Thursday, February 5, 2009
Lux Interior dies
I just learnt that Lux Interior of one of my all time favourite bands THE CRAMPS has died!!! This is completely awful and devastating news!!! For fuck's sake!!!
There is an official statement here.
There is an official statement here.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
CALIBER 357
I watched Eddie Nicart's Filipino film CALIBER 357 (aka Magnum 357) last weekend and... whoah... whadda film!
I though it was going to be an "ordinary" revenge film about some guy who comes into town to kill one other guy who killed his brother or something. Oh boy, it is indeed a revenge film but it was nothing like an ordinary half decent film. It's totally over the top amazing!!! Very entertaining to say the least!! Why the fuck isn't this out on Reg.1 dvd!! Or any dvd for that matter (other than my dvd-r now, LOL)!!!
The main character arrives on the plane but it only takes about 5 minutes before the local gangsters are trying to bump him off simply because they don't know him! Haha. And that's all it takes for you to realise this is an INSANE revenge flick with a lone wolf that just kills people left and right, and everyone is trying to kill him too.
I made a few quick screen grabs (no, they're not from the best or most intense scenes as I just spent 3 min. on it). CALIBER 357 was an unexpected nice surprise I got last year when I bought three boxes of old kung fu ex-rental video tapes. I didn't even know the film had been released in Denmark.
[you can click the individual scans for twice the size]
In this segment the lone wolf revenge guy waits in the loo for three guys and just kills 'em one by one.
A chick pulls out a bag of drugs from "up there".
Obviously, our hero can do nothing but smell it (and obviously NOT because of what's inside, LOL).EDIT (Dec. 25, 2009): To confuse things another Filipino action flick, MUSLIM MAGNUM, has also been released (on DVD) using the same alternative title as for CALIBER 357: Magnum 357.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
More Mattei!
I just won this on eBay and I want YOU to enjoy this SPIFFY cover!!! :-) :-) :-)
DOUBLE TARGET directed by Bruno Mattei and starring Bo Svenson!
Probably a big masterpiece film wise and the reason it hasn't been released on dvd is most likely cos video companies are stuck in a vicious dog fight on who gets to put it out (i.e. get the GLORY). Haha.
DOUBLE TARGET directed by Bruno Mattei and starring Bo Svenson! Probably a big masterpiece film wise and the reason it hasn't been released on dvd is most likely cos video companies are stuck in a vicious dog fight on who gets to put it out (i.e. get the GLORY). Haha.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
RAMBU vhs covers galore
VHS/Sweden/fullscreen/English dub/Swedish subs.[Click scan for bigger size]
One more alternative Swedish cover! Thanks to Gourmetsentai of Cinehound forum.
Monday, January 19, 2009
GHOST OF GUTS EATER (Thailand, 1973)
[click scan for a bigger size]Original Thai title: KRASUE SAO
produced by Banlue Utsahajit
directed by S. NAOWARATCH
starring Sombat Metanee, Pitsamai Wilaisak.
I finally got around to watching this VERY obscure and VERY rare film via a dvd-r off a VERY rare Swedish video release (thanks to Lars Jacobsson).
I'll try and do a proper review in the not too distant future but just quickly: GHOST OF GUTS EATER is one of the many "flying head with intestines dangling underneath" films that have come out from Thailand (and they continue to make these films!). Ironically, the by far most well known flying head movie is MYSTICS IN BALI which isn't a Thailand movie at all but from Indonesia (and released on a spiffy dvd from Mondo Macabro). Also, and again ironically, the Indo movie is head and shoulders better than any of the Thai movies I've seen not least due to the fact that it keeps the slapstick humour out. Some of the Thai horror movies are excruciatingly painful to sit thru due to their lame (very lame!) humour.
However, just like with MYSTICS IN BALI the people who made GHOST OF GUTS EATER left out the humour and thank you for that! What we're left with is a straight played horror movie about a young girl whose grandmother dealt with dark forces and became a flying head vampire(they are referred to in the film as "vampires")!! When the grandmother dies at the beginning of the film she makes her niece promise always to wear the ring. The crooked grandma just leaves out that she will live on thru the ring and make the niece do stuff at night as a flying head.
GHOST OF GUTS EATER is fairly long and doesn't clock in till the 100 minute mark but that's okay as it's pretty good, well played, and has a few twists and turns you don't expect. Like towards the end where...
*spoiler*
...her little son is just gunned down by some crooks but the film still manages to have a good ending where the husband forgives her and they kinda just forget about their little son's dead body lying around somewhere in the bushes.
*end of spoiler*
Now, being a collector of world-weird horror movies it means I've bought my fare share of Thai horror and unfortunately most of the time the ONLY way of watching these movies is via video-cd's from Thailand. This means terrible fullscreen formats, pixelation galore, no subtitles, and if that wasn't enough the prints are often taken from old video tapes with tape rolls and all.
And with that in mind the Swedish video tape is a revelation!!!
The picture is crisp clear and fully letterboxed!!! And the credits are "translated" to western characters as well as written in Thai. The film is presented in its original Thai language and being a Swedish video release it has Swedish subtitles and, whoah!! This is the first time I've had the chance of watching one of these old Thai horror movies and actually be able to fully understand what the hell is going on.
