The Monster Squad (1987) Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been waiting for this DVD to come into print for years, and now the wait is finally over. Thanks to Lionsgate for finally stepping up, straightening out the rights issues, and putting together a nice 2-Disc special edition of this classic 80s kids flick.
The Monster Squad, much like the Goonies and the Lost Boys, is a kid's flick at heart, but it doesn't come off as if it were written and directed down to children. The flick stars Andre Gower, Ryan Lambert (of Kids Incorporated fame), Brent Chalem, Michael Faustino and Robby Kiger as a group of kids that have a secret Monster club where they pontificate on all things monster related. Quick, two ways to kill a werewolf? Stumped? That's right, everyone knows you need to shoot `em with a silver bullet. Anyway, the group runs into trouble when unbeknown to them the all too real rouges gallery of the classic Universal monster movies are converging on their town looking to destroy an amulet that can prevent them from taking over the world. Sean, the leader of the club, lucks into a copy of Van Helsing's diary, which provides the instructions to a ritual that will banish the monsters into limbo. With the help of "Scary German Guy" (played by the always excellent Leonardo Cimino) a concentration camp survivor and resident German diary translator, the group bands together to save their families, their town, and quite possibly the entire world.
The film was directed by Fred Dekker and co-written by Fred Dekker and Shane Black (of Lethal Weapon and Predator fame) with amazing special effects and make-up by the legendary Stan Winston. This DVD was made possible by the director, actors, and fans who banded together in the past year through letter writing campaigns and revival screenings which proves just how much of a cult classic this flick is. If you are a generation X'er who's into action, horror or nostalgia the Monster Squad is sure to be a perfect addition to your DVD collection.
The 20th anniversary special edition set is reported to contain 2 audio commentary tracks, deleted scenes, an making of featurette, trailers, as well as a vintage interview with Tom Noonan (who played the Frankenstein's monster.)


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Red Blooded American Girl (1990) Review

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(More customer reviews)One has to give credit for this movie's plot: vampirism is a viral infection, and once infected, one becomes bloodthirsty. However, the execution of the film doesn't really do anything with its plot. Andrew Stevens (THE FURY) stars as Owen Urban, a brilliant young maverick scientist who is working on creating powerful enzymes. Christopher Plummer is an infected scientific genius who runs a powerful company and he wants Stevens to help him find an antidote for the vampiric virus. Kim Coates is swarthy as always as a particularly gruesome vampire, who can't quite satiate his thirst. And then comes Heather Thomas (remember her from THE FALL GUY?), a sexy volunteer at the lab who finds herself infected when an inmate bites her leg. Thomas' performance as the infected titular character turns into a slutty bloodthirsty vixen and her performance is sooo bad, it's hilarious. Plummer should be ashamed of himself for doing this role. The movie also suffers from a very weak ending with no real resolution. Filmed in 1990, this loser spawned a 1997 sequel, but don't let that convince you this one's a winner.

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The Super Inframan (1975) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is one of the greatest movies ever. If anyone used to like Power Rangers when they were little, then get ready for the greatest episode ever! Hap Wong, a character actor who has been in all types of kung fu movies over the years plays the lead scientist who heads a group who look for unnatural events happening. Well one has happened, the Dragon Mom Princess with her monsters and skeleton gang have taken over the world. Just great. Danny Lee from John Woo's 'The Killer' plays a scientist who is eager to save the world. Hap Wong has a special invention which will turn him into Inframan, a super human being with great strength and special laser beams that can destroy the monsters. Danny Lee becomes Inframan and saves people from all of these evil monsters.
I was just expecting a kiddie movie but a hell of a lot of time was put into this. This movie is from 1975 but the special effects are surprisingly fun. The monster costumes are great and the lasers aren't too bad. The final battle includes some good silly fun. It doesn't try to be, but this movie is just loaded with campy fun. Watching the scientist cross the river on a boat with this green monster to go negotiate with Princess Dragon Mom had me laughing out loud for a while. Talk about memory burn, I don't think I will ever get that image out of my head. Also look out for Bruce Le who was a bad Bruce Lee clone and does some good kung fu in here. Also it seems that Danny Lee is actually the man behind the mask, it just made the movie that much better. Not great kung fu, but better than average and great for a weird movie of this kind.
The release by Image Entertainment is outstanding. They have the rights from Celestial Pictures and the movie is remastered to perfection, letterboxed and all. You will have to turn the volume way up to hear the english dub but the and mandarin track has really good sound. It also has an hour of trailers! Wandering Swordsman is on there and I have always wanted to see that. Also Deadly Breaking Sword and a ton of other Shaw relaeses are on their. They also have a ton of non shaw brothers trailers and some look very weird to say the least. One that looks very interesting is Blood Stained Tradewinds which looks to be a 1990 dark drama from Ku Lung Wuxia novel director Chor Yuen. There is also a nice photo gallery and an insert with liner notes. The interview with the director says you have to put it in your DVD rom drive. I am not good with computers. Can someone tell me how to play this?

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Monsters vs. Aliens/B.O.B.'s Big Break in Monster 3D: Ginormous Double Pack (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)Very enjoyable movie, especially for older kids and adults. I expected to see the movie in 3D and was greatly disappointed to find that only to B.O.B. Extras in 3D. Particularly since all of the other Extras materials couldn't stop gushing about HP & Intel. I have Spy Kids 3D on DVD and it was a very successful home view presentation.
I actually bought the Blu-ray version on the single disc, and in my opinion the packaging puts lots of emphasis on 3D glasses and no indication that they're useless for the Feature Film, or that the Feature is in 2D only. I could not find it addressed anywhere on the packaging, at least in a font size I can read.
If you're a techie like most of my family, wait for someone at Disney or Dreamworks to wise up and offer the 3D version. AND they better offer a decent discount for those of us that already bought the ho-hum version!

