stencilman

Joe Bob Briggs is one of the legendary horror hosts along with Zacherle and Elvira. He used to host Monstervision and Drive-In theatre back in the day. He has enjoyed a resurgence after a 24 hour marathon done in July 2018. He has also acted in a few movies most notably in Martin Scorsese's Casino and Mick Garris' TV adaptation of The Stand. As per Joe Bob, he was broke and had to do this "gem".

A group of news crew go to shoot footage about a huge hog (The titular Hogzilla). They are encountered by Joe Bob who warns them to leave since he lost his kid to the hog a few years ago and has been living in the woods ever since. The crew expectedly ignores the harbinger of doom and starts getting picked off one by one by the pig or at least a violently shaking camera.

Hogzilla is a terrible movie. Its budget was reportedly one million which seems false because those folks at Troma do more in 20% of that budget. Joe Bob is there for all of 15 minutes in the entire movie. Unsurprisingly, he is the best part of the movie. The others are all terrible. The background score is completely incongruous to what is going on in the movie. The make-up effects are non-existent and the film has a cheap look despite considering it was made in 2007 and never released till 2020 just in time for Joe Bob's new show The Last Drive-in where this movie was premiered to Joe Bob's complete shock.

I would suggest watching the last drive-in episode of this as Joe Bob is fantastic along with his mail girl Darcy who has a fun banter going with him. If you have a group of friends to make fun of this movie, watch this one with them else let this hogzilla stay dead and buried.

GLOW is loosely based on the actual GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) TV show which was a cheesy but charming women's wrestling show which ran for four seasons in the late 80s.

This is a really funny, heartwarming and sometimes exciting show. It is a very good combination of characters and wrestling. As a lifelong pro wrestling fan, the show successfully shows wrestling for being fun without making fun of it. I could have appreciated more insight into how hard it is to be a wrestler especially taking bumps which take a toll on the body. That being said, it does a very good job showing the people and getting us behind them. They are flawed people but likable and ultimately, you root for their success.

The performances are uniformly excellent. Alison Brie is a capable lead who keeps the movie centered. Marc Maron, as the frustrated but deep down decent cokehead director does a fabulous job. Betty Gilpin as the slightly arrogant former soap opera star is brilliant especially since she has a lot of emotional scenes. I loved the wrestler cameos which I will keep a secret.

To conclude, the show is a wonderful love letter to wrestling fans. It would have been convenient to mock wrestling as stupid and dumb but the show avoids that pitfall. For new fans, it would serve as a good conduit into the crazy world of wrestling and for wrestling fans, it shows a simpler era where we were not smarks who picked apart every booking decision. Highly recommended!