Friday, September 30, 2011

I can't even think of a headline...

It saddens me deeply to forward this: Turkish film director Kunt Tulgar has been to see BILL BAROUNIS (aka Vassilis) in hospital in Greece and according to Turkish film journalist Ali Murat Guven he said:

"Unfortunately Vassilis is dying step by step. He was sleeping deeply."

I'm still hoping for a miracle. :-(


Here's Ali Murat Guven's email in full. It was posted on Cinehound forum today (Friday):


"Dear friend Miltos,

Mr. Kunt Tulgar just arrived to Athens today early in the morning and he didn't want to disturb to you, directly went to the clinic.

He saw Vassilis, Julia and Vassilis' parents. He spent a few times at the hospital and gave Vassilis' honorary prize from Ankara Fantastic Film Festival to Julia.

They called me from the hospital, both of them were so sad. Tulgar said 'Unfortunately Vassilis is dying step by step. He was sleeping deeply. I kissed him and whispered to his ear 'As the Turkish filmmakers, journalists, film fans, we will never forget you and your efforts for us dear Greek brother'.

It was a very tragic moment for me. Kunt and me were crying on the phone.

Mr. Tulgar will return to Turkey on Friday.

I thank you for your friendly informations and helps. We really will never forget our Greek brother and from now on, we will remember him in every fantastic film festivals in Turkey.

Unfortunately, I could only have done this for him. I go on praying for my lovely friend.

Regards,

ALI MURAT GUVEN"




You can read the original posting (including Miltos' comments) here.


Like Kurt said, wish you were here now, Bill. :(

Thursday, September 29, 2011

This is the best toon ever recorded!!!



This is THE FABS doing "That's the bag I'm in" from 1966. It's on BACK FROM THE GRAVE, VOLUME ONE (from Crypt Records). You should own that record!


Every morning when I wake up
I burn my fingers on the coffee pot.
My toast is cold and my orange juice hot.
I could start over but I'd really rather not
'Cause it would only happen over again.

Well, yeah!
Well, that's the bag I'm in.
That's the bag, that's the bag, that's the bag I'm in.
That's the bag, baby!
That's the bag I'm in.
Well, that's the bag I'm in.

I never met a girl I thought could be my friend.
The only money I got is Chinese yen.
They'll probably drop the bomb the day my ship comes in.
I want a steady girl who could be tall and thin.

Well, that's the bag I'm in.
Well, that's the bag I'm in.
Well, that's the bag I'm in.



The lyrics are courtesy of the YouTube uploader.

All hail our king



Gee whiz! During my five year mission thru Cyberspace I've just stumbled over a Bruno Mattei fan site, THE HELL OF BRUNO MATTEI. Another fellow Mattei worshipper!! I have no idea if the site is any good but here is a link anyway. And I don't know if it's still being updated (or who's behind it). The front page was last updated in 2006 but there might be newer reviews.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

KOLCHAK: the night stalker (USA, 1974-75)


I received the KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER complete series boxset today. Yay!! Spiffy!!! I've wanted this show for years!! But there's too many movies in this world so that's why I haven't got around to ordering it until now. Now it's here and whoo-hoo for that.

I've never watched any of the episodes before but I've watched the telly movie and the pilot that preceded the show and found those two to be really good. KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER ran over the US TV screens in 1974-75. Twenty 60 minute episodes! Maybe 20 episodes doesn't sound like much compared to other shows but even so it became a cult show that people are still talking about. I watched episode #1 tonight and I look forward to the remaining 19!!

The basic plot: Carl Kolchak is a newspaper reporter and for some reason he usually runs into unusual cases. In the first episode he's up against "the ripper" (who happens to be Jack the Ripper hisself who has survived since 1888!!). Some of the other episodes are called: "The Zombie", "The Vampire", and "The Spanish Moss Murders"!