One weird thing tho is that the print has TWO sets of Swedish subtitles! One set is burnt-in on the print (so I assume the film ran at some stage in the Swedish cinemas. What a treat to have seen this at the cinema!). The second set is ordinary video subtitles. As if all this wasn't weird enough there is even differences between the two sets. Sometimes alternative words are used and in a few places different spellings are used. In one place I noticed the Swedish word for "you" was spelt "dej" in the cinema print subs and "dig" in the video subs! (???). I have no idea as to why (and although I read Swedish I don't have enough knowledge about the damn language to tell if both spellings are valid or not).
One more thing is there is a very good chance this Swedish tape is the ONLY time the film has been released anywhere other than on Thai vcd! Obviously I don't know for sure (and it seems I can't ask the one person who might know about it; Jean-Claude from this forum, as he seems to have disappeared). The only person I'm aware of who has this tape is Lars so this is truly a collectors item!
All in all a fairly good horror movie. By no means nail-bitingly scary or on par with MYSTICS IN BALI but as I said: pretty good and the good print is a joy to watch.
If you wanna read a bit more about FLYING HEAD WITH INTESTINES DANGELING UNDERNEATH movies then go to this thread where Jean-Claude posted a list of no less than 25 movies in the genre!
Big thank yous go out to Lars Jacobsson for the copy and scan.
Lars making sure no one gets the tape! (LOL)
Island of the crappy living dead Bruno Mattei zombie movies, part 2
I watched ZOMBIES THE BEGINNING, the sequel to ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD which I wrote about yesterday. I must say it's quite a bit better than the other one. The first one is from 2006 and this one from 2007 but whether they went back home to Italy and then returned to the Philippines the year after to make the sequel or they made them back to back I don't know. But the second one is certainly better than the first one! When I say better I hope you understand that what I'm really saying is "the better one out of two crappy ones", haha.
Anyway, I was quite entertained and had a pleasant hour and a half. As Jocke mentioned in a comment to my first post BEGINNING is almost a zombie remake of ALIENS!! Just much cheaper and crappier and the actors have about as little acting skills as the ones in the first one. The gore scenes and zombies are quite alright though. I mentioned yesterday that it's not dubbed but shot in English. That's not quite right, it was shot in English alright, but it's still dubbed (just in the same language as they spoke during filming!).
Anyway, if you like trashy horror flicks then you can certainly find much worse films than these two. No, waitasecond... actually you can't, haha. But watch them anyway, they're fun, crappy entertainment and Bruno Mattei's swansong. There's a dedication to him at the end by the way; a brief segment where he says "Not until the end" (or something like that, I'm so much not gonna go and check!). Well, this became the end for him. Thanks for all the crap you gave us, Bruno.
Anyway, I was quite entertained and had a pleasant hour and a half. As Jocke mentioned in a comment to my first post BEGINNING is almost a zombie remake of ALIENS!! Just much cheaper and crappier and the actors have about as little acting skills as the ones in the first one. The gore scenes and zombies are quite alright though. I mentioned yesterday that it's not dubbed but shot in English. That's not quite right, it was shot in English alright, but it's still dubbed (just in the same language as they spoke during filming!).
Anyway, if you like trashy horror flicks then you can certainly find much worse films than these two. No, waitasecond... actually you can't, haha. But watch them anyway, they're fun, crappy entertainment and Bruno Mattei's swansong. There's a dedication to him at the end by the way; a brief segment where he says "Not until the end" (or something like that, I'm so much not gonna go and check!). Well, this became the end for him. Thanks for all the crap you gave us, Bruno.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
RIKER, too violent for Danish tv!
Back in the early 80s there was an American cop series on TV called RIKER. It was kind of a TV version of Dirty Harry and I remember it was so violent that there was talk about it being too violent for local television here. Obviously, I loved it!! :lol:
Did anyone else here watch it? I haven't watched it since it was shown here back then which makes it something like 25-26 yrs ago. :o
I've tried to track it down but to no avail. It seems like it's never been released on dvd or vhs. But then again, maybe there was a vhs release in the US that I don't know about. Or somewhere else. If anybody knows anything please let me know, I'd looove to track down this show and watch again. I think there were only 5 episodes. Cheers.
Here's some site I found that has it listed.
Did anyone else here watch it? I haven't watched it since it was shown here back then which makes it something like 25-26 yrs ago. :o
I've tried to track it down but to no avail. It seems like it's never been released on dvd or vhs. But then again, maybe there was a vhs release in the US that I don't know about. Or somewhere else. If anybody knows anything please let me know, I'd looove to track down this show and watch again. I think there were only 5 episodes. Cheers.
Here's some site I found that has it listed.
Island of the crappy living dead Bruno Mattei zombie movies
I watched Bruno Mattei's ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD (aka L'isola dei morti viventi) tonight. The film is from 2006 and along with its sequel ZOMBIES THE BEGINNING (made a year later) this is Mattei's goodbye to the world of crappy Italo horror movies (not that all Italo horror movies are crappy, mostly just Bruno Mattei's, haha). Both films were shot in the Philippines (and if you're someone who's into Filipino trash films it'll interest you to know that Mike Monty worked on the film. He has since then passed away and there's a dedication to him at the end).
