Video This Week: November 20th

By: John Thonen
Date: Tuesday, November 20, 2001

VIDEO NEWS

POWERPUFF GIRLS: MEET THE BEAT-ALLS, a Warner Home Video compilation of the inexplicably popular Powerpuff Girls cartoon TV series, finds the girls themselves to be the biggest threat, rather than their usual goofy super-villain. It seems that the DVDs contain a computer virus which could affect computers if the DVD is viewed through the computer's DVD-ROM drive. Warners has already issued a recall and is offering a 100% refund. A replacement version is expected shortly.

Don Dohler may not quite be a household name. But the man often referred to as "The King of the Amateurs" wrote, produced and directed five zero budget genre films that were mainstays of the home video boom of the 1980s. Even before his foray into filmmaking, Dohler published a series of magazines and books devoted to semi-professional film production which inspired many who became notable film professionals, such as the Skotak brothers, who won an Oscar for their work on TERMINATOR 2, and Ben Burtt, an Oscar winner for STAR WARS. Now, after more than a decade away from the camera, Dohler will return with the upcoming video release of HARVESTERS, the story of a group of vicious criminals who hold a rural family hostage, only to discover that the family has some dark and deadly secrets. Dohler also has STAKES, a vampire tale, completed and several other features in pre-production.

THIS WEEK'S NEW RELEASES

ALICE IN WONDERLAND is one of those books that seems to inspire filmmakers to produce insipid, star-studded productions which fail to capture any of the magic of Lewis Carroll's original novel, let alone any of its deeper elements. This 1983 production was shot live during a stage performance and later broadcast on PBS. It boasts Richard Burton, Donald O'Connor, Maureen Stapleton and Nathan Lane, among others, but the proceedings are joyless, unimaginative and mechanical. Fans of John Carpenter's BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA might get a small kick out of seeing Kate Burton, who played that film's newspaper reporter Margo, as young Alice, but there is little else to recommend this adaptation.

THE ANGRY RED PLANET is [IMG5R]a bit different from the several fairly large budget films recently released about our neighbor planet, Mars. All three of those had serious flaws and flopped at the box office, leading some wags to talk about "The Curse of the Red Planet." If there is such a curse, it started with Ib Melchior's 1960 no-budget tale, THE ANGRY RED PLANET. Of course, Melchior's film has one thing that most of its bigger budgeted antecedents didn't have. It's pure, goofy fun. The clichéd characters, hammy cast and cheesy spaceship sets are only the surface of the ineptitude of this film for, once its astronauts set foot on Mars, they are surrounded by solarized drawings to depict the planet's surface. There's also a couple of laughable miniatures and the omnipresent ray gun, an amorphous blob with a rotating eye and the wackiest puppet monster this side of THE GIANT CLAW. The crazy thing about the film is that it has a kind of naïve charm and fever dream imagination that all the CGI in the world will never match. This one's a guilty pleasure for me, but for others... well, you've been warned.

AT THE EARTH'S CORE is a 1976 offering from the largely forgotten, Amicus studios. When it comes to British horror, the name Hammer stands tall. But Hammer enjoyed enough success to spawn some imitators, the best of which was Amicus. In the mid '70s Amicus tried to escape its status as a "me too" Hammer clone by making a series of fantasy-adventures based on the works of Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs. Like the other such films Amicus made, AT THE EARTH'S CORE found only modest theatrical success and is, for the most part, one of the least of the studio's Burroughs series. American "star" Doug McClure headlines, along with Peter Cushing as an eccentric inventor whose "Iron Mole" takes he and McClure to the title location, a place known as Pellucidar. Caroline Munro also appears as an incredibly hot-looking center of the Earth chick in skimpy clothes and there're some midgets in hokey looking lizard-bat costumes and some ambitious but unconvincing puppet dinosaurs. It's all pretty cheesy and the cast acts as if they know it, but it's all good-spirited fun and a great reminder of what passed for fantasy entertainment before STAR WARS changed the movie world forever.

