tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336679656516906432024-02-19T09:08:26.107-08:00pop pop..! it's trash culture.the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.comBlogger122125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-91302728529795016352016-09-10T15:03:00.000-07:002016-09-10T16:46:59.072-07:00Be Kind, Please Rewind: Godzilla Top Ten<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE0yUc6GdC9Ru1AyR9LvhA_aWFsP1pCevP7r7WWI9qgs_L7VXirswc5_CX4IzVSiWl2xOn5f9sVdWEzD7sZ63xNgxb9-aielej-iJiWVAgW5VdOMGTuHCifCWwaqbjkJvBLucNcLZTu1g/s1600/ZILLOR.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE0yUc6GdC9Ru1AyR9LvhA_aWFsP1pCevP7r7WWI9qgs_L7VXirswc5_CX4IzVSiWl2xOn5f9sVdWEzD7sZ63xNgxb9-aielej-iJiWVAgW5VdOMGTuHCifCWwaqbjkJvBLucNcLZTu1g/s320/ZILLOR.JPG" width="268" /></a></div>
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It would be too easy to fall back on size-based puns when talking about Godzilla, so let's just say that 2016 is a very important year for everyone's favorite radioactive monster. He may have celebrated his 60th anniversary a couple years back with the release of Legendary Pictures' <i>Godzilla</i> (2014), the second American-produced film in the franchise, but his latest adventure is far more important and potentially historic. Re-titled <i>Shin Godzilla</i> for its eventual U.S release, the most recent outing for "The King of the Monsters" is the first to be produced by Toho Co., Ltd., the company solely responsible for the other thirty-films in the series, in nearly twelve years. Excluding the two American "remakes", it will also be the first time I get to see Godzilla rampaging on the big-screen. Excited doesn't even begin to describe how I'm feeling as I count down the days until its release.<br />
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To commemorate such a monumental event, I've decided to dig through stacks of tapes in search of some gold. After setting aside the couple dozen Godzilla flicks I own on VHS, the only way I could think to tick away the time between now and October 11th is to pick and rank the cover-art from several of them. Prepare yourself for a monster-sized examination of my Top Ten Favorite Godzilla VHS Covers.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHXgeUFXaA-5AMZe5wjjUsNjolPGZg9U4NLSuRkyvh4-JiOHmgKC8J-GrAsgcwUnynnwpwY3nGWqVZ3Q7PmGcgHG2GWlfz-PxmcF18u3c_XXCWhg5GgPXEoEJybtoG58Gz-SWNpxWrwj0/s1600/zill10.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHXgeUFXaA-5AMZe5wjjUsNjolPGZg9U4NLSuRkyvh4-JiOHmgKC8J-GrAsgcwUnynnwpwY3nGWqVZ3Q7PmGcgHG2GWlfz-PxmcF18u3c_XXCWhg5GgPXEoEJybtoG58Gz-SWNpxWrwj0/s320/zill10.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">10. <i>Godzilla 2000: Millennium </i>(1999)</span></div>
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Released by Columbia/TriStar Home Video, 2000.</div>
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The final VHS-release for Godzilla in the U.S, <i>Godzilla 2000</i> was also the only film in the franchise to get a theatrical release in the States in thirty years. I missed it on the big-screen, but rented it frequently once it hit shelves at the nearby Hollywood Video. It's... not my least favorite from the series, but it may be close.<br />
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Still, despite my lukewarm feelings for the movie itself, there's so much potential there in the cover-art. Godzilla has clearly spent time alongside "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and the rest of the WWF "Attitude Era" cast, bulking up and ready to kick-ass. And lurking in the background, looking way more ominous and deadly than he does in the film, is one-off adversary, Orga.<br />
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The "Get Ready to Crumble!" tag-line immediately reminds me of Michael Buffer, which I'm sure was the intention, but all it does now is date it in a completely drag way. This is the most '90s that Godzilla will ever be, and that is not necessarily a good thing.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKmQ8qBsLeHxA9D2Bj0sQizbRWuaAFj_D1YYVCn3RGUW48ZYDY4Bkt6H7fikmQr7NcA5sNuox6GjGFEAKT71R5fOj4GpeiTgSLlzNoAo5OxwLMIC0_U6pod5FvYVihj8cKxSkMwsZ96uU/s1600/zill9.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKmQ8qBsLeHxA9D2Bj0sQizbRWuaAFj_D1YYVCn3RGUW48ZYDY4Bkt6H7fikmQr7NcA5sNuox6GjGFEAKT71R5fOj4GpeiTgSLlzNoAo5OxwLMIC0_U6pod5FvYVihj8cKxSkMwsZ96uU/s320/zill9.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">9. <i>Godzilla Raids Again</i> (1955)</span></div>
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Released by Video Treasures, Inc., 1989.</div>
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Confession time: I've never actually seen <i>Godzilla Raids Again</i>. It's the one film in the series that's somehow eluded me, even though I've owned it both on VHS and DVD for several years. I really don't have any valid excuses for putting off on watching this pivotal piece of cinema. Not only is it the first of many sequels in the franchise, but the film also serves as the original monster-versus-monster showdown from Toho, pitting Godzilla against his eventual ally and friend, Anguirus.<br />
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It's actually because of the second-billed kaiju that this VHS broke into the Top Ten. Even though I haven't yet watched <b>this</b> film, Anguirus' inclusion in the later <i>Godzilla vs. Gigan </i>(1972) is one of my favorite monster appearances from the entire series. I adore getting the chance to see him front and center on this cover, holding his own in a fight with Godzilla, with a city burning in the background. There's no way I would have ignored this tape as a kid if it had been available to rent at any of my local video stores.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVaBAF6XLN43zNF4DnxhGasAMtTu7GAdSM8r2GmG_ou8ZsP-IDLdEqH67UoF81GVbJvNZevM9FtDYnK-40FXSBx1M0AW0U4q4fUsyw3o20sBIc-Bmw66d4kOh2YR1EtAX1G0W6bYTijA0/s1600/zill8.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVaBAF6XLN43zNF4DnxhGasAMtTu7GAdSM8r2GmG_ou8ZsP-IDLdEqH67UoF81GVbJvNZevM9FtDYnK-40FXSBx1M0AW0U4q4fUsyw3o20sBIc-Bmw66d4kOh2YR1EtAX1G0W6bYTijA0/s320/zill8.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">8. <i>Godzilla vs. Megalon </i>(1973)</span></div>
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Released by United American Video Corporation, 1991.</div>
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This is the first of three appearances from this particular entry in the franchise. I'll have more to say about the film itself in just a bit, but I wanted to focus solely on the cover-art here. For those of you who have little to no background when it comes to Toho's menagerie of monsters, I'll simply point out that the winged creature that Godzilla is facing off with isn't Megalon at all, but instead Mothra.<br />
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Mothra doesn't actually appear in the film.<br />
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There's a pretty rich history of crudely illustrated and vague covers you'll discover if you do a bit of research into the Godzilla series, but there are few that rival this one. I almost love it more because of it's misleading art and racially insensitive title font. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixwsUCoz-n3CNtS3BglwHmqDDQUKjrEgqvvKRVOJMI1VUM9BLvMPgYWQFBv6l2RBuz1pTf3wfbJt3EA08XV6G-P8s6GmBOOWv9N0Ha7J2Eej82pGgisNo2fIWftBDRiolzAQQEw0-OhYI/s1600/zill7.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixwsUCoz-n3CNtS3BglwHmqDDQUKjrEgqvvKRVOJMI1VUM9BLvMPgYWQFBv6l2RBuz1pTf3wfbJt3EA08XV6G-P8s6GmBOOWv9N0Ha7J2Eej82pGgisNo2fIWftBDRiolzAQQEw0-OhYI/s320/zill7.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">7. <i>Godzilla vs. Megalon </i>(1973)</span></div>
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Released by Viking Entertainment Inc., 1988.</div>
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Remember what I said a moment ago about crudely drawn covers?<br />
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Here's the second appearance from <i>Godzilla vs. Megalon,</i> and it's the one that's most-fueled by nostalgia. Long-time readers may even recognize it from <a href="http://poppopitstrashculture.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-league-top-ten-video.html">a previous post</a>. While it isn't the oldest tape in my collection, it's the one that I've personally owned the longest. My very first VHS. I can still remember visiting Paperama, a now long-defunct local retailer, with my grandmother and pleading with her to buy this for me. I'm not entirely sure why she decided to give in, but I'm forever thankful for her kick-starting two decades of collecting VHS by doing so.<br />
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Even if it didn't hold a ton of sentimental value for me, I still would have ranked it somewhere on the list. There's something about the simplicity of the design that drives me wild. I really dig the illustration, sure, but doubly so when it's been paired up with that green-striped border surrounding it. Plus, Godzilla looks good with a pink and purple cotton-candy sky behind him. Sugary sweet in his mindless destruction of another major metropolis.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz23ajvU1e7oDdGWz5B87NYfgoz_igJwoW-W2fUXhJ48tnpeYl_Xnj97dUW_bVdRAphVN2jMUlP54cQtLjvPeg5lSUNTJEh4K4AxpDsy__6Kh7R9CYLUnzENxze0aSnbs0S7TE9h4jUPs/s1600/zill6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz23ajvU1e7oDdGWz5B87NYfgoz_igJwoW-W2fUXhJ48tnpeYl_Xnj97dUW_bVdRAphVN2jMUlP54cQtLjvPeg5lSUNTJEh4K4AxpDsy__6Kh7R9CYLUnzENxze0aSnbs0S7TE9h4jUPs/s320/zill6.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">6. <i>King Kong vs. Godzilla </i>(1962)</span></div>
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Released by GoodTimes Home Video Corp., 1998.</div>
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This is almost a precursor to those lazy photo-shopped DVD and Blu-ray covers that you see all the time nowadays. Released to coincide with the theatrical <i>Godzilla</i> (1998) from TriStar Pictures, this copy from GoodTimes Home Video utilizes images of the two title monsters from a variety of sources. None of those include the actual movie, however. In fact, both the head-shot of Kong and the smaller "running" image of him are from the 1976 remake of <i>King Kong</i>.<br />
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It's also the only American-released Godzilla VHS to feature a clam-shell case. I honestly didn't know that such a thing existed until a few months ago, when I stumbled upon this copy at the flea market. So, despite already owning two different versions of the film, I gladly threw down the five-dollars the vendor was asking for. Picking it up also planted the seed for this post, so while now it happily coincides with Shin Godzilla's upcoming U.S release, it's actually six-months in the making.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaAOJinY__yNLC27Y1A8tvW8ZTzz807ounJzVK3tflG9Lobf7D1xGm1wyVApZ1Mrb4uV_yrv7Yuiq_ejo2YBxrAkaMiGNy3bCUsjiYGQ7gq1VtYY737OLkh9Jeid7YErSnhjp7niYnVtE/s1600/zill5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaAOJinY__yNLC27Y1A8tvW8ZTzz807ounJzVK3tflG9Lobf7D1xGm1wyVApZ1Mrb4uV_yrv7Yuiq_ejo2YBxrAkaMiGNy3bCUsjiYGQ7gq1VtYY737OLkh9Jeid7YErSnhjp7niYnVtE/s320/zill5.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">5. <i>Ebirah, Horror of the Deep </i>(1966)</span></div>
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Released by GoodTimes Home Video Corp., 1992.</div>
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God, that title font.<br />
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The cracked lettering on Godzilla's name isn't anything groundbreaking, but the candy-corn coloring is something truly beautiful and unique. It totally distracts me from the gorgeous hand-drawn image of a monstrous lizard breathing fire into the face of a gigantic lobster, which is both a blessing and a curse. I absolutely love everything about this cover, and I think I may regret not actually ranking it higher.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjzrIqg5EmkAT8ZOicVbZuogH1pAFzl31Bco8vr120ghXiuQbTbNgepVzju74sv0_I5y403doBrFYyGu7eHO5Il98bVsIUg9MZCKB9HTOfKd7JGPhrcfjSvO9UXN6YqFTmLQD-ZIDZKkw/s1600/zill4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjzrIqg5EmkAT8ZOicVbZuogH1pAFzl31Bco8vr120ghXiuQbTbNgepVzju74sv0_I5y403doBrFYyGu7eHO5Il98bVsIUg9MZCKB9HTOfKd7JGPhrcfjSvO9UXN6YqFTmLQD-ZIDZKkw/s320/zill4.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">4. <i>Godzilla vs. Megalon </i>(1973)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Released by GoodTimes Home Video Corp., 1985.</span></div>
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The third time this film appears on the list, but it's the only one in which the title antagonist actually appears. Still noticeably absent, however, is the real star of the film, Jet Jaguar. Part of a campaign in which Toho would produce a film based on a fan-submitted hero, <i>Godzilla vs. Megalon</i> wasn't originally intended to feature Godzilla at all, but instead a robot hero inspired by the then-popular <i>Super Sentai</i> series. The company decided last minute to re-title the project to include Godzilla, fearing that Jet Jaguar would not be able to carry a film on his own.<br />
