This Island Earth trailer

Here's the trailer.  This is on Svengoolie tonight,  and I haven't watched it in several years.  I'm not a huge fan of the movie, though I kinda think I should like it more than I do. It's got all the right stuff. Perhaps if I had seen it as a kid?

Perry Mason theme

This show was always on in my area, but I never watched a single full episode. Mostly just the opening and the many endings, as I remember it being on before the various monster movies on the weekends. It just never interested me, even after I discovered Raymond Burr was in Godzilla, King of the Monsters! and was Perry Mason.

The Outer Limits

The Twilight Zone was never syndicated in my area until the early 80s, so while I do really enjoy it, it's not the show I love.  This is the show I grew up on, since KWGN Channel 2 would air an episode every Friday night on Sci Fi Flicks before the monster/sci-fi/fantasy movie they would then show.  It was a smart move since OL was almost always scarier than the movie.  It made Beulah seem terrifying, since it already had you prepared to be scared.  It really did work.  Not to mention the calm control voice actually seemed like it took over your television set.  The opening is very iconic that way.

Hogan's Heroes

I've been watching this show a lot recently. I liked it as a kid, but didn't know the history of, well, anything.  It was funny, Hogan was cool and it was an acceptable sit-com to watch before or after the cartoons that were on.  I never gave a thought to why the premise might be objectionable to some people; after all, Hogan made the Nazis look like chumps in every episode.  It all worked from a kid's perspective.

Johnny Sokko on DVD

After the years and years of nth gen dubs on VHS tapes and then better looking DVDs made from marrying the English tracks to the Japanese laserdisc copies, we have the real deal- Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot are available on legit DVD.  So of course I'm a bit late to the party with this release (what else is new) but I finally got it.  While I suppose it's not quite the definitive version (no next episode bumpers and Japanese language version) it's exactly as any fan will remember it- action packed, full of monsters and gun battles.  What more could anyone want in a kid's show?

Jurassic World

I liked it, overall. Good, likable cast, not to many subplots, and good use of the dinosaurs.  I mean, as I said in the last post, you go to any movie with the word "Jurassic" in it and you pretty much know the gist of the plot.  People will enjoy themselves until the dinosaurs run amok.  Sure, in this case it was only one dinosaur that runs amok (and not really a dinosaur, but we'll get into that in a bit) but that's the general gist of things.  As I am a dinosaur movie fan in general (it takes a lot for me to dislike one) my main concern is how entertaining is the story and are the characters likable.

Jurassic World trailer

I'm catching up. I wish I had seen this movie in the theater. I saw the first two, which I liked because, well, dinosaurs. I stay away from trailerds these days as most of them seem to have to give the entire movie away. To be fair, a movie with "Jurassic" in the title kind of tells you what you are in for now, right?

RIP Glenn Frey

Today Eagles founder/guitarist/vocalist Glenn Frey passed away.  I had no idea he was ill, though apparently he didn't hide it as well as the late David Bowie did.  I can't believe this year is 18 days old and so many stars have passed on already.  There's still 13 days left and I'm a little afraid to even think about anyone else being next.  Only Lemmy was out of his 60s, the rest have all been in that 7th decade of life.  It's been a hard couple weeks.

More Ultra Seven

I'm really enjoying this show.

King Kong Escapes from Svengoolie

As mentioned yesterday, Svengoolie aired King Kong Escapes tonight.  I started the show a little late, what with getting food and work and all.  I arrived just as Gorosaurus showed up, so I missed the intoduction, which was OK.  Never having seen many horror hosts, I usually find their antics tiresome.  Since I know the movie so well I wondered how well Sven would do with his usual spot on trivia about the movies he airs.

King Kong Escapes

Saw this in the theater several times growing and it was always a great experience. Japanese monster movies look amazing on a big screen, and will draw you in every time. I had no idea there would be other monsters in the movie, guess there was no trailer the week before or a poster out. Or I wasn't paying attention.

The Chinese Boxer (1970)

It's the same old story-  a karate man challenges some kung fu students, loses and then gets some Japanese experts to get his revenge.  This happens, but the villains accidentally leave one student alive, who then trains harder than ever before to exact his revenge.  You'd think those darn Japanese would realize their karate, judo and samurai skills are no match for the Chinese boxing!

RIP David Bowie

I really thought (and hoped) this was a hoax when I saw it late last night. I didn't even know he had been ill. It's hard to believe such an influential musician is gone. I think my introduction to him was his singing "The Little Drummer Boy" with Bing Crosby, but I loved his "Serious Moonlight" phase the most, I think.

Avengers 2: Who Is The Vision?

This will tell you most everything you need to know about The Vision. There are no spoilers but some speculation that I hadn't heard before I saw the movie (it was done before the movie was released). Since I haven't read current comics since 2002 I have no idea about any nonsense past Master Pandamonium, which was bad enough (not to mention two Torches).

Birthday Elvis is Everywhere

I've seen more notifications of David Bowie's birthday today than the King. I'm not always the biggest Elvis fan, nor even a huge Bowie fan, but without the King there's no Bowie or much else. Instead of one of his performances I've decided this homage is much more fitting. It's also a great song.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

It's no secret I've been a big fan of the Vision since, oh, say, 1971 or so.  So it's also no surprise I had a lot of trepidation about my favorite character making his cinematic debut in this movie, since, you know, realism has rather taken down the fun a peg or two.  And I saw this as someone who has enjoyed most of the Marvel movies to some degree, even if I was frustrated by a few of them.  I always go into them with very low expectations and knowing they really aren't going to be the classic heroes I grew to love when I was a kid.  That's half the battle there.

Xenorama #19 cover

The talented and ever amazing Dan Ross has just sent me this incredible cover for the next issue of Xenorama!  I love it, it's got just about everything that's going to be in the issue, but there's some cool stuff that isn't mentioned on the cover.  In fact, I've gotten two new articles that are causing me to change some of the issue around (I'm thinking Equinox may get moved to the next issue now).  I mean, look! ROCK SNAKES!

Monster Zero - Trailer

I wish I had seen this trailer when it originally aired in my area- I had no idea it was a Godzilla movie and figured I could take a chance on not seeing it then. I learned the next day at school I had made a large error, since all my friends were talking about it. I think I had to wait at least a year before it aired on Channel 2 again.

that Godzilla

After seeing the pictures of the new Godzilla, or perhaps Zombie-zilla, I'm still underwhelmed by it.  Isn't it time this whole zombie thing is over?  Yuck, and it's not even like they are true zombies, as real zombies didn't have rotting flesh, go check out White Zombie or I Walked With A Zombie if you want to see what actual zombies are supposed to be like.  Not really much in common with flesh eating ghouls, right?  But I get that it's the common view now, no biggie.

Warning from Space (1956)

I'll admit I have a soft spot in my heart for this nifty little Japanese movie.  I saw it a few times growing up and it was a cool idea with benevolent aliens out to help humankind endure a runaway planet, very similar to When Worlds Collide and later Gorath.  Good ol' Channel 2 was the station, of course, that showed it.  It's not the most exciting of Japanese sci fi flicks, but like Varan I enjoy it for what it is.  The Paira Seijin are nifty looking, if pretty basic costumes (could be a fun Hallowe'en dressed as one of them.

Happy birthday, Haruo Nakajima

Haruo Nakajima, for those that don't know, was the man in the Godzilla suit from the beginning. Sure, there were a few other actors that helped out here and there, but he lasted until 1972's GODZILLA vs GIGAN (which is enough to do anyone in, believe me). He was also many other monsters and has said his favorite role was that of Gaira from WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS in 1966.