Are They Dead? G.I. Joe: The Movie (1987) & The House of Haunted Hill (1959)

 *Blog post was started on July 17, 2021.

G.I. Joe: The Movie (1987): Where the Dwayne Johnson Franchise Should have Went

It is going to be interesting to see how this review works out. I prefer to write my reviews the next day (or by the time I finish viewing a feature, that day). The freshness is what I am going for. Too bad we have to do adult things like my job (which currently includes putting nine rolls of quarters by a space heater in hope to dry the paper that my water mug spilled over) and paying bills. Those are not too harsh when it comes to processes since my finances are in a blackish state. Please pardon any sense of appropriation.

And pardon the seemingly unwarranted bullshitting. I was (I guess am. The arguments that colleges should offer art degrees is fine, but my web design career was suppose to be an employable concept in 2002.) a website designer, so the pages on this blog have to be in sync with all the content on the right side. Thus, letting you know where my head is at with every post seems a necessary evil.

Am I evil? Guess I am. With that, it seems I can no longer say that I am just a fan of the art.

It seems I am paying for my vicefulness. My body feels like crap after it turns out that OSF would not allow me to get blood test so that I can offer a guide to whomever ends up being my next primary physician (No more physician assistants!). This meant that my cleanliness was for not, so I attacked about a half a dozen Krispy Kremes the following day and some Kraft Deluxe Mac and Cheese the next night. Christmas is still five months away, so asking my folks to pay for BJJ lessons must wait. The need to be humble over getting invited on a Disney World trip makes asking for anything a task.

If there is anything I am worried about in the now is that my promotion of Woody Allen movies is scaring away repeat guests for NinetyForChill - The Podcast. I suppose I have to respect the principles. And, at least they are not being petty like Michell Whitt over a contextual review. It also make me look at my own morals. Can one encourage revisiting the works of Lenni Rienfenstahl when it was a product of the Nazis?

Are pedophiles any worse than Nazis? Are these two groups equal? I would rather know what makes a sick mind, but if we should be violent towards Nazis (The most important lesson of "The Blues Brothers")...

The truth is, maybe I a just hang about for the arguments. With that said, check out my review for Roman Polanski's "The Ghost Writer". Should I have given the film which suggest that being a war criminal is far more evil than being a bale jumper a chance?

It should not be a legitimate worry. If that guest had listened to some of my podcast in preparation for their appearance, pro Marty Scurll mentions should have expressed my willingness to listen to everything I can about a controversy.

In the meantime, I have been working to line up a guest for an upcoming podcast episode. This party is working on a Jean Claude Van Damme podcast, so action movies maybe the topic. An episode focusing on the best DVD double feature pack ever released, "Bloodsport" and "Showdown in Little Tokyo" is where I am leaning.

But with "Snake Eyes" coming out soon, perhaps I should offer up a chat about the underappreciated/misunderstood G.I. Joe franchise. The two live-action movies do not fit the parameters of my podcast (The films are 118 minutes and 110 minutes), but if we start with the 1987 debut feature, it could warrant an episode.

G.I. Joe: The Movie

After Cobra's attempt to blow up the Statue of Liberty during its centennial celebration was thwarted by G.I. Joe, an American military unit solely dedicated to defeating Cobra, the terrorist group's supreme leader, Serpentor, attempts to remove Cobra Commander from his authority for yet another failure. This "court marshal" has to be placed on hold because when base, the Terror Dome, is attacked by a reptilian humanoid. Cobra Commander leads his lieutenants away from the battle in hopes that the assailant will kill their leader.

When she arrives to confront the head of the snake, Serpentor recalls her from a vision. Pythona informs him that it was not a vision but a memory of his homeland Cobra-La and that his destiny is to lead the people of this hidden land to reclaim the world from homo-sapiens. To do this, they will need to capture the Broadcast Energy Transmitter (BET). This should allow for the transmission of near unlimited amount of energy. Something so valuable is obviously being protected by G.I. Joe.

