PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Friday Night Movies 887

Alien Private Eye 1989 Written and directed by Vik Rubenfeld, he was also the casting director and film editor. It's his only movie, the IMDb lists him as one of the creators of the TV show Early Edition, he's credited with writing one episode. I never watched that show more than a handful of times, so it's doubtful that I saw his episode. Up until right now the movie has only been available on VHS. You can see a poor copy on YouTube, see link above. The movie looks much better on the Severin Blu-ray.

The story revolves around the possession of a special disc that fell to Earth. A crook figured out it was a drug dispenser and he's been selling the highly addictive product in LA. An alien private eye is on Earth, he helps a woman being mistreated by some thugs and winds up in the middle of a mess. She's got one half the disc and the crooks have the other half.

There's plenty of chasing about with a few punch up and gun fights. Sadly they're so ludicrously staged. The car chase and subsequent crashes? Embarrassing. The whole movie is like that. Clumsy script and inept cast. Makes a combo for laughter. Sadly Vik's intended humor isn't cutting it. All in all a good film to have seen but one that wasn't as enjoyable as one might have hoped. Not going on my To Buy List.

Tokyo 10+01 2003 Written and directed by Higuchinsky. Another one that I won't be adding to my To Buy List. It's a comical sort of parody that people doing IMDb reviews think is of Battle Royale but it seems more like it's parodying The Running Man. The filmmakers make references to BR in the beginning of the film but that soon falls by the wayside as the contestants start running about. Was The Running Man released to long ago for the commenters to know about. Could be but who knows. Hopefully, I'll have forgotten about the film be tomorrow.

Eleven criminals are drugged and fitted with a poison timer bracelet. They wake up in a warehouse in a shitty part of town. They have 11 hours to get to the Baron's mansion. Then they'll be safe, they'll win a cash prize, get their record wiped clean and the poison dispensing tracker bracelet will be deactivated. A lot to play for.

Most of the contestants are pretty annoying and I didn't care much for them. In fact it was nice to see them get picked off one by one or in a small group. There's plenty of running about and yelling but not much else going on of interest. The poor DVD mastering didn't help either. Ultimately it was disappointing and not one I need to see again.

The Chelsea Detective Series 1

The Chelsea Detective Series 1 Created by Peter Fincham. Four episode series written by Peter Fincham, Glen Laker and Liz Lake, directed by Darcia Martin and Richard Signy.

Adrian Scarborough is a recently separated Detective Inspector who moved into a houseboat on the Thames in Chelsea. That lady is his police partner, she's played by Sonita Henry.

The mysteries are varied and fairly well written. I liked the characters and the production look nice. Happy to have seen them and would watch the series again at some point.

Man-Made Monster 1941

Man-Made Monster 1941 Story by H J Essex, Len Golos and Sid Schwartz, screenplay by Joseph West, directed by George Waggner. The second film in the 3rd set of the Universal Horror Collection. The extras include a tag team commentary with Tom Weaver and Constantine Nasr plus a still gallery. They both wanted to do a commentary and instead of adding a second one they split the available time between the two guys. The pair of them ramble on with some interesting stuff and some stuff that wasn't as interesting. Their commentaries aren't synced at all. Could have been better to have a pair of them each commenting.

Another mad scientist story that was fairly entertaining. Lon Cheney Jr is in an accident that had everyone in the bus electrocuted but him. He gets involved with a doctor who uses electricity in his practice. Lionel Atwill plays the mad scientist and Samuel S Hinds a more sensible scientist who tries to keep his partner in check. That's a no go for Lionel, he's perfectly willing to kill for science. Unlucky for him, Lon is driven insane and he sure wants to kill Lionel.

Happy to see it again and I'd want to watch it again sometime.

Christa 1971

Christa 1971 Written by Jack O'Connell with additional dialogue by Bent Christensen and Gene Price, directed by Jack O'Connell. The poster boasts that Manfred Mann produced the rock soundtrack. It was a fair soundtrack but nothing I would buy as a soundtrack record. The movie was released in the US under the title Swedish Fly Girls even though Christa is Danish and much of the action takes place there.

Birte Tove plays Christa, she's a stewardess who's a single mom. Her young son lives with her parents while she jets around Europe. The father of her child is a driven businessman who wants Christa and his son. She's not interested in him but he's a mean spirited dick and he's hired a private eye to document her sex life. If Christa won't come back to him he's going to take their son because she's an unfit mother. During the movie he ruins his family's 200 year old fortune, instead of trying to fix things, he kills himself. Dying in a flaming car wreck couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

Much of the movie has Christa, and some of her flying pals, running about without clothes on. There's even a couple of visits to a nude beach. It's got some humor, some drama, a lot of bare flesh and a happy ending. About average for this sort of film. There are hundreds of them out there. You can check out all the flesh on YouTube.

