Review: The Green Slime (WTF-flim)

Protip: this is not a documentary about You Can't Do That on Television.

A giant asteroid is approaching the Earth and only Commander Jack Rankin (he of the Ronald Regan hair, permanent smirk and the thumbs-up) can save us. In order to do this, he will have to collaborate with his former partner Commander Vince Elliott (who is packing a lemon sucking face and the tendency to get people around him killed.) Rankin and Elliot previously had a falling out over some mission procedures and over the luscious Lisa Benson, who just so happens to be the head doctor on the space station they'll be using as base.

While planting explosives on the asteroid, the crew encounters a living slime that covers their equipment in the short time they are there. A researcher who has tagged along wants to take back a sample to study and when Rankin swats the specimen out of his hands, a small bit splashes up on his space suit. The decontamination process causes this unnoticed bit of slime to grow rapidly. On one part of the ship, everyone is celebrating the asteroids demise. On the other, creatures that feed on energy and grow rapidly are beginning to take over.

As you can guess, the next hour of the movie is spent trying to kill the creatures, which only seem to feed on being shot until about the second to last reel when shooting them magically works. We also have the unfolding subplot of what happened between Rankin and Elliot (it's never really explained, but apparently it had something to do with fatally putting several men in danger to rescue one) and, of course, the love triangle between the the Commanders and Dr. Benson runs it's awkward course.

Several people, including one of the main characters, die. Many of the silliest monsters not appearing in a Roger Corman film die. Unconvincing models do their thing. And the two people you know were going to live happily ever after do, I think.

It's kind of hard to believe The Green Slime was a 1968 film. Everything about this movie, short of the go-go 60's theme song and general vibe, could have come straight from an AIP flick ten years earlier. I've read somewhere this film was intended to be part of a series and kind of a tribute to old space serials like Rocky Jones, which would explain a lot.

The acting is stiff and there's no real likable characters. Rankin is an asshole, Elliot is a bit of a putz and Benson seems to be hedging her bets and playing both sides. Some of this may be due to the unusual circumstances under which The Green Slime was made. The back story of the movie is probably more interesting than the movie itself.

Apparently, this was the first Japanese-American movie collaboration, and, through writer Ivan Reiner, there's Italian influence as well. The film was shot entirely in Japan, in English, using all Caucasians and most of the extras came from the nearby US Air Force base. It may or may not be connected to an earlier series of Gamma 1 films. Similar sets and props are used, but the connection is never made clear.

MGM and Toei prepared different cuts of this movie for the US and Japan respectively. This wasn't uncommon at the time, and still isn't as rare as it should be today. The US cut is what I've been talking about so far. Japan got a shorter version of this film (basically all the love triangle stuff is pulled) with different, more serious music cues. This Japanese cut of the film is also the only version to appear on DVD to date. Prior to this WTF-film release, anyone wanting to see the US version of The Green Slime was left with either the pan and scan VHS or a DVD-R sourced from that tape.

What WTF has done is take the shorter Japanese cut of the film, edit the missing scenes back in and sync it to the US soundtrack. I was a little curious as to how this would work as the only version of the US film I knew of was badly cropped versus the original Cinemascope aspect ratio of the Japanese DVD. Well, WTF located an interesting compromise, an Italian broadcast print which is the same as the US version of the film but instead of being panned and scanned to 1.33, it's just cropped on the sides to about 1.78.

It's a lot less disorienting going from the 2.35 scenes to the 1.78 than it would be if the old US tape was used, but there's another catch with this solution. First off, the colors are over saturated and the whole thing has a video look to it. The other problem is, there's a bug on the lower left hand corner of screen with, I'm assuming, the TV station's logo.

Even with these flaws, I found the presentation to be much more enjoyable than watching the old US tape. Until an official disc is released, this is the best we're going to get. I know a lot of work was put into this version and I can't imagine going back to the tape after seeing this composite widescreen version.

However, WTF's disc doesn't stop there. How does two more versions of this film grab you? On the second disc, we get the Japanese cut and split between the two discs, the Italian version. Unfortunately, neither of these are subtitled. Since the Italian version seems to mirror the US version (I only noticed the end music changed,) this one is not that big of a deal. I can't really see anyone watching this one for more than curiosity's sake*.

I wish the Japanese cut had been subtitled, but it's still pretty easy to follow, so it's not that big a deal. It's nice to have it, to compare and contrast with the US version, but, considering it's pretty obvious when a scene was cut into the composite US version, it's almost unnecessary. Still, if you want to check out the different music, there it is.

There's also trailers and an image gallery. The cover is also good looking, though I'd have put the English title on the spine as that is the focus of this release. Still, it looks good on the shelf so I can't really complain.

For most people, this set is probably going to be a little bit of overkill. I know it was for me. However, I genuinely appreciate the completest nature of these releases from WTF-flim. Even though most people won't have too much need for the other cuts of this film, the composite US version is the only version you need until Sony (or whoever controls the MGM catalog these days) decides to give this one a proper release.

Like Commander Rankin, I give this set a hearty thumbs-up.



* In case you're wondering about why the flim was split over two discs rather than making this a three disc set, well, it seems as if this was broadcast in two parts as there's are "end of part one" and "beginning of part two" title cards clearly part of the broadcast. I really can't see anyone watching this, I think it was just included for completeness sake, so it's no loss either way.

The future of animation.

http://dingo-pictures.de/en/index.html

Saddly, I halfway think I'm telling the truth.

Review: Battle of the Dragons (WTF-film)

(aka Kairyu daikessen, The Magic Serpent)

For most moviegoers, there isn't much in Battle of the Dragons' story they haven't seen before. A royal family is violently removed from power with only the young prince narrowly escaping. The prince then trains in seclusion with a wise old master. Just as the master is about to tell the prince the truth of his past, he is killed. The prince then heads out to seek revenge and reclaim his kingdom. Along the way, he falls in love with a young woman who, it turns out, is the estranged daughter of the evil wizard who made the overthrow of his family possible and who is planning a coup of his own.

Get the idea?

While the plot may not win any awards for originality, the movie works well due to good acting and a snappy pace. The story is adequate, but I don't think it's really the main attraction of this film anyway.

See, you're never going to get bored because it's as if Toei decided to throw nearly everything that was hip and happening in Japanese cinema of the day (1966) in this one flick. Swordplay, ninjas, kaiju, magic. You name it, it's in there. With so much stuff going on, you might think Battle of the Dragons would be a mess, but somehow it all holds together nicely.

Some of the blue screen effects are dated and obvious, but for the most part the effects in this film are very good for the time. I really like the kaiju fight at the end. The monsters have a neat design and someone put some time and money in to the miniatures they are stomping though.

Unfortunately, this movie has kind of a reputation for being another cheesy Asian movie. I think this is due to the fact that like the Gamera movies, it was picked up by AIP for TV syndication and has only ever been available to US audiences as a dubbed, pan and scan shell of what it really is.

Contrasting this to the US TV version (which is out on a Retromedia disc with Return of the Giant Monsters) is almost like watching two different movies. WTF's disc is a anamorphic widescreen presentation taken from a good looking print with just the smallest damage in a few spots. The colors are a little dull, but that may be a fault of the film stock used at the time. I'm guessing this print is taken from the region 2 disc.

WTF-film again impresses with the options offered on this disc. You can watch this film in Japanese with subs, English dubbed* or hear just the soundtrack. The subs are easy to read, though at times there's a lot to read on the screen, and the Japanese audio is clear and sounds good. The English dub (done by Titan) is slightly lower in fidelity, which is most apparent as a few music cues had to be cut back in from the Japanese soundtrack due to AIP adding their own credits.

There are also trailers, the AIP TV opening credits, an image gallery and alternate audio. Honestly, I can't tell what's alternate about the alternate audio. It brings up a screen with Japanese text and plays a version of either the opening or closing song. Again, I'm guessing this was taken from the region 2 disc, but I really don't know. It's nice to have, even if it's something I'm not interested in really.

As seems to be standard with WTF-flim discs, the menu looks nice (though this one is a little confusing in the layout) and the artwork and disc look very nice. Again, this is another winner from WTF-flim and is highly recommended.

* one interesting thing about the English dub. Not only are the actors dubbed, but the kaiju are redubbed as well. For some reason the dragon now has Godzilla's roar, the frog sounds like Rodan and the giant bird, Mothra.

More Dollar Tree Halloween Crap!

I couldn't justify buying any more of this junk, but man, are these people getting some mileage out of their (probably) bootleg Halloween stuff this year. I stumbles across two more products bearing the same images as the posters, figurines and finger puppets I blogged earlier.

These are some really crappy PDA pictures, so bear with me.



Here's playing cards. Yep, nothing says Halloween quite like a game of hearts. WHOOOOO!!!! Veeeerrrryyyyy Scaaaaarrrrrrryyyyyy Kiiiiiiddddddssssss.



OK, this is going to require a little more explaining because the picture is so terrible. It's slime in a can. Not like Silly Putty, this actually looks like slime. It's watery and looks like it would make a huge mess and possible be toxic to young kids who will inevitable try to eat it.

Cool.

Hear that sound? It's the bottom of the barrel being scraped. I mean, playing cards? Come on. The slime is at least a little cool, but what's next? Temporary tatoos? Coloring books? I guess they could still slap those pictures on a pack of gum or something like that.

Wow.

I gotta say though...King of the Lizards STILL MAKES ME LAUGH! Heh heh heh.

Review: The Giant Claw (WTF-film and CryptFlicks)

The Giant Claw is one of those movies I can't figure out why they never got around to featuring on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Pretty much from first frame to last this movie is nothing but cinematic cheese.

