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You can subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, or you can listen here:
Thanks for listening!
-J. Moret
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Interview: PETER SCHILLING, JR.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Review: Josh and S.A.M.
JOSH AND S.A.M.
Director: Billy Weber
New Line Cinema VHS
1993
Josh and S.A.M. is like no other kid's movie ever made. The back of the box notes "Home Alone meets Thelma and Louise in this fun filled comedy." Marketing comparisons are always stupid. If I was to write the box quote for this movie, it would read: "Goonies and Terminator meets Badlands in this comedic drama."
Directed by Billy Weber, editor of several Terrence Malick films as well as Top Gun and the good Beverly Hills Cop movies. This was Weber's directorial debut. It is also his final credit as a director. Most unfortunate.
Josh is a 12 year 85 pound nerd with a chip on his shoulder. His brother Sam is the most intense, athletic, 8 year old on the planet. They live with their single mother. The brothers head off to spend the final days of summer with their Dad in Florida. While there, Josh and Sam learn their mother is about to marry a French Accountant and move to France for a year. Rather than be trapped with his jock Step-Brother's a pushy dick of a father, the persuasive and brilliant Josh comes up with a plan to break away.
They head back home to see their Mom before her nuptials to the stereotypical french assnut. Their plane lands in Dallas due to bad weather conditions.
Josh Convinces Sam that his is a Cyborg that has been recently activated to fight in a secret war in Africa. Josh tells Sam that the only way to avoid being sold to the Pentagon is to head to Canada where they Government will not be able to find him. When Sam learns that his name is an acronym for Strategically Altered Mutant, He now understands why he's different. He is a killing machine.
In their hotel in Dallas, Josh attempts to make his exit through a High School Reunion party. He grabs a name tag of a woman that Derek Baxter (a drunken redneck played by Chris Penn) had a fling with. Baxter thinks Josh is his son and takes Josh and Sam to the woman's parents house, Josh tells him he isn't his son and he goes berserk. Sam pops Baxter in the head with a billiard ball and Josh cracks his skull with a pool cue.
Josh believes he killed Drunken Derek. They steal his rented Pontiac and head for Canada to avoid going to war, and also to avoid the gas chamber. Josh makes up a story about a White Harriet Tubman that looks like a juicebox mascot and sneaks child Cyborgs over the northern border called the Liberty Maid and how he hopes to meet up with her. Sam believes with her expertise, they'll make it. Little does Josh know that The Liberty Maid shows up. Teenage runaway Alison (Martha Plimpton), meets the description and goes along with the story, so she can use the sweet stolen 1993 Pontiac Grand Prix to get where she needs to go.
Josh and S.A.M. is a rare breed of Kids movie that does not insult it's audience. The story is bizarre, but never goes too far that these things couldn't happen. It's rare that a movie such as this develops interesting and likeable characters. For as much of a wiener Josh can be, he does what he has to do to survive in a world where he is out matched physically with his cunning and ability to coerce others. This is not the type of film that's a laugh a second. I wouldn't even necessarily call this film a comedy.
While the film is certainly funny, the meat of the film is the story of feeling alienated for one reason or another. The young characters form a bond that stems from their anger at the world. For a film targeted at kids and young teens, there are many relatable themes and . . . I can't believe I'm saying this. . . Lessons that can be taken from the film.
Why this film never found an audience is confusing to me. To put this film's failure in to perspective:
Budget: $18,000,000
Box Office Gross: $1,528,163
It's very well made. It's fun and it's paced in such a manner where I never feel like walking away. Comparing this film to Home Alone was a mistake. While I very much (still) enjoy Home Alone, Josh and S.A.M. was a film for kids that read books, watched grown-up movies, or felt alienated, bullied, or different. My comparisons to Badlands and Goonies is much more accurate. It's thoughtful and lovable. . . but total madness.
As far as I can tell, Josh and S.A.M. has never been released on Region 1 DVD. The VHS can easily be had for under $5, so it's no big deal. It can also be viewed on Youtube for free.
I will leave you with a brilliant exchange between Sam and his Step-Brothers Curtis and Leon that occurs at the end of the film:
Curtis: Did Josh really kill a guy?
Sam: Dad is trying to cover for him, but I saw him. He beat him over the head with a pool stick he was so mad.
Leon: What was he so mad about?
Sam: The guy called him a homo.
