Tiki Tiki (1971) [Fantasia Film Festival 2024]

Fantasia Retro 2024

Animation buffs might end up appreciating and loving this oddity by Canadian filmmaker and animator Gerald Potterton based mainly on how it was conceived. On its own, “Tiki Tiki” is a gigantic mess of a movie that tries to fit a square peg in to a circle hole. At seventy minutes, Potterton’s film is packed with about forty minutes of filler. Most of the filler is comprised of random scenes of people dressed as monkeys, and nigh endless musical numbers. And what kind of musical numbers per se? It’s mostly funk and soul music, which when viewed in context, is absolutely awkward.

Most times Potterton almost seems to forget that this is kind of an animated movie pitting his characters as back drops for an incredibly dull story about pirates and Monchhichis.

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Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)

Now Exclusively in Theaters.

“Deadpool and Wolverine” is that example of what happens when young boys take their action figures and spend hours just smashing them in to one another. There’s not much of a narrative, but there are appearances from other action figures, and maybe even a transformer or two. That’s what watching “Deadpool and Wolverine” was like—and I’m still not sure if that is a compliment or criticism. For all intents and purposes “Deadpool and Wolverine” is fun, and Shawn Levy seems to have a good time satirizing Marvel Studios as well as the scope of comic book movies. But through it all, there’s a very low stakes, and pretty overcooked movie that painfully overstays its welcome.

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The Nico Mastorakis Collection [Arrow Video Limited Edition] 

Out on Blu-ray and 4K UHD July 30, 2024    

Director Nico Mastorakis sits firmly in the B-movie realm, providing his fans and unsuspecting viewers with films that are all a bit off kilter and a whole lot of fun. This new set here includes 6 of his movies: The Time Traveller, Sky High, Terminal Exposure, Glitch!, Ninja Academy, and The Naked Truth. The last 5 listed here are definitely on the B-movie range and the first is a much better film.  

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The Bootleg Files: Look-Out Sister

BOOTLEG FILES 873: “Look-Out Sister” (1947 musical starring Louis Jordan).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: On public domain labels.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A lapsed copyright.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Nope, it is doomed to public domain hell.

During the 1940s, singer/songwriter and bandleader Louis Jordan was among the most popular entertainers of the decade. Jordan’s invigorating mix of big band, boogie-woogie and jazz music coupled with his often-amusing lyrics and ebullient performing style resulted in rollicking fun.
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