The legendary Dance Craze lives on via youtube

                                                    

About 5 years ago I was given a LP (vinyl, record….you know one of those giant black CD’s that you play with a needle) called “Dance Craze The Best Of British Ska…LIVE”. Being a huge fan of the genre it was one of the most awesome gifts I had ever received. About a year or so later I learned that it was a soundtrack to a 1981 film of the same name. And the search began. I searched every video store, pawn shop, record store (good luck finding a video or record shop nowadays) and thrift store I came across to no avail. I did a little research and found out it has been out of print since about when the first VHS run of it was made back in 1988. Frustrated and let down… I gave up the search and forgot all about it. Skip ahead a few years and while searching through various ska music videos on that most famous of video sharing tube sites what did i come across? Dance Craze!!!! In It’s Entirety!!!!!!!!!! Elated, I grabbed a bottle of some of my finest party liquor and let the joyous occasion unfold.

For those of you unfamiliar with ska and the term 2-tone, I’ll give you a short history lesson. In the late 50's and early 60's Jamaican musicians, influenced by American jazz, pop music and R&B, incorporated the elements of these styles with their own native flavors, including Nyahbinghi drums and other folk music of the island. What came out was to be named Ska. Upbeat and original to the island it became a craze that took over the island seemingly over night. Musicians then slowed the tempo and sang songs of love, the local ruffians aptly named “rude boys”, and of social inequality in the mid 60s, and it became one of the most revered ages in Jamaican music called Rocksteady. After roughly 2 years of Rocksteady ruling the pop charts in Jamaica Reggae became the new hot sound, and in large part remains so on the Island to this day. But I’ve gotten a little past where I was going. In the 1970s in England many youths, inspired by Jamaican ska, rock steady and early reggae as well as punk rock formed bands that played a newer, and for the most part happier, version of ska music. Known as the second wave of ska, ska revival or simply 2 tone bands such as The Specials, The Selecter, Madness, The English Beat (known simply as “The Beat” in England) and more created their own sound by incorporating the early Jamaican classic ska sound with faster tempos and more energetic stage persona’s.

Dance Craze is 86 minutes of the top names in 2 tone playing in their prime. Filmed at various concerts in England in 1980 the movie showcases not only these amazing bands but the scale to which the second wave of ska took England by storm showing packed theaters and clubs with the crowds going crazy throughout. Featuring 27 of the biggest hits Britain has ever seen Dance Craze is 2 tone’s answer to the movie Woodstock, and is a must see for all fans (even passive ones) of the genre. Standouts include but are not limited to : Buster Bloodvessel in his younger days dancing up and down the stage shouting his large and in charge hit “Lip Up Fatty”, Madness in all their weirdness and glory singing the likes of ”night Boat To Cairo” and “one Step Beyond” and the pure energy of The Specials Playing “Night Klub” at the beginning and ends of thie movie. And I am extremely mad it has been out of print for so many years, if Hollywood can bring back the likes of Beverly Hills 90210 and Dallas, surely they can bring back classic concert video for the in home entertainment of the ever growing masses of ska fans. We are here and we demand an official release of Dance Craze, and some other stuff to be named later.                                                    

 

Disney Vault Gems

Since the advent of VHS in the 70′s and 80′s Disney has had enough sense to republish and distribute the classic movies of old. Bringing movies out of some fictitious vault, and giving certain franchises much-needed love, not to mention the merchandising that goes along with it. Because of the Disney vault, current whipper snappers know of Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Snow White, and Aladdin. What of the other ones, the dusty forgotten bunch that have little to no way of merchandising? The movies with a dark past that we would rather forget or the ones that Disney wish they never had made? Some of the more obscure titles in the Disney vault are the most interesting and deserve a little more love.



Song of the South

The most infamous of Disney’s creations, Song of the South tells the story of Uncle Remus (stereotypically caricatured above) the great story-teller. Song of the South is a cross between Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Space Jam, putting many black stereotypes into the characters like Brrr Rabbit and Brrr Fox which are hand drawn per usual in a Disney fashion as they interact with real life actors. The confused moral of the story is that Brr Rabbit should stay in his native Georgia and not runaway from a hard days work because “you can’t runs away from troubles, there aint no place that far”. This movie contains appalling racist views, cartoony depictions of lynching and mentions of “tar babies”.  Racism and ignorance not withstanding, this movie displays some cutting edge technology for the times…but still it is reaaaallly racist. It’s no wonder Disney failed to take this little gem out of the vault, but for those who know better can watch this film critically and examine American Culture pre-civil rights movement.

