Despite the similar titles, Night of the Comet and Night of the Creeps really have nothing in common.  In Night of the Creeps there are these slug like creatures that crash from outer space and take over human bodies, alive or dead, and control them to spread to other bodies so they can breed.  While I guess comparisons of the two movies could be made since they can be zombie-like, everything else is just completely different and all for the better.  Unlike Comet, you get to see the creatures and you see them frequently and it’s also just more action packed and funny.

This is an 80s horror movie through and through so you’re going to get the typical jocks vs.. nerds and not to spoil things, but the nerd gets the girl.  I know, I know, shocking, right?  The nerd in question this time is Chris played by Jason Lively who you may remember as Rusty from National Lampoon’s European Vacation.  For you genre fans out there you will also recognize the main detective investigating the murders as Tom Atkins who has been in classics such as Creepshow and Maniac Cop.  He is just constantly spewing one liners in this once again proving this is an 80s movie.  It is also directed by Fred Dekker who did the amazing Monster Squad and there’s even a reference to the movie in Creeps (see if you can find it for yourself, it’s pretty obvious).  Dekker also performed writing duties and don’t worry it is more along the lines of Monster Squad than If Looks Could Kill.

The story, if you care, other than what I said before about the creatures trying to take over is that Atkins is a cop who witnessed a girl he liked get murdered back in the 50s and has never been the same since and knows that somehow that murder was related to these recent murders.  Story isn’t important as you will find plot holes and unrealistic situations even for a movie about alien slugs that take over your body.  You’re going to watch to enjoy some old-school creature effects and gore with lots of humor mixed in.  In the end this movie truly is a classic and I can see why there was such a high demand for it to come to DVD.  Those that have seen the more recent movie Slither will see lots of connections/inspirations/rip offs from this movie so if you enjoyed Slither you owe it to yourself to check this movie out.

Now it is on DVD and Blu-Ray and although they could have got away with releasing a barebones edition much like Night of the Comet, they instead went all out with a 2 disc set on DVD and all the extras available on the same 1 disc Blu-ray.  I only watched the Blu-Ray so I can’t comment on the DVD picture quality, but in HD this movie looks great for its age, especially since it was a movie that the studio has not seemed to care about for years.  I was very impressed with the quality and I’m sure the DVD is top notch for a 480p picture.  Unfortunately I cannot comment on the extras either since I did not have time to watch any before writing this review, but based on what my friends are saying they are worthy additions and again it was great to see such effort put into this release.  I will gladly update my review as soon as I check them out.

For those wanting to watch the movie but don’t want to buy or rent it, you can also  watch on Crackle.com completely free by clicking here.

4/5 Stars – This is what 80s horror/comedy is all about to me.  Great effects and humor mixed with gore.  It is just plain fun to watch, especially with a group of fans of the genre as well.  Highly recommended, especially with this great Blu-ray version.

It’s a rainy Thursday night, your Xbox is overheating and the pizza delivery guy just arrived with pepperoni, hamburger, and bacon pizza (mmmmm… bacon). What do you do while you eat? Why, pop in Slaughter High on DVD, of course. What, that wasn’t your first choice? Yeah, I guess I can’t blame you. This is the situation I found myself in today though, my friends wanted to watch a horror movie and there it was sitting in my collection still yet to be opened. Why was it there? Simple, it was $5 and I remember the cover being in every horror section of every video store in the 80s and 90s. It was released by Lionsgate as part of their new “Lost Collection” line of movies. None of us had seen it, so we figured what the hell, it should be good for a laugh. I really can’t explain any better than that as to why were were watching, but in the end, I’m glad we did. Was it a good movie? No, but we DID laugh.

