Undeadcow

I enjoy the challenge checklists but I think the Exploitation Challenge one could use some streamlining.
- A lot of the subcategories feel overwelming at times (i.e. the 5 types of martial arts films or 6 sexploitation subset - I'm likely to watch 1-2 from either, it feels too specific). Checklists are typically good at encouraging diversity - but here there are only minor distinctions between items.
- I love the emphasis on "safe list" actors/directors/etc which feels really open while also encouraging variety and a better understanding of film "history."

SterlingBen

Watching my last movie of the challenge and my last unseen movie from the Mill Creek Drive in megaset. Didn't quite hit my goal of 60 but I do feel good to have knocked out the aforementioned set.

mrcellophane

I finished up the challenge with Gojira (1954), a personal favorite film of mine. About halfway through, a friend dropped in and got caught up in it.

Mondo Kane

Thank you, C-God for hosting another fun challenge!

Only 8 out of 125 movies were repeat viewings. Not bad!!!

One goal I had for this challenge was to go back in time (The days when I would wander around the video store) and finally pick these suckers off the racks and watch them:

^Though I can't say that a lot of those turned out to be any big winners, I'm honestly glad that I've now seen them.

(Annual Awards time)

Favorites:
Miami Connection
The Burning Hell
Blind Fury
Date Bait
Nightmare in Badham County
Sex Wish
Dragon Missle
The Velvet Vampire
Martial Club/Darker Than Amber (Loved their climactic fights)
The Love Garden
The New One-Armed Swordsman
Reform School Girls

Least Favorites:
Omega Doom
Battlefield Earth
Queen Pin
The Rotten Apple
Bulletproof
Two Roses and a Golden Rod

Disappointments:
Death Dimension-Thought it would be as good as Black Samurai at least (Another Adamson/Kelly film) Not even close.
No Retreat, No Surrender 2-I'm pretty sure this wasn't the original title.
The Klansman-I thought I had a copy of the long sought-after R-rated version, but I continue to remain stuck with the TV-version.

Surprised that I liked:
Tougher Than Leather
Robot Jox
Tentacles
Caged Fury
Bloodeaters

WTF did I just watch?
Chappaqua (Although I knew that going in)
Death Warmed Up
The Weird World of LSD

Well said, sir. Well said.

....And I, too, have yet to get that song out of my head as well.

caligulathegod

That's pretty much why I put in the 10 free spots, which I think is unique to this challenge. They are to help each person streamline his own challenge because of availability and also taste issues for the handful of categories that might be a bit much for some viewers (like Porn or the Nuns and Nazi stuff.)

It's a tough balance between being inclusive in such a varied set of films and being too detailed, but I don't think we are too detailed. Sexploitation is probably the most ubiquitous exploitation genre, so it deserves a special focus. Variations of Emanuelle alone has over 80 films, so she gets her own spot. The Martial Arts category is just your regular martial arts films from Asia, American films (Chuck Norris, Van Damme, etc.), and the subgenre of Ninja Films. Bruce Lee is the most important figure in the genre, but he only made a handful of films (so he's just a bonus), but here's over 50 Bruce Lee Clone films, so it gets its own spot.

Clones of Bruce Lee:

caligulathegod

Thanks to all who participated. Just a reminder to please tally your lists in the next week by the 7th. I'll try to have the totals up by the 14th.

caligulathegod

So glad my Code Red pre-orders of Savage Streets and The Redeemer Blu-rays and also Bloodsucking Freaks Blu-rays arrived just in time.

shadokitty

Thanks for a great challenge Caligula. While I got burnt out a couple times during the challenge and had to slow down, I still had fun. I finished with 43, not a bad number. Almost half of those were first time views too, with 18 FTVs.

pacaway

I don't know if any of you noticed, but I slowly built my banner on my list out of the posters of the movies I saw. Turned out the 38 movies and couple of shorts I watched filled it perfectly! Good thing I didn't watch anything last night!

For the first time, I had NO selections that were not first time viewings! 38 for 38 (not counting the shorts, or it would be 41 for 41). Didn't get many off the unwatched pile (only 7) but I did see quite a few at the theater (12, 9 at the film festival, a midnight showing of Reefer Madness, the two Nymphmaniac von Trier movies) which was nice.

Anyway, the highlights for me this month were:
The Baby (1973) - caught off guard by the ending of this absolutely ridiculous plot! If you haven't seen it yet, you should. Don't be turned off by how ridiculous it seems in the first few minutes.
Spider Baby (1968) - real low budget Lon Chaney movie, but has some really creepy moments
Late Phases (2014) - of course the ENTIRE Calgary Underground Film Festival was a highlight this month, but this particular movie, shown at midnight one evening, was an interesting twist on the werewolf theme, and wasted no time getting into the action. Seek it out!
Nurse 3D (2013) - could have been a little less toned down. seemed like they were going for a PG 13 rating or something near the beginning (since when do nurses shower in their underwear?), but it got a little better near the end.
Disco Godfather (1979) I was dreading watching a Blaxploitation film because it is just not my cup of tea, but when TCM showed this, with such a great title, I went for it. I was NOT disappointed! It had it all... B-Movie glory!

Disappointments:
Sinbad of the Seven Seas - I LOVE Lou Ferrigno, but once you know Lou's real speaking voice from years of watching The King of Queens, the overdubbed dialog is almost impossible to sit through.
The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones was almost impossible to sit through as well. I think it took three sittings to finish it. The makers must have recently attended the course, "How to take two beloved animated franchises and turn them into one unfunny unbearable film 101"
Poison Ivy: The Secret Society - How is this a Poison Ivy movie? I'm sure it will just kill the series. If I'm not mistaken the point of these movies was to use sex (typically, adulterous) as a weapon for revenge or exploitation. This one had none of that, let alone the extremely PG13 (or PG even) nudity. And I'm not even a fan of these movies and I'm disappointed! What does that tell you?