G.I. Joe's Himalayan security detail for the BET has left the military organization spread thin, so they will be counting on their next class of recruits. Their forces are further exasperated after they capture Serpentor when he led an attack to claim the BET. Despite his arrogance and immaturity, the top prospect seems to be the Green Beret Lt. Falcon. His most defining traits prove to be immediately detrimental as Pythona succeeds in allowing Serpentor to escape. If Falcon was more concerned about his post than trying to woo his ninja co-recruit Jinx, the unit should have prevented this attack.

As a result of his dereliction of duty, a court marshal for Falcon is proposed, but Duke begs for leniency in the process. He believes in Falcon's potential and claims responsibility for the recruit's shortcomings as his older half brother. This leads the tribunal to send Falcon to the Slaughter House, as in Sgt Slaughter, to conclude his training.

Serpentor is returned to Cobra-La where we find out the history of the Cobra organization/civilization, that a group of Joes are being held prisoner after they pursued the retreating Cobras from the BET assault, and that Cobra Commander will answer for his inadequacies. The Cobra-Las are lead by Golobulus and the people have been in hiding since the Ice Age. This hiding came as a result of the rise of mankind and their constant development of technology destroying organic dependent societies.

They have launched a fleet of mushrooms to orbit the planet. With the BET's energy, the shrooms will be allowed to release their spores. These spores will force mankind to return to their ancestors' beast like nature allowing Cobra to finally conquer the world. With the success of Serpentor's escape, the Joes know that their organic weapons are more powerful than anything Cobra had previously thrown at them. The escape also has left the Joes in disarray. Are they even in a position to stop Golobulus's evil plan?

"G.I. Joe: The Movie" was pulled from a theatrical release after children were left disturbed from "The Transformers: The Movie" the prior year. I understand you do not want to scar any more kids, but for those who watched Optimus Prime die in the first act, their brains would be better suited for the insanity of the story about Cobra-La. Regardless, this is 40 miles of bad world no matter the preparation.

Aside from getting Don Johnson and Burgess Meredith to voice our new protagonist and antagonist respectively, who only exist to introduce a new line of toys, no effort was taken to provide the audience with anything worth attaching "The Movie" to. I suppose the musical number to an extended rendition of the TV show theme lets us know that the feature is far grander than the 22-minute shorts, but when it is the same rendition of the song, laziness is the only feeling expressed. If you can afford Don Johnson, surely you can afford Stan Bush.

And this laziness goes beyond not creating any new takes on the material. I thought it was limited to anime features of the time, but virtually all the sound effects are pulled from the "Star Wars" Trilogy. Who would have ever thought that electrified snakes sound exactly like light sabres? The BET is a dead ringer for Palpatine's force lightning.

Obviously the animation is not improved upon or even taken in a new direction. "Transformers" at least made the effort in that department. The earlier film also could hide the blatant 80's racism in toys. I did think that the BET was an attempt to have children associate the acronym with this series instead the television network. No wonder Hasbro toys fell into a lull during the early 90's. With no cold war to distract us from, everything about G.I. Joe is ridiculous.

So the story that would seeming feature elements to soon be used by "Highlander 2" and the "Super Mario Bros." ended up being appropriate. After essentially stopping Cobra from nuking the world at the end of the second live-action movie, ancient aliens are the only thing that can bring new life to this franchise. Is Paramount afraid that the fans would look to this feature and complain about the lack of originality? I think the trolls would be more fascinated making jokes about Sergent Slaughter having a full head of hair (That guy is just full of lies.).

My little brother rented this "G.I. Joe: The Movie" back in the early nineties, and I did not know what to think about it then. That is not great for a kids movie. Add to that experience knowledge of why things do not make sense and you know it totally missed its mark. Then realize that it is a bad movie, and I am reaching for a magnifying glass to go all "Toy Story" Sid on these plastic Real American Heroes.

Do I dare give "My Little Pony: The Movie" a rewatch? Does anyone know if it has the Stan Bush touch imprinted on it.

THE POP EXPOSE ‘The 1987 G.I.Joe Movie’ By Mitchell Smith! - Serpentor's Lair

*This blog post was started on September 14, 2021. The review was written in 2010.

