1 The Hangover WB $33,415,000 2 Up BV $30,515,000 3 The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 Sony $25,000,000 4 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian Fox $9,600,000 5 Land of the Lost Uni. $9,153,000 6 Imagine That Par. $5,700,000 7 Star Trek Par. $5,600,000 8 Terminator Salvation WB $4,695,000 9 Angels & Demons Sony $4,200,000 10 Drag Me to Hell Uni. $3,864,000
I hate to come right out and say "I told you so," but no one in the offices of This Movie Sucks! were ever convinced that David Carradine had committed suicide. We implied as much in our initial post reporting the actor's death.
Granted, when we first heard simply that he was found hanged, it was just a gut reaction. It would be like hearing that James Woods was caught taking ballet lessons. Some things are just too inconceivable to comprehend. The contradictory reports coming from Singapore, with police saying 'suicide' and managers saying 'natural causes', it was obvious that something weird was going on. Then, the phrase "found hanging in closet" hit the news cycle, and our minds were made up. No of David Carradine's stature hangs himself in a hotel room closet. That's just plain nonsense.
Well, the official word is out, and forensics expert Dr. Michael Baden has declared that, unless contradictory evidence is supplied with materials requested from Singapore, David Carradine's death was in no way a suicide.
So, now that the cat is out of the bag, I think there is an important question that must be asked here and now.
Exactly where was Chuck Norris at the time of David Carradine's death?
Granted, it is just speculation that Mr. Norris was responsible for the mysterious death of Bruce Lee, and there is no real evidence to connect him to the accidental death of Lee's son, Brandon. But now that yet another Martial Arts practicing actor with ties to Chuck Norris has met with a sudden and unexplained demise, I think it is time that we start keeping an eye on old Chuck.
I stumbled upon this the other day, and this could quite possible change the face of Bad Movie Night for us cinema trash freaks over here at This Movie Sucks! Just imagine pulling into any parking lot with a big blank wall and firing up Treasure of the Four Crowns for anyone who cars to pull over and watch. I get a tear in my eye just thinking about it.
Just imagine your typically urban highway, cutting through a sea of strip malls and mega-stores. Cars passing on the way to or from somwhere else, dusk settling over the landscape. Suddenly, one of the car's passengers notices something flashing across the side wall of a vacant Circuit City. The driver slows down long enough to recognize an old Italian zombie film being projected against the building's dingy white wall. Curious, the car pulls into the lot, where half a dozen people are enjoying the show. The newly arrived audience members are instructed on which channel to tune their radio into, and they settle in for the rest of the first half of that night's double feature, Demons 2 and Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things.
You see? Bad movies may rot the brain and bruise the soul, but they can still bring people together. I'm sorry, I have to stop. If I keep going, I'm going to start crying again...
The set-up seems fairly simple, with the only major cost being that of a decent projector. We'll keep you guys posted, but I am already looking into the possibility of converting my 2000 VW Jetta into a traveling Bad Movie Drive-In. Maybe we can even get the Phillipsburg/Easton area on the MobMov region map.
As a wise philosopher might have said if plied with enough cheap liqueur, "If we can't bring the people to the bad movies, than we shall bring the bad movies to the people!"
When I was a kid, I was a video junkie. I would always go to my local video store, called Palmer Video, in my then hometown of Belleville, NJ. This store was a bad movie fan's dream! They had everything. Even though Palmer Video was a commercial chain, it was still a mom-and-pop-shop operation, in every sense of the term. I guess everything was like that back then. They had one wall dedicated to just all new releases, and only one copy was ever available for everything, always. The first time I ever heard the word "reservation" was at a video store. I remember waiting days (and often weeks) to get my hands on a movie we had on "reserve."
They also had what I still consider, even to this day, one of the BEST horror sections ever. It was blocked off so the little kiddies wouldn't have nightmares from looking at the wonderfully grousome boxes. I would always wander in there before I went anywhere else. I still vividly remember browsing over titles like Make Them Die Slowly, Eaten Alive andCannibal Holocaust in these HUGE porno sized VHS boxes. The boxes would proudly scream warnings like "RATED X FOR GRAPHIC VIOLENCE," and "BANNED IN 31 Countries!!!" They also had saloon doors sectioning off the ADULT area that you could easily see around, especially if you were an 8 year old boy just hoping to get a glimpse of "the good stuff". I even remember the animatronic props they would display for films, such as a cleaver chopped down on the wrist of a hand while the fingers were still moving for Motel Hell. Surely we could never display something like that today, "Mothers Against" groups would never allow it.
This brings me to this little Italian film called The Warrior and the Sorceress. One day I walked into my local Palmer Video only to see this HUGE stand up cardboard cutout of the picture you see above. I HAD TO SEE THIS MOVIE! Look how cool that poster is! I grew up in the 80's, when wizards and warriors ruled the bad movie scene. They pumped out these types of flicks like Octomom pumps out kids. This movie had it all; overdubbed acting, sorceress enhanced swords that can slice through stone, and even a four-breasted dancer! Beat that Total Recall! (and 6 years earlier i might add.)
To this day, I still own this movie on VHS. I don't even own a VCR anymore, but I still own this movie. Every once in a while I get nostalgic and want to watch it, but then I sulk as I remember that I can't. It did receive the DVD treatment in 2002, but I missed the boat, and it is now discontinued. As much as I loved this film when I was a kid, I refuse to pay for a bootleg VHS to DVD copy, or buy the DVD from some schmuck who thinks his copy is worth $44 before shipping at Amazon.
