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Weird: The Al Yankovic Story by James-Masaki Ryan (3rd June 2023)
"Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" (2022) Al Yankovic (played by Daniel Radcliffe) went against his conservative factory working father (played by Toby Huss) to go into a career with music in a specifically niche form. Armed with an accordion and with a love for changing lyrics of existing songs for comedic value, the young college kid rises to stardom quickly by his reinterpretations of songs by The Knack, Joan Jett, Queen and more, hitting the top of the pop charts. With the aid of his childhood idol and radio DJ mentor Dr. Demento (played by Rainn Wilson) and the support of Scotti Brothers Records head Tony Scotti (played by Al Yankovic himself), things are bright for the young musician. But with fame and fortune comes consequences, such as the toxic relationship with pop superstar Madon... |
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Yakuza Graveyard by Eric Cotenas (31st May 2023)
Exiled to provinces for his brutal tactics, police detective Kuriowa (Black Dagger's Tetsuya Watari) is brought to Sanno by chief Akama (Goke, The Body Snatcher from Hell's Nobuo Kaneko) in anticipation of Yakuza organization Yamashiro moving in on the smaller gambling operation of local gang Nishida whose top dog Matsunaga (Graveyard of Honor's Kenji Imai) is away serving a prison sentence. No sooner does Kuriowa return than he provokes two Nishida men into a fight and brings them in under suspicion of participating in a robbery. Eager to make peace and buy his cooperation, acting Nishida boss Sugi (Zatoichi the Outlaw's Takuya Fujioka |
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Harry Wild: Series 1 by Eric Cotenas (30th May 2023)
After years of trying to teach arrogant shits the whys of human existence through literature, college professor Harry Wild (Somewhere in Time's Jane Seymour) retires in hopes of writing a great novel; that is, after getting off her face and snogging the new archaeology professor. Faced with a blank page, she goes shopping and winds up on the wrong end of a mugging. An unwelcome guest in the household of her Dublin police detective son Charlie (Copper's Kevin Ryan), Harry comes across her son's case files for the brutal murder of a former child molester and recognizes the murder scene as being inspired by a scene from the obscure Elizabethan play "Calabras" in the series opener "When Harry Met Fergus" (49:23). When her son proves anything but receptive to her input, she takes it upon herself to do some investigating of her own with the reluctant help of her juvenile assailant Fergus (... |
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Yakuza Graveyard by Eric Cotenas (30th May 2023)
Exiled to provinces for his brutal tactics, police detective Kuriowa (Black Dagger's Tetsuya Watari) is brought to Sanno by chief Akama (Goke, The Body Snatcher from Hell's Nobuo Kaneko) in anticipation of Yakuza organization Yamashiro moving in on the smaller gambling operation of local gang Nishida whose top dog Matsunaga (Graveyard of Honor's Kenji Imai) is away serving a prison sentence. No sooner does Kuriowa return than he provokes two Nishida men into a fight and brings them in under suspicion of participating in a robbery. Eager to make peace and buy his cooperation, acting Nishida boss Sugi (Zatoichi the Outlaw's Takuya Fujioka |
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In the Line of Duty I-IV: Limited Edition by Eric Cotenas (29th May 2023)
"88 films proudly presents the first four films in the In the Line of Duty" (皇家師姐) series of "Girls with Guns" films produced by Hong Kong movie studio D&B Films in this collectible 4-disc Blu-ray box set!" Royal Warriors: Returning from a vacation in Japan, Hong Kong police officer Michelle Yip (Tomorrow Never Dies's Michelle Yeoh) helps air marshal Michael Wong (City Hunter's Michael Wong) and Japanese cop Yamamoto (Message from Space's Hiroyuki Sanada) foil the attempt of Crazy Chicken (A Better Tomorrow's ... |
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In the Line of Duty I-IV: Limited Edition by Eric Cotenas (29th May 2023)
"88 films proudly presents the first four films in the In the Line of Duty" (皇家師姐) series of "Girls with Guns" films produced by Hong Kong movie studio D&B Films in this collectible 4-disc Blu-ray box set!" Royal Warriors: Returning from a vacation in Japan, Hong Kong police officer Michelle Yip (Tomorrow Never Dies's Michelle Yeoh) helps air marshal Michael Wong (City Hunter's Michael Wong) and Japanese cop Yamamoto (Message from Space's Hiroyuki Sanada) foil the attempt of Crazy Chicken (A Better Tomorrow's ... |
