Monthly Archives: August 2020

Speed Zone (1989)

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I’m the biggest fan of movies inspired by the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash — Cannonball, Cannonball Run, Cannonball Run 2 — yet I had never heard of this movie. Can you believe that? While this is known as Speed Zone in the U.S., it was called Cannonball Run III and Cannonball Fever overseas.

I only found out about this because it was directed by Jim Drake, who made Police Academy 4: Citizens On Patrol. It was written by Martin Short’s brother Michael, who has worked with the SCTV cast on projects from the Ed Grimley cartoon to Schitt’s Creek.

This movie was absolutely despised by Siskel and Ebert. While the former said, “It is an atrocious excuse for entertainment. If I have a pet peeve about movies is that they are so venal that don’t even try to be good,” Ebert went all in on his hatred for this movie, stating “Read my lips. Cars are not funny. Speeding cars are not funny. It is not funny when a car spins around and speeds in the other direction. It is not funny when a car flies through the air. It is not funny when a truck crashes into a car. It is not funny when cops chase speeding cars. It is not funny when cars crash through roadblocks. None of those things are funny. They have never been funny.”

The teams for this race are:

BMW: Parking valet Charlie Cronan (John Candy), racing for his school rival Leo Ross (Eugene Levy), who sends his girlfriend Tiffany (Donna Dixon, the wife of Dan Aykroyd) along for the ride.

Jaguar XJS: Mob hitman Vic DeRubis (Joe Flaherty!) and compulsive gambler Alec Stewart (Matt Frewer, Max Headroom in the flesh), who have turned Viuc’s contract on Alec’s head into a chance to win money.

Ferrari Daytona Spyder: MIT students Lee Roberts and Margaret (Melody Anderson and Shari Belafonte), who see the race as a challenge that their love of technology can solve.

Lamborghini: Italian porter Valentino Rosatti (Brian George, who is really Isreali-English) and former cop Flash (Art Hindle, Black Christmas).

Bentley Corniche: Cheating rich guys Nelson and Randolph Van Sloan (The Smothers Brothers), who decide to fly to the finish line.

The News Van: TV reporters Heather Scott and Jack O’Neill (Mimi Kuzyk and Tim Matheson) who become part of the story they are covering.

They’re all being chased by Police Chief Spiro T. Edsel (Peter Boyle) and Whitman (Don Lake, Police Academy), who has already arrested one entire race worth of contestants.

Man, this movie has some cameos. Brooke Shields (who was hit by the shrapnel of this movie and got a Golden Raspberry Award for her brief moment in the, well, sun), Alyssa Milano, Carl Lewis, Richard Petty, Michael Spinks, John Schneider (who is pretty much playing a Duke boy in the beginning), Lee Van Cleef in one of his last roles and Jamie Farr, who appears as Sheik Abdul ben Falafel, making him the only actor to be in all three Cannonball Run movies.

Seeing as how this has never been releasedon DVD or blu ray, I don’t feel bad sharing the link to watch this on YouTube. Here’s to a Cannonball Run-themed box set!

SAVAGE CINEMA: Wild Riders (1971)

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Mill Creek box sets? Yeah, they’re kind of our jam. Just look at the work we’ve put into their Chilling Classics, Pure Terror and Explosive Cinema sets. I grabbed this set used for $2.50, but your mileage may vary. It goes anywhere from $10-150 on Amazon and $10-25 on eBay. It’s worth it — there are plenty of movies that fit the theme quite well.

Up first is Richard Kanter’s (Thar She Blows!, Sensual Encounters of Every Kind, Fantasy In Blue) 1971 grimy biker film Wild Riders. It’s all about Pete and Stick (Arell Blanton, whose IMDB list is full of cop roles and, yep, a very young Alex Rocco), two scumbags who get thrown out of their gang. So they do what any of us wouldn’t do — they take over a house and assault the two girls who are there.

One of them, Rona, is played by Elizabeth Knowles, who may be better known as Lisa Grant. That’s the name she used for Executive Wives and Behind the Green Door, one of the movies that introduced porno chic. The other girl, Laure, is played by Sherry Bain, who was in The Hard Ride and Ride the Hot Wind.

