News

Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar, an action-packed sci-fi adventure movie from Garo Setian, director of the sci-fi thriller Automation (watch it Here, read our review Here), is now available on DVD and digital, and to mark the occasion a new trailer has been released that’s packed with quotes from some of the positive reviews the film has received. We have the Exclusive first look at this trailer, and you can check it out in the embed above!

Our review of Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar can be read at This Link, and you can pick up your copy of the movie on Amazon.

Setian directed the film from a screenplay by Joe Knetter (writer of Blind and Pretty Boy), based on a story Setian and Knetter crafted together. Starring Michael Pare (Streets of Fire), Olivier Gruner (Nemesis), Sarah French (Blind), Tyler Gallant (Alpha Wolf) Rachele Brooke Smith...

Plot: Space scavengers and a group of mercenaries race across the cosmos in a search for a long-lost freighter that is said to contain great treasure.

Review: I have a lot of admiration for filmmakers who don’t let financial limitations stifle their creativity or force them to minimize the scope of their stories. In that regard, there’s a lot to admire about director Garo Setian’s sci-fi adventure film Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar. Just like the title instantly brings to mind Star Wars, Space Wars is reminiscent of the low budget sci-fi movies producers like Roger Corman pumped out in the wake of the original Star Wars’ success. You know, movies like Battle Beyond the Stars and the movies that featured stock footage from Battle Beyond the Stars. Space Wars just happens to have been made on an even lower budget than those had.

In his feature debut,...

Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar, an action-packed sci-fi adventure movie from Garo Setian, director of the sci-fi thriller Automation (watch it Here, read our review Here), is set to receive a theatrical release on April 21st, with a digital release to follow on May 2nd. In anticipation of those release dates, we’re proud to share the Exclusive first look at a batch of posters that introduce the characters of Space Wars! You can take a look at these character posters at the bottom of this article.

Setian directed the film from a screenplay by Joe Knetter (writer of Blind and Pretty Boy), based on a story Setian and Knetter crafted together. Starring Michael Pare (Streets of Fire), Olivier Gruner (Nemesis), Sarah French (Blind), Tyler Gallant (Alpha Wolf) Rachele Brooke Smith (Nightmare Shark), Anahit Setian (Automation), Jed Rowen (Pretty Boy), Elise Muller (Dolls) and Sadie Katz (Wrong Turn 6). Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar...

Stars: Harry Reems, Cara Lott, Ginger Lynn, Amber Lynn, Herschel Savage, Tom Byron, Rick Savage, Steve Drake | Written by Steve Scott, Will Kelly | Directed by Steve Scott

Dutch (Harry Reems, Deep Throat) has it all! He’s the money, the looks, a happening nightclub called “The Paradise Club”, the reputation and of course; the girl. That is until his girl Jessie (Cara Lott, Taboo 2) has had enough of his attitude and lack of appreciation. Fortunately for Dutch However, a new dame isn’t hard to find especially in your own club! On the same night of his split, Dutch sets his sights on the young Katharine (Ginger Lynn, New Wave Hookers), a new girl in town who sells cigarettes at the club. He soon finds out that Katherine (whom he decides to call Kitty) is a little too innocent, timid and ultimately a tad inexperienced. This leads him to reach...

When I was a young person a new video store came into my town. It was small and filled with movies I had never heard of. The owners told me that buying big name movies was too expensive. They felt it was better to have a store full of titles, than a store half full with copies of The Empire Strikes Back. This was 1985 mind you.

Back then I took for granted how awesome video stores were. Independent stores were the best. Generally, the owners were very happy people. Why? Well, it was literally their job to sit around and watch movies all day. Then, when a customer came in, they got to talk about movies and make recommendations on titles they should rent. And think about it... you didn't even need to waste your money on film school and it was like you were in the industry.

Things changed...