Here's my one sentence summary of the Giant Claw: The military, led by a know-it-all electrical engineer, defends model airplanes from a marionette buzzard and stock footage from Earth vs. the Flying Saucer. That's pretty much the whole enchlada right there.

I can't understand why Mitch MacAfee, the electrical engineer, is flying planes for the Air Force as a civilian or why he knows so much more about everything than anyone else in the movie. If this guy was so damn smart, why wasn't he in the military to begin with or why wasn't he an atomic physicist rather than being the guy to waltz in and tell the military's top atomic guy where he'd gotten it all wrong?

The military in this movie is of the "shoot first, ask questions never" persuasion so there's little attention given to what this bird is or why it's here. Well, there is one scene in the middle of the movie that grinds everything to a complete halt that functions as the token "oh yeah, guess we better throw some motivation into the mix" explanation. Needless to say, the science is pretty laughable.

Speaking of laughable, check this mug out:



Yep, that's "The Giant Claw" in all it's mutant Muppet buzzard glory. This silly puppet is the only reason anyone cares about this film anymore. Everything else in this movie has been done a million times in nearly every Z-grade sci-fi film of the time, but the Claw stands out even among ridiculous movie monsters of the time.

Just when you start losing interest in the movie, the Claw attacks and your brain struggles to process what you're seeing. Nothing about these effects look convincing and the scene where the Claw picks up a Lionel train has to rank with the hubcap saucers from Plan 9 and the exploding rocketship on a stick in Robot Monster.

How I came to acquire two versions of this film on DVD can be explained by my habit of buying things in lots on eBay. Someone was selling a lot of CryptFlicks discs about a week before I bought a lot of WTF-films discs. I got the CryptFlicks lot cheap, so I didn't mind the fact that I ended up with a double dip and a few films that are out officially on DVD now.

Both of these discs appear to be sourced from video and I'm willing to guess it's the obscure Goodtimes release that serves as master. If you remember buying Goodtimes VHS tapes back in the day, you have an idea of what kind of quality to expect. The print is in good shape but the master looks to be a combination of slow recording speed and cheap tape.

Both of these discs have a solid encode, though WTF's transfer is sharper and has better blacks. The sharpness of WTF's disc emphasizes the video nature of the master, but overall I preferred this disc to CryptFlicks. They both look good though and you won't be disappointed with either.

I think CryptFlicks has an edge in the audio department, however. The audio on the master is slightly clipped and it sounds like WTF used some sort of noise reduction that left the dialogue a little muffled. CryptFlicks' version is a bit noisier, but when it comes to trading noise for high end, I'll always pick the noise unless it's too obtrusive.

Each of these discs have a unique quirk that is worth mentioning. Once in the viewing of WTF's disc I noticed a slight video roll (or whatever you call that line you get from a wrinkle in a videotape.) It's brief and doesn't effect much of the screen. CryptFlicks' disc cuts off just as the end title card is fading in. Neither of these flaws are deal breakers, but I just noticed them, so I thought I'd mention them.

Both of these discs come cased with art. CryptFlicks' case shows the movie poster on the front and has a brief synopsis and movie stills on the back, just like all their other releases I own. WTF's case is a little more abstract with just a cloudy sky and text. The info about the movie is cool, but I don't like this case as much as the others in their collection.

In addition, WTF's disc has silkcreened artwork while CryptFlicks' disc is silkscreened with just the name. Both discs have menus and chapter marks. CryptFlicks gives a chapter every five minutes while WTF chapters scenes. WTF also includes a trailer and image gallery.

While there's nothing wrong with CryptFlick's disc, I have to give WTF the edge. Although I prefer the clearer, if noisier, audio from CryptFlicks, the sharper image and extras make the WTF version of this film the one to own, at least until Sony (or whoever owns the Columbia Pictures catalog from the 50s these days) decides to finally put this one out officially.

Review: Crack in the World (WTF-film)

For some reason, I'm really in a DVD reviewing mood. I recently bought a package deal from WTF-films for their entire catalog and since there's not a whole lot out there about these discs, reviewing all their discs as I'm watching them just seems like a good way to go. So this is disc three of the eleven I have. I don't know if I'm going to do them all, you'll just have to stay tuned.

This film is one I wasn't familiar with prior to stumbling across it in WTF's catalog. If I understand correctly, it's not a film that's been shown that often on TV and has never been on video, so it just kind of faded into obscurity. It's too bad because for fans of old school sci-fi, this one is a pretty good movie.

By old-school, I mean the story driven kind of sci-fi as opposed to modern, more special effects movie rollercoasters. Generally these type of movies involve a couple of sour scientists with opposing theories, a love triangle between said scientists and a lady (who is also usually a scientist) and a lot of talky parts.

In "Crack in the World," our scientists are arguing over a theory to tap into the Earth's geothermal energy. Dr. Sorenson wants to drop a nuclear warhead down a hole drilled in the Earth to poke a hole in the crust and let the magma rise while Dr. Rampion thinks this is going to cause a massive to form that would damage the Earth.

Sorenson pushes Rampion out of the way long enough to go ahead with his plan which appears to work, at first. Then reports of tidal waves and earthquakes start coming in and it's up to the scientists to figure out a way to stop the destruction the project has created.

There's also a love triangle involving the doctors and Sorenson's wife, who is also a scientist on the project and previously was involved with Rampion. In another subplot we learn Sorenson has a fatal disease which has led him to race against the clock and recklessly push ahead on the project despite his reservations.

It's kind of a shame that "Crack in the World" has dissapeared though as it's really quite good if you like serious sci-fi. The characters are all developed well and the film never talks down to the audience. The science is accurate to the time and explained in a manner that is clear.

Most of the movie shows the scientists battling to stay one step ahead of the cracking crust. The destruction effects are pretty well done, for movie which probably didn't have that much of a budget to work with.

While this gives the film some of it's most exciting scenes, it also presents it with it's biggest flaw. A few years after "Crack in the World" came out, the theory of plate tectonics would be developed and render the science that forms the core of this film implausible. I'm sure this is part of the reason you don't hear much about this movie anymore.

I'm willing to bet one of the other reasons is that "Crack in the World," which came out in 1965, has more in common with 50s sci-fi films like "Destination Moon" and "Day the Earth Stood Still" than sci-fi that would come after it such as "2001" and "Planet of the Apes." Changing tastes of the time meant this film got lost in the shuffle.

Of course, the fact that it hasn't ever officially appeared on home video doesn't help matters either. As best I can tell, this movie hasn't even shown up much on television. There have been a couple of verified showings on cable, one of which I'm willing to bet was the source for this disc from WTF.

Visually, this disc looks like a second generation dub. Given the obscurity of the film, I'm not complaining. The colors are bright, though there is a bit of bleed typical of a tape dub. The aspect ration is 1.33:1 and, for the life of me, it looks correct. I find it hard to believe that a major studio release in the mid 60s wouldn't be widescreen, but this was a low budget picture for Paramount so who knows?

As with the other WTF-flim discs I've viewed so far, there's an image gallery featuring promo materials and whatnot. The packaging is also very nice looking and looks good on the shelf. These are minor touches, but they show the love for the movie WTF brings to their projects.

While "Crack in the World" isn't going to be for everyone, if you can look past the scientific inaccuracy and enjoy older style sci-fi movies, I think you're going to dig this disc.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

for shopping at dollar stores. Halloween is the bomb when it comes to cheap crap doled out in the dollar stores of America. I was wondering how this year was going to stack up to last's. Last year, Dollar Tree and the Family Value Collection presented us with a huge collection of horror DVDs, many of which contained exclusive versions of some seriously obscure stuff. Of course, there was also a lot of material shamelessly cribbed from other companies.

So far on the DVD side of things, I've seen a few stragglers from last year, but there's also about six double features making the rounds from a newcomer Allegro/Pop Flix. As far as titles go, there's absolutely nothing here you haven't seen a million times if you've been following the dollar DVD scene. However, I picked up a couple of these just to see how prints stacked up and whatnot.



Ugly, aren't they? My fiancee remarked that it looks like they asked some Jr. High School art students if they wanted to earn a little extra credit designing DVD cases.

As for the visual quality, a spot check shows them to be better encodes than I've come to expect from non-flippers. For example, both movies on the Monster Mash disc also show up on Treeline single side discs, but these are encoded a lot better. You're not going to be showing off your TV with these, but at least in the clips I viewed it doesn't look like the image was created with colored tiles either.

I should also note that Screaming Skull is a fake widescreen which leads me to believe it was swiped from Elite's Drive-In discs. Just FYI.

Now, here's where things get interesting. I found all the rest of this junk at both Dollar Tree and Deals. Check these guys out...



Click on the image for a larger version. Not shown, the Wolfman finger puppet. I still need to find a Wolfman figure to go with him.

What's interesting here is everyone is changed just enough to probably not be copyright infringing. Of course, it could also be that they're just made so poorly, they don't look like what they were intended to look like.

If you notice the back of the packaging, you get vintage movie posters with Bella and Boris and all that. Flip them over and there's a small version of the poster for your to cut out.

But it gets better...



(Notice the bottom third of this poster is hacked off.)






sorry these pictures suck, but what you're looking at are 28" x 21" posters! Are you kidding me? I about pissed myself when I saw these things. There's no way possible these could be kosher, is there? They even went to the trouble of cutting any reference to Lugosi or Karolff out, but left their dang mugs in there!

For instance, Dollar Tree version...



Real version...



Notice the dollar store one has removed Bella's credit. Or how about this?



They cut out Karloff's name so the banner at the top makes no sense. Wow.

