nezumi

A few days ago, I was watching Van Nuys Blvd., and it occurred to me that probably no one working on that production held any illusions that they were making a film that was going to stand the test of time; yet there I was, watching it at home on DVD some thirty-five years later. Of course, those same people responsible could never have predicted the advent of home video and its multiple video formats. I wonder, though, how much shelf-life these movies have left.

I have at most, a tenuously nostalgic attachment to the '70s, and it's safe to presume that every generation to follow when I'm gone will have even less of an attachment to that decade. As home entertainment gradually makes the transition to streaming media and cloud storage, I wonder if there will be any urgency to maintain or preserve these works for posterity's sake. With the previous generations of home video formats, it was practically a necessity to make these films available if only to fill video store shelves and give consumers something to purchase.

Some will argue that streaming video represents the ultimate progression of home entertainment. Moving forward, video file formats and encoding methods may change, but the fundamental delivery of those files will remain constant. If there's no interest in these films in the future, then who will ensure that they will survive the subsequent technological leaps? I think back to a recent study that revealed that a majority of silent films have been lost due to age and neglect. It's a little sad to think that many of the films we watch today for this challenge will most likely suffer the same fate.

This year's challenge is the first that I have had a Chromecast at my disposal, and I've got a few titles queued up at Youtube. Youtube has been something of a mixed blessing. It's given me opportunity to see films that never received a proper DVD release, or the initial DVD release has been long out of print. At the same time, there's never any guarantee that these (mostly unauthorized) streams will remain active. Some get pulled seemingly at the drop of a hat. It's never fun to have to watch a movie while being under the gun.

In a way, I suppose that we're all under the gun regardless of how we watch these movies. Let's watch them when we can, while we can. They may not have been made to stand the test of time, but they'll at least keep us company while we're still here.

sharktrager

Tonight's viewing was The Colossus of Rhodes, Sergio Leone's 1961 pre-spaghetti western movie. Despite a couple of enjoyable scenes it was overall very dull.

wayoutjunk

Last night's double feature for me was the Rifftrax version of Cyborg Cop 2, and Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet from my Sci-Fi 100 Movie Pack.

I had wondered why the Rifftrax guys decided to go with the second Cyborg Cop movie, but it was probably because there were no cyborg cops in the movie at all! Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet was one of those hybrid movies that had Basil Rathbone and Faith Domergue in one section of the movie talking to the rest of the cast that was from a Russian movie called Planeta Bur. It wasn't bad for what it was, but I watch a lot of movies like this, so I tend to have a high tolerance for them!

By the way, I have a question for you guys. How do I do a Profile Picture? I read the FAQ about it, and it said that there should be a link to it in My Profile, but I didn't see one. I clicked the link that was in the FAQ itself, but it told me I didn't have permission to access it. Am I doing something wrong, or am I just not worthy at this point?

ntnon

Ha! I was about to say the following: "Western," "remake of Rashomon," "Mexican bandit"... must count for any/all of those reasons!

My library has that one. No time for it last year, so this year.. fingers crossed!

ntnon

You're not going to find much before the 1920s/30s that REALLY counts - and very little before the late 1910s/20s that is long enough to count alone, so the best bet for those is either to try and add them together as 'Shorts' or just list for the checklist and not count them as a real..

That.

ntnon

Isn't something a flop/bomb/failure if it fails to make back TWICE it's budget + something like 10% or $10M..? Marketing and other costs inflate the actual budget, and then the cinemas take somewhere around 50% of the money made...

...obviously that makes many films somewhat less than financially secure, but I think the formula for "bomb" is something like:

BOMB = ( [ Big Budget - Money Made US (+/- Big Star's fee) ] * Expectations ) - Non-US Money

Baron Munchausen and Cutthroat Island and Mars Needs Moms and Pluto Nash and Speed Racer and John Carter and Lone Ranger all fit in here, but so do many others IF you weigh the various factors. Some of those had big stars or big expectations, some just had big budgets or low box office turnout.* Some eventually made money, or were reappraised, or were just flat-out REALLY GOOD FILMS (Munchausen, Ranger), but they still bombed and were financial failures.


Similarly, there are eligible films that MADE money, or achieved critical success. Via "intent," "content" and cast/crew/cult status, you can easily make the case for all the Python films, the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg films, or The Expendableses. I've argued for the Sommers Mummy movies (some of which are automatic - DTV or terrible sequel), and things like [I]Fast and Furious[I] have been okayed as carsploitation. Westerns count - which means Searchers and Stagecoach as well as Sartana and spaghetti, etc., etc.

It bears repeating that the official line is mostly one of BALANCE and INTENT, inclusion and enjoyment. On the one hand it's the offspring of Horror and Action (plus SciFi), on the other it's Pure Exploitation - so in the middle it's all that and much, much more! Or, that's how I've approached it...




*A film with a $1M budget that doesn't make over $100,000 is arguably more of a relative failure than a $175M film that makes $100M and more overseas. But it hasn't really bombed, just flopped.

