NEON CITY
I was surprised by Neon City. I didn’t expect much from it, but it really entertained me. I like sci-fi films that have nothing to say, and I like sci-fi films that are so preposterously ham-fisted with what they have to say that it becomes absurd. Neon City is the rare sci-fi film that has a little to say and says it well. Not a whole lot, but just enough to give it that extra bit of depth. Mad Max was really the opening salvo in the Reagan era post-apocalypse boom, even though it’s more outrageous sequel became the template. It’s debatable whether or not Neon City is the last film in the trend, but regardless, it’s fitting that it would be among the last and is, in spirit so much more similar to Mad Max than it is Road Warrior.

THE EDUCATIONAL ARCHIVES: SEX & DRUGS

“The Educational Archives” is an entertainment goldmine filled with old classroom training films. This particular assortment contains an Italian man who canna have no bambino until he gets his syphilis fixed, a girl whose LSD trip results in a talking hot dog, and sanitary napkins so large that only three of them fit into a shoebox.

Lesson Learned:
Using a table saw while you are high on pot is a BAD IDEA.

This week starts my Reader Revenge Month, in which I watch and review movies chosen by eaders in the earlier months of the year.  This week gives us a nature-gone-wild movie which is surprisingly tame (see what I did there?)…

Frogs (1972)

…and a surrealist political farce in a made-up language. Seriously, what’s not to like?

Frontier (2001)

Difficult personal circumstances + inability to concentrate + world’s slowest interlibrary loan = more housekeeping. Sorry!

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This time I’ve recovered and overhauled one of my earliest reviews, that of AROUND THE WORLD UNDER THE SEA (1966); a film so appallingly sexist that not even a giant killer moray eel can save it.

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[Warning:  screenshot may make film seem far more entertaining than it actually is.]

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I’ve also re-formatted and added screenshots to ATLANTIS, THE LOST CONTINENT (1961).

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In Sakura Killers, we have ninjas that don’t dress in traditional black, but in brightly colored outfits instead. The movie appears to have been made with two different film units, and the footage from both units awkwardly edited together. Also, the one star of the movie who has some name value only appears occasionally, and never in the movie’s main action. Ah, you are thinking, this must be another Godfrey Ho concoction! Wrong – Godfrey Ho had nothing to do with this movie. Yes, it appears that this movie got some of its inspiration from the works of Godfrey Ho. Boggles the mind, doesn’t it? If you think that’s bizarre, wait until you see the movie for yourself.