House on Haunted Hill: When They Use To Do Double Features

Why should horror sequels work? There is no need for exposition, so you can cut right to the mayhem. Why do they not work? Because they want to introduce new characters when all you need are stereotypes and archetypes.

In a gimmicky genre like horror, we do not necessarily need to know the torrid affairs of the protagonist(s). All you really need to know is the motive of the antagonist. This is the focus of the original "House on Haunted Hill", a trip into a wicked character's mind portrayed by Vincent Price.

For the amusement of his fourth wife, the eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren allows her to host her birthday party at the house that is supposedly possessed by generation after generation of murder victims. Thanks to his jealous nature, his wife is short on friends, so to make the night interesting, he has invited five individuals who are in need of money. Each will be awarded $10,000 if they successfully spend the night there, cut off from the world. Of course, Loren makes it clear that it is not about spending the night. It is about surviving it.

"House on Haunted Hill" is a wise thriller. Wise in the sense that it skips out on presenting exposition as the story moves forward. It opens like a video game. You view the characters and their two-sentence description, and then the movie goes forward, never looking back.

The story turns out to be anticlimactic, but the devious nature of the characters allow that conclusion to be fitting. The director and performers do a great job of presenting the "haunted" environment, but the mere presence of Price makes the film a classic.

Who would dare think that Geoffry Rush could capture what Price did with the role? Rush may have been destined to be miscast when it came to the 1999 "remake", but that is another conversation.

"House on Haunted Hill" is a prime example of how stories should be quick and to the point. This is especially the case when all you have is a premise and a performer. It shows that a director does not need much to make a classic, as long as they remember not to drag out the material.

3B Theater Poster Archive

"Evangelion 1.01: You Are (Not) Alone" & "Event Horizon"

 Am I crazy for entertaining the concept of reinventing the "Star Wars" trilogy? Trekkies gave into J.J. Abrams's concept and ended up embracing it, and the flaws of Lucas's scripts are quite prevalent.

Blasphemy. Well, we would all like to reboot the "Saga". No one can deny that, but when it comes to near perfection (with the exception of "Return of the Jedi"), why bother?

It is because we are starved for greatness and we will take our chances. That is why Hideaki Anno's reboot of "Evangelion" captured the world of anime's attention.

Shinji Ikari has been called to Tokyo-3 by his neglectful father Gendo. When he arrives, the city is under a military state of emergency and a battle with a giant monster ensues. After he is rescued by his chaperone, Lt. Col. Misato Katsuragi, he his escorted to Nerv's headquarters to find out his father's expectations. The primary one of these is for this 14 year-old to pilot a giant robot called Evangelion Unit 01 to defeat the monster.

 Should he fail, humanity is lost. But not being able to appreciate his own existence, why should Shinji care about the fate of mankind?

"Evangelion 1.01" is nearly identical in character design to the original television show, but it is far more than just a special edition of the first six episodes. This is a more concise version of the "Evangelion" story with an atmosphere that is more fitting of the dark conclusions of the initial series.

All of the mecha and kaiju have been visually upgraded and the theatrical budge is evident. Since budget held back the production quality of the first series, fans should definitely appreciate the upgrades. That is provided that they can get past the first two acts of the story being exactly like the first four episodes.

It can be frustrating that the "Rebuild of Evangelion's" story does not begin until act three, especially since the comic interactions between Shinji and the supporting cast are all but eliminated. The charm and optimism are removed, so those who did not appreciate the previous two endings that Anno had provided us, they may be left upset.

Those frustrations are worth enduring for the brilliant third act. The new vision and hints of what is coming up left me salivating for the film's sequel. On top of that, the action and drama sequences are greater than anything presented in the first half of the television series.

"Evangelion 1.01" is a great experience that promises even more to come. It provides incite into Anno's true vision that was confined to the restraints of 90's television. It is a darker journey, but well worth enduring for the reward of a new future for the franchise.

 

Rhb_RBS
 

 *Blog was post started on June 8, 2021.

Event Horizon - Inspiration for Gory Bastardized Remakes?

I am now on a leave of absence from my retail job, so I am acting like I have more energy. Too bad I am in the midst of a final 10-day work week. It might just be me feeling like I am on a winning streak. Dad already had some free VPN promos so I might have reduced my primary entertainment bill to just $85. That is for Internet and AEW Plus.