So, in conclusion to this year's challenge, put your weight on it, and tell your children!

Thanks, caligulathegod! I still have a crap-load for next year!

wayoutjunk

And if you're still not in a hurry to get it out of your head, you can go to this website and get free mp3s of both that song and "Against the Ninja"!

shadokitty

Saw that as a kid, along with some of the other Jetsons TV movies. Trust me, they all sucked big time.

Ash Ketchum

Finished up yesterday with FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH and KILL BILL VOL. 1. It was the use of the "Ironside" theme in FIVE FINGERS that prompted me to dig out KBV1 (Japanese cut). So then, prompted by the music in KB, my goal was to do an Italian western with music used in that film, but when I dug out my Spaghetti Western set I decided to check out THE MAN FROM NOWHERE, with Giuliano Gemma, but then I fell asleep. With FIVE FINGERS, I'd started out watching my English-dubbed VHS copy, to approximate the experience I had when first watching it on a big screen in a dubbed version 41 years ago, but then I pulled out the KING BOXER DVD to see if its English dub was the same. It was and I continued watching it on the DVD. (For some reason, the dub doesn't seem like it should be the same one I heard in theaters in 1973.)

So FIVE FINGERS and KILL BILL were not a bad way to end this.

mrcellophane

Had an absolutely great time with this challenge. I watched some great noirs as well as some things way outside my comfort zone. Here are my tallies:

52 films
46 FTV

DVD: 24
BD: 5
Streaming: 23

5 Favorite FTV
--- Panic in the Streets
--- Rock 'n' Roll High School
--- Frisco Jenny
--- Where the Sidewalk Ends
--- Miami Connection

5 Most Disliked FTV
--- City of Fear
--- The Man from Planet X
--- Zapped!
--- The Loves of Hercules
--- A Thief in the Night/A Distant Thunder/Image of the Beast

walletboyniac

Total: 42
FTV: 36

Top stats:
Let's Get Otta Here!: Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (22)
Vomit Scenes: Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (17)
Movie Titles: Manborg (21)
Explosions: (tie-I lost track of each of these) Cutie Honey / Rock 'n' Roll High School Forever / Manborg
Showers: Her Name Is Cat (5)

Well-Rounded (points in each category): Her Name Is Cat, Father's Day, Street Trash
No Fun (least points): Big Bad Mama-san, Adam Chaplin: Violent Avenger, BloodRayne

My favorite 5 FTV:
Nurse Girl Dorm: Assy Fingers
Attack Girls' Swimteam vs. The Undead
Father's Day
Fairy in a Cage
Frankenhooker

Worst 5 FTV:
Backwoods
Croaked: Frog Monster From Hell
Smokey & the Bushido
Evil
Big Bad Mama-san

So bad it's good:
Dracula 3000
Her Name Is Cat
Jaws: The Revenge

SterlingBen

What is up with the hate for Zapped!?? That movie is awesome!

davidh777

What are you looking for? Total views, first-time views...?

caligulathegod

Mainly the totals, but first time views and anything else you've notated in your lists helps.

indiephantom

Someone's hating Zapped! ? One of my favorite films ever. Saw it multiple times at the cinema and on video. Hell, I could watch it anytime.

Just checking...do we have the weekend to finish up our threads and finalize? EDIt...okay I see by the 7th. Will tally it all. Not my best performance, but 2nd best ever. Wish the month was longer.

davidh777

Done. I think this is the first challenge I've ever done with ALL first-time viewings!

shadokitty

In that case, my list is already finalized.

BobO'Link

I've always had a soft spot for cheesy teen sex comedies. I enjoyed Zapped during first run, in spite of Scott Baio being the star (and the large number of "teen" TV stars attempting to break into feature films). I'd totally forgotten about that one and should pick up a copy for my collection.

indiephantom

Saw it on the screen again in a revival a couple of years ago. They added Scott Baio's Afterschool special Stoned which is another classic. Baio in the ultimate drug panic flick. Hilarious.


Finished the challenge with 39 Films. All were FTV.
Favorites: Julie Darling; Rewind This!; White of the Eye; Recoil; Jailbait
Worst: A Gun for Jennifer

omike

My list is finalized.

I watched 60 movies, 54 of them first time viewings.

The best movie I watched was Colt 38 Special Squad an Italian police film about a master criminal blackmailing an entire city using remotely detonated bomb. This is just a good movie in general.

There were two outstandingly fun bad movies:
Teenagers From Outer Space (1959) and
Teenage Mother (1967)
I had unnaturally good times watching these. They are great examples why I like bad movies so much.

And finally there were three simply awful movies that quickly became so boring I almost couldn't stand it, even though the first two involved quite a bit of nudity.
Zero In and Scream (1971)
Mondo Topless (1966)
The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961)

Thanks to all participants and to caligulathegod for running the show.

coyoteblue

My list is finalized.

Some stats:
Total: 32
First Time Views 26

DE 1
HU 1
GB 2
IT 3
HK 4
TW 4
AU 5
US 12

Dvd 23
Stream 6
Blu 1
VCD 1
Theater 1

My call out for the challenge is the animated giallo Felidae (1994). Liked it enough that I ordered the German disc from the England.

caligulathegod

Be sure you are putting the finalized info on your lists in the list thread.