- M.McSlam
Director: Billy Weber
New Line Cinema VHS
1993
Josh and S.A.M. is like no other kid's movie ever made. The back of the box notes "Home Alone meets Thelma and Louise in this fun filled comedy." Marketing comparisons are always stupid. If I was to write the box quote for this movie, it would read: "Goonies and Terminator meets Badlands in this comedic drama."
Directed by Billy Weber, editor of several Terrence Malick films as well as Top Gun and the good Beverly Hills Cop movies. This was Weber's directorial debut. It is also his final credit as a director. Most unfortunate.
Josh is a 12 year 85 pound nerd with a chip on his shoulder. His brother Sam is the most intense, athletic, 8 year old on the planet. They live with their single mother. The brothers head off to spend the final days of summer with their Dad in Florida. While there, Josh and Sam learn their mother is about to marry a French Accountant and move to France for a year. Rather than be trapped with his jock Step-Brother's a pushy dick of a father, the persuasive and brilliant Josh comes up with a plan to break away.
 |
| Josh, S.A.M. and Liberty. |
Josh Convinces Sam that his is a Cyborg that has been recently activated to fight in a secret war in Africa. Josh tells Sam that the only way to avoid being sold to the Pentagon is to head to Canada where they Government will not be able to find him. When Sam learns that his name is an acronym for Strategically Altered Mutant, He now understands why he's different. He is a killing machine.
In their hotel in Dallas, Josh attempts to make his exit through a High School Reunion party. He grabs a name tag of a woman that Derek Baxter (a drunken redneck played by Chris Penn) had a fling with. Baxter thinks Josh is his son and takes Josh and Sam to the woman's parents house, Josh tells him he isn't his son and he goes berserk. Sam pops Baxter in the head with a billiard ball and Josh cracks his skull with a pool cue.
 |
| Liquor. |
Josh and S.A.M. is a rare breed of Kids movie that does not insult it's audience. The story is bizarre, but never goes too far that these things couldn't happen. It's rare that a movie such as this develops interesting and likeable characters. For as much of a wiener Josh can be, he does what he has to do to survive in a world where he is out matched physically with his cunning and ability to coerce others. This is not the type of film that's a laugh a second. I wouldn't even necessarily call this film a comedy.
While the film is certainly funny, the meat of the film is the story of feeling alienated for one reason or another. The young characters form a bond that stems from their anger at the world. For a film targeted at kids and young teens, there are many relatable themes and . . . I can't believe I'm saying this. . . Lessons that can be taken from the film.
Why this film never found an audience is confusing to me. To put this film's failure in to perspective:
Budget: $18,000,000
Box Office Gross: $1,528,163
It's very well made. It's fun and it's paced in such a manner where I never feel like walking away. Comparing this film to Home Alone was a mistake. While I very much (still) enjoy Home Alone, Josh and S.A.M. was a film for kids that read books, watched grown-up movies, or felt alienated, bullied, or different. My comparisons to Badlands and Goonies is much more accurate. It's thoughtful and lovable. . . but total madness.
As far as I can tell, Josh and S.A.M. has never been released on Region 1 DVD. The VHS can easily be had for under $5, so it's no big deal. It can also be viewed on Youtube for free.
 |
| Who the fuck is that Jabroni? . . . |
Curtis: Did Josh really kill a guy?
Sam: Dad is trying to cover for him, but I saw him. He beat him over the head with a pool stick he was so mad.
Leon: What was he so mad about?
Sam: The guy called him a homo.
- M.McSlam
Friday, November 22, 2013
Podcast: MOVING
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This week, we defend the 1988 Richard Pryor comedy, MOVING, which has been too often ignored or maligned.
You can subscribe to our podcast on iTunes or you can listen here:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/allstarvideo/MOVING_podcast.mp3
Thanks for listening!
- J. Moret
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Review: THE MAN FROM HONG KONG (aka DRAGONFLIES)
Directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith & Yu Wang
1975
111 minutes of pure insanity, in bright technicolor
Co-production of Golden Harvest and The Australian Film Development Corporation
My copy: A Bootleg DVD from Trash Palace
.JPG)
The combination of Golden Harvest and Brian Trenchard-Smith couldn't be sweeter. The complete lack of inhibition present in all of Trenchard-Smith's films gels perfectly with the action elements of Hong Kong cinema in the 1970s.
Obviously inspired by James Bond, it makes for something so much more complicated. Where Bond is a misogynist and imperialist, Inspector Fang (played so non-chalantly by Yu Wang) must deal with the racism of Australia (" I didn't meet a Chinese yet that didn't have a yellow streak") and the bureaucracy of Hong Kong, which was still controlled by the United Kingdom.