For those that don’t know, Slaughter High was a by the numbers slasher flick released in 1986.  The basic idea is one that you’ve seen a million times before: Nerdy kid is picked on in school, pretty and popular girl pretends to want to do something with him in the girls bathroom only to be setup for a prank.  It’s April 1st so it’s April Fools Day (which was actually the original title for this movie but Paramount was about to release a movie with the same name so they had to change it) and they torment this kid.  After they get caught and have detention for doing the prank, they decide to get back at him with an even bigger prank.  You see, it was HIS fault they got in trouble.  Long story short, it goes very wrong.  He’s badly burned and is wheeled out on a stretcher.  Flash forwards a bit, the popular kids come back to school for a reunion or party or something (I won’t lie, we weren’t totally paying attention) and people start dying one by one.  For those of you watching for people to get killed be foreword – it takes about 40 minutes before anything happens.  It is a LONG setup for what is going done but once people start dying it picks up the pace at a decent rate.

After the long setup you will get some decent kills with some ok special effects, but you’re better off watching it for a good laugh.  It is a cheesy movie with some bad acting and ridiculous plot points.  Most likely if you’re watching this movie though you’re expecting that and can just enjoy it for what it is.  Another aspect of 80s slasher movies is nudity and that is there as well complete with 80s grooming habits (I’ll leave it at that).

The DVD is part of Lionsgate’s semi-new line of “Lost Classics” as mentioned and due to the “lost” nature of the movie the only print that existed was an old VHS print.  It is great that the movie despite all the production companies and rights holders changing throughout the years is finally available on a digital format, but it’s a shame that it looks so poor.  It is exactly like watching a VHS with the washed out colors, lack of detail, and a 1.33:1 (“pan and scan/full screen/full frame”) presentation.  At least with it being on DVD it will no longer degrade in picture and sound quality after each viewing, but that’s about the only positive to this transfer.  At least this particular VHS print was the uncut print, so it is actually better than what most of us may have seen growing up in the 80s.

The Only extra on the DVD is a trivia track which is done through the subtitles with various tidbits of information popping up through the movie.  After watching for a half hour it seemed that only 4 or 5 bits popped up, but at least it is something.  With that said it is more than Kickboxer got on DVD and Blu-Ray (also from Lionsgate) and I’m sure that will sell way more than this DVD ever will.  I just decided to go to IMDb and look up the trivia for the movie and found out things like how the lead actress was actually 36 years old at the time of filming.

On a side note, while my friends and i were watching we found a “goof” during the face melting scene.  It has been submitted to IMDb but as of this posting has not been posted yet.  we could tell it was done through stop motion animation so a friend of mine suggested we watch it frame-by-frame.  By doing so we saw that in one frame there was a nozzle pouring the dry ice to give the smoke effect, but was gone the next frame.  We didn’t notice it at normal speed on our first viewing since it was just one frame, but once we knew what to look for we could tell.  Just a little something extra to laugh at in this cheesy movie.

I thought that none of us had seen it, but after the opening scene I realized that I had seen it, but thought all these years that I had seen “April Fools Day" but I’m glad we watched it since I finally got to see it uncut and we got to laugh from it.  I applaud Lionsgate for even taking the time to release something like this at all.

3/5 Stars – Watch it with a group of like minded friends for a good laugh.  You’re getting a poor quality DVD of a poor quality movie, but the price is right and you’ll at least be entertained if you’re into that sort of thing.

Right after the success of the Wayne’s World movie studios were looking for the next big Mike Myers hit and in comes So I Married an Axe Murderer.  Unfortunately that was not the case as it has grossed less than $12 million, but sometimes things just slip by the people for whatever reason.  The story follows Charlie Mackenzie (Myers) as a paranoid boyfriend always breaking up with girlfriends for odd reasons (similar to Seinfeld, hmmmm) and his best friend Tony (played by Anthony LaPaglia) always having to deal with the excuses while they hang out in their favorite San Francisco coffee house.  Charlie finally meets someone (Nancy Travis)after being determined not to be paranoid only to think she is a serial killer thanks to his mother reading an article in the Weekly World News (It has the 8th highest circulation of all newspapers you know).  His buddy Tony is a cop and helps investigate and all the clues are there, but Charlie decides to get married anyway.I know that it may not sound appealing, and that could be why so many people didn’t like it (or didn’t even see it) when it was released, but give it a chance and I think you will enjoy it.

