Airplane Blogging

So here I am, airplane blogging. Obviously, I won't be able to post for a while. It's 5:22 PM Indianapolis time and I haven't a clue where we are currently, but we're going to be airborne for about ten more hours. Joy.

Air Canada first class is pretty sweet. You have these nifty pod deelies, it's pretty standard for big planes, but still impressive. Everyone up here ends up with their own bed in essence as the seats go flat. Did this on our European trip three years ago, though we got bumped up only on the way there. Kristen should have a picture of these things.

Anyway, we went from Indy to Toronto and now are en-route from Toronto to Tokyo. For my in flight entertainment, I watched the entire first season of This American Life. Yeah, I had a vested interest (whoo hoo, I heard my drums for about five seconds just before the credits in episode three) but they really did an awesome job translating an iconic radio show to TV. In short, if you like the radio show, you'll like the TV show. If not, I don't know what to tell you.

I'm a little disappointed that the TVs here in the plane don't have the map channel. Yeah, I know a majority of the time you're looking at nothing more than an outline of a plane over blue (or at least you are on the flights I've had it on) but it's still kind of fun once you get close to your destination.

What else? Well, I didn't really say much about the wedding. It was pretty much amazing. Kristen is an awesome planner and all the people who put things together did such an awesome job. In spite of constantly threatening to run away to Vegas, I think it was all pretty much worth the hassle.

I'm pretty excited to go on this trip, but I think I'm also excited to get life back in order. We've got a huge mess at home and I guess I'm kind of anxious to get things in order. Plus, I have a man-lair to set up. I've been over a month without a turntable and it's bumming me out big time.

Other than that...not much I guess. I'm 32, I'm married and I'm probably over an ocean somewhere, basking in the glow of my MacBook, typing this. Sleep would be good, but I don't know if I'm ready yet.

Toronto

Well, my first attempt with mobile blogging was a bust, but I found a hot spot and here I am in the Toronto airport waiting for our flight to Tokyo. I'd advise you to jump over to Kristen's blog to check out some hot wedding photos.

Oh crap...we're boarding. Later.

T Minus Two Days...

and counting.

Really, I don't know if it just hasn't hit me yet or what, but I'm not really nervous or worried about getting married. I'm just ready to get this show on the road. There's been tons of planning and anticipation and it's to the point where everything is moving at light speed now (a setting I don't function well at) and I think it's starting to make us both slightly crazy.

Not that I was anticipating cold feet or anything like that. It is odd, I had never planned on getting married (as my dad likes to remind me every chance he gets.) That, of course, was before I met Kristen. I know it sounds cliche, but you really do know when the right one comes along. In fact, I never really proposed, it just seemed like marriage was the right thing to do.

So it's all pretty cool. If anything, I'm excited about spending the rest of my life with my best friend. We have so much fun together and I think we compliment each other nicely.

I'd also like to add we got interviewed by Channel 13 a few days ago about having a 7/7/07 wedding. I have no idea how that is going to come out, but I think it's going to air tomorrow at 6.

I also thought I'd share some music I put together as background for the cocktail hour and such. It's some of my favorite jazz slow jams, hopefully, you'll dig them too.
Disc 1
Disc 2

A lot of words about a handfull of DVDs.

I've been up to my eyeballs in wedding and moving lately, but I have managed to sneak a few movies in during the downtime. I managed to pick up a bunch of stuff on Something Weird's summer sale which came out to $8 post paid a DVD-R. For those of you who only know the SWV catalog from their special editions, they have a ton of stuff in their on-line catalog that will probably never see an Image disc. In many cases, the stuff is a little more "adult" than what a mainstream company would be comfortable carrying. There's also some of it with a much more limited appeal than what they have been releasing. And some of these prints are flawed in a way that only more dedicated fans will probably put up with them.

So, my order had a little of all three of these elements. Of course, it will probably be just my luck that Image will take the plunge on a few of these, but I kinda doubt it.

The first movie I got into probably hits all three criteria. It's Miss Nymphet's Zap-In, a Herschell Gordon Lewis film lost until a few years ago. HGL cut this one to double feature with Gore Gore Girls, though it's pretty far away in theme from that odyssey of gore.

Zap-In is kind of an "adult" take off on Laugh-In, consisting of lots of rapid fire vaudeville sketches, dirty jokes and plenty of boobies. Every now and then, the action stops and the entire cast yells "ZAP" and attempts to hold a freeze frame. Honestly, these were some of the more humorous moments in the film.