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The image of Godzilla battling Megalon atop The Twin Towers may seem an odd artistic choice, especially considering the film's final battle takes place entirely in some undisclosed [and completely deserted] field in Japan, but it actually makes sense with a little explaining. The cover-art is recycled from the poster for the film's original U.S release, which happened to be only a short time after the <i>King Kong </i>"remake" hit theaters. The poster for the Dino De Laurentiis film also featured Kong standing atop the Towers.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyqujCoJ1EQut9CdrJJR3-K5ryPT0uLRe5_r-qSYT1QZBfIk4KWZ2CgILaIY3Zel7n2JmhUJgO2W1C-kMZE5n0g9lpxAfBUHMYaL9_brXJ5LY8gX0jrZkRNQsqz4vocJXqwSbuWLzGOJg/s1600/zill3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyqujCoJ1EQut9CdrJJR3-K5ryPT0uLRe5_r-qSYT1QZBfIk4KWZ2CgILaIY3Zel7n2JmhUJgO2W1C-kMZE5n0g9lpxAfBUHMYaL9_brXJ5LY8gX0jrZkRNQsqz4vocJXqwSbuWLzGOJg/s320/zill3.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">3. <i>The Return of Godzilla </i>(1984)</span></div>
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Released by StarMaker Entertainment Inc., 1992.</div>
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There isn't a film in the series that I've seen more than <i>The Return of Godzilla</i>, aka: <i>Godzilla 1985</i>. It's one of the handful of titles that I rented regularly as a kid from our neighborhood rental store [and my eventual first job], Video Showplace. Godzilla never looked nastier, returned to his roots as a destructive force of nature. Ignoring the decades of cartoonish battles and borderline super-heroics that the franchise eventually devolved into, the Godzilla depicted here is the dark and dangerous monster he always should have been.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ENSUY_yNB28LhVlxiNohOjsuvCbm52b571m7-9DSW0R53vFe81l9yO54EGKT8u6ztds6Ngm0B7n2aFdXb2k1AHHh97IAxLE4y45kmpDD6BFMJ6xcIMbCh06me4OIdbaXTH25sPkIyXE/s1600/zill2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ENSUY_yNB28LhVlxiNohOjsuvCbm52b571m7-9DSW0R53vFe81l9yO54EGKT8u6ztds6Ngm0B7n2aFdXb2k1AHHh97IAxLE4y45kmpDD6BFMJ6xcIMbCh06me4OIdbaXTH25sPkIyXE/s320/zill2.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">2. <i>King Kong vs. Godzilla </i>(1962)</span></div>
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Released by GoodTimes Home Video Corp., 1987.</div>
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This is -the- Godzilla film that best defines my childhood. There's nothing that immediately transports me back to those lazy Saturdays of watching weird movies on TV quite like this one. I still have vivid memories of catching it on TBS'<i> Super Scary Saturday</i>, a mid-day "horror" program hosted by Al "Grandpa Munster" Lewis, so just looking at this cover puts me into a state of euphoria. It's big, bright, and stupid in the best ways possible.<br />
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I often imagine that this is what the inside of my brain looks like.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Fz6biwWQ79MUVWk97NmEpox8xA1gxioia1XKjQ32I_yiM4w3QTUEib8wNt5hqITf012LQOoFIEgjy1HXv3iSQAbVb_focKcbas83LmS_oFPjcJTaaP3jh1dD7OmWRD5lPrRVeLzQgGE/s1600/zill1111.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1Fz6biwWQ79MUVWk97NmEpox8xA1gxioia1XKjQ32I_yiM4w3QTUEib8wNt5hqITf012LQOoFIEgjy1HXv3iSQAbVb_focKcbas83LmS_oFPjcJTaaP3jh1dD7OmWRD5lPrRVeLzQgGE/s320/zill1111.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">1. <i>Godzilla vs. Biollante </i>(1989)</span></div>
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Released by HBO Video, 1992.</div>
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Here's another tape that I've owned for ages, and it played a very important role in my life as a fan of Godzilla. I'm not entirely sure why, but the Heisei period of the series ['84 to '95] was largely ignored and neglected when it came to my local video stores.<i> </i>I didn't even know about the existence of these later films until I came across <i>Godzilla vs. Biollante</i> at a Strawberries Music & Video back in the late '90s. Thinking that I had just discovered a "lost" Godzilla film, I immediately purchased and ran home to watch it. Shortly after that, I found out that there had actually been five additional sequels I'd missed entirely. It was a reawakening for me as a life-long fan, and I couldn't have asked for a better reintroduction to my favorite movie monster.<br />
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This is probably the most intricately detailed illustration of any Godzilla VHS. Honestly, it's breathtakingly beautiful and totally bad-ass. Combining such flawless cover-art with a film that reignited my fiery radioactive love for Godzilla, there shouldn't be any surprise why this took the top spot.the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-10875469947920630452016-01-02T15:06:00.001-08:002016-01-02T17:25:47.794-08:00The Year of Trash2015 was not particularly great for <i>It's Trash Culture</i>. My attention shifted from posting here and turned to other social medias, like <a href="https://twitter.com/ItsTrashCulture">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/itstrashculture/">Instagram</a>, where minimum effort paid out a much larger reward. Those accounts have accumulated several hundred more followers than this blog, which is equal parts awesome and sorta' heart-breaking. Neither of them would exist without this, the place I started to celebrate all the stupid and wonderful things that have won my heart over the years. I'm here to wax nostalgic and to share the bizarre stuff I've unearthed in my constant search for more pop-culture bullshit. That's always been my mission statement, and the previous year was a complete failure. Well, okay, mostly complete. I did manage to get halfway through the <i>Friday the 13th</i> franchise before slacking off and disappearing for two months.<br />
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I can't guarantee that the next year will be any different. There are always half-hearted promises to post more that fall to the wayside. I always have the best of intentions, don't I? The combination of crippling anxieties and unadulterated laziness that makes up 92% of my existence almost always win in the end, though. The urge to give up, to let <i>It's</i> <i>Trash Culture</i> waste away into nothing, is overwhelming. But somehow not as much as my love for talking about Z-grade films and old Happy Meal toys.<br />
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Yes, I'm actually here to chat a little bit about old Happy Meal toys.<br />
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Even if there came a day where I packed away this blog, that won't stop me from transforming into a borderline hoarder before I go too. The hunt, hitting up thrift shops and flea markets for oddball collectibles and forgotten treasures, will always flow through my blood. Yesterday was the first day of a new year, and it was spent like so many of the days of yesteryear; stopping by my local Savers Thrift on the way home from work. Their wall of grab-bags has been an absolute treasure trove the last couple years, and my latest visit was no exception.<br />
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A pair of bags marked $1.99 were packed full of nostalgic catnip in the form of '80s and '90s era Happy Meal toys. Above is a quick glimpse at most of the goodies I took home and added to The Trash Collection, but we'll be taking a better look at several of the pieces in a second. Everything from <i>Tiny Toons</i> to <i>Super Mario Bros. 3</i>, with a handful of less notable [but still wildly exciting] giveaways included. Are you still glad that I decided to stick around for 2016?<br />
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Let's see what we can do to change that.<br />
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We're gonna start with McDonalds' main man, Mr. Ronald McDonald, The Hamburger-Happy Clown. This PVC-version of everyone's favorite fast-food peddling mascot was available in Happy Meals back in 1988. Despite being the prime age for devouring Happy Meals during '88, I somehow never owned this particular piece until now. I love its simplicity, and apparently that giant star that Ronald's leaning on glows in the dark. Which means that it'll find a spot on the shelf nearby my bed that's loaded with lots of glow-in-the-dark toys and trinkets.<br />
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The <i>Tiny Toons </i>flip-cars were released three years later, and were the first of two sets that McDonalds released for the franchise in the early '90s. These are both actually the same toy; each car flipped over to reveal a second character, and this one features Montana Max and Gogo the Dodo. I already owned a couple of the other toys in this particular set, so I'll be holding onto one of these and probably trading off the extra. Or maybe not. Maybe I'll keep 'em both because I am a crazy person who needs more children's toys from two decades back in his possession.<br />
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Here's what first caught my eye in those grab-bags yesterday. The raccoon-variation of Mario and a Koopa Paratrooper were released in 1989, the same year that <i>The Wizard</i> debuted in theaters, and both served as a proper introduction to the world of <i>Super Mario Bros. 3</i> for kids in North America. I remember having the Paratrooper toy when they were originally available, and mine suffered the same fate as this guy; the pump that was attached to activate his "jumping" feature is long-gone. It's not the worst thing ever, because he actually displays a lot better without the awkward obstruction.<br />
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You might have noticed the pair of Gadgets, the wacky mouse-inventor from <i>Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers</i>, hanging out in the background. It's another set that McDonald's featured back in '89, but it's one that I skipped entirely as a kid. I was probably too distraught over never getting a Goomba from the previous Mario wave, and swore off Happy Meals until 1992 when they'd do a <i>Batman Returns </i>tie-in. Still, golly, she's a pretty cool and totally adorable addition. I guess I'll have to hunt down a Monterey Jack to display alongside her.<br />
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Bangarang!<br />
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I honestly don't remember them ever releasing a set of <i>Hook</i> (1991) Happy Meal toys, so imagine my surprise and my excitement when I discovered this Rufio hiding away in one of the grab-bags. It's far from the best representation of my favorite edgy Lost Boy, but beggars can't be choosers. Actually, I doubt I'll hang onto him for very long, because it's a garbage toy with a water-squirting action feature. Unless you're a member of The Masters of the Universe [Snout-Spout] or a goddamn Pokemon [Blastoise], don't ever find yourself saddled with a water-squirting action feature. You'll probably end up thrown away, and even I won't rescue you from that landfill, Ru-fi-oooh.<br />
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Until doing some quick research for the release years on these toys, I didn't know that The Fry Guys [or Fry Kids] were originally Hamburglar-esque villains. They were first called The French-Fry Gobblins, and were known to sing songs while stealing peoples' french-fries. My appreciation for these bizarre characters has since increased a hundredfold. I think they may have knocked Grimace from the top-spot in my Top Ten McDonaldland Inhabitants list that I plan on posting sometime in 2023.<br />
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Rounding out this hodgepodge trio is Taz Flash from the <i>Super Looney Tunes</i>. While originally intended to see release a year earlier, where it would run alongside Toy Biz's <i>DC Comics Super Heroes </i>toy-line, the Happy Meal wave was delayed until 1992, a year after the Toy Biz line was cancelled. Still, seeing the classic Warner Bros. characters dressed up in super-hero costumes was a pretty neat concept, and pairing Taz, the Tasmanian Devil, with The Flash was a brilliant move. The early '90s were big for both characters; The Flash had his own television series, which aired on CBS from 1990 to 1991, and Taz was riding high on the <i>Looney Tunes </i>resurgence of the decade, scoring his own animated series, <i>Taz-Mania</i>, and becoming one of the brand's flagship characters.<br />
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Unfortunately, I didn't save the best for last.<br />
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I'm not particularly fond of Garfield outside of his Halloween adventure, and seeing him dressed up for a jungle safari and smiling is pushing all the wrong buttons. I'd much rather that McDonald's had done up a series of Happy Meal toys based on Garfield's animated peers, the gang from <i>U.S Acres</i>. Safari Garfield isn't the worst thing in the world, I guess, but that doesn't ease the pain of never owning a Wade Duck toy.<br />
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There isn't much to say about Miss Piggy, either. She was part of the <i>Muppet Babies</i> set that was released in 1987, back when I didn't totally despise her character. Yeah, Miss Piggy is easily my least favorite Muppet, which I know isn't a particularly novel opinion. Everyone hates Piggy, right? She might end up along with Rufio in the nearest trash receptacle before I hit publish on this post. I could save her pink car for Garfield to use, but that fucking lazy, lasagna-loving cat might not be far behind.<br />
