Scanner Cop 2

I watched SCANNER COP 2 a couple of night ago and had a whale of a time (plus I ate some tuna while at it, haha). SCANNER COP 1 & 2 are kinda official sequels to SCANNERS 1-3, and in some markets they're apparently even released as Scanners 4 & 5. I still haven't bought SCANNER COP 1 but I've seen the sequels to Cronenberg's original film and, altho it's been a good number of years since I saw them, I remember them as being kinda lame compared to the first film.

This one, however, was pretty cool and certainly great fun. I'm told the first one (i.e. the first SC) is equally entertaining. Basically there's an evil scanner out to get our scanner cop hero and in the process he snuffs a bunch of other scanners in the most gory ways (and no, don't worry, we don't get cheated of a head explosion!). There's also a pretty chick but no nudity (but I don't think there ever was in any of the SCANNERS if I remember correctly).

SCANNER COP is out of DVD in Denmark and a few other places, and SCANNER COP 2 is released on DVD in Germany, Thailand and Canada. I bought the Canadian DVD from a store in Quebec via Amazon Canada. It has one of those double sided covers where you can choose between text in French and English. The DVD has absolutely zilch extras. For some reason they recorded the film twice on the DVD, one version in English and one in French. And I do mean they included the film twice! In other words, you can't switch between the two audio tracks while watching the film, you'll have to stop, go to the menu, and start again. Very strange.

And even stranger is the fact that while they used the original NTSC print for the English version they used a PAL master for the French version!? This means the French version finishes about four minutes quicker than the English version (i.e. because the print runs faster, there's nothing missing). Go figure. o_O

trailer:




Thanks for the info on the SC 2 releases to Member-X and Joachim Andersson.

"I come in peace"

- "You go in pieces"



I've just heard that SHOUT FACTORY are releasing DARK ANGEL (aka I COME IN PEACE) next year and that it'll have a commentary track by fave B movie star DOLPH LUNDGREN (certainly a fave on this here blog). Awesome piece of news!

Gentlemen, we have called you together to inform you we are going to overthrow the United States' government.

From MINISTRY's excellent album "Rio Grande Blood".

Is that flesh in your bag, Cronie?

Here's a photo of David Cronenberg visiting the Criterion video label a couple of months back and needless to say fans are now wondering what he was doing there. Are Criterion working on upgraded blu-ray releases of their old DEAD RINGERS and CRASH releases maybe? Or did he just want a Criterion bag?? Personally, I think he just went in to borrow taxi fare as he forgot he only had Canadian dollars in his pocket. LOL.

Btw, talking of CRASH; check this out! My new US laserdisc release of that much beloved film!! Well, most beloved by ME anyway. A lot of fans seem to think Cronenberg went over the line in perversity with this films but I beg to differ! It's one of my favourites of his films. I already have the Danish VHS and the UK DVD. Unfortunately, this old and way out of print laserdisc is the only proper release there is. It's presented in Cronenberg's preferred format of 1.66:1 (the DVD's and video tapes are either 1.85:1 or fullscreen) and as the only release it has a commentary track by Cronenberg. There's also a making of which may not be on any DVD's either but I'm not sure about that.

Month of Halloween - horror film #9: THE NEST

Yeah, Halloween lasts another week in this house!!

I've just watched THE NEST for the first time and totally loved it. One of the most fun killer insect flicks I've seen for a long time. And very cool old-skool gore too!! I watched the old New Concorde dvd which is fullscreen and looks alright, however I've just discovered there's gonna be a bluray/dvd from Shout next year! Can we get a Woo-woo!!

In the extras department there's three trailers and a cool 12 page booklet. Unfortunately, the trailer for the film is nowhere to be found despite it being listed on the cover.

It's hard being a conservative

Iggy not being very conservative while doing "I'm a conservative" in 1981.


As I reported here I bought CD re-releases of three old IGGY POP LP's recently and I've been playing them ever since. Don't get me wrong, I love THE STOOGES but these early 80s records are pretty fucken cool too. In the first post I posted a live version of "I'm a Conservative". I've later discovered that the entire gig is up on YouTube in a brilliant picture quality (good enough for fullscreen viewing). The concert from November 25, 1981 was originally released on a TARGET VIDEO vhs in 1986. Watch it in all it's full mini-skirt & stockings glory here.

