Monthly Archives: November 2020

Drive-In Friday: Phil Savath Night

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From Terminal City Ricochet with Jello Biafra to Beverly Hills, 90210 with Luke Perry? From the science fiction/horror musical Big Meat Eater featuring the soft-shoe of “Baghdad Boogie” to the historical drama Samuel Lount? Drag racing through the eyes of David Cronenberg? Children’s programming?

Welcome to the eclectic career of Phil Savath.

Phil Savath, born December 28, 1946, was an American-born Canadian film and television writer and producer. He was most noted as a two-time Genie Award nominee for Best Screenplay, with nominations for Original Screenplay at the 4th Genie Awards in 1983 for Big Meat Eater and Adapted Screenplay at the 10th Genie Awards in 1989 for The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick. (The Genies are the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s equivalent of the Oscars.)

Savath started his career in television in the late ‘70s as the co-creator and star of the CBC Television children’s comedy series Homemade TV and Range Ryder and the Calgary Kid, and then made his theatrical debut with David Cronenberg’s Fast Company.

Fans of FOX-TV’s Beverly Hills, 90210 know him for the dozen episodes he wrote for that post-Brat Back series, as well as the oft-aired HBO favorite, The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick, which was turned into a short-lived TV series, Max Glick. He also wrote the Canadian hockey drama Net Worth (1995) and developed the Canadian TV series African Skies (1992) about a bi-racial teen friendship in post-Apartheid South Africa. As a producer, before his death in 2004, he produced the late ‘90s series These Arms of Mine, along with the TV Movies White Lies, Little Criminals, and Liar, Liar: Between Father and Daughter.

Movie 1: Fast Company (1979)

The influence of this Phil Savath-penned script on the career of David Cronenberg can’t be denied.

The first of Cronenberg’s feature films for which Cronenberg did not originate the screenplay, he was hired by the producers to direct. It was on Fast Company that Cronenberg developed long-time working relationships with cinematographer Mark Irwin, art director Carol Spier, sound editor Bryan Day, and film editor Ronald Sanders — each worked on Cronenberg’s later films. Actor Nicholas Campbell, who plays William Smith’s young protégé, also went on to appear in Cronenberg’s The Brood, The Dead Zone, and Naked Lunch. Sadly, Fast Company also serves as final release for Claudia Jennings (‘Gator Bait), who died in a car wreck several months after this drag racing drama’s release.

Movie 2: Big Meat Eater (1982)

Take one part Ed Wood’s Plan Nine from Outer Space, one part Paul Bartel’s Eating Raoul, and one part Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show and vigorously shake in your “intentionally bad cult films” tumbler, and serve: We’ve got a mad butcher, a murdered mayor, and aliens who reanimate the mayor to assist in the harvesting of a rare, radioactive fuel deposit beneath the butcher shop. Oh, and there’s song and dance numbers (which you can enjoy during our intermission).

And those Great White Northeners “got it,” since Phil Savath and his co-writers Laurence Keane and Chris Windsor received Canada’s Oscar equivalent — a Genie Awards’ nod — for Best Original Screenplay in 1983. While Windsor never made another film, Keane and Savath continued onward and upward . . . and what could Phil possibly write as a follow-up feature? It’s not what you’d think.

Intermission!
Courtesy of the Phil Savath-penned “Baghdad Boogie.”

Back to the show!

Movie 3: Samuel Lount (1985)

The man who gave us Big Meat Eater . . . wrote this? He did.

A historical drama set during the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, the film stars very familiar Canadian TV and film character actor R. H. Thomson (I remember him from the cable-played Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper and The Terry Fox Story, as well as lots of American TV series) as Samuel Lount, an organizer of the rebellion who was ultimately convicted of treason and executed in 1838.

Receiving a limited theatrical run before debuting on Canadian television, it made its U.S debut on HBO and Showtime. While not winning any awards, it received five 7th Genie Awards’ nods for Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Costuming, Best Editing, and Best Sound Editing.

