is a new design. He has an extra red feather for his cap. Those will come in handy since I don't have enough for all the older hats I have. The diver looks pretty good, nice colors but nothing really new part wise. Good shirt on the cowboy and the comes with three pistols and that fedora in dark tan. I would like several of those hats. His brown hands are a mystery. Is he wearing gloves? Odd for a gunfighter. He must be that good. Most of the figures have good expressive faces so they will come in handy. Lego has nice action shots at their website. Here's a few of them.

    

    

    

    

Oops, I opened the folder and they all fell out. They're so cute I can't put them away again. LEGO also has some wallpapers and other bits of fun at their site. You should be able to figure out where they are.

FallenTomato - Lighthouse Car and Butterfly

 

FallenTomato or David Pickett says it's a WIP, or work in progress, and it really caught my eye when I was flipping through the last few days emails. It was posted to his Flickr photostream. Take a look at his other stuff too. He also makes short LEGO films. If you got the time. I know it's hard to spare it. I have way many contacts on Flickr and it takes a while to check out the emails without even going to check things out on Flickr. There's a vaste number of builders generating a lot of new stuff all the time. Hard to keep up. I'd read more blogs but it's hard to find more time. I still got books and movies to watch. Still I'm glad that I stopped to look at that car. I think it's really fun to look at. There's a beauty in it's simplicity and blockyness. Time to move on.

TwinLUG Meeting 5-23-10

 
It was a small meeting this month. That's Matt in the grey t, Roy on his right, Erik pointing to his mouth, me pointing at some part on the new Kingdom tower set, Tom sensibly keeping his hands under the table, Gary pointing to his minifigs and a new guy also named Tom. Max is pointing the camera. Gary brought his stack of minifigs for sale, some pink bricks for Roy and cup cakes. Yummm! I bought some more minifigs from Gary, a buck each is cheap. There's still quite a few left and he has several horses. Good accessories too. I got some white skis. I hadn't had any of those.

    

I brought the Kingdom's impulse sets I recently blogged about, the new damsel in distress Kingdom set which I will blog about soon, a set of the Collectible Minifigs that are hitting the streets as we speak and some Spangler Circus Peanuts. They're my favorite and sadly not always available around here. You can buy a twenty pound box from their online store. In mixed flavors. I've considered it.

Mostly we talked about the parts we want for the LEGO LUGBULK program and ate up all the snacks. We can pick about 80 parts and the company tells us which we can have and the cost. We have to put on two displays for the public and write up some stuff and have a website etc to take part in this program. I have pigs and some headlight bricks and some green plates coming in the first batch which isn't here yet. It can take up to 3 months to get your parts but they are fairly cheap compared to Bricklink. The big appeal is getting a lot of one part. We can't resell them, that's part of the deal, but that doesn't seem to be a problem, most everyone keeps their parts anyway. The hardcore LEGO nerdiness might have scared the second Tom away, he left abruptly and never came back. Maybe he'll come back. Many haven't.

Science Fiction Sunday 79

I got up at 5:30 am cause I couldn't stay in bed any longer. I put The Chronicles of Riddick on before I did laundry. I'm watching the unrated director's cut with 15 minutes of extra footage that wasn't in the theatrical version. It's 5 years after the first movie and the sequel moves out into the larger universe. Riddick is being chased across an ice planet by some bounty hunters. Riddick takes down the four man crew and escapes in their ship. That's how Riddick roles. I'd just give him my car keys if he came 'round here, maybe toss in a sandwich. In New Mecca Riddick goes to see the Imam who was one of the three people to escape in the first movie. Jack had been the third and she had stayed with the Imam and his family for a while. Then she ran off looking for Riddick and got tossed into prison on Cremetoria for being so angry and mean. Bad attitude always gets you into trouble and unless you've got Riddick strength you can't always fight and win. The scenes from the planet surface, any of them really, sure can look cool. The movie is heavy on style and flash. I don't mind that at all. Some nice sets too.

 
 
The Imam introduces Riddick to Judy Dench, who an elemental with some sort of mystical powers. She's got a prophecy that says Riddick will save the universe from a terrible evil. That would be the Necromongers. They are scummy guys, kind of like the Borg, but with some slight more personality. They're convert or die kind of guys, forcing the religion of the Underverse on the citizens of the planets they drop in on. They wear a lot of metal and don't smile much.