But here's my absolute favorite.



"KING OF THE LIZARDS?!?"

"No Toho, that is totally not Godzilla. See, Godzilla is King of the Monsters. Our guy is king of the lizards. Heck, look at our King of the Lizards finger puppet. He's swinging a club. Did Godzilla ever swing a club? No? Case closed."

Anyway, I hope some better horror DVDs start showing up, but even so, this bundle of swag is pretty neat. Expect to see these things on eBay for the next three months, but if you have a Deals or Dollar Tree in your area, you know what to do.

Review: From Hell It Came (WTF-film)

From Hell It Came is set in the tropics and we open with a bunch of Americans playing natives and dispensing some savage justice. Allegedly this guy murdered his own father who was the tribal chief with the help of American scientists who are on the island studying the effects of radioactive fallout and trying to cure a plague of some sort. He claims it was really the tribal doctor who offed his pops on behalf of the guy who took over as chief and vows to come back to seek revenge on those who set him up. He then gets a knife through the heart and is buried in what looks like a hollowed out tree.

Over in the American's camp, we see the typical scientists including the guy chasing after the frigid lady scientist. There's also Mrs. Kilgore, a wacky "Australian" woman whose ever other word is "bloomin'". The natives are now forbidden to deal with the scientists and they're beginning to worry they may soon be under attack.

However, the guy from the first scene has started his revenge. The scientists notice a tree stump starting to grow from his grave site. Pretty soon, it's grown into this big old evil tiki looking thing the natives call Tabanga. The scientists pull it out of the ground to examine it and, after they kill it and then bring it back to life, the killing begins.

The monster is kinda cool to look at, but he's about as stiff as a walking sheet of plywood. Speaking of stiff, there isn't much to write home about in the acting departement either.

I guess I should applaud the fact that the "natives" don't all speak unga-bunga English. However, it is a bit disorienting that all of the main natives speak perfect American English. If they weren't all dressed in strips of floral prints, it'd be really hard to tell the "natives" from the non-natives.

Well, except for Mrs. Kilgore. I have to wonder if they just couldn't find a boomerang for her to toss or a pet koala to hang around becuase her every line of dialogue screams out "Hey! Don't forget I'm supposed to be Australian!" She was the one character in the movie I was rooting for to die, but since she wasn't the pretty woman or a native, she was in the clear.

From Hell It Came is an excellent example of golden age drive-in horror. Not that it's an excellent film, mind you. I found it entertaining, but your mileage may vary.

What's interesting is From Hell It Came was a staple of Creature Feature programs but has never been officially released on home video. I don't know if it's a rights issue or what, but I'd think a movie like this that so many people saw and remember fondly would be worth someone's time to release. But that's where WTF-flim's disc comes in.

Apparently previous video versions of this movie have looked pretty bad. I'm happy to report WTF's disc is just a small notch below what one would expect from a commercial DVD release of B movie of this age. Apparently this was taken from a French television broadcast and the print used is in excellent shape. The only problem I saw were a couple of small digital blips typical of satelite television.

However, there is a catch. This being a French broadcast means non-removable French subtitles. Truthfully, I didn't find them that much of an inconvience. Granted, I'd rather not seen them, but you can certaintly ignore them without too much trouble. The subtitles aren't mentioned on the packaging, but it was clearly mentioned in the item description when I bought the disc.

Speaking of packaging, once again WTF-films has created a really first class looking package. I used to not care about these things, but I'm really starting to appreciate classy covers on DVD-R releases. I also appreciate the fact that WTF has included the prologue and end credits from the TV version (which also shows how poor the old video version kicking around looks) as well as an image gallery. Touches like these indicate WTF-flims commitment to the films, not just turning a buck.

Personally, I dig this disc. I would recommend it with the reservation that you might be bothered by having all the dialog on the screen in French. I know there are a couple of othere people offering this movie, but I don't know if the picture is as good. I'm willing to trade off non-removable subs for a print that is substantially better than the old video floating around and if you are too, I hightly suggest you check out this disc.

Review: 42nd Street Forever (Synapse)

Here's another DVD review for you, though this one is going to be less in depth. It might seem peculiar to watch a DVD of nothing but trailers, but when it comes to exploitation films, often times the trailers are more interesting than the movies themselves. Synapse offers up over two hours of trailer insanity from the kind of movies that played the grindhouse theaters back in the legendary days of New York's 42nd street. I think of this disc as a companion piece to the book Sleezoid Express, which, if you haven't read it, gives a first hand account of the vibe of 42nd street in the 70s and 80s.

The trailers on this disc range from violent Italian action to 3D Porn to kaiju to blacksploitation. I'm kind of surprised there's no cannibal/zombie flicks represented, but regardless, there's still something here to offend everyone.

Every movie on this collection seems to have one mission; to be the most extreme example of whatever genre it is. It's really amazing to see how daring cinema was in the 70s (even if at times it was totally tasteless) compared to now. It's also completely amazing to me to know there was a film called "Boss Nigger" (Fred Williamson, have you no shame???)

In this day and age, about the best these pictures could hope for would be cable TV, so it's also kind of mind blowing to know these movies actually were shown in a theater. Granted, the theaters these films ran in generally had a lot of, umm, non-movie related activities going on. But still, once upon a time, you could pass a marquee and read "I Dismember Mama" or "They Call Her One Eye".

Review: Super Monster (aka Gamera Super Monster)

Note: this is a new review. I think I'm done porting old blog entries for a while.



aka Super Monster Gamera aka...well, you get the idea.

This was the last of the Showa Gamera films and one that's fairly difficult to see in the US. In fact, this film is pretty much the redheaded stepchild of the entire Gamera series. It came nine years after the previous Gamera film, four after the last of rival Godzilla's, and was released during a time when kaiju films were clearly out of fashion. Like the previous installments, Supermonster was released straight to US television (MTV, in fact) but, unlike all the other Showa films which are a dime a dozen on allegedly public domain DVDs, never made it to US video.

The plot, as it is, goes something like this: there's these aliens who fly around in a ship from Empire Strikes Back that want to destroy the world by sending out a bunch of giant monsters and then there are these three space women who are somehow going to prevent that. Other than their ability to change clothes via a bad pause edit effect and shrink down to fit in a purse, we never see what special means the good space women have for protecting the Earth. In fact, every time they transform into space women, they get shot at from outer space, rendering whatever special powers they had completely useless. They all have magic Casio keyboards that can make their cars vanish, so maybe those were the secret weapon.

There's also one of the evil aliens on Earth and anytime the good space women change, her "radar watch" goes berserk and she can track them. Why they need her on Earth to track these women, I really don't know as the space ship seems to do a fine job of finding them on it's own. Somehow this evil space woman is responsible for the monsters attacking the Earth, but that's never really explained either.

We also have a Kenny here who is obsessed with turtles. He's forced to turn his pet turtle loose and then when Gamera shows up is convinced it's really his turtle. Sound familiar? It's ripped straight from the first Gamera movie.

Speaking of ripping things from other Gamera movies, all the monster battles are taken from the previous movies. You can either look at that as Gamera's greatest hits or the ultimate in lazy film making. There are a few new squences of Gamera flying, but the suit is very shabby looking and the blue screen effects are laughably bad. Even Toho would throw in at least one new monster battle when they were recycling Godzilla clips.

Considering the Showa Gamera films have always been goofy and a bit hard to follow, it's really saying something to state that this film is by far the loopiest, most confusing entry in the series. If I didn't know better, I'd almost think a reel of film was missing somewhere explaining just what the hell is going on. The old monster battles are still fun to watch, but the new parts tying them together are nearly a fever dream.

I spent most of the film's running time trying to figure out why this movie existed. It was created and released in a time when no one was making kaiju films, it's at least 50% recycled footage and the new scenes are absolutely threadbare. I read somewhere that this was a contractual obligation film which is the only possible explanation for Supermonster existing, though I never found out who was owed what and how they felt about this being delivered as the fulfillment.

As I mentioned earlier, this isn't technically available on video in the US. Going to import sources won't help much either as the Japanese DVD does not contain English subtitles. There are, however, alternate means to acquiring a version of this film an English speaker can understand.

The copy I have came from WTF-flim, who have a small but interesting catalog of movies available. I hesitate to use the word bootleg because there's a lot more going on for this disc than the average person on eBay just selling a DVD-R of the Japanese release.

First off, the packaging is nicely done. There are animated menus and the whole thing looks very professional. I'm guessing the movie is the same transfer as the region 2 DVD, but it's been subtitled with clear, easy to read subs. You also get the English dub (and you can compare and note the subtitles aren't dubtitles) as well as a music only track and what appears to be the soundtrack album. There are extras in the form of a couple of trailers, the alternate English credits (obviously taken from video and pretty severely windowboxed) and a photo gallery.

It's obvious a lot of time and care was put into this. I'm really happy to have the English dub as an option and I'm guessing some time was put into this as it sounds like a reconstruction. It's in stereo and the dialog is of a slightly lower quality than the music and effects, but I'm guessing that's due to the best avaliable source for the English track being an old VHS. It sounds pretty good though, you just notice the difference when you switch to the Japanese track (which is also stereo and I don't even think the official DVD has a stereo track.)

Serious kaiju fans are probably going to hate this film. Because it is essentially the best parts of the previous Gamera films (except the first, which was black and white and Gamera doesn't fight other monsters in it anyway) I don't think it's nearly as bad as people say. I wouldn't shell out the big dollars for the import version, but I can't recommend the WTF-film version highly enough.

(Note about the English dub. One thing that really annoyed me was the way the kept changing how they pronounced Gamera. For most of the movie, they used the incorrect ga-MAHER-ah but somewhere along the way they switched to the correct GAM-ah-rah. Then they switched back again!)