It’s another movie to cross off my Letterboxd Crown International list. If you’ve learned anything from this site, it’s that I am nothing if not a completist. If you end up thinking, “Is that Peter Fonda?” Well, no. But Arell Blanton is happy that you noticed him trying.

The Fast and the Furious (2001)

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Twenty years ago — has it been that long? — Paul Walker and director Rob Cohen made The Skulls together. Cohen got a deal with producer Neal H. Moritz and Universal Pictures. Looking for ideas, he asked Walker what his dream action movie would be. The answer? A mix of Days of Thunder and Donnie Brasco. After a May 1998 issue of Vibe detailed New York City’s street racing scene, they had their film. All they needed was a co-star.

After Gone In 60 Seconds, Universal wanted Timothy Olyphant but they got Moritz’s pick instead: Vin Diesel, hot off the success of Pitch Black. And then, seventy-eight wrecked cars later, we had a movie. Any similarity to the D.B. Sweeney and Charlie Sheen film No Man’s Land — which came out thirteen years before — is surely coincidental.

LAPD officer Brian O’Conner (Walker) has gone undercover to infiltrate the gang that has been stealing from trucks and disappearing. He soon makes it into the gang led by Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), who has been banned from pro racing after attacking the man who accidentally killed his father, but complicating matters is that he soon falls for Dominic’s sister Letty (Jordanna Brewster).

This movie was originally entitled Racer X (the name of the Vibe article), Race Wars and Redline, but then someone had the brilliant idea to ask Roger Corman if they could use the title of his 1955 film The Fast and the Furious. Getting paid again for a movie he already made? I can only imagine how delighted Corman had to be at the prospect.

This movie made stars of both Walker and Diesel. Waker would work with Ted Levine again — he plays one of his bosses here — in Joyride, while Diesel would refuse to be in the next few sequels to this movie.

This was a movie decimated by the critics. Actually it wasn’t until the last few movies that anyone would even admit they liked these. How times have changed.

Mill Creek Explosive Cinema Recap!

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Anytime we roll out a review of a Mill Creek box set, we think, “Eh, no one cares.” We couldn’t be more wrong! Our readers love learning about the box sets — and we gain new readers as we see an increase in our site traffic, along with a lot of social media likes and reposts on Twitter and Facebook. So thanks to all of our readers for spreading the word.

Ah, you “heart” B&S About Movies!

Of course, our past March 2020 exploration (Sunday, March 8, to Saturday, March 14) of the Explosive Cinema pack was no exception.

We’ve been clamoring for a copy of 9 Deaths of the Ninja for our personal collection — since forever. And there it was! Once again: Mill Creek with the VHS-to-Digital assist. Sold! And for that, we say: Oh, god bless ye, ye overlords of the public domain netherworlds of analog delights of thee obscure and thee crappy. For we analog peasants lost in the digital barrens need these movies to assure our survival in the never ending quest to relive our Drive-In, UHF-TV, and VHS entertainment youth.

Also be sure to check our past reviews for Mill Creek’s Pure Terror and Chilling Classics sets . . . and, keeping with our yearly, November tradition of blowing out a Mill Creek box set, we’ll be checking out the 50 films included on their Sci-Fi Invasion set. Would you like to write a review (or reviews) for the films on the set? You can get all of the deets, here.

Oy! We almost forgot: As part of our “Fast and Furious” tribute week, we’re reviewing Mill Creek’s rubber-burnin’ and asphalt-tearin’ Savage Cinema set all this week — from Sunday, August 2, to Saturday, August 8.

Happy watching! And be careful . . . it’s explosive! Tony Tulleners will kick your ass into next week.

Thank you, Eide’s Entertainment of Pittsburgh! You blew our mind!

Kill Point
Low Blow
Van Nuys Blvd.
The Patriot
9 Deaths of the Ninja
Top Cop
The Silencer (aka Body Count) (aka, Sam, this has a Seinfeld connection!)
Scorpion
Iron Angel
The Hostage
The Skydivers
Terror in the Jungle

You can learn more about Mill Creek’s box sets and other releases at MillCreekEnt.com.

