New Blu-rays!

So, I picked up a few Blu-rays last night, and with store credit, it only cost about $7 for the bunch.

The new Scream Factory special edition of John Carpenter's The Thing is stunning, and the supplemental material is damn-near exhaustive. Hopefully, I'll never have to buy this one again.

Batman: The Return Of The Caped Crusaders is a lot of fun, though I found the actual animation to be underwhelming and kinda TV-cheap-looking.

Cat's Eye is a nostalgic 80s favorite and looks great on Blu.

Kino-Lorber's Blu-ray of I, The Jury is a bit of a disappointment, though. It looks like it was sourced from the same material as the manufactured-on-demand DVD from a few years ago. There's a marginal uptick visually from the SD version, but it really should have been re-scanned and remastered.

DVD Late Show Lives... Again!

The last time I mentioned my DVD Late Show website (where I review genre films and television on DVD and Blu-ray) on this blog was last August. At the time, I had just posted a few new reviews after a three month 'hiatus," and promised more. But that didn't happen.

In fact, I didn't post any new reviews for nearly ten months.

 I don't really know why I stopped posting last summer, but part of it was probably just blogger burn-out, combined with my state's new tax laws, which killed the site's only income (through Amazon referrals). I'm back at it now, though, because I really started to miss writing about movies. Hopefully, someone will read my reviews and find them useful and/or entertaining.

I've started with a look at the new Blu-ray of Godzilla Vs The Smog Monster, the 1981 martial arts drive-in favorite, Force: Five, and the James Garner television series, Bret Maverick (new from Warner Archive). I am planning to have one or two more reviews up this week (Evilspeak from Shout Factory and Warners' Jonny Quest: The Complete Eighties Adventures), and hope to continue with regular posting.

Now if I could just get back to regular blogging here and at my Space: 1970 site...

DVD Late Show in August

Well, I didn't plan it that way, but I didn't update my DVD Late Show website in either June nor July. Heck, before this week I hadn't posted a new review since early May. Sure, I had reasons why DVD reviewing had to be pushed to the back-burner - May and June were devoted to finishing up some overdue comics scripts, and July was mostly just too damned hot to write - but I hate that the site was neglected for so long (again). I may not have a lot of readers, but I owe them better than that.

Anyway, this week, I've gotten back to it, and have posted reviews of Warner's new Charlie Chan Collection, Anchor Bay's Solomon Kane Blu-ray, and the Bomba The Jungle Boy collection from Warner Archive (all of which I've mentioned here at one time or another).

Later today, I hope to have a review of Synapse Films' terrific Hands Of The Ripper Blu-ray/DVD combo... and maybe one more.

I'm going to try and keep making regular updates for a while - I have a lot of discs on my desk to review. Stuff like the Adventures of Superboy - Season Three, Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming, The Beasts Are On The Streets, The Name Of The Game Is...Kill!, Captain Caveman - The Complete Series, Hangar 18, Fortress and Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan on Blu-ray... plus a whole lot more. Stay tuned!

Catching Up On The Action

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I love goofy action movies (particularly those of the 80s and early 90s), and that a few months ago, I was particularly looking forward to Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Last Stand and Jason Statham's Parker. Well, last month, I picked up the Blu-ray editions of both of those films, and wanted to just post a few thoughts here.

I pretty much loved The Last Stand. Yes, the story defies logic, but 1.) so what? and 2.) I really don't care when it's this much fun. I thought Arnold was great in his role of small-town sheriff, mentoring a small crew of deputies, and while the real action doesn't kick in until the third act, it's well-staged and executed by director Kim Jee-Woon, his stunt team, and the aging Arnold. The rest of the cast was adequate (I almost always enjoy Luis Guzman, and he's got a fun gag with Arnold's Conan sword), and I thought that actress Jaimie Alexander (Sif from Thor) was particularly good.

As for Parker, well, it turned out pretty much as I expected. It was an okay Jason Statham action flick and a poor adaptation of Donald "Richard Stark" Westlake's literary antihero. The filmmakers made the same mistake that nearly everyone has in adapting the character to film: they made him too human. The character in Westlake's novels is almost a machine, an unemotional, taciturn professional criminal with laserlike focus on the job at hand, whether it's a heist or revenge against someone who's wronged him. Here, they have the character verbalize (at least twice!) a "code of honor" that is both nonsensical and completely out of character. Too bad.