What th'?

In case you were wondering how I was managing to write million word reviews with in minutes of each other, well, I didn't. I'm bringing over some old posts from a blog I used to keep that is going to be inactive soon. These are a buch of posts I wrote over the course of a year or so, mainly dealing with cheap DVDs. Some of the info is wrong or out of date, but I don't feel like correcting it.

Enjoy. Or ignore. Either way.

Stomp Tokyo

Some old thoughts on some of my favorite kaiju.


Can I just mention how much I love kaiju movies? I think over the last few weeks, I've seen Tokyo demolished at least 30 or 40 times by Godzilla, Gappa, Gamera, Rodan, Mothra, Megalon, etc. The movies are silly, silly and even stupid, yet I can't get enough of them.

Most of these movies have a similar plot. It goes something like this: a bunch of reporters and scientists are doing stuff. Somehow, something that group of people does ends up requiring a giant monster to defend or destroy Japan. Other monsters show up, often times in a clip recycled from a previous movie, and there's a fight leading up to the title fight (usually referenced in the name of the film.) A young boy, sometimes joined by a Causasian pal, shows up in Dasy Dukes, is granted unrestriced access to the Japanese military and saves the day. The ending is always ambiguous, leaving the viewer unsure if the monsters are dead or not.

There's generally two lines the films follow; a more serious tone where the starring creature is the heavy (the original Godzilla, for instance) or lighter, kiddie fair (as in Gamera, "friend to all children.") The rabid fans seem to prefer the more serious films, based on the fan sites I've seen out there. Personally, I prefer the more childish films as they're always weird, crazy psychedelic and just more fun.

I want to talk about a couple of films that don't follow this formula to the letter and are two of the more psychedelic examples of giant monster movies. Purists don't care much for either of these, but they're two of my favorites in the genre.

The first film I want to talk about is misleadingly called "Godzilla's Revenge." It's probably the most kid oriented of all the Godzilla films, with a story that's actually about the young boy rather than having him solve all the problems. The main story concerns the boy Ichiro being bullied and left home alone as a latch key kid. Hey, that's something I can relate to, well, could relate to anyway.

Anyway, there's an eccentric inventor guy down the hall who looks in on the boy and there's also a subplot about bank robbers on the run. So, where's the monsters? Well, Ichiro learns courage from dreaming trips to Monster Island and hanging out with Godzilla's son Minilla and watching essentially a clips reel of some of Godzilla's greatest fights. Minilla also learns courage and stands up to his nemesis, Gabara.

There's a lot of trippy stuff in this flick. The first trip to Monster Island is borderline fever dream. Minilla, who looks like someone tried to make a S'more out of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man, talks and has a voice like Barney to boot! (He also seems to share Jet Jaguar's ability to change his size as he's shorter than Ichiro yet he comes up to Godzilla's armpits.)

The plot is very silly and there's a lot of Home Alone type antics when Ichiro meets the bank robbers. The film also takes a lot of flack for recycling most of it's fights from older Godzilla flix, though I think it kind of works as a greatest hits film.

So, what's good about this movie? I'm not really sure. Maybe it's the fact that I remember digging this one as a kid. It's different in that it deviates from my monster movie archetype up there. There's no military, the inventor is as close as we come to a scientist and the reporters only come in at the end when the robbers are caught. Hell, Tokyo doesn't even get leveled in this one!

I guess it's just that the story is kind of sweet and it makes no bones about being something other than a kid's movie. Yeah, they recycled a lot, but they also put effort into the new bits. Maybe it's the scene where Godzilla is trying to teach Minilla to breathe fire. Still cracks me up, cheesy as it is.

My second one is another overtly kiddie one, Attack of the Monsters. AOM will be better known to MST3K fans (and VHS renters) as Gamera vs. Gurion. More on that later.

What you've got here is two boys who hop a ride in a UFO which landed in a field. The UFO zips them to Terra, Earth's sister planet which somehow has never been discovered. There the boys meet two hot Japanese...err...Terra women who explain to them that they are the last people on Terra as it been attacked by Gyaos. Their last line of defence is Guillon who kind of looks like a pocket knive with legs.

The Terra women seem real nice, but actually they want to eat the boys brains and then return to Earth and conquer it. I'm not sure why someone would send an empty space ship to Earth, hoping to lure two boys into it for lunch, but what do I know? Well, of course, Gamera is having none of that and swoops in to save the day. Apparently Gamera can hear across space, breathe with no oxygen and spot weld a UFO that was cut in half. It's pretty amazing stuff.

I like this movie a lot because it's just over the top. At the time this was made, Daiei was starting to feel the hurt financially and it shows a bit in this movie. The models just don't look as good as they used to (check the scene where Gamera does his little gymnastics stunt. Cheepnis, indeed!) The fight scenes are pretty cool though. The inside of the spaceship and the Terra base are pretty dang groovy though.

It's almost like to make up for the budget, or lack there of, they delivered a crazy story line. I mean, little in this movie makes sence. But that's part of the fun, I think. Yeah, it's stupid, but it's a fun, over the top stupid with some serious heart.

Both of these movies are pretty easy to find, though the Region 1 discs currently avalible are pathetic. Both films were originally shot in a wide aspect ratio but all R1 DVDs currently avaliable are Pan and Scan. There's a Widescreen "Godzilla's Revenge from 1998 which isn't too hard to find though.

As for "Attack of the Monsters", this film has a strange history in the US. Like most of the Gamera films, this was picked up by American International Pictures to pad out their TV Syndication packages. The films were dubbed, cropped, edited and sent out to TV. I think only the first Gamera film (released here as "Gammera the Invincible") actually had a theatrical run.

In the 80s, the films were picked up by Sandy Frank Enterprises for TV and home video. Rather than using AIP's prints, they went back to the Japanese versions of the films, redubbed them, cropped them, gave them the international titles and put them out there. These are the versions Joel and the bots riffed on in seasons 0 and 3 of Mystery Science Theater 3000. These are the versions of this series I remember growing up watching.

(Incidentally, the Sandy Frank dubbing is very poorly done. AIP hired the same studio that did Speed Racer and the results are very good, as far as these things go. Sandy Frank's version has the Terra ladies speaking like they're from Georgia and Akio is obsessed with traffic accidents. Both versoions seem to confuse planets with stars though. Heh.)

Apparently the AIP versions of these films have gone public domain in the states now which means there are more versions of these films on DVD than you can count. If you wish to recreate the expirence of watching one of these films when they were broadcast on UHF stations in the 70s, you're in luck as all these discs I've seen are taken from fuzzy, scratchy 16mm TV syndication prints. Though I'd love to see better discs, I think for these films the expirence is almost enhanced by these crappy looking prints as that's how most of us saw these films.

So, there's two giant monster flicks I don't think get any respect. They're both cheesy and juvenile, but I love them both.

Laseractive...meh.

Earlier this year, I got a Pioneer Laseractive. This was my view of that particular videogame hardware oddity.


Let me tell you a little story about what kind of strange luck I have sometimes. I was in the market for a Laserdisc player, crusing the pawns, not finding much. Yeah, I saw lots of decks on eBay, but these days everyone is gouging on the shipping, so a $45 good deal quickly becomes a $90 not so good deal. No thank you.

Anyway, like I said, I'm not turning up anything, but I stop back in this one shop I'd been in before and remember them having a late 90s industrial Pioneer in there. I figure if I can talk them down to a reasonable amount, I'll manage with that, though it's not really what I want.

I'm in there and there's this sweet grandma lady helping me. I'm asking if this has a remote and she says no, but they have another Laserdisc player with a remote and some games. My heart jumps. It couldn't be!

But it is.

She shows me the case and lo and behold, there's a Pioneer CLD-A100 aka Laseractive, with the Sega module, the remote, three controllers (including the Pioneer branded one that came with the system,) the manual and seven games. The price? $39 for the whole deal*.

Anyway, hook it up, play a little Mortal Kombat, all looks well, so I bag it. The worst part was, this was literally right before we were leaving for the weekend to do Christmas stuff, so I didn't even get to touch the thing other than unloading it. Baah!

Later on I did get to spend some quality time with my new toy. Now, I still haven't gotten around to digging my Sega CD games out of the closet, so I can't speak yet on that. Really, I haven't spent too much time playing Genny games on it either. I have, however, been watching movies on it. After all, that is what I was looking for in the first place, just a movie player.

So what can I say about my week of Laseractive ownership? Well, the longer I own this thing, the more amazed I am that it was ever released in the States. This has got to be the most Japanese console ever released here.

You start with a Laserdisc player, a format that caught on in Japan bigger than it did here (except among videophiles, who probably aren't going to be that interested in playing videogames.) Then you combine it with a videogame system, reflecting that Japanese love of consolidation with their electronics that Americans don't seem too concerned with. While one of the avaliable systems was popular in the States, the Genesis, the other one wasn't, the PC Engine. Even with the Genesis stuff, I think you could argue the big selling point, the ability to play Sega CD games as well, was probably going to go over better with a Japanese audience as I think the CD add on did better there than here.

Oh, and don't forget the third module you could own, the karoke unit. Again, very Japanese.

So, we have an impressive machine here, but with few features the average American is going to care about. Add to that the price. The Laserdisc player alone sold for nearly a grand. The game packs were $400 each which, by the time this thing released in 1993, was more than buying the respective console and CD Rom add on.

Now, you could play LD-Rom games or MegaLD with this setup, but the list of those doesn't look too appealing. Still, it was a logical step from CD-Rom to go to the next higher capacity media, though I think the lukewarm acceptance of Laserdiscs in general probably prevented that from ever taking off.