"American Gods" season 3 was concluded, so Starz is out of my streaming budget. Without Xfinity TV, my NJPW World subscription should get more use. Hulu is great for lunch breaks at work. HBO is still the best premium network, so I am not cutting that. Shudder is the only thing that I need to jump at adding. ESPN+ will be good for Euro 2020. It is tempting to just change the credit card numbers to my benefactor, but Experian says its good for my credit.

And my sports betting is getting back on track. If I learned anything after my earnings went from $600 to $400 is that the only blue I can trust are the Chicago Cubs. We could spin that into some ACAB humor, but I digress. Anyhow, frustration is the wrong way to react to this. The knowledge that my little brother has some losers (Toronto Maple Leafs) that he lovingly endures is just one more thing to bond over.

Enough of how I have been getting my introverted groove back, let us get into a baiting sub 100-minute movie review. This means I might need to listen to all of my friends' podcast, but do you really need an excuse to rewatch what maybe Paul W.S. Anderson's only classic feature on his resume?

"Event Horizon" is a 1990's horror classic, but I do not even know if it is Anderson's best movie. The man operates from derivatives, so nothing is ever expected of him. But, he is the only director that you expect cool 3-D from, so there is at least a niche he is filling and thus some talent. This leaves me to ponder if that was even present with his first American non-established IP film.

In 2040, the experimental spacecraft Event Horizon traveled to the orbit of Neptune to test its gravity drive. The intention of this was to create a mini black hole that would suck space time in allowing the craft to travel to a different location instantaneously. But the intentions of the craft were not made public, so all anyone is suppose to know is that the ship was lost. So it is quite the surprise for Captain Miller and the crew of the Lewis and Clark to find out that they are suppose to salvage this craft and rescue the crew seven years later.

The crew arrives at the craft to find it in a seemingly state of deep freeze. At subzero temperatures, surely the crew is dead, but life form readings are detectable through out the ship. As the crew inspects the ship, one of them, Justin, tries to turn the power back on. When this occurs, he seems to be sucked into the gravity drive and the accompanying power surge cause a breach of the Clark's hull. To survive, the entire crew has to board the Event Horizon while they wait on repairs to the ship that got them there.

Justin is essentially spat out of the gravity drive in a catatonic state. His rescuer describes the incident to Miller, but his believability is immediately questioned by Dr. Weir. Weir is accompanying the Clark's crew since he was one of the scientist who designed the ship. Logic and physics are soon thrown out the window as other crew members, including Miller, start seeing what can only be considered hallucinations. Miller's lieutenant has a theory. This theory is that whatever the life readings are must be creating these experiences.

Once Justin awakens only to soon enter an air lock without a spacesuit to run from the darkness he saw, surviving becomes paramount to actually finding out what happened. Too bad Dr. Weir does not see it that way.

My synopsis for "Event Horizon" may have excluded the pitch for this feature: Spaceship returns from hell. With that said, going with a gothic horror approach to the premise is unique when you consider that the video game "Doom" is very similar. Horror was on a downturn in the mid 90's as we recovered from 80's slasher fatigue, so this was a brave 60 million dollar gamble on the "Mortal Kombat" director. The initial loss was 20 million, but after home release, it is surprising that there were not attempts to capitalize on the IP.

In the end, the movie ended up managing to be a hit in some form, and that tends to indicate great quality. That quality is provided by the cast and script. Anderson's direction is adequate, but there are not many set pieces that show his strengths when it comes to directing. If anything, it seems to me that the off-and-on auteur can only see in 3-D. I do not find this to be a weakness though when you take in to account how his "Resident Evil" franchise was able to have three additional sequels solely because of 3-D filmmaking's popularity. A 3-D re-release with some polished computer-generated effects would be worth telling streamers to bugger off.

I implied that the special effects are not great when it comes to the CG. They may have been great for the time, but like "Mortal Kombat", FDR/HDR does not do them any favor.