I will, however, keep an eye out for it. On this note, I leave you with a few snippets of what is one of my earliest and fondest memories of David Carradine, 1984's The Warrior and The Sorceress! Enjoy these small but cool moments as I have over the years. Unfortunately, I could only find one English speaking clip, but that shouldn't stop you from enjoying Carradine's performance.
Reports are still coming in mixed: original reports have him found hanging in his hotel room by a maid Thursday morning after not showing up for dinner with his fellow actors the night before. Official spokespersons for Carradine, however, have gone on record originally as believing it was natural causes, and later holding back any details out of respect for the family. Of course, this kind of behavior is perfectly understandable for friends and associates of Carradine, who no doubt would like to avoid a media circus surrounded the tragic death of such an esteemed colleague.
David Carridine is a personal favorite of the crew here at TMS!, and we will no doubt post an update this weekend, along with a look at our movie rememberances of an iconic actor and screen legend.
Post Memorial Day Weekend releases always make for strange bedfellows. These are the films that aren't quite Summer Release material, weren't big enough for Memorial Day Weekend, yet still deserve some prime Box Office Real Estate.
So, if you are looking to catch a new flick in the theaters this weekend, you can either look to the heavens or go to Hell. Seriously.
On the high end of the spectrum is Pixar's latest computer animated feature, UP. UP is the first PG rated Pixar film since The Incredibles in 1994, which is a good sign that the movie might be more than goofy toddler pandering.
Some people find it hard to bad mouth kid's films. I myself find it even harder to bad mouth kid's
films featuring a curmudgeonly misanthropic old man in the heroic roll. Actually casting curmudgeonly misanthropic old Ed Asner to do the voice is truly inspired. Finally, an animated feature without Ray Romano's irritating whine. Just think of Grumpy Old Men meets The Goonies. Who can say no to that?
I have very specific rules when it comes to animated features, and none of them are very rational. One of these is that I do my best to avoid cartoons in which animals speak. Up's technologically jacked up dog (aptly named Dug) threatens to break this rule, but I'm willing to give him a pass since it is his translating collar that does the talking, not him.
Now, if you rather take the low road, you'll end up asking the annoyed teen in the ticket booth to Drag Me to Hell, Sam Raimi's unrequested return to the horror genre.
Don't get me wrong; I'm a huge Raimi fan. But he's been doing so well with mega-budgeted superhero flicks that you have to wonder why he's want to take a step backwards into the schlock he struggled to make a career out of in the old days. I love the Evil Dead series, and even Darkman. But as we are fond of saying here as TMS!, a film isn't good just because you like it.
Based on a screenplay written by Sam and Ivan after Army of Darkness back in 1992, Drag Me to Hell feels like a late '90s horror film. Then again, almost all ghost-curse-possession films these days feel like late '90s horror films. As much as I love horror films, its hard to feel any sympathy for people stupid enough to stay in a house five minutes after they've discovered that it even might be haunted.
Drag Me to Hell doesn't deal with a haunted house. Instead, the source of pain and agony for our young attractive heroine is a good old fashioned Gypsy Curse. The problem is, sympathy is still hard to come by.I'm not quite sure what was going through Raimi's brain. With today's economic climate, fueled by hatred of the greedy banks that managed to suck everybody dry before asking for government bailouts to help pay the bills, one wonders why he would make the main character played by Alison Lohman (filling in for Ellen Page) a bank teller. Even worse, she becomes the recipient of her demonic death sentence after the elderly woman she tries to evict from her home casts some major voodoo on her. After that, with this heartless bitch and her idiot boyfriend (Justin Long, desperately trying to be more than That Guy in the Mac Commercials) trying to save her hide, I've got nothing to do but root for the Gypsy Curse. Seems like a waste of time, if you ask me.
And for all of you old school Raimi fans; sorry, no Bruce Campbell guest appearance in this one. He was too busy working on Burn Notice to swing by for a day. So there you go, yet another reason to give this puppy a pass.
So there you have it. Kid's film or horror flick. Some choice, eh? Choose wisely, for the next choice might be your last. Well, it probably won't. But it sure sounded cool, eh?
It looks like this obscure little classic cult film starring Vincent Price is finally making its way onto DVD. Writer/Director Ray Cameron cobbled together this low budget farce, parodying everything from slasher films to box office hits like E.T. in the same way that films like Scary Movie still do today.
Bloodbath at the House of Death will be getting a DVD release in the UK at teh end of June. Its always great to see little films like this finally get exposure, even if it is on the other side of the pond. Let's hope that the US gets this classic soon.
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When I was a kid, I was a video junkie. I would always go to my local video store, called Palmer Video, in my then hometown of Belleville, NJ. This store was a bad movie fan's dream! They had everything. Even though Palmer Video was a commercial chain, it was still a mom-and-pop-shop operation, in every sense of the term. I guess everything was like that back then. They had one wall dedicated to just all new releases, and only one copy was ever available for everything, always. The first time I ever heard the word "reservation" was at a video store. I remember waiting days (and often weeks) to get my hands on a movie we had on "reserve." 
To this day, I still own this movie on VHS. I don't even own a VCR anymore, but I still own this movie. Every once in a while I get nostalgic and want to watch it, but then I sulk as I remember that I can't. It did receive the DVD treatment in 2002, but I missed the boat, and it is now discontinued. As much as I loved this film when I was a kid, I refuse to pay for a bootleg VHS to DVD copy, or buy the DVD from some schmuck who thinks his copy is worth $44 before shipping at Amazon.
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