At the same time, there is a very present Bruce Lee vibe. The track suit Yu Wang wears when he goes on the offensive against the gang looks strikingly familar to Lee's suit from Game of Death, but it's blue instead of yellow. Likewise, the fight in the training facility is very reminiscent of the awesome fight in Chinese Connection. This is definitely not to be a criticism, but instead to express the way this movie "feels."
Of course, all this is sub-text and on it's face, it's just a killer kung fu action film. And, at that, it excels.
Ozploitation films in the 1970s were notoriously dangerous productions for the cast and crew. This one was especially so. During the opening chase scene a car rolls over and explodes. The door blew off the car and came within a few feet of the camera, almost killing Trencard-Smith and the cameraman. George Lazenby was burned during the final sequence, when he couldn't get his flaming jacket off. Yu Wang crashed the hang-glider into some rocks on Sydney harbor and fell 100 feet, causing him to be knocked unconscious and missing from the set for a few days. Two stuntmen were injured in a car crash and a sound recordist broke his ankle. Brian Trenchard-Smith almost lost his vision when he was sprayed in the eyes with chemical spray.
But, the film was finished, and it's great.
The Rundown:
The film opens with "Sky-high" by Jigsaw, and is perfect.
So, Sammo Hung gets off a bus to meet a really scummy looking tool who has a sweet vinyl bag. Well, George Lazenby doesn't like these two exchanging luggage, so he points his gun at them and tells them to freeze. Sammo runs away and then tosses a big rock at Lazenby. Meanwhile, scummy is shooting at a helicopter with a little pistol. Commence sweet fight on top of a cliff. Apparently Sammo is a wanted criminal in Hong Kong.
Inspector Fang meets up with a reporter (Rosalind Spiers) from Sydney who accidentally flies her hang-glider into the police station. Obviously they roll in the hay, and then Fang heads off to Sydney. Apparently during shooting, Yu Wang made it clear that he disliked Rosalind Spiers and Australia in general. So, that love scene was probably really fun to shoot.
Once Fang arrives, he dominates Sammo in jail and forces him to talk. He then prepares him for extradition to Hong Kong, but Sammo is killed by a sniper. Awesome foot chase scene followed by awesome jump kick off a dirt bike followed by awesome fight in a restaurant's kitchen ensues.
We then head to Cobra Kai headquarters and watch henchmen get the crap kicked out of them.
More sweetness happens: Machete fight at Inspector Fang's hotel room. Exercise on a cliff at dawn. Fist fight at cocktail party. Free-climb up five stories on a sewage pipe while wearing sweet Adidas track suit. Convalescing in a veterinarian clinic with five young hot ladies. Horse-back riding while falling in love. Revenge!
Get you Ready:
1975
111 minutes of pure insanity, in bright technicolor
Co-production of Golden Harvest and The Australian Film Development Corporation
My copy: A Bootleg DVD from Trash Palace
.JPG)
Obviously inspired by James Bond, it makes for something so much more complicated. Where Bond is a misogynist and imperialist, Inspector Fang (played so non-chalantly by Yu Wang) must deal with the racism of Australia (" I didn't meet a Chinese yet that didn't have a yellow streak") and the bureaucracy of Hong Kong, which was still controlled by the United Kingdom.
At the same time, there is a very present Bruce Lee vibe. The track suit Yu Wang wears when he goes on the offensive against the gang looks strikingly familar to Lee's suit from Game of Death, but it's blue instead of yellow. Likewise, the fight in the training facility is very reminiscent of the awesome fight in Chinese Connection. This is definitely not to be a criticism, but instead to express the way this movie "feels."
Of course, all this is sub-text and on it's face, it's just a killer kung fu action film. And, at that, it excels.
Ozploitation films in the 1970s were notoriously dangerous productions for the cast and crew. This one was especially so. During the opening chase scene a car rolls over and explodes. The door blew off the car and came within a few feet of the camera, almost killing Trencard-Smith and the cameraman. George Lazenby was burned during the final sequence, when he couldn't get his flaming jacket off. Yu Wang crashed the hang-glider into some rocks on Sydney harbor and fell 100 feet, causing him to be knocked unconscious and missing from the set for a few days. Two stuntmen were injured in a car crash and a sound recordist broke his ankle. Brian Trenchard-Smith almost lost his vision when he was sprayed in the eyes with chemical spray.
But, the film was finished, and it's great.