Let's take a look at just the Laserdisc player for a moment. For $960 (or whatever it was exactly) you got a bare bones LD player. Actually, sub-barebones for 1993. It can play a disc, skip chapters, fast and slow scan and jump directly to a frame or time mark, but that's it. To use any "special effect" features, such as still frame, variable scanning speeds and programming, you needed to shell out $400 for one of the game packs.

For most people who just want to watch a movie, this isn't that big a problem, but if you have a disc with supliments stored in still frame, like art work or text, you can't watch them unless you have a game pack. Even then, you have to use the game controller to use the special functions making the actual unit's remote almost worthless and teathering you to the system if you actually want any of the special features they were using to sell Laserdisc in the US. (Well, other than improved picture and sound.)

The big problem here is, you're shelling out $1400 or so for a Laserdisc player that's just average, at best. I'm pretty sure even in 1993 you could have bought a more full featured LD player and your choice of Sega CD setup or Turbo Duo and saved money. Of course, you couldn't have played the Laserdisc games, but judging by how hard those are to track down, not many people did anyway.

Personally, I think this is a really cool idea. Plus I think it's nothing short of amazing that two rival videogame companies would allow both their systems to be compatable with this (can you imagine anyone agreing if Panasonic had asked Sony to make a PS2 attachment for their Q DVD player/Gamecube hybrid?) I also like the consolidation aspect of things and I just think the entire system is so funky that it's really cool.

What I don't like is the lackluster LD player they built this around. If you're charging a premium, you should give people premium product, especially when you're selling something most people are indifferent on in the first place. I also think this is one of those products where I really can't figure out who the audience was. Videogames were still seen as kind of a kiddie thing in the US (though the Genesis was doing much to change that perception) and the Laserdisc was a high end videophile thing. Unfortunatly for Pioneer, I don't think there was much crossover between the two in 1993.

I am glad I have this, but because this was one of those things so far off my radar due to obscurity and price, I have to admit I could easily live without it. It's a neat curiousity piece, but I'm still looking for a better Laserdisc player. I can't complain about the Laseractive though, at least not for the price I paid, but I really think unless you're a completist, wealthy or find a really good deal like I did, I wouldn't advise anyone go to far out of their way to accuire one.





*sidenote: when I got out of the store, I realized the reciept was itemized, meaning I actually got my Laseractive for $25! Of course, it also means I paid $2 each for NBA Jam TE, Tommy LaSorta Baseball and that damn EA chopper game you see every frickin' place. But, it also means I paid $2 a toss for Darwin 4081, Darius II and Japanese Strider as those were the other games in the deal. And Mortal Kombat. Aside from Tommy LaSorta, they were complete copies too, so I'm not complaining too much.

Some Shmup Impressions...

Some videogame thoughts from earlier in the year.

Interesting times for a "dead" genre. Well, interesting if you live in Japan anyway. Seems like every month or so a new shmup comes out for PS2 or even the Dreamcast. It's been downright overwhelming for a fan trying to keep up. So, prior to my surgery, I've made it a point to at least spend a little time with some of my newer shmups before I go under the knive.

One thing that's frustrating me a little bit is so many of the shmups coming out on Dreamcast are shortly followed by an enhanced port on PS2 and/or Xbox and Gamecube. Take, for instance, Chaos Field. The DC port is pretty much just the game while the PS2 and GC rev gets an arrange mode as well. (Not to mention the GC port actually got released domestically!)

The game itself feels like a tribute to Radiant Silvergun. It's almost all bosses, there's no powerups, but you do get different weapons through button combos, etc., etc. So far, I'm kind of ehh on it. (Remember, I wasn't a big RS fan either.) I'll have to come back to this one.

Another recent DC shmup, soon to come to PS2 and GC in enhanced form, is Radilgy. This is a slick cell shaded looking game with a lead character who reminds me of Marcy from Peanuts. The game, however, I'm not sure I quite get. Too many of the bullets get destroyed with your standard fire leading to a game that seems way too easy and uninteresting. I don't know how much play this one is going to get.

For PS2, I'm really digging Ibara. Another tribute game, this time it's Cave playing tribute to Raizing. The port is pretty lackluster, I mean, loading times in the level??? However, you do get an "original" mode where Ibara plays more like a Cave game and the same itself is pretty fun, assuming you like Battle Garegga, which this takes a lot from. It's hard not to wish the port was a little better though.

Speaking of bad ports, Gigawing Generations is almost jawdropping ugly. Gameplay wise, it's pretty much the same deflect the bullets/collect the medals gameplay as the two previous installments, but this time the screen is vertically orientated rather than horizontal. The graphics are a trainwreck however. I can't find much here to make me want to play it again, so far.

Then we have Homura. I like the atmosphere, it's a flying guy kind of game. There seems to be a similar "buzzing" play mechanic to the Castle Shikigami games where you have a more powerful shot by playing chicken with enemy fire. I don't have it all figured out yet, but this one is promising.

Last game I have to check out is Raiden III, perhaps the grandfather of all the tribute shmups. If you like Raiden, you'll like this one as it looks, sounds and feels like Raiden. Luckily, I like Raiden. Smile

Cheepnis: Treeline/Mill Creek Mega Packs

This is another entry I'm porting over from my old blog that is about to vanish. Again, this entry needs some updating, and I don't really have the time, but I will mention a thing or two at the end.

I want to hit on one of the more infamous cheap DVD companies out there. I've seen their releases under the Mill Creek name and another one (Dollar something, the logo and layout looks almost the same) but most people refer to them as Treeline, the name most of their releases fall under. Unlike many others in the cheap DVD sweepstakes, Treeline actually has their product stocked in mainstream stores (Best Buy, Borders, etc.) as well as Big Lots and dollar stores. Well, their "top of the line" product, anyway.

You see, Treeline is the company responsible for the "megapack." In side a box about the size of a modern PC game, you get 50, yes, 50 movies of a featured theme or genre. The kicker being, these sets are easily found for around $20-$25 (even less if you buy on line.)

Sound too good to be true? Well, it isn't, but there's a catch...

I own five of these sets. Two horror sets (Horror Classics and Chilling Classics, more on that one in a bit,) the Sci Fi set, the Martial Arts set and 100 Classic Cartoons, which is a slightly different animal. The packaging is very similar to the early Atari 2600 carts in that the box opens like a hollowed out book and the DVDs are each in a cardboard sleeve in the middle. Two pieces of Velcro keep the cover shut so your discs don't spill out. It gets the job done, but it's not packaging that's going to hold up over the long haul.

The idea of buying a crap load of movies by genre is a novel one (though I think Brentwood may have done it first) but Treeline seems to play a bit loose with the definitions. I consider myself to have a pretty liberal definition of sci fi, but I don't consider sword and sandal flicks (like Hercules) or jungle pics (such as the abysmal She Gods of the Coral Reef) sci-fi. Nor would I consider Metropolis horror. Regardless, and lucky for me, they're all films I'm interested in, but be warned that Treeline plays a bit loose with their classifications.

Also, prepare yourself for some real dregs among the gems. There are a lot of movies on these sets I haven't seen other bottom of the barrel companies touch and after watching them, I can see why. There are some real stinkers here, and this is coming from someone who likes crap B-movies. Still, at the price per movie, it's not that big a loss if you don't like a few of them.

For those of you unsure if you want to take the 50 movie plunge, Treeline offers pretty much all their sets in smaller bites, assuming you can find them. I've seen 2,4,10 and 20 packs of their movies in stores. There aren't any different movies, it's just the same discs from the sets sold in smaller numbers (or in the case of the two pack, sold as a single sided disc.)

Now, the catch I was mentioning earlier. (As if the previous things I mentioned weren't "catch" enough.) Each of these sets contains 50 full length movies on 12 DVDs. Now, the discs are double sided, thankfully, but they're single layer which means you get 3-4 hours of video on a disc designed to comfortable hold about 2.

How do they do it? Compression. Ironically, the fact that many of these movies are lousy prints works in the set's favor here because the flaws in the film help to hide the compression artifacts. Still, you don't have to have a HDTV to notice blocks, digital blips and some really nasty blacks.

Is it enough to make these movies unwatchable? It really depends. It's annoying, but usually I can forget about it. Still, if you have a big screen TV, I'm sure these discs are going to look like ass on it and if you're a videophile, you're probably going to get more wrapped up in counting the compression artifacts than the movies.

Really, these discs are the DVD equivalent of old cheapie EP mode VHS tapes. If you can deal with those, you can deal with this.

Now, the 100 Cartoon set is a little different. It also features a lot less content for the same price as 100 cartoons still takes up a lot less time than 50 movies. The good thing is, the cartoons haven't been compressed to hell, for the most part. There's a few that look pixelated and have some severe ghosting. Strangely, one of them I have on another disc with the exact same flaws, which leads me to believe Treeline might be ripping other people's discs.

And speaking of ripping other people's discs, there's a bit of controversy on some of the movie message boards about the sources for Treeline's sets. Some people feel the company is just ripping and recompressing other people's transfers. Kind of a bummer, if it's true, but in the world of public domain, there isn't a whole lot you can do about it.

Speaking of public domain, it should go without saying that almost all of Treeline's product is public domain stuff from the 30s-60s. The real head scratcher is the 50 Chilling Classics set though, which features newer films including Driller Killer and Peter Jackson's Bad Taste which are almost certainty not public domain. I've heard rumors that this set has been pulled along with a "Gunfighters" set which includes some copywrited spaghetti westerns. Oops.