I could go into more detail of the plot but the whole point of a comedy is how things play out and what else happens, and to say too much more will ruin the comedy.  While uneven at times, most jokes are funny and Myers also steals the show whenever there is a scene where he is playing Charlie’s Scottish father.    It’s definitely dated (released in 1993, the soundtrack is full of songs from the likes of Soul Asylum and The Spin Doctors… plus the hair cuts), but you will find yourself quoting it after seeing it.  On top the comedy stemming from family interaction, awkward situations, his cop friend wanting more action, you will also see some cameos by other comedians that give it that extra bump to make it even funnier since those cameos are all great.  This may be my least descriptive review written, but the bottom line is just forget any expectations other than watch it and enjoy.

If you have NetFlix, click here to watch it on NetFlix Instant, which is how I watched it.  The video quality was DVD quality but the audio always seemed to be a bit off whenever I tried watching it (had full quality and anything else I watched was fine).  Kind of annoying, but you can always rent the DVD or Blu-Ray as well.  I have yet to see the Blu-Ray so I can’t comment on it’s quality just yet, but if ever I do I will update this review.

4/5 Stars – You may think it’s a high rating for something I didn’t go into much detail about, but I want people to go in with an open mind and just enjoy the movie for what it is.  You can watch the trailer above, but it does a horrible job representing the movie.

Let’s be honest here, if you’re still reading, you agree with that last statement.  If a cast like that says to you “yes, I need to see that” then you do.  If you groan when seeing that list, nothing I say in this review can change your mind because you are not the audience this movie is for.  It is pure late 80s/early 90s martial arts action, sometimes referred to as “chopsocky.”  You have bad acting, bad writing, bad music, martial arts, shooting, and explosions.  Oh yeah, and boobs.  It’s the kind of movie that Spike TV would be proud to show on a Sunday afternoon when they aren’t showing UFC or 007 movies.  Here is a clip from the movie for a good example:

Ready for the plot?  Like it matters, but here is the genius of it all.  A badass cop played by Lundgren is trying to bring down some Yakuza in Little Tokyo.  He is given a new partner who he doesn’t realize is his partner at first, so they fight each other! I know, never been done before or since, right?   So they realize they are on the same side, they are partners that hate each other, and then grow to like each other!  Ok, I’m done with the sarcasm.  So just by chance the guy that killed Dolph’s parents right in front of him is the new head of the Yakuza in the area and buys a brewery so that he can distribute “ice” and make more money.  That is not a typo, it was Dolph’s parents that were killed.  You see, the writers felt it would be a twist by making it so that he played someone raised in Japan while Brandon Lee was someone who was 100% American raised in Malibu.

Like I said, story doesn’t matter, it’s about the action, and this movie is full of it.  It is nothing extraordinary, it is exactly what you would expect it to be, and if that is something you normally enjoy you will be entertained by this movie.  It will not blow you away, it will not change your life, but you won’t be bored (and you’ll get some laughs along the way too).  There’s a scene where Dolph Lundgren grabs a dude by the balls after punching through a door and then pulls him out the doorway.  Yeah, that’s what you can expect from this.

NetFlix Instant has the same full frame presentation that the DVD has, but I never saw any panning and scanning with the picture.  They knew this was something that was more for the home video and cable TV market when they shot it so I’m sure they either kept all the action in the center of the frame or shot it open matte.  Either way you don’t miss anything and as far as picture quality it’s on par with other movies from that time frame with that kind of budget.  Again, not something to show off what your new HDTV can do, but it gets the job done.  I did notice some slight choppiness to the picture when panning despite having a full speed connection so I figure that’s just how it looked as well.  It was mostly in the beginning and a bit distracting at first but after a while I didn’t notice it and/or it went away.  Click here to watch it if you have a NetFlix account.

3/5 stars – Typical late 80s/early 90s martial arts action movie.  Guns, swords, punching and kicking, drugs, boobs, and Yakuza.  Throw in some bad dialogue and you have a movie that is entertaining if you are into that sort of thing.   This is probably the most that has been written about this movie in a long time.

