The Movie:

A quote on the back of the packaging for this release from Elliott Stein of The Village Voice states that Night Of The Living Dead is 'the most influential horror film since Psycho, which is probably true. Fans and critics alike will be hard pressed to think of another film that has had a bigger impact on modern horror films. In fact, Night Of The Living Dead has really gone on to be more than just a film, it's literally become an important part of American pop culture as a whole and it's influence can be seen not only in films but also in novels, comic books, video games, television shows and even music. Not bad for a movie made forty years ago by a small commercial film company made on a small budget in rural Pennsylvania! This makes Night Of The Living Dead a bit of an odd choice for a Rifftrax release.

For those not hip to what Riff...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Swing Parade (originally titled Swing Parade of 1946) is a fairly obscure poverty-row musical comedy, remembered today only for the appearance of the Three Stooges, who pop up in supporting roles. It was produced under the auspices of Monogram Pictures, and like many low-budget pictures of the era, it fell into the public domain; it can now be picked up on various cheapie discs at dollar stores. It was also restored and colorized by Legend Films and released a couple of years back; as with many of their titles, it has now been taken on by their subsidiary, Rifftrax, the movie-mocking venture of Mystery Science Theater 3000 alumni Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett. (For a more detailed examination of the progression from MST to Rifftrax to the 10 stand-alone Rifftrax DVDs being released this month, see my Read the entire review

The Shorts:

"They're not meant to be artistic at all. And if they are, they almost always fail. They're really sort of there to drive home a lesson or a purpose, so they're really screwed down and very intent in that. And sometimes they try to scare you into doing something better, and sometimes they try to teach you a moral lesson, and they always seem a little bit oppressive. And so you really get that delightful feeling of sitting in the back of the classroom and making fun of the movie that the teacher put on and then she went out and had a smoke while, you know, the kids in the back of the room are making fun of the movie. That's how it feels to me. It oddly enough takes me back to about fourth grade, when I used to actually watch some of these things, and snicker with my friends in the back of the room." -Read the entire review

Savant generally stays away from comedy discs from the Mystery Science Theater 3000 folks, for a number of reasons. The old TV show could always be guaranteed to lift one's spirits a bit, but with few exceptions the basic joke of lobbing snarky one-liners at helpless old B-pictures tended to run dry after awhile. The attitude that film history (of the Public Domain variety) could be made the patsy for merciless razzing grew sour, especially when the MST3K boys became vandals, lobbing spitballs at movies that deserved recognition, not derision. The Sci-Fi picture Rocketship X-M comes to mind, a solid picture whose only crime is to become a bit dated. The same goes for the MST Theatrical release that assaulted This Isl...Read the entire review

Legend Films has released RiffTrax: The Little Shop of Horrors, the latest release of this public domain title for Legend, featuring a newly recorded commentary/goof-on track by Mystery Science Theater 3000's Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett. Apparently, Legend has released this title twice before -an early colorized version, and a 2006 release featuring a new colorized transfer and a restored black & white transfer. The 2006 version had a commentary by Mike Nelson alone; this new trio commentary apparently was recorded this year. Legend and Rifftrax have decided not to include the colorized version for this release, and you can choose to watch the film with or without the RiffTrax commentary.

Considering we already have two excellent re...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Our journey to Rifftrax: Reefer Madness is a long and storied one. It begins with a little show called Mystery Science Theater 3000, which ran lo those many years ago on Comedy Central and then on Sci-Fi (or as it's stupidly known now, SyFy), and a guy and two robots watched movies and made fun of them (or, in the jargon, "riffed" them), and many of us laughed, but it was one of those "cult sensations," which means it was eventually cancelled. But then old episodes were released on DVD, and because most MST fans are obsessive collectors, they sold well.

Here's where Legend Films came in. The San Diego-based company's primary focus, via its "Off-Color Films" imprint, is colorization (and, thankfully, pre-process restoration) of black and white fi...Read the entire review

"Phase IV" is a killer bug flick upgraded for the downbeat 70s, a small scale B-picture reworked for the post-"2001" hard sci-fi set. This is the only feature directed by the legendary graphic artist Saul Bass, whose careful eye serves the quiet, unhurried story well, while the mix of ecological terror and otherworldly power creates a mystery never solved. This sort of sinister ambiguity leaves the viewer rattled as the story tells of humanity taken down a peg, struggling to barely keep up in a world over which we are no longer master.

