Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Kappa Kid's Dungeon of Schlock

I agree with much of your assessment, thoth. It's just those damn characters....GAH!. I hated them so much!

I've been racking my brain for hours, but can't remember a thing about it.

I just pulled out the DVD. I immediately notice that Dan O'Bannon was involved at some stage in the screenplay.

I really should read back covers more often. For those stranded without wiki Dan O'Bannon wrote Alien, but also the great Dark Star. There was also Life Force somewhere along the way too.

His involvement probably shaped the tone of the movie. That physical comedy tied in with horror. The bleak mixed well with the humour.

As for the characters. Pretty much of their time. Actually, I think they had already been partly replacement by disposable serial killer victims from slasher movies by then

It's been a LONG time since I saw it, but I remember being underwhelmed. Though at the time, being a Romero devotee, I approached it with some hostility as some of the hype was built around it being the "Real" sequel to Night (Being Russo's story).

I also had an aversion to horror/comedy at the time (I similarly disliked Evil Dead II for the slapstick, but have been meaning to revisit for a while now that my tastes have evolved).

Still, it had Linnea Quigley strutting around in a state of undress, so hormonal teenage me will always have some affinity for this flick.

Oh, if I'd have gone into it thinking it was a continuation/ connection to Romero movies then I would have been a bit surprised.

I'm not much for hype either, but I missed all that at the time of release.

I don't think the humorous aspects of this one weren't quite at the same relentless OTT level as Evil Dead II.

I'm going to be watching RotLD again tonight, so I'll have some comments on it from that.

I look forward to your thoughts, thoth.

I still think it's a pretty decent movie.

The pacing is very good. It's a zombie movie but it never overplays it's hand. There's a clear escalation of the threat through the acts. Each incident is connected firmly with what goes before it. It's far from rushed at any stage.



There are set ups and payoffs that work well



Apart from the acme teens, the cast wasn't as bad as I thought. The thing I never understood was why so many cliché teen influences would hang out together.



The threat was removed from the shambling dead of Romero movies, the possessed Evil Dead and the somnambulist voodoo zombies from previous movies.

The zombies here clearly influence the creatures from more modern takes on the sub-genre.

Things that made me go "meh"
Acme teens.
A low budget skeleton, but still with eyes which wasn't that effective.
The overly long military set up to pay off.

Your mention of that skeleton reminded me that they used the same shot of that skeleton coming out of the grave for both a shot in the middle of the movie when the dead are rising and the final shot of the movie. It's the exact same scene!

Yeah, it was pants the first time, so getting a reminder just made it worse

The funny thing is that the effects in that movie are top notch, but they ended the movie on what was easily their cheapest looking shot.

Perhaps they were looking at other movies. The Evil Dead had a memorable hand bursting through the earth. They wanted to have something come up form the ground, but just couldn't think of anything original.

Or perhaps they completed the movie, then realised they had forgotten about anything coming up from the grave. $5 later and they have a skeleton ready to go!

I'm kind of cheating on this one and doesn't really count as "schlock" in the traditional sense of the word, but Galaxy Quest is just fucking awesome anyway. If Star Wars has Spaceballs, then Star Trek has Galaxy Quest. I actually think Galaxy Quest is the superior of the two spoofs. While Spaceballs seeks to do nothing but ridicule the concept of Star Wars, the roasting of Star Trek in Galaxy Quest is done out of nothing but love and it's clear the creators of the movie love Star Trek: TOS and all the campy fun that comes with it. Tim Allen might be the last guy you would expect to play a parody of William Shatner's Captain Kirk, but he nails the role, embodying a star revelling in his long past glory days and milking his fame to the very last drop. Sigourney Weaver is awesome as always, playing a character that pokes fun at how female characters are often badly written in science fiction, but the message is never beaten into your head like some other parodies do. All in all, it's perhaps the best love letter to geeks this side of Paul and I highly recommend it for the comedy loving Trekkie out there.

