If it's been done - undo it

A little while ago I caught the last 5 minutes of a GOSSIP gig on German TV. That final five minute clip is pretty awesome and fortunately someone uploaded that track to YouTube. Check it out! There's a wee German girl with more courage than most adults I know. It begins at 1:50 (but watch it all anyway!). Just brilliant, great band.

"It could hurt your brain"

I watched Code Red's DVD release of NIGHT OF THE DEMON (James C. Wasson, USA, 1980) last night. It's been described as the goriest Bigfoot film ever and sure enough it is definitely pretty gory. Not least the scene where Bigfoot rips off some poor biker's wang. Ouch!

Code Red couldn't find a real film print so they used a 1 inch video tape master for their DVD. It looks pretty good and, well, you gotta take what you can get. For some reason they didn't include the trailer on the DVD but at least we get a music video by Maria Kanellis who also introduces the film. I couldn't care less but if it sells some more copies then good for Bill Olsen and Code Red. The version I bought is a reprint with a different cover. The first one had Maria on the front. The one I got has Bigfoot and the poor feller with the missing wiener on the front. Haha.

Since I couldn't be bothered to do a proper review here's a link to a better one. It's pretty fun too (and the headline quotation is from there). If you look up the film make sure you find the right one, there's a bunch of other films that use the same title (and similar).

The DVD is available from Code Red's store.

OZ DVD the only way to get the original McCLOUD episodes!*

*Well, unless you take the iOffer route!

I ordered the first season of McCLOUD from eBay Australia last night. As I mentioned the other day, the Australian/New Zealand set contains the original 6 episodes as they aired in the USA in 1970. When American TV later reran them they edited the 6 episodes into 3 telly movies. The original episodes ran around 50 minutes each and the 3 TV movies are 2 x 70 min & 1 x 90 min. So it's obvious that a lot of footage was cut out and reportedly scenes were swapped around making a mess of it all. The Australian/New Zealand set from Madman contains both the 6 original episodes and the 3 telly movies (and the pilot).

Someone from Madman mentioned on a forum that it took them a full year to find the original versions and it was almost too late to include them. Luckily they did. I received the seven seasons on Danish DVD a couple of days ago (see my post from earlier this week) and it annoyed me to no end that they only contain the re-edited versions of season 1. I might also have to order the OZ/NZ season 3 at some stage. The Danish set omits a full episode (and completely lies about it on the cover as they claim the season is "complete"!!). One other annoying thing in regards to the Danish set is the episodes aren't presented in chronological order!! But at least we got season 6 and 7. It seems these last two seasons may not get an Aussie/Kiwi release.

In memoriam: Andy Copp - by Robin Bougie

(click and right-click a couple of times for full size)

Re-posted here with kind permission of Robin Bougie.

JOE STRUMMER: THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN by Julien Temple (UK/Ire, 2007)

I taped this almost two hour documentary film about The Clash's legendary lead singer JOE STRUMMER the other day and watched it tonight. I must admit I was never a great fan of The Clash, sure "London Calling" is great and so is "This is England" but I much disliked the LP "Sandinista" (a triple LP no less) when it came out and since it was my introduction to the band it kinda mandated my feelings towards the band (not even sure I still got the record). But THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN is a cool film and it tells Strummer's story all the way from the (his) beginning. There are old interview bits on top of old footage and there's comments from a lot of old friends, both famous and not famous at all (and there are quite a few well known faces that pop up in old footage but that aren't interviewed).

Director Julien Temple has done a lot of music videos but personally I remember him for his earlier (and great) documentary on The Sex Postols, THE FILTH AND THE FURY. I taped the film off the joint French/German channel ARTE TV and most of the dialogue is voiced over in German but altho this is a well made documentary I'm not so sure I'll bother to plunk down the dough for a DVD. This TV print will do. Highly recommended if you're a CLASH fan or just wish to watch a good doc on alternative music history.