I'd like to say something good about Zap-In, but I really can't. Could HGL do comedy? Yes, at least when we're talking black comedy. That vein runs deep in most of his films. But this one just comes off corny and while it's interesting for a HGL completest, there isn't much to recommend it above and beyond that.

SWV's DVD-R looked alright to me, all things considered. This film had a really low print run and until recently, this was the only copy known to exist. (An incomplete print turned up on eBay about a year ago, but I don't know if anyone has seen it.) This print is pretty battered, with emulsion lines running through out and some rough spots at the reel changes. Still, I've seen a lot worse, and I don't think the public is going to demand this one get the Criterion treatment any time soon.

I filled a couple more holes in my HGL collection with The Magic Land of Mother Goose and Jimmy the Boy Wonder, two kiddie features Herschell shot as a hired gun. Now this is a warped double feature. Mother Goose is basically a stage play with Herschell doing little more than setting up a camera at the back of a high school auditorium. Basically, this was a vehicle for some magician and it features practically no production value at all. It does have a Raggedy Ann costume that is pure nightmare fuel and a pretty twisted which burning trick. I found this one worthwhile, but I also love K. Gordon Murray kid flicks.

(Speaking of K. Gordon Murray, one of his Santaland shorts appears as an uncredited extra on one of these discs. Both discs have a bunch of Storybook Classics trailers as filler. Pretty cool stuff there.)

Jimmy is an attempt at a real film. The premise being, this kid wished time stopped and then has to start it up again. Along the way there's terrible singing, a villain that could be Faud Ramsey's cousin and a poorly dubbed cartoon stuck in the middle as padding. (Check out Hersh's terrible Sylverter the Cat impression. Mel Blanc, he ain't!) Though there were many snooze inducing parts, again, I found it worth checking out, if you are into the warped kid flicks as I am.

Then we had an infamous one from the dynamic duo of Lee Frost and Bob Creese, Love Camp 7. I remember reading about this one in Incredibly Strange Films and knew I'd have to see it someday. This one may have been the first Nazisplotation film, a dubious honor, I'm sure. You know it was created just on the cusp of hardcore porn as you never see any of the guys take their pants off, and you see a whole bunch of torture and whatnot in lieu of sex.

The best part of the film, hands down, is Creese, in the role he was born to play, as the camp commandant. Bob doesn't just chew the scenery, he Hoovers up large pieces of it like a black hole let loose on the Hogan's Heroes set (which, according to legend, was where this was filmed.) Other than that, the movie is kind of dull. At least there's ample 60s cuties to gawk at, though the sex scenes made me reach for the fast forward button.

Other than that, I've had some time to view a few discs I got on the last Deep Discount sale. I was anxiously awaiting the new Godzilla discs from Classic Media and again, they impress with their releases. Ghidora the Three Headed Monster makes it's US DVD debut and Invasion of the Astro-Monster (aka Monster Zero) returns after being out of print for ages. Like the other releases, you get the US and Japanese cuts, commentary tracks and documentary features on one or another aspect of the Godzilla series.

Both of these movies are great, in my opinion, and Classic's discs serve them well. Quality is again top notch, though I found it a little curious that they reedited the Japanese prints to match the US dub tracks rather than using a proper US print this time around. I'm guessing it was to curb criticism like they had from their US print of Godzilla vs. Mothra that was the incorrect aspect ratio. Still, I can't recommend these discs highly enough and I only wish Classic had the rights to all the Godzilla films in the US as they appear to be the only company to truly do them right. (And the discs are cheap!)

Finally, I watched Sin City and I know at this point I must be the last person on the planet to see it. I only own it for the PSP as my friend I bought my PS from threw it in. Since I found these spiffy speakers at Target for cheap, I figured I'd kill an afternoon with it.

About the movie, my only real complaint is it could have used some tightening up. Ironic to say this, considering there's an even longer director's cut, but I just felt it could have been a little shorter and not any less of a movie for it. However, I loved the story, thought the look was great and I especially liked Mickey Rourk. Really fun stuff.

Watching a movie on a PSP is like staring at a dollar bill for two hours. It's easy to see why the UMD bombed as a movie format bombed, aside from the fact that people aren't too keep on paying twice as much for a lower quality disc they can only watch on the PSP. The screen on the PSP is great and with this Psyclone speaker set up ($25, Target clearance rack) you end up with a miniature home theater, but that's just the problem. It's too small to get really engrossed in like I like to with a movie. Even my Phillips portable with a 10" screen is a more enjoyable experience.