Los Tres Caballeros

 Or “The Three Gentlemen”, is part of a 3 film Disney series that showcased the incredibly colorful world of Latin America. In Los Tres Caballe
ros, Donald receives a care package from his friends south of the border and each present leads to an animated short. Each of which depicts stories from different Latin cultures like Peru, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. The shorts are full of slap stick comedy and Donald bending the laws of physics. The reason I enjoyed this film was because of the music and real life footage of different parts of Mexico and Brazil.




The Black Cauldron

This animated feature was based on the first two books in the Chronicles of Prydain series which consist of five books. The Chronicles of Prydian are based on Welsh mythology and have the Horned King as the main antagonist. Aside from having a sweet porn handle, the evil Horned King is one evil mofo, raising hoards of ancient undead warriors to do his bidding in search of the black cauldron, which will grant him power to rule the world, “one cauldron to rule them all”. Lord of the Rings rip off not withstanding, the Black Cauldron is full of darker subject matter not common for Disney fodder of the day. The animation is highly detailed and rivals the animation coming out of Japan at the same time. Since its release it has received a minor cult following do to the books gaining popularity and because of the awesome soundtrack.

These titles are just a few of the often overlooked classics of Disney, an honorable mentions go to Tron, The Black Hole, Disney’s Wide World of Sports, Robin Hood, Atlantis the Lost Empire, the Great Mouse Detective, Sword and the Stone and for those looking to get into the video game realm the same dude that drew Sword and the Stone made the Dragon’s Lair arcade game which is a cult classic in its own right

Frankie gets a lady friend: The Bride of Frankenstein

                                             

4 years later (real world time, not in the movies), good ol' Frankie gets a girlfriend.... kinda, AND the ability to speak. Many fans cite The Bride of Frankenstein as their favorite installment of the series, and it's easy to see why.
The movie starts off in a rather tongue in cheek manner, showing Mary Shelly, her husband and their buddy, who's name escapes me at the moment, sitting around in their parlor (it was the old days, that's what they called it back then) on a dark and stormy night, discussing Mary's marvelously spun monster tale, with Mary proclaiming that the story is far from over, calling for her mate and buddy to gather round for the Frankie show vol. 2. (I was paraphrasing, sheesh.) Now, that may have been a cheap tactic just to include the new movie in the official cannon, but an effective one, none the less.  And then....the rest of the movie......
The start of the story is the usual Hollywood schtick, finding some way of making it seem as if the star of the movie DIDN'T die at the end of the previous installment, because god forbid you have to invent another character and place him/her in one of the 5 stories used in major Hollywood fare since the birth of moving pictures. This time it was the old 'the burning windmill was built on top of a small lake' trick, allowing the monster to narrowly escape being.....made dead
again. That, however, is my only gripe with the film, and it is a very minimalistic gripe, because if the monster had died, there would be no sequel, and that is just not a world I want to live in. The rest of the movie has everything most of us look for in a film, a good manhunt (monster hunt, whatever), suspense, a (closeted gay) hermit, a chick with crazy streaks going up the side of her beehive extraordinaire, and even miniature people in jars. In jars!

The mini people were, to me, the highlight of the film. They were all named after some form of royalty (the king, the queen, and so forth) and dressed in the appropriate fashion of their name sake. The king however wasn't very kingly, as his entire drive in life seemed to be a never ending mission to escape the bondage of his jar and make whoopie with the uninterested queen. I didn't say it wasn't a noble purpose, however when you picture a king you hardly picture some horn dog slobbering all over himself in lust, unless you're watching a Mel Brooks movie that is. Apart from their much appreciated comedic antics, the way they were presented in the movie were some of the best special effects shots in the history of cinema, proving once and for all there ain't no school like the old school.  The technique used had something to do with making 2 separate shots, lining the second up with the first and combining the results, leaving us with a seamless, utterly realistic looking shot of miniature folks sitting in jars on a table in front of a normal sized dude, why doesn't Hollywood go back to the OG style of special effects? Everybody knows they make for a much better finished product, and why they're stuck on this CGI garbage when it's not to the point it needs to be I'll never know.

