My weekend line-up (couch potato time!)

[The Burgomaster]

It's been awhile since I watched so many things over the course of a weekend.  Here is a summary of time spent (wasted?) on August 14, 15, and 16:

* THE FATAL HOUR (from a Mill Creek 50 Movie Pack):  This is a cheap old Monogram "Mr. Wong" movie, starring Boris Karloff as the famous Chinese detective.  It's slow moving (but only about an hour long) and not very interesting.  But you gotta love these old Monogram thrillers anyway!

* ZARDOZ:  I hadn't seen this movie in about 20 years.  I bought the DVD a few months ago and just got around to watching it.  Any movie that starts out with a giant flying head spitting out rifles and a voice that says something like, "The gun is good, the penis is bad, go forth and kill" is sure to be at least partially interesting.  This movie does have some good moments.  However, overall it wasn't nearly as good as I thought it was when I saw it 20 years ago.  It's sort of like someone took PLANET OF THE APES, LOGAN'S RUN, ZERO POPULATION GROWTH and one or two other 1960s/70s "society of the future" movies, mixed them together in a blender, and poured out an unsatisfying smoothie.

* THE LUNAR PACK (from a Mill Creek 50 Movie Pack):  See my separate post about this one.

* CONAN THE DESTROYER:  Surprisingly, I never saw this movie before.  It's on a double DVD with CONAN THE BARBARIAN (which I have seen several times).  DESTROYER was okay, but nothing special.  It's only rated PG, so I was surprised at some of the bloodletting . . . including a decapitation . . . that is in it.  But they got away with more in some PG movies back then.

* THE DAY TIME ENDED (from a Mill Creek 50 Movie Pack):  This is a crappy Charles Band movie with crappy special effects and a whole lot of "what the hell is going on?"  Jim Davis and his family return from vacation and their desert home gets sucked into a time/space warp.  There are a lot of cheesy flashing lights and sparks, sub-par spaceship effects, and small aliens who look similar to the CLOSE ENCOUNTERS aliens.  The cast includes Dorothy Malone (star of many 1940s and 50s movies) Chris Mitchum (son of Robert), young Natasha Ryan (who was also in THE AMITYVILLE HORROR), and Scott Kolden (from Sigmund and the Sea Monsters!)  He has one of the worst late 1970s/early 80s haircuts ever filmed.  And his jeans were too tight in the movie . . . I kept waiting for him to split the ass when he bent over.

* BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT (from a Mill Creek 50 Movie Pack):  Bela Lugosi plays a college professor who leads a double life as the operator of a soup kitchen (really a front for his criminal activities).  He has a secret room in the basement where his assistant buries bodies (for some reason, each grave is marked with a white cross with the victim's name on it . . . I guess this is to make it easier for the police to find the corpses if they raid the soup kitchen).  Another cheap Monogram flick that runs about an hour.

* DR. TARR'S TORTURE DUNGEON (from a Mill Creek 50 Movie Pack): An extremely dull Mexican movie about a 19th century insane asylum.  Most of the movie consists of a guy taking a tour of the asylum.  Every now and then there's a shot of a naked woman.  Don't be fooled by the "Torture Dungeon" title.  Based on an Edgar Allen Poe story.  

* DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL:  This is a 2 DVD set I bought a few months ago.  It consists of about 6 hours of old television commercials (from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s).  I watch about 30 - 60 minutes at a time in between other movies.  Over the weekend, I saw some classic commercials including some starring John Wayne (American Cancer Society), Lucy & Desi (cigarettes), John Amos, the Monkees, the Flintstones, Ozzie Nelson, Dick van Dyke, Cybill Shepherd, Jack Benny and Dennis Day, Laurel and Hardy (really a clip from an old short edited into a commercial), and even Tony Dow from LEAVE IT TO BEAVER in an Old Milwaukee beer commercial.

* Several episodes of SEINFELD (my wife and I are nearly at the end of all the boxed sets of every season for the second time).

* G.I. JOE (theatrical viewing):  Fun (but mindless) summer popcorn action flick.  

Whew . . . talk about being a couch potato!

[Rev. Powell]

* DR. TARR'S TORTURE DUNGEON (from a Mill Creek 50 Movie Pack): An extremely dull Mexican movie about a 19th century insane asylum.  Most of the movie consists of a guy taking a tour of the asylum.  Every now and then there's a shot of a naked woman.  Don't be fooled by the "Torture Dungeon" title.  Based on an Edgar Allen Poe story.  

You're probably right that it's dull (since I don't remember the plot in detail), but I recall it being very atmospheric as well.  An image of one of the lunatics blowing a conch shell has stuck in my mind for 20 years, which is pretty impressive.  I';ve been meaning to check this one out again someday.

[The Burgomaster]

* DR. TARR'S TORTURE DUNGEON (from a Mill Creek 50 Movie Pack): An extremely dull Mexican movie about a 19th century insane asylum.  Most of the movie consists of a guy taking a tour of the asylum.  Every now and then there's a shot of a naked woman.  Don't be fooled by the "Torture Dungeon" title.  Based on an Edgar Allen Poe story.  

You're probably right that it's dull (since I don't remember the plot in detail), but I recall it being very atmospheric as well.  An image of one of the lunatics blowing a conch shell has stuck in my mind for 20 years, which is pretty impressive.  I';ve been meaning to check this one out again someday.

For me, it had a similar look and feel to MARK OF THE DEVIL (even though the movies took place in different countries and different time periods).

[daveblackeye15]

Not enough Kaiju stuff in my opinion.

I've been fortunete enough to actually locate the Japanese versions of King Kong vs Godzilla but the classic Godzilla 1984 as well so I'm eager to re-watch the original version of 84 again.

As well as re-watching the classic Hieshi Gamera movies.

[venomx]

I had King Kong vs Godzilla on VHS and I lost it. 

LOL Remember the scientist? He believed the red berries made Kong huge. Right. 

KING KONG is real, man! Stupid scientist they think they know everything.