As I said there are two TV films that were made before the show; THE NIGHT STALKER from 1972 and THE NIGHT STRANGLER (i.e. the pilot) from 1973.

The two TV movies are released on a reg. 1 MGM DVD but unfortunately it's out of print and it's now so expensive it's ridiculous!! Fortunately I bought it years ago and probably paid something like 10 bucks for it.

The complete TV show (which doesn't include any of the two TV films) is out on DVD in both the US and the UK. Both sets are complete and if you need subtitles (Spanish & English) you'll need the reg. 1 set but otherwise I'll recommend the UK set at it contains the original versions of all episodes. The show's original title in the first four episodes was "The Night Stalker" after which they changed the title to "Kolchak: The Night Stalker". When the show was re-run in the US they changed the title card in the first four episodes and the reg. 1 carries the altered versions. The UK set, on the other hand, uses the original versions. I know-I know, not much of a difference but, hey, THIS SHIT IS IMPORTANT to film geeks like you and me. lolz.

Also, the reg. 1 box presents the 20 episodes on 3 flipper discs whereas the UK set has 5 ordinary discs. There's no extras (and do notice the UK set isn't subtitled).

There was a remake a few years back but I haven't watched it and I seem to remember it bombed.

I got the KOLCHAK set from Amazon UK where it retails for around £10. The video company Playback/Universal have released it in two different cases; the one described on Dvdcompare.net is different to the one I received (one plastic box, not three slimline cases in a cardboard slipcase) but I believe the discs are the same.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

It was a goood Friday!

In addition to the films in my last post I also received these flicks:


This is the Mexican horror movie ALUCARDA (or in Turkish: Alucarda Seytanin Kizi) which I already have on a spiffy DVD from Mondo Macabro but I really love the film and couldn't let the chance to get this Turkish video release pass me by. It's bloody Betamax even!!





This is the Turkish movie ASKIN KANUNU which is directed by legendary cult director Cetin Inanc (who did tons of cool movies like LAST WARRIOR, DEATH WARRIOR and not least TURKISH STAR WARS). I thought I'd include the original cool poster as the cover for the video-cd is atrociously bad.




Woo-hoo! I finally got hold of the DVD re-release of the original VHS release of THE CHARLES BUKOWSKI TAPES. The DVD is listed on eBay all the time but even so it took me months to get hold of a copy. The one seller who had it listed simply wouldn't ship outside of the US. Go figure. >_<
Anyhoo, the 2-disc release looks great and it's got a 36 page booklet included with interview and shit. :D

And finally, this rare Danish BLACK COBRA 2 VHS arrived a few days earlier (courtesy of Mr Mads Jensen og tak for det):

Received yet another small parcel from a Chinese gent in SF...



And what can I say other than arrrrrr [i.e. Homer Simpson drool]

11 laserdiscs and 4 video tapes of Hong Kong films. 6 of the LDs are in plain white covers but I wanted to get them anyway as they're very rare; One of them is the rare version of DEVIL FETUS which is identical to the (also very rare) Ocean Shores VHS and which is an alternative print with some different footage (alternative to the DVD and VCD releases). Oh, and one of the other white sleeve laserdiscs is Tsui Hark's DANGEROUS ENCOUNTER - FIRST KIND!!!

Check the first parcel here.








LEOPARD HUNTING (HK, 1998, s: Jade Leung, Roy Cheung, Yukari Oshima). And yes it's one film on two video tapes! This used to be common practice in HK (and thus also the US Chinatown tapes). I have no idea as to why they did this.



WAY OF THE LADY BOXERS



ANGEL'S PROJECT



THE HAUNTED MADAM



DEVIL'S WOMAN



DEVIL RETURNS (not to be confused with SATAN RETURNS)




SALLY YEH (Sally Yip) live in concert 1991





CRAZY SPIRIT

The remaining white sleeve laserdiscs are: FRIENDLY GHOST, THE FIRST VAMPIRE IN CHINA (which I have on a Japanese VHS but I'm informed this LD is subtitled in English!!!), NEW MR VAMPIRE (!!!), MISS MAGIC.