About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies.

The Runners (2020)

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This movie is the nightmare of every parent. Or older brother, as the case may be. After losing their parents in a car accident, Ryan is raising Zoe, who has suddenly entered that rebellious stage of the teen years. That’s all well and good, but in the kind of twist that would inform a Trump rally horror speech, that cute boy she’s sneaking around with ends up selling her into white slavery. Ed Wood is grinning in his grave at this development.

Ryan has to find her before she’s taken into Mexico and lost. But who will protect him when the gang catches him and begins a night of torture?

I feel like nearly every movie I watch in 2020 will have Tom Sizemore in it as a cop or a preacher. I’m looking forward to the buddy movie with he and Eric Roberts as cop ministers. Man, I should have written that script because now that I’ve said it, I’ve basically brought it into existence.

This was co-directed by Joey Loomis and Micah Lyons, who also wrote and stars in the film. It has one of the most astounding fight scenes I’ve seen all year, one in which a brutal battle takes a quick turn when the bad guy does a kip up in the midst of beating the hero into a pulp. These things never happen in reality.

The Runners is available as of July 14 on demand and on DVD from Uncork’d Entertainment, who were nice enough to send us a review copy.

Escape: Puzzle of Fear (2020)

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Matthew Blake (Tommy Nash from Abducted and The Amityville Terror) is one of Hollywood’s top agents . . . carrying some dark baggage with a few rattling bones and he deserves a comeuppance. And his oldest friend and his new, bombshell girlfriend have decided that revenge is a dish best served bloody ‘n’ warm inside Los Angeles’ newest Escape Room.

The marquee name on this one is Nicholas Turturro, who you know from his seven-year run on NYPD Blue and his six-year run on Blue Bloods, as well as his co-starring roles in the cable replay favorites Here Comes the Boom and The Longest Yard (and as the lead in the low-budget The Hillside Strangler from 2004). Another familiar cast face is daytime actor and network TV series stalwart John Colton who is also part of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! cast of stock players.

Writer and director Lizze Gordon is relatively new to the film world, with one feature film under her belt in those roles: the 2017 horror film #Captured. She has two other films in various stages of pre-and-post-production: Kill Cam and The Hard Way. We previously reviewed Lizze Gordon’s Coven, which she wrote and starred (that became available on DVD and VOD on July 14).

You can learn more about Escape: Puzzle of Fear at Uncork’d Entertainment’s website and at their You Tube page. You can also view Lizze Gordon’s previous works on You Tube. You’ll be able to purchase DVDs and VOD streams for Escape: Puzzle of Fear beginning August 18.

You can watch Escape: Puzzle of Fear on You Tube Movies and #Captured on You Tube Movies.

You can watch Escape: Puzzle of Fear on You Tube Movies.
You can watch #Captured on You Tube Movies.

Disclaimer: We were provided a screener by the film’s P.R firm. That has no bearing on our review.

Limbo (2020)

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Limbo is a From Dusk Till Dawn-inspired, multi-purpose seedy bar, jailhouse, and court of law that lies somewhere in the ethers between heaven and earth where souls—both good and bad—stand trial to decide their final destination: heaven or hell. Cast into Limbo is Jimmy (Lew Temple), a murderer caught in a cat-and-mouse game between a slick prosecutor (Lucian Charles Collier, aka Stian “Occultus” Johannsen in Lords of Chaos) and an inexperienced defense attorney (ubiquitous TV actress Scottie Thompson). She wants to go for a full pardon . . . but there hasn’t been a “full redemption” in Hell for over 2,000 years . . . and Lucifer doesn’t want this case going to trial and wants it closed.

Casting is everything in an indie film, as familiar names and faces (Veronica Cartwright from Alien, James Purefoy from TV’s The Following, Chad Linberg from CSI: NY and Supernatural) offer encouragement to hit that big red streaming button.