The film, written by Mayo Simon ("Marooned," "Futureworld"), opens in the aftermath of an unnamed cosmic event, something about celestial bodies aligning and something big passing us by; like everything else, the script here is intentionally vague. The d...Read the entire review

Creature From The Haunted Sea:
A notorious cheapie knocked out almost as a freebie after Roger Corman had finished two other films in the tropics, Creature From The Haunted Sea shows its roots like a two-month-old-bleach-job. Folks, this is what two locations, some free time in Puerto Rico, and three bucks worth of green yarn will get you! It's really just gravy that the movie's actually quite fun to watch.

We're in Cuba, just after the Castro revolution, and some top Batista officials want to sneak a little loot back to the states for safe keeping. Their goofball soldiers lift a footlocker full of gold - the Cuban Treasury - out of a VW microbus and drop it in the trunk of a Ford Falcon and hop on the hood and trunk of the car, shooting while it speeds wildly through the palms. It's nice to know International Diplomacy hasn't changed much in 50 years.

Renzo Capetto (a seemingly constantl...Read the entire review

Author's Note: The screen caps used here read: MGM's 2004 transfer on top, Legend's colorized and "restored" black and white, left to right.

Legend Films has released The Last Man On Earth (in COLOR), the 1964 end-of-the-word/vampire chiller starring Vincent Price, in a newly colorized transfer, along with a "restored" transfer in the film's original black and white (both of which, inexplicably, are labeled "Full Screen" on the box - a death sentence marketing mistake for this disc). While Legend charmed me with its recent colorized The Munsters' episode, Family Portrait, I truly see no reason for The Last Man On Earth, with one of its strongest elements being its stunning chiaroscuro widescreen cinematography, to be colorized. And comparing the "restored" black and white transfer of this disc, with the previous excellent MGM 2004 transfer (on a Midnit...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Legend Films, in recent years, has proven a respectable - and reliable - distributor of cult and genre titles here in the United States. They've also become quite prolific in their colorization of old black and white films, especially those in the public domain. What you think of this last point obviously depends upon where you stand in the old colorization debate. For the record, I don't like colorization and always prefer to see films in their original black and white form (if, of course, they were filmed in black and white). Despite Legend's insistence upon presenting awkwardly colored versions of old films, I give the company a lot of credit for always providing a black and white version as well, and having that version be of comparatively high technical quality.

This high quality is in evidence with their recent release of Phantom From Space, a 1953 science f...Read the entire review

The Movie:

[Reviewer's Note: Six years ago, I reviewed a different DVD release of The Devil Bat for Monsterzine. Portions of this new review regarding the film itself are carried over from that 2002 review.]

"Good night, Doctor."

"Good...bye...Roy."

Ah, who can forget those lines? They come from The Devil Bat, a dirt cheap horror film quickly made and released in 1940 starring the legendary Bela Lugosi.

When I was young, my father purchased a bargain basement EP-recorded VHS copy of this oft-released film, and I can remember watching it several times, always smiling at the great actor's campy malevolence. While The Devil Bat definitely shows its age and budget, Lugosi makes the best of it and plays one of his best "mad scientist" roles [of course, weren't all scientists in 1940s films a bit mad?]. Here, his character has created large killer bats ...Read the entire review

Bride Of The Monster:
Legend Films continues to push its line of colorized movies with this classic from the vaults of Edward D. Wood Jr. OK, so it's not exactly a classic, and it's not really from the vaults as DVD and VHS versions abound. Furthermore, purists have no reason to complain, as a restored original black and white version is also included on the DVD. Bad film fanatics can just sit back accruing poignant laughs, courtesy of the ultra-enthusiastic angora fetishist.

Claptrap plotting finds aging morphine addict Bela Lugosi playing Dr. Varnoff, your typical mad scientist, intent on creating an army of supermen through atomic radiation. From the outside cops and reporters including Janet Lawton (Loretta King) and Lt. Dick Craig (Harvey B. Dunn) see only mysterious deaths at 'The Old Willow Place' compelling a thorough investigation. A few things impede their progress, Varnoff's bur...Read the entire review

The Movie:

When Walking Tall made Joe Don Baker a star in the early seventies it made sense that he's team up with the director/writer-producer team of Phil Karlson and Mort Briskin. The results of their second effort? The criminally underrated revenge thriller, Framed, which played theaters in 1975. Joe Don Baker takes a lot of crap in certain circles, particularly since Final Justice and Mitchell were skewered on MST3K, but the fact of the matter is that in the early seventies he was one of the toughest men on the silver screen and this film only solidifies that status.

