On July 22nd, the 60th anniversary of “Plan 9 from Outer Space” will be celebrated by horror fans and movie buffs alike, and it’s a celebration I hope you partake in. Ed Wood’s science fiction horror film is notorious for being branded “the worst film ever made,” but through and through it’s proven to be a film that’s so bad it’s quite great. With the Ed Wood classic hitting its 60th, I recommend five ways you can celebrate the anniversary and honor the auteur we once knew we Edward Wood Jr.
The Bootleg Files: Capital Punishment
BOOTLEG FILES 693: “Capital Punishment” (1925 silent drama featuring Clara Bow).
LAST SEEN: On Internet Archive.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: In a crummy public domain dupe.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: A lapsed copyright.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: It is unlikely that this will be digitally restored.
Unless you are a character in a Joshua Ryan story, it is safe to assume that you would probably not voluntarily submit yourself to prison incarceration. But in this obscure 1925 silent feature, the central character agrees to forsake his liberty and go behind bars as part of an elaborate ruse to call attention to the failings of the criminal justice system. And, perhaps not surprisingly, the system fails him with extraordinary brutality.
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No Mercy (2019) [Fantasia Festival 2019]
The path to redemption is a long and arduous one that can obviously test us and our resolve to the very core. With the South Korean “No Mercy” we see the unfolding of a path of redemption for a woman who has very little in life and is about to see her only good thing be taken away by human cruelty. A mix of “Taken,” “Drive,” and “Dead Man’s Shoes,” Lim Kyoung-tack’s action thriller is a beautifully made, engrossing, and often riveting journey of a woman who is willing to go deep in to the darkness to retriever her sister, and might not have a way back once she’s fulfilled her goal.
Five Feetastic Moments in Tarantino Cinema
By now it’s become common knowledge by all forms of movie buffs that Quentin Tarantino has a big fetish for feet. The man loves feet, especially women’s feet. Not only does he seem apparently aroused by them, but he also seems to use the feet as a means of conveying emotion and some kind of free style toward the audience. In a way we do learn a lot about his characters through the feet, and he’s not shy about putting them front and center.
In honor of the upcoming “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” these are five Feetastic Moments in Tarantino Cinema. What are your personal favorites?
Saying Goodbye to Skybound’s “The Walking Dead”
To say that I’ve been a fan of “The Walking Dead” is something of an understatement. I’ve been following Skybound’s “The Walking Dead” since it originally started and have been going along with every single issue since its debut in 2003 and haven’t looked back since. I was also elated when everyone else got to see what I was such a big fan of in 2010 when AMC turned Robert Kirkman’s comic book in to a hit television series and cultural phenomenon. A lot of other fans like myself have been complaining that “The Walking Dead” ended so abruptly, but that’s pretty much in keeping with what the series has been about since 2003.
Shazam! (2019) [Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital]
One of the most family friendly and outright entertaining superhero features of the year, “Shazam!” is a movie that will appeal to children of all walks of life. It’s a movie that promotes the power of family, promotes the appeal of adopted families, and explores the effects of bullying and toxic masculinity. “Shazam!” is one of the bigger surprises of 2019 as the DCEU keeps delivering on entertaining and bright action features that spotlight the lesser explored and rarely discovered characters from the DC Comics stable.
Critters Attack! (2019) [Fantasia Festival 2019]
Critters fans have had slim pickings for a very long time, with lack of real printings of the original film on home media and new films coming together. Now in 2019 we finally got two new installments, but together they don’t really amount to much of a great “Critters” movie sadly. While “Critters Attack!” is waves better than “Critters: A New Binge” it’s still never as good as “Critters” parts one or two. It’s only an okay offering that’s right there beside “Critters 3.” That’s about as glowing as a recommendation that I can give it when all was said and done.