Streaming Daylight Vampires & "The Return of Godzilla" (Godzilla 1985)

Ninety For Chill: The #Podcast with @CatBusRuss

Episode 189: Streaming Daylight Vampires: Dracula Untold & V for Vengeance

CatBusRuss⁠ was unable to secure a guest this week, but thankfully has some leads on some experts of spookiness. This left our host relying on his streaming services to warrant tax write offs for ⁠I DiG CRAZY FLiCKS⁠. Here he discovered that after the "Twilight Saga", studios are making some wild choices when it comes to vampires on the big screen (43 inches and up).

Netflix had the official dawning of Universal's Dark Universe with "⁠Dracula Untold⁠". ⁠Russ⁠'s suspicions are soon met when it comes to PG-13 vampires as Luke Evans portrays Bram Stoker's titular character. This feature looks like it wants to show, "What if Sauron from Peter Jackson's Trilogy was on our side?" Laughingly, it is lots of bodies flying without viscera or proper lighting.

Paramount+ was only promoting two vampire movies, and the CatBus has already spoke of "⁠From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money⁠'s" excellence. So he watched the weirdly titled "⁠V for Vengeance⁠". To the producers' credit, in the age of mock busters, the nomenclature will bring eyes to it. Hopefully, those pupils will not be too miffed about getting the lightweight "⁠D.E.B.S.⁠" of vampiric action instead of a dystopian England with Guy Faux masks.

This double feature is for those who are into schlock since Stephenie Meyer took more time establishing vampiric lore. Too bad the only thing these creatives took from her franchise is that the sun is no longer a curse. It is a major flaw because darkness, can hide poor fight choreography and only implies the gore your effects cannot deliver.

Episode 191: "The Return of Godzilla (aka 1985) with Eva & ThePoeticCritic

The King of Monsters demands his spot in spooky month. ⁠ThePoeticCritic⁠ returns to ⁠Ninety For Chill⁠ to discuss what is truly scary about kaiju. International politics and Western adaptations.

⁠CatBusRuss⁠⁠ gets to learn the history of "The Return of Godzilla⁠", a legacy sequel/reboot of the Toho franchise. The two discuss whether or not the giant monsters are only scary to kids, the under appreciated influence the big guy had on America filmmaking, the necessity of practical effects, and where the hell the money that Yankee producers are throwing at movies is going. 

"Godzilla Minus One" only cost $15 million to make and featured Oscar-winning special effects. Why did "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" cost 10 times that? We suppose the "X" does represent multiplication (Thanks Jessica Ritchey⁠.).

 

Follow me on Twitter @catbusruss. If you want to be on the show, contact me on Twitter or send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com. All we need is a theme, movie, director, or actor and a focus on sub 100-minute material. As long as the credits start before the 1:39:59 mark on the runtime bar, the movie qualifies.

Robo Vampire: Hopping Taoist Vampire Monks and Some Thai Movie on the Side

 

With a premise like that, I should not feel like there is a need to rush writing this review before this hotel shift ends. How can you forget that? If anything, Amazon should contact me in regards to writing their Prime Video movie descriptions. After all, Walmart let me do their groceries for two years.

I am getting ready for a killer week. Close the retailer, open the retailer. Evening shift at the hotel, open the retailer (an hour earlier). Evening shift at the hotel, open the retailer. Tuesday will be wrestling video games and completing "American Gods." I am working Wednesday and Thursday, and then heading up to catch my first AAW show of the year on Friday. Then I gotta make it back in time to open the retailer the next day. Just try to will the idea that there will not be an eight o'clock meeting Saturday morning on top of all this.

So, I now realize that the next blog will have to be a review of the wrestling. It is not right to let something that hot simmer. Then again, publishing this movie review instead will extend the life of AAW's Never Say Die.

It can be fun planning for the future, at least one that you have under control. The rest is just ignorant customers and loud and incompetent guests. I could romanticize it with the battle of loved ones and personal passion, but things would be simpler with lousy Halloween costumes portraying robots and gorilla masks portraying vampires...so you would think.

 

Robo Vampire

It looks like the U.S. is at least making strides against the drug trade in Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle. Their patrols are so effective that the top exporter has turned to a Taoist priest to resurrect an army of vampires to counter them. After the priest makes a pact with the ghost of his premier vampire beast's lover, he seems unstoppable. Unbeknownst to them, the Americans have their own methods of resurrection.

Death will not keep top agent Tom Wilde down. With some simple welding, he is revived as the Robo Warrior, something that does not play by the rules of Chinese black magic. Perhaps this is why the main supplier has kidnapped Sophie, an American agent whose cover has just been blown.

Stretched thin, the Yanks have assigned the rescue to Thai mercenaries. Hopefully that gamble will pay off. Otherwise, all of the secrets of the Robo Warrior will be exposed.

The last three sentences of my "Robo Vampire" plot synopsis required more thought than any placed in the production of this film. This 1988 release was a quick turnaround rip off of "Robocop" but without the class that Italian directors provide. When the quality of the film stock immediately reminds you of a Rifftrax or MST3K short, you know you should not watch this without a fifth of whiskey and robot friends. Sadly, my Tom Servo tattoo remained silent through this presentation.