Yes, this powerful, fact-based drama is — in fact — from the pen of the man who gave us a film backed by a soundtrack performed by Alternative Tentancles bands. Yes, that’s right. Phil Savath worked with Jello Biafra. But Phil wrote “Baghdad Boogie” and incorporated “Heat Seeking Missile,” a song that would give Spinal Tap pause, into a movie — so what’s really shocking you at this point?

Movie 4: Terminal City Ricochet (1990)

So, Phil did a pretty good job with the sci-fi horror parody Big Meat Eater, so he took a crack at parodying the post-apoc sci-fi craze of the ’80s with this dystopian-political intrique romp. It’s the story of a media entrepreneur who weasels his way into the mayorship of Terminal City and manipulates the populace through television, with their ensuing addictions to consumerism lining his pockets.

Oh, and the good mayor’s Chief Social Peace Enforcement Officer? Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys.

Yeah, it’s a must watch.

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

Mill Creek Sci-Fi Invasion: Extra Terrestrial Visitors (1983)

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From the Editor’s Desk: Severin Films strikes again as they pull another lost and forgotten Mill Creeker out of obscurity. On On April 25th, 2023, Severin releases the Worldwide Blu-ray premiere of Juan Piquer Simón’s Extra Terrestrial Visitors. The 4K restoration includes the U.S. debut of a long-form documentary on Simón’s career. You can learn more about the release at Severin.

As an added bonus: Also released on the same day is a 4K restoration Blu-ray of Antonio Margheriti’s Alien rip, Alien from the Abyss. You can learn more about the release at Severin.

Granted, there are not as many E.T, the Extra-Terrestrial rips as there are Alien and Star Wars rips (here) . . . but I still think (Sam?) we can squeeze an “E.T. Rip-Offs Week” or, at the very least, an “E.T Top Ten Rips” list, you know, like our two “Alien Rip-Offs” list (here and here). Speaking of which . . . is that a monkey’s face on the cover? Is this ripping off Roland Emmerich’s Making Contact, which itself is an E.T. rip, that had a possessed toy monkey in its frames (if I am remembering my movies correctly)?

Warning. It ain’t no friggin’ money. What is it?

Let’s pop in that Mill Creek disc and find out!

If you’ve hung out at B&S About Movies for any period of time, you know that Juan Piquer Simón, aka J.P Simon (but he’s Jack Grey, here; he hated the end product), is a pretty big deal around here, courtesy of his two huge, Drive-In and duplex “hits,” later to become VHS-rental horror de rigueur: Pieces (1982) and Slugs (1988). Our love runs so deep that Bill Van Ryn and Sam Panico paired up Slugs with Squirm for a “Drive-In Asylum Double Feature Night.” (Yes, we know Simón did an Alien rip — well, The Abyss rip, that itself is an Alien rip, aka The Rift (1990) — that took a while; we finally did it!)

But sandwiched between his Carpenter-slasher ’80s rip and his big bug movie, he made . . . well, it looks like Los nuevos extraterrestres, aka The New Aliens, started out as an Alien rip-off about an asteroid and a freak lightning storm depositing a dozen alien eggs in the woods, you know, like a Luigi Cozzi movie (Contamination). Then some guy by the name of Steven Spielberg went and made a movie about a kid and his lost alien friend. And you know how film producers are. You’re passé, Ridley Scott. Hello, Mr. Spielberg.

When art departments give up. . . .

At first, this looks like a Godfrey Ho cut-and-paste job of three unfinished films:

First, we have a trio of bumbling wild life poachers scaling trees for rare eggs in the woods, so it seems we’re getting another Don Dohler alien-in-the-woods cheapfest, ala Galaxy Invader or Night Beast.

But wait . . . we have a Z-grade, new wave band recording in the studio and it’s not working out . . . time to hop into the RV and head out to a remote cabin to cut new tunes . . . and become alien hors d’oeuvre, ala Carpenter with a Dohler-alien pinch-slashing for Jason Vorhees.