Funnel me this, Batman

So in my dream last night I’m trying to watch an old western on a new big tv but the picture is blurry so I try and adjust but nothing works. The good thing is that it’s a big screen and I can see the tv removes the black bars on the screen (in the dream it’s a video tape I’m trying to watch, obviously). After a while the tv screen is as big as a cinema screen and covers the entire wall. I get a great idea, why not tune the tv so I can actually watch tv programmes. So I start tuning but now I realise I ought to blow-dry the screen as that’s surely gonna help get rid of the blurry picture. I pull out a very weird blow-dryer with a kind of funnel at the end. I look into the funnel and see old food in there. Bummer, what if my dad sees I haven’t even cleaned it, he’ll think I’m crappy at living on my own. So I start digging old potatoes out of the funnel but suddenly I notice something else is in there: There’s a young caveman standing looking at the wall of the funnel (I’m now inside the funnel!) and then... zapp... he’s no longer standing but sitting on some big rocks that are also in there and next to him is a real Neanderthal man. This is too good to miss so I pull out my camera. “Stay there don’t move” I say and start taking photos of them. Suddenly something from behind grabs my attention and I turn around. The funnel entrance is now gone and there’s an open forest footpath and a naked young woman walks past. She's sporting a Brazilian wax and I’m wondering how I know that as I only see her from the side and behind. And with this bewilderment in my head I wake up. I have... no idea what it means.


My buddy Steve Nyland sent me this scan as a suggestion to what my dream was about. LOL.

Month of Halloween - horror film #8: GHOST SHIP

Uhh, I'm kinda way behind if I wanna make it just CLOSE to 31 films, haha. Actually, I HAVE watched more than the 8 but I just haven't bothered to write about them. Oh well, maybe later. I watched GHOST SHIP a couple nights ago. I thought the first half was good but the second half was, well it's not so much that it wasn't good but it just wasn't a good horror movie! The second half was an okay action movie but it ought to have been more of a horror flick than what it turned out to be. I mean I felt it was almost a Terminator kinda film. That ghost guy even fucken LOOKED like the bad terminator from TERMINATOR 2! I got the reg. 1 DVD from Amazon UK at one penny and it has a cool hologram cover. Unfortunately the film had been changed to fullscreen (they even made a point out of pointing that out on both the cover and on the DVD!). The extras were okay. The film was okay, good enough to watch again but not to upgrade to a better DVD. ^_^

TAXI HUNTER (Herman Yau, Hong Kong, 1993)

HERMAN YAU made the awesome horror flicks EBOLA SYNDROME and UNTOLD STORY that both star ANTHONY WONG. For some reason not a whole lot of fans of those films have watched TAXI HUNTER even tho that film is ALSO directed by Herman Yau and it ALSO stars Anthony Wong as a maniac on the loose. It's a pity cos it's a really good film. Gore fans who are only watching these films for the nasty scenes but don't give a fuck about characters or plot probably won't like TAXI HUNTER all that much as it's not as extreme and sick as the other two. But I'd recommend that everyone else watch it. I own it on HK video-cd and Malay DVD. The rest of you might find it a lot easier to just pick up the reg. 1 DVD (LOL). Here's the trailer:

Oh, Iggy

Everybody talks about THE STOOGES and people forget the many good years IGGY had in-between. "I'm a Conservative" is an awesome track from his "Soldier" LP from the early 80s. The studio version is the top video and here's a brilliant live version of the same track. You'll be excused for wondering if he's really a conservative. That's is until three minutes into the video and you discover he's wearing nothing but women's underpants.



I bought "Soldier" and two other early IGGY POP LP's in a cool and cheap CD box set recently. The cool thing is not least that as far as I can tell it's not been remastered and thus doesn't suffer from the "loudness war" effect. The set is simply entitled "Original Album Classics" and the other two albums are "New Values" and "Party".