People seem to not remember the fact that the "Bride" was in fact terrified of the monster, instead focusing on the movie title and reinventing the story in their minds, thinking of it as a story of love existing even between monsters. While it's a nice sentiment, it's not so.

"You want me and him to do WHAT?"

There were also a few homosexual undertones throughout the movie, but I'll let you check that out over on wikipedia, it's an interesting little read. Check it out here.

There's a reason The Bride Of Frankenstein is listed as one of the all time great classic horror movies, Universal really knew what they were doing back in the day. If you haven't given this movie a watch since you were a young child, like a lot of people, check it out, I'm sure it's on one of them video on demand services, or at your local video rental shops (hah! I made a funny), give it another watch, it's well worth your time.                                                                                                                  

Mei and the Kittenbus, the short film sequel of My Neighbor Totoro

     Back in 1988 Hayao Miyazaki  Directed and wrote Tonari no Totoro, his second film from his brainchild Studio Ghibli. It detailed the adventures of two daughters of a college professor in postwar rural Japan, and their encounter with animal and forest spirits that live in and around their new home. The film was creative in both its weird subject matter (who thinks up an octo-ped giant Catbus???) and its storytelling, Miyazaki rarely uses any villain and his stories always have themes of environmentalism,  feminism, and pacifism...I'm sure there is an ism missing there.  Totoro was dubbed to english by an American/Japan airline as an  inflight movie, then the dub was distributed by Troma pictures believe it or not. In 2004 Troma and Fox lost the rights to distribute Totoro, which left the money vultures at Disney to do what they do best. Since its re-dubbing and redistribution My Neighbor Totoro has become a fan favorite among Disney, Studio Ghibli and animation aficionados in general, myself included. That's why I was left awestruck to find that Miyazaki had made a sorta sequel to the classic childrens movie.
   Mei and The Kittenbus is a short film(13 min.) that is exclusively shown at the Ghibli museum in Tokyo Japan. It takes place after the events of My Neighbor Totoro, when Mei comes across the offspring of the Catbus in the first film she is swept up into a magical journey to a secret meeting of the forest spirits.
   Truly, made for the fans of the film, it has a whole bunch of Totoro-like animals it has several catbusses, including a kitten and an older one that serves as a sort of cruise liner to the pure lands, a vaguely buddhist reference that escapes me at the moment. The story is simple enough and like the movies, leaves you with a childlike sense of wonder that can only be described as a curiosity of what can not be explained, things as simple as a sudden gust of wind can be explained by a giant cat whizzing by on its way to a secret meeting and not be given a second thought.

    Sadly, Mei and the Kittenbus has no signs of getting a proper release to any home medium, it will remain a  Ghibli Museum exclusive. Which is too bad because it is a cute addition to the Totoro mythos, a simple story that will leave a lasting impression on fans of the series. But who knows...it might get a release on a special dvd or something...for now, save up for those plane tickets to Tokyo.

Starman : Sci Fi Royalty.... or not-an incoherent ramble.

 Today's pick from the public domain vault is the first in the Starman series "Atomic Rulers". Originally the first two installments in the Japanese made Super Giant franchise circa 1956, America bought up the films a number of years later and combined 'em into one movie, dubbing the dialogue into English and renaming the hero Starman, finally releasing the finished product in 1965. Super Giant was Japan's very first superhero to grace the silver screen, taking a cue from the superman serials of the late 40's and building their own superhero brand to the delight of thousands of happy lil' Japanese children.

"Hi, I'm Starman, and I'm gonna kick your butt."

This being the first entry in the series, it lacks that danger from outer space element that makes the series so great, the writers instead opting to go for a much more realistic threat, atomic weaponry. The saga begins with the narrator talking about how some alien dudes made Starman out of the strongest steels and sent him to Earth to stop the use of nukes, as even the alien dudes from the far away Emerald planet fear the almighty power of the split atom. After that the movie is pretty much your standard espionage movie, just with people in ridiculous outfits on occasion, and one guy who can fly, repel bullets, bend a gun like it was a toy, and withstand a small nuclear explosion. There are some great 'roll the film backwards to make cool stuff happen' shots in the movie, that are so pointless that they're highly laughable, but the shots of Starman flying still put the late 90's Sunday afternoon show Night Man to shame. Seriously, did you ever see Night Man?  The visual aesthetic of the show was somewhere between late 90's era Skinemax and Days of Our Lives. Garbage.

