Cult Movies

Solomon Kane, the fabled swashbuckling Puritan from the mind of Robert E. Howard, is finally hitting Blu-ray on July 16, 2013. The film is now available for pre-order. [Continued ...]

Title: The Last Dragon (1985)Director: Michael Schultz Cast: Taimak, Vanity, Julius J. Carry III, Faith Prince, Leo O’BrienReview: Back in 1984, John G. Avildsen’s The Karate Kid (1984) was a huge success in theaters; it told the story of Daniel LaRusso, an American kid who has trouble adjusting to his new neighborhood. His school mates make fun of him, bullies have a field day kicking his ass around. Fortunately, Daniel befriends the magical Mr. Miyagi, a Japanese old man who teaches Daniel the ways of Karate and how to confront his own demons. The Karate Kid was such a hit that it spawned three other sequels after it. It also inspired producer Berry Gordy to make an all black version of The Karate Kid, which turned out to be the very eclectic, funny and entertaining flick called The Last Dragon. Both films share similarities, both are about young dudes trying to harness the powers of Karate, both have old oriental guys teaching these youngsters martial arts, but while The Karate Kid is more of a drama, The Last Dragon differs in that it’s not trying to be a serious film at all, The Last Dragon actually embraces it’s ‘cheesetastic’ roots and swims in them effortlessly. Here’s a film that mixes Kung Fu Masters, Television Dance Shows, Vanity, Music Videos, Disco Dancing, Pizza Parlor’s, Gangsters, Music Producers, Piranha’s and Break Dancing! Oh and let’s not forget the wonderful world of fortune cookie making! So as you can see, The Last Dragon is very different in tone to The Karate Kid. Yet at the same time, it delivers that “believe in yourself” message that’s so popular in cinema; the idea that once you start believing in yourself you can achieve anything. In contrast with The Karate Kid, The Last Dragon sends its message in a more lighthearted manner, with characters that don’t take themselves too seriously, hell, the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously, everything unfolds in good, goofy fun vibe, at times, the film even feels like a parody, though I am not entirely sure this was done purposely. Michael Schultz, the films director (a.k.a. the guy who directed Krush Groove (1985)) mentions in the dvd commentary that he wanted the film to be cartoony, which is pretty obvious when we take one look at the films main characters for example, one of the villains is this guy who walks around with football gear, and calls himself “The Shogun of Harlem”! So don’t expect a serious drama, in fact, expect the complete opposite, cartoonish parody of Kung Fu movies. At the same time, The Last Dragon pays homage to Shaw Bros. Kung Fu films, for example, the film opens up with Taimak throwing some Kung Fu moves, which is the traditional way in which many Shaw Bros. film start out, with a Kung Fu master displaying some moves as the credits roll on screen. Also, the whole thing with the glowing hands comes straight out of The Five Fingers of Death (1972). There's also direct homages to Bruce Lee films, so while it's a parody, the film knows exactly where its coming from. Taimak, the twenty something actor who starred as Bruce Leroy, had never done a film before this one; he basically learned how to act while making this film. He was obviously chosen because of his martial arts abilities more than his acting abilities, yet, that raw, rookie naiveté that Taimak exudes through his performance is exactly what was needed for the character of Bruce Leroy, a nerdy kung fu freak who is obsessed with all things Bruce Lee, so much so that he dresses in Chinese clothing and eats his pop corn with chop sticks while watching Enter the Dragon (1973) at the local theater. Yet, even though the guy is extremely skilled in martial arts, he’s not very skilled with the ladies. Leroy doesn’t even know how to make a move on ‘Laura’, the television host of a dance show called ‘7th Heaven’. Laura was played by 80’s pop star ‘Vanity’, whom some of you might remember from her role in the over the top action film Action Jackson (1988), where she starred alongs