  
They show up in New Mecca city right soon, dropping out of the sky in sharp pointy ships that bury themselves in the ground. Waves of fighter craft pour off of them and the battle is begun. The Necromongers are a powerfull force and they whip the population right into line. The leader can rip your soul right from your body and swoosh around in a ghostly way, moving so fast you can barely see him. Everyone bows down but Riddick. There's a fight and while escaping Riddick is snatched up by the bounty hunter who managed to survive the ice planet. They dump Riddick at Cremetoria, a planet that burns during the day and freezes at night. That's Cremetoria below and the inside of the prison.

 
The bounty hunters and the prison staff have a falling out over the price and it turns ugly. Riddick uses it to his advantage and escapes only to run into Karl Urban, who's come with a gang of Necromongers looking to kill our anti-hero. There's more fighting and backstory and some people turn into extra extra crispy bacon before Riddick can manage to get to the ship to escape again. Then it's back to New Mecca and the big showdown with the head of the dead. It's got an epic look and feel and nearly carries it off. I enjoyed it the times I've watched it. There's always something happening and it's often gorgeous to look at.

7953 Court Jester

  

That's the second impulse set in the new Kingdoms series. He's kind of a cute little guy. He's got a nice little stage area and some juggling balls. There are 22 parts in the set and three extra 1x1 round plates. Extra juggling balls for the jester.

          

TwinLUG's Micropolis at SpringCon 2010

 
That's the TwinLUG Micropolis display at the local comic con last weekend. The picture is by Max Braun, it's from his Bisonfuehrer Flickr Photostream. You can see more pictures of the con there. The MCBA has moved their two day con to the spring because some other bigger comic con moved to MCBA's old October time slot and getting guests was going to be a problem. They didn't have any problem getting us as guests, just wave some free sandwhich's around, we'll come a runnin'. We were guests at the con the last couple of years, we got free memberships and free food for the chance of showing off our LEGO, and another public display notch which let's us participate in the LEGO LUG BULK program. Matt said he was very happy to get some food as he had no food in his house and he'd been out half the night. I was nearly the same way, I didn't bother to shop for the weekend figuring I would chow down a fistfull of free sandwich's from Aesop's Table. They cattered the con. I was happy to see the van full of subs being unloaded as I was unpacking my car saturday morning about 9 am. The con opened at 10. It was much warmer than last years Oct con. Last years 40's and 50's were really nasty in the old State Fair Grandstand building.

      

The three pics above are from my photostream. The con gave us two 5 foot by 8 foot tables to fill up and we had more than enough stuff. I didn't bring much old stuff for Micropolis but I didn't bring much new stuff either. I had three new blocks worth of stuff. We couldn't have fit everything that everyone has made, even if they could have brought it all. Much of this is going to take a trip to BrickWorld next month.

That's Max and his son Maverick, photo by Matt Holland. I got that from Matt's Flicker photostream where he hangs out under the Pbpancho handle. Below you can see Eric Knopp manning the other non-micropolis table in a Matt photo. That's Brian Kasprzyk's Catherdral. People sure liked that building, especially looking inside at the interior where a wedding is going on. Matt took a nice picture of the scene and you can go look for it over at Flickr. Max took the picture of Roy, Nathan Stohlmann, and Matt putting the puzzle that is Micropolis together. I didn't help with that any. I was trying to set up and finish the Undersea layout that covered part of the other 5 by 8 table. That last picture is by Max and it's me and Brian Kasprzyk behind the other table set up for the TwinLUG undersea display. What the hell's he doing there? I have no idea. Life's full of mysteries.

      

The undersea display is based on the recent Atlantis sets. I didn't care that much for the vehicles in those sets but the idea of under the sea is a cool one. LEGO has made several undersea themed sets over the years. Here's some pics from our display. You can see more pics on my Flickr photstream above. Brian and I each built in a different direction. I had all the modern buildings and Brian had all the ancient stuff going on. They work quite well together.

   

7955 Wizard Impulse set

 

The new Kingdoms sets are in the LEGO store. I looked them over and wasn't too excited. I liked the colors and parts in the Prince Of Persia sets better. I did pick up a couple of the Wizard impulse sets, figuring that minifig might come in handy in the future. The price used to be $3.49 for impulse sets but it's jumped the $3.99. Way of the world. This set has 19 pieces plus a couple of extra 1x1 round trans plates. The Wizard comes in a cool dark green color and he has a nice hat. I'd like to have a hat or two that wasn't printed on but that can be easily arranged. The torso isn't printed on like the legs are. The wizard's beard comes in black and this is the first appearance of that color on that part. The 2x2 brown tile has a nice illustration of a parchment with a green dragon on it. I'm still a sucker for dragons. Norbert, originally the dragon in the Harry Potter sets in sand green, now comes in dark green. The rest of the parts are pretty common, except maybe the 2x2 dark tan tiles with a stud on top. That's a part that might come in handy for Micropolis building.
 

