Friday, May 26: Cyber Love

This afternoon I braved the bad popcorn, in-theater subway rumblings and snobbery of the Angelica in order to see Art School Confidential (2006). Sure, it's no Ghost World (2001), it even borrows heavily from the art class scenes in that first "Eightball"-based film. But "Confidential" is still pretty good. Most enjoyable are the supporting performances from Jim Broadbent and the radiant Sophia Myles.

I'm a big fan of Myles, who always brings something special to even the worst film, as she did with her performance as Lady Penelope in the not-so-special Thunderbirds (2004). She was also quite magical a few weeks back when she guest-starred on Doctor Who.

My favorite cyborgs, The Cybermen, returned to Doctor Who last week in what was easily the biggest, best and most cinematic story of the new series' two-year history. David Tennant seems to be settling into the title role quite nicely. The Cyber-invasion story was a two parter, both episodes of which were simply amazing -- and those Cyber-suits! Simply awesome. I want one so badly.

In preparation for seeing the new cyborgs, I watched 1969's classic Cyberman 8-part episode, "The Invasion" on Saturday afternoon. Along with a sleeker "new look" version of the metal monsters, it also features the first appearance of UNIT and John Levene as "Corporal Benton” . But more about Benton's alter-ego in a bit...

The BBC seems obsessed with the Who-related programming these days. Along with the new series, they have the two behind-the-scenes shows "Doctor Who Confidential" & "Totally Doctor Who", reruns of the classic series on BBC Gold and two spin-off shows in the works: "Torchwood" (which I couldn’t be less interested in) and "K9 Adventures" (which I’m sort of looking forward to). A 24-hour Who network seems right around the corner...

Last January, I saw Sprit Trap (2005) starring The Doctor’s current companion Billie Piper (who my girlfriend has a mad crush on). The film is a fairly standard 21st century “bunch of young people in a haunted house” thing, but was much better than I was expecting. Also in the film is Sam Troughton, the grandson of the late character actor Patrick Troughton, who played Doctor Who in the late 1960’s.

Patrick Troughton was also the priest in The Omen (1976). Last week Jeremiah took me to see an advance screening of the remake. It uses the original David Seltzer script almost word-for-word. So it's not terrible, just a bit tedious if you're already familiar with the Richard Donner version. I think the kids who haven’t seen the first film will probably really dig this one.

I, of course, prefer the original.

More Doctor Who nerdiness: As you probably know, our friend John Anthony Blake (aka John Levene), who has appeared in CanniBallistic! (2002), Automatons (2006) and the upcoming Satan Hates You (2007), used to be a regular cast member on Doctor Who. Before landing the role of “Benton” he played a few monsters on the series, including a Yeti and... a Cyberman! See why I think he's cool?

John recently recorded some commentary tracks and is featured in some bonus features on some upcoming BBC DVD releases of Classic Doctor Who episodes. The first one up will be 1970’s “Inferno” which will be available in the UK on June 19. Here in North America, we'll have to wait until September 5 to get this release which includes commentary tracks, a making of documentary called "Can You Hear the Earth Scream?" and another featurette entitled "The UNIT Family (Part One)" all of which prominently feature John & some of his former cast mates.

I've recently become a not-so-proud owner of an Abducted by the Daleks (2005) DVD. In case you haven heard, this is an "X-rated" film featuring naked ladies getting plungered by Doctor Who's most infamous enemies, The Daleks.

Upon the DVD's release, the BBC and Dalek creator Terry Nation took immediate action and had the thing pulled from the shelves. The film is pretty awful, it's supposed to me a sexy spoof, but it's neither sexy nor funny. But the Daleks are very well made and look like the real thing.

Even though the movie is almost unwatchable, it was worth getting, just for the DVD cover.

 

 

Friday, May 19: Horrid Holidays and more!

Ghastly Greetings will be debuting their unique collection of greeting cards, invitations, postcards and gift items at the National Stationery Show at the Jacob K Javits Center here in New York City from May 21st to May 24th. Stop by and visit them at Booth #3380 or check out their web site now at www.ghastlygreetings.com!

 

 

Wednesday, May 17: What's Happening Now

Everyone I know seems to be finishing up a movie right now. Larry Fessenden is in the midst of putting the finishing touches on his latest, The Last Winter (2006), as is Jeremiah Kipp on his short The Pod (2006).

Doug Buck just finished shooting Sisters (2006), the remake of the Brian De Palma film and is busy with post-production. And not to be outdone is Ti West who begins shooting his latest ScareFlick, entitled Trigger Man (2006), next week.

As I said a few days back, we're days away from completing Automatons (2006). As soon as that's completed, we'll start submitting the thing to various festivals while I return to work on Satan Hates You (2007).