All in all a very good parcel with 13 rare HK movies (and one Sally Yeh concert). There was a lot of rare stuff I couldn't get because, well, I'm not made of money. LOLZ.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Clean cut bearded man makes lame excuses

This afternoon, and completely by chance, I discovered that old Ninja Dixon and En Lejemorder Ser Tilbage friend Patrick, author of Tales of a Bearded Movie Aficionado blog, has recently made an update.

Unfortunately, it's not to tell us he's making his long awaited return to the blog world but actually to tell us he's not making a return. Patrick's lame excuse for not making any more fun posts is a lack of money! He can't buy rare tapes and shit so obviously he can't blog. What drunken babble is this!! Hmm, come to think of it Patrick is probably a lot less drunk these days as he's (apparently) sobered up. Also, back in the day Patrick was messed up on mescaline and what-have-you shitty drugs that floated around but a couple yrs back his mum had him committed to some clinic for drug losers - or some such.

Anyhoo, to make a short story excruciatingly long Patrick is now living the life of a poor artist! Well, good luck with that, Pattie boy, I wish you the best. But I don't see why you can't blog about films and shit just because you can't afford expensive video tapes!? Collecting expensive stiff doesn't mean shit. Just write about old stuff you've got sitting on your shelf or bought cheap or taped from TV. It ain't that difficult. >_<

Terrible-terrible-terrible news about Bill Barounis!!!

Miltos in Athens posted this about our friend on Cinehound forum yesterday afternoon (Friday):

I'm affraid the news are just terrible. I tried to phone Bill but nobody picked up the phone...This afternoon my wife communicated with Julia -Bill's wife - and she told that Bill is in a clinic, in the emergencies. He is unconsious and intubated and the cancer has been spreaded around...


I don't know what to say. This is just awful. I sincerely wish Bill gets well again but it's certainly looking grimmer than grim right now. :-(

Miltos continued in his post:

No more hope? I guess there is always hope. There must be hidden somewhere.

I spend my night drinking and thinking all the adventures we had together all these years, the video huntings, the screenings, the theaters, even our dream to open a cult theater together some day...Out travels to the edge of Greece for some videos. And some talks we had about more personal matters and thoughts and feelings.

We live in an unfair and cruel world, don't we?


You can follow the thread here.

Friday, September 23, 2011

THE RAMONES - Pet Semetery



Here's a HD copy of the mighty RAMONES' theme song from PET SEMETERY. It's an uber-fun video!! So sad they're dead and gone now (both Dee Dee and Joey Ramone passed away a few years back).


PS: Gee, I want a leather jacket again!!! (and just WHEN did rock'en rollers stop wearing leather jackets??? Nowadays it's, like, bikers have a copyright/owners' right on that!) >_<

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Only surviving "Vampira" episode finally screening at Attic J.


Last night I watched the only surviving episode of the original "Vampira" TV show from 1954!!! It was quite a treat finally getting to watch this show after having read about it for years and years, and after having watched Tim Burton's rendition of it in his (very good) film ED WOOD.

The very first time I saw Vampira (the character) was around 1991 when I went to the cinema and watched PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE in Melbourne. And now, 15+ years later, I finally get to watch her old 1950s TV-show.

The "Vampira" episode was great, dark, cool, horrifying, and everything. In other words; as cool as Tim Burton made it out to be! I thought the DVD would only contain the show itself but actually it also contained the film which Vampira showed on that dark and chilly night: THE MYSTERY OF THE 13TH GUEST (a Monogram horror movie from 1943). I watched the whole thing and the film was all right, not the best horror movie ever, but as I'm saying it was an all right movie. But of course it was nothing compared to the joy of finally getting to watch the "Vampira" show! Even if the whole Vampira thing only lasted five minutes or so!!!