On the positive side of things, if you're a fan of MST3K, buying the Horror and Sci-Fi sets will net you a ton of movies featured on the show. Some of the Hercules, some of the Gameras (albiet in the original AIP dubs, not the beloved Sandy Frank re-dubs from the 80s,) some Bela Lugosi, the Beast of Yucca Flats and Robot Monster, to name just a handfull. You'll easily find just as many movies on these sets that could have been fodder for Joel and the bots.

I should also mention that inspite of the quality, there's something really satisfying about having an instant movie collection for cheap. I bought a few of these sets for less than $10 on Amazon. Even if they aren't much to look at, that's a killer deal.

----------------------------

OK, since I wrote that, Mill Creek has releases several new sets, some with some amazing titles. The Chillers set is more recent horror stuff, the Drive-In set is just amazing sleeze, there's a Warriors set, if you're into the sword and sandal thing and there's another sci-fi set soon to be released. The quality is still crap, and apparently they've been watermarking their movies at various points (ironic, considering they swipe most of what they have from old VHS tapes.)

There's also been some pretty sketchy copywrite stuff going on, espically on the Chillers set. It's highly unlikely that Peter Jackson's Bad Taste would be licensed cheap enought to appear on a 50 movies for $30 box.

There's also a bit of double dipping going on, though not as much as you'd expect. Even then, sometimes they've actually upgraded the source (I think Legend of Bigfood went from pan and scan to letterboxed, for instance.) Someone on the Lanternia forums did a huge cross reference list for titles and collections. Look it up, if you're interested.

Cheepnis Review: Revolt of the Zombies/Vengeance of the Zombie

Old review of one of the discs from last year's insane Dollar Tree Haloween DVD collection. I still haven't had much time to watch the other 20 or so discs...

OK, I'm going to do a quick review of the first of the Family Value Halloween discs I've had a chance to watch. First side is Revolt of the Zombies from 1936. Apparently this is a sequel of sorts to the classic White Zombie and Lugosi's eyes make an uncredited guest appearance as the one thing in the movie that is even half way creepy.

In a nutshell, a Cambodian priest creates zombies to help the Allies win World War One, but now he's "trying to take over the white race". (Yes, that's in the movie.) So, the scientists have to find and destroy the secret, but of course it doesn't work out that way. Jealous guy discovers the secret and tries to use it to win the woman he loves from dashing other guy.

The movie itself is slow and talkie. It's more about a love triangle than zombies and the zombies are more about being hypnotized than being undead. Lots of wooden acting, inane dialogue and process shots. Reminds me of the kind of movie you'd see on the first season of MST3K.

Anyway, this is pretty typical Public Domain fare. The print isn't too bad and the encode actually looks good. I didn't notice ghosting and in place where the film isn't too scratchy, the image quality is pretty sharp, if a little grainy. Could be a lot worse, though I'd hardly recommend going out of your way for this film.

The flip side, Vengeance of the Zombies, is a horse of an entirely different color. First, it's a European flick from the early 70s, so expect a totally different flavor. Second it appears to be uncut, so there's boobs and blood. Not exactly family friendly. Third, it's actually pretty good, in a cheesy sort of way.

I gave this a pretty casual view, so I'll try to relate what happened as best I can remember. Basically you have some voodoo invoked to create an army of the undead to exact revenge killings. That's the crux of it, anyway. There's an Indian guru named Krishna Eye Rolling, the cute redhead and the police type guy. That's pretty much what you need to know.

I really dug this film as it was low budget without being low class. The effects were pretty cool and had a bit of a sense of humor about them. It wasn't really "scary", but I did have a good time trying to figure out what was going on.

The quality of this release, which doesn't seem to be public domain, is pretty good. It's full frame, but you don't feel like you're losing anything. The print is clean, though I wish the audio was clearer as the music is so good cop show funk type tunes. It looks like this DVD was sourced from video, but at least they used a good copy to source from, assuming Family Value actually encoded this themselves.

I'd say try to find this one for Vengeance. Well worth the $1. Revolt, I assure you, you can pass on watching guilt free.

This disc is also an excellent example of the lack of quality control on Family Value's packaging. First off, Vengeance is misspelled on the cover. On the back, Revolt's time is listed incorrectly, Vengenance has no time listed and the description for the movie is a riot. (Apparently it was lifted from a fan site.)

Speaking of listing times, it occured to me that one of the other FV discs I got was a twofer with The Phantom Creeps. The listed time was 256 min, which would be about the run time of the entire serial. Though the entire serial has been issued on a single disc, I'm guessing it was either a flipper or dual layer, because without major compression, there's no way you could fit 4+ hours on a single layer side of a disc, like the kind FV uses.

Again, FV must have pulled it's info off a website without any consideration for what was actually on the discs as putting the disc in a player reveals the seventy some-odd minute movie that was made from the serial for TV rather than the entire seiral itself. That makes a lot more sense and just FYI if you see that disc and are scratching your head like I was.

Cheepnis: Last year's Family Value Insanity.

Note: this is an old post I'm porting for posterity. Anyone who has followed me over here from my various Internet haunts will fondly remember the insane collection of Halloween discs released last year by Family Value. Here was my take on that. Hopefully they have something equally interesting up their sleeves this year, though all I've been hearing about is just some of last year's titles showing up again.

OK, kind of funny after my last post where I kind of blew off Treasure Box/Family Value, what happens but they unleash their Halloween collection. (Huge thanks to packratshow at http://www.livejournal.com/community/cheap_dvds/ for the heads up! Excellent live journal all about this stuff.) See, these things tend to be a bit seasonal in nature. If I had to guess, the two biggest movie/home video seasons would have to be Halloween and Christmas, so we're in the beginning of the good stuff now.

Packratshow has listed all the titles and whatnot http://www.livejournal.com/community/cheap_dvds/16409.html, so I'm not going to duplicate all that. (Plus he links to Imdb for all the films, whatta guy!) I managed to find every title on that list with just two trips to Dollar Tree. Other stores may carry these things, but around here, Dollar Tree seems to be the only ones to have them.

Well, let's see, Family Value (aka Treasure Box) has improved things a bit. Instead of the cardboard cases, they're now using those slimline Amaray cases* which I guess is a step up. Oddly enough, some of these discs weren't shrink wrapped. They just have a clear sticker over the side to prevent you from opening them and boosting the disc. I found a Gamera double feature (more on that later) like this and of course it was the one disc I managed to spill coffee on before getting home.

Family Value has also joined the double feature crowd, which seems to be the trend. It seems to me like the market is getting pretty saturated and god forbid anyone put some money into trying to clean up their prints, so to stand out, cram another movie on there. I'd almost be willing to bet, by Christmas we'll see the first 4 packs for $1 because now everyone is doing doubles.

Anyway, too often with these doubles what seems to happen is rather than make the media bigger, they just make the film smaller. Yay, compression. However, Family Value actually has made these twofers flippers so each film gets a side to itself. Sometimes, it's the little things that make life worth living.

As for the quality of the films, I'm still too early into it to really comment. I've only had time to watch one film and the quality was about what one could expect from a "cult" video label such as Something Weird. In fact, the quality combined with some of the titles featured in this batch, which aren't the usual Public Domain suspects, have raised some eyebrows among horror fans. There's a lot of good info http://p210.ezboard.com/fthelatarniaforumsfrm1.showMessage?topicID=492.topic about that and about the movies and whatnot.

The Gamera disc, not part of the Halloween discs but I picked it up in this batch, certainly seems shady as I think Retromedia has exclusive rights to Gamera vs. Monster X. The question is, did Family Value work out a deal on their own, did they not know or do they just not care? Like the Treasure Box discs I reviewed earlier, there's no info on the packaging, no company logo on the screen, further adding to the mystery. In fact, many of the discs say "Treasure Box" on the inner ring even though the packaging says "Family Value!"

For right now, that's about all I have. I've got a million movies to make it through right now, and I was planning on focusing on another company, but these discs needed some attention as they're pretty much going to be off the shelf in less than a month, assuming they get restocked at all. Based on what I've seen so far, I recommend these discs highly, if you can find them. Be warned, if you're a serious genre fan, you may be offended by the apparent theft of other people's transfers that's going on here.



*Side note: am I the only one who notices the slim cases these $1 dvds come in have a weird odor? I am a bit more sensitive to smell than the average bear, but I was nearly gaging going through a huge bin of these things.

Cheepnis: Treasure Box/Family Value Collection

...and something about cartoons.

Note, this is almost a year old and could probably use an update when I get the time.

The first company I want to take a look at is probably the wrong way to start as the discs I have from them make a pretty good case against the cheap DVDs. They were, however, the first cheap discs I owned and some of the first I ever remember seeing. So, I guess that's why Treasure Box Collection (also know as Family Value Collection) have the honor of being the first company I'm going to talk about in my Cheepnis series.

I first started seeing TBC (as I'm going to abbreviate it) discs in Walgreen's drug stores a few years ago. Apparently the company is still in business, but they've changed their name to Family Value Collection. If you're so inclined, Dollar Tree seems to be the best place to look for them around these parts.

I received 5 discs as a stocking stuffer (which is a great use for these things, BTW), all of which were cartoon discs. The titles include "Superman and Friends," "Popeye and Friends," "Casper and Friends" and so on. More on that in a moment.

The discs come in a stiff laminated cardboard folder about the same size but about a third as thick as a regular DVD case. On the front is the "main" cartoon character and a few titles allegedly contained within are listed on the back. Not the worst packaging I've seen at this price point, but not the best.