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In the Line of Duty I-IV: Limited Edition by Eric Cotenas (29th May 2023)
"88 films proudly presents the first four films in the In the Line of Duty" (皇家師姐) series of "Girls with Guns" films produced by Hong Kong movie studio D&B Films in this collectible 4-disc Blu-ray box set!" Royal Warriors: Returning from a vacation in Japan, Hong Kong police officer Michelle Yip (Tomorrow Never Dies's Michelle Yeoh) helps air marshal Michael Wong (City Hunter's Michael Wong) and Japanese cop Yamamoto (Message from Space's Hiroyuki Sanada) foil the attempt of Crazy Chicken (A Better Tomorrow's ... |
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In the Line of Duty I-IV: Limited Edition by Eric Cotenas (29th May 2023)
"88 films proudly presents the first four films in the In the Line of Duty" (皇家師姐) series of "Girls with Guns" films produced by Hong Kong movie studio D&B Films in this collectible 4-disc Blu-ray box set!" Royal Warriors: Returning from a vacation in Japan, Hong Kong police officer Michelle Yip (Tomorrow Never Dies's Michelle Yeoh) helps air marshal Michael Wong (City Hunter's Michael Wong) and Japanese cop Yamamoto (Message from Space's Hiroyuki Sanada) foil the attempt of Crazy Chicken (A Better Tomorrow's ... |
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Stink-O-Vision by James-Masaki Ryan (25th May 2023)
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (1990) The fan-favorite 1990 live action adaptation of the iconic comic book and cartoon series characters has been a long staple of the home video market from VHS all the way to Blu-ray in various editions, whether single or in collections with the sequel films. This newest edition which comes from Australia's Umbrella Entertainment is a unique one that is supposedly their first in a "Stink-O-Vision" line, described as a "scratch & sniff cinema experience" to add an extra dimension (not Dimension X) to the feature. As there have been a number or writeups and discussions about the film by various critics and fans over the years, this review will focus more on the scratch & sniff experience unique to this Blu-ray release, as well as some personal recollections. When I moved to the United States in 1987 as a child, it was the start of Turtlemania with kids through the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" animated series. Being a kid growing up watching the fighting styles of Son Goku in the manga and animated adventures of ... |
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The Cassandra Cat by Eric Cotenas (24th May 2023)
Palme d'Or: Vojtech Jasný (nominee) and Special Jury Prize: Vojtech Jasný (winner) - Cannes Film Festival, 1963 "Once upon a time, this really happened…," so says castellan Oliva (The Fabulous Baron Munchausen's Jan Werich) who shows up to model for a children's drawing class and regales them and their teacher Robert (Jacob the Liar's Vlastimil Brodský) with one of his stories as a sailor when he joined a traveling circus in his attraction to beautiful tightrope walker Diana who had a performing cat that always wore glasses. He was warned not to remove the glasses as the gaze of the cat would reveal the true colors of the audience. Oliva was unable to resist temptation and the audience whose shameful natures were exposed killed the cat and Oliva forever lost Diana. No sooner is Robert castig... |
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Lovers Lane by Eric Cotenas (21st May 2023)
One night, a hook-handed killer butchered a couple on Lovers Lane, one of which turned out to be the wife of police deputy Tom Anderson (Delta Farce's Matt Riedy) whose corpse was found in the arms of town stud Ward Lamson. Tom's psychologist brother Jack Grefe (WKRP in Cincinnati's Richard Sanders) reveals that Ray Hennessey (Ed Bailey) was a patient of his and obsessed with Tom's wife. Thirteen years later, the Lovers Lane killer is an urban legend for all but now-sheriff Tom, his seventeen year old school outcast daughter Mandy (Lolita's Erin J. Dean), and Ward Lamson's school principal wife Penny (Suzanne Bouchard) who has concealed the details from her popular son Mich... |
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Extra Terrestrial Visitors by Eric Cotenas (21st May 2023)
In the dead of night, a trio of poachers drive deep into the Shasta National Forest to make a quick buck by stealing eagle eggs. When Sam (Frank Sussman) sees a meteor crashing down behind the trees, he leaves Burt (Return of the Evil Dead's Frank Braña) and Matt (Iguana's Guillermo Antón) behind and takes the truck in search of the landing site, happening upon a cave carved into the Earth by the impact where he finds a nest of large eggs. When Sam cracks one open and discovers the alien contents, he destroys the others in disgust, incurring the wrath of the mother. Another witness to the crash is young Tommy (Beatriz's Óscar Martín) who lives at the Rangers Refuge with his mother Molly (... |