A group of people discover a deserted island by chance, there's a bunch of big old ruins, catacombs, a graveyard, and, obviously... zombies! The worst zombies in Italian horror movies I might ad. The zombies in ISLAND make the ones in Claudio Fragasso's AFTER DEATH look like DAWN OF THE DEAD or ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS!! They're crappy, crappy, crappy. Hahaha. They walk like the actors have been told to look funny-drunk in a kids movie. They flab their arms. They growl (!!!). They fall asleep (dead people need their beauty sleep too, don't you know! LOL). I swear some of them wear masks that Bruno Mattei most likely bought in a Filipino toy store!!
When I watched Mattei's two farewell cannibal movies (which he made just prior to these two zombie movies) I thought the actors looked like they were on level with porn actors. The "actors" (and I use the term loosely) in ISLAND are WORSE!!! The two chicks... well, they look awesome but I wish they had been in porn movies INSTEAD cos they can't bloody act. And bare in mind I'm used to the (low) level that so many actors in Italian movies have reached thru out the years so it's not like I'm not used to crappy acting. These actors reach new heights (well, lows!!!). Haha. The gore and special effects are pretty decent. The film is shot in English but if you think that means lesser thick accents you're in for a surprise. Oh man, I so wish they HAD dubbed this film! Most of the cast can hardly speak English.
Now, if this were a site for good films and good film-making by a serious film critic then, needless to say, all of the above would have resulted in a writing off of the film. Well, not so with this reviewer. Sure the film is an abomination if I ever saw one but I was pretty entertained. Okay, I know, I know, I'm easily entertained but still. A new Italian zombie/splatter/horror movie, how could you not be entertained? I certainly was!
On the DVD there is a trailer for one of the "classic" Italian zombie movies; ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS (Zombi 2) which makes the difference between the two films very obvious! ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS is a masterpiece that uses all its elements in a skillful way; the horror, gore, music, atmosphere, etc. ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD is a fun & entertaining piece of crap.
Oh, and talking of which; the "12 inch splinter in the eye" scene from ZOMBIE FLESH is actually copied in ISLAND. Is it a homage to Fulci? Well, knowing Mattei it's probably just a matter of theft, LOL. He most likely thought "This'll look great and no one remembers that old film anyway!", hahaha.
Watch ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD by all means but if you're new to Italian zombie movies please don't base your opinion on Italo zombie flicks on this one. Go get ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS (and Zombi Holocaust) first.
A group of people discover a deserted island by chance, there's a bunch of big old ruins, catacombs, a graveyard, and, obviously... zombies! The worst zombies in Italian horror movies I might ad. The zombies in ISLAND make the ones in Claudio Fragasso's AFTER DEATH look like DAWN OF THE DEAD or ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS!! They're crappy, crappy, crappy. Hahaha. They walk like the actors have been told to look funny-drunk in a kids movie. They flab their arms. They growl (!!!). They fall asleep (dead people need their beauty sleep too, don't you know! LOL). I swear some of them wear masks that Bruno Mattei most likely bought in a Filipino toy store!!
When I watched Mattei's two farewell cannibal movies (which he made just prior to these two zombie movies) I thought the actors looked like they were on level with porn actors. The "actors" (and I use the term loosely) in ISLAND are WORSE!!! The two chicks... well, they look awesome but I wish they had been in porn movies INSTEAD cos they can't bloody act. And bare in mind I'm used to the (low) level that so many actors in Italian movies have reached thru out the years so it's not like I'm not used to crappy acting. These actors reach new heights (well, lows!!!). Haha. The gore and special effects are pretty decent. The film is shot in English but if you think that means lesser thick accents you're in for a surprise. Oh man, I so wish they HAD dubbed this film! Most of the cast can hardly speak English.
Now, if this were a site for good films and good film-making by a serious film critic then, needless to say, all of the above would have resulted in a writing off of the film. Well, not so with this reviewer. Sure the film is an abomination if I ever saw one but I was pretty entertained. Okay, I know, I know, I'm easily entertained but still. A new Italian zombie/splatter/horror movie, how could you not be entertained? I certainly was!
On the DVD there is a trailer for one of the "classic" Italian zombie movies; ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS (Zombi 2) which makes the difference between the two films very obvious! ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS is a masterpiece that uses all its elements in a skillful way; the horror, gore, music, atmosphere, etc. ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD is a fun & entertaining piece of crap.
Oh, and talking of which; the "12 inch splinter in the eye" scene from ZOMBIE FLESH is actually copied in ISLAND. Is it a homage to Fulci? Well, knowing Mattei it's probably just a matter of theft, LOL. He most likely thought "This'll look great and no one remembers that old film anyway!", hahaha.
Watch ISLAND OF THE LIVING DEAD by all means but if you're new to Italian zombie movies please don't base your opinion on Italo zombie flicks on this one. Go get ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS (and Zombi Holocaust) first.
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