A Feather In Her Hat 1933

A Feather In Her Hat 1935 Based on a novel by I A R Wylie, screenplay by Lawrence Hazard, directed by Alfred Santell. A melodrama that I watched because it had Basil Rathbone.

Basil is a drunken guy that a shop keeper brings into her home. She's a widow with a young son who she wants to better himself. She works over the years to turn him into a gentleman and a playwright. There's plenty of melodrama and some romance.

Pauline Lord plays the widow, Louis Hayward plays the son as a grownup, Nydia Westman plays the young woman who hoped to marry Louis. She gives him up so Wendy Barrie can have him. Billie Burke plays an older actress that has success in Louis's play. David Niven plays Wendy's suitor before Louis showed up.

Nothing overly special about it. You can see it on YouTube, see link above.

Science Fiction Sunday 686

Doctor Who 0083 The Android Invasion Four part story that aired November 22 to December 13 1975. Written by Terry Nation and directed by Barry Letts.

Another alien invasion, this time the Tardis drops the Doctor and Sarah off on the planet Oseidon. They were headed for Earth and Oseidon looks exactly like the UK, including the UNIT HQ,  Sergeant Benton and the Brigadier. The Kraal race is heading for Earth and they've set up a practice space to try out their invasion plans. It's all overly cumbersome but it gives the Doctor a good chance to put a stop to their activity. A fairly good story that I enjoyed more than some of Terry Nation's scripts.

Doctor Who 0084 The Brain Of Morbius Four part story that aired January 3 to 24 1976.

The Time Lords send the Doctor to the planet Karn where one of the universe's way too many mad scientists is trying to build a body for the mind of Morbius. The brain is all that's left of the evil Time Lord Morbius. Lucky for all of us the Doctor and Sarah are on the case. I enjoyed it as much as the first time I saw it in 2013. I watched these two stories the same Sunday. They both showed up from the library at the same time. Not much you can do but go with it. Link to that post in the title above.

Friday Night Movies 886

The Knight Of Shadows: Between Yin And Yang 2019 Written by Liu Bohan and Jian Wen, directed by Vash.

Every couple of years I go out and look for Jackie Chan DVDs, there's usually something I haven't seen yet. In this action fantasy movie Jackie is a demon hunter who lives in a house on a pinnacle of rock. He shares the place with some fairly friendly demons. Jackie hunts bad demons and that's a good thing, the nearby town has a nasty but beautiful lady demon who's collecting 16 year old girls. They've been imprisoned in a tapestry until lady demon is ready to suck out their souls to prolong her life. The town's magistrate is upset because his daughter is the latest girl to disappear. Jackie soon figures out what's up but he's got a fight on his hands, that lady demon is a nasty piece of work.

There's plenty of action and running about during the movie, much of it augmented by CGI sets and characters. There's plenty of flying through the air, one of Jackie's demon pals can turn into a flying boat with Reed Richard arms. Good thing, what with living on the top of a pinnacle of rock and someone falling off the boat all the time.

I enjoyed the movie, especially the first half, the last half bogs down here and there with all the melodrama concerning the romance of two characters. It's colorful film with beautiful and stunning scenery. I liked the film's sense of humor. Glad to have picked up a copy, I'll want to watch it again sometime.

Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes 2020 Written by Makoto Ueda and directed by Junta Yamaguchi.

A guy discovers his TV is a portal to the future. Trouble is, it's only two minutes ahead. All the action takes place in a small apartment block. The man lives in an apartment above a restaurant, his TV is broadcasting an image from the restaurant below that two minutes in the future. Several people interact with themselves from two mins into the future. Odd complications start happening when they try to extend the time from 2 mins to 4 mins etc. It looks bad when some criminals come by but the time police will help sort that out.

It's all filmed in one long take with everyone moving about from place to place in the building. They do quite well on that. Not that I was trying to catch them out on the action, I was having enough to do to keep up with the story. I enjoyed it, it's more entertaining and clever than many of the recent Indy time travel films that I've seen. Many of those were tragically dull with story's that end tragically because the scientists were stupid. This film has a fun premise and a good sense of humor. The acting was alright and the characters believable. I doubt I'll get the DVD, I might never get around to it again.

The Madame Blanc Mysteries Series 1

The Madame Blanc Mysteries Series 1 Created and written by Sally Lindsay and Sue Vincent, directed by Dermot Boyd.