If there was one more flaw, it is the pacing. This is gothic horror on a spaceship which had been done before in the greater classic, "Alien". When you move from one scene to the next without anytime to revel in the horror of the situation, you are watching for the cool suggestive imagery of hell instead of being at the edge of your seat. This is primarily the reason that I am not going to declare this feature to be Anderson's best. I am leaning towards the first "Resident Evil".

As I discussed with Andrew Tiede on NinetyForChill - The Podcast, Anderson seems to have an abundance of cool premises like Ivan Reitman when it comes to talented actors. They are really cannot miss ideas and as long as you catch it all on the frame, it should turn out alright. Unlike Reitman, the script can be lacking. Anderson can make everything look cool enough that you at least have something that can be on mute that fits in a lowly Downstate Illinois dance club. You cannot say that about "Twins".

Returning to the gothic horror elements, was this the feature to inspire the Dark Castle remakes of the late 90's and early 00's? This can be a goreless feature, apart from the air lock scene, but a lot of the films fans are there for the gory sets and eyeball removal. "Alien" was subtle with its gore being limited to the chestbuster. Did Dark Castle see this feature and just pick up on how the feature's devotees talk about the gore? Is this why we have "House on Haunted Hill" and "House of Wax" remakes that lack all of the charm of their predecessors?

"Event Horizon" is a film that had a greater impact than its box office indicates. It is a fun and entertaining bit of horror that has become more camp than it is scary. Too bad that any horror flick between this and torture porn strives to be this film because the hole it started to fill is still quite a void.

Pinterest @martinriggs1981

Netflix DVD: Titan AE or Don Bluth's "The Transformers: The Movie"

It seems like the new job is allowing me to keep up the blog (so that they would eventually use it to terminate me "with cause). But, daytime hours have really altered the sleep schedule, hence my pulse on what is happening in the world. And I definitely do not have the time to hear the ultra-right wing version of it from my mother.

I do need to call her more, but obviously she likes the idea of unwinding in the early morning more than I. And for everybody, that is a good thing. She stays up, she watches Fox News. She calls it quits after "NCSI" reruns end, we are better for it.

A couple of nights ago, during one of my girlfriend's random existential moments, I offered an exchange from the Luc Besson classic Lucy. Researching for this blog, I found out I butchered it.

Professor Norman: I'm not even sure that mankind is ready for it. We're so driven by power and profit. Given man's nature, it might bring us only instability and chaos.

Russ (simplifying): Ignorance is bliss.

Lucy: Ignorance brings chaos, not knowledge.

Russ (simplifying): Ignorance is ignorance.

Why am I referring to this calling it a night conversation? Because I was discussing if it was okay to keep baby boomers out of the loop. Since they got 20-30 years left, on the surface, it sounds like a good idea since the left has to be unified in 2020 (I am leaning towards Andrew Yang now, but Beto just knows his rights from wrong), but no human should want that. It just feels like Fox News is doing what I always joked about whenever the "Hooked on Phonics" commercial came on the tube in the 90's. Why had not anyone tried to teach people how to be stupid? Is there something wrong with me for always wanting to try and reimagine and bastardize "As Seen on TV" products?

If it is not, please ask me about my pro-wrestling zombie comedy screenplay "Main Event of the Dead." Just send me an e-mail at russthebus07@gmail.com. If you like that B-movie, but feel the moment has passed, my next feature-length tale would be investigating the militaristic use of items like the "Slap Chop."

After thinking through that paragraph, I realize that all Fox News is doing is just keeping old people and idiots ignorant instead of devising some strategy to reverse their intelligence like my plan to make people unlearn reading. Refusing to learn is an entirely different think.

Which brings us to Don Bluth's last great effort to stay in the animation game, "Titan A.E." It is a well-meaning effort, but insisting on sticking to his trademarks took away from anything new the film tried to introduce. (Sorry for failing to use Fox News experiment and "Rats of NIHM" transition).

In 3028, a race of aliens who are made up of pure energy, The Drej, destroy Earth in attempt to prevent Professor Sam Tucker from succeeding in his latest experiment, the Titan. Since the Drej will be focusing on destroying him, the professor determines that it was best to leave his son Cale in the care of Tek, an alien who proves to be a good mentor as humans have become ridiculed by other races for struggling on.