Maybe I am selling my screenplay for "Main Event of the Dead" at too high a level. I may have to call it a Q-Movie instead of a B-Movie Zom Com. Ask for a treatment by emailing russthebus07@gmail.com.

 

The last statement comes from Godfrey Ho's film being called a Z-Movie. There is such a discrepancy in quality, I better pick a different letter. This film makes the idea of filming in portrait seem okay. To try and ensure that someone will enjoy this, Ho more than likely only shot 45 minutes of robot and vampire stuff and attached a Thai Commando movie to pad out the runtime. This causes the film to quit being good bad and just be all bad as you are pulled away from the premise that you clicked on to watch something that would only be interesting if it was exploitative foreign cinema. No abuse of women or graphic violence, no value to a scum aficionado like me.

It is sad that Ho decided to take this route because the cheap effects that feature no concept about how any weapon works is constantly hilarious. The Robo Warrior story already tries to be something for everybody. You have the gore of vampires ripping out a throat or too. You have the "lady ghost" fighting in completely sheer white "robes". The vampires can only hop as conveyance, so no one will be scared from the theater. You have a slapstick scene when you realize that vampires can get hyped up on sugar, so you better keep them neck deep in heroin for storage purposes.

When you use firecrackers and bottle rockets instead of scribs, you cannot change it up for half the film with Cannon like action. You have not earned it and by the first cut to the Thai movie, the audience knows they do not want it. We were too busy enjoying the nonsensical cuts, why would we want this feature to suddenly make any sense?

"Robo Vampire" could have been and enjoyable mess, but chose to be a monotonous chore. There is no Wikipedia page for this film, but after enough Google searches, I had found there to be two "sequels". As a lover of the concept of "so bad it is good", I am considering tracking them down in hope that Godfrey Ho could nail this down once. With that said, leave it to me because you should not object yourself to watch a Break.com video that will more than likely become a train accident.

If your blissful ignorance can be stolen by "Robo Vampire", how can you trust Ho to not go after your soul with his other works? His techniques are the only vampires of his that makes sense.

https://makeagif.com/gif/robo-vampire-YcpVlw?ref=yo3Yhg

Action Movies, Tax Write offs, and Ice Cube

Ninety For Chill: The #Podcast with @CatBusRuss

Episode 185: Write Off Marathon: Axel Foley v. Darkman v. The Rock v. Sons of Steel

Beverly Hills Cop (1984)⁠, ⁠Darkman⁠, ⁠The Rundown⁠, and ⁠Sons of Steel (1989)⁠. Aside from action and outrageous spectacle, what do these films have in common?

⁠CatBusRuss⁠ is tempted to do some research to determine if he has ever had a guest for a Labor Day Weekend episode of "⁠Ninety For Chill: The Podcast⁠", but why dwell on the past? Let's experience some flicks that are new to him, and help warrant writing them off when I Dig Crazy Flicks, LLC. files their taxes.

Our host believes that he came up with a fun four film marathon based on films from the subscription services that he pays for (Netflix & Paramount+), his recent iTunes purchases, and a film that he was tempted to purchase during ⁠Vinegar Syndrome⁠'s Labor Day Sale, but thanks to ⁠JustWatch⁠, found that it was free on Tubi. We are sure that we will address the Blu-Rays that he did buy on a later episode.

Episode 187: At the Late-Night, Double-Feature, Ice Cube Show

It is only appropriate that for episode 187, the podcast will be about films from a gangster rap founding father, ⁠Ice Cube⁠. He is a man so hard, that you never see him get killed on screen. ⁠CatBusRuss⁠ verified this on the ⁠Cinemorgue Wiki⁠.

This all stems around our host finding "⁠Trespass⁠" from 1992 on iTunes for $4.99. It is a movie that has Cube as fourth billed behind Bill Paxton, Ice Tea, and William Sadler. Not a bad place to be when the film is written by ⁠Robert Zemeckis⁠ & ⁠Bob Gale⁠ and directed by the man who gave us "Streets of Fire" & "48 Hours", ⁠Walter Hill ⁠.

But O'Shea Jackson can lead a film, or at least share top billing with The Chick from "⁠Species⁠", ⁠Natasha Henstridge⁠. With The Horror Master, ⁠John Carpenter⁠, at the helm, surely you will be entertained by "Ghosts of Mars". If that is not enough this to sell this feature to you, "The Beekeeper" Jason Statham further stacks the cast.

Follow me on Twitter @catbusruss. If you want to be on the show, contact me on Twitter or send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com. All we need is a theme, movie, director, or actor and a focus on sub 100-minute material. As long as the credits start before the 1:39:59 mark on the runtime bar, the movie qualifies.

We Are 138: Resident Evil: Degeneration, At least it makes more sense than Extinction

Once the action in "Resident Evil: Degeneration" starts rolling, this viewer had to be reminded of "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within". If it the same crew behind RED, that's cool, but if it is not, it maybe the end of photo realistic motion pictures. It has been eight years since the need for Square to merge with Enix occurred (and I'm sure all RPG fans don't fault the result), and if the effects haven't improved much between FF and RE, one maybe a little miffed if we just rented one giant cut scene.