But wait . . . then there’s Tommy: an annoying Spanish kid (in a bad dub, natch; this was a French-Spain co-production with thespians from both countries mixing it up) in a Spielbergian-Americanized, product-placement bedroom nightmare (Boston Red Sox and Bruins pennants) with a zoo menagerie in his room (a rabbit, gerbil, hamster, kitten), stuck in a remote cabin with his grumpy uncle and domineering aunt. And all the poor kid wants is a friend to play jigsaw puzzles and Simon — again — it’s all about the product placement. (And holy set design déjà vu, Batman: Is that the same bedroom Timmy had in Pieces? Yep.)

So, the poachers, who want rare eggs, smash the alien eggs (?) . . . and let slip the Sid and Marty Kroft alien of war. Seriously. Remember the monkey crack? Well, it ain’t no friggin’ monkey: it’s an aardvark-bear hybrid that, the first thing I thought of was Snork from the ’70s American, daytime TV series The Banana Splits. (Where’s Sigmund and the Rest of the Sea Monsters?) And Snork is on the warpath. And is it the mom? Or brother? Or sister? No matter: Sigmund wants its child/sibling back.

Meanwhile, back at the cabin: Tommy found the last egg and hatched a new friend: Trumpy. No, it’s not a political statement by the filmmakers: it’s because of the aliens trunk. And that baby alien grows into a teen alien overnight, as it sucks up a collection of Kellogg’s cereals and Planters Peanuts (and, I think a jar of Jiff). Again, product placement.

Meanwhile, in the back in the woods: Snork, aka Big Trumpy, killed one of the new wavers. And the band is on the run (sorry, Mr. McCartney) to . . . the cabin where Tommy lives. Oh, and did we mention Tommy’s uncle is one of the poachers? And nice Trumpy, who, of course, has mad ESP skills and makes clothes and shoes from the closet put on a floor show, with musical accompaniment courtesy of Milton Bradley’s Simon, suffers from a case mistaken identity — as a murderer — that threatens the newly formed friendship of Tommy and Trumpy. And Trumpy doesn’t want to go. But Tommy leaves Trumpy — who parents/siblings are all dead, thanks to the stupid Earthlings — in the woods: alone.

It’s actually a sad ending. Here’s a kids that loves animals and takes care of pets. And he abandons the best pet ever — in the woods. Wait. It’s not sad. It’s sick. What the frack, Juan? What’s the “statement” made here? When something becomes a pain-in-the-ass, you dump it? Don’t give friends the benefit of the doubt?

As if this Alien-E.T. clone wasn’t enough of a mess: Film Ventures International also stuck this on the VHS shelves as Pod People and cut in footage from Dohler’s Galaxy Invader (never saw that version myself). In some quarters, FVI said, “the hell with it” and marketed it as a sequel: E.T. – The Second Coming.

You can watch Extra Terrestrial Visitors on You Tube or own it as part of the Mill Creek Box Set.

Oh! Speaking of Film Ventures International . . . be sure to check out our “Drive-In Friday: Film Ventures International Night” and “FVI Night: Part II” tribute nights.

We also give this film another take as part of our 8th day tribute to the folks at FVI as part of our second annual, “April Movie Thon 2” for 2023.

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

Possessor (2020)

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The same thing always happens. A movie gets hyped, I buy in and get excited, then watch it and am mildly interested in it and wonder what all the fervor was all about. It happened all over again with Possessor (or Possessor Uncut), which is not the alternate title to Horror Express (©Bill Van Ryn for that joke), it’s not one of the movies within a movie within Popcorn and it is certainly not the other title — The Possessor — for the 1975 Italian film The Return of the Exorcist (which also goes by the names  Exorcist 3: Cries and Shadows, The Possessor, Un Urlo Dalle Tenebre and Naked Exorcist).

The film starts interesting enough, as we watch a woman (Gabrielle Graham) insert a needle inside her head and attach it to a machine. She then goes to work at a party where she repeatedly stabs a man, then nearly turns a gun on herself before the police shot her. It turns out that she’s controlled by a possessor named Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough), which means that she can directly implant her mind into someone else and use them to kill people.