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Lovers Lane (Blu-ray) by Paul Lewis (21st May 2023)
Lovers Lane (Jon Steven Ward, 1999)
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Alien from the Abyss by Eric Cotenas (18th May 2023)
On a tropical island in the Philippines, American chemical company E-CHEM has supposedly been decontaminating atomic waste in a plant at the base of a volcano. Greenpeace activists Jane (Fashion Crimes' Marina Giulia Cavalli) and Lee (Zombi 3's Robert Marius), however, suspect that more nefarious things are going on. Sneaking onto the island by rubber raft to evade the plant's security forces, they discover elevated radiation levels and the volcano seemingly about to erupt any day. The local missionary who first contacted them about the plant's activities arranges for them to stowaway on a supply truck and they infiltrate the plant where they discover that the plant is simply disposing of contaminated waste by dumping it into the live volcano. The two split up after being discovered, with Lee captured and tortured by ruthless Colonel Kovacs (The Silence of the Lambs<... |
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Head On by James-Masaki Ryan (17th May 2023)
"Head On" (1998) Ari (played by Alex Dimitriades) is a young 19-year-old who is completely directionless in life. An Australian born son of Greek immigrants, he doesn't feel like he belongs in either circle culturally. His parents were political activists but he sees no reason to care for a social call. He uses drugs but doesn't consider himself an addict. He has sexual relations with both men and women but doesn't see himself as bisexual. He is by choice not going to work or going to school, feeding off from his family and friends. His only motivations are with meaningless sex, drugs, and rambunctious behavior, chronicled in this 24 hour period. Based on the novel "Loaded" by Christos Tsiolkas which deals with an alienated Greek-Australian young man, the theatrical adaptation entitled as "Head On" is a feature that feels quite of its time with its kinetic MTV style energy with its editing, closeups, music cues, youth culture with clubbing, sexual aggression, and angst. In addition, it does feel a bit ahead of its time in its frankness with sexuality and its am... |
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The Sunday Woman by Eric Cotenas (17th May 2023)
Aging architect Garrone (Beast with a Gun's Claudio Gora) is a lech who flirts with waitresses, peeks up skirts and down blouses, and crashes high-class parties to stir up trouble with seemingly pithy but pointed remarks. So sure is he that he is sitting on top of a secret cash cow that he flaunts what others see as an illusion of intellectual and moral superiority… until someone caves in his skull with a stone phallus. When Commissioner Salvatore Santamaria (La Dolce Vita's Marcello Mastroianni) and De Palma (Seduction's Pino Caruso) start investigating the murder, Garrone seems a man of little importance, humored by the likes of gallery owner Vollero (Midnight Express' ... |
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The Changeling: Standard Edition by Eric Cotenas (17th May 2023)
After his wife (Frenzy's Jean Marsh) and daughter Kathy (Michelle Martin) are killed in a road accident, composer John Russell (Patton's George C. Scott) quits New York for Seattle to teach music at his alma mater. In need of a remote place where he can compose at all hours, John is shown the long-uninhabited Chessman House by local historical society representative Claire Norman (Scott's wife Trish Van Devere of The Last Run). It soon becomes apparent, however, that he is not alone. Doors open on their own, a barrage of clanging sounds wake him up at the same time every night, and his keepsake of Kathy's toy ball bounces down the stairs and reappears no matter how many times he tries to get rid of it. At first he be... |
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Warriors Two by Eric Cotenas (16th May 2023)
The martial art of Wing Chun was developed by nun Ng Mui who taught it to one of her female students who in turn taught it to her husband when he needed to escape during one of the Chinese civil wars. The style was taught one-on-one and passed down from one pupil to another, eventually to Leung Tsan (The Postman Fights Back's Ka-Yan Leung) who established a medical practice in Foshan province with his niece Gao Fung (Hard Boiled Killers' Man-Ting Cheung ). Wary of the potential of misusing Wing Chun, he has taken on only rice dumpling seller Fat Chun (Encounters of the Spooky Kind's Sammo Kam-Bo Hung) as a pupil and taught him the basics. When young bank cashier Chan Wah (Duel to the Death's ... |