The good news that only the Sony name connects the two which turns the possibility of the cut motion picture from a negative to a positive. Resident Evil: Degeneration may have a good premise, but can it be executed well.

Like "Resident Evil 4" suggests, Umbrella had fallen after the nuclear annihilation of Raccoon City. The US government has kept what actually happened under wraps, so that they can allow a new firm, WilPharma, to further study the uses of the T-Virus. After a biohazard occurred in India and a terrorist government openly expresses interest in using the virus, a Senate-backed American-based research facility in Hardardville would probably meet with protest. Protest that are led by a former WilPharma employee and father/husband to RC victims, Curtis Miller.

At the Harvardville Airport, Claire Redfield arrives to meet with fellow members of TerraSafe. While waiting to leave, they encounter Senator and WilPharma investor Ron Davis as he is being harassed by protesters with zombie mask. All hell breaks lose when some of the slow moving are not wearing masks, and a plane of undead crashes into the terminal. The only possible clue to what is going on his Claire catching a glance of Miller making his escape.

The airport has been quarantined, and Leon Kennedy is on the scene to coordinate rescue efforts and to help oversee the dispersion of a new T-Virus vaccine. Once word that Miller maybe involved, he and Angela, Miller's sister, are out to stop this biohazard from spreading.

Resident Evil: Degeneration is almost exactly like the video games it is based on. Perhaps too exact. When there is action, the viewer is amazed at the action like they are from the intensity of the video games, but once the scenes are over, the viewer is tied into a bloodless cut scene that consumes most of the picture.

The exposition cut scenes would work in a video game because we need to cool down after getting pass a boss. We are a little more accepting of the details and flashbacks. But RED isn't a game, it is a motion picture. It feels like you are reading the "Resident Evil 3" strategy guide as literature instead of a tool to destroy Nemesis.

I'm not saying that you will not enjoy the movie, but Resident Evil: Degeneration is strictly for the die hard RE fans. Everything you enjoyed in the games are here except sore thumbs. The Resident Evil fan should not be among us skeptics. With their cold response towards "Resident Evil 5", we may be praying Milla Jovovich's Alice will save the property.

HellHorror

CatBusRuss at Fan Expo Chicago 2024

Ninety For Chill: The #Podcast with @CatBusRuss

Bonus 5: #FanExpoChicago 2024 #Bonus: #MarkHamill & Underrated Gems (Like "National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1")

The first day on any Chicago Comic Con is dedicated to getting your bearings to determine where and when you need to be. This has always been a bit rough on ⁠CatBusRuss⁠. He knew that he had to be 1 hour and 40 minutes early for the ⁠Mark Hamill⁠ panel (and find a way to seamlessly insert a review for "⁠Loaded Weapon 1⁠" into this episode), but what does he need to know to host a panel at the Creators' Stage (Sunday, August 18, 2 pm) and sell "I Dig Crazy Flicks" buttons and stickers?

Checking out a podcast recording about cosplay and an underrated gems panel with no microphones for fan input is leaving him worried, but perhaps ⁠CatBus⁠ can just get money by feigning naivety. It works for some of those in the Artist Alley.

Episode 183: #FanExpoChicago 2024 *Powerbombs* Cubpool

2024 may have been ⁠CatBusRuss⁠'s most productive ⁠Fan Expo Chicago⁠, but it came at a cost. He had a great time learning how to host a panel when he presented "⁠Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss⁠" live. Too bad the obsolete Fender PA system failed to record it. Or, the blame may fall upon the flash drive he bought from a dodgy phone repair kiosk at the Fashion Outlets of Chicago. But it was all about education, so sweating out a six-hour hangover after Fan Expo's Cosmic Celebration was a battle worth fighting.

Should ⁠Russ⁠ have drank half-a-fifth of ⁠Deep Eddy's Cranberry Vodka⁠? He thinks he earned it after successfully debuting his first masked cosplay, Cubpool. This allowed him to impress his fellow nerds with photo ops and, with the mask being so confining, left him quite blind. Which means, it is difficult to shop when you cannot see. Money was saved. The owner of I Dig Crazy Flicks, LLC. cannot write off every toy he wants to buy.

The Deadpool mask's eye holes were so small, it felt like his eyes would soon be dried out. Thankfully for CatBus, the stars were out for day two of the convention. Sitting in the darkened main hall to hear tales from ⁠Alan Tudyk⁠, the voice actors of "⁠Hazbin Hotel⁠", and the shared casts of the first two "⁠Terminator⁠" films allowed him to remove the hood and properly hydrate.

It was a fun three-days, but it did leave Russ feeling like he had been dropped seven feet by ⁠Sid Vicious⁠. This means it felt appropriate to splice in his review of the 2020, no-budget, Cleveland-based, indie-wrestling feature, "⁠Powerbomb⁠" into this podcast episode.

Follow me on Twitter @catbusruss. If you want to be on the show, contact me on Twitter or send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com. All we need is a theme, movie, director, or actor and a focus on sub 100-minute material. As long as the credits start before the 1:39:59 mark on the runtime bar, the movie qualifies.