Baker plays a man named Ron Lewis, a sleazy gambler who runs a bar in Tennessee with his girlfriend, Susan (Conny Van Dyke). When Ron finds out about a big gambling tournament coming up, he hightails it out of town as quick as he can to get in on the action. Of course, Ron hits it ...Read the entire review

Oh, I know how the man cheated Death. He caught up with Death, and he made Death watch this film. And Death died of boredom. Legend Films and Paramount have released The Man Who Could Cheat Death, a 1959 Hammer horror snoozer starring preening/ridiculous Anton Diffring, the luscious Hazel Court, and board-up-his-ass Christopher Lee. With about one shock effect every forty minutes, you tell me how exciting this 82-minute film could possibly be?

Considering the obvious title here, you could probably write the synopsis yourself. A remake of Paramount's 1945 horror outing, The Man in Half Moon Street, starring Nils Asther (which in turn was an adaptation of the Barre Lyndon stage play), The Man Who Could Cheat Death tells the ...Read the entire review

The Movie:

FIRST TIME EVER ON DVD!

So reads a sticker slapped on the cellophane surrounding Legend Films' home video release in association with Paramount Pictures of this 1967 Amicus horror movie. Legend Films has been doing a nice job releasing cult film curiosities from bygone eras on DVD with good looking transfers. The Deadly Bees is no exception, and it's another reason to commend Legend Films for its work in distributing these little seen movies.

The Deadly Bees has two main reasons to be of interest to classic horror movie fans today. One, it has several notable cast and crew members. Suzanna Leigh, for example, is the lead. She's rather young here, but she'd move on to better genre fare, like the 1971 Hammer production Lust for a Vampire. Also in the cast is Michael Ripper, a character actor who appeared in dozens of horror movies over his ...Read the entire review

The Movie:

I'm no dummy, for the most part anyway. But studio politics and business needs seem to dictate when one film results in mass success, when said film is released on DVD, the younger neglected cinematic brothers and sisters usually get another look somehow. So after Robert Downey Jr.'s appearance in Iron Man made Paramount loads of cash, and since that little production is about to come out on DVD, another Paramount film starring Downey is being re-released just ahead of it, which is where The Singing Detective comes into play. The Downey film was released by Paramount way back in 2004 shortly after the film's release, and now we're seeing it again as a bit of a cash grab release of sorts.

Dennis Potter, who wrote the material that the original 1986 BBC miniseries was based on, returned to write the screenplay for this film, which Keith Gordon (The Chocolate...Read the entire review

Blue City:
"It's below Miami and above the law." That's a weird tag, the 'below Miami' part somehow has unsavory bodily implications for me. Maybe I'm just a freak. I am definitely a freak for Ally Sheedy, however, so when I noticed Legend Films was releasing this long-lost(ish) curiosity, I jumped at it like a rabid dog; a dog below Miami and above the law, if you see what I'm saying.

No, I don't see what I'm saying either. So let's just talk plot, instead. Ne'er-do-well and prodigal son Billy Turner (Judd Nelson) returns to Blue City only to find his dad (Blue City Mayor, and the dude Turner counts on as a de facto get-out-of-jail-free card) riding the slab. Iced, rubbed out. Like any hotheaded spendthrift, Turner quickly mounts an amateur investigation into the unsolved murder. Lots of horrible stuff happens because of this, not the least of which is the appearance of a young David Carus...Read the entire review

The Product:
Some films take on the aura of myth for what they represent. Others become legendary thanks to unexpected facets of their post-production history. Forbidden Zone earns it's classicism on two similarly significant counts. First, it was one of the original touchstones in famous rocker turned Hollywood composer Danny Elfman's lauded musical career. From his time in Oingo Boingo to his present position as Tim Burton's go to guy, he was more than happy to help his brother achieve his arty aesthetic goals. Second, until the recent Fantoma release in 2004, this was one of those infamous "lost" films, one only experienced thanks to a rare late night cable channel showing or a visit with some friends beat up VHS tape. Now, with the advent of an obsessive friendly format like DVD, we have a chance to see if Forbidden Zone lives up to its notoriety. Even better, we now finall...Read the entire review

For reasons unknown, the Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis comedy Money from Home (1953) was excluded from Paramount Home Entertainment's two-volume, 12-film collection of features. (3 Ring Circus remains unreleased while At War with the Army is available only in crummy transfers on myriad PD labels.) The team's first film in color and their only one filmed in 3-D, Money from Home was quite a hit in its day, raking in about $3.5 million in rentals (it probably cost less than a third of that), but it's pretty tough sledding now.

