Category: film

Now In 3D

Bwana Devil in 3D

Until the technology reaches a level that doesn’t require socially awkward glasses, or cause migraines, it’s my personal belief that 3D TV and movies will continue to be a fad with re-occurring interest. This hasn’t stopped the current hype behind 3D televisions however, as the market is still jacked up on the high of successfully forcing everyone in America onto HD.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frjqMX6OueA]

Still, last week I was poking around for info about Legend Films, the company that released the colourization of House On Haunted Hill. Colourization is a bit of a tough & seedy business – colourizers are sort of seen as the grave robbers of the entertainment industry – and maybe that’s why Legend decided it needed a new business plan: 3Derizing, er, 3Dimensioning, uh, Depthing…

They’ve decided they’re going to take old films and make them 3D.

Seriously, that’s a business now.

Friday The 13th Part 3 in 3DSomewhere, Ted Turner is cackling.

Still awaiting the sequel, The Nakedest Prey

Speaking of coveting: Have you ever seen that movie, The Naked Prey?

It’s the one where a bunch of “Savage Africans” kill some Caucasian folks who refuse to pay them tribute, then chase the last one around the savannas while the audience shifts uncomfortably in their seats from all the racism.

There’s a school of thought these days that the film is brilliant despite the racial discomfort. There’s very little dialogue, most of the movie is just an underdeveloped white guy running through the grass in tiny underpants, and yet it remains pretty compelling.

The Naked Prey

Weirdly, the plot is supposedly based on a true story, “John Colter’s Escape”, which tells of John Colter and his partner crossing some Blackfoot Indians and having to run away. Not quite Africa, and shooting a fellow in front of his friends isn’t quite the same thing as refusing to give a gift, but still very “The Most Dangerous Game”.

To bring it back to my coveting: the thing that’s really always stuck with me about the movie is the design of the weird person-poker they gave the tribesmen. It’s tough to find a clear picture, but it looks like they got a discount on used swords from an old BBC production, then replaced all of the hilts with two foot poles to make them pass as ‘spears’.

I’ve always found this weird mutant weapon to be awesome – it’s exactly the kind of thing I want my Japanese-RPG character to be carrying, or to have hanging on my office wall in case of zombie attack.

Jim Bridger, Mountain Man

I’m sick, so I thought I’d follow up on some notes I’d left myself to check out.

Maybe the most interesting:

Bridger had a remarkable sense of humor and he especially loved to shock tenderfeet and easterners with his tall tales. He would tell of glass mountains, “peetrified” birds singing “peetrified” songs, and reminisce about the days when Pikes Peak was just a hole in the ground. These stories were related in such a serious manner as to fool even skeptics into believing them, making Jim’s laughter all the louder when his ruse was revealed.

All of these attributes served Bridger well, and made him adaptable to just about every situation he found himself in. By the end of his lifetime, Bridger could claim the titles of trapper, trader, guide, merchant, Indian interpreter and army officer. –Mountain Men

At first I wasn’t sure if Bridger was a real fellow, I picked up his name from a brief mention by LT. Aldo Raine in Inglourious Basterds. Although Bridger had impressive true stories to tell, I find his tall tales pretty brilliant:

Supposedly one of Bridger’s favorite yarns to tell to greenhornswas about being pursued by one hundred Cheyenne warriors. After being chased for several miles, Bridger found himself at the end of a box canyon, with the Indians bearing down on him. At this point, Bridger would go silent, prompting his listener to ask, “What happened then, Mr. Bridger?” Bridger would reply, “They kilt me.” – Wikipedia

Late Night Pictures

I was a boy who burrowed deep into his family’s basement. On weekends I would often creep out of bed and into the rec room, flip the set on low and hunker close to take in the ridiculous beauty of late night TV. Sure, I watched a lot of Weird TV, and that odd show about the fellow who has had his identity stolen by some corporation, but what I was really tuning in for was the 3am broadcast of Elvira’s Movie Macabre.

Earlier in life I’d been given pretty open access to a selection of terrible films via the Uncle of a friend of mine, but Movie Macabre was really my introduction to the beauty of trashy horror. Late-night-movie TV hosts are rare these days, but thanks to the internet bad movies are always on hand, and to quote such a film, it’s always midnight somewhere.

My two favourite torchbearers maintain the D.I.Y. feel while providing plenty of crap movies:

The Right Reverend Chumley has been sporadically releasing episodes of Cult Of UHF since 2005,and his film selections are an interesting mixed bag of ancient public domain mixed with newer (i.e. colour) horror, scifi and action b-movies.Count Gore De Vol

Count Gore De Vol‘s Creature Feature is a classic horror style show that puts out a film every week or two, but I find its website a little tough to contend with, so you may be interested in its (free) itunes podcast link.

Fog Of War

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8653788864462752804&ei=IoYiS9HVCcSXlAfXnNywAQ&q=fog+of+war#]

I don’t often use this platform to push people into illegal activity, but I stand by my statements that Fog Of War is one of the most important, and oddly hypnotic, documentaries produced in the last decade.