Today's Movies

Cameron Mitchell Movie Night

We've been doing this for four years. When we started we were looking forward to the Beijing Olympics, a devastating recession was taking hold and Republicans were driving American politics. Now the Olympics are in London! I found this e-mail from Marissa dated June 25, 2008:

"should we see if people want to come over this weekend for winterbeast?

-maris"

And so it began. The anniversary movies usually share qualities with Winterbeast.



They're low budget, poorly dubbed but mysteriously, wildly entertaining. Bio-Zombie, Samurai Cop and Death Drug belong in the club and now so do Supersonic Man and Action U.S.A.

 
This is also about celebrating the life of Cameron Mitchell. He didn't appear at Bad Movie Night until our 37th movie and I don't think I noticed him until his fifth movie:

Jack-O...................................37
Night Train to Terror.............83
Raw Force.............................84
Deadly Prey...........................90
Memorial Valley Massacre...96
Space Mutiny.......................182
Kill Squad.............................234
Hollywood Cop.....................244
Viva Knievel!........................250

As you can see, we've been in quite the Cameron drought lately. Let's pour some Mitchell on this night to quench our fiery thirst. Oof, I do not feel good about that sentence.


Of course there are at least 4 others nipping at Mitchell's heals.


Linnea was our first all-star.




That's not to count out the middle of the pack:





And the newcomers always have a chance:




But Cameron Mitchell is pulling away with Supersonic Man.





It's from the guy who made Pod People: 

and 

No, it's good. Juan Piquer Simón died early last year and I regret not having my shit together to have a memorial BMN. Although now that I look it up, the first BMN after he died was 1: great and 2: unattended. So maybe it's for the best.


The director of Action U.S.A. is alive, well (?) and John Stewart. No, you're thinking of Jon Stewart. This is John Stewart:




His first stunt credit is for the fourth BMN movie ever, Hard Rock Zombies. I was convinced that movie was the next Troll 2 but when I showed it people seemed antsy and bored. And so began another tradition. 





I think I watch that once a season. Hey guys, it's officially summer!

Action U.S.A. stars William Smith. No, you're thinking of Will Smith. William Smith was in Policewomen, Red Dawn, Maniac Cop and Memorial Valley Massacre. Hey!, what do you know:

The sound department was handled by Kirk Cameron. Nope! Different. But speaking of Cameron:

What people are saying about Action U.S.A.: 

"Director John Stewart should be given a medal... I guarantee you will not regret it"

"From the title on down, the movie delivers in every possible way."

"A film that lives up to it's title... an enjoyable romp, thanks to the plentiful violence, nudity and humor."


"I have 32 years of experience successfully buying and selling homes in the local market."

Here's what happened last week:

Today's Movies

Unfinished Movie Night

Last week's Game of Death is the inspiration for this week's theme. Looking at the other movies on Wikipedia's list of unfinished films there are a few famous ones like Jerry Lewis' clown-in-a-concentration-camp movie The Day the Clown Cried

 

and Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote but also some lesser known ones. I just found out that Sleepaway Camp IV came out a couple of months ago despite the fact that it was started in 1992.



That means there are two third sequels to Sleepaway Camp as Return to Sleepaway Camp came out four years ago. Weird. Also, as a connection to three weeks ago, Who Killed Bambi? was to be the third collaboration between Russ Meyer and Roger Ebert and it would star the Sex Pistols.



That is until the stupidest person in the world shut production down. Who ever it was. At least Ebert posted the screenplay a couple of years ago.

When The Basement was finally released last year it came out in both DVD and VHS. It's featured in this New York Times article about the continuing popularity existence of VHS.

We never saw the first Grizzly but we saw the Day of The Animals, which is by the same director and also has a bear. That wrestles Leslie Nielsen. Its sequel, Grizzly II: The Concert, stars John Rhys-Davies and Academy Award winner Louise Fletcher. It doesn't have any credits (see where I think the title screen would have appeared above), has temp music, limited special effects and rough editing but don't criticize it too harshly, who would want to be judged by something that wasn't finis

Here's What Happened Last Week:

Today's Movies

Game of Death has the most poster variations ever:

Dead Bruce Lee Movie Night

The death of Bruce Lee in 1973 did not stop movies starring Bruce Lee (or Bruce Le, Dragon Lee and Bruce Li) from coming out. He's a lot like Tupac, in that both were briefly MCs for Digital Underground.

Game of Death is directed by Wisconsin's own Robert Clouse, who also made Enter the Dragon with Lee and the BMN killer rat movie Deadly Eyes with martial arts great Scatman Crothers. It stars Colleen Camp, the maid in Clue, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.



That makes this one of three movies Abdul-Jabbar has starred in. The others are Airplane! and something called Whitepaddy from 2006. I looked into the latter and found it was written and directed by a woman named Geretta Geretta



who I was surprised to learn has been in three BMN movies, including the other rat movie, Rats: Night of Terror. It's a small rodent world after all. I swear I didn't just go through all of that just for that joke.

Tai Chung Kim began his career as a look-alike for the deceased Bruce Lee in Game of Death and ended his career playing the ghost of Bruce Lee in No Return, No Surrender. He sorta-kinda looks like Lee.



No Return, No Surrender is Jean-Claude Van Damme's first credited role but he sorta-kinda famously appears as an extra in Breakin' 1: Not As Well-Known Because This Subtitle Isn't Funny:



The director of NR, NS, Corey Yuen, made the first Transporter movie starring Jason Statham so he's still a thing. He also helmed dynamic movies like The Defender, The Enforcer and Female Reporter. Also: previously mentioned Oily Maniac.

Here's what happened last week:



Also, from a belly punching fetishist:

Today's Movies

Cult Movie Night

I kind of want to rename Bad Movie Night "Cult Movie Night" if only because people say to me, "Hey, that's not a bad movie." First of all, hay is for horse, amiright? Secondly, no one is singing in the shower on a soap opera so I don't think you know how words work. Um, imaginary person. So Friday we have one movie about a cult and one true cult movie.

We're having people over Friday that have missed a year and a half of BMN movies, but not in a row. Tennessee Movie Night was at their place, the only out-of-town BMN. Now I have to make up showing them Rhinestone.



I don't know if The Occultist will do it but the movie is by Tim Kincaid and I'm calling it the future of BMN because we'll be watching a few of Kincaid's movies soon. We've already seen Breeders.



Beyond The Valley of the Dolls, on the other hand, is a classic cult movie from B-movie legend Russ Meyer. It's our first Russ Meyer movie only because so many of his movies are out-of-print or selling for high prices. It is not a sequel to Valley of The Dolls, a fact the studio was made to disclose on the all the advertising after threats of a lawsuit.

Here's what happened last week:

Today's Movies