PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 378

Disc three of The Invisible Man today. Seven more episodes of invisible shenanigans with Peter Brady the invisible scientist. Peter uses his invisibility to help people in their time of need. He seems more action hero and spy than scientist. There are show descriptions and screen captures below.

Friday Night Movies 569

Exit Humanity is a 2011 zombie film set in civil war era Tennessee but actually filmed in Ontario. It's written and directed by John Geddes who directed 2 other films, neither of which I've seen. Probably won't bother after seeing this. Mark Gibson, whom I don't remember from an episode of Murdoch Mysteries and an episode of Warehouse 13, plays a man who loses his wife and son to a zombie making plague. He travels about a bit before joining up with another man named Isaac. They encounter Bill Moseley who runs a 4 man group of rebels. They've been killing zombies and trapping the living for their own evil ends. Mark and Isaac rescue Isaac's sister from Bill's group. Stephen McHattie plays a medic who Bill wants to have make a cure but it's beyond poor Stephen's ability. Dee Wallace is a witch and it turns out she started the plague with a spell. It's way too long, 114 minutes, and way too moody and atmospheric. It would have been better shorter and better with some more stuff going on. There's a lot of time up front spent with a despondent Mark. We had a hard time getting involved with the story and there was more yakking than usual. It's looks pretty good for $300,000 (Canadian) budget. They saved money by shooting most everything in the woods. There's some amount of gore and a good number of zombies. Not something I would heartily recommend but you might like it more than me. It gets a 5.4 on the IMDb and that's not too far off. We were discussing it at the end and most everyone thought it would be a 5, Joe gave it a 4 but he was particularly unhappy with it. 

 
The Cape Canaveral Monsters is a 1960 horror movie that was originally made for the theaters but would up on TV first. The IMDb lists the movie as a TV movie. It's written and directed by Phil Tucker. He was responsible for the notorious Robot Monster. According to the LA Times and Bill Warren's book Keep Watching The Skies! Phil attempted suicide in December 1953 after becoming depressed about the poor reception for Robot Monster and not getting any money from the distributor. That film cost $16,000 and grossed a million bucks. Fred got better mentally but that didn't help him make any better films from the look of it.

In The Cape Canaveral Monsters we have a couple of aliens on Earth. They are the vanguard of an upcoming invasion. They've been kidnapping human's for research. They have a matter transmitter which they use to send bodies back to their planet. This is supposed to be all happening near Cape Canaveral in Florida. Unfortunately the film makers are filming in Bronson Canyon in Los Angeles California so the hills just don't make much sense. Much of the outdoor stuff is filmed in Griffith Park, also in LA.

It's a short ass film, only 66 minutes, and several minutes are devoted to stock footage from the space program. The scientists fight the aliens and manage to get the upper hand at the end. It's not very good and there isn't much reason to see it, other than it's a hoot to watch.

Rumpole Of The Bailey Series 4

   

Series 4 of Rumpole Of The Bailey first aired in January and February 1987. Four years had passed since Series 3. Leo McKern is Horace Rumpole, a barrister who practices mostly at the Old Bailey and a delightful curmudgeon. He lives with his long suffering wife Hilda. Horace calls her "She who must be obeyed" but he doesn't do that great a job at that. In this series Hilda is now being played by Marion Mathie who took over for Peggy Thorpe-Bates when she retired from illness. Rumpole works in the Chambers at 3 Equity Court with a bunch of other barristers.

In the first episode Rumpole has a fight with Hilda and moves out. He winds up staying with another barrister who's prosecuting one of Rumpole's clients. Hugh Timson is back in court again in the second episode. This time he got caught with a garage full of stolen wine. You'd think by now he'd have a second garage somewhere else not near his home nor in his name. Lucky for Rumpole he's not that smart. The Timson clan, a low end crime family, have given Rumpole a lot of work over the years. As Rumpole says: "Crime doesn't pay, but it's a living."

In the 3rd episode Rumpole is defending a woman charged with revealing official secrets. She says she didn't release the documents that show how much the Ministry of Defense spent on tea and biscuits. Rumpole defends the owner of some massage parlours in the fourth episode. He's charged with running a bawdy house. You can guess what that means without any difficulty. That leads to shenanigans in the court room that work to Rumpole's advantage.

Rumpole is in Germany for the 5th episode. He's defending a soldier charged with murdering his sergeant. The man was found dead outside a local bar and he was dressed as a woman. The judge turns out to be an old colleague who used to practice out of 3 Equity Court. Rumpole nearly gets to retire when he wins a large horse bet. Of course it doesn't work out and we get to enjoy his company for 3 more series.

Another good batch of episodes that I'll be glad to enjoy again in the future.