Trey Parker and Matt Stone's 'outrageous, irreverent' comedy is the gusher of pointless profanity and smut that will cheer the myriad fans of South Park. The ultimate message of this cringe-worthy spectacle is that liberals are dupes and traitors, foreigners are either evil or morons, and kicking ass around the world is our national birthright. Go team! Team America: World Police Blu-ray Warner /Paramount 2004 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date October 13, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 9.98 Starring voices of Trey Parker, Matt Stone, others. Cinematography Bill Pope Film Editor Thomas M. Vogt Original Music Harry Gregson-Williams Written by Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Pam Brady Produced by Trey Parker, Scott Rudin, Matt Stone Directed by Trey Parker    

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Team America: World Police looks like a show designed for the kids, yet it's too raw for most adults. It is an optimal feature concept for Trey Parker and Matt Stone,...

“I don’t need this. I already got trouble with my kids, my wife, my business, my secretary, the bums… the runaways, the roaches, prickly heat, and a homo dog. This just ain’t my day!”

Street Trash screens midnights this Friday and Saturday Night (August 7th and 8th) at The Hi-Pointe Theater (1005 McCausland Ave, St. Louis) as part of Destroy the Brain’s monthly Late Night Grindhouse

Vintage Vinyl, the used record store on the Loop in U City, is housed in the same building that used to be the Varsity Theater. The Varsity is where The Rocky Horror Picture Show played midnights to sold-out crowds throughout much of the ‘70s and -80s. The theater definitely catered to the cult and college crowd, presenting counterculture film programming, mostly for the students at nearby Washington University and for years was the only place in town to catch 3-D movies.

An alien craft shaped like an artichoke? A vessel with breasts? Here's our pick of 15 of sci-fi cinema's most eccentric spaceships...

For decades, heroes have crossed the universe in rocket ships and modified light freighters. Aliens have conquered galaxies in disc-shaped craft of varying sizes.

Yes, as long as there's been science fiction on the silver screen, spaceships have captured our imagination, from the matinee serials of the 30s to the sci-fi blockbusters of the present.

We all have our own idea of what a great spaceship should look like. For some, it's Han Solo's fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy, the Millennium Falcon. For others, it's the more graceful USS Enterprise, or maybe the utilitarian craft of 2001: A Space Odyssey. But what about cinema's more unusual, outlandish spaceships? The ramshackle ones, the anachronistic ones, the ones that look a bit rude, or just plain scary? Those are...

Monster maker and make-up genius Rick Baker is calling time on his career - and the dominance of CG is heavily to blame.

Now this is sad news. For the past few decades, Rick Baker has been the leader in special effects make-up in particular, with his work covering the likes of Star Wars, An American Werewolf In London, Videodrome, Men In Black, Gremlins 2 and even - yes! - Flesh Gordon (crikey, remember that?)

He also, of course, sprung to prominence in many people's eyes for his incredible work on the video for Michael Jackson's song, Thriller.

Baker, though, with seven Oscars standing on his mantelpiece, has now announced his retirement, at the age of 64. He broke the news on the Us radio station 89.3 Kpcc, saying "I said the time is right. I am 64 years old and the business is crazy right now".

He continued, adding "I like to do things right,...

All week long our writers will debate: Which was the greatest film year of the past half century.  Click here for a complete list of our essays. I was one of the first to select years for this particular exercise, which probably allowed me to select the correct year. The answer is, of course, 1974 and all other answers are wrong. No matter what your criteria happens to be, 1974 is going to come out on top. Again, this is not ambiguous or open to debate. We have to start, of course, with the best of the best. "Chinatown" is one of the greatest movies ever made. You can't structure a thriller better than Robert Towne and Roman Polanski do, nor shoot a Los Angeles movie better than John Alonzo has done. Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway give the best performances of their careers, which is no small achievement. If you ask...