An interesting feature is they kept the original TV ads in the movie and altho I usually hate TV ads I thought this was pretty cool. By the way, I found an on-line listing of all the films Vampira presented on the show and guess what; She did actually show WHITE ZOMBIE as portrayed in ED WOOD! However, in ED WOOD we see WHITE ZOMBIE being shown on Halloween eve which is, eh, let's call it a stroke of artistic freedom on Tim Burton's part, haha. Actually it was shown in May.

The Halloween film (shown the night before Halloween '54) was actually KING OF THE ZOMBIES! Ahhh, Vampira.







The only DVD release of this sole surviving "Vampira" episode is only available from the official Vampira website. It comes in a plain black (of course!) slip case. They ship everywhere. $10 + postage. The picture quality is great.

[This is a slightly edited re-post from 2008]

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

From the guy who made 6 trillion movies in Hollywood and never lost a dime



Yay! Spiffy!! Yesterday, I ordered a couple of films from Roger Corman's eBay store, Roger Corman's Legendary Films. The first one is Jim Wynorski's HARD TO DIE, the trailer certainly looks very cool!




- And also ordered this one; SHAKEDOWN and I bet it received all kinds of bad reviews when it came out but to me it looks like pure fun!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Bizarre and insane English dubbed Hong Kong films the world forgot



If you dig deep enough in the Scandinavian mould you'll find old rusty Viking helmets, warped ABBA records, and... forgotten Hong Kong movies so obscure it defies any logic!!!

Wild and crazy films that must be seen to be believed. And then you even have to check if someone spiced your lemonade with secret substances and made you imagine things that weren't really happening on the TV screen in front of you! But no, they are for real alright!!

These films are dubbed into English and the only place they've probably ever been release are in the Scandinavian countries. If they've even been release in HK it was so long ago that no one remembers - and whatever copies that once were distributed were probably all soaked in petrol and torched by angry customers who rented them from video outlets!

Needless to say you can forget about DVD releases ANYWHERE!! (unless you count DVDs from shady bootleggers like VideoAsia who would use something like 3'rd generation VHS dupes for their "releases").

Check out this scene from STRIKE OF THE TORTURED ANGELS (from 1982, maybe!). It's bizarre to say the least. And before you ask... no, the Chinese girl whose skin is painted black and who is wearing an afro ISN'T playing a Chinese character who's trying to disguise as a black person, no-no, she is a Chinese actress PLAYING a black girl!!! I mean... how... what... I mean... HUH???

I've posted two clips from another of these insane & obscure HK films, SHARK OPERATION; you can watch them here. Thanks to Member-X of Cinehound forum who uploaded the clips from both movies.


PS: Some of these films are also on VHS in Holland and I wouldn't be surprised if they're also out on video in Greece.

Message from Ali Murat Guven about BILL BAROUNIS' condition

This was posted recently in the comments' section on the ONAR FILMS blog. Please notice the writer uses Bill's Greek first name Vassilis.

Click the label at the bottom to read old posts about Bill's condition.

/Jack


----------------------------------------------------------------------



Dear friends,

Greetings to all. My name is Ali Murat Guven. I'am a Turkish film critic, cine historian, have been working in an Istanbul-based newspaper and a close friend of Vassilis. To date, I helped him at the preparing period of many Onar Film DVD releases.

Now, I have a very sad news for all of you. You probably know Vassilis' brain surgery operation in last winter. After that dangerous operation, Vassilis was going to be better step by step. But, at the beginning of last august, suddenly he had a stroke at home and the right side of his body was paralyzed. For one month, he can not move his right arm and right leg.

Like you, I wondered where he is and what is the final situation of Zagor DVD's. Therefore, I called him last august. His wife Julia told all the sad story to me on the phone. I have got his home number and his wife's handy number. After first news, I called his home two more times. Also some of my journalist friends called. He is on the bed, his wife takes him to therapy in the hospital everyday. Sometimes he can speak slowly, but sometimes he can't. One time, I could speak with him.

