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vpm2a
Female
Married
BA in History
I work as a substitute teacher and have a job on the side scoring educational evaluations
Reviews
Space Rage (1985)
awesome soundtrack!
The question is, can a movie this entertaining really be considered a "bad" movie? My husband and I picked this up at a used video store for 99 cents simply because of the title and the fact that the box had the words "Vestron Pictures" on it (Vestron has been highly regarded as a mark of quality ever since I first acquired the legendary films "Suburbia" and "Class of 1984"). We were not expecting a movie as full of win as this one was. Your basic plot as is follows: Grange, this goombaesque thug from planet Earth, robs "the bank of the Moon" and is sentenced to a penal colony on a remote planet (I don't even remember the planet's name) to mine for bauxite and other minerals. The "governor" of said colony and the owner of the mine are exploiting the prisoners for labor. Walker, a bounty hunter (apparently one of only three on the whole planet) reminds the prisoners that there is no escape, because there's only one shuttle out of the whole planet and they'd have him to deal with. Then there's the nameless "Colonel", a retired bounty hunter who suffers from a haunting reoccurring nightmare. Much of the movie centers around "futuristic" car chases (dunebuggies with plywood slapped to the sides) with explosions galore. The planet itself looks suspiciously like Hemet, CA or one of those other dusty Inland Empire outposts. But what makes the movie truly shine is a surprisingly awesome soundtrack featuring several LA punk bands of the mid-80s. I seriously doubt that this soundtrack was ever pressed to vinyl, but it's definitely worth buying the movie just for the soundtrack. I can't even remember the names of the bands (they're listed in the credits) other than Exploding White Mice, because that was the only one I'd heard of before I saw this movie, but I'm definitely looking into them.
Basically, the movie is definitely not a waste of your time and would be best enjoyed with a 12 pack of beer and a few of your closest friends.
Disco Godfather (1979)
The Citizen Kane of bad movies
Rudy Ray Moore was the self-avowed "King of Party Records" in the 1970s, distinguishing himself by his off-color and incredibly dirty jokes. He made four movies in the 70s, and this was the last and frankly, in terms of movie production, worst of all of them. Although gems like Petey Wheatstraw and Human Tornado hold together a lot better plot-wise, they are nowhere near as funny as this movie, mostly because this one is so badly made it adds that extra unintentional hilarity that it needs to be considered... drumroll, please... ONE OF MY FAVORITE MOVIES OF ALL TIME.
That's right. This steaming pile of crap of a movie is up there with all of the François Truffaut movies, all the old silent film classics, etc. that I would normally list among my favorite movies. That is simply because a movie this entertaining and enjoyable cannot be seen as anything other than a great movie.
Disco Godfather is sort of a combination blaxploitation film/after school special. All of Moore's other movies have a ton of sex in them, but this film seem to tone it down for the kiddies, so that they can enjoy the anti-drug message of the movie. The plot centers around Tucker Williams, an entrepreneur who owns a disco club that soon becomes a hotbed for PCP-addicted youth. When his nephew Bucky falls victim to the wack and blows his shot at a major-league basketball career, Tucker decides to join his old police buddies in launching an attack on the dreaded Angel Dust. But his crime-fighting antics soon put him at odds with Stinger Ray, the local drug lord. Will Tucker manage to clean up the city's streets? Will Stinger Ray and his corrupt henchmen prevail? Watch the film to find out! I have to warn you, this movie has some of the lowest production values I've ever seen. There's bad lighting, terrible sound, pointless cuts between scenes (particularly at the end of the film), THE FREAKING WORST OVERDUB I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE, and horrible, horrible acting. But this movie has the funniest lines ever, hilarious fight scenes, ABSOLUTELY BIZARRE animation spliced into the film, crazy drug sequences, and an ending that will make you laugh so hard you might have to go to the hospital. (My asthmatic boyfriend almost had an attack watching the end of this movie.) If you enjoy watching bad movies, this movie is this Citizen Kane of bad movies.
"ANGEL DUST, THAT'S WHAT'S HAPPNIN'! SEE IF YOU PLAYAS CAN BALL THAT!"
Jungle Assault (1989)
One of my favorite late-nite UPN movies
All of David Prior's movies are terrible on all counts: bad writing, bad acting, bad cinematography, no budget (the director's brother is usually cast as the male lead). But they all have incredible entertainment value because of their unintentional hilarity. The plot of almost every David Prior "film" (as I like to refer to them) is basically the same. Manly all-American commandos team up to blow up Communist baddies. But unlike other Cold War-era garbage such as Red Dawn, Prior's movies are actually funny because of their over-the-top premises and acting. The best part of Jungle Assault is the scene in which Becker (or was is the other dude?) is being summoned by General Mitchell for a top-secret mission in South America. The funniest line in the movie is then delivered, something to the effect of "this is my roommate, I trained him well". WHAT. You trained your roommate? And apparently this is going to be their solution to avoiding eviction.
If you can find these gems on video used anywhere, BUY THEM. They are all funny and even funnier after a few beers. Watch them with a group of your friends for a true MST3K-style experience. So far my friends and I have managed to get a hold of Night Wars and Aerobicide aka "Killer Workout". But the one I recommend the most over them all is Final Sanction, with the freakish-looking Robert Z'dar.