The plot sounds ridiculous at first.  An 18 year old girl is still a virgin and she wants to lose her virginity before graduation, but it just doesn’t seem to happen (and she’s not ugly).  It turns out that there are all kinds of situations and reasons that are preventing it from happening, and it’s all in one night at a party, so it’s not as ridiculous as it originally sounds (but still pretty damn unrealistic).  What you get, as I mentioned before, is a straight to DVD quality raunchy teen comedy that provides some laughs and throws in some boobs too.  If jokes about trimming overgrown bush, going down on grandfathers in a coma, or various other uncomfortable and ridiculous situations sound like something you won’t laugh at, you will not laugh at this movie.  If you chuckled while reading that sentence, I’m sure you can enjoy it a bit.

It is very low budget and it shows.  You will not recognize anyone in this movie and you will probably never see them in anything ever again.  The movie was obviously shot on digital video to keep it low-budget and then put through some filters to make it look more like film, but you can still tell.  You will laugh throughout the movie, but no scene stands out as something that has to be seen.  It’s entertaining, you laugh while watching, especially with a group of friends, and you move on with your life.  It is as simple as that, and for that reason I won’t say anything more on it.  If you have NetFlix Instant, it’s on there, you hit play when you’ve got some time to kill.

As I mentioned, I watched it on NetFlix Instant.  The picture quality is as good as you can expect from a low budget shot on digital video movie.  The video quality on the stream is the same as the DVD so it’s as good as it gets.  The sound is the typical stereo mix found on NetFlix Instant.  Click here to watch it if you have a NetFlix account.

3/5 stars – Standard straight to DVD teen comedy.  Perfect reason why NetFlix Instant exists:  Something to get some laughs at when bored, but not something you’d go out of your way to see.

Back in high school and college DVD was a brand new format that let me discover all kinds of movies I missed out on as a kid. I would frequent many forums and one of the top movies that always showed up on people’s most wanted lists was Night of the Comet. It finally came to DVD and I finally got to see what all the fuss was about…

Night of the Comet is the story of a comet coming near Earth that everyone around the world wanted to stand outside and watch fly by. It stars Catherine Mary Stewart (many will recognize her from Weekend at Bernies and The Last Starfighter) who happens to be a girl too busy getting it on at the movie theater she works at to watch the comet. Said theater is lined with lead to protect the film. Why is that important? Well, you see, the comet actually killed everyone outside watching it: they all turned to dust as soon as it came around. She wakes up the next day to everyone but the boy she slept with being dead…. or so she thought. It turns out some of them have survived but have essentially become zombies and her boy toy of the night is the first to be eaten (that we see anyway) and she thinks she is alone. It is now up to her to find out what happened and/or survive.

It is not a spoiler to say she runs into her sister since it happens relatively early on and she is on the cover. The reason she survived is she slept in a tool shed. Yeah, that’s the kind of logic we’re working with in this movie. What follows is a very 80s zombie movie that is not going to quite be as awesome as you want it to be since it only PG-13. There isn’t really any gore and you really don’t see too many zombies how you would expect them to be (can’t say much more without giving up more plot points). It takes a few more random turns with an underground think tank coming out and trying to help as well as other nuttiness that will keep you saying "only in the 80s." For those that have seen 28 Days Later and felt like you had seen a lot of bits before in other movies, this is another one it seemed to borrow/pay homage to.

In the end, I did not see why there was all the love for this movie after all this years, but that could be due to my not growing up watching it. I am sure that something like The Last Starfighter may not be as "cool" to people watching it for the first time now, but since I grew up watching and loving it I can still appreciate it today. Or maybe Night of the Comet is just overrated. Unfortunately I can’t totally judge that for myself other than to say that I felt that the movie kind of dragged and had a lot of wasted potential. Zombie movies are easy to make: have lots of zombies, have zombies kill people, have people kill zombies. Really simple and yet this movie doesn’t really deliver on this and instead decides it wants to be something else that is definitely very Cold War influenced. Despite all that, I still enjoyed it and was glad I watched it.