As her boss (Jennifer Jason Leigh, always a welcome actress) talks her through the end of the assignment, Tasya must identify objects from her past to prove that she is still herself. That’s another lie, as she can barely speak like a normal human being when she meets her ex-husband (Rossif Sutherland) and son.

But there’s no time to consider that. There’s another job, as they have been hired to kill the owner of a data mining company, which excites everyone because they’ll be able to control the company by blackmailing the man who hired them. They use the owner’s daughter Ava’s boyfriend Colin (Christopher Abbott) for the hit, but for the first time, the company doesn’t have all of the answers. And even after he completes half the job, killing his girlfriend — yet only wounding her father — he takes back over and causes Tasya to vomit blood.

Can Tasya complete her assignment and get her mark to kill himself so she can be released? Or is this her final possession? And how does her son get involved?

The main reason most have discussed this film is because it was written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg, the son of, well, you know. This definitely has style, the colors and camera angles are gorgeous but there’s an icy edge that ill serves the movie to me. It’s as if we are as much on the outside looking in as the titular possessor. I wanted to feel more, to get really excited about it and to find a new favorite, but it was just good.

And I learned, yet again, that hype can really sell a movie, but once it’s playing in front of your eyes, it’s your call whether or not you really enjoy it. But hey — your experience may vary and you might completely adore this. Also, knowing me, once Brandon Cronenberg’s second movie is hated by everyone else — see this same story played out in Under the Silver Lake and Southland Tales — I’ll fall in love with one of his movies.

That said — it has a psychic possession threeway, so there’s that. And oh yeah — of course he points to Argento as an influence, which makes sense, as this film is awash in dream imagery and primary colors. There’s also female as male as female — or whatever the possessor is — full frontal nudity, if you’re looking to get your mind blown.

There are some great ideas and images here, so I’ll definitely keep an eye on what comes next.

Wedding Present (1936)

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Richard Wallace (A Night to Remember) directed this screwball comedy vehicle for a young Cary Grant, who plays Charlie, a man whose promotion to city editor drives his reporter girlfriend Monica “Rusty” Fleming (Joan Bennett, who was also in Big Brown Eyes with Grant) to New York City. That means that Charlie must grab his friend “Smiles” Benson (William Demarest, Uncle Charlie from My Three Sons) and try to win back his lady love.

Gene Lockhart, who plays the Archduke Gustav Ernest, would appear with Grant again in one of his biggest roles, His Girl Friday.

It’s funny knowing the Grant that would end up in films like North by Northwest and see him in his fast-talking days, rushing through slapstick antics. That said, this is a fun escape from the majority of the bad news that is on the TV these days, a reminder than 1930’s films are still worthy of rediscovery. 

You can get this as part of Kino Lorber’s Cary Grant Collection, which is a great opportunity to own some of the actor’s earliest films on blu ray.

My Best Worst Adventure (2020)

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Following her mother’s death, Jenny’s (Lily Patra) battles with her stepfather have reached the breaking point. That’s what has taken her to rural Thailand, where she is to live with her grandmother. Her unhappiness grows and grows, leading to her lashing out and running into the jungle, where she gets lost. There, she meets a mute peasant named Boonrod, who one of the first people she’s ever connected with.

Seeing as how Jenny has refused to speak to anyone and Boonrod cannot talk, their communication is on a much higher level.

Together, they challenge the elites of the village to a buffalo race, which is kind of like a horse race without the benefit or saddles or any rules. Through this event, they both learn so much about themselves and one another.

This was written and directed by Joel Soisson, whose career has been all the place, but mostly involved in making the kind of movies we usually review here. He directed two of The Prophecy sequels, as well as Pulse 2 and 3, Children of the Corn: Genesis, wrote The Supernaturals, Dracula 2000, Hellraiser: Hellworld and one of my favorite movies ever, Trick or Treat. Beyond that, he was in the art department for the gory and under appreciated Superstition, worked the boom for To All a Goodnight and produced Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence, Piranha 3DD and several more films. He also shot another version of this in 2015 called Buffalo Rider, which you can find on Amazon Prime.