The discs themselves are a little interesting. You put them in the player and get no FBI warning or company logo, just a very simple title screen and one option: play all. Each cartoon has it's own chapter (well, with the occasional exception where two 'toons are stuck together) so you can skip past the dreck, but you can't jump directly to a favorite or even see what all is on the disc.

Now, here's where I first learned a few rules of thumb when dealing with public domain cartoon DVDs. First rule: Beware the "...and Friends." This is a way for the DVD company to give the recognizable character top billing and pad the rest of the disc with obscure Noveltunes or Harvey junk. (I know, both have their fans, but the Harvey stuff really does nothing for me.)

In the case of the TBC "...and Friends" discs, this goes above and beyond making no sence. For example, the "Popeye and Friends" discs has only one Popeye cartoon and six Superman cartoons. The "Woody Woodpecker and Friends" disc has more Popeye cartoons than the Popeye disc and the Popeye disc has more Superman cartoons than the Superman disc! Not to mention the fact that the Superman disc totally blindsides you with nine episodes of a horrible Filmation series called "Fraidy Cat", a trick the Casper disc repeats with nine equally wreched "Packy and Wacky" 'toons.

Let's go back to the Superman and Popeye discs for the PD 'toon DVD rule of thumb number two: Expect duplicates. The three Superman 'toons on the Superman disc also show up on the Popeye disc. In fact one episode, "Billion Dollar Limited", makes a third appearance on the Casper disc as well. The sole Woody Woodpecker cartoon TBC has also serves three shifts and several others do double duity. This is just five discs from the same company. You can imagine how frustrating it gets when you start pulling other companies discs in the mix.

Getting back to packaging, rule number three is: Be skeptical of any titles listed on the back. It seems to me like most other companies are pretty close to accurate, but our friends at Treasure Box seemingly pull titles out of thin air to put on the back of these collections, when they list any at all. I don't think it's intentional deception as much as just lax quality control.

Finally, the fourth rule for cartoons: Expect the worst when it comes to quality. To be fair, a lot of this has to do with the prints these companies have to work with. They are almost always scratchy, jumpy, washed-out TV prints that were 16mm Eastmancolor reductions of the 35mm Technicolor originals. You can tell these cartoons were seen as little more than disposable filler by the way these prints have been mangled.

Now, Treasure Box Collection has gone the extra step and clearly taken their cartoons from consumer SLP VHS tapes. How do I know? Well, I remember what those things looked like and there's a sepcific image quality that thin tape moving at the slowest speed has. I can't describe it, but if you bought PD VHS tapes, you know what I'm talking about. Plus, there's one clumsy edit to a Popeye cartoon's title card that pausing on reveals another company's 1999 copyright. Heh.

I've read somewhere that there may be different versions of these discs floating around in the same packaging. Really, I wouldn't mess with them. You can find too many other cartoon collections that are better than this for the same price (Digiview's "Cartoon Craze" series, for instance.) I don't know if the quality of these discs is reflective of their entire catalog, but their "...and Friends" cartoon discs have made me a bit reluctant to check out anything else Treasure Box or Family Value has put out.

In case you're interested, here's another take on the discs from this company, including a couple of the cartoon disc I mentioned above. http://www.pop-arena.com/articles/dvds.html He seems to justify my fear of the rest of TBC's DVDs.

Also kids, really, stay away from those Fraidy Cat and Packy and Wacky cartoons. I'd rather seen an hour of "Gabby" or "Baby Huey" than one episode of those ever again. Nyah

Cheepnis: Giant Monster Reviews

Note: another ported post from about a year ago. The old blog is going down and I just want to save a few reviews I wrote.


Alright. I'm going to review a few of the cheepie movies I've seen recently. Keep in mind, I'm writing these after the fact (and at work, don't tell!) and I'm just jotting down thoughts about the films rather than an in depth sort of thing.

Gammera the Invincible - (as seen on Treeline's 50 Sci-Fi Classics)
Y'know, I don't think I realized until I saw these films on MST3K that Gamera wasn't part of the Godzilla storyline. I don't exactly think that's an accident as Gamera is pretty much what happens when your rival is having crazy success with Godzilla and you want a piece of that action.

That said, this first Gamera movie is pretty good, if you like guys in rubber suits stomping Tokyo. Like Godzilla, there's an "atomic energy = bad" subtext here. It's been a while since I've seen the first Godzilla, but there isn't a whole lot I can think of to really separate these movies in my mind (hence my confusion earlier) except Godzilla is a lizard and Gamera is a turtle.

As for Gamera, the monster is pretty cool. The spinning flying thing is an interesting gimmick as well. You can also tell Daiei put some money into this one as the model work is good. (I always chuckle when Gammera destroys the club full of dancers too cool to leave while the rock combo is playing the Gamera song.)

This is also a film from when Gamera was a bad guy. I never dig the "Gamera, friend to all children" flicks as much, though they are entertaining for entirely different reasons. Of course, being a giant monster movie, we do have a "Kenny"* though he's not terribly annoying. I gotta ask the kid though, if leveling Tokyo doesn't make Gamera a "bad turtle", what does?

The version of the film we have here (and on every other public domain DVD I've found) is the AIP television print. It's panned and scanned and has the hammy added scenes of the UN. The added scenes really slow the picture down and are very heavy handed in their Russia = bad theme. The dubbing (by the same people that did Speed Racer) is good compared to the Sandy Frank version as featured on MST3K and most of the video released in the 80s. The Sandy Frank version is the uncut Japanese version of the film, but the dubbing is terrible.

Anyway, like all the other Treeline discs, Gammera (as it's spelled in the credits) is a mediocre print and it's overly compressed. This film actually has some nice composition, so it's a shame that the blacks look so bad and everything looks soft. Still, from the reviews I've read, I'm not sure there is a DVD much better available without importing.

Final analysis: bad disc of a good film. However, it's cheap and doesn't seem to be that much worse than what else is out there.

Monster from a Prehistoric Planet aka Gappa the Triphibian Monsters - (as seen on Treeline's 50 Horror Classics set.)

This one is an odd one. It's a one off from a studio wanting to get a piece of the giant monster pie and for the life of me, I can't figure out if it's supposed to be a parody of if it is just really cliche. The story goes like this: a magazine publisher wants to make a fake jungle amusement park, so he sends off scientists and a couple reporters (there's always reporters in these films) to an island of Japanese people in black face (I shit you not) to find exotic creatures for the park.

When they get to the island, the natives really like them because they think they made earthquakes stop. Everyone is talking about Gappa, though the crew from Japan has no idea what they're talking about. Long story short, they go into the "forbidden" area (every "primitave" island has one), find a Gappa egg which hatches, they take the baby Gappa back to Tokyo because they think momma and poppa Gappa are dead.

This of course causes the destruction of the island and most of Tokyo as momma and poppa Gappa eventually wake up and come looking for junior. Somehow a "native Kenny" washes up on shore and implores them to return baby to parents. The magazine publisher doesn't want to, of course, and only does so after most of Tokyo is wrecked and the military has used up all it's resources. The female reporter then sets the woman's lib movement back fifty years and the Gappa family flys off into the night.

If the story sounds familiar, it should. I think it was called Konga the first time around. Nothing really new there.

Speaking of new, I don't think I'd seen Japanese people in black face before. Wow. Black face Kenny was a new one on me. Almost worth seeing the movie for the "I just don't believe it" moment and counting the number of times Native Kenny's skin tone changes color.

It's not just the story that's recycled. The Gappa monsters aren't much more than Godzilla with wings. Make that really stiff Godzilla with wings. Watching the Gappa stomp Tokyo is like watching a five year old do the "potty dance" in slow motion on an HO gauge train set. Apparently knees hadn't yet been invented on the prehistoric planet these creatures are from.

The models are pretty weak. There's a shot of a submarine (used twice, reversed the second time actually) that made me howl out loud it was so bad. The buildings look pretty cheesy as well. Even the later Gamera movies had better effects than this.

The print again is an AIP television print that is so dark in places it's hard to tell what is happening. I don't remember things looking too compressed, but the darkness of the print probably hid that a bit. Dubbing isn't as good as Gamera (I think they used a different team to do this one) but it's not too bad. Native Kenny is a little over the top though.

Final analysis: bad movie (but worth seeing), bad disc. There's a much better disc of this out there, if you really need this stinkburger letterboxed and in Japanese with subtitles. (What kind of world do we live in when we have shitty pan & scan Godzilla discs and Gappa letterboxed in Japanese and English!)






*About "Kenny". I think the Gamera series may have pioneered the concept of "Kenny". "Kenny" was always the Japanese boy, he always wore alarmingly short shorts and he became an instant expert on the monster after catching his first glimpse of it. "Kenny" is always allowed full access to scientists and the military who will take his word as gospel as "Kenny" appears to be the monster's best friend. So named because in English the boy lead always seems to be named Kenny.

Karate: Hand of Death & the Bruce Lee Ultimate Collection

Note: Another old review post from a blog I used to keep that's going away. Enjoy.

Right now, I'm on kind of a kung fu thing. If you've been following my cheap DVD reports, you'll know that there's simply tons of cheap kung fu discs out there, if you can put aside concerns about original aspect ratio, picture quality and correct language tracks. However, I want to talk for a minute about two regular priced collections that have been on my radar.

First up is the Bruce Lee Ultimate Collection. This set is more or less a port of the region 3 set released a while back. The US version loses Enter the Dragon, due to licensing issues, but Warner has a nice 2 disc set of that out anyway.

The big attraction being the visual quality of the films. The previous region 1 Lee discs presented the fimls non-anamorphic widescreen, which was a revelation in itself, but this set goes even better with 16:9 enhancement and much improved prints. The Big Boss in particular is stunning. I've never seen an early 70s Hong Kong movie look this good.