Rating: 5/5 stars

I'm sold on it and will check it out. Thanks, Stalgie.

Loved Galaxy Quest on the first outing, but have found it suffers for me on subsequent viewings, while Spaceballs, as over the top as it is, still gets laughs every time (One of the last successful Brooks comedies in my mind).

Back in time just for October!

This weekend's viewing was Evil Dead (2013). I'm a big fan of the original movies, but was pretty disappointed by this reboot. The movie takes itself way too seriously and the tongue in cheek black humor of the original movie is missing. The characters are all bland, except for the hippy Jesus guy who doesn't survive the movie. The climax of the movie is an odd bag for me. It seems to be trying to vere into the over the top gore of the original series, but the actual plot mechanics of what's happening in the scene don't synchronize with that tone at all. I would recommend checking it out if you're a hardcore Evil Dead fan, but keep your expectations in check. I really hope the Ash vs Evil Dead series isn't going to be following this movie's style.

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

I'm a casual Evil Dead fan (weirdly, my favorite is the much-maligned, overtly comedic Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn), so I was mildly curious about the remake. Thanks for the review, Stalgie. I think I'll pass.

On the other end of the spectrum, ED2: DBD is my least favorite of the series!

In regards to the remake, they definitely were trying to rely on fan service to bypass some of the faults of making the movie for a 21st century audience (over reliance on shock, lack of interesting characters, etc.). What's most surprising is that they even left in that scene from original which even Raimi himself said was too far.

I have to agree it's a pass. Evil Dead 2 has a lot of fans here. That simultaneous slapstick/horror combo is tough to beat.

I watched the Italian Nightmare City a couple of nights ago. Gearing up for Halloween. Where the veil between this world and others* is thin. Look! One has come through to our world... and has asked us to put a better film on. Bloody cheek!



*other worlds were retconned away by DC in 1986 and may or may not exist depending on when you are reading this sentence.

Cheers, Thoth.

The Rocky films are arguably the greatest example of how a once respectable franchise quickly gave in to 1980s Reagan era patriotism and excess (see Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo films, for another instance). However, they occasionally dipped into the "so bad it's good" pool of movies, as is seen in Rocky IV. By God, this movie is so gloriously dated, that it's amazing. Cold War politics! 80's workout montages! Russians with Mortal Kombat death punches! I think that Dolph Lundgren's performance as Ivan Drago is actually one of the more interesting parts of this movie. Lundgren underplays his role to such a degree that it gives Ivan Drago such an intimidating presence on screen and the few words he does speak feel like they are filled with genuine malice and intent. Some of the other plot points do leave me scratching my head, such as Paulie's "female" robot maid, but that's the kind of goofy stuff that makes this movie great popcorn entertainment. In fact, I would even go as far as to say this is my favorite Rocky movie after the original on a pure entertainment level.

Yeah, "Rocky IV" is definitely a hoot-and-a-half. Sly's then-wife Brigitte Nielsen, playing Drago's wife, really rocks those 80s fashions.

"Rambo: First Blood Part II" and "Cobra" are among my biggest cinematic guilty pleasures as well. Both were directed by the late, great schlock-meister George P. Cosmatos. And to anyone who says that Cosmatos was only the "nominal" director, I say thee nay!

I don't think I've seen Rambo II. I did play the arcade game. You had an infinite amount of ammo that would mow down countless foes. I was told later that this pretty much matched the movie

It was basically an R-rated (or Certificate 15) episode of the "G.I. Joe" cartoon.

Or an episode of "The A-Team" on steroids.

...checks up page to see Fickles earlier post to see if that's a good thing or not... it is!

Used to hate Rocky IV. As a kid who wasn't American, jingoistic American films in the early 80's really bothered me, and I had a hard time getting past them (I actually never saw Rocky V after this one). Now I can laugh at it excesses and besides, who doesn't love James Brown?