Martin & Lewis were a bona fide pop culture phenomenon of the early postwar period, equaled only by Elvis Presley and, later on, The Beatles. Their primary appeal was as an unpredictable live act synergizing with their audience; in nightclubs they were a sensation. On live TV, hosting shows like The Colgate Comedy Hour, Martin & Lewis we...Read the entire review

Two of the more popular early postwar Hollywood genres were comic fantasies, often built around a popular sport (It Happens Every Spring), and comedies, also with fantasy elements, about precocious animals (The Great Rupert, etc.). Rhubarb (1951) combines the two into a pleasing if mild concoction that children might still take to, while film buffs will find much to enjoy. As with another Paramount via Legend Films release, Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood, the packaging is rather deceptive, suggesting a new Disney-type comedy, which it's not; it's also a stretch calling the film, as the box text puts it, "a hilarious comedy classic in the style of...His Girl Friday."

Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34136 Thu, 31 Jul 2008 23:01:03 UTC Recommended

The Movie:

Writer-director John Sayles has the ability to take the most cliché-riddled formula and -- voila! -- skirt cliché. Such is the redemptive power of full-blooded characterization and a keen understanding that people are nothing if not especially unpredictable. The overdue DVD release of Sayles' third (and only studio) feature, 1983's Baby Its You, presents a modest story of young love, but it nicely illustrates the filmmaker's knack for wringing genuine complexity from what otherwise could be a tired exercise in genre.

In this case, Sayles finds pathos in the pampered-girl-meets-boy-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks scenario. Set in Trenton, New Jersey, during the mid-1960s, Baby It's You centers on Jill Rosen (Rosanna Arquette), a sensible girl who comes from a middle-class Jewish home and harbors dreams of being a stage actress. But then she falls ...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34081 Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:57:15 UTC Rent It

"I'm a cop, not a male model for a porno magazine! Find somebody else...and stop ironing my damn underwear!
Guys don't iron other guys' clothes!"
- Sgt. Benson

The Movie
When I first saw the trailer for I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, I cringed...twice. The first was as a human being with at least a modicum of taste in film, the second as a gay man with at least a modicum of dignity. Watching Adam Sandler and Kevin James pretend to be homos while drooling over Jessica Biel--claiming "Oh yeah, we're big time fruits!" and "I like men...the way they smell"--makes me want to pound my head against a wall. Oh, those homosexuals are so amusing! But I thought to myself: If it serves the greater good--if movies like this are at all helpful in making so...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34034 Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:23:25 UTC Skip It

In another Legend Films release of an old Paramount library title, 1979's once-infamous, now utterly forgotten interracial love story/incest-obsessed/water-logged colonialism diatribe/disaster epic Hurricane, finally comes out on DVD, and it's just as bloated and fetid almost thirty years later as it was to the few unfortunates (myself included) who happened to catch it during its original run. Featuring some "curious" editing choices, fatal miscasting, and a general atmosphere of unfocused production waste, Hurricane's ineptness is total and un-involving, barring even the promise of camp appreciation for bored silly viewers.

Substantially reworked from the original novel, The Hurricane, by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall (Mutiny on the ...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/34003 Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:20:50 UTC Rent It

The Whoopee Boys:
My usual note-taking while watching movies-to-review was totally derailed by The Whoopee Boys, a 1986 also-ran that's as good as the title implies. I'd love to go the gonzo route and just copy my notes verbatim. In fact, I will: "cast of almost-knowns, dildo 2 quail."That's it. Obviously it's not enough for a review, but it almost does justice for this Paul Rodriguez vehicle, which is nothing more than a very loose, clichéd framework on which to hang Rodriguez's intermittently funny, ultimately repetitive humor. In other words, despite a smattering of hilarious bits here and there, The Whoopee Boys generally deserves its lost and unknown status.

Jake (Michael O'Keefe of Caddyshack fame) and Barney (Rodriguez, maybe best known for the TV show a.k.a. Pablo) are thrown together as their two inexplicable careers as street hustlers fall apart. Quickly hijacking a Cadillac, the...Read the entire review

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