So, you must pray for Vassilis. He is a very intelligent and good guy. His heart is like an angel. But he lived very bad things this year.
I think, this cure process will go on at least 4-6 months at the hospital. Doctors are trying to walk him again, even with a stick. It is a very difficult cure and needs too much patience.

In my telephone calls, I am trying to motivate positively his wife and him. I always say to the family members, "Everything will be all right again! Please be patient!"
Please don't forget that points:

1) VASSILIS can not buy or sell nothing now and in the near future. At least for 3-4 months...

2) He can't check and reply his e-mails, official web site and blog. PC is forbidden for him. His wife Julia knows NOTHING about his chaotic bussiness relations, agreements, selling-buying rules etc. So, he can't help you in trade.
If you sent him money for a DVD release before, you musn't think negatively and wait for a limited time. He keeps his all words and if he can move again, then he will immediately send all the former releases to your addresses.

3) And finally, "Zagor's" will/must wait -at least- till October or December. He lost too much money in the hospitals since last year. He must find money to recover his business and private life again.

He is generally at home in Athens, Greece. But, he has a daily cure at the hospital. His wife, Mrs. Julia (or Hulia) Barounis can speak English very well. If you need his wife's mobile number to send him your greetings, then send me a message first. I can inform you on the matter and send the phone numbers.

alimuratg@yahoo.com

Best regards to all,

ALI MURAT GUVEN
TURKISH JOURNALIST
ISTANBUL, TURKEY

September 5, 2011 8:46 PM


From when things were good. Bill in 2008

Return of the third rate Mennonite blog preacher

What the fuck was I thinking!! Closing the blog. How retarded! But then again I've done it 3 or 4 times in the past (if you click the "the end" label it'll take you to the very first time which, if I remember correctly, was just a few weeks after I opened the fucken blog!!!). Anyhoo, the blog world needs someone to be the fist in its face and, well, in the horror circuit the LEJEMORDER might as well be that fist. In other words this here mouldy vampire bat is flying once again (and as much under the radar as ever!). xD

Thanks to those of you of expressed frustration, sadness, and a lack of will to live due to my initial post. It warms the knuckles of my heart.




NB: I guess I should be writing this in Pennsylvania German but, uh, maybe that'd be taking the already crappy joke too far.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Everything has its time...

... and sometimes it's time to move on. It seems people are more interested in straight horror blogs these days. And that's cool. But if you are a narcissistic self-confessed pop-culture blog-preacher whose stuff mainly consists of either spewing out surreal ramblings about forgotten shit - or yourself - then maybe you should consider if it's time to take your bible and cross and move someplace else. And quite frankly ... it's time to move someplace else.

I have one more review to post in a wee bit (the Aussie zombie movie AXED) and that'll be it. Thanks for being there. It meant the world. Bye.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Another Jack J Dogme video!



I was about to apologise for this shitty home video (actually my initial headline described it as another entry to "YouTube's Shittiest Home Videos", haha) but then I thought, "Heeeey, this is perfect DOGME!! And it is!! Think about it; On-scene music! Lack of credits! Shaky camera! Mumbled dialogue! No dialogue preparation! No actual start, middle or finish! No lighting! Yep, this is a perfect Dogme home video. Lars would be so proud.

War Victims - trailer

Original title: KAMP TAWANAN WANITA



Here's the rare trailer for Jopi Burnama's Indonesian war/WIP movie WAR VICTIMS. There's no official DVD release but it's released on VHS in the US, Holland, and Japan. I believe both the US and Dutch versions are fullscreen. The Japanese tape is letterboxed.


Director: JOPI BURNAMA

Cast:
MARISSA HAQUE
BOY TIRAYOH
AVENT CHRISTIE
MANGARA SIAHAAN
JEFFRY SANI
DJOKO WAROK
ANEN WIJAYA
USMAN EFFENDY
SIMON PS
FARIDA YASMINE
WATY SIREGAR
NINA ANWAR

Credit info from CITWF.