So, there's the latest in my movie watching diary. Also, Planet Earth on Blu-Ray is mind blowing. There's the PS3's killer app. After seeing that, it's really hard to go back to standard definition anything. Such pretty colors...

Rob the Hobby Lobby, tell 'em make me a shirt.

I know I'm not the target audience for hip-hop fashion. I'm white, 31 and from the suburbs of the mid-west. Not East Coast or West Coast. I'm straight up No Coast.

However, like many other white dudes who grew up in the 80s, hip-hop was my rock and roll. Run DMC was my Beatles, Public Enemy, my Clash. After that first wave of MTV crested, hip-hop and hair metal seemed to be the only things left with any of that youthful energy and fun. Motley Crue and Faster Pussycat just didn't move me like the Juice Crew did.

Like all other youth based musical movements, hip-hop was about fashion as well as the music. When I got to the point where I was buying my own clothes, I usually ended up looking like I'd walked off the set of In Living Colour. Thanks to MC Search, a large white dude didn't look any more ridiculous than anyone else sporting Cross Colors and Karl Kani.

As gangsta took over from the DAISY age, hip-hop style and the budding grunge thing started looking a lot alike. (The main difference being the fit and washing of garments, or lack thereof.) Then hip-hop clothes went from over sized to ridiculously large.

I guess I kinda lost the script some time in the mid 90s. Pants around the ankles and man dress t-shirts just didn't appeal to me. Strangely enough, much of what was happening on the music side of things wasn't hitting it either.

Since then, I've gotten back into some hip-hop, thanks mostly to a vibrant underground scene. Mainstream hip-hop has gotten more and more over the top, and not in a good way, and for the most part I just can't get with it.

I've been in New York for the past four days and this being the birthplace of it and all, I've just been checking out the hip-hop fashions while on the hunt for some new kicks. While I'm glad to see the baring your ass style is out, I'm kind of baffled by what appears to be the next coming thing.


Know what that is? Yes, it's the Bedazzler. No longer the exclusive tool of preteen girls and rednecks, the Bedazzler is making it's mark here on the streets of NYC. I suppose it's the next logical step in rap's obsession with shiny objects that shirts, jackets and pants with everything from subtle accents to entire designs Bedazzled upon them would be on deck.


Warning: This man may be gangsta.
As if the Bedazzler wasn't puzzling enough, I think hip-hop fasion really has been usurped by New Kids on the Block fans stuck in a time warp, because I swear to Koresh I've seen puffy paint gracing the bellys of some thugged out dudes. I'm talking lavender sparkly puffy paint! This is the kind of stuff that should only be used to write things like "Jordan is hot!!!" on a t-shirt, not something someone trying to look hard should be seen dead in.

And day-glo colors are apparently large and in charge. In fact, it was getting frustrating on my sneaker quest because while I was finding styles I dig, the colors were some variety of Technicolor vomit even Cindy Lauper wouldn't have worn back in 1983 when the stuff was popular the first time.

Girlz just wanna be thugz.

Now, I'm not going to pretend the hip-hop fashion of my time wasn't silly in it's own way. I mean, did anyone look good in Hammer pants? But at least I didn't dress like my little sister. I just don't get the current thing of how looking like a preteen gril from 1987 made your outfit is hip-hop.

Maybe that's the point?

Yeah I got on sneaks, but I need a new pair...

And they only cost $100 more than when I bought a pair in the late 80s.

...

Normally I detest remakes with every fiber of my being, but...

wow.

One of my favorite movies is getting the remake treatment, and check this out...



I have hope for this one. Crispin Glover is an inspired choice to play Montag. The trailer is a bit too Hollywood for me, but here's hoping this one comes out alright. This is maybe my favorite HGL film. I really hope they don't screw it up.

What I've been up to

I haven't abandoned ship here. I'm in the middle of moving. Above is about 75% of my CD collection. I haven't even touched the vinyl yet and frankly I'm scared to start.

Other than that, I've been busy with stuff. Svetlana finally recorded so hopefully we will have some sort of music available on the soon side. We've also played a record two shows in a month, so we're all pretty beat.