BobO'Link

Planeta Bur was also edited into Roger Corman's Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women which was directed by Peter Bogdanovich (using the name Derek Thomas). He added several new scenes with Mamie Van Doren and other attractive women wearing shell brassieres and told it from their perspective as much as possible. Some space scenes are from another Russian SF film, Mikhail Karyukov's Nebo Zovyot, which was also used by Francis Ford Coppola to create Battle Beyond the Sun. Prehistoric Women is a slightly more entertaining film than the first edit although both pale in comparison to the unedited Russian original.

Hmmm... I have copies of all of those except Nebo Zovyot (I don't think it's had a release). Maybe I need to break 'em out and watch 'em back-to-back to look for the common scenes...

wayoutjunk

Oddly enough, the second movie on the disc I have is Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women. I was planning on watching it eventually but, knowing the information you gave me, I think I'll do that one next! (And Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet was directed and "written" by Curtis Harrington (under the name John Sebastian)).

Ash Ketchum

Your post just reminded me that the original East German cut of FIRST SPACESHIP TO VENUS, starring Yoko Tani, is actually available on DVD from somewhere. I meant to get it last year or so when I did a blog entry on the film and someone informed me about the original cut. I'd love to see the Russian sci-fi films you cite uncut and in Russian. I've only seen the Corman re-edits.

I watched the first 45 minutes of last year's flop, THE LONE RANGER, on cable and I couldn't sit through anymore of it. The film takes these iconic figures and turns them into buffoons. I hate when modern filmmakers do that. I love the original show and need to see some episodes to take the taste of the new film out of my head. I can also watch the two Lone Ranger feature film spin-offs from the 1950s, both made in color, for this challenge.

shadokitty

Watched a couple more Three Stooges shorts tonight, giving me a full entry. Decided to start with my Curly set, and later on, move onto my Shemp set, if I don't get the Complete Collection before the month is out.

SterlingBen

Just me or did you think it was an insane oversight not to include anything about Laura Gemser (Black Emanuelle) who was the costume designer on Troll 2?!?!?!?!

Also currently watching Miami Connection and it might be the most 80's movie I have ever seen.

Chad

Speaking of the absence of cyborgs and Rifftrax, that reminds me of Firehead. The back of the Echo Bridge DVD (from the Sci-Fi Six Pack) promised "A Russian cyborg with telekinetic powers", yet there's no mention anywhere in the film that he was of the robotic persuasion, so that's debatable.

And talk about a film where nothing happens. The sole reason to watch is the guy shoots frickin lasers out his eyes, but even that is ruined by the fact he's depleted of his power forever if used too much, so you see it in action maybe a handful of times. The only thing it had going for it was watching Academy Award winners Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau phone it in alongside Jack Lemmon's Joe Piscopo clone of a son. I guess the lesson learned here is always go with the Rifftrax or MST3K version when available, and the former is.

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Pretty sure you're able to after 10 posts. Just hit "User CP" followed by "Edit Avatar" and go from there.

BobO'Link

That may have been me as I've mentioned that cut several times in other challenges. At one time there was a box set, The DEFA Sci-Fi Collection, which contains Silent Star, Eolomea, and In the Dust of the Stars but it's OOP and quite pricey. BUT you can get still get Silent Star and Eolomea for ~$15 each new and there are a few reasonably priced used copies of In the Dust of Stars. They are exactly the same discs as in the OOP box set. They just took those individual releases and put them in a paperboard slipcase for the box set.

Image Entertainment has a very good WS release of First Spaceship On Venus that's still in print. The image is quite good - the best I've ever seen for the English cut/edit of this title.

The biggest issue on *all* of those titles is they are wide screen but *non-anamorphic* transfers. That could be a deal breaker for some but I'm just glad to have them in such good transfers so for me it's not too big a ding.

I recently purchased a copy of Planeta Bur that's supposed to be a almost pristine copy. I've not yet opened it but may for this challenge (assuming is qualifies). I was going to hold it for the SF/Fantasy Challenge this summer but it's tempting to just go for it now. If it's as good as I hear I'm going to really wish Video Dimensions would get a copy of and release Nebo Zovyot.

All links are to Amazon listings for the titles.

SethDLH

Definitely would have been cool to have Gemser on the doc. Maybe they tried and couldn't get her?

Miami Connection is brilliant. The first thing that made up fall in love with it was about 3 minutes into it when the cocaine shows up in boxes from Baltimore. Me and my friends just thought "sounds about right, perfect way to rep our city"

SterlingBen

Does Auditions count as a check for 70s Porn?

DVDTalker12324

Agreed. Once that opening Dragon Sound concert starts it was impossible for me to look away.

shadokitty

Started today by watching a couple more Three Stooges shorts. I've always loved the Stooges, so any Challenge that gives me a chance to watch them, I'll jump at it. Last night I watched Creature (2011) on Netflix. I didn't think it was as bad as the review had led me to believe, and I'm not positive, but I think Captain Spalding from House of 1000 Corpses was in it too.