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I barely remember <i>Gravedale High,</i> a short-lived animated series featuring the voice of Rick Moranis, but the guy in the middle is the third Happy Meal toy based on it that I own. He's Sid, son of The Invisible Man, who was the class-clown impersonator in his monstrous high-school clique. Based on the rather cool giveaway toys I've acquired this last year, and from little I've read about the series, I'm really tempted to go back and watch the show. Most animated programs from '91 haven't held up very well, but any show that stars Ricki Lake as the voice of a chubby mummy-girl named Cleofatra can't be all bad.<br />
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Oh, and I lied about not saving the best for last.<br />
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Totally unrelated from all the talk of McDonald's Happy Meals is Batly the Bat, my absolute favorite character from <i>Eureeka's Castle</i>. I was perhaps a couple years too old to watch the children's show when it began airing on Nickelodeon back in '89, but I remember summer days spent at my grandparents' home, hanging out with my kid sister and my younger cousin and watching it. Pizza Hut released a trio of puppets the following year, and I have vague memories of my cousin having the Magellan the Dragon one.<br />
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I nearly lost my cool when I saw Batly stuffed in a grab-bag, packed in next to a Barbie doll and some lousy Spider-Man toy, hanging out on the toy-wall. Even if he didn't look like he might be Brain Gremlin's nerdy distant relative, there was no way that I was leaving him behind. Batly has already taken up permanent residence on a nearby stack of VHS and Betamax tapes, where I can glance over adoringly at him whenever the fuck I want.<br />
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Actually, I'm lucky I didn't get too distracted putting this all together with him only a couple feet away.the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-31072767807923767902015-12-27T17:13:00.000-08:002015-12-27T17:13:30.096-08:00Celebrating a Half-Life: Christmas Fallout 2015<br />
The plan was to leave this blog a desolate wasteland until The New Year hit. Yeah, the plan was to start fresh once the levels of radioactivity had petered out. To rise from the ashes like Jean Grey for the eighteenth time. Mutant and proud, we'd meet again in the not-too-distant future, with our faux hoverboards, our third eyes and our Pepsi Perfect. The plan got tossed out the window, however, once Chad [yes, the brains and beauty behind <a href="http://www.horrormoviebbq.com/">The Horror Movie BBQ</a>] called me out on Twitter to take part in a blog-wide Christmas Fallout event. There was no way that I could resist the opportunity to share screen-time with some of my absolute favorite bloggers.<br />
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So, okay, here we are.<br />
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The inaugural <b>Pop Pop! It's Trash Christmas Fallout</b>.<br />
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I am notoriously difficult to buy for when you're a relative and a casual consumer. My usual haunts are thrift shops, flea markets and garage sales. The urge to sift through other peoples' garbage flows through my blood, but seems to have thinned out a bit for the rest of the family. I can't expect my sisters or my mom to hit up Savers in order to pick me out a stellar grab-bag full of vintage action figures and random Happy Meal toys. No one seems to understand my obsession with dead media, so it's pretty unlikely I'll ever find some odd VHS titles wrapped under the Christmas tree.<br />
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That's all okay, but it maybe makes for a boring haul of gifts. I would never suggest that my friends and family aren't way-too-generous, because they are. I received all sorts of gift cards and clothes, and even a little bit of cold, hard cash. There wasn't a whole lot that had my engines revving with excitement, though. So, yeah, this will be a fairly incomplete illustration of all the goodies I got this holiday.<br />
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But the stuff I do highlight here?<br />
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Oh, it's all so fucking glorious.<br />
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One of the yearly traditions for my extended family is a Secret Santa Cousins' Gift Thing. We typically get the whole clan together the weekend before Christmas, and all of the cousins pick a name and then put together a gift for that selected family member. There's typically a lot of gift certificates given, and this year was no exception, but mine came with a little twist. My cousin, Rob, gave me a certificate to my local comic shop, but he also included a handful of titles straight from the dollar-bins. Without any real idea what titles I might enjoy, he managed to score some real winners.<br />
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Honestly, as much as I appreciate the credit to my favorite comic shop, I actually would have been satisfied with just this quartet of issues. I'm especially fond of <i>The Flash</i>, because it features one of my all-time favorite Z-grade villains, The Rainbow Raider.<br />
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Admission time: I've only seen one of these three titles before.<br />
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A few years back, several years back, I was living in California for a short bit. One lazy Sunday afternoon, stuck in bed and searching for something to watch, I stumbled upon <i>Miracle Mile</i> (1988) on some local affiliate station. It's a film that somehow eluded me for nearly two decades, but once I'd discovered it, well, I couldn't understand how I lived without it for so long. I've watched it multiple times since, and was thrilled to add a blu-ray copy to my collection. Totally underrated and so worth checking out.<br />
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The other two films, <i>Sorcerer</i> (1977) and <i>Roar </i>(1981), I only know by their reputations. They're both recently released on blu-ray, and they're both universally adored by any and all who have seen them. Much like I had originally intended for the blog, I'm holding off on watching these bad boys until 2016. I wanna start out the year B-I-G.<br />
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Jesus, that Cannon Films collection is an absolute beauty.<br />
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I only asked for a few things and <i>The Bombs, Babes & Blockbusters of Cannon Films</i> was at the top of my list. There are ten movies included in the set, and every single one of them is sheer '80s perfection. There's a veritable who's who of Cannon Films stalwarts [like Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren] featured, all of whom will keep you entertained for hours upon hours of brain-smashing action. Also, you'll finally get to see Skeletor conquer Eternia, while He-Man and the rest of the Masters of the Universe eat fried chicken and hang-out with Courtney Cox.<br />
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My family might not understand what I want most for Christmas, but I do have some truly dear friends that absolutely get what I'm all about. A package arrived just prior to the holiday, so while Miss M [my co-host on <a href="http://eclecticmayhem.libsyn.com/">Eclectic Mayhem</a>, and the fantastically darling blogger from <a href="http://www.diaryofadorkette.blogspot.com/">Diary of a Dorkette</a>] may not have intended it as a Christmas gift, I'm counting it as one. This is only a sampling of all the amazing things she sent, but they're the stuff I wanna show off most. I'm immediately reminded of being a kid again, wanting to brag about all the cool toys I got, and these are definitely the coolest toys I got for Christmas.<br />
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Look, it's Toxie! And Scar! A random Smurfette head..! <br />
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The inclusion of the Goldust WWF figure from Jakks is total nostalgic catnip. I was already a few years too old to be collecting these particular wrestling toys when they were first released back in the late '90s, but I was such an unapologetic fan of The Attitude Era that one of my last Christmases in high-school was practically devoted to action figures with "Bone-Crunching Sound". I've been going back-and-forth on rebuilding my collection of WWF toys, and this sorta' cross-dressing Dustin Rhodes might be the start of something. 2016 is gonna be big, remember?<br />
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Oh, and a Halle Berry Fucking Sucks pin?<br />
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I told you that Miss M really understands me.<br />
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Even the boring stuff, like new socks, is worth sharing. My sisters know how much I hate plain white socks and gifted me a whole slew of ridiculous pairs, including the ones seen here. You might think that Abominable Snowmen wielding candy-canes would only be appropriate to sport this time of year, but don't be surprised when I'm still rocking these during May and June and July.<br />
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I hope that everyone had their own wonderful holidays full of time spent with family, trips to the Nakatomi Plaza, and all the envious gift hauls you've dreamed of since you were six. I also wanna thank you all for taking the time to visit me, and please be sure to check out all the other participants in this year's Christmas Fallout extravaganza. Links below!<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">-- <a href="http://www.horrormoviebbq.com/2015/12/the-horror-movie-bbq-2015-christmas.html">The Horror Movie BBQ</a> -- <a href="http://dinosaurdracula.com/blog/christmas-fallout-2015/">Dinosaur Dracula</a> -- <a href="http://www.morbidmuch.com/2015/12/nicks-christmas-fallout-2015.html">Morbid Much</a> -- <a href="http://www.thestuntzombie.com/2015/12/stunt-zombies-christmas-fallout-2015.html">The Stunt Zombie</a> -- <a href="http://the-holidaze.blogspot.com/">The Holidaze</a> -- <a href="http://sexyarmpit.com/">The Sexy Armpit</a> -- <a href="http://www.thesewerden.com/">The Sewer Den</a> --</span><br />
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the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-89758722999632236672015-10-29T17:14:00.000-07:002015-10-29T17:14:58.640-07:00Waiting for October or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Be a Halloweenie<br />
There's only two days until Halloween.<br />
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This is both terribly exciting and absolutely gut-wrenching, like mixing candy bars and razor blades, pumpkin spice with anything. Two months spent in anticipation of a single day. Counting down entire weeks while absorbing every spooky movie possible and plenty of sugary sweets. Everything is spider webs, candy corn and trees ablaze with orange and red.<br />
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At least that's the idea.<br />
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I can't believe there's only a couple more days left, because it feels like I've barely begun to celebrate the season. Sure, yes, I've been watching essential seasonal cinema like <i>Ghoulies II </i>(1988) and <i>Addams Family Values</i> (1993), but it doesn't feel enough. There were big plans to post more content here, covering everything from vampire rabbits to shark-based board games. Maybe there would be an appearance by Dr. Phibes, too.<br />
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None of that happened, though. Becoming an adult, something I've avoided for years and years now, has absolutely been kicking my ass lately. Long work days that turned into naps when I got home. Too drained to attempt writing anything that celebrated my supposedly favorite holiday. Worrying about getting the bills paid when I should have been splurging on boxes of Count Chocula. No way for me to stay up late watching AMC's FearFest when I have to be up early the next morning to start the whole cycle over again.<br />
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Even the weather betrayed me; the first half of the month was unseasonably warm, nowhere near the hoodie-appropriate temperatures I craved. The leaves refusing to turn, to fall, until about a week ago. There were only a handful of days that were perfect, gloomy and cool, and they were spent inside at work. A retail hell that was already casting aside pumpkins and skeletons for Christmas decor and candy canes. It had become unbearable, nearly annihilating my love for this time of year, and especially this holiday.<br />
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Dire straits, indeed.<br />
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With only these final few days remaining, I've decided to do my best to salvage them. I'm not going to force things, though, instead indulging in the sort of stuff that should jump-start my blackened heart. Bringing me back from the verge of death like Frankenstein's Monster or Bud the C.H.U.D.<br />