Statham does a professional job with what he's given, and I can't blame him for the mis-characterization. No, that falls fully on the script by John J. McLaughlin and the pedestrian direction of Taylor Hackford. Surprisingly, I thought Jennifer Lopez was pretty good.

Anyway, the movie has its moments, and I don't hate it, but it is a disappointment. Maybe they'll get it right next time.

Return Of The Late Show

After a couple of months laying fallow, the DVD Late Show review site roars back to life this week, with a slew of new articles - and a new Blu-ray Giveaway!

I don't really have a good excuse for the two month+ hiatus - it was mostly the result of seasonal depression and creative burnout, I think - but I'm back to work, and hope to both catch up with some of the genre DVDs and Blu-rays that have piled up on my desk and stay current with new releases.

Monday saw reviews of the new Shout! Factory/Scream Factory Blu-ray edition of Stuart Gordon's 80s horror classic From Beyond, and the Blue Underground DVD release of the 1972 Lee Van Cleef Spaghetti Western, The Grand Duel. Today, I plan to post reviews of Westworld and Gorgo on Blu-ray and the Warner Archive MOD release of the 1974 Wonder Woman television pilot, starring Cathy Lee Crosby as the star-spangled Amazon.

Also on the way are reviews of the Westworld sequel, Futureworld, recently released on Blu-ray, VCI Entertainment's two-volume Creepy Creature Double Features and Overtime, and more. Stay tuned!

Back To The Late Show

Yeah, I know. I was laid up for much of July and that really knocked my schedule and plans all out of whack. Anyway, I'm posting reviews again over at DVD Late Show, and I'd really appreciate it if you clicked over there and took a look. So far this week, I've posted reviews of 1978 The Invisible Man television series DVDs and the incredible Twins Of Evil Blu-ray from Synapse Films.

I'm hoping to get a couple more TV series DVD reviews posted this week (Harry O and Federal Men), along with coverage of a bunch of recent Asylum flicks, and posts on several new cult film Blu-ray releases, including the original Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, Barbarella, Outland, and Robert Rodriguez' The Faculty. Stay tuned... and wish me luck!

Stuck In The 80s - Avenging Force

My wife recently bought us an inexpensive Phillips DVD player that will play multi-region discs. As movie buffs, it had frustrated us for some time that some of the films we wanted were available in other parts of the world, but not in the U.S.  Films like Solomon Kane, for example.Of course, while the Internet and a credit card makes ordering products from overseas a simple as a click of the mouse, we've already discovered a few small hazards of International purchases. On the plus side, so far we've found exceptionally reasonable prices for many of the DVDs we want. Even with shipping, they've been cheaper than I would expect to pay for a comparable domestic product. But, on the minus side, many online retailers (including giants like Amazon UK) are infuriatingly vague in regard to such details as what aspect ratio the films are are presented, what language they're in, and whether they've been enhanced for 16x9 widescreen displays.

Anyway, I digress. As may be obvious from my posts here of late, I've been in a mood for 80s-early 90s-stye action films. One that I've really been wanting to see again is the 1986 Cannon Films flick, Avenging Force, starring the guys from American Ninja (another favorite), Michael Dudikoff and the late, great Steve James. Unfortunately, the movie has never been released on DVD in U.S.  Fortunately, it was released in England, and an affordable copy was available for me to order through Amazon UK, and it showed up here in Maine today.  I was a little disappointed to discover that it isn't in widescreen (damn those vague product descriptions, anyway!), but what the hell. It's better than nothing - and certainly better than paying twice as much for an old, worn-out VHS tape.

Watched it this evening. It was the first time I'd seen Avenging Force since I caught it in the 80s on one of the Pay-cable television stations. It's fun - Dudikoff and James had good chemistry here and in the American Ninja flicks they did together, and the direction by Cannon mainstay Sam Firstenberg is competent and professional. It has some decent action scenes, and great, picturesque New Orleans/Louisiana bayou locations. The final sequences, set in a very scary swamp during a rainstorm, were very well staged, especially for a Firstenberg flick.

Coincidentally, the New Orleans locations and Most Dangerous Game story element of rich and powerful men hunting human beings for sport prefigure similar elements in John Woo's 1993 Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle, Hard Target. At least, I assume it's coincidental.

Surprisingly, Avenging Force has a notably different tone from the other Cannon action films of the time, as the villains aren't foreign terrorists or Russkies, but a domestic right wing supremacist group. The ending is odd, too - quite blatantly leaving the door open for a sequel (or series).