Coming of age movies generally don’t get much watching on our site, but this is the kind of movie that the whole family can enjoy and learn from.

Mill Creek Sci-Fi Invasion: Slipstream (1989)

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For decades, I’ve either stared at the box cover of this movie or looked at it while going through streaming movies to watch. I mean, it checks so many boxes, as it’s set in a post-apocalyptic future, has bounty hunters in it and stars Mark Hamill and Bill Paxton. Yet I’ve never watched it. And again, that’s why I love doing these Mill Creek months, because it’s allowed me to finally discover so many movies that I’ve previously skipped.

I don’t know if Slipstream is one of the successes of these experiments, but hey, at least I finally watched it.

It certainly has a great pedigree. It has a score by Elmer Bernstein, was directed by Steven Lisberger, who made Tron, and was produced by Gary Kurtz, who did the same role on The Dark Crystal, Return to Oz and oh yeah, Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. Before Jedi, Lucas and Kurtz had a falling out over the creative direction of the franchise.

That’s probably why this film has so many great actors in it. Beyond Hamill and Paxton, there are minor roles for Robbie Coltrane, Ben Kingsley and F. Murray Abraham.

The film instantly tries to create a mythology of a world where the Harmonic Convergence — oh man, remember that and all the other pre-millennial apocalyptic insanity? — has caused drastic climate change in the form of the Slipstream, a strong series of winds that have encircled the globe. Humanity is mostly destroyed, but those left behind have learned to harness the Slipstream or at the very least respect it. 

Bounty hunters Will Tasker (Hammill) and Belitski (Kitty Aldridge) are hunting Byron (Bob Peck, Jurassic Park), a man is seemingly unable to be hurt and who keeps quoting the poetry of John Gillespie Magee, Jr. and Lord Byron, who can also heal blind children (so there’s that).

As for Paxton, he plays Matt Owens, who angers the bounty hunters and then steals Byron, taking him to Hell’s Kitchen. It turns out that Byron is an android that dreams of a place beyond the Slipstream where more of his people reside. 

Kurtz hoped that Slipstream would be a major success and start another science fiction franchise, so it’s pretty glossy and filled with all manner of characters who could have been spun off into future stories. But nope, it all ended here. It never received a theatrical release in the U.S. and was hampered by Kurtz’s divorce — man, the guy was having no luck in 1989 — which led to him having to use all of his Star Wars money to finance this. 

Maybe people weren’t ready for a movie obsessed with aviation, free will and artificial intelligence, I guess. It’s not necessarily bad, but it doesn’t feel like a franchise starter that failed (see Krull for a good example of that). There’s some kind of good movie in here, but it never really takes off. And after that aviation-based pun, I’m out of here.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Mill Creek Sci-Fi Invasion: Night Fright (1967)

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Editor’s Note: The review previous ran as part of our Mill Creek Pure Terror Month tribute on November 12, 2019.

“Okay, kid. I want you to make me a film under 80-minutes for $18,000 bucks,” cigar chomps the film executive planting his wing-tips on his desk. “And I got this ratty gorilla suit at an auction . . . they lost the gorilla head, so use this alien mask that I think is left over from 20 Million Miles to Earth . . . and use these reels of NASA stock footage . . . oh, and I can’t afford any lights, so shoot all the night time scenes day-for-night. And you’re using John Agar in the lead.”

“Who’s John Agar?” snivels the fresh-out-of-film-school grad.

“A washed up drunk who boinked Shirley Temple. He comes cheap.”

“Well, sir. Thank you for the opportunity—.”

“Believe me, kid. If I could get Larry Buchanan to shoot this, I would. Now, let’s go to work.”

. . . And so starts this go-go swingin’ adventure: A NASA rocket sent into space filled with test animals flies through a radiation cloud and crashes into the wilds of Cielo, Texas, so a mutated-gorilla monster can munch on a bunch of 18-going-on-30 teenagers in a wooded area known as “Satan’s Hollow.” (Speaking of a “Satan’s Hollow,” check this out.)