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And we're gonna start with <i>The Adventures of Pete & Pete</i>.<br />
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Originally airing as a series of shorts on Nickelodeon starting in 1989, <i>Pete & Pete</i> would eventually evolve into a half-hour program that ran for three season (1993 to 1996). It followed the daily exploits of two brothers, Big Pete (Mike Maronna) and Little Pete (Danny Tamberelli), in the town of Wellsville, a seemingly normal suburb that was home to a variety of bizarre characters. The show was a unique blend of day-to-day living with absurd situations, and it appealed to its audience with its lo-fi sensibilities and the inclusion of several notable "indie" bands from the era, including The Magnetic Fields, Apples in Stereo and Drop Nineteens.<br />
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For me, living in the suburbs just south of Boston, <i>Pete & Pete </i>perfectly encapsulated what it was like to grow up in a small-town. Those gorgeous summer days spent outdoors, long bike-rides with your friends, Little League baseball games that ended with a trip to the local ice-cream stand for a treat. And, of course, Halloween. When you'd gather together with your siblings and friends, to trek from one neighborhood to the next, trying to score as many fun-size Three Musketeers as humanly possible.<br />
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In the season two episode, "Halloweenie", the Petes find themselves at odds when it comes to a spooktacular night of trick-or-treating. Big Pete believes he's too old to don a mask and go door-to-door with his kid brother in search of candy. He's terrified of being caught by his peers, where he'll be deemed a "Halloweenie" by classmates and left to a fate worse than death. Jaded with the holiday, he's even tempted to destroy a jack-o'-lantern. Driven to madness by this overwhelming urge, Big Pete smashes the pumpkin and breaks one of Halloween's cardinal rules. It appears he may be destined, doomed perhaps, to join The Pumpkin Eaters, a gang of mischievous youths hellbent on ending Halloween once and for all.<br />
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Meanwhile, Little Pete is obsessed with breaking <b>The Record</b> -- visiting the most houses in one night of trick-or-treating -- an act that will make him a legend. The task might prove impossible, however, when his best-friend, Nona (Michelle Trachtenberg), is forbidden to go out by her father [who's, uh, portrayed by Iggy Pop in one of his several appearances on the show]. Little Pete's only chance to attain immortality is to appeal to his older brother, convincing him to throw on a costume one last time in the name of All Hallow's Eve.<br />
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With the entire fate of Halloween now resting on their shoulders, the two brothers are forced to confront the horrors of "Endless" Mike Hellstrom (Rick Gomez) and The Pumpkin Eaters. And Big Pete, much like myself, must learn to embrace the youthful exuberance he'd nearly forgotten and love a holiday dedicated to ghosts, ghouls and mini Snickers bars.<br />
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<br />the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-2790020432474512542015-10-06T16:54:00.000-07:002015-10-06T16:54:10.807-07:00Total Tremors Tuesday<br />
October should be spent surrounded by creatures and spirits. I've done a pretty good job so far of doing just that, cramming at least one Halloween-appropriate flick into each day. The month started with giant naked ghouls hellbent on devouring mankind [<i>Attack on Titan </i>(2015)], and has since featured alien drug-dealers, cannibals, and half-man/half-fly hybrids. All perfectly macabre viewing material, paired with plenty of treats and the occasional group of friends. With the first week of my favorite season nearly at its end, seemingly passing by far too quickly, I have to pause in order to appreciate something really special.<br />
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The return of the Graboids.<br />
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Today marks the release of <i>Tremors 5: Bloodlines</i>, the latest installment of the <i>Tremors</i> franchise, and the first sequel in over ten years. I'd only recently become aware of the film's existence thanks to a trailer someone had posted a couple months back. Still, the last few weeks were spent wild with anticipation, counting down the days like it was the second coming of Christ or a new <i>Star Wars</i> movie or something. I grew up a huge fan of the original <i>Tremors </i>(1990); it was one of those oddball horror flicks that my dad couldn't wait to share with me. And since my teens were spent haunting the local video store, there were plenty of days spent familiarizing myself with the first sequel, <i>Tremors 2: Aftershocks </i>(1996). A couple more sequels and a short-lived television series later, and it was safe to declare myself in love with the entire franchise.<br />
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Returning alongside the Graboids is Michael Gross, reprising his role of gun-crazy "monster hunter" Burt Gummer. What started as a secondary role in the first two <i>Tremors</i>, Gross has since become the backbone of the entire franchise, appearing in all five films [he played Burt's ancestor, Hiram Gummer, in the 2004 prequel, <i>Tremors 4: The Legend Begins</i>], as well as every episode of the TV series. It's his performance as Burt that elevates even the weakest entry, and it saves <i>Tremors 5</i> from being just another CG-heavy monster movie.<br />
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The plot this time around finds Burt and his latest sidekick, Travis Welker [Jamie Kennedy], traveling to South Africa to deal with a sudden "ass-blaster" infestation at a wild-life preserve. Despite their constant bickering, the two must work together when they instead discover a mutant strain of Graboids that prove more a challenge than even the veteran monster-hunter had been anticipating. There are a few random twists along the way, as well as a handful of homages and one hilarious call-back to the original <i>Tremors</i> that I absolutely loved.<br />
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The end result is a serviceable addition to the franchise mythos, but there's little there that's note-worthy outside of Michael Gross' performance. Jamie Kennedy adds almost nothing to the proceedings, and I'd much rather have seen some familiar faces from the series' twenty-five year history in his place. While it's unlikely that Kevin Bacon will ever return as Val, it probably wouldn't have been too difficult to wrangle either Christopher Gartin [Grady Hoover from Part II] or Shawn Christian [Jack Sawyer in Part III] into making appearances.<br />
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Hell, I would have settled for a cameo from Melvin.the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-644369017729455862015-08-30T14:34:00.000-07:002015-08-30T17:44:19.956-07:00Be Kind, Please Rewind: The Price Is Right<br />
Sometimes the universe loves me.<br />
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I spent my morning off yesterday visiting one of my favorite thrift shops, a not-so-local Savers that I don't frequent as often as I'd like because of the distance. It's not clear across the state or anything, but it can occasionally take nearly an hour or so depending on traffic. The time spent getting there is usually worth it, though. Some of my absolute best finds have happened at that particular shop, and yesterday was no exception. Yesterday may have been my best score yet, and it didn't even happen there. Not really, at least.<br />
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While I was digging through tapes in the store's limited VHS section, an older gentleman suddenly spoke to me. Asking if I collected and watched videos still. I, of course, responded affirmatively. Although, I've actually cut back on purchasing tapes the last couple of months. Mostly it's because I haven't had much luck finding anything worth picking up. Constantly hitting the same few thrift shops and flea markets, where the selection rarely changes. Shelves lined with multiple copies of <i>Speed</i> (1994) or <i>The Lost World</i> (1997) that never go away, taking retail space away from the odder titles I might be hunting for.<br />
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He mentioned that the local library had boxes and boxes of VHS tapes that they were looking to get rid of.<br />
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And they were absolutely free.<br />
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This is the kind of scenario that I've been hoping to stumble onto since I started actively collecting tapes. It seems that all the video stores in the area closed before I considered rebuilding my collection, or they were too far away for me to justify raiding their inventory cleansing close-outs. Here was a public library, only a few minutes away, that was looking to purge their supposedly vast collection of tapes by giving them away. Thanking this mysterious messenger, I hurried off to check things out. The whole drive there was spent trying not to psyche myself up too much; worried that I'd be dreaming of the ultimate score, only for the whole thing to turn sour.<br />
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This is the first thing I saw when I walked into the library's main lobby. Carts loaded with tapes, a table littered with boxes full of more. There were signs hanging up all over that exclaimed that the VHS were free, but it was a limited time offer. In another two weeks, they'd all be gone, so take advantage now! Even with the evidence right in front of me, I was still nervous and hesitant. There was probably a limit on how many you could take, or maybe you had to have a card for the library. Whatever it was, well, there had to be a catch, didn't there?<br />
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Thankfully, there wasn't.<br />
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And, so, the hunt could now truly begin... <br />
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Another small room off to the side contained three more carts jammed full of former inventory. Titles that ranged decades, their labels marked <b>Discarded</b> in bold red letters. I was ecstatic. Rifling through the tapes, plucking some free and checking the condition. Oh, sure, the original boxes were mutilated; cut so they could fit in plastic cases that better fit the library's needs. I consider myself a collector, but I'm more interested in owning and watching the actual films, and less so with the condition of the case or sleeve. In a few short minutes, I'd already amassed a small pile. One of the library's employees, super-pleasant despite the fact I was there only to raid for free stuff, offered me a bag to set them in.<br />
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A few minutes later, she came back and asked if I wanted a box instead, because there was now another pile of titles sitting next to the overflowing paper bag she'd just given me.<br />
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After about an hour of searching, going through each cart and carton twice to make sure I didn't miss something in my overly-excited state, I decided to call it quits. I'd loaded the box with thirty-seven tapes, though I could have easily taken twice that. I was already feeling greedy, though, and couldn't justify taking duplicates of stuff I already owned simply because they were free. Besides, I've been stockpiling titles for years now in various formats, and I'm already wondering how I'll get around to watching them all. Maybe eventually I'll make time for them.<br />
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Otherwise, I've just been acquiring all these tapes that will one day serve as my tomb.<br />
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That, uh, actually sounds more plausible.<br />
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Here's my entire haul tucked away in the box I lugged to my car after leaving. It's a pretty solid selection of films, ranging from classic sci-fi flicks to neo-noir to art-house darlings. I'd originally intended to give a good look at everything I grabbed, but have decided instead to highlight the picks that had me most excited. Some of them actually had me on the verge of shouting for joy, which would have been both embarrassing and totally inappropriate considering my surroundings.<br />
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I've written and spoken about <i>Attack of the Killer Tomatoes </i>(1978) several times in the past, but this is the first time that I've owned the original film in any format. And while I'm a bigger fan of its immediate sequel, the movie that started it all was a must-have for me. I still have a difficult time wrapping my head around the fact that we live in a world where this low-budget, "musical-comedy-horror show" spawned three sequels, an animated series, and a fair amount of merchandise in the early '90s.<br />
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It makes me glad to be alive.<br />
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I have a bit of a history with both <i>Lone Star </i>(1996) and <i>Devil in a Blue Dress</i> (1995).<br />