Sally Lindsay is an antique dealer whose husband is killed in a car crash in the town in France where they have a holiday home. He makes regular trips to France to buy antiques for their English store. When Sally goes to France to take care of things she notices there's an expensive ring missing from the car. She also learns that there isn't as much money in their account as there should be. She's got the sell the French house to keep her business afloat. When it's suspected that her hubby was killed she's suspected so she has to work out who's really behind the murder. She enlists a local cab driver to be her transport and help with fish out of water local stuff.

It's fairly light weight familiar stuff, bit of mystery, bit of romance, bit of melodrama, bit of humor, bit of jeopardy from the nasty female villain. It mostly works out in the end, leaving the villain to escape to Series 2. It's alright but it's not something I would buy on DVD to watch over and over.

The Wrong Door Series 1

The Wrong Door Series 1 Written and directed by Ben Wheatley.

A six episode British sketch comedy show from 2008 that features a lot of CGI. All sorts of people pop up in the sketches:

Brian Blessed, Gina Bellman, Matt Berry, MyAnna Buring, Lucy Cudden, Michael Fenton Stevens, Neil Fox, Simon Greenall, Laurence Hobbs, Rasmus Hardiker, Pippa Haywood, Humphrey Ker, Burt Kwouk, Alex MacQueen, David Reed, Michael Smiley, Thom Tuck, Lorna Watson and Lloyd Woolf. I know Brian, Bert and Matt but most of them I don't recall seeing before.

The Wikipedia lists the episodes and themes for each.

Each episode in the series has a different narrative strand running through it.

Episode 1: The World's Most Annoying Creature. In an attempt to create the perfect soldier, a bio-weapons lab creates the World's Most Annoying Creature, which promptly escapes. First shown 28 August 2008.

Episode 2: Njarnia. Edmund and Lucy wander through the back of their self-assembly wardrobe and find themselves in the magical, but slightly rubbish, world of Njarnia (a parody of Ikea/Narnia). First shown 4 September 2008.

Episode 3: The Smutty Aliens. A woman is abducted by aliens with rude names and a pjallic spaceship. First shown 11 September 2008.

Episode 4: The Train Pirates. A group of ordinary commuters are transformed into pirates, led by Captain Goiter (Brian Blessed). First shown 18 September 2008.

Episode 5: The Wizard of Office. Dorothy is transported to an office in Oswestry after a storm, in a twist on The Wizard Of Oz. Also the London Underground is infested with Pac-Man and a restaurant has a problem with its Death by Chocolate. First shown 25 September 2008.

Episode 6: Bondo. The secret clown agent Bondo tries to take down a ninja plot to destroy the Train Pirates and Xotang needs a holiday. First shown on 2 October 2008.

I found the sketches to be a mixed bag, some I found really funny, others not so much. There's a certain amount of toilet humor, some of it works better than other bits, the pooing spider superhero was a low point. That's not a web! I might have bought the DVD but it seems to be out of stock on Amazon UK. It's from 2008 and I doubt they are going to make anymore.

Tower Of London 1939

Tower Of London 1939 Screenplay by Robert N Lee, produced and directed by Rowland V Lee. This is the first of four films that make up the Universal Horror Collection Volume 3. Three of films in this set appeared in an earlier DVD set called Universal Horror Classic Movie Archive. It had 5 films on 2 discs: The Black Cat, Man Made Monster, Horror Island, Night Monster and Captive Wild Woman. The Tower Of London Blu-ray has a commentary by Steve Haberman, he spends a lot of time talking about Basil Rathbone and not the movie. There's a still gallery. I like that this set has four commentaries but there are little else listed on the box other than still galleries. One of the films has a trailer.

An entertaining biopic about the horrible life of King Richard III. It's not very accurate and skips through time compressing events. Basil Rathbone plays Richard, Duke of Gloucester and he's a right bastard. He'll kill anyone who gets in his way while he's heading for the throne, including those little princes in the tower. Boris Karloff plays the head torturer in the King's dungeon. Vincent Price plays the Duke of Clarence. He'll get in Richard's way and die for it.

It's got nice production values and there's some good battle scenes. It's the longest movie in the set, 92 mins and they spent some money on the movie. I hadn't seen it for a number of years and had forgotten most of what went on. I enjoyed it all over again. I got a good feeling in my heart when Richard got his comeuppance. Who doesn't like that?

In the real battle of Bosworth Field Richard was trashed pretty well, blows to his helmet so hard they smashed his skull. One of the many useless Kings of England.