If you missed Italian Stallion when I played it last year at my Super-8 Sex Movie Madness show, you’ll have another chance this weekend when I screen it (in it’s glorious condensed 18-minute super-8 cut) at the Super Swingers ’70s Night at The Way Out Club this Saturday Nov 23rd beginning at 9pm. I’ll be showing Italian Stallion and some other films of that nature that are not pornography, but a certain type of R-Rated film that one may have enjoyed at the Drive-ins in the 1970′s. The other swinging films I’ll be screening that night include Flesh Gordon, Swinging Stewardesses, Ed Wood’s Glen Or Glenda, and a ’70s Sexploitation trailer reel.

The Way Out Club is located at 2525 Jefferson Avenue in South St. Louis

Bell Bottom, platform shoe wearing, chevron mustache and side burn sporting, vintage 1970′s Funk Funk Funk is strutting your way...

All you jiveass cornpone peckerwoods head down to the Way Out Club on Tuesday September 3rd for Super-8 Movie Madness featuring the Blaxploitation Triple Feature! The Blaxploitation film era has had an enormous impact on American cinema and culture and its influence can still be seen today. If you dig black culture, music, and lingo from the 70′s you’ll have a chance to take in a triple threat of urban cinema presented on Super-8 sound film projected on a big screen with condensed (average length: 17 minutes) versions of three iconic Blaxploitation classics: Pam Grier in Coffy, Richard Roundtree in Shaft, and Fred ‘The Hammer’ Williamson in That Man Bolt!

The non- Blaxploitation films we’re showing on September 3rd are: John Carpenter’s Dark Star, Gil Lamb in the comedy short Baby Makes Two, the sexy caveman spoof When Women Had Tails, Abbott and Costello in Midget Car Maniacs,...

When I was a kid my dad used to have tapes upon tapes of movies he had taped off TV, typically uncut and usually filled with all the “goodies” Case in point, Screwballs. Screwballs was recorded in LP format and came just after Caddyshack. While I’m not entirely sure how I was allowed to watch the uncut, non-television purified version of Caddyshack at as twelve, well I thank my lucky stars that dear old mum never figured it out. At the time I didn’t know that Roger Corman was in anyway associated with the picture. Figures. Giant, low budget monster movies and loosely based Edgar Allen Poe adaptations certainly give way to comedic representations of large ta ta’s pirouetting across the screen like sugar plum fairies on LSD. So for the boobs. For the sense of humor grown by repeated viewings of said film. For the VHS...

Synapse’s 42nd Street Forever trailer compilations have been a tremendous success for the imprint, similar to what Something Weird Video has been doing for decades. Synapse gathered trailers from all corners of the cinematic universe, enough to populate five volumes over the last seven years, and now they are finally stepping into the world of Blu-ray.

42Nd Street Forever: The Blu-ray Edition, available on May 8th, is a compilation of the best of of the best from volumes 1 and 2 of the DVD series, featuring almost four hours of all the naughty bits that get underground cinephiles excited. Also included is a new commentary from Fangoria’s Mike Gingold. Fangoria.com has shared the cover art and sample list of trailers below.

Act Of Vengeance

Black Samson

The Bullet Machine

The Centerfold Girls

Chained Heat

Chappaqua

College Girls

The Curious Female

The Dark

Dark Star

Delinquent Schoolgirls

The Deadly Spawn...

It’s Tuesday! That means it’s time for another Home Invasion post. Home Invasion is a list of DVD & Blu-Ray releases for the week. All descriptions are from Amazon.com unless otherwise noted. We have included buttons for you to order that product which not only makes it easy on you but also helps us pay the bills around here.

Batman: Year One (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy)

Batman: Year One is an animated adaptation of the four issue story arc Batman: Year One. The premiere was at Comic-Con on July 22 and the official release date is October 18, 2011. The film was directed by Lauren Montgomery and Sam Liu. It is the 12th film released under the DC Universe Animated Original Movies banner. (from Wikipedia.org)

Buy the Blu-Ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy @ Amazon.com Beware

Shady Grove has many dark secrets among them is the sadistic legend of Shane,...

