Mondo Freudo is all about “a world of sex and the strange & unusual laws that govern it,” as told by two absolute maniacs: the producer/director/distributor team of Lee Frost and Bob Cresse, with Cresse himself ranting as we try and make it through another swing through the world of mondo.

Mondo Cane kept influencing movies a quarter a decade after it was released, as this film uses its all over the place format — in this case, a girl explores New York City — to showcase a variety of performance artists and give you an idea of what was happening in the late 80’s art scene. It was produced by Night Flight creator Stuart S. Shapiro.

This movie includes performances by Charlie Barnett (who was nearly selected for Saturday Night Live; Eddie Murphy was picked instead. He’s also Tyrone in D.C. Cab), drag star Joey Arias (Big Top Pee-Wee), Rick Aviles (who in addition to hosting It’s Showtime at the Apollo, also killed Swayze in Ghost), Phoebe Legere (the Toxic Avenger’s girlfriend), poet Karen Finley, Robert Mapplethorpe collaborator Veronica Vera, no wave star Lydia Lunch, shaman artist Frank Moore, performance artist Ann Magnuson and Joe Coleman, who eats mice heads and nearly blows himself up.

Director Harvey Keith also was the creator of the Fat Boys’ video for “Are You Ready for Freddy,” which is just one of the many pieces of art he’d created.

As A.P. Stootsberry, Peter Perry Jr. made The Notorious Cleopatra, The Secret Sex Lives of Romeo and Juliet and The Notorious Daughter of Fanny Hill. He used his real name to make this and Honeymoon of Terror.

This movie explores the Sunset Strip in 1966, which is everything from bars like the Pandora’s Box, Gazzarri’s, the Whisky A Go-Go and the Fifth Estate to learning about karate, surfing, pot, protests and go-karts.

This movie stars “The Youth of the World,” which seems to be every kid alive in 1966, but trust me, it’s a select crew here.

It’s all narrated by Humble Harve Miller, who was a huge star at Los Angeles’ KHJ-AM, the same station that “The Real Deal” Don Steele was at. However, in 1971, Harve had a major tiff with his wife that ended with him shooting and killing her. He was able to get his charges lowered to second-degree murder, claiming that in a fight over the gun, she was accidentally shot.

He spent three years in jail, teaching other inmates how to succeed in radio and recording books for the blind. When he got out, he went right back on the air. At the height of his career, one in four people in LA was listening to him and he has a 21.4 share, a number no one will ever get ever again.

The cinematographers of this movie, Lazlo Kovans and Vilmos Szigmond, would go on to make some pretty influential films like Easy Rider and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

You can watch this on YouTube:

Before starting my latest job, I did a lot of strange writing assignments. One of them was to write questions and answers for teachers as they used movies for their classes. If it wasn’t for this work, I would have never discovered this movie, which was narrated by Harrison Ford.

We all know of Neil Armstrong, but how many of us can say who he really was? This movie made me stop and imagine what it was like to be one of the first men in the space program as well as the many real life losses that Armstrong endured on the way, such as losing a daughter. The film doesn’t shy away from his issues in his marriage or with his family, but presents an all-around bio of a man that not many knew completely.

I’m glad I took that job.

You can watch this on Amazon Prime and Tubi.

Zak Knutson also made Milius, a doc about the famous director. In this film, he chronicles the Rainbow, a Sunset Strip club that has been the epicenter of rock and roll for decades. It’s where the Hollywood Vampires met, where Lemmy played his One Touch machine every night and where so many bands held court.

The main reason to watch this film is to see so many stars remember the past of the magical Rainbow, including Mickey Dolenz, Lita Ford, Ron Jeremy, Ozzy Osbourne, Slash, Gene Simmons and Matt Sorum.

It was always my dream to get to the Rainbow. I stood outside it once, but it was too intimidating for me. This movie is the chance I was waiting for to see what it was like.

You can watch this on Amazon Prime.

Eight of Francis Veber’s movies have been remade as American films. Le Grand Blond Avec une Chaussure Noire was The Man with One Red Shoe. L’emmerdeur was Buddy Buddy. La Cage aux Folles was, of course, The Birdcage. Le Jouet was The Toy. Les Comperes was Fathers’ Day. La Chevre was remade as Pure Luck. Le Diner de Cons was Dinner for Schmucks. And finally, this film is a remake of his own Les Fugitifs.

On the day Daniel James Lucas (Nick Nolte) is released from prison, he’s taken hostage by Ned Perry (Martin Short), who has no idea how to be a criminal but must raise money to save the life of Meg, his daughter.