I've been enjoying unemployment, but I haven't really had too much time to catch up on the movie watching or music listening. I did get the Joe Henderson Milestone Box Set which has been completely rocking my world. This is some of the best mainstream jazz of the early 70s, to be sure. Highly underrated stuff.

I've also rediscovered my love of the Hammond B3 and all who play it. Specifically, I've been digging the recordings of Groove Holmes, Jack McDuff and Jimmy McGriff. Luckily for me, a lot of that stuff is available through eMusic so I'm not adding to the mountain of boxes above. I highly recommend Groove Holmes' On Basie's Bandstand and Jimmy McGriff's Groove Grease, if you have the chance to hear them.

(Yes, I know I did just throw a ton of Amazon Associate links at you. Sue me for trying to make a buck. I'm unemployed now, you know.)

Seriously though, firing up a bunch of ripping B3 discs has been about all that's keeping me going for packing all this stuff. I've lived in this place about 7 years and it shows.

OK, one more link, but it's another honest to Koresh recommendation. This Roma Violenta compilation of tracks from Italian cop movies of the 70s. (Think Dirty Harry but nastier.) This is some of the best driving music I've come across in a while. I wish I still had my Charger because this would be the soundtrack album. Another thing I'm thankful for eMusic for.

(While I'm whoring, if anyone wants 50 free eMusic downloads, shoot me your email. I feel dirty now.)

Enough of all that. I'm tired and I got another day of packing ahead. Just wanted to let you all know why you probably aren't going to hear much from me for a little while.

Cheers.

I'm almost sad really.

Because I know this thift score is going to take a while to beat. Yeah, I haven't done a thrift score in a while. I really haven't found that much interesting. But today...



Yes, that is an original pressing of Ska Authentic on the ND label from 1964, not Studio One like all subsequent pressings. The top seam is split, but the vinyl looks surprisingly good. How this ended up in a thrift store in Indianapolis (and remain in such relatively good shape) I'll never know.

Own a piece of Arch Hall Jr. history...

Do you have Twist Fever?

You too can sing the beautiful strains of "Vickie" lounging by the pool with Bud Eagle's 1960 Jazzmaster. (Richard Kiel not included.)

Interestingly enough, this leads me into a double barrel review. I recently got the Wild Guitar/The Choppers double feature from Something Weird and the Wild Guitar CD from Norton. Arch could actually play guitar and, even though he had some sappy stuff in his movies, the tape of him and the Archers playing at a drive-in is pretty rocking. Apparently he was a big fan of Albert King and Johnny Otis.

In the liner notes, he mentioned getting an endorsement deal with Fender for the Wild Guitar and they pretty much forced him into a Jazzmaster. Maybe this is the same one. Sure looks like it. (Yeah, I know he's got a Tele on the album cover. Sue me.)

Also got the Wild Guitar/Choppers double. I had Wild Guitar on an inspired dollar store DVD paired with The Beatniks. Needless to say, the quality on this is a million times better, plus you get all the extras Something Weird is known for.

As for the films, I really dig 'em. Wild Guitar is a "country bumpkin moves to big city to be a star" story but it's done really well. Yeah, Arch is sickeningly "Gee wiz!" through out, but his dad(!) and Ray Dennis Steckler are great as sleazy music industry rollers who lock Arch's Bud Eagle into a financial straight jacket where he has to be essentially a trained monkey. (And you thought that stuff didn't happen until Steve Albini wrote about it.)

The Choppers is a short JD picture. Shot several years before it was released, Arch looks about 12 in it. In this one, Arch plays a look out for a gang of car strippers. It's a fairly simple story, they get caught, people die, the survivors go to jail. The End. Oh, the greasy fat guy from Attack of the Giant Leeches is in there. That's a plus.

So, there it is. For some strange reasons, I'd claim being an Arch Hall fan. Yeah, he got knocked around on Mystery Science Theater, but he's got some kind of goofy charm I just can't put my finger on. You can get most of his movies cheap on public domain issues, well worth whatever you invest in them.

Welcome to the crappiest place on Earth!

In honor of the Chinese government's renewed pledges to curb intellectual property theft, I thought a trip to the Shijingshan Amusement Park was in order.



Hat tip to Cartoon Brew for the story.