The Rundown:
The film opens with "Sky-high" by Jigsaw, and is perfect.
So, Sammo Hung gets off a bus to meet a really scummy looking tool who has a sweet vinyl bag. Well, George Lazenby doesn't like these two exchanging luggage, so he points his gun at them and tells them to freeze. Sammo runs away and then tosses a big rock at Lazenby. Meanwhile, scummy is shooting at a helicopter with a little pistol. Commence sweet fight on top of a cliff. Apparently Sammo is a wanted criminal in Hong Kong.
Inspector Fang meets up with a reporter (Rosalind Spiers) from Sydney who accidentally flies her hang-glider into the police station. Obviously they roll in the hay, and then Fang heads off to Sydney. Apparently during shooting, Yu Wang made it clear that he disliked Rosalind Spiers and Australia in general. So, that love scene was probably really fun to shoot.
Once Fang arrives, he dominates Sammo in jail and forces him to talk. He then prepares him for extradition to Hong Kong, but Sammo is killed by a sniper. Awesome foot chase scene followed by awesome jump kick off a dirt bike followed by awesome fight in a restaurant's kitchen ensues.
We then head to Cobra Kai headquarters and watch henchmen get the crap kicked out of them.
More sweetness happens: Machete fight at Inspector Fang's hotel room. Exercise on a cliff at dawn. Fist fight at cocktail party. Free-climb up five stories on a sewage pipe while wearing sweet Adidas track suit. Convalescing in a veterinarian clinic with five young hot ladies. Horse-back riding while falling in love. Revenge!
 |
| Break you. |
- Buy an Adidas track suit. Why don't you already own one?
- Barbecue up some shrimp in a ginger soy sauce glaze, serve over rice
- Enjoy with friends.
The Goods:
The Trash Palace bootleg is pretty great quality. Like most, it's taken from a VHS. But, your other options only include some Region 3 DVDs that will run you around $30.00. Obviously, you get no special features, but the feature itself is special enough.
-J. Moret
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Thunder Ninja Kids: Wonderful Mission
Directed by Charles Lee (a.k.a. Godfrey Ho)
1990
90 minutes. Color.
DVD from Eden Entertainment
Godfrey Ho is either a mad genius or a total A-hole - I just can’t figure out which. Godfrey Ho was born Chi Keung Ho somewhere in Hong Kong in 1948. He started his film career as the assistant director to the brilliant Chang Cheh at the Shaw Brothers Studios under the name God Ho. He also managed to work alongside a young John Woo. It was during this time he met his future business partner Joseph Lai. The story goes that Joseph’s dad bought a failed production company called ASSO Asia Film in 1979 and then put his son in charge. Ho, being a total D, decided that he wanted the company, married Joseph’s sister and muscled his way into becoming a partner. It was there that he supposedly found a store room filled with finished and unfinished films from all over Asia. So what’s a guy like Ho supposed to do with all these half made movies? Well hire American actors, dress them like ninjas and finish the films of course! He would film various scenes, cut them into the films that he found and dub over all the audio to try and make a complete story for each one. The crazy thing is that he purportedly denies having done this. Godfrey Ho has 123 directing credits to his name on IMDB with his last movie being released in 2000 when he retired. My guess is that he ran out of unfinished movies in the store room. He did in fact fully direct a few for Shaw Bros but I would not trust any of the credited films after 1979. He also had a ridiculous amount of aliases since he had to fill in the credits for each movie. Some of the better ones are: Benny Ho, York Lam, Ed Woo, Felix Tong and my favorite Kurt Spielberg. In order to appeal to the overseas market he added Ninja to the title of almost every movie he released. Ninja Terminator, Bionic Ninja, Ninja Destroyer, Ninja Project Daredevils to name a few.
This all brings me to the Thunder Ninja Kids Series. This is a series of action adventure movies that are supposedly for kids but OH BOY, they are completely not for kids. As far as I can tell there are five movies in the series: Thunder Ninja Kids: Wonderful Mission, Thunder Ninja Kids in the Golden Adventure, Thunder Ninja Kids: The Hunt for the Devil Boxer, Thunder Ninja Kids: Little Kickboxer and Thunder Ninja Kids: Robo Kid. The order you watch them in does not matter in the slightest as none of them share the same characters, have the same setting or are even in the same historical time frame. Hell, the Thunder Ninja Kids are only in ONE of the movies yet the four others still have Thunder Ninja Kids in the goddamn title! I was able to find four out of the five Thunder Ninja Kids movies on ebay for super cheap, Robo Kid being the only one I can’t seem to find anywhere. I’m not even sure it exists. So let’s start off with what looks to be the first movie released: Wonderful Mission.