Westwood - The master of sensual European cinema golden years have a tint of blue. UCLA just hosted retrospective of Radley Metzger’s films. His most important films are being released on Blu-ray. He’s about to take the director’s chair as he approaches 83.

His masterwork Camille 2000 was just released Blu-ray with an extended version from Cult Epics. The 1969 update of Dumas’ The Lady of the Camellias takes place in an esoteric Italy. The restored high definition transfer gives a detailed look at that magical time. The Party Favors had a chance to chat with Radley Metzger about the release.

Trailer provided by Video Detective

Radley is a true independent filmmaker. He owns the rights to his films instead of selling them off to distributor. He’s not at the mercy of an indifferent studio executive to keep his cinematic legacy available. The first question had to be...

Joe Dante just can’t get away from movie trailers — although, in fairness, he isn’t trying very hard. The renowned director of Piranha, The Howling, and the two Gremlins movies broke into the movie business cutting trailers for legendary schlockmeister Roger Corman. Now, in between movie projects, he curates the hugely entertaining website Trailers from Hell!, where he and his fellow Tfh “gurus” like Eli Roth, John Sayles, John Landis, Edgar Wright, and Corman himself ruminate over old clips for films of almost every imaginable stripe.

The site has just released its second DVD on which, amongst other treats,...

Joe Dante just can’t get away from movie trailers — although, in fairness, he isn’t trying very hard. The renowned director of Piranha, The Howling, and the two Gremlins movies broke into the movie business cutting trailers for legendary schlockmeister Roger Corman. Now, inbetween his movie projects, he curates the hugely entertaining website Trailers from Hell! where he and his fellow ToH “gurus” like Eli Roth, John Sayles, and Edgar Wright ruminate over old clips for films of almost every imaginable stripe.

The site has just released its second DVD on which, amongst other treats, you can hear Guillermo del Toro...

“Any movie can be great at 2 1/2 minutes!”

For those of you who may be wondering what Trailers From Hell is but have taken the time to read this review, you are about to be introduced to what will probably be one of your new favourite sites. Trailers From Hell is a site for people who love films, made by people who love films (and make films). Conceived and created by the likes of director Joe Dante, Trailers From Hell draws on the knowledge of a variety of gurus (generally notable genre directors) who provide commentaries for film trailers.

The Trailers From Hell website can be found here and I can highly recommend you check it out, if you haven’t already. Make sure you have a few hours to spare before clicking on the link though.

In addition to the site, a DVD was released last year by Tfh which...

The Trailers:

Being the trailer nerd that I am, I am happy to announce that Joe Dante and company are back with their latest round of cogent commentaries from gurus :

Brian Trenchard-Smith: Devil Ship Pirates, Stranglers of Bombay

Ernest Dickerson: Creeping Unknown

Guillermo del Toro: Deep Red, Deep Red (Spanish), Hunchback of Notre Dame ’57

Joe Dante: Donovan’s Brain, The Invisible Ghost

Jack Hill: Pit Stop

John Landis: Gorgo

Josh Olson: Jaws, The Lineup

Larry Karaszewski: Last Summer, The Tenant

Lloyd Kaufman: Terror Firmer

Mick Garris: Flesh Gordon, Fire Maiden of Outer Space

Mary Lambert: Godzilla vs Mothra

Michael Peyser: Seven Days in May

Roger Corman: Prematural Burial, Ski Troop Attac

As an added bonus, you also get Roger Corman’s 1960 film Little Shop of Horrors (available for this first time in anamorphic widescreen), which includes...

If you share any of my tastes, Shout! Factory puts out some pretty sweet stuff. From classics and hard-to-find gems to being the official distributor for the greatest television show of all time ("Mystery Science Theater 3000"), Shout! Factory is always putting out something weird and wonderful.

This time it is Vol. 2 in their glorious collection of trailers from across time and genres, Trailers From Hell, containing 20 rare and vintage trailers. For more info check out Trailers From Hell online.

