Cinema Somnambulist Is 3 Years Old Today

This is the official soundtrack for this post:



Daymn, are you serial? Yes, my friends, it's true. I just called to say I love you and I mean it from the bottom of my bottom. So I've been doing this blog dealie for 3 years now and I have loved every minute of it. I have been so lucky to have such great folks reading the blog, following the blog, commenting on posts, and making connections to their blogs with mine that it's just insane. Thank you so much, all of you, and thank you for being patient while I get some of my other projects off the ground. I already have theme months and other goodies planned for when this summer of writing my ass off is over and I can get back to writing my ass off for the blog. I'm keepin' it rael. Dats a promise.

He Made Me Do It: Last Tango In Paris and Saint Jack

This is He Made Me Do It.

This is a movie challenge featuring Brad and Richard choosing movies for each other to watch.

This could get ugly.

Round 5

Warning: Contains some spoilers.



Richard: I want you to see Last Tango in Paris because it is one of my favorite films of all time. Yeah, I know it's a dirty movie but it is one of the least sexy dirty movies ever made in my opinion. Marlon Brando in this movie... Damn. This performance makes we wish he had completely retreated from the public eye forever. Forget The Godfather, this is, for my money, the best the man had to offer. And don't let that grim tone and all that morbid dialog fool you, Last Tango is one of the most life-affirming pieces of cinema I have ever seen. I hope you see what I see when you see this film. Life is a ballroom dancer and you can make fun of her garish outfit and death-mask makeup all you want but she will be tangoing long after you're gone.

Brad: This is one that had escaped me over the years. I love Bertolucci's The Conformist so it was just a matter of time before I got around to it so I thank you for forcing my hand. The first thing I noticed was cinematography by Vittorio Storaro. Now I'm super sold because Storaro is, in my opinion, the best cinematographer that ever lived. The opening scene with Brando screaming under the train set the tone very well. Before I go on I'd like to ask you to elaborate on your "most life-affirming pieces of cinema" statement.

Richard: It's complicated. And maybe it's more of how the film makes me feel. I think a lot of the answer lies in the cinematography you mentioned. How could any movie that beautiful not be life-affirming? Mainly, I think Jeanne and Paul reject life when they make their little pact and have their anonymous affair. The results are fucking disastrous. After Paul breaks that pact and attempts to form a real relationship with Jeanne... Well, you know the result. Once you're dead, you're dead. You can't change the rules and come back and be a real person.

Brad: Excellent point. I think Paul is dead from the get go. I think he only became alive when he declared his love for Jeanne at the end. His face changes. His life changes. It ends. So while the end results are disastrous I think that 5 seconds are the best of Paul's life that we see in the film.

Richard: Nice. I think the message of the movie is "No glove, no love."

Brad: Most films you can't truly absorb in one viewing and that is especially true of this one. I think Brando's mid period is far more interesting than his early days. I'll see this one again.



Brad: You should see Saint Jack because it is one of the 70's most underrated films. Can you really have too much Ben Gazzara? Bogdanovich made two films in a row, this and They All Laughed, that did not get the distribution that they deserved. Denholm Elliot proves that he was much more than the bumbling Marcus Brody of the Indiana Jones films. I know you are a fan of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and this is a great companion piece. Bogdanovich should have had a big comeback with this character piece about a pimp in Singapore. Sadly it is not as well known as it should be.

Richard: It took me a really, really long time to get around to Saint Jack because I had a feeling that it would have been ruined if I tried to watch it too soon or checked it out when I wasn't in the mood. So I finally got to it the other night and it couldn't have hit me more perfectly than it did. When the credits were rolling and I saw that Bogdanovich was directing with Roger Corman producing, my mind just started reeling. I was like "I know absolutely dick about where this film is going!" What can I say? Saint Jack is all drunk smiles, bro hugs, and manly tears for me. I love the happy-go-lucky street smart loser that Ben Gazzara is the master of. The film has an excellent comedic edge to it with all the grittiness to make it feel more realistic. Also, I love how it ends as it begins. Classic. And you're absolutely right about this being a companion piece to The Killing of a Chinese Bookie which is an old favorite of mine. Excellent recommend, sir.

I'm Just A Top 10 List Among Many Other Fine Top 10 Lists

I was invited by the awesome Scott of EuroCultAV to contribute to a list of top 10 lists. How did I do?

EuroCultAV.com Presents Top 10 Horror Lists

Just a warning: I did a sort of top of the bottom top 10.

Shadow of Illusion

Hello. It's me, Richard. I wrote a review. It's right here. I hope you like it. 

Hello! This is the Doomed Show #17 - A Very Special Episode

Okay, Brad and I recorded something and we're calling it episode 17. We hope you like it?

Listen or download here

Hello! This is the Doomed Show #16 - Bootleg Special

Brad and I discuss two rare films: Dark Echoes and The House on the Outskirts.

You can listen and download the episode RIGHT HERE MUTHAFUKKA!



