ORGAZMO on DVD Matt Stone and Trey Parker Explore the consequences of what happens when Utah's Mormons meet California's Porn Industry and for such an unlikely mix, a great story develops. Orgazmo is essential viewing for those who are not too shy about the On Screen Nudity, Plenty of naked Flesh is shown to "tastefully" depict the awkward scenes where Utah meets California (O.K "Tastefully" probably doesn't describe that too well.) MUST SEE DVD
ORGAZMO DVD - Doorknocking Leads to more than just religious enlightenment...
" South Park co-creator Trey Parker goes straight for the gross-out humor in this live-action farce set in the adult-movie industry. Parker stars as an innocent Mormon kid who gets sucked into the world of pornographic filmmaking and becomes an international sensation as the porno superhero Orgazmo, all the while hiding his secret life from his milk-fed fiancée. It's practically a one-man show for Parker, who directs, writes, stars, and even performs the self-penned theme song as frontman for his rock band, and perhaps he should have spread the responsibilities a little. As an actor he's surprisingly appealing--his dazed grin and bleached white surfer-dude hair give him an engaging air of innocence (he can also be seen, just as innocently endearing, in the sports farce BASEketball). Paired with longtime crony Dian Bachar, the diminutive actor who plays his superhero sidekick Chodo Boy, they bring a Hardy Boys naiveté to the rude world of mobbed-up producers and jaded adult film stars. But the film is only fitfully funny, with vulgar jokes that are often more disgusting than humorous and clumsy comic timing sabotaging promising scenes. Only rarely does it reach the heights of his hilarious cutout cartoon series, but when he delivers he does so with the carefully cultivated tasteless excess his fans have come to know and love. Matt Stone costars as a clueless photographer and adult film star; Ron Jeremy appears as a gross gangster henchman. " --Sean Axmaker Orgazmo is delightfully Funny if you're not too easily offended by the completely necessary nudity that sets the scene for the Porn industry that has swept up the innocent but totally capable Young Mormon...
There's a sense of awe to the special effects work of animation specialists Gerry and Sylvia Anderson (Thunderbirds Are Go)--the slow, lovingly detailed introduction of a massive spaceship creeping out of dock and struggling against its bulk while trapped on the ground, and the almost balletic spectacle of the ship elegantly floating against an impressive star field or dramatically flying against the rugged landscape. These moments are the highlights of this sober science fiction thriller about the discovery of a planet on the far side of the sun in Earth's orbit. A mission is hastily put together, with British astrophysicist Ian Hendry teamed with hotshot American astronaut Roy Thinnes for the three-week trip, but when they suddenly crash-land the strange creatures that surround them are revealed to be human. Against all rational explanations they're back on Earth, but Thinnes suddenly discovers that everything is a mirror image of his existence: Through the Looking Glass by way of The Twilight Zone. Though it begins as a paranoid spy thriller set in the near future (the opening details an ingenious espionage caper featuring a very special eyepiece), it quickly turns into a serious and oddly unsettling space-race drama with a heady twist. Robert Parrish's direction is unusually aloof, but the film is always intriguing and well acted with gorgeous special effects that may rank second only to Stanley Kubrick's 2001 as the most elegant vision of outer space flight on film. --Sean Axmaker
KOLCHAK The Night Stalker
The acknowledged inspiration for The X-Files, and the basis for an updated 2005 network version, Kolchak: The Night Stalker was a short-lived 1974 series spun off from a pair of extremely popular made-for-TV movies about the supernatural adventures of dogged newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin). Though plagued by low ratings and critical brickbats, the show has cultivated a huge cult following over the past three decades, which has given rise to this three-disc set, which compiles all 20 episodes of the show. Though none of the episodic stories matches the suspense and writing strength of the Night Stalker or Night Strangler movies, TV horror fans will appreciate the parade of interesting and inventive monsters encountered by Kolchak (including a witches' coven in "The Trevi Collection"; an Aztec cult in "Legacy of Terror"; a Hindu Demon in "Horror in the Heights," which was penned by Hammer Films scribe Jimmy Sangster; and a headless biker in "Chopper," an episode deemed in extreme poor taste by Stephen King and co-written by Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale, and Sopranos creator David Chase). McGavin is of course topnotch as Kolchak, and he's well-matched by Simon Oakland as his hot-tempered boss; guest stars include Scatman Crothers, James Gregory, Phil Silvers, Eric Braeden, Tom Skerritt, and Richard Kiel as the monster in two back-to-back episodes. Sadly, no extras accompany this fun collection of Kolchak's creepiest cases. --Paul Gaita
