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The Space Children (1958) (Actually, MST3K season six, episode nine)

Season 9, episode 6.

Bigger Than Bigfoot, But Not As Sassy As Sasquatch!

Well, I wanted to review last night's stinker, but, "been there, done that".....

Tonight's Stinker
The Space Children (1958) (Actually, MST3K season six, episode nine)
A group of children who've been isolated on an atomic testing base with their parents find an alien brain that starts telling them to sneak around.... Can it be trusted??? Are it's intentions good or evil???
Has a few bmovie regulars, with a few future TV stars.....

"Jay and Silent Bob Reboot" (2019)
The stoner duo (Jason Mewes and writer/director Kevin Smith) go on yet another cross-country road trip to stop Hollywood from "rebooting" the Bluntman & Chronic superhero characters based on them. Along the way they meet the daughter Jay never knew he had, encounter the KKK, meet an angry ride-share driver, and finally face the fanboys at the annual "Chronic-Con."
Kevin made this movie after recovering from his near-fatal 2018 heart attack, and it's basically a victory lap through his back catalog, with cameos by many old friends (Ben Affleck & Matt Damon, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee, Justin Long, Craig Robinson, the cast of "Clerks," etc.) and constant call-backs to other "View Askew-niverse" movies. This "reboot" falls apart in the last quarter but till then it's mostly silly fun, especially if you're a diehard KS fanboy (guilty).

I agree w/ you that lots of giallo and Italian horror fail to live up to their reps, and first watching TENEBRE on VHS in 1989 (?), the morning after I also first watched SUSPIRIA, I felt a little let down. Once you accept that almost no giallo will ever be satisfying from a narrative perspective, and once you realize it was ALL downhill for Argento after TENEBRE... TENEBRE can be appreciated on its own terms.

Me? I appreciate it most these days for that theme song. That's my single favorite Goblin track. For years I used it as the unofficial theme for the theatre summer camp I run for students ages 11-18.      You could dub that track over Argento's TRAUMA or PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and even those films would seem tolerable!

Thanks for posting that one! I remember when "kumite" was just a funny-sounding word that David Letterman would sprinkle into Top 10 lists now and then for a cheap laff. Good to know (I guess!) that it's enjoying its own legacy...!

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

Next week, we will go to vote.

I hope that our voters will do the right thing and kick the current government to the kerb as they have ruined this country.

If this doesn't happen, our country will die.

If it does happen, there is a faint hope for renewal.

I love my country: I do not want it to die.

Viva South Africa and voetsek the ANC.

🇿🇦🇿🇦✌️

Pretty much the same my Turkish colleagues at work say about Turkey, and my Russian colleagues at work say about Russia. Though Putin will most likely be Russia's forever president, sadly.

The Last Kumite (2024)

A Karate champion is forced to participate in an illegal underground fight tournament in order to save his kidnapped daughter.

German martial arts film paying homage to 1990s martial arts movies. Made by fans for fans, starring Matthias Hues as the evil one, Billy Blanks and Cynthia Rothrock as the good ones supporting the hero, German martial artist and stunt actor Mathis Landwehr. There are also sightings of Kurt McKinney (No Retreat, No Surrender 1985), Michel and Abdel Qissi (regulars in many van Damme movies), German martial arts legend Mike Möller, and German martial arts YouTuber David Kurzhal, Dirk Rabe and David Ruessel.

French wrestler and cage fighter Mike Derudder plays the big bad final opponent, representing Bolo Yeung's physique with van Damme's looks.

The Last Kumite had a brief theatrical run in early May 2024 (fan screenings) before going to streaming platforms and physical media.

So, is it any good?

Not worse or better than all those 1990s direct-to-video martial arts movies and sequels. The film is played straight and serious. Hues has a few bad acting moments, and Rothrock has a great final moment. The fights are alright, though the final confrontation between Landwehr and Derudder ends a bit abruptly, extended with slow mo filler footage, which felt like they were cheating the audience out of a more satisfying beatdown and defeat of Derudder. There's also a semi-cheesy theme song.

The IMDb rating is surprisingly low, and it should be I guess?, if that makes any sense. The Last Kumite is not a stroke of genius but can be entertaining, except for the non-fighting scenes. They are actually boring and slow things down.

Real world rating: 1/5 (poor) Won't stimulate your intellect. Its beefy guys and gals with cornrows hitting each other. Technically and visually well done.
Fan rating: 3.5/5 (very good) for pure nostalgia.

Darby O'Gill and the Insignificant Proletarian Masses