The above screen grab is from Alex Cox's STRAIGHT TO HELL that Joe Strummer is in. I've only watched the film once, in 1988 at a "Punk all night" all-nighter at London's old and long gone Scala Cinema Club. What I didn't realise till tonight is that Courtney Love is in the film! It was the last film at the all-nighter and I have absolutely NO recollection the story other that some people walking in the desert. The other films were REPO MAN, DOGS IN SPACE and... hmm, I forget the last one.

Andy Copp - R.I.P.

It's with much sadness that I post this but it has been reported that fellow blogger, underground film-maker and YouTube film reviewer ANDY COPP passed away on Saturday night. The cause was suicide.

I didn't know Andy personally but I certainly knew of him through reading his blog, Exploitation Nation, and like me he was a frequent poster on AVManiacs/DVDManicas film message board. I came across his YouTube videos quite a while ago and enjoyed them very much.

Andy was well known in the horror/exploitation underground which he was a part of for many years. The news comes via Richard Doyle on Facebook and AVManiacs and has been confirmed by Don May jr of Synapse Films. Ironically, Andy Copp's last YouTube review 10 months ago was a presentation of a Synapse DVD.

R.I.P., Andy.

So'eh... have you watched Prometheus?

This is pretty funny.

McCloud (1970-77)

I watched this with my dad in the 70s and have fond memories about it. I haven't really rewatched the show since then, except for one episode 4-5 years ago, and I've been meaning to make a revisit for years and years. A couple of years back I found out the only available seasons were 1 & 2 so I decided to order a bootleg with all 7 seasons from iOffer. Fortunately, I did one more check to see if more had been released in the passing years.

And, lo and behold, the full series (kinda) is out on Danish dvd now. Denmark is actually the only place in the world where it's released in its entirety. In Australian they've released 5 seasons so far. Unfortunately, the Danish version only includes the edited version of season 1 (6 episodes were edited into 3) and the pilot uses the syndicated title ("Portrait of a Dead Girl") instead of the original title (WHO KILLED MISS USA). And furthermore, an episode is missing entirely from season 3 due to (Ricky Nielson) music rights. The Australian set of season 1 from Madman has the original 6 episodes plus the edited ones. And they include the missing episode in season 3 but sans the music. I have my info partly from an Amazon user in the States, WIKI and IMDb. The Danish season 7 also includes the telly movie THE RETURN OF SAM MCCLOUD (1989).

I've ordered the Danish set but will also get the Aussie set of at least season 1. Henrik Larsen has the Danish season 1 and he says that although they are in the original fullscreen ratio they look slightly squeezed from top down. Buy, hey, at least they're on official dvd now!

Scandinavians can get the Danish seasons from cdon.dk at 100 DKK a set.

Episode listing with original broadcast dates.

A fitting end

2012 was a shitty year. My dad was ill most of the time going in and out of hospitals. I'm still without a job. I still suffer from migraines and the back-pains are worse. Fractions of my family are throwing garbage at each other while fighting over my poor dad - all while I'm trapped in the middle. I've run out of money and maybe 2013 is going to get even worse. But at least I was reminded that the bitchiness on the Danish collector scene is alive and well. No, wait, that's bad too, right? It's like living inside an old song by the THE CURE. Hahaha. Good thing I don't depress easily. So letting a revisit to THE ROAD be the last film this year seemed fitting enough. In the film, the end of the world is here but it doesn't end - it just gets even worse. But, still, there's a light at the end of the tunnel... maybe, just maybe. Happy fucken New Year, dear reader. Here's a toast to the new one.

PS: click here if you wish to read my review of the THE ROAD.

PS.PS: the cheery photo is actually a couple of years old from when things were, uh, great (!)

PS.PS.PS: Member-X (Kurt), thanks for the MMS you sent on New Year's Eve and it's not that I don't appreciate the gesture... but a Hitler-in-the-bunker video?? >_<