Interestingly, Dudikoff's character has the same name ("Matt Hunter") as Chuck Norris' character in Invasion U.S.A., made by the same studio the year before - although he's quite differently written in Force than he was in Invasion. I wonder if Cannon was toying with creating another in-house franchise...?

The Mark Of Kane

For three years, I patiently waited for an American distributor to pick it up. Never happened. And, despite the temptation, I even virtuously avoided illegal downloads and unauthorized YouTube vids -- but -- I could wait no longer! Once Brandi told me she'd bought us a multi-region DVD player, I scooted over to Amazon UK and ordered a Region 2 PAL DVD of 2009's Solomon Kane, based on the character created by Robert E. Howard.

Even with shipping, it only cost me five and a half bucks, American.

The disc arrived today, and I watched it this evening with Brandi.

Although not strictly faithful to the Word, Solomon Kane nonetheless captures the spirit of the Bob Howard pulp stories in a way that no other REH adaptation has yet approached. The screenplay is a bit too Hollywood boilerplate - and, thus, predictable - but the film as a whole rises above its script's over-familiar conventions and is, ultimately, a superior entertainment. Production design, casting, photography and musical score are well above par.

James Purefoy is note-perfect as the dour Puritan swordsman, and director Michael Bassett keeps the film moving at a fair clip while still allowing the characters time to earn the audience's sympathy/empathy. Also notable is the terrific musical score by Klaus Badelt and the gorgeous cinematography by Dan Lausten.

As for the special effects, yeah, there are a few dodgy CGI bits in the beginning and some cartoon demons in there, but it is a sword & sorcery saga, after all. I've heard more than a few complaints about the end of the film, but it mostly worked for me. Compared to every big budget Hollywood fantasy film I've seen in the last 5+ years, the climactic scene of Solomon Kane was positively restrained in its use of CGI; it was hardly the sort of pixelated overkill/cartoon orgy that's become de rigueur these days.

It's not Van Helsing. It's not Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter. It's a very modern, surprisingly mainstream special effects adventure film, and I cannot fathom why it hasn't garnered an official U.S. release. If the suits considered it too dark, or the character too obscure, or Purefoy too unknown  for wide theatrical distribution, I sorta get it. But it doesn't explain why it hasn't shown up on SyFy or on DVD.  I'm sure there's some good reason for it, but it's a mystery  to me.

In short, though Solomon Kane is not a perfect film, nor a literal adaptation of Howard's prose, I loved the movie. Best sword & sorcery flick I've seen in ages, and far better than the most recent Conan film.

I suspect the gentleman from Cross Plains would have gotten a kick out of it, too.

Takin' A Drive

Well, a full 15 years after it came out, I finally got to see the Mark Dacascos action film, Drive (not to be confused with the more recent Ryan Gosling film of the same title). Standard B-movie plot and acting, but the best Hong Kong-styled action and fight scenes I've ever seen in a U.S. film. Terrific stuntwork and Dacascos is friggin' amazing!

The 1997 movie was directed by Steve Wang (Kung Fu Rascals, Guyver), and co-starred  Kadeem Hardison and the late Brittany Murphy. I can't say I was a fan of Murphy's, but she's just delightful in this movie. Villain John Pyper-Ferguson (who, interestingly, was in the 2011 Drive, as well, although Brandi and I know him from The Adventures Of Brisco County), makes a great heavy and has most of the best lines.

Too bad the U.S. DVD is cut by 10 minutes and presented in the wrong aspect ratio. We're finally getting a Region-Free DVD player, so maybe I'll save up and order the uncut UK version (which also has different music, I understand) one of these days.

ADDENDUM: I just ordered the Region 2 widescreen version from Amazon UK for less than $10 American - shipping included! Cool!

More DVD Late Show Hype

Yeah, I'm plugging my DVD Late Show review site again. And I won't stop plugging it until the traffic on that site equals the readership here. Frankly, if you read my self-indulgent, obsessive pop culture crap here at Atomic Pulp, you'll almost certainly enjoy reading my DVD and Blu-ray reviews, so you should definitely be checking out DVD Late Show regularly anyway.

Well, since my last update here, I've posted reviews of the documentary Corman's World, chronicling the career of maverick B-movie mogul Roger Corman; the 1954 "techno-thriller" Gog; the 1942 wartime adventure serial, Don Winslow of The Coast Guard; and the made for SyFy channel creature feature, Camel Spiders. On deck for tomorrow is the 1985 revenge flick, Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except, with more reviews coming later in the week.