BAD TASTE, one of the most aptly titled films ever made, is a 1987 offering from New Zealand's Peter Jackson. While Jackson is today laboring on the multi-million dollar LORD OF THE RINGS film trilogy, when he made this film he was working with budgets so low that in addition to directing his film, Jackson had to handle the effects work and play multiple roles. The film's plot involves aliens who covet Earth as a place to raise low cost edibles for their fast food restaurants. Those edibles being, of course, man. There's a government agency out to stop their plan, but its agents are bumbling idiots. Luckily, the aliens aren't all that bright either. What follows is a series of outrageous gross-out scenes and gore-drenched sequences that will either have you laughing out loud, or tossing your lunch. Maybe both. This is a one-of-a-kind gem for those twisted enough to enjoy it. Anchor Bay is re-releasing this on VHS and on DVD, as well as in a Limited Edition DVD containing a second disc featuring a documentary on the film's making and a 16-page booklet.

THE BREED arrives

late in the year to easily claim the title of the best DTV (direct-to-video) release of 2001. Sporting a great visual style, well executed action pieces and solid performances from Adrian Paul (HIGHLANDER) and Bokeem Woodbine (3000 MILES TO GRACELAND), this tale of a vampire subculture existing within our own is a much better film than any of the recent takes on present day bloodsuckers, and as such really deserved a theatrical release. This is about as good as present day B moviemaking gets.

EMPIRE OF THE ANTS is another reminder of what "effects" films were like before STAR WARS, but while AT THE EARTH'S CORE is not without its charms, such is not the case for EMPIRE OF THE ANTS. This is one of the last efforts of the immortal Bert I. Gordon, affectionately known as Mr. BIG for his propensity for making films involving big bugs, rats, people, lizards, etc. While featuring a little better than average cast Robert Lansing, Joan Collins this is a very typical offering for Mr. BIG. Unconvincing full size mockups (not nearly the equal of those in THEM, 15 years earlier) and matted in footage of real ants who are all too obviously moving within an ant farm-like holding cell are the trademarks of this pic. This one lacks the charm that makes some bad sci-fi enjoyable in spite of their tawdry effects. Not so, EMPIRE OF THE ANTS. This was crap in 1976 and it's still crap.

I BURY THE LIVING is a film that I found very creepy when I was a kid. It's not so creepy today, but I can still understand why it worked for me. The story is basically an extended TWILIGHT ZONE episode about a cemetery caretaker who finds that if he puts one of the black, "occupied" pins in the cemetery map, the person that owns that plot will die. There's not much more to it than that, but star Richard Boone keeps your attention as you, and he, try to decide if he's mad or if this is really happening. Director Albert Band (father of Full Moon's Charles Band) layers the mood and atmosphere on thickly and effectively. This one's not exactly a classic, but if you enjoy older films you'll find plenty of worth here.

THE ITEM is a quirky little indie title that garnered some attention at festivals and now comes to home video. The story involves a quartet of criminals whose job it is to guard the title object. That object turns out to be a large, telepathic worm with the ability to see the internal truth about people. Honest, I can't make this kind of stuff up. Anyway, the worm's abilities bring about a night of soul-searching for the group that I think is supposed to be meaningful, but didn't do much for me. Luckily, there's some sex and gore that also results, and the film has an odd sense of humor that also makes the proceedings watchable.

MATRIX REVISTED was not [IMG6R]available for preview but I'll add my two cents that I'm getting tired of the studios selling a bunch of DVDs of some title and then coming out with that same thing again with some new extras and getting the hardcore fans to buy the same title again. Anchor Bay, whom I otherwise love, is very guilty of this and the majors are getting on the bandwagon as well. I have no doubt that the new features on this reissue are interesting, but the original was a great disc and, unless I can rent it to judge the value of the new material, I'm just not going to buy it and can't suggest that you Cinescapers do so either.

MORONS FROM OUTER SPACE is a pretty great idea for a film. I mean, why exactly is it that all the space visits Earth gets are from superior life forms? Couldn't some bunch of alien numbskulls manage to stumble on us? That's the premise here, and it's a good one. Unfortunately, the film is not quite so good. Directed by the very inconsistent Mike Hodges (whose credits range from junk like FLASH GORDON to interesting misfires like THE TERMINAL MAN to gems like the original GET CARTER, BLACK RAINBOW and the recent, and excellent, CROUPIER). One thing MORONS FROM OUTER SPACE settles is that comedy is not Hodges forte. For a better (if less than great) take on the same idea, check out SPACE INVADERS, which boasts three foot, green aliens, one of whom sounds like Jack Nicholson. It's pretty dumb, but also pretty funny.

THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT is another offering from the previously mentioned Amicus Studios, and they ended their experiment with Burroughs inspired adventure films with this one. John Wayne's son, Patrick, and future SUPERMAN 2 villainess Sarah Douglas star and there's even a Doug McClure cameo since it is a sequel to THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT. There're one or two effective dinosaur sequences but, overall, this is the cheesiest, least convincing and least involving of the series. The first of the Burroughs series had been THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT, which ended with McClure and a fetching blonde being stranded in a lost prehistoric world. For this sequel, Wayne leads a team searching for McClure, whom they do eventually find. Production values are low on this one and Wayne has even less charisma than McClure. British pop star Dana Gillespie adds some minimal interest as a scantily clad local gal, but it's not enough to salvage this effort.

PLANET OF THE APES is a great looking film. Great sets, great locations, great cinematography, great - really great - makeup and some great looking actors. Unfortunately, that's about all it has going for it. Badly acted by the performers in human form and frequently over-acted by those in ape guise, this is easily the worst film of director Tim Burton's almost charmed career, and a disappointment of colossal proportions. Still, it's a satisfactory enough way to kill some time, and it does look great. And as Fernando told us, it's better to look good than to feel good.

PLANET OF THE APES TV SERIES is a

title that will likely excite the hardcore APES fans, and do little for others. This is a compilation of the episodes of the short lived TV adaptation of the original film series, and it's pretty lame even by the standards of it's time, and close to awful by the higher qualifications of present day TV SF. Still, it's got Roddy McDowall back in the makeup again and might be worth a look for new draftees into the apes saga.

STRANGE INVADERS is part two of a never completed, but promised, "strange" trilogy from director Michael Laughlin. This and Laughlin's STRANGE BEHAVIOR share some elements. Both films take place in an idealized, if highly compromised, American Midwest as seen through the eyes of this British director. Both are darkly humorous takes on sub-genres popular in the 1950s, and both feature the delightful Fiona Lewis in a pivotal role. This one involves a father's attempt to wrest his daughter from his ex-wife before they, and all the residents of a small town, exit on a spaceship. Oddly paced, but imaginative and effective.

THE STUNT MAN is the

best movie ever made about moviemaking. It's just that simple. Director Richard Rush had endured years of making drive-in exploitation fare before he got this shot at the big time, and he's done nothing of note since, but he'll be remembered for this gem long after he's gone. Watch for a feature review on this one, as well as the simultaneous release SINSTER SAGA OF THE STUNT MAN, Rush's own feature length documentary on the trials and tribulations of making an unappreciated masterpiece.

WAR GODS OF THE DEEP is a would-be Jules Verne styled tale, which was promoted as an Edgar Allen Poe adaptation, about an underwater city peopled by gill men led by Vincent Price. If that sounds like fun, don't be fooled. This is a deadly dull tale that drags on forever before reaching an uninspiring climax. This was the last film directed by the talented Jacques Tourneur - Roger Corman had turned the job down - and one can only hope that he'll be remembered for such offerings as CURSE OF THE DEMON, THE CAT PEOPLE, THE LEOPARD MAN and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, instead of this one.

EASTER EGG HUNT

SHREK has gone through the proverbial roof as far as video sales are concerned and the DVD REVIEW website recently posted news of two hidden goodies that should make those who've already purchased the film truly feel they got their money's worth. It seems that if you select "Special Features" from the "Main Menu" and then highlight the "Main Menu" entry and press the "Up" key you'll highlight the navels of the Gingerbread Man. If you then press "Enter" you'll get a piece of SHREK trivia. What's more, you'll get additional, randomly selected, trivia tidbits each time you perform the above selection process. Now, if you take disc two and select "Play" from the "Main Menu" and then press the "Up" key you'll highlight a musical note which then allows you to view "Shrek Karaoke."

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Next week, it'll be FREAK week here at Vidiocy with a double feature dose of Mondo mania along with a film about a director and his cast who get a bad case of worms.

Vidiocy is our weekly Video & DVD column.