Sven- Frankenstein meets the Space Monster (1965)

 

This is one of those movies that I wish I had seen as a kid.  I saw the pictures and all the ads for the 8mm Home Movie in the various magazine, but it never aired in my area,  as far as I knew.  I didn't see it until I was far older and far more critical of such things.  Not about how it was made or anything, since I am very forgiving about those kinds of movies.  The problem is that there is not enough of Frankie meeting the Mull, the titular space monster.  They make you wait until the end for the battle, which makes the movie a little dull, overall.  Even at a 79 minute running time, there just isn't enough action.

It's Janice!

 If those words don't strike fear into your heart... well, perhaps you could not be more courageous!  Janice Wheeler is great, that's all I gotta say.  I don't do much with comedy here, but perhaps that will change in the future.  Since that is where we will all be living!

Frankenstein meets the Space Monster (1965) Trailer

Sven is showing this movie tomorrow.  It's a fun movie, and one that never aired in my area (as far as I know).  I saw it much later in life, when it was released to home video.

dinosaur cupcakes!

 

Sharon Thunder made me these for a birthday a long long time ago.  The cupcakes were delicious and I got to keep the dinosaurs.  What a great friend, eh?  This was one of my best birthdays ever, especially since it involved Amazons AND pizza.  I think I need more dinosaur cupcakes in my life.

The Whaley House

This "haunted" house is down in Old Town San Diego.  I've been through it once, and I didn't notice anything spooky.  It's a fun historical trip though.  There are a lot of vintage items there, and all kinds of things to read and learn about.  There is also a small graveyard next to it, which is pretty cool. 

Ultra MOTW- Neronga

 

Poor Neronga.  It was just hungry.  Unfortunately, it ate electricity, which caused much consternation with the people in the area.  It could turn invisible, which made people not believe there was a monster, and it could channel electrical bolts from it's horns. Ultraman stopped it, but killed the poor beast in the process.  Back then, in the 60s, it was just another nuisance.  Now the story would be trying to get it to a place where it could live safely without endangering humans.  That could make a pretty good story.

Batman Beyond Blu Ray

I'll be interested in reviewing this series again.  I still don't like Bruce being a bitter old coot, though I can see it would be a logical conclusion to the Batman we saw in B:TAS, at least the first run.  Once Superman and especially the Justice League cartoons happened, it's a lot harder to say Bruce was a loner.  Adding the possible romance with Diana into the mix... who's gonna tell Wonder Woman he DOESN'T want to date her?  So that aspect of the series doesn't sit well with me.  Of course, if you take it out or change it, the reason for the series existing is moo.  You know, a cow's opinion.

Son of Svengoolie - "The First Episode!" (1979)

Since I recently reviewed The House of Frankenstein I thought it would be fun to see the opening to the very first Svengoolie show, back when he was still the Son of Svengoolie.  Sven had a bit of an accent back then.

The Birth of Ultraman

 

How did I miss this being released?  It's got the Ultra Special that aired before Ultraman started.  I've seen it plenty of times, in grainy unsubtitled form, but this time it's subtitled!  It's still not in pristine shape, but it doesn't matter.  There's so much good stuff here,  Especially at the end, when we see a vibrant "Old Man" Eiji Tsuburaya make an appearance.  That's worth the price of the disc alone!  But wait, there's MORE!   A bunch of the "best" episodes of Ultraman are also included, and these have the original United Artists dub!  Where the hell were these for the series Blu Ray release?  If it comes out with an available English dub I would probably double dip, since the set was like $22, but it would have been nice to have had them on the first set.

House of Frankenstein (1944) Official Trailer

  I recently watched this as part of the Wolfman Blu Ray set.  Both this and the direct sequel have Dracula and Talbot looking for a cure, but Drac is done before too long, and the rest is about Larry and the Monster.  It's not a bad movie, and I saw it a few times, of course.

the *Ultraman

Who knew this would be out on R1 DVD with English subtitles?  Not me!  It isn't out on Blu Ray, nor is Ultraman 80.  Which is odd, since the first seven Ultra Series are, but perhaps these series are not as highly regarded.  They are both better than Taro, that's for sure.  I've only ever seen the two compilation movies from this series.  I like the animation style of the show, and Ultraman Joneus has a simple, sleek look about him.  It's better than all that added armor that current Ultras seem to have to have.  The stories are pretty standard, at least at first.  I finished the first disc and episode #8 features the Baltan, so it's nice to see that.  I think there is an episode later on that features more of the classic monsters. 

MOTW- Baltan Seijin

 

This alien species is the bane of the Ultras existence.  First appearing in the original Ultraman series, the lobster like Baltan have appeared in many more series.  Some appearances have been more impressive than others.  They even have cute baby Baltan that appear to be friendly.  They are constantly trying to take over the Earth, and it is an ideal planet for them.  They always get defeated, though.  Once would think eventually they would find a different planet to live on, but they seem rather single minded.