In addition to that supporting cast, we’re treated to a cast headlined by the always reliable Scottie Thompson, who we’ve enjoyed in her guest-starring roles on numerous television series, but most notably for her starring roles in Brotherhood, Trauma, Graceland, The Blacklist, NCIS, 12 Monkeys, and the rebooted MacGyver. You’ll recall Lew Temple from The Walking Dead, and (yes!!) the always awesome Peter Jacobson from his recurring roles in the Law and Order franchises and his starring role in House, but more recently for his starring roles in Ray Donovan, Fear the Walking Dead and NCIS: Los Angeles. Then there’s the elder statesman of thespians, Richard Riehle (!!), who recently lit up our streaming screens in The Invisible Mother.

But even with that cast and their respective resumes, we came for one reason and one reason only: Richard Riehle sports a pair of devil’s horns growing out of his skull. Okay, two reasons: Peter Jacobson has a set growin’ out of his head as well.

Streaming ticket sold.

Director Mark Young has been making films since the late ‘90s—nine in all; Limbo is his tenth film—and while we haven’t reviewed any of his previous films at B&S About Movies, Limbo shows that, if not going back to watch some of his older works, we’re certainly looking forward to his current post-and-pre-production efforts of Rebirth and Lost in Paradise.

You’ll be able to stream or pick up a copy of the DVD of Limbo on August 4. You can keep abreast of developments on the film at the Facebook pages of Alternate Ending Films and Uncork’d Entertainment. You can watch the trailer on Vimeo.

Disclaimer: We were provided a screener by the film’s P.R firm. That has no bearing on our review.

About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies and publishes on Medium.

Monstrous (2020)

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Shanghaied by her boyfriend—Blair Witch-style (only with sharp ‘n steady cinematography and no handheld POVs; an intelligently-written script and no actor improv)—Sylvia (screenwriter Anna Shields) leaves Lansing, Michigan, and meets up with Alex (Rachel Finninger), another social media curiosity seeker, to research a series of disappearances—including Sylvia’s friend—in the Adirondacks outside Whitehall, New York. Sylvia soon comes to discover the monster lurking inside Alex is more sinister than any Bigfoot lurking in the woods.

Monstrous is lensed by Bruce Wemple, a New York City-based director, producer, writer, and editor with two indie-features to his credit: After Hours (2016) and Lake Artifact (2019). After Hours was the recipient of Best Picture at the 2017 Philip K. Dick Film Festival, along with the Audience Choice Award at the 2017 Boston SciFi Film Festival, and Best Sci-Fi Picture at the 2017 Buffalo Fantastic Film Festival. Screenwriter and star Anna Shields is a New York-based actor who’s amassed twenty-five screen credits across various indie projects in a short nine years. Rachel Finniger is new to the acting world and most recently appeared on a 2018 episode of Law & Order: SVU.

Each brings a quality to the screen that’s above most of the indie-streaming films available in today’s digital marketplace. It’s appreciated that while the film is spiced with social media plot points in its first act, the proceedings didn’t degrade into just another found footage-POV potboiler about a search for Bigfoot. Since Monstrous is female-driven by two actresses for most of the film, one would think the film to be prefect programming fodder for the female-center Lifetime Network—but this heads above that channel’s usual damsel-in-distress flicks.

You’ll be able to stream or pick up a copy of the DVD of Monstrous on August 11. You can keep abreast of developments on the film at 377 Entertainment’s website and Uncork’d Entertainment’s Facebook page. We’ve since reviewed Bruce Wemple’s latest, the pseudo-sequel, Dawn of the Beast.

Disclaimer: We were provided a screener by the film’s P.R firm. That has no bearing on our review.

About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies and publishes on Medium.

The Tent (2020)

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“The Crisis,” an apocalyptic event, has devastated the Earth and left David (Tim Kaiser) to rely on the backwoods survival skills he learned from his childhood. Living in tent-bound isolation and losing his mind, with only flashbacks of the past to comfort him, Mary (Lulu Dahl) emerges from the woods. The isolation have left both socially maladjusted: he’s immediately suspicious of her and she of him. Together they must learn to work together to avoid “Those Who Walk In Darkness,” heard-but-unseen creatures that may be responsible for or were born out of “The Crisis” event.

