Closet Cases of the Nerd Kind

When I was a kid I ended up with a VHS tape....a most awesome VHS tape. I got it from a friend who got it from a friends older brother. It has all three original star wars films(not "special edition")as well as all of Ernie Fosselius's films: Close Encounters,Hardware wars,Bamby meets Godzilla,pork lips now(prob my favorite). ....It took forever to rewind. I swear these movies shaped me as a child into the silly mofo I am today....I mean come on Darth Vader on a hard tail chopper .."you're blocking the road" brilliant!!! I reference to at least one of his movies every day even though only a few people ever get it. I heard that Ernie Fosselius doesn't want anything to do with these movies anymore....I know some dude released Bamby meets Godzilla with his name on it instead of Ernie's. Anyways highly recommend all of them enjoy!! Oh yeah most are on you tube, but they butchered porklips now to make it fit....Amazon Prime lets you stream it for a week or do for a few bucks....DO IT!!!

If you grew up in the late 70's / early 80's and had access to HBO when it first arrived on the scene, you've probably seen this parody of Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind. This was made around the same time as "Hardware Wars!" and exhibits the same independent creativity that made HW! such a classic. This film cleverly uses animation and puppetry along with bad acting to weave a compelling story of drama, suspense, and good old fashioned pie-in-the-face comedy. Where else can you see a barbershop quartet of mailboxes or Darth Vader on a motorcycle? While this film is hard to locate, it is floating around out there and resourceful people should be able to find it. Watch it again and remember laughing out loud the first time you saw it.

I rated this film an "excellent" rating primarily because this was such an unusual film when I first saw this. Yes, I saw this first when I was 15. Oh well.....

Granted, this was a very crudely made and not very well produced film. However I'm sure that the filmmakers were quite aware of this. For their part, what they lacked in production value they made up, in spades, was in originality. This was an era that was before the internet, and before digital video. This, in retrospect, was not really "cheaply made". I'm sure, (from personal experience), that whenever anyone sneezed, it was a production "setback"!! Ha ha! However, these guys truly loved what they were spoofing and it shows. I'm sure they wouldn't have made this if they weren't passionate about the source material. Very funny stuff, especially for those who were there when the original Spielberg classic came out that rainy weekend (in Hollywood-Cinerama Dome).

Great stuff!

It hearkens back to the time when the "mysterious" making of films were a passion for a lot of film fans (as myself) out there and how many of us were desperately waiting for the next film or films of some of our generations' best filmmakers. Again, films such as this, while a parody, brings back how skillful the filmmakers of the 70's and 80's were so insightful to make such a serious approach to the entertainment of the film fans of the time (and of the future).

Thanks for reading!

For those 40somethings, you may remember this film. For those younger film fans, hopefully you will see an insight of how the SF/Fantasy/Horror film fans of this era were looking to the future and how the more fantastic stories were within the realm of reality (as it is now) for future films, even now. Cheers everyone!

p.s. I don't expect ANYONE to actually read this review. Ha ha! :-)

I regret that we didn't have a vcr when this movie was on HBO constantly when I was 13. I would have loved to tape it. I can't find it anywhere. I did however, just find "fish heads" and "the java junkie" at a library. I taped them. I wish I could find closet cases. it was a family fave.

Much as I love "Close Encounters", this group of actors has put together one of the best parodies of any movie that I've ever seen. To do this they use music, sound effects and the marvelous voice talents of Corey Burton and Sandy Stotzer, who are eerily adept at doing Hans Conried, James Mason, and other famous actors, as well as the majority of the voices we've all known and loved on Rocky and Bullwinkle. I had to check the credits to make sure it wasn't Hans Conried I was hearing.

Not a movie but a short, "Closet Cases" royally skewers CE3K. It's 20 minutes of running time follow the movie plot, but there's an ingenious bit about Pi, which the Bureau of Listening to Things from Outer Space had been receiving in a "Message from the Martians" ("I was a scientist before I became a bad actor. I know what that message means!"). Sara Lee pastries is also involved in the plot, as are CE3K's shaving cream and mashed potato's ("It's a message from outer space, Gladys, right here on our dinner table!"), and a child's backyard pool is used in a pretty inventive manner. The ending also uses a symbol from CE3K in a very ingenious way.

This is difficult to find (the cable channels used to show it in the very early 80's as filler), but if you look for "Hardware Wars and Other Satires," which was put out on tape a bunch of years ago, this short is included on the tape, along with "Hardware Wars", the excellent "Porklips Now" (a spoof of "Apocalypse Now,") by Ernie Fosselius, and "Bambi Meets Godzilla" in all it's insane glory. The tape is well worth whatever money you pay for it, because "Closet Cases" is hysterical.