Dragon Fury (1995)
Dragon Fury
Written and Directed by David Heavener
“Welcome to Motel 6. Do you have a reservation… TO DIE?”
So the Apocalypse happened back in 1999. I know, you probably missed it; I know I did. But it happened, and Los Angeles split from the continent by the fault line and was hit by a plague. By some strange voodoo, this resulted in the remnants of the city becoming entrenched in a mix of medieval pageantry and ninja violence.
Well, if any post-apocalyptic city is going to devolve into a bad action movie, they’re right, L.A. would be the place.
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Categories: Good, Movie Reviews Tags: Chona Jason, Chuck Loch, David Heavener, Deborah Stambler, Films of Troma, Richard Lynch, Robert Chapin, T.J. Storm
When Nature Calls (1985)
When Nature Calls
aka The Outdoorsters
Directed by Charles Kaufman
Written by Charles Kaufman and Stan Weisman
I find this gag to be ‘bearable’.
“How many people remember that Eleanor Roosevelt had great tits?”
Seven years after Kentucky Fried Movie, a different group of filmmakers decided to basically do the same thing: a theatrical experience that was a parody of the entire theater going experience. You get fake trailers, fake theater announcements, fake concession stand ads (here’s a hotdog doing another hotdog doggy style! brilliant!) and a feature presentation that makes mockery of a big hit.
It doesn’t help us much now that the object of the film’s scorn, the series of Wilderness Family movies in the late 70’s, are pretty much forgotten now. Those were a series of film where the dad took everyone out into the woods where they were much happier without the technology. And, you know, other people.
They use most of the film’s run time to skewer this, but rather than settle for a simple parody, they mixed their approach with the Airplane gag-a-minute philosophy, and while there are a lot (a lot) of misses, it still works out since the people in front of the camera seem to be having such a good time.
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Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters (1982)
Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters
1982
Directed by Jopi Burnama & Charles Kaufman
Well, this is fun.
“Have you ever heard that little voice inside you say that there’s more to life than slamming another woman to the mat with incredible force?”
We continue our journey through the depths of Troma’s catalog this week with Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters, which contains two reliably Troma staples:
- The movie’s cover is a beautiful, buxom woman who appears nowhere in the film.
- The movie rips off a better known source but sprinkles in a lot more self congratulation and jokes about bodily functions.
Here we have the minds behind the scenes ripping off Woody Allen’s What’s Up Tiger Lily? If you don’t know that movie, a simple summation should suffice: Allen took a Japanese spy film and dubbed new dialogue and sound effects over the action.
That’s a pretty great way to make a cheap movie. Charles Kaufman seized upon this and decided to do the same. Since Charles Kaufman is the man who wrote and directed When Natures Call and not the man who wrote and directed Sleeper, the results are less than stellar.
Litmus test time: here’s the film’s signature joke. “What is brown with holes in it?”
If your response was “Swiss shit”, congratulations, that’s right. Now tell the joke about a dozen more times and you’re basically reenacting a large portion of the film.
That violates copyright laws. You could go to jail. (But I won’t tell.)
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Categories: Movie Reviews, Ugly Tags: Barry Prima, Charles Kaufman, Eva Arnaz, Films of Troma, Indonesia, Leily Sagita, Ruth Pelupessi, Wieke Widowati, Youstine Rais
Tuesday Never Comes (1993)
Tuesday Never Comes
Directed by Jason Holt
This is going to be a review that begs for the angry comment. Once I misinterpreted a character’s inflection in Beauty and The Boss (1932) over at my blog and I got a three paragraph response which basically called me an Obama/Bush-loving atrocity-condoning socialist.
I need that here. I need someone to point out to me what actually happens in Tuesday Never Comes and I need them to do it quick because this may be a wholly inaccurate review and I’ll never know about it. Then again, anyone else watching may come across a different interpretation by design; maybe this movie is whatever you want it to be.
The reason for the confusion is that a good three quarters of the dialogue in this film is muffled beyond recognition. The other quarter is either screamed or comes from a man who has what can generously be called ‘the fakest Irish accent in the world’. By comparison he makes Chief O’Hara sound vaguely Russian.
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Categories: Bad, Movie Reviews Tags: Erik Estrada, Films of Troma, Jason Holt, Karen Black