“Hey, gang,” head cool kid Chris Jordan calls out. “Let’s go have a swingin’ dance party in the woods! You know, our own ‘private blast’ where that mysterious object crashed!”

“Yeah, and we can do some off-screen shimmy-shammin’ so the Klingon-headed-gorilla space monster can chew us up,” squeals Judy.

“Shit. Let’s go to work, Ben,” says Sheriff Clint Crawford (John Agar) to Deputy Ben Whitfield (Bill Thurman). “It looks like we’re stuck in a movie that’s worse than Robot Monster. Hell, even The Giant Gila Monster.”

“Yeah,” whisky bottle swigs John Agar. “At this rate, we’ll be co-starring in Ed Wood pictures. Damn shame I won’t live long enough to star in an ‘80s SOV stinker. Heck, I would have been great as the detective in Blood Cult.”

“Nah, I’ll do just fine, John. I won’t end up in SOV crap like Spine. Respected directors like Louis Malle, Steven Speilberg, and Lawrence Kasdan will cast me, and I’ll work with Steve McQueen,” chest puffs Bill. “Now go stuff that mannequin with explosives so the dumb space gorilla eats it and we can get the hell out of here and have a beer,” bug neck-smacks Bill Thurman. “And besides, John, don’t you remember? You do that interview in 1986. So it’s not that you died, it’s just that you’ll be so washed up, that the director, Christopher Lewis, wouldn’t want you.”

“Hey, wait a sec . . . Lewis? Loretta’s kid. Yeah, didn’t I bang Loretta Young?”

“Yeah, right, Johnny boy,” says Bill with a back pat. “She married Clark Gable. What would she want with a pug like you? Now, let’s go kill us a space gorilla.”

John Agar was on top of the world. He starred alongside John Wayne in Sands of Iwo Jima, Fort Apache, and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. He was the toast of tinsel town with his five-year marriage to Shirley Temple. . . . Then the marriage failed and his drinking got worse and he became a stock player for Larry Buchanan at AIP Studios in the low-budget frolics The Mole People and The Brain from Planet Arous.

Night Fright VHS 2

Me: I always cherish Mr. Agar in my late dad’s John Wayne flicks and I’ll always remember John in the Alien precursor and the UHF double-billed, Journey to the Seventh Planet (alongside The Demon Planet, aka Planet of Vampires).

“I don’t resent being identified with B-science fiction movies at all,” Agar reflected in a 1986 interview chronicled at Monster Shack. “Why should I? Even though they were not considered top of the line, for those people that like sci-fi, I guess they were fun. My whole feeling about working as an actor is, if I give anybody any enjoyment, I’m doing my job, and that’s what counts.”

You did, John Agar. You most certainly did. You are at the center of this writer’s Venn Diagram-Borromean Rings of my “Bad Sci-Fi Battle of Evermore.”

In addition to satisfying my John Agar fix, Night Fright also quenches my Bill Thurman completest-compulsions—and gives me an opportunity to talk about Hollywood fringe-obscurity, Brenda Venus.

Brenda Venus, who stars as Sue, grew up to sprout “white nipples” so Eric Swann (Martin Mull) could boink her on the audio mixing console in FM (1978). Oh, you’ve seen Brenda around. She was in Fred Williamson’s blaxploitation spaghetti western, Joshua (1976) and Jack Hill’s Foxy Brown (1974). She starred with Clint Eastwood in The Eiger Sanction (?!) and she endured the wrath of Ankar Moor in Deathsport (1978). Brenda’s Wikipedia is well worth the visit and it directs you to her very cool, official website.

As for Bill Thurman: It’s like shootin’ fish in a Larry Buchanan-AIP barrel. Bill was in everything calculated inside the UHF Venn Diagram of my youth and went on to become the “go-to actor” when you needed a backwoods sheriff or redneck.

He was Sheriff Brad Crenshaw in Zontar, the Thing from Venus.

He was Sheriff Joe Bob Thomas in ‘Gator Bait.