Check 'em out!

Back To The Grind @ DVD Late Show

I'm not entirely sure how it happened, but what was intended to be a two-week break at the end of December for the holidays somehow grew into an unplanned 3-month hiatus at my DVD Late Show site. For some reason, time just kept slipping away from me, discs kept piling up, and I simply couldn't muster the energy or focus to write up reviews.

Well, whatever the hell was wrong with me, I seem to have gotten over it at last. Today I posted two new reviews at DVD Late Show - Apollo 18 and Sugar Hill - and intend to get at least one more online before the end of the day, with two more to be posted tomorrow. In order to catch up, I'll be mixing discs that came out over the last three months or so with new releases and advance reviews over the next few weeks and will try like hell to update the site at least twice a week.

Among the many titles you can look forward to seeing reviewed on the site in the next few weeks are 2-Headed Shark Attack, Captain Power And The Soldiers Of the Future - The Complete Series, Zaat!,The Dead, Godzilla (The Criterion Edition), Cleopatra Jones And The Casino Of Gold, The Slams, Corman's World, Chillerama, Zombie Apocalypse, Gog, Doctor Blood's Coffin, Camel Spiders and Zone Troopers....

Stay tuned!

More 50's Crime -- Lee Marvin's M SQUAD

After ordering the 50's Mike Hammer show the other night, I didn't plan to buy any more DVDs for at least a week or two. That was before going household shopping with Brandi last night and finding the complete, 3-season, 117-episode Lee Marvin series M Squad (1957-60) on sale new for only twenty bucks ($100 off the SRP) at our local warehouse store.

From long and sad experience, I knew that if I passed it up then, I would never find it that cheap again, so... yep, I bought it - with Brandi's blessing. I'm a lucky guy that way.

So far, I've watched a half-dozen episodes, and while I'm really enjoying the show, with its jazzy musical score and Marvin's tough-as-nails portrayal of Chicago Police Detective Lt. Frank Ballinger, it is a little distracting how obvious it is that M Squad was the template that the 70's spoof Police Squad was based on. In fact, the opening scenes of the first episode are nigh-identical to the beginning of the first episode of Police Squad. Marvin's character (and voice-over narration) are also very clearly the model for Leslie Nielsen's Lieutenant Frank Drebin.

Picture and audio quality aren't that great (another reason to be grateful for the low price I paid) and vary from episode to episode, but frankly, I think we're lucky that the show survives at all. 

Apparently, while Universal licensed the show out for DVD to Timeless Media, they didn't provide the company with any source prints, so the company had to use beat-up 16mm syndication prints that had been in circulation since the 50s. And even then, they were only able to get their hands on 100 of the 117 episodes, so they actually put a call out to private collectors in order to get copies of the 17 remaining shows.

It's great stuff. When my Mike Hammer discs show up, I'll have to start alternating between shows for some serious 50s crime overload!

The Eighth Wonder!

A couple of nights ago, I picked up the original King Kong on Blu-ray. Warners did an astounding job on the transfer, which appears to be derived from the same source used on the 2005 DVD, but further tweaked for high definition. I don't know how many times I've seen this film, but watching it again the other night on the 55" HDTV was almost like seeing it for the first time. It was a wonderful experience, and on the big screen TV, I noticed a multitude of details that I never really saw before.

I've owned the movie on VHS and on laserdisc (the 90s Criterion edition) and on DVD. It is, without question, one of my top ten favorite films of all time. I am so pleased to be able to have it on my shelf in this format. I'm also glad that Warner Home Video included all of the supplemental material from the 2005 DVD, particularly the exhaustive retrospective documentary produced by Peter Jackson.

New Reviews @ DVD Late Show

It's been rough updating my DVD Late Show review site lately.

First, I had a problem with hackers planting malicious code in one of my web accounts, which, because I hosted images for all of my sites on that server, affected all of my sites. It took about a month to clear that mess up, and then, soon thereafter, I was hit with the loss of my beloved dog (which I wrote about here a few days ago), and couldn't manage to accomplish much of anything for a few weeks. I certainly wasn't up to writing any DVD reviews.

But the discs kept piling up - and that pile was starting to get pretty intimidating.