In addition, you get the original Mandrin dubs of all the films as well as the later Cantonese dub and a 5.1 English mix. These tracks are pretty cool to switch between as there's many differences in the music (I wonder if Pink Floyd and King Crimson even knew they did soundtrack music for Bruce Lee???)

The 5.1 English mixes drive me up the wall though. These movies were originally mono, so to create a surround mix, more Foley has been added on top of the original sfx. To my ears, the new effects on top of the old ones sound horrible and are nothing more than a distraction. Saddly, there's no mono English option on the Chinese films, though we are lucky to have real subtitles and not dub-titles, so you can pick a Chinese language track and subs.

There's also a handfull of extras. Honestly, I haven't gotten to the Game of Death 1/2 discs yet, and that's where the lion's share of the extras are. Speaking of, I find it weird that the producers of this set chose to legitimize Game of Death 2 by including it in a Lee set. Supposedly, it's better than the first (which is really the Plan 9 of martial arts flicks) and the set is still affordable, so I'm not complaining. I just think it's weird.

Aside from the horrible 5.1 English sound, I can't recommend this set highly enough. I wish they still included the documentary Bruce Lee: The Legend, as that was a nice collection of rare footage, but this set is pretty damn good as it stands.

Over to Karate: Hand of Death from Something Weird video. Something Weird is a great company that releases offbeat stuff and crams the discs with plenty of extras. In this case , we start with Karate, which was apparently the first martial arts film released in the states. The movie is presented in widescreen with a pretty good looking b&w picture. There's a weird editing thing in the middle where a short scene appears twice, but considering the obscurity of this film, I'm amazed that's the only real glitch in it.

The movie itself isn't that great. It's more of a melodramatic mystery than an action flick. The fighting, what little there is, is fairly straight forward. That doesn't prevent some real cheezy moments, like when our hero has to regester his hands (of death) with the Japanese government as lethal weapons. It's a bit slow and talky and, though being filmed in Japan with a mostly Japanese cast, isn't above playing up some old stereotypes.

Anyway, the real attraction of this package is "The Incredible Martial Arts Mayhem Kung Fu Trailer Show!" In this instance, the bonus totally overshadows the main feature as what we have here is over 2 hours of vintage trailers for kung fu movies! Nothing but fightings, Engrish and the occasional flash of frontal nudity!

If you are someone who takes your kung fu seriously, you might want to pass, but for the rest of us, this is an awesome collection of all the stuff that makes this genre so enjoyable. Completely awesome stuff, mostly presented in the correct aspect ration to boot! The only downer is Something Weird has added a transparent watermark in the lower right of the screen as they do with a lot of their trailers. It's a lot less obtrusive than what you see on any TV channel, but it is the kind of thing I wish they would note on the packaging. Even so, this disc is just awesome and if you like 70s kung fu, you are going to love it.

Cheepnis review: "Masters of Martial Arts" 4 pack

Note: this is an old post from a blog I used to have which is going away soon. Reposting for posterity.

The collection I want to talk about is called "Masters of Martial Arts." It's probably not the best collection to illustrate what I'm talking about, but it's the one I just finished watching. Smile The theme seems to be stars as we have Sonny Chiba, Bolo Yeung and Jimmy Wang Yu represented.

First off the bat, "Street Fighter's Last Revenge" (the cover loses the "last" though.) This is the third in the Street Fighter trilogy and undoubtly the weakest. Far less bloody than the other two, it's also a lot less serious. Rather than being a loose gun for hire, Terry Tsuguri (Chiba's character) attempts to bust up a heist for a recipe for synthetic heroin in a plot that feels more like a standard action film for the time than a martial arts film.

The worst thing I think happened to these movies was they tired to humanize Terry Tsuguri (Chiba's character) and when he lost his edge, so did the series. Really, this film could have been a Shaft sequel with it's busting up a drug ring theme and the amount of time Tsuguri spends in bed. Plus the caucasian in the Marachi getup with the laser belt is way over the top. Still, worth seeing if you like Chiba.

As presented here, "Street Fighter's Last Revenge" is the same letterboxed laserdisc dub everyone else has put out. While it's not exclusive to Brentwood, this film doesn't appear as frequently as the first two, so it's not unwelcome here.

Next up is the Jimmy Wang Yu film "Blood of the Dragon." This is much more what you'd expect from an old school martial arts film. Lots of weapon fighting (Wang Yu fights with a spear) and there's a really good end battle. I liked this movie quite a bit, though there's nothing in it I hadn't seen a million times.

The print quality here is pretty bad though. Pan and scanned and washed out plus there was an authoring hiccup near the end (could possibly be because I was watching on my PC.) I've seen worse, but the film was good enough I wanted to see a better version (seeing the letterboxed trailer on Something Weird's "Karate: Hands of Death" disc only makes me want this more.) Again, this film is avaliable from other companies, but it seems like they are all using the same or similar source.

The second disc in this collection purports to star Bolo Yeung. Well, that's not entirely true. In both films he plays the heavy, but he's not exactly the star. Breathing Fire actually stars Johnathan Ke Quan. Yes, Data from the Goonies is kicking ass and he and Bolo are the only real actors in this thing. "Breathing Fire" feels like a typical late 80s piece of cheese, except it's actually from the early 90s. Oops.

The plot here involves band robbers, Data and his adopted family, a terrible breakdancing scene and some actual fighting with the most wooden martial arts teacher I've ever seen. And there's a fight involving midgets. The fighting is so-so, but if you like bad 80s movies, you'll probably dig this.

Again, pan and scan with a definite VHS quality to it. Audio is strong however though it's slightly out of sync. I can't tell if it's edited or not. IMDB, which can't always be trusted, has this listed as an R rated film, though I can't see anything here that would have earned that rating. I can't see any edits either.

Finally we have Bloodfight, which actually does have Bolo in a stronger role. This movie also rips off Bloodfight quite a bit. I won't go into it a whole lot (my hands are getting tired) other than to say, there's a martial arts tournament, someone dies, some really silly "punks" drive around and the whole thing wreaks of something I would have rented on VHS in Jr. High. Pan and scan and probably sourced from tape, though I've seen worse. The best part is having an almost all Chinese cast (in China) of non-actors speaking English. Dialogue is a little hard to understand.

So, I realize I haven't made too convincing a case, with two 70s classics and two late 80s cheese balls. Well, I picked this up for about $2. For that price, with two movies I'll watch again and two I probably won't, I feel I came out ok.

What I did on my summer vacation.

New York City is pretty sweet. I'd go so far as to say it's my third favorite city I've visited. I think I could have easily spent another week (at least) there and still find interesting stuff to get into.

The coolest thing we did on the trip was visiting Louis Armstrong's house. If you don't know, Armstrong bought a house in Queens in the 40s and lived there until his death (in fact, he died there.) His wife lived there until she died in the 80s and the place was restored and opened as a museum a few years ago. I'm not one to get into the whole celebrity worship thing, but this was really cool. Of course, it helps being into music, otherwise I'm sure the trip feels like walking through someone's grandma's house.

The other cool thing we did was caught the awards end of the New York Burlesque Fest. On one hand, this was the only part of the trip where I felt like I'd stumbled into a party I wasn't quite cool enough to attend. On the other, I was watching a burlesque show on a boat going around the island, so I think it evened out.

Normally I hate being in large groups of people, but New York didn't bother me at all, at least not until the Labor Day weekend. See, New York people understand how to move in and as a crowd. They seem to understand you can't walk three abreast on a sidewalk when people are coming the other way and that crossing the street and then stopping right after the curb on the other side to open up a map is a really bad idea.

Another thing I noticed is how unfriendly New York is to anyone with a handicap. This was also something I noticed a lot in Europe. The plus side to that is you don't see a million people too fat to walk riding their Rascals everywhere. In fact, I think I could count the number of "mobility scooters" I saw the entire trip on one hand, and with one exception those looked like tourists. Everyone in New York walks all the time so they don't have the ability to get morbidly obese like we do here in the Midwest.

Let's see, what else rocked? We did a lot of shopping. Rather, window shopping. I got a few things, some Kangols, a few new pairs of kicks, some jeans. (Holy crap, I just realized I went to New York and got excited about clothes shopping.) I picked up some DVDs in Chinatown. We ate at some nice places. Got to see some friends. It was all good.

Those who know me might notice something is missing. It's true, I did NO record shopping on this trip. Absolutely none. The closest I came was killing time in a Virgin Megastore and even then, I was looking more at T-Shirts than music. This is a combination of two things, one of which is the fact that I just have too much stuff as it is, to say nothing on the HUGE pile of Free Zone mail I had waiting on my return.

Secondly though, record shopping just doesn't hold the appeal for me it once did because it's just too easy to hop on-line and find anything you want, usually at a better price than a brick and mortar store, and have it delivered right to your door. Out of the way digging spots (thrifts, junk stores, etc.) are still cool just because of the randomness of what you find and the fact that the prices are usually dirt cheap.

Record stores are good for people who don't know any of those places or don't have time for that or who want to go somewhere and have someone tell them what to listen to. Nothing wrong with any of that. There's also something to be said for actually having your stuff that day and just browsing.

Anyway, that was New York (and then some.)

Back from vacation.

Yeah, I forgot to mention it, but I was on vacation for the last week. Good times, stories to tell, etc., etc. Don't really have time to get into all it right now, but let me just say this: the $5 Kurosawa DVDs in Chinatown seem like a good idea at the time, and if you want to watch Rashomon with Simplified Chinese subs or Seven Samurai with Engrish subs, there you go.