LIQUID SKY This 1983 science fiction oddity, set in the subterranean world of heroin addicts, performance artists, and androgynous models in New York's East Village, became a staple of the midnight movie circuit and college campus film societies. A tiny UFO lands on the roof of a grungy penthouse apartment inhabited by androgynous model Anne Carlisle and her drug-dealing lover Paula E. Sheppard (the former child star of Alice, Sweet Alice). As explained with deadpan gravity by hilariously naive alien hunter Otto Von Wernherr, the UFOs congregate in areas of intense heroin concentration and feed off the highs of addicts. This alien has found a better high: orgasms. Russian émigré Slava Tsukerman's punk sci-fi feature takes the alien in alienation seriously, charting the mental disintegration of Carlisle as every sexual partner dies in climax and she turns herself into a heroine-chic angel of death. Easily the strangest to come out of the New York indie explosion of the early '80s, this low budget classic is talky and overlong at almost two hours, but remains an imaginative use of bargain-basement effects (heat aura photography, stop motion animation) for a tale of a most unusual alien encounter. Tsukerman co-composed the minimalist electronic score (in the Laurie Anderson vein). Carlisle, who cowrote the film, also appears as a surly gay male model. --Sean Axmaker
LOGANS RUN If you can stifle the urge to laugh at its pastel unisex costumes and futuristic shopping-mall décor, this extravagant science fiction film from 1976 is still visually fascinating and provocatively entertaining. Set in the year 2274, when ecological disaster has driven civilization to the protection of domed cities, the story revolves around a society that holds a ceremonial death ritual for all citizens who reach the age of 30. In a diseaseless city where free sex is encouraged and old age is virtually unknown, Logan (Michael York) is a "sandman," one who enforces this radical method of population control (but he's about to turn 30 and he doesn't want to die). Escaping from the domed city via a network of underground passages, Logan is joined by another "runner" named Jessica (Jenny Agutter), while his former sandman partner (Richard Jordan) is determined to terminate Logan's rebellion. Using a variety of splendid matte paintings and miniatures, Logan's Run earned a special Oscar for visual effects (images of a long-abandoned Washington, D.C., are particularly impressive), and in addition to fine performances by Jordan and Peter Ustinov, the film features '70s poster babe Farrah Fawcett in a cheesy supporting role. Jerry Goldsmith's semi-electronic score is still one of the prolific composer's best, and Logan's Run remains an interesting example of '70s sci-fi that preceded Star Wars by less than a year. --Jeff Shannon
MAX HEADROOM 20 Minutes into the Future:
The Complete Series of Max Headroom is finaly here. Hooray. There is a Huge and Vocal, Very Vocal, Fan base out there for the "Way ahead of it's time" TV Series, Movie Specials, Spin-Offs, and the Original British Tele-Movies, which were done once in Britain and repeated (Exactly Word for Word, Scene for Scene) in the U.S. - Max Headroom predicted the information and entertainment technology "Boom" to a very close degree, demonstrating the Importance, and the Power that is placed in the hands of Network Executives, and Anchor reporters. The Series found unique ways to keep a story line active and interesting, It had me hooked, Couldn't get enough of Max Headroom. Matt Frewer has played a part in Many of my personal favorites, The series TAKEN for one, a compelling TV Mini Series was that.
The OMEGA Man
Charlton Heston plays the government researcher behind the ultimate biological weapon, a deadly plague that has ravaged humanity. There are two groups of survivors: a dwindling band of immune humans and an infected, psychopathic mob of light-hating quasi-vampires. The infected are led by Mathias, a clever, charismatic man set on destroying the last remnants of the civilization that produced the plague. Heston has a vaccine--but he and the few remaining normals are outnumbered and outgunned. By day, he builds a makeshift version of the nuclear family (with Rosalind Cash as his afro-wearing, gun-toting little lady). They plan for the future while roaming freely through an empty urban landscape, taking what few pleasures life has left. By night, they defend themselves against the growing horde of plague victims. Both a bittersweet romance and a gothic cautionary tale, The Omega Man paints a convincing portrait of hope and despair. It ain't pretty, but it's a great movie. --Grant Balfour Welcome to the future. Biological war has decimated life on Earth. Los Angeles is a windswept ghost town where Robert Neville tools his convertible through sunlit streets foraging for supplies. And makes damn sure he gets undercover before sundown, when other "inhabitants" emerge. The Omega Man adapts Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend into a high-impact, high-tension saga of a fate not far removed from reality. Charlton Heston is Neville, fending off attacks by The Family, sinister neopeople spawned by the plague. He also becomes a man with a mission after meeting Lisa (Rosalind Cash), another unifected survivor - and guardian of some healthy children representing our species' hope.