Robson Arms Season 1

I watched this Canadian TV show because it has Gabrielle Miller and Fred Ewanuick in it. Both of them were appearing in Corner Gas when they appeared in Robson Arms. The first season of the show aired in the summer of 2005 and there were 13 episodes. It's a sitcom format that's heavy on the drama. The show is set in an apartment building, the Robson Arms, in Vancouver. Each episode is mostly about 1 or 2 people, and their issues, with smaller roles for other characters. Once the featured character, or characters, has their episode they might return occasionally or just as often they simply disappear. Everyone in the building has issues, heavy issues, and those issues get in the way of the comedy. I still laughed out loud occasionally. Success seems to be out of place at the Robson Arms. I didn't dislike the show but I thought I wouldn't need to add them to my collection as I wouldn't be likely to want to get back to them for a long time. There were two more seasons before they stopped production.

Age Of Dragons

Wow, what a piece of crap is Age Of The Dragons. I told Joe it had showed up in the mail and he said, "If it's the same movie I saw, with Danny Glover, it's crap". He was sure right. It's a 2011 fantasy film based on Moby Dick with dragons instead of whales. The film makers move the sailing ship onto dry, snow covered, land. It was filmed in Utah. There's the ship below. Funny, huh. It's got three writers: Gil Aglaure,  Anne K Black and  McKay Daines. Three writers who couldn't manage to make a good story from a classic novel. Ryan Little is the director and he's sadly not so good at his job either. It's pretty low budget on top of that.

Danny Glover is Captain Ahab and he's looking for the great white dragon that burnt up his sister. They hunt the dragons for the valuable flammable oil in their torsos. There's a lot of drama going on and little dragon hunting. What is depicted is so poorly done it makes me laugh but in a sad sort of way or from incredulity. There's no reason to want to watch the movie, you'd be better off if you didn't. I'm kind of sorry I wasted a Netflix pick on it.

Space Station 76 2014

Space Station 76 is a weird thing, sort of like Mad Men meets Space: 1999 and 2001: A Space Oddity. It's supposed to be a made in 1976 science fiction film that's set in a reality with space travel. It's got great sets, lots of white hallways and spacious rooms with wood paneling. The technology is vaguely based on 70's tech levels. I love the little robot in the picture below. He's also the ships psychologist.

Space Station 76 has 5 writers, Jennifer Elise Cox, Sam Pancake, Jack Plotnick, Kali Rocha and Michael Stovanov. Jack is also the director. It's his first film and he developed the script by improvising at his home with some of his favorite actors. Jennifer was Jan Brady on the 90's Brady Bunch movies. It's her only writing credit. Same for Sam Pancake though he has 85 acting credits on the IMDb. Kali played Halfrek on Buffy The Vampire Hunter. She mostly acts but has another writing credit on a TV show I never heard of called Liv And Maddie. Michael has written quite a bit and he acts too. Michael, Sam and Kali all have parts in the movie.

Liv Tyler has the lead role, she's come to the space station to replace the first mate of the ship. Patrick Wilson plays the Captain. He's got his issues. Everyone on the station has some issues. A lot of issues and they all spill out over the course of the film. There isn't anything much science fictional going on, other than they're in a space station. It's as if it were a modern day drama set in space in a world where people are already in space. It looks nice and there are some nice ship models.

It's got a pretty good but dark sense of humor. It seems to polarize the viewers, it only scores a 4.9 on the IMDb. I might be closer to a 6 in my eyes. Some times the drama over powers the comedy. It did make me laugh occasionally but sometimes I was hoping for some more jokes. I think a lot of people would like it once they see it. Not something I would need to buy for myself, I got the DVD from Netflix, but I was glad to have seen it. Here's a few more pictures I scavenged from the internet. As you can see it's one spacious space station.

Man About The House Series 5

The 5th series of Man About The House aired in September and October 1975 and there were 6 episodes. Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke wrote them and Peter Frazer-Jones was the director. Richard Sullivan is Jack Tripp, Paula Wilcox is Chrissy, Sally Thomsett is Jo, Yootha Joyce and Brian Murphy are their landlords, George and Mildred Roper and Doug Fisher is Larry, Jack's pal. The idea of a man sharing a flat with two single women was pretty daring for the time but nothing much happens, no matter how much Jack wishes he could snog Chrissy. He looks like he's almost going to get some smoochin' on the DVD cover but he's out of luck there.

In the first episode Chrissy gets a movie camera and projector from her boyfriend. Naughty upstairs neighbor wants to use the projector to watch a dirty movie. What could go wrong there? In the second episode Mr Roper sells Jack Mrs Roper's piano. He will be hurt for that. Jack's selling encyclopedias and Mr Roper is entering contests to win a prize. Everyone wants to use the flat for their own entertaining, at the same time. Ha, good idea to have your own place when snogging is involved. Mildred is into flower arranging and somehow a plant that look like Pot gets into her hands. Chrissy has two tickets to Frank Sinatra that she can't use. Jo and Robin compete in pampering her to get the tickets. Mr Roper winds up with the tickets when the flat mates loose his anniversary present to Mrs Roper. There's the usual laughs and mugging going on. I'm still getting some enjoyment from the series and I'm kind of sad that there isn't anymore after the next and last series. There's a Man About The House feature film but it's really pricey on Amazon UK. I keep hoping it will turn up cheaper but so far no go.