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The world's most unlikely heroes are on a mission to save the Earth in DreamWorks Animation's Monsters Vs. Aliens -- "The Year's Funniest Comedy" (Pete Hammond – Hollywood.com). Ginormica, Dr. Cockroach Ph.D, The Missing Link, Insectosaurous and B.O.B. Join forces to fight back when aliens attack. With an all-star cast and amazing animation, this ginormous adventure is "A Monstrously Good Time For All!" (Bill Bregoli, CBS).

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The Monster That Challenged the World/It The Terror From Beyond Space (1957) Review

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(More customer reviews)It's always a pleasure when the B-movies of our childhood are released onto DVD. We don't see these little gems anymore on television (even though we have over 100 channels), mainly, I think, because they are in black and white and this is a color TV world.
But these are the films we stayed up on countless Saturday nights to see and they remain with us psychotronic fans as a most pleasant memory. This MGM Midnite Movies entry is a perfect example, as we find that we enjoy these films all over again. Now, if we can only get the kids to sit still for black and white.
The first movie "The Monster That Challenged the World" (1957)is an intelligently thought out little picture. Mysterious disappearances are occurring in the Salton Sea. Tim Holt (Remember him from "treasure of the Sierra Madre"?) and scientist Hans Conreid (Uncle Tounoose from "Make Room for Daddy") investigate and discover that an earthquake has freed prehistoric mollusks. If not stopped, they will overrun the environment. The movie moves at a brisk pace and has several good chills. Look for character actor Milton Parsons in a small role as the county archivist.
"It! The Terror from Outer Space" (1958) is a better movie than one would suspect from the title. In the year 1973 (!) a ship is sent to Mars to rescue the survivors of a previous manned excursion. Of that original crew, only Marshall Thompson is left alive. Circumstantial evidence has him pegged as the killer, but as the crew soon learns, a Martian stowaway is responsible and will kill this crew if nothing is done to stop it. Intelligently scripted by Jerome Bixby (who wrote a few "Star Trek" and "Outer Limits" episodes in the 60s), the picture always keeps us involved. The acting is also solid, with Thompson, Dabbs Greer, and Ray "Crash" Corrigan in the monster suit. It may be of some interest that the film was remade by Ridley Scott in a fashion as "Alien."
All in all, a most pleasant evening at a bargain price.


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Trailer Park of Terror (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)When country performer Trace Adkins shows up in "TRAILER PARK OF TERROR" looking like a 'Thunderkiss '65'-era Rob Zombie, it's tempting to write this flick off as a 'Texas Chainsaw Wannabe', or maybe a 'House Of 1000 Ideas That Have Been Done A Million Times Before'. But Adkins gets credit from me, because for the brief time he's on-camera, he does manage a pretty impressive screen presence.
The same goes, shockingly enough, for the rest of "TRAILER PARK..." as well. Having sat through countless horror duds that purported to be more 'gruesome' or 'over-the-top' than anything seen before, I can't say that "TRAILER PARK..." is any more extreme than any of its gore-soaked precursors. And it's amusing & worth some chuckles, but high art this AIN'T. Yet, at the same time, "TRAILER PARK..." defies the odds, and avoids being just a forgettable, one-trick, cheapie horror gimmick. Sure, the whole redneck vibe is in full swing, with your standard. broadly-generalized mobile-home caricatures (bigoted, overweight, slovenly, undereducated malcontents and floozies) romping around and saying "y'all" a lot. And the deep-fried rockabilly soundtrack, though groovy and energetic, is one hell of a cliche. But... the nice thing about "TRAILER PARK..." is that despite its limited trappings and Z-grade pedigree, it's still much better written, acted, and overall produced than it probably deserved to be.
Regardless of the nod & wink (or is it a "shout-out"?) early on in the film to gore-meister/hack director Herschell Gordon Lewis, this film aspires to be a least a teensy bit better than just a brainless splatter-show. The gore FX on display here ARE copious and well-crafted, with great demon/zombie makeups, amputations, disembowelments, and a particularly painful set-piece involving homemade 'beef jerky'. But "TRAILER PARK..." is also decent during the parts in between, the lines are delivered snappily, and the back-stories of the various seedy residents of the park are actually sort-of interesting, unlike so many other flashback sequences in lesser films. What stands out about "TRAILER PARK...", and what left me with an overall feeling of goodwill towards this picture, is that the filmmakers clearly opted NOT to just rush through everything else and throw a quick, bloody gag-reel together and call it done. It actually works because it feels like at least a little thought was actually put into making it a slick, rockin', free-wheeling trip through Hayseed Hell. In short, it's much, MUCH more skillfully produced than most of the other straight-to-dvd crap out there today.
It ends up feeling like it belongs next to some of the better 80's genre flicks many of us remember fondly, such as "RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD" or "RE-ANIMATOR", while featuring the stylistic flourishes of more contemporary entries like "FROM DUSK 'TIL DAWN", "DEAD & BREAKFAST", or "2001 MANIACS" (which is, itself, a remake of a Lewis gore film, and would go GREAT on a double-bill with "TRAILER PARK..."). But these comparisons, depending on your cinematic tastes and experience, may be meaningless... so let's just say that "TRAILER PARK OF TERROR" is highly recommended for late-nite viewing, especially if you're in the mood to kick back and get in touch with your "violent, cackling, undead-inner-hillbilly" side.

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