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| Thunder Ninja Kids |
The first thing I noticed with Wonderful Mission is that the title in the movie is Thunder Kids 2: Wonderful Mission. Confused? So was I, but don’t fret, I have scoured the internet and I can’t find any trace of there being a Thunder Kids 1 (please refer back to the first sentence of this review). The movie’s plot is a bit jumbled to say the least; mostly due to the inclusion of the scenes filmed by Godfrey Ho. The movie starts off in ancient, rural China with a bunch of white guys, dressed as “ninjas” wearing padded helmets from the 80’s, who are practicing their sweet moves when their master tells them that an ancient golden Buddha has been stolen by a rival clan. There are two groups looking for the Buddha. One group led by “Cruel Killer” Keith (a rural Chinese name for sure) wants it cause he’s greedy. The other group is a black ninja clan (while they may look badass, they are definitely NOT ninjas) led by “Top Tech Ninja” Lee who wants it for spiritual reasons. Let’s just pause right here for a second. What the hell is a “Top Tech Ninja”? I’ve seen hundreds of ninja movies and I’ve never heard of a “Top Tech Ninja”. No wait, he’s probably really good at computers. Moving on. The white ninjas are tasked in retrieving this golden Buddha cause… I dunno… their master says so. While that is happening, the world’s most annoying child, named Danny, wanders about and eventually bumps into the random groups of ninjas. He meets a Lord and his daughter, the Princess, and decides to squat at their place for a while. As it turns out the Lord is the one in possession of the Golden Buddha and all hell breaks loose. Also, Danny is friends with two kids that have super powers called the Thunder Ninja Kids. The Thunder Ninja Kids don’t seem to have ever met each other even though they both go by the name Thunder Ninja Kid and wear the same clothes, only one is black and the other is white. Honestly, not a whole lot makes sense in this movie due to the fact that Godfrey Ho spliced two movies together creating a video version of Frankenstein’s Monster. The climax of the film has the Thunder Ninja Kids and Danny teaming up to fight Lee and Keith. After that is done, the most random scene involving the white ninjas occurs and it is glorious. I don’t want to give away what happens but man is it abrupt and awesome.
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| These guys are totally ninjas |
What’s fantastic about Ho is that he’s a pretty decent Martial Arts film director. The scenes that he clearly filmed are fast paced and well choreographed. It’s a shame he has no idea what a “plot” is or how “dialogue” works but HELL! Who the fuck cares when there are ninjas involved?! Another great thing about this flick is that you can tell that Ho decided AFTER the dubbing process that he wanted to market this movie towards kids even though the ninja scenes are violent, showing a bunch of stabbings and blood. Ho cut out all of the swear words from these scenes. Every time one of the ninjas is about to swear the audio drops out leaving dead silence. At first I thought it was just a problem with the poor quality of the film but NOPE! He straight up cut out all of the audio every time a ninja says “Fuck” (even though he wrote all of the dialogue).
This flick is ridiculous in every way, but it’s something to be experienced if you are interested in film as an artistic medium. Godfrey Ho’s movies are like a film collage that only sort of make sense. I’m not sure if there is anything quite like his movies out there. I don’t want to give him too much credit because his movies are terrible (in the best possible way) but, he is, to me, a bit of a pioneer in his own way. I don’t think there will ever be a director like him… mostly because no one is ever going to stumble upon a shit load of unfinished films in the back of a failed studio like he did. Wonderful Mission is a solid first (?) entry in the Thunder Ninja Kids series. It’s dumb and fun and to be honest I probably would not have had the patience to enjoy this as a kid but now as an adult I find it great.
Set Yourself Up:
- Go to Amazon and buy some red Karate head gear, ninja swords and some white sheets to cut up and make into ninja costumes for you and your buddies.
- Get jacked up on Mountain Dew and Doritos
- Go outside and chop off all the little branches from the tree in the backyard, then take everything you don’t care about and chop that shit in half with your kickass ninja swords.
The DVD:
Eden Entertainment spared no expense on this thing. Literally, no expense was spent on this thing whatsoever. There isn’t even a menu for the disc. It just plays and when it’s done it ends. There isn’t even any trailers. It's available for around 5 bucks on eBay but if you don't want to spend that kind of cash it's free to watch on youtube.
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