Atomic Rulers, not unlike Gojira (released the same year in Japan), is a bit of a parable for U.S.- Japan relations of the day. In 1956, the atomic bombing of Japan just 11 years earlier was still a very fresh wound, and the writers of the movie had a bit of a chip on their shoulders about it. Nearly all the bad guys in the movie were American, and their mission was to conquer the world via nuclear blackmail, evil nuke wielding white dudes...... I guess it's a little more in your face than a mere parable....

Starman (Super Giant) really set a precedent, paving the way for the super hero genre in Japan, setting in motion the course of events that lead to the invention of the likes of the Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Metal Heroes and the Super Sentai Franchises, without all of which I would be a lost soul today. Being one of the oldest  showcases of the Tokusatsu genre should make Starman cinema royalty, but alas the Starman series has been banished to the bargain bin at your local (insert superstore name here), but that's also how I discovered the greatness that is the likes of Atomic Rulers, Invaders from Space, Attack from Space and Evil Brain from Outer Space, ranking high above the likes of Ricky Jones and company. Damn you world.

"We should be more famous than we are, and not just used as stock footage on 'Through the Wormhole With Morgan Freeman', Agreed?" 

Shady tapes, the charm of bootleg flicks and their influence on the current state of cinema

        For those of us not spoiled with internet and its various torrents and streaming sites and ebays, in addition the growing popularity that Tarantino has sprung in the B-movie and its many sub-genres many cut-classic movies and lesser known exploitation flicks have become available at major retail stores. We had it tough...we had to get our hands dirty to get our grindhouse fix. Breaking copyright laws in the days before high-speed internet  was a real wild west, we didn't know what the hell we were doin...luckily, aside from adding a little disclaimer at the beginning of a movie, the powers that be didn't know what we were doin either.

            My first experiences with bootleg movies was in the early 90's before Japanese animation really hit its stride in the US, anime fans relied on each other to share movies with each other.  Anime films and series were not readily available at retail stores so there was an underground network of  sellers and traders that would record 4 to 8 hours of anime on VHS tapes, no real labels, just a barely legible scribbling detailing the contents of the glorious tape in your hand. Some tapes were third, fourth and sometimes sixth generation recordings, leaving the movie foggy at places with wavering audio, and with the subtitles blurry. I owe my preferences of dubbed to subbed to these bootleg VHS's. My very first tape I got when i was a measly 9 years old, it had Akira, Ghost in a Shell, and half of some other movie that I can not recall at the moment. In spite of the obvious technical flaws I was in heaven, I had a little piece of something that my friends didn't know about, granted a very hipster reason to like something but its the truth, discovering some a masterpiece all on your own with no outside influence is pretty damn cool. Hipster logic aside, the cult-movie movement  relied on these measure to grow into what it is today, word of mouth laying the groundwork for what eventually will evolve into internet forums, God bless Al Gore... 

               As I  began to frequent these side alley swap meet bootleg stands, which were more like blankets sprawled on the ground with VHS littered all over it than actual stands, I began to get into other kinds of movies. Movies that I had never seen at major stores or rental places, movies like Cannibal Holocaust, Zombi, Shaw Bros  kung fu movies and the exploitation flicks of the 70's. Each movie didn't cost much, a few buck over the cost of a blank tape and luckily the faithful and shady shopkeep gave me the option of trading in movies for credit...which in retrospect, I have come to regret, I would love to have some of these in my collection today. As moving usually goes, I lost a few tapes or I let people borrow and forgot to get back....I have one tape left from my early days as a B-Movie aficionado, The Fatal Flying Guillotine, note the shitty box art and the very simple label(which was considered fancy by bootleg standards). 