Last week I managed to get two articles posted to DVD Late Show, and I just posted two more today. My intent is to get at least four or five more reviews posted to the site before the weekend. If you haven't been over there in a while, here's a list of some of my most recent DVD & Blu-ray reviews: The Incredible Melting Man, Master Of The World, Frankenhooker (on Blu-ray), Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark, Scream 4 (on Blu & DVD), Dark Angel (a/k/a I Come In Peace), More Brains!, Lucio Fulci's Zombie (on Blu), Wild Wild Planet, Horror Express (Blu & DVD), Enter The Ninja, and Tucker & Dale VS Evil!

I hope you'll swing by the site and check them out. Thanks!

New & Coming Soon @ The Late Show

This week at DVD Late Show, I've got new reviews of Culp & Cosby in Hickey & Boggs, the Man From Atlantis television series, the animated Conan The Adventurer, and the Blu-ray editions of cult favorites Maniac Cop and The 10th Victim.

Over the remainder of the week, I expect to post reviews of The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. - The Complete Series, Master of The World, starring Vincent Price & Charles Bronson, The Incredible Melting Man, the Sword & Sorcery Collection  (Deathstalker, Deathstalker II, Barbarian Queen and The Warrior And The Sorceress) and the Women In Cages Collection (The Big Dollhouse, The Big Bird Cage, and Women In Cages) - both from Shout! Factory's "Roger Corman's Cult Classics" line - and Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes on Blu-ray.

Recent reviews include James Glickenhaus' The Exterminator on Blu-ray & DVD, the Norweigian monster flick, Trollhunter, Thundarr the Barbarian, and the 1990 DTV version of Captain America.

But that's only the tip of the iceberg. After a Summer of admittedly erratic posting I now have a bunch of discs on the review stack that I need to get to soon, as well. Stay tuned!


Check 'em out!

Recent Reviews at DVD Late Show

That's right, pulpeteers: it's time for another reminder that I also publish a variety of cult, B-movie and genre DVD and Blu-Ray reviews over at my DVD Late Show website. Admittedly, posting has been rather erratic over the Summer, but I think I'm getting back on track, and hope to plow through the backlog of discs that have piled up on my desk over the next few weeks.

Since the last time I posted a site update here, I've published reviews of Hobo With A Shotgun, starring Rutger Hauer; the classic Hanna-Barbara sci-fi 'toon, The Herculoids; The Baby; the Shout! Factory Blu-ray special edition of Roger Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars; the Women In  Prison Collection (Chained Heat, Red Heat, & Jungle Warriors); the George Sanders RKO Saint Film Collection; the Damnation Alley special edition Blu-ray; the low-budget Steve Austin action flick, Tactical Force; Batman: the Brave & The Bold, Season 2 Volume 1; the Man From Atlantis Complete TV Movies Collection; and VCI Entertainment's Blu-ray of the 1964 spy spoof, Agent 8 3/4 (a/k/a Hot Enough For June).

If all goes well, the next few days will see DVD Late Show reviews of James Glickenhaus' drive-in fave, The Exterminator, starring Robert Ginty & Christopher George; Conan The Adventurer Season 1; the Norwegian monster flick, TrollHunter; Man From Atlantis - the Complete TV Series; the 1990, Albert Pyun version of Captain America; Thundarr The Barbarian and more. Check it out!

Recent Reviews @ DVD Late Show

That's right, kiddies: it' time for another reminder that I also publish a variety of cult, B-movie and genre DVD and Blu-Ray reviews over at my DVD Late Show website.

Let's see. In the last few weeks I've posted reviews of the Mike Hammer potboiler My Gun Is Quick; the Mike Hammer classic, Kiss Me Deadly on Criterion Blu-ray; Mega Python Vs Gatoroid, starring 80s pop tarts Debbie Gibson & Tiffany; Larry Cohen's The Ambulance, starring Eric Roberts' amazing mullet; the Medieval horror film, Black Death, starring Game Of Thrones' Sean Bean, on Blu-ray; Burn Notice - The Complete Fourth season; the incredibly fun 1968 space opera, The Green Slime; the excellent Burn, Witch, Burn, with a screenplay by Richard Matheson & Charles Beaumont adapting a Fritz Lieber horror classic; Walter Hill's The Long Riders, on Blu-ray;  the 1977 lost world adventure, The Last Dinosaur, starring Richard Boone; and Roger Corman's Dinocroc Vs Supergator, on Blu-ray.