Big Commotion 1968

Zany, episodic mod 60s flick staring Japanese Group Sounds band The Spiders. The film kind of plays like a long Monkees episode. As I gather what's going on (no subs, baah!) the boy's Galaxy 500 wagon gets rear ended by this chick and of course one of the guys falls madly in love with her. The rest of the film is a bunch of set pieces about him trying to win her heart. One guy in the band keeps having these weird hallucinations and imagines the band playing in the North Pole (riding polar bears) and in war and similar odd situations.

Along the way, the Spiders play some songs. It's an interesting post-Beatles, pre-acid rock 60s sound. Lots of pop hooks, but a distinct Japanese flavor. Good stuff, I'd love to hear more.

It looks like this was taken from a video source and it's non anamorphic letterboxed, which is very good. However, the video has been processed through 5 Minutes to Live's patiented video crapifier making the end result a bit of a pixely mess. It's still watchable, but it looks more like some web video blown up and less like a DVD. (Dear 5mtl, your source may be A- but until you invest in a real capture device and not the set top DVD recorder you got at WalMart for $69, this disc is a C+.)

Also be aware there are no subs and this is in Japanese. It's not very easy to follow, but I doubt speaking the language would make it that much easier.

Recommended if you can trade for it *cough cough cough* and you're into this sort of thing.

Bands I Useta Like

Funny stuff here: http://www.mikethepod.com/BIUL.htm

Review: Alice in Acidland/Smoke & Flesh

This one has been in the hopper for a while and I finally decided to tackle this double feature of drugsploitation this weekend. Why I picked this disc up, I don't know as the drug films really aren't my thing. I guess I'm a Something Weird completest.

We start with Alice in Acidland. This film is classic exploitation all the way through. From the faux moral high ground narration, to the depiction of all the depravity it is supposedly condemning, Alice is the grandchild of Reefer Madness through and through. Even the title carries the tradition of being leagues better than the picture under it.

Unfortunately, Alice is missing the goofy charm of it's predecessors. Make no mistake, this is a picture designed to show as much T&A and unattractive people dry humping as they could at the time, but it does so in the dullest way possible. I never made it to the full color acid trip scenes at the end, but I have a hunch I didn't miss a thing.

Marginally better is Smoke and Flesh. This one isn't a roadshow style exploiter, in fact it's almost arty in it's execution. Some groovy people score some pot whereupon they disrobe and have softcore sex. A gang of bikers crash the party and the hero doses the leader with LSD to get them to leave. Then everyone goes back to their cardboard tube bong and playing strip slot cars. The end.

There's not much to it, but it does have a few nice shots. It also has a garage rock track that sounds like of the Fabulous Wailers that plays over and over for nearly the entire 70 minutes of the film. And lots of shots of "the man" riding his motorcycle. Honestly, it was hard for me to pay attention to most of the film. Maybe I needed some of what they were smoking.

At least we have the special features and in this case they outshine the main attractions. First there's the usual assortment of trailers, radio ads and magazine covers. I'd buy discs of this stuff and, come to think of it, I have.

However, we also have a third featurette, Aphrodisiac: The Sexual Secret of Marijuana. Now this is something worth watching. An edited hardcore feature (I've heard it's more of a "soft" X. It's available from Something Weird on DVD-R, if you're really curious.) Aphrodisiac purports to be an educational film about the sexual properties of pot. What it is is plain and simple exploitation.

There's phony facts and figures. Silly man on the street interviews. Stiff dialogue. Early John Holmes. This one is really funny. Not worth the cost of the disc, mind you, but at least there's something worth watching here.

I love Something Weird, but I'll admit not everything they put out is for my taste. Maybe this is a case of that, but I really think with the exception of Aphrodisiac this is just a dull disc.

Pleasant Nightmares

Check it out here!

I don't know why I hadn't thought of checking YouTube for Sammy Terry clips before. Luckily there's a ton of stuff up there now. Prepare to waste most of a day going through all that good stuff.

For those who don't know, Sammy Terry was Indy's Shock Theater host who aired on WTTV from 1962-89. Not as well known as Svengoolie or some of the others, I think he's every bit as good, if not better.

I have a lot of good memories of not just the show, but also taking music lessons at Family Music, which was Bob Carter's store on the East Side. He stored some of his Sammy Terry props in the back room above the drum set. I never got enough nerve to root through there and see if George or Skull was lurking just above my head.

Anyway, for my Indy readers, hopefully this will take you back and everyone else should check it out and see what we grew up watching. Man I miss locally produced TV. You just don't get this kind of entertainment anymore.