15 years later, Cale is working on a space salvage crew and has given up on humanity getting off the endangered species list. That is until Captain Joseph Korso shows up, and requests that he actually make an effort to save the human race. The kid must serve a greater purpose in the preservation of mankind because The Drej are not far behind Korso. Saving humanity and running for his life make joining the Korso's team his only option.

But why have the Drej involved Cale in their goal of expediting homo sapien extinction. It turns out that the ring his father gave him when they went their separate ways is a means to track the location of the Titan. If Korso's crew can get to it first, humanity maybe able to start again. If the Drej do, all hope is lost. We all need hope, so Cale's cynicism is abandoned and the fate of our culture rests with him.

If a ninety-minute, science fiction tale takes three paragraphs to summarize coherently, (at least by myself, more power to the Netflix sleeve writer), it may be a tough feature for most to get through. "Titan AE" is at least tougher than "Fist of the North Star" which took only two paragraphs and was a half hour longer. The butt rock and late 90's MTV punk soundtrack does not help 20th Century Fox's animated feature.

"Titan A.E." soundtrack and pace is very reminiscent of "The Transformers: The Movie". The soundtrack for the latter was better, but otherwise, Don Bluth put a lot of effort into his feature. Unfortunately, he still is in love with the great environment created, that his characters are downplayed, and with CG effects, are almost invisible at points. This leaves us with many scene where you got to squint to determine if anything is moving or are you just staring at a matte-painting.

As for the use of CG in creating the Drej, I think it still holds up nearly 20 years later, but aside from looking different, dare I say alien, there is not much to their design. On top of that, there is not much to their character, let alone their motivation. They are willing to deal with other humans to destroy the less greedy ones which makes no sense without spoilers.

Like "Transformers" a vague enemy means you are just trying to compose a film with a bunch of action scenes, and to do that, they just put our characters on random adventures. Perhaps there are too many protagonists. The biggest problem with that is the flick has a lot of great voice talent.

It is a Matt Damon starring movie, so there is going to be some "white-washing", and I just feel Ron Perlman is misused in normal roles, but you will like John Leguizamo performance, Nathan Lane's seems more unique than most of his roles, and Janeane Garofalo shows that Hollywood had always under utilized her. If there can be any complaints about these characters is that the chemistry between Damon and Drew Barrymore is just something we as an audience are just supposed to accept. It is very much Kelly McGillis and Tom Cruise from "Top Gun". You almost have to admire "Transformers" for Arcee not giving Hot Rod a wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

If you are going to sit a kid down and distract them for 90 minutes, "Titan A.E." might be an adequate change from Disney. Of course, I have a nephew and niece who sing Fall Out Boy after seeing "Big Hero 6." They would be a lot cooler yelling out some Stan Bush. Just trust me that your little ones may get something out of it and it is beyond appropriate for them, that way you do not have to yearn for Don Bluth's 80's by watching this film.

AnimeFlow's Conclusion: El Hazard 2: Tape 2 and Tenchi Forever

El Hazard 2: Promise for Reunion

Genre: comedy/fantasy

Length: 60 minutes (2 episodes)

Audience Age: 13+

Opinion: No El Hazard fan should be let down by this bonus story to the anime universe.

This is a review of the subtitled VHS version.

Check out the rest of this critique at AnimeRuss.blogspot.com - For those curious about anime but hate the geeks

Techi Muyo! In Love 2

Techi Muyo! In Love 2

Tenchi Forever: The Movie

Genre: dramedy/sci-fi fantasy 
Length: 95 minutes (Theatrical Film)
Audience Age: 16+ 

Opinion: The only addition to the series that can make any anime fan respect "Tenchi Muyo!".

This is a review of the dubbed VHS version.

Die Hard Game Fan's critic's favorite anime of 2000.

Like every other "Tenchi Muyo!" theatrical addition, the film starts with a seemingly normal day for Tenchi that is until an argument between Ryoko and Ayeka forces him to flee into the forest near their house. Looking for some peace and quiet, to his surprise he sees a bud of a camellia tree, but it is out of season. He searches for and finds this beautiful plant which seems to draw him into it. 