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The Sunday Woman by Eric Cotenas (16th May 2023)
Aging architect Garrone (Beast with a Gun's Claudio Gora) is a lech who flirts with waitresses, peeks up skirts and down blouses, and crashes high-class parties to stir up trouble with seemingly pithy but pointed remarks. So sure is he that he is sitting on top of a secret cash cow that he flaunts what others see as an illusion of intellectual and moral superiority… until someone caves in his skull with a stone phallus. When Commissioner Salvatore Santamaria (La Dolce Vita's Marcello Mastroianni) and De Palma (Seduction's Pino Caruso) start investigating the murder, Garrone seems a man of little importance, humored by the likes of gallery owner Vollero (Midnight Express' ... |
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Naked Lunch (Blu-ray) by Paul Lewis (14th May 2023)
Naked Lunch (David Cronenberg, 1991)
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Laurin by Eric Cotenas (13th May 2023)
Bavarian Film Award (Best Young Direction): Robert Sigl (winner) - Bavarian Film Awards, 1989 Max Ophüls Award: Robert Sigl (nominee) - Max Ophüls Festival A killer of children stalks the streets of a German village at the turn of the century. Young, highly-imagintive Laurin (Dóra Szinetár) may have seen one of the victims, or it might have been a nightmare; in any case, the seemingly accidental drowning death of her mother Flora (Brigitte Karner) in the windswept night on the way back from seeing off her sailor husband Arne (The Turin Horse's János Derzsi) preoccupies her mind. Left in the care and to care for her ailing grandmother Olga (Mephisto's ... |
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Joseph W. Sarno Retrospect Series #5: The Naked Fog/Moonlighting Wives by Eric Cotenas (11th May 2023)
The filmography of director Joe Sarno (1921-2010) encompassed nearly every flesh-bearing exploitation trend of latter half of the twentieth century: from burlesque shows masquerading as drama (Pandora and the Magic Box) and suburban exposes (Sin in the Suburbs) to Scandinavian (Inga) and German skin-flicks (Butterflies), erotic horror (Veil of Blood), hardcore (A Touch of Genie) and hardcore-adjancent softcore films (Deep Throat Part II), to even a brief dabble in direct-to-video erotica (Suburban Secrets). What d... |
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Joseph W. Sarno Retrospect Series #5: The Naked Fog/Moonlighting Wives by Eric Cotenas (11th May 2023)
The filmography of director Joe Sarno (1921-2010) encompassed nearly every flesh-bearing exploitation trend of latter half of the twentieth century: from burlesque shows masquerading as drama (Pandora and the Magic Box) and suburban exposes (Sin in the Suburbs) to Scandinavian (Inga) and German skin-flicks (Butterflies), erotic horror (Veil of Blood), hardcore (A Touch of Genie) and hardcore-adjancent softcore films (Deep Throat Part II), to even a brief dabble in direct-to-video erotica (Suburban Secrets). What d... |
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Mondays: See You 'This' Week! by James-Masaki Ryan (9th May 2023)
"Mondays: See You 'This' Week!" (MONDAYS/このタイムループ、上司に気づかせないと終わらない) (2022) Akemi Yoshikawa (played by Wan Marui) is an advertising agent working non-stop during a busy week at her office in which she must come up with a marketing campaign for a new product - carbonated miso soup tablets. While she is busy with trying to please her client by bending over backwards at every turn and even getting into a car accident resulting in a mild head wound, she continues on with the tight deadline of next Monday. But it seems to be no ordinary week. Coworkers Takuto Endo (played by Kohki Osamura) and Ken Murata (played by Yugo Mikawa) keep telling her that they are stuck in a one week time loop, and every Monday the world resets to the previous Monday. While she is skeptical, they tell her to try to recall the moment on Monday morning when a pigeon crashes int... |
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Creeping Horror: Murders in the Zoo/Night Monster/Horror Island/House of Horrors by Eric Cotenas (8th May 2023)
"Four more tales of terror from the vaults of Universal Pictures, starring Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi, and Rondo Hatton." Murders in the Zoo: Returning from Africa with a veritable ark of animals for the local zoo – and short one expedition member who had the temerity to kiss his wife Evelyn (The Island of Lost Souls' Kathleen Burke) – billionaire sportsman Eric Gorman (Man Made Monster's Lionel Atwill) notices the attention paid to his wife by his best friend Roger (The Scarlet Empress's John Lodge). Evelyn's plans to run off with Roger are scuttled when Roger suffers a deadly Mamba bite at a fundraising banquet at the zoo arranged by new publicity manager Peter Yates (... |