Reviews on tap for the rest of this week include Hobo With A Shotgun, with Rutger Hauer; The Baby; Thundarr The Barbarian - The Complete Series; and the Linda Blair/Sybil Danning Women In Prison Triple Feature of Chained Heat, Red Heat & Jungle Warriors. Check it out!

This Week @ The Late Show

It's that time again: another reminder that I also write regular reviews of cult, B-movie and genre DVD and Blu-Rays, and publish them over at my DVD Late Show website.

After a couple of weeks of me not feeling much like watching - never mind reviewing- movies, I'm back on my game. This week, in fact, I intend to have a minimum of two reviews posted each day, and I'm off to a good start. Today's reviews are High School Hellcats and the latest animated DC Comics super-hero film, Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. For tomorrow, I have My Gun Is Quick and Mega Python Vs Gatoroid already written and queued up.

Other recent reviews include: Queen of Blood with John Saxon, Dennis Hopper and Basil Rathbone; the new Blu-ray restoration of The Terror, with Jack Nicholson and Boris Karloff; The Dorm That Dripped Blood on Blu-ray; Lee Marvin & Oliver Reed in The Great Scout And Cathouse Thursday; Tom Selleck in Daughters of Satan; the animated adventures of Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos; the stylish film noir with Antonio Banderas, The Big Bang; Ballistica; Lynda Carter in Bobbi Jo And the Outlaw; The Bionic Woman, Season Two; The Challenge Of The Gobots; the Blu-ray remaster of Francis Coppolla's Dementia 13; and Shout! Factory's great new Eat My Dust / Grand Theft Auto double feature with Ron Howard. Check it out!

Meanwhile, over at The Late Show...

It's that time again: another reminder that I also write regular reviews of cult, B-movie and genre DVD and Blu-Rays, and publish them over at my DVD Late Show website.

Over the last few weeks, I've posted quite a few new reviews, including the Antonio Margheretti monster flick Alien From The Deep, the "lost" serial based on the classic newspaper strip, Brenda Starr, Reporter, the crime thriller The Killing Jar, SyFy Channel "mockbuster" Battle Of Los Angeles, the new Hammer horror film, The Resident (co-starring Christopher Lee) on Blu-Ray, the "Blaxploitation" horror chiller, Dr. Black & Mr. Hyde, Roger Corman's Dinoshark, the Warners Archive release of Abbott & Costello Meet Captain Kidd, the creature feature Behemoth, the Sixties caper film, Machine Gun McCain, starring John Cassavetes, psychedelic 70's kidvid H.R. Pufnstuf, the Gothic spinetingler, The Black Sleep, and the Fred Olen Ray B-Western, Deadly Shooter.

Coming up in the next couple of weeks: The Great Texas Dynamite Chase with Claudia Jennings, Georgia Peaches, Queen Of Blood, Tron Blu-Ray, Vanquisher, Larry Cohen's The Ambulance, The Terror Blu-Ray, Dixie Dynamite with Warren Oates & Christopher George, Daughters of Satan, starring Tom Selleck(!), Dementia 13 on Blu, and more. Check it out!

Meanwhile... at The Late Show

Just another periodic reminder that I also write and publish reviews of cult, B-movie and genre DVD and Blu-Rays at my DVD Late Show website.

Over the last month, I looked at a variety of interesting titles, including The Asylum's lowbrow teen sex comedy MILF, the new special "Hyperdrive Edition" of the John Carpenter/Dan O'Bannon cult sci-fi classic Dark Star, the Bulldog Drummond-esque British television serial, Dick Barton, Special Agent, and the "Roger Corman Cult Classic," Not Of this Earth, starring porn legend Traci Lords!

Also, I covered several great double feature discs, including the 80s sci-fi monster two-fer of The Terror Within & Dead Space, the Herman Cohen 60s classics, Horrors of The Black Museum and The Headless Ghost, the "Positively No Refunds Double Feature" of Cuban Rebel Girls (Errol Flynn's sad, final film) and Untamed Women, and the awesome Filipino action package One-Armed Executioner & They Call Her... Cleopatra Wong!

I've got reviews of the new Mad Max high definition Blu-Ray, the DC Comics Showcase collection Superman/Shazam!, and The Asylum's freewheeling, monster-movie adaptation of Herman Melville: 2010 Moby Dick!

So, if you're into these kinds of flicks, please take a moment and check out the DVD Late Show site. Thanks!