Spiderbite

Finally had some time to watch some flix and add some titles to my list.

The Toxic Avenger (1984) is still one of the best "B" movies out there in my opinion. Still holds up well and have one of the best pair tits in the movie you will ever see. The dialogue and delivery still cracks me up to this day and I found myself laughing out loud many times even though I have seen this movie a dozen times.

Captain America (1990) has so many flaws but it was hard to hate it. It is earnest and tries hard but saddled with no budget and a poor script, it really had no chance. I will say that the costume is very faithful to the comic book and there are some nice scene taken directly from the comics. And the scenes (yes, plural) of Cap acting sick to steal cars are just too damn funny to miss.

All hail House Of The Dead (2003)! This movie should be considered a classic and I don't understand the hate for it, especially among bad movie lovers. This movie has everything and is soooo fucking ridiculous that I don't see how anyone can't find something to enjoy about it. My favorite part is the silly rap song playing in the background as these everyday individuals become super-duper bad-asses who suddenly become weapons, martial arts, & fighting/combat experts in a matter of seconds. Throw in the awesome 360 slow-mo sections and you have a tasty scene. Awesome!

Finished up with a couple of Mill Creek stinkers. The most interesting of the two was one called Twister's Revenge (1987) which deals with a talking Monster Truck ripoff of KITT. Sounds great, right? Wrong! Nothing redeeming about this movie except for the awful concept.

I have a feeling that burning thru my Mill Creek sets this month may have me thinking more about hanging myself before the challenge is over.

PhantomStranger

I just watched The Stuff last night on Blu-ray. Arrow did their own transfer in the UK. You should ask him if he's seen it yet, he did a new interview for the supplements.

ntnon

Hm. Interesting point.. I hadn't really thought about the opinions of people who were attached to the 'original'. Given the roots of the character, I assumed it would be similar to, say, Sherlock Holmes where there is 'an' iconic take, but each are different enough to be separately enjoyable. I suppose the Lone Ranger is more of a... Dr. Who or James Bond. There's one, and there are the others.

This time through, I really tried hard to work out just WHO it was actually aimed at: there are action figures and characters for Disney Infinity, which suggests targeting those age ranges (c. 6-15, although both skew significantly older) but the blood and prostitutes (albeit not named as such) and death and massacre scenes seem aimed more at a teenage and older audience, while the length and nods to the 'original' suggest the nostalgia factor was the target. Marketing materials I don't remember - which may suggest that this problem was noticed early on and that wider marketing was affected; or that I just don't remember - so they're no help.

It's very odd. It must have seemed like a good idea - and so soon after John Carter - but I can't even get a good grasp on who they thought would see it. The Pirates audience, I suppose, but it seems a bit grimmer and less Depp-y, which probably accounts for it flopping.

Because it's really, really good. The final three quarters of an hour are utterly epic, and aside from a little bit of talking heads early on, the lengthy runtime rushes by. For me. Who knows about the character, but hasn't seen much of the TV show yet.

Incidentally, I didn't see "buffoons": I saw a naive pre-Ranger struggling to come to terms with a role that was thrust upon him, helped by an impatient and supercilious Tonto who would have preferred the more heroic brother. No buffoonery, just capers and missteps on the way to greatness.

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it - although bailing that early there's always the slim possibility that it would have won you over eventually...

ntnon

Err...!

I think I'll have to get that, then. I was just reading one of the Best of Marvel collections which had Steve dress up as an old Grandmother (why Grandmother..?!) and Bucky as a spoilt Lord Fauntleroy type for... a reason that probably made sense briefly. Very odd!

ntnon

I didn't see it mentioned here, although I may have missed it, but Fangoria reports that: "One of [Ozploitation]’s foremost contributors, veteran scripter Everett De Roche, has died."

shadokitty

Depressed today, so I thought today would be a comedy day. I don't have much comedy that would qualify however. I have some critical bombs, but I don't want to watch them, as they just are not that funny, and I have a couple stoner movies, but I'd like to save those for the certain day, is it the 21st? However, I do have my Three Stooges, so it looks like today will be a Three Stooges day.

caligulathegod

We do have a check item for documentaries on exploitation and such. For the 70s porn check item it should be an actual 70s porn with a story, like Devil in Miss Jones, Deep Throat, Behind the Green Door, etc. as it was part of the progression of sexploitation. It helps that they were essentially controlled by the mafia. Since this type of film, and others like Nunsploitation and such, might be out of bounds for some tastes, that's why I have free spots. I'd never force anyone to watch a 70s porn, but to get the check item ya gotta.

He was selling actual screen used buckets of the Stuff. He was impressed with my one sheet and its condition.

indiephantom

Just watched the documentary on VHS exploitation Rewind This!. Great stuff. I have a little review in my challenge post. Highly recommended. I hope to get a few other related docs in for the challenge. It's full of stuff most of us here are really into. Best watch of the challenge for me so far. Finally hitting my tenth film tonight. Not my best start ever, but I'm digging the hell out of this experience as always. Happy viewing for those of you watching more tonight!