Reviews
Boogievision (1977)
Not really like "Groove Tube"
I bought this because I've been a fan of "The Groove Tube" and similar movies like TunnelVision (I have a 35mm print of that!) and Kentucky Fried Movie, and the DVD cover claimed it was of that genre- the title Boogie Vision just about guaranteed it'd be a great movie also. Well, I just watched it and was a bit disappointed- it's more a conventional narrative about the guy making the movie, then a few random things are just thrown in (5-second news updates, a few commercials and a couple promos for phony TV shows) just to pad the running time. The animation at the beginning is pretty cool though and must have cost more money than anything else in the movie.
Recommended only if you have to see every movie made in the 70s, or just a fan of bad and/or weird movies in general.
Stiff Competition (1984)
Looks and sounds like a real movie!
Exceptionally good production values for a porno movie- the sound is even in Dolby Stereo! I heard that Caballero went under (they were bought later, the company that puts their DVDs out has rather shoddy quality) partly because they spent too much money on their productions! I don't know the history of Paul Vatelli, but 'he' has directed several other above-average porn movies including Bodacious Ta-Tas, Coming Together and If My Mother Only Knew.
Beware of the Image Entertainment laserdisc of this movie however- although the picture and sound quality on it are good, a key scene was cut for time so that side 2 could be in CAV format!
Pauly Shore Is Dead (2003)
Theatrical premiere on VIDEO???
Although I NEVER walk out of movies, I just walked out of the "World Premiere" (though apparently it's already been shown elsewhere) in Sacramento, CA, partly because some people in the theater were smoking but also because they were showing a DVD, not a film print!!! Pauly Shore was there and I asked him why they were showing a DVD, he said there were some film prints being made but they weren't done yet. The movie is playing in Sacramento at least through the week, he said they might get an actual film print in a few days. I told him I'd come back and see it if they did, otherwise I'll buy the DVD. The first 15 minutes were pretty funny, but not worth watching projected video in a theater or putting up with people smoking.
Memories of Videodisc (1986)
Selectavision's Grand Finale
Wow, someone entered the details for this but no comments? Well let me provide the first. This was the very last disc made for the CED-format "SelectaVision" videodisc players (the 8-track tape of video formats) in June 1986, right before the disc pressing plant in Indianapolis was shut down for good. (There was a second plant run by CBS Records near Atlanta that operated from 1981 to 1984, then switched back to LP production.) Player manufacturing had already stopped in 1984 but RCA was determined to continue putting out new movie titles as long as there was still demand for them. The final movie released on the format was Jewel Of The Nile, and then this disc, which was given to the remaining videodisc employees. Unfortunately a large portion of the disc is still photos accompanied by music; it would have been more interesting to see more video or film footage of the people and day-to-day operations. Still they are interesting to see, you get photos of the building and almost everyone who worked there, and things like staff parties and awards dinners. The most interesting part of this disc is a video tour of the disc pressing plant and player manufacturing center, originally shot in 1983 for another promotional-only disc sent to dealers (which I haven't been able to acquire yet.) You get to see how the disc masters are made all the way up to them being packed up for shipment to retailers. Then they show how the later-model players were put together- sadly RCA was planning on moving the player manufacturing to Mexico for cheaper labor, but that never happened as the players were scrapped altogether. The end of the disc shows the staff leaving the building for the last time, however this leaves me with the question of who went back in to master and press this final disc? Memories Of Videodisc is very hard to find since it was available only to those who worked at the Indiana manufacturing plant, I was lucky enough to buy one from a former employee this year. It's a must-have however for collectors of the format, and anyone interested in the early years of home video should at least try to see this. I never had a CED player when they were being produced, but later found one at a flea market and was intrigued enough to start collecting all the titles I could find for it. The biggest problem this format had was that it skipped; when I am watching a movie on it I find it usually happens during important dialogue too! They should have eliminated that problem before putting it on the market. As it was, it already reached the market much later than they had expected, and when it did in March 1981 the superior Laserdisc format had already been out for a while as well as the VHS and Beta cassette formats. The one bright spot was that those who did buy the players ended up buying more discs than expected.
Incoming Freshmen (1979)
In a word: Huh??!
Well, partly based on the other comments here I bought Brentwood's "Toga Party" DVD set, which includes this among other fine films for a bargain price. We should all be thankful that this movie has been preserved on DVD, regardless of quality. This appears to have been shot on videotape, then transferred to film. My jaw dropped in several parts of this movie as I could not believe that it had actually been made. But that's OK, because I was expecting a bad movie, I just had no idea how bad! Anyone who thinks they have seen the worst movie ever made owes it to themself to see this- it's definitely in the top 50. (Those who think "Gigli" was bad haven't seen anything!)
Gas Pump Girls (1979)
"Joe's" is still there, "Pyramid" has been torn down!
Just watched this on laserdisc and loved it! When I saw that this was filmed in Sacramento, where I live, I went to the actual location (which is easy to find since the street signs are visible in the movie) and saw the old run-down place is STILL standing, it is now a CA Recycling Center. The big station across the street was torn down and paved over though! I need to find the soundtrack album now, the disco music in this is great!