You can get these fine films from Cinema De Bizarre and Euro Trash Cinema.

VHS Covers of Doom - Part 5

While I'm doing all this VHS tape slingin' on eBay, I have been thinking about the VHS tapes whose covers were, for one reason or another, just so terrifying that I never could muster up the courage to rent. Some of these are pretty obvious but others might need a bit of explaining.



This is pretty obvious. Yeah, I didn't see Blood Feast until I was in my 20s.



I had completely forgotten about Grotesque until the DVD came out recently.  This is such gorgeous artwork though it does look more like a horror fiction book cover than a VHS. All I know for sure is that my youthful fright came back very strong. I kept my distance from this tape.



I was scared of Junior and I never rented it. The reason being that I imagined that the wood that the chainsaw is cutting through was flesh. Why? I don't know. I just did. The thought of all that carnage (which probably isn't in the film) just made me feel queasy. 



These two effective covers, one for Scared Stiff and one for Humongous and they are both pretty obvious as to why they were too much for me. Scary faces! I think Humongous is more brilliant because it hides what is likely something very much like the image on Scared Stiff. 





After I saw both Jaws and Jaws 2 on television, it was over for me and shark films. O-V-E-R. The artwork for this cover for Up From the Depths was obviously inspired by the burned face of the shark in Jaws 2. Seriously though, this is one crunked up undersea beast! That was more than enough for me and I never watched this film.

More VHS covers of doom!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Hello! This is the Doomed Show Episode #15 - Terror

It's not a secret. It's a podcast. Here is our fifteenth episode, my friends. We talk about Norman J. Warren's Terror and a bunch of other insanities. Listen/download here or check out the archives.



Your votes are in and here's the mascot you've chosen for us:

Queens of Evil Review

Brad has been quite busy while I'm toiling away at this thing they call Giallo Meltdown: The Book. He has written his first review for Doomed Moviethon. It's of a rather unusual and beautiful little film called Queens of Evil. Check it out right here. The film is available from the awesome folks at Cinema de Bizarre.

Introducing... Mimsy

My friend Brad (co-host of the podcast and frequent contributor to this blog) and I have had a musical collaboration going for a while now called Mimsy. Inspired by the sheer awesomeness of Mimsy Farmer and our varying musical influences, we make stuff. Brad sends me his beats from Kentucky and I send him my guitar parts from Tampa. We mix them all together and out pours the Mimsy. I used his track "Pumpkin Dressed In White" to put together this little tribute the one and the only, Lady Farmer. Check it out.

Twenty Nine Bucks

So I strolled into Sound Exchange (the Tampa location of course) with the intention of going through the dollar CDs when I realized that their dollar CD bin is something pathetic now (like less than a 100 CDs!). I was like "FINE! YOU FORCE ME TO BROWSE THROUGH YOUR USED DVDS!" And browse I did. Here's what I picked up. Now keep in mind that I only spent 29 dollars.

Humanoid Monster Bem

Years ago, I was obsessed with this anime TV series intro but I couldn't find any information on it. Now I have FINALLY (remembered that I was looking for it, ur... I mean) found it. The show is called Yokai Ningen Bem and its 26 episodes originally aired in Japan in the fall of 1968 and into the spring of 1969. I initially thought that it looks like a Japanese Scooby Doo by way of Groovie Goolies. But based on the plot description, I guess it was more action than mystery solving. Of course, it's been remade a few times and the results are not so hot. So anyway, if anyone knows where I can find some subtitled episodes of the original 1968 series let me know!

Here's the video I saw:



Here's a longer version:



The show got remade in 2006 and it looks like shit:



There was a live action TV special and it looks like shit:

Hello! This is the Doomed Show 14 - The Demon

Finally! Hello! This is the Doomed Show is back from a short hiatus. Between illnesses and birthdays and whatevers, duders needed some time. But we're back with an episode on The Demon from 1979. You can listen or download right here.  Want to check out some older episodes? Then please go to the archives located right here yo. Anyway, enjoy the show. We are going to try very hard not to make you wait so long for the next one. Try. Very. Haaarrrrrd.

The VHS Sale 4 EVA

A famous man (I think it was Christopher Lee) once said that "(I'm Christopher Lee and I say:) Everything is scarier on VHS!" Well, I know that and I know you know that and I know that you know that I know that you that you know that. That. So here I am once again slinging some analog at ya! I am going to have new items up at the shop EVERY WEEK until all of my precious VHS are gone! Eventually, I am going to sell some DVDs too but I can't even wrap my mind around that yet.

So please check the store out.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOOMED MOVIETHON!

My favorite site, Doomed Moviethon, is seven years old today!

To celebrate, I'm having a wicked VHS sale! Check it out!

Here are ten of my favorite movies that I've reviewed over the years:

Zeder
Wicked City
The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism
Shinjuku Triad Society
Night of the Creeps
Matango
The House with the Laughing Windows
Grapes of Death
Freaky Farley
Death Smiled at Murder