Six months later, Tenchi has yet to return from his trek into the woods. Ayeka and Ryoko have gone to Tokyo to find him while the other girls have gone to Planet Jurai and the Space Science Academy to find out where he could have gone. Could Tenchi have gone to another world or, as Washu has hypothesized, another dimension? What does Yosho know about the tree he planted? If you recall why Tenchi ran off, does he even want to comeback? Despite no one's life maybe on the line, this could be one of the gravest scenarios.

No matter how tedious Tenchi Muyo! is, I never mind seeing new stories about the series' hero. Tenchi never seems to disappoint its fans, so when "Tenchi Forever" came out, I had to pick it up. Surprisingly, I did not expect it to be so great and that it also earned the 16 Up rating by being the most mature and sophisticated Tenchi installment ever.

What a brilliant film for a TV/OVA (Original Video Animation) series. Tenchi Forever's colors are bland (possibly for dramatic effect), there are not many technical advances over the other series, and by no means is it as funny as the lamest Tenchi episodes. But its ability of finding how to use the main characters to their full dramatic potential puts it above the rest of the series.

This film nearly being a total drama justifies its Japanese theatrical release by having the essential dark and dreary plot, but it makes it work which is a rarity for spin offs to the big screen. Perhaps some characters are under utilized and I found the ending somewhat disappointing (an issue of personal taste/ideals), nothing else from the film can bring it down from being the top release of all Tenchi series.

Episode 108: B-Fest 2023: Kaiju & Blobs & Roller Disco & Dafoe Leather & Uwe Boll

B-Fest 2023: Kaiju & Blobs & Roller Disco & Dafoe Leather & Uwe Boll

Tuesday Feb 21, 2023

CatBusRuss returns to Northwestern to challenge his cinematic endurance with the 40th Edition of AO B-Fest. “American Ninja” with a crowd sounded fun, but Willem Dafoe in the “Rock ‘n Roll Fable” “Streets of Fire” made it clear that this 24-hour marathon was a must attend. And surely “Xanadu’s” infamy was over blown…right?

Allow me to get out of third-person. Happy Prof. Shurtleff of Illinois Central College? I (CM Darth) will try not to make so much light of violent death in this summation. This is my declaration of changing perspective.

Life has been pretty hectic recently. I have just started a second job, so finding time to write the blogs for each podcast episode has obviously been difficult. So far, Mondays have been free, but that is just the prelude to a 50-hour work week. By Sunday, catching up on all the AEW Wrestling programming is what comes first and foremost.

I am still determined to keep up the podcast, but the past week was tough. There was a recording scheduled, but other people have lives, so it did not pan out. Unless guests want to stay up late, Sundays are the only day that I am certain can be made for podcasting. With that said, if you have a movie or topic that you want to chat about, send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com.

Or, if you cannot be on the show, let me know of cool cinematic events that I can attend. Or, give me some feedback about the idea of a Patreon. I have to get gas money to drive up to the Music Box Theater every weekend. Two more stays are necessary for me to remain a gold member with Hilton Honors as well.

The actual solution to my issues is, again, to move up to Chicagoland. My landlords upping my rent another $50 like the prior year. What happened to consideration initially provided for the red stain that knocked $50 off my initial rent? What could that substance be?

So I think that means B-Fest was a success for me this year. I am bitching more about my life than enduring what is essentially a double feature in "Xanadu" and Uwe Boll's "BloodRayne". Regardless of the quality of the closing features, fun was still had throughout the two films. That is a step up from last year's "Godzilla" cartoon and "Beast from Haunted Cave".

It may have been the larger crowd. The audience must have been three times larger than the 2022 crowd. In other words, I did not get a couple of Italian exploitation films as a door prize. This larger crowd did allow for some shadow casts and other odes to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". More importantly, I got to see Rick Moranis try to stand up to a leather suspender-sporting Willem Dafoe in "Streets of Fire".

"Big Man Japan" was awesome and "The Children" and "American Ninja" are the type of films that drive this podcast. With how hectic my life is, I am proud to say that I am already pumped for "B-Fest 2024". See you then.