Thanks to Member-X for the YouTube upload!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Got a small parcel from a Chinese gent in SF yesterday...

...and what an AWESOME parcel it is too! (or rather the CONTENTS are awesome!). Ten rare Hong Kong & Taiwan films. Nine of the tapes are from Tai Seng. Rare shit alright! Most of them are not on DVD and they are quite difficult to come by.







A SERIOUS SHOCK! YES MADAM (Hong Kong, 1993)
aka Yes Madam '92: A Serious Shock/Death Triangle
dir: Albert Lai
s: Cynthia Khan, Yukari Oshima, Moon Lee, Waise Lee, Eric Tsang

ANGEL TERMINATORS 2 (HK, 1993)
dir: Tony Liu Jun-Guk & Chan Lau
s: Moon Lee, Yukari Oshime, Sibelle Hu, Sophia M. Crawford

ANGEL ON FIRE (Philippines, 1995)
dir: Phillip Ko
s: Cynthia Khan, Phillip Ko, Mark Houghton

MISSION OF JUSTICE (HK, 1992)
dir: Tony Liu Jun-Guk
s: Carrie Ng, Moon Lee, Yukari Oshima, Sophia M. Crawford, Gary Daniels, Mark Houghton

THE KILLER FROM CHINA
(Taiwan, 1991)
aka Wolf of China Sea
dir: Cheung Chi-Chiu
s: Alex Man Chi-Leung, Alex Fong

ANGEL THE KICKBOXER (HK, 1993)
title for differently edited version: Honor and Glory
s: Yukari Oshima, Cynthia Rockrock, Waise Lee, Pauline Chan

GUARDIAN ANGEL (Taiwan, 1994)
dir: Phillip Ko
s: Yukari Oshima

DRUG FIGHTERS (HK, 1995)
dir: Yiu Tin-Hung
s: Yukari Oshima

WONDERFUL KILLER (Taiwan, 1993)
dir: Cheung Yan-Git
This one I bought cos Hong Kong Movie Data Base labels it a "bullet ballet"!

WHO'S KILLER (HK, 1992)
aka Blood Island
dir: James Wu
This one I bought cos it's a HK horror movie! xD


Oh, and did I mention I'm awaiting the arrival of these spiffy laserdiscs:

dangerous encounter-1st kind (!!!)
devil fetus
friendly ghost
first vampire in china
miss magic
crazy spirit
haunted madam
devil returns
devil woman
new mr. vampire
sally yep in concert
leopard hunting (vhs)

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

More HK awesomeness coming this way

ANGEL'S PROJECT (HK 1993, Moon Lee & Sibelle Hu)



WAY OF THE LADY BOXERS (HK 1993, Sibelle Hu)

Monday, September 12, 2011

Christoph Klüppel interview


When Hong Kong movies became the new fan flavour among horror and action movie fans 20 years ago little was known about the Gwilo (i.e. white) actors who starred in many of these movies (usually as bad guys). Nowadays most info about these white HK actors is well known territory. However, there's still stuff to be discovered! A stone-throw from HK is Thailand and one of the Gwilo actors (altho they undoubtedly don't actually use that phrase there, LOL) who starred in many Thai action films is German born he-man Christoph Klüppel.

I've seen him on numerous video and VCD covers but I never knew anything about him - and neither did you. Well, why don't you leave this hell-hole and jump over to Fred Anderson's blog, NINJA DIXON, and check today's post out. Fred just fucken interviewed the guy!! Very cool indeed! Klüppel was in films such as IN GOLD WE TRUST, THE LOST IDOL, MISSION HUNTER 1 & 2, and SATANIC CRYSTALS. The interview is very long and Fred says he's gonna split it up and post segments every day for a week or so.
For the interview go here!