     With the advent of DVD, bootleg movies have become much easier to get ahold of but have lost a considerable amount of charm that they once had. Usually they are either torrents of new movies, filmed with a camera at the movie theatre by very obvously nervous camera man, or burnt DVD's with the same shaky movie on them. Granted for the regualr schmoe this seems a sub-par option to do your movie viewing, but for the seasoned B-Movie buff this brings the charm of grindhouse movies in a modern setting. Action movies just look better on grainy sources. Recently I enjoyed a bootleg copy of Tarantino's western opus Django Unchained, the nature of the movie and its violent and classic style almost called for it to be viewed on a shitty medium...before you go on about how I'm taking caviar and champagne out of poor ol' Quentin's mouth I will have you know I have seen the movie twice in theatres and plan to buy the super mega special edition of the Blu-ray when that becomes available, yeah, I think I deserve one measly bootleg. 

  Here is a movie that deserved no ones money, note the printed paper artwork, but hey, at least its in color. Admitely out of the manners of bootlegging this is definitely the shadiest, and is about as illigal as small amounts of weed, so be careful and try to stay away from these...unless you just have to get your hands on a copy of the latest Tyler Perry movie. 

50 public domain movies for dat ass

       Like most illegal things in the bless'd U.S of A, companies have found a way around these copyright laws and straight into our pockets. These suit and tie clad weasels have bundled movies that are public domain(not subject to copyright) into packs of 50 and 100 and sold it at a cheap price. Most of them are older movies , usually from the 60's and below and have some pretty cool flick in them and for the asking price, I must admit its a steal. Movies are bundled by Genre, sci-fi and horror usually and are specially full of monster movies with bad special effects. The movies come in box with about a dozen and half dvds in little individual sleeves. Sometimes you will find these movies sold individually, packed in its own case with a printed cd image and everything. Although this way could be a bit a pricer...it does look cool to have on your shelf. You can even rip the movies off of Youtube or other streaming sites and  make your own copy with a custom label. It definitely adds a certain charm to your collection of obscure movies. Remember...public domain movies are all clear for this...they belong to the public after all. 

a public domain movie packaged on its own

 Inspite of the shadiness that goes with owning and selling bootlegs, B-movie and grindhouse aficianados owe these back alley gems for the current popularity of the genre. We wouldnt have movies like Deathproof, The Evil Dead Remake, Django Unchained, Kung Fu Hustle, Black Dynamite, and Hobo with a Shotgun among many others. Show some fucking respect.

Waflfles(the other fuck on the blog) made this bootleg of the classic Japanese sci-fi movies StarMan to add to his sizeable collection....don't worry,ITS PUBLIC DOMAIN FOOLS

V.H.S; sorta scary...sorta meh

   Falling again for those trailers that have quotes stating that they have what could be "the SCARIEST movie of all time", threats of ladies walking out or of you soiling your trousers because of the new findings in the scaring-shit-out-of-you sciences...that is how I first got an interest in this sort of good movie.
   V/H/S is a movie compiled of half-dozen short films that are all shot in the first person perspective, ala Blair Witch Project. None of the films are related, save an overlapping story of a couple of ruffians ram-sacking a creepy house in search of some video tapes to make a quick buck. Amid the creepy ambiance and horrible lighting, they find time to browse a dead man's VHS collection. The movies have that distinct headache inspiring camera work, but if the objective was going for realism...then this was done very well, mimicking that drunk dad at the Barbecue  camera technique. The stories all seem to be ripped off of other movies or at least spin off the idea of most. Not to say that most all horror movies are influenced by prior genre staples but in the V/H/S shorts it is very obvious.
    Individually, each story is much different from the next, themes range from slasher in the woods to the haunted house scenario. Using various genre tropes like pointless nudity, breaking the fourth wall and more than a hand full of gory scenes filled with rubber and red corn oil  made V/H/S enjoyable during certain scenes, however, this over exaggeration of  moments in the film made the build up scenes seem very mundane and drawn out.This heavy handed style of give and take works out for full lenght films but in a short film narrative had me bored between flashes of tit and neck stabbings.
                  This movie would be better enjoyed in parts, maybe catching shorts individually on youtube or wacthing scene by scene with your DVD. Each short was good on its own merit, be it creepy vampire ladies, crazed lesbian lovers, or a slasher victim taking sweet revenge on a supernatural killer are bythemselves very satisfying gore filled and suspensefull little treats, better enjoyed everyonce in awhile not in copious amounts, afterall...you might get a tummy ache. You won't see anything groundbreaking in this movie and while some parts are scary and not just surprise jumps ....VHS is far from the latest and greatest in the scare medium. I do recommend
the short films individually but not all in one sitting...it does get loooooong and drawn out.