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Back in college, I was lucky enough to have some friends who were just as obsessed with discovering new films as I was. This meant renting stuff we might otherwise have ignored without the others' input, and here's a pair of titles that we discovered thanks to our shared love for cinema. I haven't seen either in over a decade, but I'm glad that I can revisit, and hopefully enjoy, them again.<br />
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Trash Man Trivia: <i>Lone Star</i> (1996) was one of my Staff Picks at <b>20/20 Video</b>, the store I worked at while I was living in West Hollywood. I don't think anyone ever rented it.<br />
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A small selection of "classic" horror and sci-fi films, including one of my all-time favorites, <i>Them! </i>(1954). I have very specific plans for these tapes; I'm not gonna rush into watching them like some of the others I picked out, instead saving them for part of my Halloween season. I always like having a steady mix of older and newer horror flicks for the holiday, and <i>The Mummy's Hand</i> (1940) is a perfect inclusion with its Universal Studios roots.<br />
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Also, I'm really pumped for <i>The Day of the Triffids </i>(1962). I've attempted to read the source novel on a couple of occasions, but always found it a little dry and unappealing. The film, however, I've only ever heard really good things about. We shall see, I suppose, as the days get shorter and the leaves begin to fall.<br />
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FUCK YES.<br />
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This is one of those finds that nearly had me whooping and hollering to the heavens. I'm a life-long fan of Toho's giant monsters, practically raised by Ghidorah and Rodan from the get-go. And while I already own several of Godzilla's team-ups with her, I've never owned <i>Mothra</i> (1961) before today. I'm an absolute sucker for this film, and the theme alone [performed by The Peanuts, Emi and Yumi Itō] is enough to give me chills.<br />
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It's also another film that I'll be saving for a night closer to Halloween.<br />
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There are a lot more goodies that I grabbed, but I'll wait on showing those off until a later date.<br />
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Except this one, because who doesn't love The Creature..?the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-56354268600070262262015-08-07T15:11:00.000-07:002015-08-07T15:11:49.666-07:00The Ballad of Smiling But Sad Monster Stan<br />
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Take a moment and look at that happy fellow up above. You'd never guess that he'd been left to rot his remaining days away on a shelf at the local thrift shop by his creator, Brent.<br />
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It's unclear what kind of kid that Brent was back in 1996 when he first gave birth to this beautiful, and beautifully sculpted, monstrosity. Maybe he was an oddball, picked on by his classmates for preferring <i>X-Files</i> to Monday Night Football, picking comic books over kick-ball. Or perhaps he was universally admired for his creativity; spending his days playing bass in a ska band and his nights perfecting his craft creating strange little creatures from clay. Whoever he was back in '96, it doesn't matter, because Brent grew up heartless and cold. More a monster than his forgotten "child" could ever dream to be.<br />
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[And if you're curious how I knew that Brent sculpted this nearly two decades ago, well, the bottom of this monster's feet are branded with both details. I am super-observant, yo.] <br />
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I stumbled upon this gnarly purple oddity last night at Savers, and was unsure if I should spend the dollar ninety-nine they were asking for it. It certainly wasn't the price that had me weighing the pros and cons of owning such a majestic piece of pop-art. No, not the price at all. Two bucks was a pretty swell deal for such a unique find. I probably would have paid twice the asking price.<br />
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It was the aura of sadness that an item like this carries.<br />
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Someone took the time and patience to create it. Regardless the amateurish quality, the inconsistencies and the minor imperfections, Brent was so inspired to let this wild, bizarre thing free from his brain. Maybe it was just some assignment, a grade he had to earn in his sculpture class. I prefer to think that this was a passion project, something he considered fun and cool that he just had to make to get it out of his head. A goofy, ghoulish creature that would have stayed with him forever and ever, unless he made it a real, physical thing.<br />
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I imagine that it sat on a shelf in his bedroom all through high school. It could have traveled with him to college, where it would occasionally freak out his roommate in the early morning when he was just waking up. Or the beast may have suffered a fate worse than death. Packed away and forgotten, wasting away in a basement, until the fateful and tragic day came when Brent's dad finally hauled off the box that contained it. Left it with an old stereo and Brent's childhood bicycle at a nearby donation center.<br />
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Days would pass, uncertain and terrifying, before this purple wretch would find its way on a shelf at Savers. Where a wandering Trash Man would finally encounter it -- him -- and take him away to a safer place.<br />
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Yeah, of course I wasn't going to leave him behind. Despite my initial uncertainty, I knew that I had to give <b>Stanley</b> a better home than others probably would. Even though he isn't a toy, I still had flashes of some parent buying it for their whining child, because the price wasn't too shabby and it would shut them up for a minute. Stanley would be broken within a day or two, swept up and thrown away. I couldn't bear the thought of him destroyed or tossed aside. He deserved to live out the rest of his days amongst other oddities, where he would be appreciated for his uniqueness, quirkiness and kinda' shoddy quality.<br />
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Really, he's perfect for me and I hope that I can be perfect for him, too.<br />
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[Oh, and for those of you who might be wondering why I named him Stanley, I'll leave you with this random Silver Age comic book cover...]<br />
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the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-58984599124576627852015-07-19T13:23:00.000-07:002015-07-19T13:23:07.126-07:00It Came From the Five-Dollar Bin: Transform and Roll Out<br />
I've got a big post that I'm working on that ties directly into the latest episode of <a href="http://eclecticmayhem.libsyn.com/">Eclectic Mayhem</a>. For those of you not already in the know, that would be the podcast I started up with Derek [<a href="http://goodwillhunting4geeks.blogspot.com/">Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks</a>], Miss M [<a href="http://diaryofadorkette.blogspot.com/">Diary of a Dorkette</a>], and Jason Roberts [<a href="http://nerdylifeofmine.com/">Nerdy Life of Mine</a>] a few months back. The related post has turned into a much larger project than I was originally anticipating, and I figured I'd do a smaller one in the meantime, so the blog doesn't have another large gap between content.<br />
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So!<br />
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My local comic shop has been a boon when it comes to finding great deals; everything from the dollar-bin comics to cheap trades, mystery grab-boxes and tons of carded action figures at low, low prices. One of my favorite spots to peruse is a large box tucked aside near their wall of toys and collectibles. It's just a large, generic cardboard box with a printed out sign that exclaims, "Five Dollar Blow-Out!". Or, well, something like that. The long and short of it is the fact that everything within that box is only five dollars.<br />
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I thought it might be nice to start doing a semi-regular feature where I highlight some of the stupid, sorta'-cheap items that I pick up from the aforementioned box. So, let's take a quick look at today's five-dollar find.<br />
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<a href="https://www.theloyalsubjects.com/"><b>The Loyal Subjects</b></a> is an art toy company that focuses primarily on releasing 3-inch, vinyl figures from preexisting, licensed properties like <i>G.I.Joe</i>, <i>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles</i>, and <i>The Transformers</i>. I don't normally collect their stuff, mostly because I'm not really into modern-era collectibles, even when they represent an iconic brand from my childhood. I will occasionally make an exception, particularly if I can get a solid deal on them. When I noticed a couple of their Transformers Series 2 Blind Box sitting there, for a measly five bucks, there was no way I was gonna pass on one of 'em.<br />
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Each wave contains an equal amount of Autobots and Decepticons; Series 2 features four characters from each faction. I was really hoping to unwrap one of the bad guys, since I've always preferred the conniving Decepticons to their heroic Cybertronian peers, but after glancing at the package, I would have been satisfied with any one of the eight figures.<br />
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Or so I thought. <br />
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Ah, Sideswipe.<br />
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He wasn't quite the one I wanted least [that honor belonged to Mirage], but when the other Autobots in the wave included a Dinobot and Prowl, well, I feel a little gypped. Plus, despite Sideswipe actually being a pretty cool character within the G1 <i>Transformers</i> continuity, it's his Generation 2 aesthetic that I love the most. Something about him in jet black, with ridiculous neon green decals, it just reves my engine more than his traditional red n' black color-scheme.<br />
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Oh well.<br />
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I shouldn't complain, because normally the Series 2 Blind Box retail for twice what I paid for him. It just doesn't feel like Sideswipe will find a permanent home in my collection, though.<br />
the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-41328755294759435982015-07-04T19:29:00.000-07:002015-07-04T19:29:02.398-07:00He Wants You... Dead: Uncle Sam (1997) <br />
Happy Fourth of July, all.<br />
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I'm sure most of you are out and about, enjoying fireworks and barbecues and spending time with family, but some of us have mixed up priorities. Some of us like to spend our Independence Days watching nearly twenty-year old horror films with murderous patriotic icons. Actually, I'm pretty sure that it's just me and maybe a deranged ex-video store clerk hellbent on recreating the perfect summers of yesteryear. And even that ex-video store employee might be me, too.<br />
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I'd never seen <i>Uncle Sam</i> (1997) before today, but I do remember it vividly from my days working at <b>Video Showplace</b> in the late '90s. I can still picture it sitting on the shelf, its lenticular cover beckoning, practically commanding that I go over and check it out immediately. Quietly telling me to ignore the thousands of other tapes that surrounded us. To take it home and watch it repeatedly, never-ending, until the day I die.<br />
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Obviously, that didn't happen.<br />
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My appreciation for the horror genre was still in its infancy, and I had bigger and better films to embrace before giving <i>Uncle Sam</i> a chance. If I had paid attention to the talents involved in the movie, however, it's possible I wouldn't have waited nearly two decades to finally watch it. The director, William Lustig, is perhaps best known for the cult-classic <i>Maniac </i>(1980), as well as his later films, <i>Vigilante </i>(1983) and the original <i>Maniac Cop</i> (1988). And the film's writer, a regular collaborator of Lustig's, is none other than the great Larry Cohen. I've become a huge admirer of Cohen over the years, especially his work on <i>Q, The Winged Serpent </i>(1982) and <i>The Stuff</i> (1985).<br />
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Plus, the cast includes a who's who of fantastic character actors, including Isaac Hayes, P.J Soles, and Robert Forster.<br />