This movie took a while to get to DVD and came out as a budget DVD that has no extras at all. The picture quality is pretty good considering the age, budget, and history of going through different studio hands (part of the reason it took so long to come to DVD). If you were to buy this movie, you’re not going to get any kind of crazy special edition to own, just the movie on DVD.

3.5/5 stars – A cult classic that was long awaited for DVD. Now it’s finally out and may not live up to expectations due to some odd story elements. In the end more worth a rental than a purchase especially with a barebones DVD being all that’s out. Can be found cheap if you do want to own though.

Wonderfalls was created by Bryan Fuller who also did Dead Like Me on Showtime and most recently Pushing Daisies on ABC. Notice a trend with his shows? He also was a “creative consultant” on the first and third seasons of Heroes which many regard as the better seasons. Wonderfalls is about a girl named Jaye who is a college graduate yet lives in a trailer park and works at a small retail store in Niagara Falls dealing with tourists. Fans of Dead Like Me with recognize the sarcastic tone and attitude of the lead female, but different enough that it doesn’t feel like he is ripping off his own characters. The hook of this show is that inanimate objects speak to her and tell her to do things. These directions are usually for her to do some good in her life and give her direction but instead of being specific they are cryptic and she has to figure out what they mean and why she has to do it, usually making some missteps along the way. It also makes her seem crazy and unreliable to her family and friends leading to further struggle.

Unfortunately my describing it cannot do it justice and I feel that Fox had the same issue which made it hard to market. The lead actress labeled the show as “Joan of Arcadia on acid” in an interview and I would say I have to say I agree. This is far from anything else seen on TV and I’m sure that is why it did not do well, much like Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies. These are great shows for people looking for something new and original, and unfortunately it’s just too “out there” for your average audience. I highly recommend checking out the DVD set, which is usually sold for around $15-20 and deciding for yourself.

As for the quality of the DVDs themselves, they look just fine on a standard definition TV but the extra compression to fit more episodes on one disc becomes very apparent on an HDTV. The episodes are roughly 45 minutes each so to fit the 5 or 6 per disc they had to make sacrifices on the video and sound quality by using lots of compression. It looks grainy and blocky at times, with colors being more washed out and “bleeding” but overall watchable. I am sure this was all done as a way to produce the DVD set at a cheaper cost to use less discs and since this is the only release I’m sure the show will receive it is the best we will get unfortunately. I cannot fault Fox for this since releasing the show was a risk with it being a canceled show, but at least now people can own it and see 9 episodes that were never aired.

4/5 stars – An extremely well written and acted show that was canceled before its time. Highly recommended for those looking for something unique in their TV watching. Not the highest quality DVDs, but well worth the price.

What would happen if Meet the Parents was released 3 years earlier, and instead of a guy having bad things happen to him because of his bad luck, it’s because his bag on the plane was swapped with that of a hitman? Ok, that’s still bad luck, but you would get 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag, one of the reasons that Orion Pictures is no longer in business.

8 Heads in a Duffel Bag came out in 1997 and I do remember when it came to theaters it looked like something I’d like to see. It looked like a twisted dark comedy that I could enjoy, but it was in and out of theaters in no time. This didn’t seem like a good sign, but I figured I’d rent it when it came out to check it out. My favorite video store went out of business at the time and I could not rent it, and it was quickly forgotten. If only it stayed that way.

Joe Pesci plays a hitman that somehow manages to get 8 heads that are in one duffel bag onto an airplane through airport security no problem. I know this is pre-9/11, but still, already ridiculous. So he tries to keep it near him in the overhead compartment, but some human organs are being transported which takes priority and it gets moved to checked baggage. It just so happens that the person sitting next to him on the flight had the same duffel bag, and guess who gets their bags mixed up? Oh those wacky writers. The other passenger is on vacation with his girlfriend and is meeting the parents for the first time. In his duffel bag was a paper he was writing for med school so Joe Pesci now has a name and hunts him down in Mexico to get those heads back.