He was Sheriff Billy Carter in Creature from Black Lake. . . .

Night Fright VHS

And get a load of the ‘80s VHS and ‘90s digital-platform repacks of Night Fright: they really are better than the movie. And don’t be fooled by its alternate titlings and confuse it with 1958’s Night of the Blood Beast, which is also available on the Mill Creek Pure Terror 50 Box Set (and my condolences to whomever reviews that stinker. Wait. What? I’m the “whomever” reviewing it? Crap!).

So, yeah, Night Fright sucks. But it’s also one of my cherished UHF snowy memories. Thanks, Mill Creek!

Love and Monsters (2020)

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Of all the films that I’ve watched over quarantine, Love and Monsters is the one that deserved to play in a theater.

Directed by Michael Matthews from a script by Brian Duffield (who wrote The Babysitter and wrote and directed Spontaneous) and Matthew Robinson (Monster Trucks), this movie creates an interesting world from the first frame, a place where an asteroid almost hits the Earth, but nuclear weapons destroy it. However, the fallout transforms any cold-blooded animal into a mutated monster and within days, most of the human race is dead.

This all takes place seven years before this movie, on the night that Joel Dawson (Dylan O’Brien) is separated from his girlfriend Aimee (Jessica Henwick). After reconnecting with her via the radio, he decides to leave behind the bunker where he’s spent his life and cross the dangerous world left behind to find her.

Joel has no survival skills at all, mostly acting as the cook for his group. Once he gets to the outside, he’s quickly saved and taught what he needs to know by Clyde Dutton (Michael Rooker) and Minnow (Ariana Greenblatt). Then, he’s on his way, seeking true love, which he learns the meaning of once he gets to Aimee’s settlement.

If you have older kids who aren’t frightened by big monsters, this is a great movie. I’ll give you a small spoiler and let you know that Boy the dog survives, if you worry about that like I do.

Originally titled Monster Problems, this has moments of true beauty amongst the monster mayhem, such as when the Mav1s robot plays music for our hero and luminescent jellyfish float through the air.

I would more than recommend this movie and hope for a sequel. It was an absolute blast and a real escape from the issues of the world, as all good movies are.

Big Brown Eyes (1936)

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I haven’t seen many crime comedies that revolve around manicures, but that’s exactly what this Raoul Walsh (the one-eyed director of High Sierra) comedy is all about.

Cary Grant plays police officer Danny Barr, who is growing tired of chasing jewel thieves. His girlfriend Eve Fallon (Joan Bennett, Dark Shadows, Madame Blanc in Suspiria) gives up her manicurist job to become a reporter, aiding Danny as he hunts down the criminals. One of them gives up way too much info while getting his nails done, which leads to them finally tracking down the big bad, Richard Morey (Walter Pidgeon, who was in both Sextette and Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood at the end of his career).

It’s a fun little farce. It was also one of more than seven hundred Paramount productions, filmed between 1929-49, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution. It aired for the first time on TV in 1959.

You can get this as part of Kino Lorber’s Cary Grant Collection, which is a great opportunity to own some of the actor’s earliest films on blu ray.

Expulsion (2020)

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Scott and Vincent are top recruits at Cicero Market Technologies Corporation, where their job is to use cutting edge technologies to bring about world-changing medical, environmental and physics advancements.

But like anyone creative, they can’t shut off when they leave work. At home, they continue working on pushing the limits of particle collision science until they find a parallel world and another version of Scott.

Of course, that also means that others want that tech and they don’t care who gets hurt along the way, including Shara Fanning (Lar Park Lincoln from House II: The Second Story and Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood).

Expulsion is written and directed by Aaron Jackson (who also plays Vincent) and Sean C. Stephens (who also edited and produced the film). They make the most out of their low budget by pushing their high concept, all without forgetting the emotional parts of the story. After all, if your friend could build a dimensional gateway in their garage, wouldn’t you be interested in trying it out?

You can watch this on Amazon Prime. It’s also available on demand and on DVD and blu ray. You can learn more at the official site.