Alan Ruck from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and James Earl Jones play the cops who are on their trail. While they’re chasing down Lucas, Ned and Meg, its ironic that Jones was mute unto he made it to high school.

Short was in two movies based on Veber’s films, as he’s also in Pure Luck. Both times, he took over parts originally played by Pierre Richard.

This is Penny Marshall’s directorial debut. She replaced Howard Zieff, the director of the two My Girl movies, and the script — originally intended for Shelley Long when people actually thought she’d be likable enough to open a movie — was rewritten as the movie was shot. You know how Hollywood works. If you can’t get Shelley Long, get Whoopi Goldberg.

Whoopi is Terry Doolittle, a computer operator at a Manhattan bank surrounded by really funny people like Carol Kane, Jon Lovitz and Phil Hartman. You also get minor parts for Tracy Ullman, Annie Potts, Jim Belushi and Michael McKean.

The story itself is a Cold War spy movie that has computers do things that they could not do in 1986. There are also more Rolling Stones references than just the title, if you’re looking for a movie with those kinds of things.

Is it sad that I know that Jonathan Pryce, who plays Jack, was also the President in two G.I. Joe movies?

Somehow, in the midst of quarantine, I was subjected to two Penny Marshall movies. This means that I have the horrifying Awakenings and Riding In Cars with Boys before COVID-19 is done.

Everyone talks about Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, but nobody talks about this movie. I mean, it has Susan Tyrell — yes, from Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker and Forbidden Zone — as a miniature woman who is married to Kris Kristofferson. Why is nobody talking about this?

It’s also directed by Randal Kleiser (Grease, The Blue Lagoon) and produced by Debra Hill, two people who I would also never think would have anything to do with a Pee Wee Herman movie. Sadly, this was the second and last of what could have been an entire series of these films.

It’s also the debut of Benicio Del Toro, so why should any of these people make sense?

The idea of the film was that Pee Wee had become famous, due to the James Brolin and Morgan Fairchild film made from his last movie and now he is a Frank Sinatra-esque singer. Then, fame became a cruel beast and Pee Wee went away to live as a farmer. This is never explained other than an odd dream sequence, which is, I assume, all that remains.

Pee Wee and Vance the Pig (played by Wayne White, who helped with Pee-wee’s Playhouse and art directed the videos for Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” and the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight, Tonight) were once content to make giant plants and romance a schoolteacher (Penelope Ann Miller) before the storm brings a carnival led by Mace Montana (Kristofferson).

Soon, our man — or boy — has fallen for Gina Piccolapupula (Valeria Golino), a trapeze artist who inspires him to be in the circus. When the town says no, Pee Wee uses a hot dog tree to turn them into children and…well, that’s the whole movie.

The montage when Pee Wee and Gina finally make love is something that still makes me laugh to this day. This is so much stranger than the first film while seeming normal, yet it has less of the whimsy of Tim Burton, so that hurts it.

Lynne Marie Stewart — Ms. Yvonne! — is a bearded lady, the one-time Henry and Predator Kevin Peter Hall shows up as a tall man (what else could he be?), Matthias Hues is a lion tamer, former Bozo Vance Colvig is a clown (and he was also in Mortuary Academy), Terrence Mann (Ug from Critters) is another clown, Franco Columbu (Arnold’s best man when he married Maria Shriver) is a strongman, Michu Meszaros (Hans from Waxwork and the man who played ALF) is a small person, Jay Robinson (Dr. Shrinker!) plays Cook, Kenneth Tobey (who shows up in plenty of Joe Dante films) is the sheriff, Leo Gordon (the Evil One in Saturday the 14th Strikes Back) plays the blacksmith, Frances Bay (Happy Gilmore‘s grandmother, plus Aunt Barbara in Blue Velvet) is Mrs. Haynes and former movie and kid host Jack Murdock is Otis.

You have to love that Pee Wee followed up his biggest career success with a movie about the circus filled with character actors. Of course, this made nowhere near its budget and that brings us back to today. No one ever talks about this movie. They should.

Known in Italy as 4…3…2…1…Morte, this Primo Zeglio-directed science fiction movie is based on the German book series Perry Rhodan by K.H. Scheer and Walter Ernsting.

Looking for radioactive material that can be more powerful than uranium, Major Perry Rhodan (Lang Jeffries, The Junkman, Spies Strike Silently) leads the four-man crew of the Stardust on a moon mission. There, he attempts to help Commander Thora (Essy Persson, Cry of the Banshee) save a scientist named Crest (John Karlsen, The Church). Of course, there’s a traitor, a crime lord, some robots and plenty of shenanigans.

You can watch it for yourself, as several copies are available on You Tube.