OUR MAN FLINT
There's really been only one rival to James Bond: Derek Flint. That's because of James Coburn's special brand of American cool. He's so cool, in fact, that he doesn't care to save the world. That is, until he's personally threatened. He's a true libertarian, with more gadgets and girls than Bond, but with none of his stress or responsibility. Here he's totally unflappable as he thwarts mad scientists who control the weather--and an island of pleasure drones. Lee J. Cobb costars as Flint's flustered superior, and Edward Mulhare plays a British nemesis with snob appeal. For fans of Austin Powers, incidentally, the funny-sounding phone comes from the Flint films. However, Our Man Flint's best gadget remains the watch that enables Flint to feign death. There's a great Jerry Goldsmith score, too. --Bill Desowitz
If you can manage to past the objectification of women, the over the top gadgetry, and the slight bending of the rules of existence, The Flint Movies are GREAT Entertainment, I Love 'em, and have had the collectors edition DVDs in my hands since the day they were released. I Wish he Had Made More FLINT Movies, They'd be like gold now...
PHASE IV Intelligent Movie about Intelligent ANTs
A bizarre and unexplainable cosmic event has forever changed the Earth's ant population as we know it. Around the globe, ants are communicating at a level previously thought impossible and organizing themselves in such a manner to suggest the formation of a collective mind. Biologist, Dr. Ernest Hubbs (Nigel Davenport, The Island of Dr. Moreau 77) and information specialist, James Lesko (Michael Murphy, Count Yorga, Vampire) have traveled to the small desert town of Paradise City to research the most recent occurrences of odd ant behavior. The community, once occupied with golf courses and county clubs, has become a barren landscape, as a gathering of ants has driven the town s population to abandon their homes. In their place, the bugs have constructed an impressive number of towering monoliths, which strike upward toward the hot desert sky. If watching insects and other creepy-crawlies makes you squirm in your seat, Phase IV may not be for you. The film's first eight minutes are almost entirely comprised of ants scurrying around, often framed in close up, almost microscopic shots. This footage was the work of micro photographer Ken Middleham, who would focus his camera on the insect world a year later for William Castle s Bug. Such a realistic take on one of Mother Nature s smallest creatures is in stark contrast to similar science fiction fare of the period. Films like Them! or Empire of the Ants found their conflict by enlarging such critters to make them more overtly threatening. By keeping the insects a familiar size, Phase IV is able to remain planted in reality, while exploring topics that are anything but. The threat seems more eminent as the human race finds itself being threatened, not by being overpowered physically, but by being knocked down a step on the evolutionary ladder.
Qatermass and the Pit
aka - 5 Million Years to EARTH
We have met the enemy, and it is us: when a Martian spacecraft with a terrifying link to the origins of humanity is unearthed beneath a London tube station, only the esteemed Professor Bernard Quatermass (a very British--and possibly mad--precursor to Mulder and Scully) can save London's suddenly murderous population from itself. One of the most intelligently paranoid science fiction films ever produced, this pessimistic masterpiece functions as a dark flip side to the relatively optimistic alien-induced evolution theory presented in the later 2001: A Space Odyssey. Nigel Kneale's brilliant script (which posits a surprisingly plausible, otherworldly rationale for the existence of the supernatural) was later appropriated by acknowledged fan John Carpenter for his underrated Prince of Darkness. In addition to boasting a flawless widescreen print, this marvelous tape also features a hilariously overdone original U.S. trailer ("Women will be defiled by the invaders from outer space!" it erroneously shrieks). A must-see for horror and science fiction aficionados. This film is also known as Five Million Years to Earth. --Andrew Wright
