Monkeybone DVD

Planet of the inner ape

Stu Miley (Brendan Fraser) is a successful cartoonist who just sold his strip “Monkeybone” to the Comedy Channel as an animated series. He’s fielding proposals for all kinds of merchandising, and is about to propose to the doctor who cured his insomnia, Julie McElroy (Bridget Fonda as the Beautiful Young Woman). His agent (Dave Foley) wants him to cash in and sell out, but Stu just wants to be left alone to enjoy the simple life. His plans run swiftly awry when he has an auto accident, which puts him in a coma.

It also puts him on a roller coaster ride headed for “Down Town”, subconscious land of his innermost dreams and nightmares – a place filled with strange creatures, much like the dark side of H.R. Pufnstuf’s Living Island, a Lidsville that’s flipped its lid. There he meets his creation Monkeybone (voiced by John Turturro) – a horny, obnoxious cartoon simian – in the flesh. Continue reading

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Devil Ant 2

Devil Ant 2: Devil Ant Rises from the Grave

David “The Rock” Nelson is still the only working filmmaker that really puts his own blood into his cinema. It’s true! He frequently sells his own plasma to buy videotape and other equipment. Even Roberto Rodriguez can’t match that claim. In this epic, sequel to the award winning original Devil Ant, Det. Rock (David “The Rock” Nelson) visits the Devil Ant’s grave. But is the Potent Pismire really dead, killed by TV horror host Svengoolie? No! A bolt of lightning revives the oversize rubber formicid, and its reign of terror continues! The incredulous Rock is called in on the case, but as usual, is too lazy to do much about it. Continue reading

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Lady Frankenstein DVD

Only the monster she made could satisfy her strange desires!

One need only view the trailer to see why Lady Frankenstein jumps to the top of monster fans’ “guilty pleasures” lists. Rarely are so many strange and eccentric elements contained in one picture. To start off you’ve got Joseph Cotten, who went from starring in pictures for Orson Welles to starring in this one as Baron Frankenstein for (unrelated) Mel Welles. This Welles was better known as a character actor, most
notably for playing the grumpy flower shop owner Gravis Mushnik in Roger Corman’s Little Shop of Horrors – what was he doing producing and directing an Italian horror film? Then you’ve got the title character, plladyfrank9ayed by the beautiful Sara Bay, better known now as Rosalba Neri, sexy Italian actress from dozens of Spaghetti Westerns and Hercules pictures. By 1971, the trend toward more blatant sexuality in films had spread to the horror genre, and Ms. Neri promised to take things as far as they could go. And finally, you’ve got not one, but TWO of the best super-powered monsters that 19th century science could provide. The trailer promises all this, plus brain surgery, impalement, perversion and other assorted mayhem. What drive-in movie fan could resist? Continue reading

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Metropolis

Anime vitae

Osamu Tezuka was so taken with Fritz Lang’s Metropolis that he had to create his own version. In 1949, Tezuka was one of Japan’s favorite young cartoonists. His New Treasure Island series had been a big hit, and subsequent stories using many of the same cartoon “actors” had only increased his popularity. His work had turned more to science fiction by then, and he’d recently completed his own comic version of The Lost World. Within a few years, Tezuka would be the most successful cartoonist since Disney.

Metropolis is one of his minor works, considering he would create Astro Boy – based on some of the same concepts – two years later. The film adaptation of his manga was one of the last projects of his life. It’s only right that Rintaro, who had started working with Tezuka on the Astro Boy TV series, be the one to continue Tezuka’s work in feature animation. And it’s only fitting that Katsuhiro Otomo, who created such an enduring Metropolis of his own in Akira, write the script for the feature.  Continue reading

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Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

Greatest Show on Middle Earth

It’s been 30 years since I read J.R.R. Tolkien’s massive follow-up to The Hobbit, but Peter Jackson’s colossal screen adaptation of the first third of the novel makes it feel like only yesterday. Some details are a bit off from the way I imagined them – in particular, I saw Tolkien’s race of ground-dwelling small folk, the hobbits themselves, as generally hairier and more burly. But many things in the film are just as I imagined them. More still are even better. Continue reading

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Battle Royale

40 kids go in – only one comes out

Ever watch a “reality” TV show like Survivor (or Big Brother or The Real World) and wonder what it would be like if, instead of getting voted off the island, contestants would be put to death? In the Not Too Distant Future, an economic collapse, followed by rocketing unemployment and school boycotts, results in the government passing the Millennium Education Reform Act, allowing the creation of the Battle Royale Survivor Program. Orphaned Nanahara (Tatsuya Fujiwara) finds that his middle school class trip is a ruse – his class is the latest to be abducted for this year’s BR tournament. Continue reading

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Monsters Crash the Pajama Party Spook Show Spectacular DVD

Ghosts-a-poppin’ at the midnight chasm of spasms!

Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and witness something that few eyes have seen before: a true DVD masterpiece! On this slim disc you will find not only a collection of the craziest little film oddities ever assembled on digital media, but also a veritable ghost show museum, a valuable lesson in show business history, an interactive game, and a bonus feature film – all in one inexpensive little package! Continue reading

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Jeepers Creepers

A new Boogeyman in town

It may be a bit early to call this one a horror classic, but Jeepers Creepers has a lot of the same spirit of invention and old fashioned scare tactics as Halloween, if you can get past a few hurdles. The first problem may be the title, which sounds too cutesy, despite the fact that the script tries to justify it. The second hurdle is the fact that the protagonists pull some major blunders – the kind that have the audience screaming at them (though the characters acknowledge the fact even as they’re screwing up). Continue reading

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Nutcracker: An American Nightmare VHS

Dance of the sugar plum psychosis

The Nutcracker story has always been one of the more disturbing Christmas tales for me. The image of the madly staring figure in military dress is bad enough, but even worse is the focus on its menacing mouth, ready to strike with crushing force. And don’t even mention his tendency to get into bloody fights with sewer rats. Continue reading

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Dracula’s Daughter / Son of Dracula DVD

Vampire offspring Universal double feature

For the 2001 crop of Universal Monsters classics on DVD, they appear to be getting down to the “B-squad” titles. Thus, they’ve generously decided to give our wallets a slight break and combine this wave into double features, with the deluxe treatment now downgraded to a few simple features, such as some notes and trailers. I look forward to next year, when we will no doubt see a triple feature of all three Paula the Ape Woman movies on one disc. Continue reading

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