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Creeping Horror: Murders in the Zoo/Night Monster/Horror Island/House of Horrors by Eric Cotenas (8th May 2023)
"Four more tales of terror from the vaults of Universal Pictures, starring Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi, and Rondo Hatton." Murders in the Zoo: Returning from Africa with a veritable ark of animals for the local zoo – and short one expedition member who had the temerity to kiss his wife Evelyn (The Island of Lost Souls' Kathleen Burke) – billionaire sportsman Eric Gorman (Man Made Monster's Lionel Atwill) notices the attention paid to his wife by his best friend Roger (The Scarlet Empress's John Lodge). Evelyn's plans to run off with Roger are scuttled when Roger suffers a deadly Mamba bite at a fundraising banquet at the zoo arranged by new publicity manager Peter Yates (... |
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Creeping Horror: Murders in the Zoo/Night Monster/Horror Island/House of Horrors by Eric Cotenas (8th May 2023)
"Four more tales of terror from the vaults of Universal Pictures, starring Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi, and Rondo Hatton." Murders in the Zoo: Returning from Africa with a veritable ark of animals for the local zoo – and short one expedition member who had the temerity to kiss his wife Evelyn (The Island of Lost Souls' Kathleen Burke) – billionaire sportsman Eric Gorman (Man Made Monster's Lionel Atwill) notices the attention paid to his wife by his best friend Roger (The Scarlet Empress's John Lodge). Evelyn's plans to run off with Roger are scuttled when Roger suffers a deadly Mamba bite at a fundraising banquet at the zoo arranged by new publicity manager Peter Yates (... |
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Creeping Horror: Murders in the Zoo/Night Monster/Horror Island/House of Horrors by Eric Cotenas (8th May 2023)
"Four more tales of terror from the vaults of Universal Pictures, starring Lionel Atwill, Bela Lugosi, and Rondo Hatton." Murders in the Zoo: Returning from Africa with a veritable ark of animals for the local zoo – and short one expedition member who had the temerity to kiss his wife Evelyn (The Island of Lost Souls' Kathleen Burke) – billionaire sportsman Eric Gorman (Man Made Monster's Lionel Atwill) notices the attention paid to his wife by his best friend Roger (The Scarlet Empress's John Lodge). Evelyn's plans to run off with Roger are scuttled when Roger suffers a deadly Mamba bite at a fundraising banquet at the zoo arranged by new publicity manager Peter Yates (... |
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The Adventures of Barry McKenzie by James-Masaki Ryan (6th May 2023)
"The Adventures of Barry McKenzie" (1972) As stipulated in his father's will, Barry McKenzie (played by Barry Crocker) inherits $2000 and must travel from his home of Australia to England to broaden his small minded cultural horizon. Accompanying him on his trip is his aunt Edna (played by Barry Humphries) who is more on the polite side to make sure Barry doesn't find himself in trouble as well as for her to make some reconnections to old friends. But Barry's short stay will find him in various quirky situations, from being scammed by airport customs and a taxi driver, nearly swindled by a group of hippies, nearly arrested by the police, taken to a mental institution, making a television commercial, and other insane happenings. Barry Humphries first conceived of the Barry McKenzie character in comic book form. A friendly simpleton with a crass mouth who is quick to drink Fosters beer at any chance he has, he is also a well dressed individual wearing a suit with a wide brim hat at all times. His vocabulary was not filled with expletives but comprised of a mixture of Au... |
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Picnic at Hanging Rock: Standard Edition by Eric Cotenas (3rd May 2023)
BAFTA Film Award (Best Cinematography): Russell Boyd (winner), Best Costume Design: Judith Dorsman (nominee), and Best Sound Track: Greg Bell and Don Connolly (nominee) - BAFTA Awards, 1977 Saturn Award (Best Screenplay): Cliff Green (nominee) and Best Cinematography: Russell Boyd (winner) - Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, 1979 AFI Award (Best Film): Patricia Lovell, Hal McElroy, and Jim McElroy (nominee), Best Direction: Peter Weir (nominee), Best Screenplay - Original or Adapted: Cliff Green (nominee), Best Achievement in Cin... |
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