We continue our look at Ghosthouse. Notice the reappearance of the doll, who periodically–by which I mean, every four or five minutes–appears like this with the ghost of this little girl. It’s like they assembled the movie from a Spooky Movie checklist. Spooky Doll: Check. Spooky Girl Ghost: Check. Spooky Ghost Dog: Check. Spooky Caretaker: Check. Spooky Homicidal Household Appliances: Check.* [*That latter because this is specially the Umberto Lenzi Spooky Movie Checklist.] I feel sorry for that young actress, who was probably blinded for life after constantly appearing under that super-bright Klieg light scene after scene after scene. Related PostsMonster of the Day #682 (May 3, 2013) Monster of the Day #681 (May 2, 2013) Monster of the Day #680 (Apr 23, 2013) Monster of the Day #679 (Apr 22, 2013) Monster of the Day #677 (Apr 18, 2013)

The first trailer for Ben Wheatley's (Kill List, Sightseers, Down Terrace) A Field in England has emerged. The film will be available in the UK on July 5th, and Drafthouse Films recently picked it up for its US release. [Continued ...]

In a nutshell: Join Tom in the "season one finale" of Minority Report Reviews, as he unwraps the third installment of the Mummy franchise, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor starring Brendan Fraser and Jet Li.

Let's face it, B movies are just fun. It takes a high degree of fun-lovingness to not care especially about all those silly things like comprehensibility and acting. After all, those just get in the way of the fun, right? Usually, you can count on a movie below a certain level of film standards to not do especially well in the large scale. Many movies that are made at a lower budget can make a lot more profit in comparison, after all. But, even besides that, many people have a sort nostalgia and fondness for the B-movie feel, even in horror flicks.(Read more...)Categories: Horror Science Fiction Sub CultureTags: 1950s1980s2000sb-moviesBloodHorror

Directed by Tsutomu Iida and released in 1987 Devilman - The Birth is an original video animation (OVA) based upon the Japanese manga series (1972-1973) of the same name, written and illustrated by Go Nagai. So for what we think is our first Manga feature here at Attack From Plamet B Ken brings us more far eastern craziness, don't you just love it... Head inside now if you dare...(Read more...)Categories: HorrorTags: 1980sBloodHorrorMonstersReviewTeenagers

Actor/director Guillaume Canet is back behind the camera, this time directing an English language remake of Jacques Maillot's Rivals, a film he starred in. With the help of writer/director James Gray (of We Own the Night, Two Lovers fame), Canet has transferred the story of two brothers on opposite sides of the law, to 1970s Brooklyn. [Continued ...]

Which is inane as I'm fairly certain she waxes... [Continued ...]

Over seven months ago, I bought a Schecter Gryphon on Ebay. It said in the listing that it was in near mint condition, but when I got it, it had a ding near the jack down to the wood and a dent in the clear coat on the other side. Also, the push pull pot for the coil splitting was broken and the shaft had come completely out of the pot with the knob on it. Being anal about my guitars, I took it to a local luthier who told me it would take about four or five days to do the work to fix it once he got to it in his work flow, and that it would cost roughly $60 – $90 bucks. I was ok with that since I could fix the push pull pot myself and I had gotten a great deal on the guitar, even with fixing it I’d still come in well under the price of the guitar new. I had the guitar for about a week before I took it in to him for the repair. As of tomorrow, he’ll have had it for seven months. The only thing I’ve heard from him as far as a status update in all that time is that he did the repair but the color didn’t dry to a perfect match, and since he was really anal about his restoration work, wanted to know if he could keep it to give it another try. I agreed, because I want the guitar to be as perfect as possible. I haven’t heard anything since. I wrote to him the other day. Still waiting for a response. Now I know he’s busy, as he’s one of the very few local luthiers we have around here, but seriously…seven months…and counting? I always told him to take whatever time he needs and that I wasn’t in any hurry at all, but come on. Take your time and I’m not in any hurry doesn’t mean keep it indefinitely and constantly put other work ahead of it. It means take your time to do it right and make it look as nice as possible. Anyway, here I wait, wondering about the status of my poor Schecter Gryphon. The funny thing is, I’ve had a replacement push-pull pot and jack sitting here on my desk for almost the whole time he’s had it, waiting to be installed once I get it back. I do my own set up work now, and my own pickup and electronics work, but I still don’t have the tools to do fret work and I’ll likely never get into finish work, which means having to pay someone else to do it. Unfortunately, that also means waiting for them to get around to it.