Movie Review: Death Force aka Vengeance is Mine

Death Force is one of those movies that you are really likely to stumble across on the shelves of a brick and mortar store like Best Buy or Target. It is one of those types of movies that seems destined to be forgotten, and for a the majority, it likely is forgotten, along with so many others. This is why we should be thankful for companies like Vinegar Syndrome who go out of their way to not only obtain the rights to films like this, but to go through restorations from the best elements they are able to find. The results here are quite good. The film does show its age and some of the scratches and marks may have been printed in the source. Still, any complaints are minor next to the solid and uncut presentation.

Movie Review: Friday Foster

Blaxploitation is a genre I need to explore some more of. There are some really good films that came out of this era. Some more so than others. There are the ones everyone is aware of, Shaft and Foxy Brown come to mind, these are the ones that even non-movie geeks know. But you can dig a little deeper and find slightly more obscure titles (at least by my uneducated estimation) like Black Belt Jones, TNT Jackson, Truck Turner (this is a good one), and Sheba Baby (which I did not particularly care for). Then there are those that when you see them, you wonder what took so long or why they are not better regarded. Enter Friday Foster.

Movie Review: Truck Turner

There is nothing quite as motivational as movies getting set to expire on Netflix. It forces me to make time for movies I kept looking for the right time to watch. You know, some movies demand to have that special moment in time and expiration dates make that special moment now! The movie in question is one of those expiring and I made the time and I think I am a better person for it. It is a movie that comes highly recommended by a couple of friends and now, after watching it, I can see why. The movie is none other than Truck Turner.

Sci Fi Invasion: The Brother from Another Planet

Oh, you sneaky box set, you. It is a set that has so much filler in it that you wonder if having fifty movies was worth the ten bucks I spent. Movie after movie of wasted time. Bad directing, effects, stories, acting, so much boredom created, and so many sleepless nights instantly cured. It is no wonder that I begin to think it is nothing but filler. Fortunately there is the occasional ray of light. I have finally stumbled across one of those special moments that makes all the junk worth wading through. Now, it could just be that it is good only in comparison to what immediately preceded, but I suspect not.

Movie Review: The Black Klansman (1966)

The name Ted V. Mikels probably does not mean all that much to the majority of you. That's fine. In most cases it is not really a name I would expect you to know. Mikels is a writer/director who specialized in low budget, exploitative, B-movies. He is best known for Astro Zombies and The Corpse Grinders. Don't know those either? Again, that's fine. Frankly, I am not sure how I really feel about Mikels output. Still, I think I stumbled across this one at the right time. The Black Klansman (aka I Crossed the Color Barrier) is a daring, for the time, blend of social commentary and blaxploitation (before blaxploitation was a thing) about blacks and whites that live in shades of grey.

Horror-A-Day: Blackenstein - The Black Frankenstein

So, the decidedly un-Fall like weather persists. The good thing is that the march towards Halloween movie marathon marches on. There is nothing quite like scrolling through my Netflix queue searching for the next hopeful winner. Well, I did succeed on watching something I had never seen before, but it is not one that is going to float to the top. With that said, it does have a certain undeniable charm that firmly plants it in the era in which it was made, never to be confused with a more modern production.

Movie Review: Bamboo Gods and Iron Men

I think I may have just seen the ultimate red herring movie. No, it is not a movie about a fish, it has a fantastic dodge. The focus of the movie turns out to be a complete nothing. Think of it like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. Do you remember what was in it or of it really even mattered? That is exactly what is going on here. Well, it has that and the fact that it is a wonderful mash up of blaxploitation and kungfusploitation. The movie is the oft forgotten gem Bamboo Gods and Iron Men. No, the title doesn't really describe the movie, but it certainly is catchy, right?

Movie Review: T.N.T. Jackson (1974)

The letters T.N.T. will always bring AC/DC to mind. It is that rocker in me that always associates those letters with that band. Well, now my mind may ave some choices to make when those letters come up now. You see, I have just experienced T.N.T. Jackson, an exploitation mash up from 1974. It brings blaxploitation, sexploitation, Kung fu, and the Philippines crashing into each other with low budget producer extraordinaire Roger Corman guiding the way.

Netflix'ns: Super Fly

Netflix'ns is a series of review shorts of films discovered on Netflix, be it DVD or streaming. For better or worse, I sat through these films and have lived to tell the tale. These are not so much reviews as just comments on the film watched. This is also a work in progress.

Netflix'ns: Black Belt Jones

Netflix'ns is a series of review shorts of films discovered on Netflix, be it DVD or streaming. For better or worse, I sat through these films and have lived to tell the tale. These are not so much reviews as just comments on the film watched. This is also a work in progress.