Long story short, anything that can go wrong goes wrong, all while the main character is trying to hide what is really going on to his girlfriend’s parents. The girlfriend is played by Kristy Swanson who always looks good (and picks bad movies) and she helps, while trying to help cover as well. In the end, it’s just not funny and tries too hard to be like "look, this is funny…. and it’s dark!" When I saw that the NetFlix average rating was 3 stars I figured it’d be a decent movie to watch on NetFlix Instant, but I did not enjoy this movie at all.

NetFlix Instant quality was full frame/pan and scan presentation and fuzzy quality, but I really didn’t care. Not sure if this is how the DVD is, but again, not important at all.

1/5 stars - Belongs in Forgotten Friday because NetFlix Instant no longer shows it anymore, even they want it forgotten. Stay far away.

UPDATE 2: The movie has been added to NetFlix Instant.  Click here to watch it for yourself.

Watch this trailer and see what you think.

If you watch it and you think it is cheesy and you won’t like it…. It’s CHEESIER and you will hate it. Do you like movie that are just ridiculous, well, read on.

Never heard of this movie? I’m sure there are some people that would like to keep it that way. This was a Bruce Willis creation, and, well, it didn’t do so well for them. The movie bombed horribly in theaters and I think they all just want to move on and forget about it. This movie is just purely ridiculous and over the top, but in a way you can tell they were just having fun making it.

The story revolves around "the world’s greatest cat burglar" played by Bruce Willis. He is released from prison and is immediately asked to do another job (by his parole officer for some odd reason). His old partner talks him into it and they go for it. As you can expect, things don’t go as planned, and the job isn’t quite what it seems at first. All I will say is that it involves Leonardo DiVinci before The Divinci Code was even thought of.

As I mentioned, it is just over the top. It’s full of cheesy one liners and totally unrealistic situations, but if you go in with the right mindset, or just love "so bad it’s good" kind of movies you will love to just shut your brain off and enjoy it. To see Bruce Willis and Danny Aiello singing while they do their thing (they don’t use watches, they have specific songs for each time frame they have to work with) or David Caruso having a role where he doesn’t speak (another genius idea!) as a mute that carries around a card for each thing he wants to say, and the stereotypical dumbass muscle head that says stupid things and reads Green Eggs and Ham is quite the amazing sight. How this got made, I don’t know, but I’m sure glad it did.

I saw it on Showtime as a kid and loved it, I had taped it and watched it so many times I wore the tape out. I made sure to make everyone I knew watch it too. I got older, took a break and kinda sorta forgot about it. Then college comes around and it’s around the time I started dating my fiancée. She mentions her love for the movie and brings it with her one time when she came to visit and I fell in love with it all over again. Of course, any woman that feels that this is one of the greatest movies ever, of course I had to marry her.

The movie was an early release on DVD but there were constant rumors circulating of a Special Edition coming out.  The movie obviously had enough of a cult following that Columbia Tri-Star was willing to re-release it.  After many MANY delays, it finally came out and you better believe that we bought it right away.  After years of watching it on VHS we now had our own copy that would not wear out, was in widescreen, and had BONUS FEATURES.  You would think that after all the years we waited that we would have rushed to watch said bonus features, but instead we have owned it for a couple years now and have never watched them.  I know, I know, what a poor review, can’t even comment on bonus features.  Well, I recently had friends over that I made them watch the movie and they all loved it so it made me realize I needed to get a review up ASAP.  I will watch them and update the review accordingly   What I can say though is that the DVD picture quality is great and one couldn’t really expect it to look any better without making the jump to Blu-Ray (oh, I can’t wait for that day).

4/5 stars – As I said, that trailer is a good barometer for if you will enjoy this movie. It is not a "good" movie, it is "so bad it’s good." If you enjoy over the top situations with cheesy one liners and Frank Stallone getting killed, this is for you. If it’s not for you, then this will easily be 1 (or 0!) stars. I can’t say anything more without giving away what makes this movie so good.  Little side note, they made an NES game for it too.