Friday Night Movies 273

It was Pitch Black on BluRay. We passed up Avatar. I'm still hardly interested in that for some reason. PB looked nice and I hadn't seen this movie from 2000 in a while. I bet the last time was probably about when the 2004 sequel showed up on dvd. So much of the film's detail has fallen out of my head, it was almost new. Vin Diesel is a nasty criminal guy locked up in a spaceship that runs into some problems when space debris starts punching through it's hull. It gets worse when the bits punch through the captain. The ship spins out of control, enters the atmosphere of a handy planet and skids to a stop in pieces. A double handful are left, but they start getting picked off a bit at a time. Vin escapes and is chased and occasionally captured by Cole Hauser. They fight a lot. When he's not chained to something heavier than he is, Vin drifts in and out of the scenes, rarely saying anything, often making the survivors uncomfortable. There's a survey camp near where the ship crashes but everyone is long dead. There's water and power and a small abondoned space ship. Lucky! Maybe that space ship could get them off the planet. It just needs some heavy fuel cells and it might go. On top of all that hassle the group finds out that underground dwelling people eaters are waiting for night to come calling. The critters not only fear the light, it's very touch burns them. So, it would normally be lucky to have three suns surrounding a planet, especially when there are chompy tooth filled night loving monsters involved, but there's always a catch, isn't there. A ringed planet creates an eclipse and it gets dark. Vin has had an eye augment and he can see in the dark. That's handy. There's almost as much conflict between the survivors and Vin as there is with the monsters. It's a pretty dark movie where children die, their bodies consumed to the bone, thrown down in a fleeting glimpse before we rush on. It's not an overly gorey movie but it can be tense. It's not a planet to survive easily on but they fight on as much as they can. Most of them don't get to ride in the little spaceship. According to the Wikipedia it had a budget of 23 million and more than doubled that in the box office. It got a nice bit of buzz and people seem to mostly dig the movie. It was written and directed by David Twohy who seems to be a writer mostly. He wrote and directed the sequel The Chronicles of Riddick and didn't make another movie for 5 years. I'll want to watch the sequel again soon, maybe sunday morning. The Bluray dvd was the Unrated Director's Cut and it was 3 minutes longer than the 109 minute length of the original. I couldn't tell you what was different. There's probably an app for that. All and all a fun movie, lots of action and good stunts. The characters are a mixed bag in their personalities and survival traits. I have a copy of the regular edition and will probably stick with that. I still haven't made the leap to BluRay.

Transylmania was another movie Joe found on NetFlix. It's a vampire college comedy with a pretty low brow sense of humor. Kind of like the Scary Movie series but not as good. I pretty much like that series as uneven as they are. They sure aren't the most sophisticated comedies but they're entertaining enough and there is that cute Anna Farris. In Transylmania some students, including some cute girls, go to Romania for some foreign studies. There the usual lot of different types: a whimp and his hot girlfriend, a couple of stoners, a stupid guy, a guy who made out with a man while drunk, blonde twin gals that come in naughty and nice flavors, an evil vampire and his three hot vampire chicks, a dwarf who's the college dean and his daughter who's a hunchback. Sadly I just read that David Steinberg, who played the dean passed away a couple of months ago. The dean's plan is to harvest parts from the exchange students to give his hunchback daughter a new body. She's got a grotesque hump on her back but a nice face. You can see her in the trailer in the link above. One of the visiting students has been having an online affair with her but doesn't know she's a hunchback until they meet. He's bummed and in a bit of tired comic business the spitting image of the evil vampire. One of the twins gets her head lopped off but it's still alive down in the secret lab under the college. There's lots of sight gags and goofy jokes. I laughed a few times. The girls are cute and there's a bit of nudity when the evil vampire's hot chicks doff their tops for a bit of naughty dancing. We never get to the vampire orgy but we get two kinds of balls. Don't worry they aren't attached to any of the guys. It's a local delicacy, goat testicles cooked inside sheep balls. The Asian stoner guy likes them but I wouldn't eat 'em. The movie was directed by David and Scott Hillenbrand and it's a sequel to the second of the National Lampoon Dorm Daze films. I haven't seen those. According to the Wikipedia the film was a major bomb and had one of the worst openings in a 1000 theaters ever. It's a made to dvd movie not a theater movie that a guy could give a miss to but it was a bit of a laugh after the grim Pitch Black and that was just the right thing at the right time.