What is very cool about this collection is that you can watch the straight dope and just take in the trailers as originally intended. However, you also can watch them with commentary from such folks as Joe Dante (Piranha, Gremlins), Mick Garris (The Stand), John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) and more.

Trailers From Hell Volume 2 features:

Roger Corman on trailers for Ski Troop Attack and Premature Burial.

As Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell To Earth arrives on Blu-ray, we salute one of the most unique science fiction films of the 1970s…

In most sci-fi movies, aliens are either invaders or envoys with benevolent messages, marauding aggressors who want to plunder our earthly resources, or messianic figures with dire warnings of doom to impart.

Director Nicolas Roeg's 1976 film, The Man Who Fell To Earth, is very different, relating a humanoid alien's lonely experiences as an outsider in a vast, unfamiliar America. Adapted from Walter Tevis' 1963 novel, it's a film about alienation rather than the benefits (or disaster) an alien visitation might bring.

David Bowie's perfectly cast as Thomas Jerome Newton, exploiting his unique, androgynous otherness as a skinny alien with a crisp British accent. Porcelain pale, extraordinarily intelligent and apparently chaste (he prefers to drink water, and initially shows no interest in sex...

Whilst posting today's review of an entry in the Alpha Gods: Betrayal comic series, I noted that Scorpio studios have optioned this racy-looking comic strip, and I can only sigh at the prospect of what will be left of the original's flavour in the event that Alpha Gods should become a movie franchise. I have no feelings one way or the other about Alpha Gods (which I have not read), but a look at some of the panels - and the diminutive wardrobe of its heroines - tells me that any adaptation is likely to head the way of all (bare) flesh - years of development hell, with the only prospect of resolution a dreadfully under-funded straight-to-disc effort or an adaptation that pretty much jettisons the endomorphic ass-kicking heroines that inevitably draw in a 14 year-old male demographic.

Ask Robert Rodriguez, who had such a long yet slippery grasp on the...

Flesh – a-ah – ladies man of the universe!

The first Flesh Gordon [spoofing the Flash Gordon serials] was released in 1974 and was originally envisioned as a hardcore flick, but the script was changed and it became a softcore frolic. In 1989, an even more bedazzling sequel was released and it has become a cult classic in its own right as it pushed the outer reaches of decency and good taste that is allowed in an R-rated movie, which would explain why there are so many different versions of the flick floating around. What separates Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders from its predecessor is that the toilet humor runs at a rapid fire pace, and there is not a single secretion or orafice that is not mimicked or mocked.

After watching this picture you realize what a foul species we can be at times, but like a car crash on the side of the road, it is...

"Dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick." "How many dicks is that?" "A lot." Quentin Tarantino pretty much embedded the idea of a porn version of Reservoir Dogs in the dialog for the film's talky opening sequence [1]. And while the idea of porn parodies of popular films is all but comically bankrupt, I'll admit there's some brief amusement value in thinking about the porn version of, for instance, the sequence where Mr. Orange is bleeding like a pig all over the back seat of Mr. White's car. (Or did Catherine Breillat already do that in Anatomy of Hell?) Still: a porn Reservoir Dogs? Yawn. But then this became post-worthy when I saw that the running time of the film is planned for three hours. I guess that's what happens when you try to smash together a 99-minute dialogue-heavy story and a full-length porn film. If you want the dirty details,...

Geek overlord Simon Pegg talks about his new autobiography, as well as chatting about Spaced, Mission: Impossible 4, King Frat, Paul, Edgar Wright, Star Wars and more…

Out now in hardback, Simon Pegg has just released his autobiography, Nerd Do Well. A terrific read, it tells of his early years, his Star Wars obsession, and the foundations of his career.

And he spared us some time to talk about it, and what he's up to...

There's a really lovely footnote in your book which is worth covering first. It said that when you were doing press for Shaun Of The Dead, you dropped in there that you wouldn't want to do something like Mission: Impossible III.