Sly & The Family Stone - The Collection

OK, this is going to be a quick review here of the new Sly & the Family Stone set from Legacy. This isn't really a box set as much as it is all seven of the recently remastered Family Stone albums boxed and sold at a cheap price (I got mine for $50.) These discs are all available separately, though I'd suggest springing for the whole set. There's at least four solid classic albums in there and the other three aren't that bad either.

While people constantly crab about how the Beatles catalog needs freshening up, it still amazes me at how shabby other acts of the era have fared on CD. At least you can get all the Beatles albums on CD and they have a semi-respectable replica of the original artwork. Small Talk was only available on CD in Japan until this reissue series and the covers for There's A Riot Goin' On and Dance to the Music were butchered horribly. And the sound, well, I don't even think it was near state of the art when these discs were first released.

These new issues restore all the art work in a digipack and feature spiffy new mastering jobs. I'm sorry they didn't go the hybrid SACD route like they did with the recent Bob Dylan set, but these things sound excellent. Though I still haven't combed over everything with a fine tooth comb, I can't find anything really to complain about there.

However, I do have one major beef. Legacy has thrown on a handful of bonus tracks and 45 mixes, all of which are appreciated. What I don't understand is why they couldn't have thrown on the three crucial single only tracks recorded between Stand! and Riot. It really aggravates me that I'm still going to have to buy a hits collection to have "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)," "Everybody Is a Star" and "Hot Fun in the Summertime," easily three of the band's best tracks. There was plenty of room to include them and no reason not to (except the desire to make fans shell out for one more disc.)

The other thing I'd like to see is the couple of non-Family Stone Epic albums finally get a CD reissue (though I've heard they aren't very good) and, just to be complete, how about the ahead of it's time remix album Ten Years Too Soon? Still, thanks Legacy for finally doing Sly & the Family Stone Right. This is some essential music, highly recommended.

Best Musician Wanted Ad Ever.

Guitarists...if you are not Eddie Van Halen, think music died about 1976, have more vintage gear than a top name studio, are willing to learn 30 covers and practice several times during working hours (but have a steady financial situation,) have a willingness to be completely pushed around but are ready to make $100, possibly more, a week, have I got the gig for you.

Looks like he might take a drummer too but, just my luck, dude only plays a Hammond A-100. I can't get with anything less than a B-3. Pitty...I was so looking forward to rocking some Dave Mason in Kokomo Indiana.

UPDATE: well, he pulled down the ad, but thanks to the magic of Google Cache, IT LIVES!!!!

Yet another Grindhouse review.

Because this is one of those films that really seems to have people divided and is inspiring a lot of passion in movie nerds, I feel I should kind of break down where I'm coming from before I get into Grindhouse. First off, if you just stumbled in here, I am certainly a fan of the grindhouse cinema. I get and appreciate where this is coming from.

I'm fairly neutral on Tarantino and have no opinion on Rodriguez. I also went into this movie as blind as possible. I purposely didn't watch trailers, read up on the hype, etc.

With that out of the way, let's start.

Part One: Planet Terror. The government has created some sort of green mist that is turning people into pus filled zombies and a paramilitary group is after it. A mysterious guy fights with the hard nosed local law to save the world. His stripper girlfriend finds her true self in all the chaos.

Sound familiar? It should.

Planet Terror's story is appropriately convoluted and it almost all comes together in the end. Still, the story is secondary to the action, and Planet Terror is almost wall to wall action. By the end, it's obvious Rodriguez has kind of painted himself into a corner, but it really doesn't matter. If I had a dollar for every genre picture I've seen with a burn out ending, I'd be filming one of my own.

The one thing that seems to really have gotten the film nerds up in arms about Planet Terror is the use of CGI. Despite the artificial aging, this is obviously a modern film and I don't really think they were trying to hide that fact.

Imagine if Cannon Pictures invented a time machine, zoomed from 1982 to now, brought back some CGI technology (and a bit of 2007 budget,) gave it to Cozzi or Fulchi and told them to go nuts. Part homage, part parody, Planet Terror is every over the top 80s action/zombie gross out/horror flick you've seen refashioned for today.

It's silly, it's gory, it's loud and all action. Yes, Rose McGowan with a machine gun for a leg is ridiculous, but it's supposed to be. So many of these films were ridiculous.

Planet Terror was huge fun and exactly what I expected from Grindhouse.