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Based on the crew assembled, you might think that <i>Uncle Sam</i> is some under-appreciated classic, perhaps lost in the shuffle of a post-<i>Scream</i> world of meta-horror, simply waiting to be rediscovered. Unfortunately, that isn't quite the case. I'm not suggesting that it's a bad film; it's definitely worth watching, regardless of its reputation on sites like <b>IMDB</b> or <b>Letterboxd</b>. The material isn't anything ground-breaking, but the combined abilities of genre stalwarts in Cohen and Lustig definitely raise the film higher than many of its peers from that particular era of direct-to-video slashers.<br />
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The premise is a fairly basic one-- after Sgt. Sam Harper (David Fralick) is killed by "friendly-fire" during a mission in Kuwait, his body is returned to his hometown for a proper, heroic burial. Through some unknown means, the recently deceased soldier rises from the grave to seek revenge on those that he deems unpatriotic. What starts as punishing the corrupt and immoral, however, quickly transforms into a murderous rampage that will spare no-one. It's revealed over the course of the film that Sam wasn't the all-American hero that his nephew, Jodi (Christopher Ogden), believed him to be, but instead an abusive, kill-crazy maniac. Jodi must work with his Aunt Louise (Anne Tremko) and a former sergeant, Jed Crowley (Isaac Hayes), to finally put <b>Uncle Sam</b> to rest.<br />
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I doubt watching this film<i> </i>will become a yearly tradition, but I certainly won't hesitate to see it again from time-to-time.<br />
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the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-27892526955133489262015-05-17T14:01:00.000-07:002015-05-17T14:01:43.394-07:00Flea Market Finds: Whatever Happened to Dead-Eye Duck?<br />
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My Sundays off are mostly spent at the local flea market, a few towns over, twenty minutes or so from home-base. Attending so frequently, well, I don't usually find anything big enough worth sharing here. The vendors rarely change, their wares even less so, but I still go a couple times a month, more out of habit than anything else. This weekend, I was able to deviate from my normal, boring routine, thanks to the semi-annual Rotary Flea Market at the nearby Marshfield Fair Grounds.<br />
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This is the first one I've visited in several years; the last one was a particularly rainy Sunday, with few sellers and fewer attendees, and it kinda' soiled me on revisiting. Until today, where I spent a fair amount more than I was expecting to, but also walked away with quite a lot more goodies than I could have anticipated. We're gonna take a look at what exactly I scored, broken down by vendor.<br />
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The very first table to grab my attention, maybe five minutes in, was mostly knick-knacks and worn dinnerware, but stacked up on the far end were several board-games and puzzles. That pile happened to include three of the four <i>G.I.Joe </i>Mural Puzzles from 1987. The woman selling them said that she couldn't guarantee that they had all pieces accounted for, a detail I told her didn't matter, especially when she asked for two-bucks a pop. I was tempted to grab all three, but decided to settle on getting just one, because I'd only just arrived a few minutes before. No need to piss away what little cash I brought along on my first find of the day.<br />
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Of course, I picked the puzzle that happens to include one of my all-time favorite Cobra agents, <b>Croc Master</b>.<br />
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Table two was located directly across from the first, and I almost passed it by. It appeared to be just another seller with tchotchkes to spare, but sitting at the end of the booth, nearly tucked away under a table, was a storage bin full of loose action figures and vehicles. What you see above is the small selection that I secured for a mere seven dollars. A couple of them, <b>Casey Jones</b> and <b>Walkabout</b> [both from the original run of <i>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles</i>], are duplicates for me, but I couldn't pass them up for so cheap. Likewise, I wasn't super-interested in the generic Kung-fu master in the yellow gi, not until the seller named his price. Turns out that Mr. Karate Man is actually from an old Remco line called <i>Secret of the Ninja</i>. You may see more of him in a little bit.<b> </b><br />
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<b>Snout-Spout</b>, alias Hose-Nose, is obviously from the tail-end of the <i>Masters of the Universe</i> line, and he's actually a figure I was sorta' hoping to find today. I don't actively collect vintage <i>MotU</i> toys, but he's one of the few that I had to have. Another childhood favorite once more in my possession.<br />
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That just leaves <b>Guile</b> from the <i>Street Fighter</i> sub-set of <i>G.I.Joe: A Real American Hero </i>circa the early '90s. Sonic boom.<br />
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<br />And here's the mini-haul, the bulk of what I purchased today, all snagged from a single seller. His booth was the most enticing at the show, with a complete set-up of vintage <i>Star Wars</i> and <i>Space: 1999 </i>toys to draw in collectors. I discovered that he also runs a comic and toy shop in the same town the flea market took place, and given the deals he cut me, I'll be stopping in sooner rather than later.<br />
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I wanna take a better look at this odd-ball menagerie, so bare with me as I discuss homicidal sheep and four-armed ducks in closer detail.<br />
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Power X-Treme!<br />
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I was a huge fan of <i>The Centurions</i> animated series back in the day, but was never able to score any of the accompanying toy-line. They were a little too expensive compared to smaller scaled contemporaries like <i>GoBots </i>or <i>M.U.S.C.L.E</i>, and I was content to collect cheaper stuff in bulk. Today, for a single dollar, I was finally able to add <b>Jake Rockwell</b>, the team's Land Operations Specialist, to my collection. I doubt that I'll ever be able to find any of his module armor for cheap, but I'm happy to settle for this guy sitting on a shelf as is.<br />
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I wasn't sure what this pair of Greaser-esque dinos actually were; I was, however, entirely enthralled at the mere sight of them. Completely ridiculous with their mohawks and sunglasses, looking like the cast of ABC's <i>Dinosaurs</i> recreating <i>Happy Days</i>, I couldn't leave them behind. A little bit of research revealed their identities, <b>Crank</b> and <b>Tarr</b> from the <i>B.C Bikers</i> line, originally released by Ace Novelty in 1993. I thought maybe figuring out who they were would jog my memory, but somehow this series managed to evade me during my pre-teen collecting years.<br />
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<br />This guy I recognized immediately, but really, who could forget the true face of evil?<br />
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<b>The Overlord</b> was the main antagonist on the old <i>Blackstar</i> cartoon, Filmation's precursor to <i>He-Man and The Masters of the Universe</i> from the very early '80s. Again, here's a toy-line that I didn't collect as a kid, but have a total appreciation for these days. He'll look good hanging out with Skeletor, Mumm-Ra and the rest of his bad-guy brethren.<br />
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It's no coincidence that I keep mentioning <i>Masters of the Universe</i> and here we have one of Remco's many knock-offs of Mattel's blockbuster brand, <b>Arak, Son of Thunder</b>. He was part of a collection called <i>The Lost World of Warlord</i>, which featured several characters from DC Comics' Bronze Age fantasy titles line-up. I've somehow owned the first sixteen issues of Arak's self-titled series the last few years and have yet to read them. It looks like that is about to change, though.<br />
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Or, well, maybe not.<br />
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I told you before that we hadn't seen the last of Remco's <i>Secret of the Ninja</i>. Here's another master of ninjitsu, this one garbed in black, that I probably would have passed on if he hadn't been so damn inexpensive. There's, uh, not really a lot more to say about him outside of his cheapness. Cheap, I think, perfectly encapsulates Remco's toys as a whole, and especially this unnamed ninja warrior.<br />
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Oh yeah.<b> </b><br />
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<b>Playmates Toys </b>claim to fame may have been <i>TMNT</i>, but they produced a slew of equally bizarre and brilliant toy-lines during the same period as <i>Ninja Turtles</i> original run. <i>Barnyard Commandos</i> hasn't stood the test of time as well as their mutant peers, but it's a series that I was absolutely obsessed with for a brief time. I had a complete set of Series 1 figures, as well as a couple vehicles, but they quickly fell out of favor when I got more into comic books and video games. I remember selling them off at a family yard-sale, an act of betrayal that I wouldn't regret until a few years ago.<br />
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It's not a series that I've set out to reclaim, but when I saw a complete <b>Woolly Pullover</b>, the R.A.M.S resident would-be Rambo, there was no going back. He's easily one of my favorite finds from today.<br />
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Hooves down.<br />
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The number one position actually goes to this guy, <b>Dead-Eye Duck</b>, gunner extraordinaire and ship-mate to Captain <i>Bucky O'Hare</i>. Another series that owes its existence to <i>TMNT, </i>the <i>Bucky O'Hare</i> line was based on a small-press, black-and-white comic book created by the legendary Larry Hama and artist Mike Golden. It's also another staple toy-line from my youth, one I've slowly been rebuilding in secret the last couple years.<br />
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Like Snout-Spout, Dead-Eye was one of the action figures I was hoping to find while rifling through the cheap bins. He cost me a dollar, but I gladly would have paid twice that to take him home.<br />
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Moving into new territory, we're now looking at my finds from the last table I hit before calling it a day. The seller didn't have much, a half-box of .50-cent comics and some odd, loose collectibles. The two pieces that I had to have were a vintage <i>G.I.Joe</i> thermos, featuring the Class of '85 [which includes fan-favorites like Shipwreck, Quick-Kick and "Commando" Snake-Eyes], and an absolutely incredible <i>Darkwing Duck</i> night-light. The two packs of <i>Dinosaurs Attack! </i>trading cards were added to the mix to sweeten the deal, even though I already own a complete set.<br />
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I also grabbed an issue of <i>Weird War Tales</i>, because I can't resist <b>The Creature Commandos </b>facing off against Hitler. I like to imagine a retroactive continuity where The Commandos end the war after tearing Adolf limb-from-limb, and I'm hoping this comic somehow knows that.<br />
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Oh, right, the <i>A-Team</i> Action Activity Book. Yeah, despite being a huge fan of the TV series as a kid, I'm not particularly nostalgic for B.A and the gang. The guy only wanted a half-dollar for it, since I'd already bought the other items, so I handed him a couple quarters and wished him a good day of selling.<br />
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And the night-light works, which is probably<b> the greatest thing ever</b>.<br />
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the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-20535810646852702782015-04-14T18:25:00.000-07:002015-04-14T18:25:16.236-07:00Total Trash Tuesday: The Grim Adventures of Avengers Grimm<br />
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Join Earth's Mightiest Heroes as they battle an ancient evil hellbent on plunging the world into darkness.<br />
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Actually, no, sorry, wrong film. This is actually the one where Little Red Riding Hood becomes Casper Van Dien's mindless pawn in his war against Snow White and Rapunzel.<br />
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Yeah, by now, we should all be familiar with <b>The</b> <b>Asylum </b>and their unique brand of low-budget film-making. Best known for throwback monster-disaster hybrids like <i>Sharknado</i> (2013) and <i>Mega Piranha </i>(2010), their other claim to fame is an ongoing series of "mockbusters"; films that attempt to cash-in on the popularity of bigger budget, Hollywood-produced movies. Stuff like <i>Snakes on a Train </i>(2006), <i>Transmorphers: Fall of Man </i>(2009), and <i>Atlantic Rim</i> (2013).<br />
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<i>Avengers Grimm</i> (2015) falls into the latter category, obviously.<br />
