Friday B-Movie Pick: Genesis II
Dipping into the mid-70s well again, we find this 1973 SciFi flick by none other than Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. Set post-apocalyptic where humankind nuked the crap out of the planet, and people are digging out, rebuilding, and empire building. Mariette Hartley provides some nice eye candy, and ya, Roddenberry gets a bit preachy. No surprise there.
Sunday SciFi: UFO
UFO was live action SciFi show from the puppet master himself, Gerry Andersen, that ran for a single season of 23 episodes back in 1970.
Great actors, dark thoughtful scripts that always didn’t have a happy ending, sharp miniature work, and a late 60s sense of style and fashion made this show really stand out. Oh and the purple haired moon chicks in silver miniskirts. The cast included Michael Billington, who, according his wikipedia entry, was screen tested for the role of James Bond more than any other actor.
The show also other cool eye candy, including the gull wing door cars, nuclear submarines with a jet fighter mounted on their bow, space interceptors and S.I.D. (Space Intruder Detector). What really made the show was the dark, thought provoking scripts, complex characters and some fine acting by Billington, Ed Biship and Gabrielle Drake.
There is a UFO movie, based on the series in the works. Currently scheduled for a Summer 2013 release.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Black Belt Jones
Another martial arts classic staring Jim Kelly. Coming at you straight from 1974, this “kung fu” flick also falls squarely in the blaxploitation sub-genre as well. This is mid-70s low budget drive-in theater fodder in all its glory. Jim Kelly delivers the martial arts goods, and manages to carry this flick with some decent acting chops as well.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Halloween Edition
Yup, it’s almost Halloween, so we’re going with the classics:
An American Werewolf in London
Friday B-Movie Pick: Near Dark & Dog Soldiers
It’s almost Holloween, so today we have a double header of Vampires and Werewolves. The first is a low buget classic from 1987. A group of vampires roaming Oklahoma those recent yet far away days before ubiquitous cell phones, multiple 24/7 news channels and new media news back channels. There is plenty of blood and mayhem to go around in this dark and violent vampire flick that never uses the word “vampire.” Dog Soldiers was made fifteen years later, but has a lot of the same noir grittiness. A small group of British soldiers are dropped into the remote countryside for some “routine” training. Add a group of werewolves that “just happen to be in the area”, and you have a nice flick to get you in the mood for Holloween.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
Donny Yen, son of Boston Kung Fu Master Bow Sim Mark, and start of the Yip Man films, stars in this excellent martial arts flick. He plays Chen Zhen, Bruce Lee’s character from The Chinese Connection. After seeing the horrors of war in WWI France, Chen returns to Shenghai to continue his battle against the Japanese. The action is excellent, and the acting quite good. As Joe-Bob would say, check it out!
Friday B-Movie Pick: Paul
This nerd fest of a film is a big sloppy wet kiss, with tounge, to Steven Spielberg. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost wrote the screenplay and star as a pair of British SciFi fans who make the pilgrimage to Comic Con in San Diego. Then they start on a road trip to obsure SciFi and UFO sites, including the spot where the ST:TOS episode Arena was film in order to act out the battle between Kirk and the Gorn. Then they run into the title character, a Gray, who is colored green in the film (“Little Green Men” reference). From there it, the film becomes a drinking game as you spot every single SciFi reference slid into nearly every scene.
Oh ya, of course this film, like every episode of The Middleman, has a Wilhelm Scream.
Sunday SciFi: Classic Star Wars Poster
Ah yes, the original 1977 Star Wars, not episode IV, not “A New Hope”, just a low budget SciFi film with a bunch of relatively unknown actors as stars and a director who’s last movie was about hot rods in the early sixties. The version where Han shot first because he was a rogue, a smuggler, one who operated outside the law.
Star Wars was a B movie, complete with the Wilhelm scream, and we loved it.
Friday B-Movie Pick: Just Go With It
Ya, it’s a romcom, but it is an Adam Sandler romcom. So expect some low brow, but damn funny humor. While swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker provides most of the eye candy in the film, Jennifer Aniston manages to slip in one bikini scene, which she handles quite well. That scene also leads to one of many great lines in the movie, “She takes spinning classes like they’re M&M’s.” Aniston holds her own with Sandler on the comedy as well. While she was hired as a pretty face on Friends, ten seasons of a TV sitcom show did give here plenty of time to hone her comedic acting skills. If you are looking for an off-beat romcom, complete with sheep CPR, check it out.
Friday B-Movie Pick: The Perfect Weapon
Yup, it’s been 20 years since this martial arts action flick first hit the big screen. As martial arts films go, it’s fairly typical. So-so script, typical revenge plot with a prodigal son twist thrown in for flavor, and a cast of regulars in the genre. This was supposed to be the big break film for American Kenpo master Jeff Speakman. Didn’t quite turn out that way, but the karate scenes are good and the rest of the cast (which includes Mako and Professor Tanaka), make worth the rental, if you can find it.