Check out Klüppel in this rare trailer for the equally rare English language version of DARK DAY EXPRESS:

Friday, September 9, 2011

Banned in Britain #1 now online!

Thanks to one of my old readers, Mette Trier, the first issue of my first fanzine, BANNED IN BRITAIN from 1994 is now available again! This time not in print but as an online edition. The issue has been sold out for many years so this is definitely cool!

Mette Trier used to read my other fanzine, STAY SICK!, in the early 2000s, in fact she was my only subscriber as I didn't actually offer an official subscription service but as the only of my readers she just said, "Just send me every issue and I'll pay for it"! She was also one of the only two readers who actually took me up on it when my editorials used to say, "Please send me free money and/or candy". Mette sent me both free money and candy! Why aren't more readers like that!

After I published my (so far) last issue of STAY SICK! in 2003 we kinda lost touch (this was before I got hooked onto the internet) and it took 8 years to get in back in touch. And yes, I found her via Facebook, LOL. I did consider the possibility that Mette might have lost interest in underground publications like SS and BiB but fortunately this wasn't the case, and in fact Mette said, "You want me to scan all your zines and put them online?" Mette, please leave your husband, kids, and secure life and move in with me, I love you! xD



Anyhoo, so far BANNED IN BRITAIN #1 is out there in Cyberspace for everyone to read, and I'll get the other issues organised and sent off to Mrs Trier. Click the link which will take you to the magazine at issuu. To read it you'll need to either log in to issuu or use your Facebook log-in. You can print out the zine if you want and make as many copies as you like, please just don't make any profit on it. Cheers.

Read BANNED IN BRITAIN #1 here.

There was a full decade between BANNED IN BRITAIN #1 and #2! The second issue came out in 2004 and so far I've only published those two issues. Should I do a third? Naaah!! I am working on a new issue of STAY SICK! though (in Danish).

Huge big thanks to Mette for the scanning and uploading! :D

Thursday, September 8, 2011

The Batman vs. Dracula (Michael Goguen, USA, 2005)

THE BATMAN VS. DRACULA is a feature length catoon film made for television. I haven't watched the Batman cartoons since sometime in the early 90s when they ran on German tv (not that I ever lived in Germany mind you but via satellite tv). I feared this Batman take on the vampire story might be too, ahm, cartoonish but I think it's done quite well. And the darkness that Frank Miller introduced in the magazine is kept pretty good.

The plot: the ultimate insane inmate (guess who) from Arkham Asylum escapes and tries to find a hidden loot from some robbery. Another Arkham inmate (one Mr Oswald Cobblepot. LOL) follow suit, also to try and find the loot which is hidden somewhere at the Gotham cemetery. Obviously they find the wrong grave.

The film grabbed my attention all the way thru and altho you know the Bat man is probably going to make it to the end the road to there is uneven enough to make you wonder how it's all gonna end. The soundtrack is good and like I said I like that they are sticking to the dark style. Was it scary? Well, seasoned horror fans are not easily scared so no - but I certainly don't think THE BATMAN VS. DRACULA is aimed at the wee ones. All in all I enjoyed the movie heaps.

SPOILER: If there's one thing I disliked it was the fact that no one dies; I mean, come on, it's a vampire film for Christ's sakes! Even if it's set in the DC Comics universe. End of Spoiler.

The extras on the DVD consist of short interview bits, a making of the dubbing process which is fun to watch, and finally a handful of trailers. The film is subbed and dubbed in English/French/Spanish. I bought the reg. 1 DVD which, altho I got it from Amazon UK, was four times cheaper than the UK DVD! Go figure. o_O

The Broken (Sean Ellis, UK, 2008)

I watched the new (everything after 2000 is *new* to me in the world of horror movies!) British horror movie THE BROKEN the other day. I don't wanna reveal too much about the plot but it's kind of a variation on the old THE BODY SNATCHERS theme. The director, Sean Ellis, wanted a horror movie in the vain of the old films that didn't rely on gore or full blown monster makeup and I must say he did a great job in that direction (however there is ONE gore scene that's quite awesome. Look out for it!). There's thankfully no lame humour or "cool" one-liners and the actors are all good. It's a co-production with France so the main character's boyfriend obviously had to be from the land of the cooked frogs. LOL. The UK DVD is good altho the extras are pretty lame. Whoever invented the cut-up interview form ought to be tarred and feathered and run out of town! Overall a highly recommended film.