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Released two weeks before Marvel Studio's <i>Avengers: Age of Ultron</i>, the film features a team of heroines, not ripped from the pages of comic books, but instead Grimm's Fairy Tales. A quartet of princesses, led by Snow White (Lauren Parkinson), are confronted by the evil of Rumpelstiltskin (Casper Van Dien), and they must save two worlds from his devious plot. Also along for the adventure is the non-princess Little Red Riding Hood (Elizabeth Peterson), whose only agenda is getting revenge on the creature responsible for killing her entire village, The Wolf (played by former MMA fighter, Kimo Leopoldo).<br />
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The bulk of the plot revolves around The Magic Mirror, which is able to open portals to the real world, a world without magic, a world that Rumpelstiltskin wants to claim as his own. Due to Snow White's interference, both herself and Rumpel end up stranded on Earth, and the remaining princesses must travel across dimensions to find their friend and put an end to their wicked enemy once and for all. Red's there, too, much to the others' chagrin, constantly on the hunt for The Wolf and somehow getting mixed up with a random gang led by "Iron John" (Lou Ferrigno).<br />
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It wasn't bad enough that The Asylum was ripping off The Avengers' name, they also had to include the original live-action Hulk in the proceedings to take it one step further. Still, it's probably a good thing that Lou was all too familiar with ridiculous body-paint throughout his career, because about half-way through the film, well, Rumpel's magic literally transforms him into an "Iron Man". Complete with shoddy make-up that makes him look sorta' like Schwarzenegger's Mr. Freeze from <i>Batman & Robin</i> (1997).<br />
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Oh, and the magically-adept princesses all have their own special abilities. Snow White can control cold and form ice-daggers, naturally, because her name is Snow. Cinderella (Milynn Sarley) is able to transform items into other items [no idea why], and Sleeping Beauty (Marah Fairclough) casts spells that instantly put people to sleep [duh]. <br />
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Also, Rapunzel (Rileah Vanderbilt) has long hair that's, like, a weapon, I guess?<br />
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I don't know, but she uses it to fight Iron-Hulk a few times. It's, uh, it's all pretty stupid.<br />
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Look, no one is going to argue that there's anything artistically redeeming in any of Asylum's output, least of all this particular entry. I doubt that anyone willing to subject themselves to <i>Avengers Grimm</i> (2015) is looking to discover some new cinematic masterpiece, but instead the opportunity to shutdown their brains and enjoy watching some harmless fantasy fluff. If that's what you're looking for, sure, there's probably better places to start, but the film is entertaining enough and mostly harmless. And with a brisk run-time of only 87-minutes, it's worth checking out at least once.<br />
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The short and sweet is that it's competently made and far from the studio's worst offense, which is about the best you can ask for with this sort of thing.<br />
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the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-28510800465627431972015-03-13T12:00:00.000-07:002015-03-13T12:00:02.225-07:00The 13 Days of Friday the 13th: Day Thirteen<br />
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Happy Friday the 13th, all.<br />
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Despite a few bumps in the road, we've finally arrived at our final destination; back to Camp Crystal Lake where it all began. The place where a young boy drowned once upon a time, and the monster known as Jason Voorhees was born.<br />
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Actually, that's not entirely true.<br />
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The part about Jason and Crystal Lake is totally true, but it's the talk about arrivals and destinations that's pretty much false. See, my own journey through the <i>Friday the 13th</i> series might be over, but the real adventure is just getting started. I should be, at the time of this scheduled posting, somewhere about half-way between my home and Cherry Hill, New Jersey. What's waiting for me there is <a href="http://www.monstermania.net/"><b>Monster Mania XXX</b></a>, a weekend long celebration of everything macabre. <br />
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Sean Cunningham, the man most responsible for creating the series, will be there. Kane Hodder, the most famous actor to portray Jason, will be there, too. So will the franchise's very first "final girl", Adrienne King. Oh, and let's not forget Ari Lehman, who was the original, water-logged, kid-version of Jason. There may also be a Tommy Jarvis or two, but since Corey Feldman <b>won't</b> be there, well, who cares?<br />
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Nah, I'm just playing, John Shepherd. You did the best you could with <i>Part V</i>. <br />
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So, obviously, with me away and no films left to cover [except for the ones I watched and neglected to write about?], today's entry is a festive place-holder. I'll be back from Monster Mania on Sunday, and I'm hoping to have lots to share following a weekend of horrors, cosplayers and Judge Reinhold.<br />
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Stay tuned, kids, and I hope you have the merriest of Friday the 13ths..!<br />
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<br />the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-25119226842473250412015-03-12T07:15:00.000-07:002015-03-12T07:15:40.370-07:00The 13 Days of Friday the 13th: Day Seven<br />
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You may have noticed the sudden drop in posts, the daily updates that stopped several days back. I'll admit, I wasn't expecting <b>The 13 Days of Friday the 13th</b> to be such a daunting task. Really, how tough is it to watch one movie a day and then write a little something about it? Probably not that difficult if I'd been mixing up the play-list a little, but when you're tackling a twelve-film franchise, one where the basic formula doesn't change much from entry to entry, it gets old fast. I could only take so much murder and mayhem, so many jump scares and final girls and, man, that theme can get repetitive and obnoxious really fast.<br />
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So, yes, I cheated a little bit and skipped a few days. <i>Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood </i>(1988) was viewed on Saturday, but I left a draft unfinished into the next day, and then the next one, and here we are on Day 12 and I've got to try and wrap this series up.<br />
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The rest of my day today will involve watching the remainder of the <i>Friday the 13th</i> films. I'll be posting about them later, though it will all be encompassed in a single entry, and it'll probably just be some quick thoughts and impressions. The idea was to familiarize myself with the entire series before tomorrow, because, well, I guess you'll just have to wait and see why. I promise not to skip out and leave you high and dry.<br />
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Oh, and here's what I had for <i>Part VII</i> so far.<br />
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Here we are, the seventh day, and we've reached the last of the series that's brand-new to me. Continuing on through the remainder will be retreading old territory, though it's been several years since I've watched the majority of them. Oddly enough, it's <i>Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood</i> (1988) that I knew the least about going into. Except for the addition of Tina Shepard (Lar Park Lincoln), the girl with psychic abilities that put Carrie's to shame, I didn't know what else to expect.<br />
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Stunt-man turned actor, Kane Hodder, finally tackles the role of Jason Voorhees, picking up the mask and the machete for the first of his record four appearances. Where he's always been terrifying before, it's this particular entry that Jason becomes a much more intimidating physical presence. Hodder adds this weight to the character, his every step, and every swing of an axe or knife, feels heavy, powerful. Despite his decayed appearance, Jason has finally reached the pinnacle of his transformation through the series, becoming the unstoppable undead monster with superhuman strength.<br />
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No wonder the filmmakers had to give poor Tina her own special abilities in order to stand up to and to survive Jason's wrath.the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-34580973364363000192015-03-07T20:16:00.000-08:002015-03-07T20:16:28.742-08:00The 13 Days of Friday the 13th: Day Six<br />
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Despite having never seen <i>Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives</i> (1986) before today, the version of Jason Voorhees presented here is the one most familiar to me. Sure, he may have donned the trademark hockey mask a few films back, but it wasn't until his unnatural resurrection that he would become <b>the</b> Jason from my childhood. The undead killer with superhuman strength, impervious to pain and completely unstoppable. A shambling corpse, hellbent on murder and mayhem, who refuses to truly die.<br />
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The filmmakers, director Tom McLoughlin and the producers at Paramount, decided to ignore the events at the end of the previous installment. Tommy Jarvis is back, this time portrayed by Thom Mathews, but instead of picking up where he left off in <i>A New Beginning</i> (1985), taking up the mask and the mantle, instead he's determined to destroy the evil once and for all. Digging up Jason's grave in an attempt to burn the body, Tommy accidentally brings the killer back to life.<br />
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Hilarity ensues.<br />
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Actually, that's only partially untrue. I mean, really, talk about your drastic tonal shifts from film to film. Where <i>Part V</i> bordered on unpleasant, here the viewers are given an almost goofy, tongue-in-cheek slasher. It's still drenched in gore and death, but there's definitely more humor on display than any of the previous entries. There are even moments of breaking the fourth wall, like when the graveyard caretaker questions "why they had to go and dig up Jason" while looking directly at the audience.<br />
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It's all very meta.<br />
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One of my favorite elements is the inclusion of Sheriff Mike Garris (David Kagen) as one of the main characters. His daughter, Megan (Jennifer Cooke), fills the role of "final girl" for <i>Part VI</i>, but the sheriff himself is more than just another victim for Jason to slaughter. And while, no, he doesn't survive until the film's end, Sheriff Garris is the only adult in the franchise so far to truly take a stand against the relentless horror of Jason Voorhees.<br />
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the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-76972674211157810622015-03-06T19:06:00.000-08:002015-03-06T19:06:29.510-08:00The 13 Days of Friday the 13th: Day Five<br />
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Five films into the series and we've finally found one that I've seen before.<br />
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Flashback to September 13th, 2013. A younger Trash Man decides to properly celebrate the holiday by viewing <i>Friday the 13th: A New Beginning </i>(1985) on VHS. Don't question why he chose this particular entry, especially considering he already knew the "twist" that the killer [spoiler ahead, mates] wasn't Jason Voorhees at all, but instead someone else posing as him. Especially considering the fact he hadn't seen <b>any</b> of the four films that proceeded it. What a weird kid, that Trash Man, arbitrarily deciding to view this installment back then and really liking it, too.<br />
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Now, however, having seen it for a second time and less than twenty-four hours after watching <i>Part IV </i>(1984), I'm feeling a little less generous. It doesn't come close, not even remotely so, to being anywhere near as enjoyable as the films that came before. The movie's major flaw is its overwhelming cast of characters, many of whom add nothing to further the plot, and serve only to ensure a high body-count and constant, gruesome deaths. Taking the concept of throwaway characters to ludicrous extremes, the ensemble includes a coke-snorting hospital attendant and his random waitress girlfriend, an apparent red-herring who's killed off almost immediately, and two leather-clad greasers who appear to have stepped out of a completely different movie.<br />
