This Week's Viewing (Aug 8 - Aug 14)

This Week's Viewing (Aug 8 - Aug 14)

Megalon rules!

This week continued the craziness with my viewing habits. If anything, I've notice I'm staying in the Asian film swing but now venturing into other sub-categories. I continue to rent from Netflix for the discs I don't have, but I figured I would make notes of what is also streaming and where.


This week I saw a few that actually created an impulse for me to buy and I figured I would lightly highlight them as well. Keep in mind, this isn't designed to be a review, but more of what options are out there...good or bad.


I want to mention two that I absolutely feel in love with: Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl, being the first of the two. I must admit I had never seen this one and once I started this one, I was hooked. So much fun. This is streaming on Hulu Plus and its a blast. I believe it plays almost like the perfect transition of live action anime. Really a blast. I ended up buying this bluray and it was very affordable (it's not here yet), now I'm hoping they have some extras on the disc.

The second one was Gamera 3 - Revenge of Iris. This is another film that I grabbed the bluray of (actually the three pack which sells for less than $10 and can be found almost everywhere) years ago and it just sat on my shelf with no love.

I truly made a mistake by not revisiting this film sooner. Wow, what a tremendous Kaiju film. Released in 1999, Gamera himself, is a beast with an amazing suit and overall look thats just fierce. The miniatures and scale of everything is fantastic. I need another viewing or two, but this is easily in my top few Kaiju films right now. I think it really has some very real moments but still the charm of being fantasy.

Ok, now onto the list of what I've been watching:

Godzilla vs Megalon (Streaming on Hulu)

Alien Vs Ninja (Streaming on Hulu)

Zeiram

Zeiram 2 (I actually wrote about this films earlier in the week HERE)

Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl

2nd disc of Tokyo Gore Police (short films)

High Kick Girl

This Girl is Baddass (Streaming on Netflix)

Gamera 3 - Revenge of Iris

Grabbed some DVDs!!

After last week, I ended up buying a few titles. The Machine Girl was offered as a 3 disc, steel book set and it has a bunch of extras and some additional short shorts. With my current obsession, I think I'm just a completist and needed to have this set.


Following suite, I already had The Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police but once I saw they both had different sets with additional offerings, I needed them. So, I grabbed Tokyo Gore Police 1.5. It has some short films that were fun, yet bizarre to watch....I love that shit.


Thats it for now, but this weekend, I plan on a Gamera marathon and really want to watch and enjoy these films again. Have a great week!

"Superfights" is a Martial Arts Masterpiece!

SuperFights

(1995)

You ever stumble upon a movie that, only You talk about, so you try to tell more people just to share the sheer awesomeness? Me too!! That's my plan with this review...I plan to hype this film so huge, that once you watch it, you will want a Jack Cody Tattoo or maybe wish that Superfights was on TV weekly.

For years, growing up in the 80's I was glued to the television every Saturday afternoon, watching Shaw Brother's Kung Fu theater, then through the power of VHS, watching Enter the Ninja, Gymkata and even No Retreat, No Surrender (which has never been released on Dvd and IS a real crime). The fast paced, high energy martial artists, kicking, punching with the "smack" sound effect and story lines that seemed like backdrops for the action was why I loved those movies. The outrageous, ridiculousness of the punch power of the Boy with the Golden Arm or superfeats of the Crippled Masters (yes, you bet your ass I have this movie) was what movie magic was all about. You know the stories of the pupil that always wants to surpass the master....actually that sounds like almost every movie I enjoy! (I really need therapy)

Fast forward to 1995 and a 25 yr old, young Dimension is up late at night, flipping the channels of cable tv and I stumble upon this movie, the movie that inspired this write up, Superfights. I quickly look for the next showing because I HAVE to record this on a VHS tape. Using a book they called "The TV Guide", I set my VCR to record and everything is set. For the next several years I'm able to watch this throwback to corny, zany Karate action and I love every minute of it.

Let me give you the synopsis : Simple box boy Jack Cody is a karate dreamer. On his way home, Jack prevents a mugging and is thrust into stardom, instantly. Being offered a contract into the "Superfights", quite honestly, likened to WWE, that is all glitz and fame...on the outside. Cody quickly realizes it's an underground world of crime, drugs and a battle of good and evil.

That synopsis does not do this film any justice. With a really fimilar cast of Martial Arts veterans of 80's Kung Fu films, plus an appearance of a very young former ECW, WWE star Rob Van Dam and International Wrestling star Jim Steele (yep, Jungle Jim) this movie delivers on the action....and the cheese. Steroid usage, sex, shake downs of business owners and low level drug dealers (oh yeah...I said Shake Down) from this crooked Superfights promoter (geez, this kind of sounds like the Vince McMahin story) all make Superfights a plethera of happiness. Clearly not meant to be a comedy, it comes across so silly but for me, that's the charm for this movie.

From the amazing Kung Fu elderly master (all I could think of was Remo Williams) to the outlandish fellow super fighters. The fight scenes are what makes this movie so good, I'm serious about this. This movie is a must see! I wish I could could find Brandon Gaines, the lead, who only did this and not really anything else after, to sign my dvd.

 

Keep in mind, this movie will not be for everyone. In fact, I might be the only one this movie is for, but if you remember the action flicks that were built around fun, then you might really enjoy this one. It's a winner!!