Alien?

 This is a monster from Chojin Sentai Jetman (1991).  I think they might have been inspired by some other movie, though it's not nearly as detailed.

Random Marine Boy Post

Every once in a while I like to post about Marine Boy, which was the reason I started this blog in the first place.  This is my favorite episode, mostly because it has several giant monsters monsters in it.  Superheroes and monsters?  I loved it!  It also helped that Channel 20 WDCA aired this episode twice in a row, which embedded it in my mind.  This happened with The Nightmare Narcissus episode with Kimba the White Lion as well, though I don't think it was two days in a row.  At the time, I was annoyed because I wanted to see different episodes, but I am glad I saw them more than once now.

Sven- Son of Frankenstein (1939)

 

Baron Wolf von Frankenstein returns to the family home to "reclaim" the name of Frankenstein.  He brings along his wife and young child (who was raised in Texas, apparently).  He runs into Ygor, who wants him to revive the monster.  Naturally, ol' Wolf can't resist, and the expected chaos happens.

I had seen most of the Universal monster movies growing up numerous times, but this one was only showed once, as far as I remember.  None of them were really shown in order, but at some point I had realized what those numbers after the movie meant- the year it was released.  So I could piece together a chronology.  Not that any of these movies had a strict chronology, but they did at least follow general timeline and sometimes had repeating characters.

The Great Brain (1978)

 

I saw this movie for the first time in the theater in 1978.  My brother Eric and I had read all seven books several times before seeing the movie, so we were kind of experts on the subject.  The movie was adapted from the first two books or so, which makes it a bit disjointed as it jumps around various story lines.  It's well enough acted, but seeing Jimmy Osmond as Tom Dennis, AKA the titular Great Brain was a bit of a stretch, though he does an admirable job.  That squeaky clean Osmond image does him no favors, as Tom regularly skirts a fine line of criminal activity.  We all knew why Jimmy was cast as the lead in the movie, what with it being shot in Utah.  The rest of the cast is largely unknown, but decent enough actors.

Son of Frankenstein 1939 - 35mm Nitrate - HD

I have never seen this trailer before.  It's pretty great.  This is the last time Karloff ever played the Monster.  A lot of Young Frankenstein came from this movie.  It is pretty amazing to think that it took Universal four years to bring this sequel to life.  It's good, but definitely a step down from the previous two movies. 

Thunderbirds Are Go 2015

When I first heard about this series I was rather skeptical about the whole thing.  Thunderbirds is a classic series, really well done with amazing models and puppetry.  The cast was excellent with great scripts.  It was also very much a product of it's time, which is an integral part of the charm of the show.  The unwatchable movie version in 2004 didn't help matters at all.  However, once I started watching it I was pleasantly surprised.  It's a fun show, and worthy of the name Thunderbirds.

Ultra MOTW- Bemular

 

Bemular, or Bemlar, as it's generally pronounced, was the first Ultra Monster we ever saw.  Well, unless we include the critters from Ultra Q.  I don't know how that actually fits.  Is Ultra Q considered cannon to the original run of shows?  Well, for the purpose of MOTW, I am only considering the ones that appeared in Ultraman itself.  Ultraman was chasing Bemlar and crashed into Hawayta's ship.  Bemlar is a dangerous creature, though how it piloted a ship or turned into the ball of energy is beyond me.  It does have a beam or breath weapon, which doesn't seem to affect Ultraman much.  The Science Patrol helps defeat Bemlar, which is a nice touch.

Xenorama #34 Rider Punch!

 

The newest issue of Xenorama is being readied for publication (i.e. it's under review) and is a load of Kamen Rider goodness!  It covers the first five series, then several more after that.  The various movies that have been produced from other countries are also in here.  It's taken over two years to finish, but dang, it's a lot of episodes to watch.  In previous years it was a lot easier to watch these shows, but now it takes a lot longer.  Dang jobs always getting in the way!  Still, I am happy to have this one done.  I think the Super Sentai issue will be the next one up, which should wrap up the year.  I am pretty happy with the cover, though perhaps a class on how to use photoshop is in order now.  Maybe next year.

Black Widow (2021)

 

How long has it taken Marvel to give the Widow a movie of her own?  That's just ridiculous.  Of course, it would not have been this movie, that's for sure, since this is set after the events of the Marvel Civil War.  It's a nice touch, though we all know Tasha is going to survive for at least one and a half more movies, so she's in no real danger during this adventure.  It's a little anti-climatic. I liked the movie just fine, but I don't think it's in the top five of MCU movies.  Especially when you find out there's a ton of Widows out there now, and that Deathstroke Hurtstroke The Taskmaster is not even close to the original comic book villain.  I don't really care about that too much, since his "photographic reflexes" may have made him able to copy moves perfectly, he still needed to have the strength to do said moves.