41559 Paladum

 This is one of the new series 7 Mixels. It's called Paladum and it's from the Medivals Tribe. You can read more about it from the official description.

Flap the golden wings of faithful Paladum!

 This one-eyed, flying-horse-type creature is the pet of 41557 Camillot. Paladum may not be the cleverest, but will fearlessly do anything to protect its master. You too are sure to fall in love with this ever-cheerful and loyal character.

• Take care of loyal pet Paladum from the LEGO® MIXELS™ Medivals tribe!
• Paladum features a cyclops eye, opening mouth, posable golden wings, posable joints and a flag tail.
• Collect all 3 Medivals knights in LEGO® MIXELS™ Series 7 to build the MAX!
• Go to LEGO.com/MIXELS for exclusive building instructions, games, animations and much more.
• Watch all your favorite MIXELS™ characters on Cartoon Network.
• Stands over 2” (7cm) tall.

You can see it's got 64 parts in the set which isn't bad for a set that costs $4.99. That makes the parts about 8 cents each. Some of that parts are worth much more than that, especially the two gold wings and the teeth. You can only get the gold wings in this set and the Elves boat set. The teeth come in two other Mixels sets in this series. Still, they're both why I bought a few copies of the set. Not sure what'll do with the teeth yet but they are interesting shapes. Bricklink calls them: White Tile 1 x 1 Half Circle Extended (Stadium) with Groove. Quite the mouthful, huh.

I want to use the gold wings for something I'm working on right now. The rest of the parts are useful for the most part. I didn't build the set but I saw one built at the TwinLUG meeting last Sunday. People were talking about there interest in the tooth part, wishing it came in other colors. I just don't see the need to build them. They just aren't that interesting to me other than as part packs. If it weren't for the interest in the gold wings and teeth I wouldn't bother with them. I didn't see anything in the other 8 sets in the series.

Science Fiction Sunday 377

 

I watched the second disc in the four disc set of The Invisible Man. Seven more episodes of Peter Brady, the invisible scientist, having adventures. He's mostly aided by his sister Diane, played by Lisa Daniely. These 7 episodes, which aired in the last quarter of 1958, wrap up the first series of the show. There would only be one more series of 13 episodes before they stopped production. The episodes are below the cut. I'm trying this out to see if I like it.

Friday Night Movies 568

Massacre Mafia Style is a 1974 gangster flic written, directed and produced by Duke Mitchell. It's also known as The Executioner or Like Father, Like Son. Fans of the 1952 film Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla might remember his short lived partnership with Sammy Petrillo. They pretty much copied Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and they were sued by Lewis after the movie came out. The suit was later dismissed. Mitchell had a singing career in the nightclubs of Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Palm Springs. He was also the singing voice of Fred Flintstone. Duke made a 1976 sequel to this film, Gone With The Pope, that didn't get finished and released until 2010. Duke died in 1981 at the age of 55.

As a film maker Duke lacks something. Well, maybe everything. He can't write or direct which hinders the film a bit. Duke plays a mafia guy who is the son of a senior Mafia don. He goes to Hollywood and he tries to take over. He doesn't do so well and he kills a lot of people. Eventually his family kills him with a 4 barrel shotgun. For me that was the most interesting thing in the film. It's not very good but we all had a bit of a laugh. The 455 people who voted for the movie on the IMDb really must have liked it, the score averages 6.3. That's way too high, I wouldn't give it more than a 4.

Deathgasm is a 2015 Australian horror comedy. Jason Lei Howden is the writer and director. He won a contest and got NZ$200,000 as a prize. He does a better job on making a movie than poor Duke. A young guy named Brodie goes to live with his bible thumping uncle and his family because his mother went into an institution for drug use. He winds up making friends with a couple of D&D nerds, Dion and Giles, and a long haired metal guy named Zakk. They form a crappy metal band. Brodie and Zakk break into the house of an ancient metal rocker where they wind up with a copy of the Black Hymn. They play the song and release demons on the town. Demons that kill everyone they come in contact with. Brodie feels he needs to stop the coming of a big demon from Hell. There's plenty of gore and slaughter. There's some jokes and sight gags that made me laugh once in a while. It too get's a 6.3 on the IMDb and that's more of a fitting score than the movie we watched first. Mind you 5166 people voted and that's a better sample of voters. If you like gory horror comedies then you might get a laugh or two out of it.