Thanks to Member-X for the tip.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

More AWESOME stuff on an obsolete format

Argh! I have spent way, way too much money on HK films on VHS and LD from the US in the last 24 hours!!! But I had the green and I suddenly stumbled over three tons of films that I've been looking out for for year and years!!! The tapes listed in the last post are from a different seller (and I'll be getting more from him!) so for now I'll just show you these four HIGHLY COOL laserdiscs that I paid for a couple of hours ago. Hopefully they'll fly under the evil customs' VAT tax radar!!



Anthony Wong in the Cat. III film UNDERGROUND BANKER. I've been looking for that one for YEARS!



The Vietnam war film LEATHERNECKS (filmed in the Philippines) on HK LD!!! Awesome!!!



MANIACAL BEAUTY ON THE LOOSE. This is one of a handful of Cat. III films that I posted an article (written by somebody else) about in my zine STAY SICK! #1 from 2000 and that I've been wanting ever since!!!



LETHAL PANTHER!! On HK LD. If I remember correctly I've already got this one of two different DVDs, a video tape, and on VCD. But what the hell, this may be the best version and I love those oversized covers!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

[insert Homer Simpson drool here]


Now this is really beyond awesome!! I've just won these two much wanted video tapes on an eBay auction. Argh. Insane! The two films are A SERIOUS SHOCK! YES MADAM (aka YES, MADAM '92: A SERIOUS SHOCK) (starring Cynthia Khan, Moon Lee & Yukari Oshima) and ANGEL TERMINATORS 2 (Moon Lee, Yukari Oshime & Sibelle Hu). Both films are insane GIRLS WITH GUNS/GIRLS KICK ASS AND LOOK CUTE films!! I've already got both films but getting them on VHS is awesome! Yay!!




Uh, I also bought 8 more rare tapes but I'll post those later.

Lejemorder in foreign



I've just added a translator thingy to the Danish section of this blog so now you can read all that "Dutch" stuff in your own language (or at least in English if your own lingo isn't listed)! Needless to say the translations are crap and look like literature from Bizarro World but, hey, you'll get a gist of what I'm babbling about.

Link to the Danish section to the right >>>>>>>

I get up early in the morning - no matter how disappointed I was the day before



I feel like he is here with me now - even though he's dead.

I own two Eels records. I should clearly buy more. :/


Saturday, September 3, 2011

There's only one defender of the law that counts... and his name is ARBITRARY JUSTICE!

"The Reason is bigger than you!"

I discovered the Italian superhero GIUSTIZIA ARBITRARIA ("Arbitrary Justice" in English) completely by chance when surfing thru unknown blog land some months back. As far as I know the comic is the work of the blog author and the series isn't published outside that particular blog - which is a complete shame as ARBITRARY JUSTICE is AWESOME! The series is very funny and of course completely anarchistic; Arbitrary Justice upholds the law against you!! Hahaha. I've translated one of the stories and you can check more here (but they're only in Italian). Click on the scan twice to see it in full size.



Title: "Arbitrary Justice against self-esteem"
Text under headline: "Based on a true story"

Frame 1: From now on enough with the bullshit... We put everything back in line!

Frame 2: Say it! Say that you're a piece of shit!!!

Frame 3: I'm... I'm a piece of shit!

Frame 5: Then you die!!!

Frame 6: I hate shit...




Thanks to Francesco Maria Zaghini for a couple of corrections in regards to the translation.