what to watch when you're stranded

Fist of the North Star (1995) director Tony Randel is an interesting figure – a Roger Corman disciple who specializes in delivering intriguing special effects on the cheap, he somehow found his way into directing Hellraiser II (1988) – a guilty pleasure packed with high-value/low-cost spectacle – and somehow also found his way into directing this low-budget adaptation of the popular manga. And while it’s by no means a good movie, FOTNS is an interesting relic from a year when Japanese film company TOEI was promoting itself with a rash of B-movies aimed at American home video – films which include 1995′s No Way Back (starring a young Russell Crowe) and 1995′s Crying Freeman (directed by Brotherhood of the Wolf director Christophe Gans). It’s an otherwise awful flick which pairs an anti-charismatic unknown (Gary Daniels) with an overabundance of hammy actors (Malcolm McDowell, Chris Penn and Clint Howard), but this is a fun scene, enhanced by clever prosthetics and laughable kung-fu. And of course it fits snugly into our exploding head series. Enjoy – and please resist seeking out the full feature – unless you’re a ciné-masochist.

Related articles

• Glittery Crotch Is Not Already Dead. Somebody Purchased It. [Fist Of The North Star] (kotaku.com)
• Expect More Extreme Violence When The Fist Of The North Star Heads West [Koei] (kotaku.com)
• Discotek: Soon to Be Everyone’s Favorite Company (reversethieves.com)

Share this

Hide Sites

Who the hell needs HFR and 3-D technology to sweeten the movie-going experience when you’ve got cult comedies like Trent Harris‘s Rubin & Ed (1991), starring the original George McFly and Dr. Johnny Fever (Crispin Glover and Howard Hesseman). This buddy pic about a pair of lovable losers on the road looking to bury Simon (Rubin’s cat, packed in ice) is the type of flick that got so many of us into independent cinema in the 90′s. Check out this dream sequence, which features the oft-quoted Video-clerk truism “My cat can eat a whoooole watermelon!” Loaded with quirk and featuring fantastic performances, it’s a unique experience that leaps off the screen – and which helped cement Crispin Helion Glover as the prince of hipster freak-shows! Seek it out! Karen Black‘s in it too!

And watch this train wreck of a Letterman interview, conducted in 1987, in which Helion appears in character as Rubin – which must have confused Letterman greatly, given the movie wasn’t released until nearly 4 years later! Painful!

Share this

Hide Sites

With Ridley Scott‘s Prometheus scheduled to land June 8, 2012, we thought we’d throw some logs onto the hype bonfire with some Alien-related film coverage leading up to the return of what shall hitherto be known as “THE FRANCHISE” (all apologies to ex-Houston Rocket point guard Steve Francis). So what does 1981′s Dead & Buried, directed by Gary Sherman, a Twilight Zone-y piece of unassuming pulp have to do with the upcoming sci-fi (fingers crossed) opus? Only that it was scripted by the team that brought you the first Alien (1979) – Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett! Check out the opening scene in this crazy creepy movie – in which a photographer finds a half-clad Lisa Blount innocently loitering on a picturesque beach. But be forewarned: there’s nudity. And a twist that’ll make you feel even ickier than the soft-porn lead-up!

Related articles

• The O’Bannon Effect (somecamerunning.typepad.com)
• Dead And Buried Hamster Emerges From Grave Alive And Well And Hungry For Brains [Pet Sematary] (gawker.com)

Share this

Hide Sites

I’m super stoked – with The Hunger Games exploding across our nation’s screens (and merchandise available everywhere) I get a chance to once again revisit Battle Royale – one of the finest films ever made, period. The last film by maestro Kinji Fukasaku (see our previous review here), it’s a risky, thought-provoking action film full of no-good kids who need a comeuppance and bitter adults putting them through a heaviness that’s missing in their too-easy lives. This movie does what all great satires do – it entertains while being SCARY – with Takeshi Kitano’s blank-faced disregard for human life embodying all that we fear in our authority figures – namely a personally motivated sadism! BR is loaded with fantastic scenes but this is one of the best – and by the end of these 8 minutes you know for certain the game is on for reals. Moshi moshi!!!

Related articles

• Battle Royale Finally Getting a Proper U.S. Release on DVD and Blu-ray in March (filmjunk.com)
• An Inside Look at the Making of Battle Royale and a Bloody New Blu-ray Clip (dreadcentral.com)
• Before There Was The Hunger Games, Japan Had This Brutal, Bloody Opus [Culture Smash] (kotaku.com)
• Before ‘Hunger Games,’ there was ‘Battle Royale’ (mercurynews.com)

Share this

Hide Sites