I'm wondering if you want to try the same trick on any other forthcoming movies that you don't-but-do want to get involved with? Indy 5? Die Hard 5?

[Laughs] That was quite a moment of extreme hypocrisy by me!

You asked us to shine the spotlight on DVD commentaries that enhance the viewer's enjoyment of films, good or bad

There are plenty of bad DVD commentaries out there but some really do add to the enjoyment of a film, often in surprising ways, as Haigin88 points out. Here are five of my favourites, each one taking a different slant on the act of commenting. Feel free to suggest your own faves.

The Matrix Trilogy

Commentary by Todd McCarthy, John Powers and David Thomson

The first film is great, but the sequels display the same lack of understanding about what made it great that George Lucas showed with his Star Wars prequels. Unlike Lucas, though, the Wachowskis (or Warners) are good enough sports to let the critics have their say. The commenters here are three well-respected critics who make smart, incisive remarks about the first film, then just tear the...

Top: animating The Great God Porno ("Flesh Gordon" 1972) Bottom: Jim within the "Planet of Dinosaurs" (1978)

Jim Aupperle (pronounced “Aw-pearl”) is one of the most respected technical artists of his generation; he’s made the crucial task of lighting visual-effects shots his specialty. Jim has worked with the best, and he successfully made the transition from traditional techniques to CGI some years back. He regularly contributes to online forums about the field and is a historian of the craft. FM was delighted to have a chance to speak with Jim.

—

FM: Please tell us about your connections to Forrest J Ackerman and “Famous Monsters of Filmland.”

Ja: My first connection, and what got me started, was Issue #24.I saw it on the newsstand in 1963 when I was 11 years old. I was already a fan of horror films but I had no idea how they were made, and I was incredibly excited.

To continue my review of my epic journey to watch all my films from A-z, this is the Sixth part.

For those that don’t know I am watching all 750+ Dvd/Bluray films from A-z which has so far taken me 3 years to get to the I’s!

I thought I should retrospectively review each letter and give my top 5 films from each alpha block and maybe bring your attention to some films you may not have seen, films you’ve not seen in ages or films you should give another try. Click here to read parts A to E.

The F’s seemed to contain more horror films that most of the other alpha blocks containing Final Destination 1-3, Fright Night, Frighteners and especially the Friday 13th movies taking up 11 of my F collection. Also I have a few films new to my collection that I haven’t had...

Avatar star Sam Worthington is not going to play Flash Gordon, nor Flesh Gordon for that matter. In late 2009, a super mysterious insider said that Worthington was being considered for the role of Flash in a Hollywood reboot, a long-rumored project that has about as much stock in reality as Dr. Dre’s Detox album.

The Aussie actor set the record straight. “There is no validity to the rumours,” he said via email to AICN. “Sometimes studios tend to just scat ideas and they leak out – but its the first I have heard about it.”

Ha. “Scat.”

A new Flash Gordon wasn’t the only bullplop for Worthington, who also starred in Terminator Salvation. He was rumored to play the lead in Mad Max 4: Fury Road. The role was eventually won by Tom Hardy.

In the film adaptation of 1980’s Flash Gordon, heroic All-American Flash saves the world...

Publisher's Note: Before tackling Figgy's abundant joy, I just wanted to let y'all know that Bucdaddy, minus one testicle, looks to have an excellent prognosis. A little chemo, and some more tests, and (fingers crossed), he'll be out of the clear.

Yeeeeeee-haw! The Fig is in the Grrrrrrreat State of Texas. Land of awesome barbecue and many other great things. Mostly the barbecue. Took forever but I'm finally here, dammit, and here to stay, so it's a good thing the USA just became ten times awesomener. Because of me.

Also, this is my last Ee column for 2009. Because I Am Getting Married. At final fucking long last, after 2 years of being engaged, one of which was spent waiting on a goddamn visa that took going through a gauntlet to get, I'm finally getting married in ...10 days. Holy crap. So, yes. Next week I'll be going insane as my entire family...