Part Two: Death Proof. Where to start? I know what Tarantino was going for. I know he loved all the old AIP/Crown car pictures. How do I know that? Because the characters in Death Proof make explicit* reference to such genre classics as Vanishing Point and Gone In 60 Seconds (the original) when they aren't gabbing on and on about sex.

There's also an element of the rape revenge film, though there's no sex at all here. In fact, it's really difficult for me to understand what Kurt Russell's heavy Stuntman Mike was after here, because there was zero character development for him. All we know about him is he stalks these girls, kills them with his car and then breaks down like a little baby instantly when the table is turned.

And it's not just Stuntman Mike who is underdeveloped. In between a couple of rather uninteresting car chase scenes, there's talking, lots of talking that never really advances the plot or the characters. None of the characters really amounts to much, despite all the gabbing they do. Never once do you develop any interest in them and personally, I kept hoping Mike was going to manage to off the chicks in the end after all. Considering Quentin is trying to make this a character driven film, allowing the character to grate as they do is a big misstep.

If Quentin was trying to duplicate the tedium of some of these genre pictures, mission accomplished. However, I think true grindhouse audiences wouldn't have had the patience for this one. It's like when Death Proof is not trying to be a car chase/female empowerment film, Death Proof becomes some film school version of French New Wave and it just doesn't work.

So maybe I don't get Death Proof, but what I saw was a boring mess of a film. How Tarantino managed to make a film with hot chicks talking about sex, car chases and Kurt Russell dull, I don't know, but he did it. I'll say this, if you love that famous "Tarantino dialogue", you're going to adore this film because that's about all there is to it.

Bonus features: The fake trailers are pretty good. Thanksgiving and Don't are brilliant. I expected a little more from Rob Zombie's take on the Ilsa/Olga naziplotation genre though.

So, in the end I'd pass on the same advice I got going into this: you can safely leave after the trailer for Thanksgiving and feel like you got your money's worth. You really won't be missing much.

* I half expected the film to stop and Quentin come out and explain "Ok, in the next scene, I'm referring to..." It was almost insulting the way the character come right out and tell the audience what films Tarintion is paying homage to.

The EMI/iTunes Thing.

I'm sure you've heard about it by now, but if not, EMI is going to be the first label selling music without rights restricting DRM on the iTunes music store. They're also finally bumping the bit rate up to a more acceptable (but still not idea, that would be Apple Lossless or equal) bit rate. Oh, and they're charging you 30 cents more a track for the privilege.

In this deal, EMI gets to look cutting edge for being the first of the big four to lose DRM and Steve Jobs gets to look like the knight in shining armor because he gave this big anti-DRM speech recently. While I agree losing DRM is a win for consumers, I think when you look at this deal, it has a lot less to do with pleasing consumers and a lot more with business as usual.

Take Jobs for instance. Though there's a bit of revisionist history at work, Apple wasn't always anti-DRM. In fact, they've told labels who specifically asked to sell DRM-free music they couldn't. Why did this guy who, up 'till recently, had no problem with right restricting software suddenly have a change of heart?

Sure, it's possible Steve's had a change of heart. However, I think it might have something to do with not wanting to fight for DRM all over Europe. Norway already has smacked FairPlay down, Italy is going that way too. Same with France and Germany.

Pardon me for being cynical, but you have something that ties users to your specific product (and Jobs' figures on iTunes music store purchases vs. iPod ownership are really skewed) why you'd want to voluntary change that, I could not imagine. The fact that Jobs, who is a majority shareholder in Disney, hasn't come out against video DRM, and is clearly in a position to do something about that from both sides of the purchasing chain, also makes me skeptical.

As for EMI, here's where people are missing the big picture. It doesn't cost them any extra to offer higher bit rate, non-DRM tracks, but they're getting 30 cents more a pop. The record industry has been trying for quite a while to charge more at the iTunes music store, but up until now Jobs has said no.

Now Jobs is in a bit of a bind over this DRM thing, which up to know has worked out well for Apple and the industry. Apple needs to ditch the DRM, the industry wants to charge more and we end up where we are now. A win/win for Apple and EMI. A partial victory for consumers.

Free Movie: War of the Monsters

Thanks to my buddy at WTF-films, here's something kind of neat for you. It's the AIP-TV dub of Gamera vs. Baraugon in widescreen! Enjoy! (And take a shot each time they mispronounce Gamera.)