Sven- Frankenstein (1931)

 

"The Man who Made a Monster!" Sven showed this classic last night, and dang if it doesn't hold up after 90 years.  There really isn't much more to say about the movie critically, so I will talk about the name of the movie.  These days, when people say "Frankenstein" they generally mean the monster, or creature, or creation, rather than the man who made the poor thing.  This is a rather natural progression of things, since the Monster has been in far more movies than his creator ever was.  The name "Frankenstein" was very marketable, hence the reason it was used so much.  

Frankenstein Official Trailer #1 - Boris Karloff Movie (1931) HD

It's amazing to me this classic movie is about 71 minutes long.  Now it would be over two hours.

9. What If... the Watcher Broke his Oath?

Let's see if they can get me back with this season finale.  That was at the start of the show last night, and I have to admit they wrapped it up pretty well.  Spoilers may abound now. In fact, I don't think any of these heroes died at all.  Which is nice change of pace from most of the series.  The Watcher visits several of the universes we have already seen (though not the main one, go figure) and pulls various heroes (and one villain) together to stop Ultron Mark nth.  There are many fun asides, and Marvel has something with Captain Carter.  I would not be surprised to her show up more regularly, especially with the post credits scene.

Sea Boz in 1942

I watched about 12 episodes of Ultraman Taro... and that was about all I could take.  As you know, Sea Boz is one of my favorite monsters in the series.  He makes a cameo in the Taro vs Tyrant episode.  The subs (which are decent enough for the most part) seem to think that Ultraman appeared some 40 years before the stated time in the series.  I don't know who subtitled these episodes, but they appeared before the licensed set came out.  Which I can only hope have better subs than this, but Return of Ultraman doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

MOTW- Vermithrax perjorative

 

Vermithrax is the name of the dragon from 1981's Dragonslayer.  It's a fun movie, set at the end of the age of magic (which wasn't quite the cliche it has become these days).  It features the last dragon and a wannabe sorcerer learning his trade.  It's a pretty well made movie.  It is more grounded than some of the other fantasy films of the time.  The hero wasn't sure of himself at all, but also got cocky when he really shouldn't have been.  Nothing was very clean, meaning that the villagers looked kinda grimy.  It's a different take on a dragon fighting magician, for sure.

Young Frankenstein (1974)

 

I saw this movie when it was released in 1974.  I had already been watching all the old Universal movies (many were 40 years old then, and now some of them are 90 years old) on KWGN Channel 2 so I was well versed in the Frankstein mythos by then.    I don't recall how I learned about the movie, probably through television, but by the time I saw it I already knew that the original Kenneth Strickfadden equipment from the original movies was being used again.  I wasn't even ten years old at this point.  But my friend Scott and I wanted to go, so his father took us to see the movie.  It was rated PG, after all.

War of the God Monsters (1985)

I had just read about this movie in that great zine, and then it shows up on Amazon prime. I'm glad I didn't buy this thing.  It's a South Korean giant monster movie, though not a single shot of the monsters was made in that country.  It all came from various Tsuburaya shows, including Ultraman, Return of Ultraman, Fireman and Ultraman Ace.  I think Bemstar is the lead monster, which is fine, it's a great looking beast, and the others just show up. The premise is a rather obsessed scientist has found out that monsters will be returning.  A reporter is sent to interview him, and she befriends his precocious daughter.  So it's a family drama with giant monsters. 

Sven- Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein (1948)

 

There really isn't a lot to say about this great movie, so this post will be short.  I've seen the movie so many times that all the characters seem like old friends.  Sven really couldn't tell me much about the movie I didn't already know, but that's on me, not him.  He has aired this before, but I don't mind.  It is better than seeing the Empire of the Ants again, I'll tell you what.  I don't remember how old I was when I first saw the movie, but it was a regular on KWGN Channel 2.  By then I was familiar with Bud and Lou, and had seen many Universal movies.

Return of Ultraman Jack

 

The Blu Ray set of this show looks amazing.  Who would have thought inexpensive sets like this would be available?  Not me.  I'm about twelve episodes in, and some of the subtitles are a bit dodgy.  The meaning is there, but sometimes verb tenses are wrong.  The plural nouns are also missing regularly.  I wonder how these translations were done.  They are almost literal, where they should be transliterations.  Heck, even the booklet has odd translations such as "Will Shugaron be possible to have the spirit of the painter Ushiyama?"  That is NOT proper English.  I'm not complaining- these subs are still better than anything that came from Hong Kong back in the day.

Tim Burton - This is Halloween (by Broken Peach)

                                            This is the first song from The Nightmare Before Christmas, a movie I like but don't love.  It is one I should love, but just don't, for whatever reason.  I do quite enjoy this version a lot though.  Broken Peach does a lot of covers of all genres, and are generally pretty fun to watch.