While The Tent initially comes across as a thriller with horror overtones, this feature film debut by writer/director Kyle Couch is actually an intelligent, introspective drama made on a well-utlized budget and comes across as a low-budget inversion of the Frank Darabont-directed The Mist — only without the special effect bombast and thespian clutter of superfluous characters in over-the-top dramatic moments.

Michigan-native writer and director Kyle Couch has won awards for his previous shorts and documentaries that led up to this feature film. The work by award-winning cinematographer Robert Skates (with twenty-plus credits across various shorts and indie projects) is exquisite throughout.

Trekkies will recognize Detroit, Michigan, actor Tim Kaiser from his role as Admiral Gardner in the 2016 fan-web series Star Trek: Horizon. Reminding one of Bruce Dern, he’s amassed an impressive 50-plus credit resume across various shorts and web series in a short nine years after beginning his acting career at the age of 56. Kaiser’s co-star, Lulu Dahl, has also embarked on a newly-forged career across several short films, as well as a featured background role in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Both are excellent in their roles and bigger projects are on the horizon for both in mainstream television series and films.

The Tent is currently on the U.S festival circuit, where it’s won several sets of leaves, and seeking distribution on all of the usual PPV and VOD platforms. You can learn more at the film’s official website and Facebook page.

Disclaimer: We were sent a screener by the film’s P.R firm. That has no bearing on our review.

About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies.

All Hail the Popcorn King (2020)

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The last time we heard from filmmaker Hansi Oppenheimer was her writing and producing debut with the rock-doc Color Me Obsessed: A Film About The Replacements (2011), her musician-fan insightful chronicle on the 12-year career of the Minneapolis punk-pop quartet that issued several beloved college rock gems on Twin Tone and Sire Records. Not exactly a document that screams “mainstream” to the masses.

Now she’s back with another heartfelt tribute to one of America’s non-mainstream writers: Joe R. Lansdale. Okay, yeah, we know you comic book geeks (the B&S staff and probably most of you reading this) know Joe for his work in that field. And there’s no denying that his work on Batman: The Animated Series made that one of the greatest action-animated series of all time — with stories that surpassed the Batman cinematic franchise. His biggest “mainstream” recognition came from the patronage of Don Coscarelli (Phantasm) adapting Joe’s Bram Stoker Award-nominated novella, Bubba Ho-Tep.

Now, we keep putting mainstream in quotes, not as an insult to Joe’s work. But let’s face it: there’s nothing “major studio” about a tale that features Elvis Presley and John F. Kennedy (who goes underground as a surgical-altered African-American . . . maybe) battling a soul-sucking Egyptian mummy in a nursing home. No one but the unconventional master of the Silver Sphere could have brought that to the big screen.

And only Hansi Oppenheimer could bring Joe Lansdale to the big screen — a career that needed to be documented on the big screen. As with her Replacements tribute, you immediately sense Hansi’s heartfelt fandom for her subjects. Documentaries about musicians and filmmakers come and go. This is one that stays and, hopefully, will walk away with some deserving awards on the festival circuit. Fascinating stuff.

You need more Joe than this documentary can give you (and it gives a lot)?

Then surf on over to his official website or his Wikipedia Page, which is extensive. Wanna watch his movies? You can watch Don Coscarelli’s Bubba Ho-Tep on TubiTV. You can find Cold in July on all the usual streaming platforms, including You Tube Movies. There’s no VODs for Christmas with the Dead, but Amazon has the DVDs. We also found a copy of Joe and Don Coscarelli’s premiere episode of the first season of Mick Garris’s Masters of Horror series for Showtime, “Incident On and Off a Mountain Road,” on You Tube.

Currently making the festival rounds, you’ll be able to pick this up on all the usual VOD platforms in the coming months. You can keep up to to date with the latest on the film at Squee Projects via their official website and Facebook page.

Disclaimer: We were sent a screener by the film’s P.R firm. That has no bearing on our review.

About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies and publishes on Medium.