Amidst all of the work on the robot film, I did make a little time to watch a few movies. Here are some of the more interesting ones, that I hope you will seek out and enjoy as well:

A few months back, I got an email from graphic novel publishers Comic Fix announcing the upcoming release of their Sadistik photo novels. Sadistik is their name for the skeleton suit-wearing action anti-hero who also known as Killing and Satanik. The web site that the company has set up is pretty amazing, with plenty of histories and photo galleries. They also have an offer for the Onar Films DVD's of the first three films starring the Turkish knock-off character called Kilink.

There are two DVD's available. As the original source materials are lost, the quality of these films are just a step above bootlegs, but they're still the best looking versions of these films that I have seen. The first release features Kilink in Istanbul (1967). Here we meet Kilink, international thief, master of disguise and ruthless killer.

Kilink is after a formula that will allow him to take control of the world and kills a scientist who is working on this secret. The murdered man's son vows to take revenge and is visited by the wizard Shazam. In order to bring his father's killer to justice, the man has the power of several gods bestowed upon him whenever he speaks the wizard’s name: SHAZAM!

The magic word calls down a lightning bolt that doesn't transform him into Captain Marvel, but into a super-powered being who looks like a combination of Superman and the Adam West Batman. Depending on which version of which film you are seeing, he goes by the name Superman, Superhero or The Flying Man.

The super hero and villain fight it out several times throughout the film until it abruptly ends, to be continued in…

Kilink vs Superman (1967) is available as part of a double feature DVD from Onar Films. It picks up right where the previous film left off (after an extensive, 30-minute summary of the first movie) and is really required viewing if you want the whole Kilink vs. Superhero/Flying Man story.

Also on this disc is the next film, Kilink Strip and Kill (1967), which the box cover copy describes as being far superior two the previous films. I disagree. Superhero/Flying Man isn't here, which cuts down on the fun/camp factor. Also, Kilink becomes much less ruthless as the film progresses and a bit watered down. Still, it's a pretty entertaining movie.

John Goras sent me a DVD of his animated short Chirpy (2001), an X-rated look at the barnyard antic of a fuzzy little hatchling and her stallion lover. The DVD also contains several installments of his ongoing series Ghost Tank (2003), which just gets better and better as it progresses. Check out his web site: www.chirpy.tv to watch Chirpy along with other animated treats and to order his DVD for a measly ten bucks.

While Night Watch (2004) was still playing in theaters here, I picked up an international DVD of the sequel, Day Watch (2006). I wasn't crazy about it at first. In fact, I considered shutting it off more than once. Then suddenly, a little more than half way through, it suddenly got really good. The film had become very suspenseful and it even had a plot! I found myself liking the film far more than the first one. Okay, I liked the last half of the film more than the entire first film. That's still not bad.

A couple of quick notes: Despite all of the anticipation amongst my friends before it was released, I feel like I'm the only person I know that went to see V for Vendetta (2005). Did you see it? I really liked it. Not great, but definitely worth seeing in the theater. It's still playing in a few places. Maybe one near you. Check it out, if you haven't already.

One of Sonny Chiba's first films, The Terror Beneath the Sea (1966), came out on DVD late last year. This is a wonderful film in the style of classics like The Mysterians (1957) and Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975). And it has FISHMEN!!! God, I love Fishmen.

Finally, Takashi Miike has probably put out about seven films and four TV series since I started typing this entry. I recently saw his "banned in the USA" Masters of Horror episode "Imprint". I really don't see what the big deal is. Yeah, it's horrifying, but isn't that the point? It's no worse than a lot of other stuff that he and his contemporaries have produced. I guess there are limits to what you can do on cable. Anyway, it's one of the best episodes of the series, right up there with Don Coscarelli's. Some day they're going to release it on DVD.

Miike's remake of Spook Warfare (1968) entitled The Great Yokai War (2005) was also a treat. It's odd in the way that many of my favorite of his films are, especially as it's a kid's movie. Not for really little kids, though as it's pretty frightening and grim at points. The Yokai monsters have never looked cooler and there are some simply awesome mechanical monsters in the film. The cast is good and includes former "It"-girl Chiaki Kuriyama as an evil Yokai. It's monster fun for (almost) everyone.

 

 

 

Saturday, May 13: Several Months Later...

We're moments away from finally completing Automatons (2006), so I figured I could begin taking a few minutes here and there to reconnect with the outside world.

The most painless way to do this (painless for me, not you) seems to be to resurrect this old site, formerly known as hotaslove.com. I've decided to keep the same basic format, but to expand it from being just a movie-watchers blog to a more general news page about MonsterPants & related projects.

I'll continue to write from a fan's perspective about the movies and other crap that I take in, just not as obsessively as last year. I still need time to make Satan Hates You (2007), whether you like it or not.

Okay, this is just an introduction. I'll get down to business later this week with a proper entry. From here on in, I recommend accessing this site through the link on monsterpants.net that I'll be adding, or directly at jamesfelixmckenney.com.

More to come. Thanks for stopping by.