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It's a stark contrast to the previous film in that there doesn't seem to be any likable characters present, especially the now older Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd). There are moments when Tommy is almost sympathetic; his earlier confrontation with Jason has obviously left him emotionally and mentally battered. After spending years in an institution, he's finally released into the care of Pam Roberts (Melanie Kinnaman) and Matt (Richard Young), directors at Pinehurst, a halfway house designed to reintegrate him back into normal society. Tommy seems too far gone, though, and quickly goes from troubled kid to full-blown wreck; constantly hallucinating of Jason, and even attacking one of his housemates.<br />
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The only interesting character addition to the franchise is Reggie (Shavar Ross), a charismatic youth whose grandfather works at Pinehurst as a cook. Unfortunately, he's saddled with playing sidekick to Pam and Tommy, and, aside from a fantastic scene where he hits Faux-Jason with a tractor, does little else.<br />
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Speaking of The Jason Who Wasn't Really Jason.<br />
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I know that many fans didn't care for the fact that another character dressed up as and pretended to be Jason, but I'm not one of them. I sorta' enjoy what it adds to the franchise's mythos; that Jason Voorhees has become a notorious "celebrity" within this universe. So much a legend that it's inspired a copycat killer in Roy Burns (Dick Wieand). Plus, I love the fact that Roy is motivated to take on the mantle of Jason and murder the residents of Pinehurst in order to avenge the death of his son, Joey (Dominick Brascia). It echoes back to the original film, to Pamela Voorhees' rampage at Camp Crystal Lake, the very same event that lead to Jason's transformation into a masked murderer.<br />
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<br />the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-70502094869393334852015-03-05T16:26:00.000-08:002015-03-05T16:26:39.770-08:00The 13 Days of Friday the 13th: Day Four<br />
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<b>Holy Jesus jumping Christmas shit!</b><br />
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I was already aware the reputation of <i>Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter</i> (1984) as the fan-favorite sequel. I've read multiple reviews; all the other blogs and sites raving about this particular installment. Hell, I even caught the last ten minutes or so a couple years back and really dug it. I was not, however, expecting it to instantly become one of my all-time favorite slasher films.<br />
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And yet, here we are.<br />
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Released two years after <i>Part III</i> (1982), it was originally billed as being the last in the series. One final trip to Camp Crystal Lake for all the not-so-good boys and girls, sitting around campfires and sneaking off to skinny dip when the sun goes down. Just enough time left to play some pranks, smoke some pot, and really enjoy all the fresh air and the crickets chirping. Oh, and bid a fond farewell to Jason Voorhees and his unparallelled murder record.<br />
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The film begins where the previous one left off, with Jason seemingly killed by an axe to the head thanks to Chris Higgins (Dana Kimmell). His body is brought to a local morgue, where we meet Axel, who is possibly the wackiest and creepiest mortician ever committed to film. A brief, comedic scene between Axel and a nurse leads into Jason's "resurrection", and the pairs' quick and violent demise. It's obvious from the film's first kill that the quota of gore has increased exponentially, due mostly to the return of special-effects master, Tom Savini. This would be the second time he'd team-up with director, Joseph Vito, after the atmospheric slasher <i>The Prowler</i> (1981), which was released a few years prior.<br />
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Before Jason is able to make his way back to Crystal Lake, the audience is introduced to the latest group of kids doomed to run afoul of the masked murderer. It's easily the most likable cast of characters so far in the series, and includes Crispin Glover in one of his earliest roles as the "dead-fuck" Jimmy. There's also the unlucky-in-love, Teddy (Lawrence Monoson), a pair of twins named Tina and Terri, and the absolutely adorable Samantha (Judie Aronson). Of course, they're all just there to die horribly at the hands of Jason after a night of drinking, sex and watching stag films.<br />
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Also present for the carnage and bloodshed is the Jarvis' family. The daughter, Trish (Kimberly Beck), is technically the "final girl" for this installment, but it's her brother, Tommy (Corey Feldman), who steals the show. It's in Tommy Jarvis that the audience can most relate; he's the odd kid obsessed with monster movies, video games and voyeurism. While the teens and twenty-somethings are being slaughtered, Tommy is safe from Jason's wrath, and it isn't until the film's final moments that he must step up and finally put the serial killer to rest.<br />
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<i>The Final Chapter</i> is regarded by some as one of the darker entries in the franchise and based on the brutality on display, it isn't difficult to see why. It's easier to feel sympathetic and sad when a character is killed off, because they're portrayed with a little more depth than in the previous films. The cast has a real chemistry, a camaraderie that's uncommon in most early slashers and practically non-existant in modern ones. Whether it's Teddy and Jimbo playfully bickering or the blossoming relationship between Doug (Peter Barton) and Sara (Barbara Howard), you finally care for a bunch of characters that would otherwise be considered cannon-fodder.<br />
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My only real complaint is Trish Jarvis' potential love-interest, Rob Dier (Erich Anderson), who claims to be out in the wild hunting bear. The truth is so much better; he's actually searching for Jason Voorhees, looking to avenge the death of his sister, Sandra, who was murdered in <i>Friday the 13th Part II </i>(1981). The character himself is fine, though nothing special, but it's the wasted potential of a pretty fantastic concept that bothers me. Adding this small thread, tying it back into the continuity of the original sequel, is a great way to honor the films that came before. Unfortunately, there's no real payoff to this subplot when Rob is unceremoniously beaten to death by Jason in the film's final act.<br />
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Besides that minor gripe, I have no zero reservations in naming <i>The Final Chapter</i> my favorite in the series so far. Of course, having already seen tomorrow's entry and several of the later sequels, well, I don't think I'm gonna find one that's gonna top this.<br />
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I think I'm in heaven.<br />
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I think I'm in love.<br />
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the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-2532725196270673652015-03-04T15:15:00.000-08:002015-03-04T15:15:59.548-08:00The 13 Days of Friday the 13th: Day Three<br />
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Another year and another entry in the <i>Friday the 13th</i> series.<br />
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Jason Voorhees returns for the third installment in the franchise, bringing director Steve Miner back with him, on another rage-fueled murder spree. Picking up only a day after the events from the second film, <i>Friday the 13th</i> <i>Part III</i> (1982) would prove to be one of the most successful sequels, larger in scope and in execution than its predecessors. While moving the carnage away from Camp Crystal Lake, it otherwise maintained the familiar plot and structure; introducing a new batch of fun-loving twenty-somethings, content to spend a weekend away, smoking copious amounts of dope and enjoying casual, premarital sex.<br />
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There's also a random trio of bikers with names like Fox and Loco, and a shopkeeper who talks to rabbits and eats fish food.<br />
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Spoilers: They all die.<br />
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Miner and company appear to be having a lot more fun this time around. There's an incredible, disco-inspired theme for the opening and closing credits. The group of fodder youths includes a pair of stoners obviously inspired by Cheech & Chong. We have Abel stepping in as the resident eye-wielding doomsayer, replacing the dearly departed Crazy Ralph. There are gratuitous scenes of fruit juggling and yo-yos, because, yes, <i>Part III</i> was shot in and intended to be viewed in <b>3-D</b>.<br />
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It's sorta' a mess, absolutely, but it's an enjoyable mess.<br />
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Oh, and about midway through, nearly two and a half films in, we finally get the iconic version of Jason, once he's introduced to his hockey mask thanks to perennial loser and overweight prankster, Shelly (Larry Zerner). I doubt Miner or anyone else involved realized that the simple prop mask would eventually become an instantly recognizable pop culture image in the years that followed. As closely associated with the franchise, with the entire horror genre, as anything else in the series' decades-long history.<br />
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Three down, with nine left to go, I'm still feeling good about this undertaking. I was initially concerned that, without nostalgia playing a real role, I wouldn't find much appeal to the earlier entries in the series, but that's hardly the case. I've actually enjoyed each film a little more than the one before, and heading into <i>Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter </i>(1984), I know my luck will hold out for just a bit longer.<br />
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Tomorrow introduces Tommy Jarvis after all.<br />
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the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-90302537992824264242015-03-03T14:31:00.000-08:002015-03-03T14:36:31.470-08:00The 13 Days of Friday the 13th: Day Two<br />
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<span class="st">Released within a year of the original film, <i>Friday the 13th Part 2</i> (1980) brings nothing new to the table, but somehow manages to outdo its predecessor in almost every way.</span><br />
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Tales around the campfire. The small group of young camp counselors huddle together, roasting marshmallows and telling tales of Jason Voorhees, the youth who seemingly drowned decades before. The events from the previous film, in-continuity having occurred five years prior, are simply regarded as an urban legend. A scary story to pass the time before a night on the town. There's no reason for the kids to think that they're in any danger.<br />
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Except that there really is. <br />
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Of course, any semblance of a whodunnit murder mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie's <i>Ten Little Indians</i> (1965) or the Italian giallos is quickly tossed aside, as a bulk of the film is spent discussing the possibility of Jason surviving his supposed fatal accident. Our "final girl" this time around, Ginny, theorizes that Jason grew up in the woods surrounding Camp Crystal Lake, never knowing anyone except for his mother, Pamela. She also speculates that he must have witnessed Pamela's decapitation at the hands of Alice, and that it drove him into a murderous rage.<br />
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No surprise then when it's revealed, in the film's final act, that, yes, this is precisely what has happened. <br />
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The rules from the previous installment, that sex and drugs result in a character's demise, don't seem to apply this time around.<br />
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Jason seems less concerned in meting out punishment on wicked teens; the surrogate counselors, standing in for those who ignored him as a child, who were responsible for his near-drowning, the same event that unhinged Pamela and drove her to maim and murder. In fact, the film's second victim isn't one of the young, attractive counselors, but
instead Crazy Ralph, the prophet of doom from the original movie.
Unlike his mother, Jason acts more like a wild animal, killing
anyone who trespasses on his land. It seems happenstance that most of
his victims are lustful youths or "dope-fiends". The simple case of "wrong place, wrong time".<br />
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There's so much more to love in <i>Part II</i> than the original <i>Friday the 13th</i>, and I'll gladly herald it as a far superior movie. Setting up the tradition of the previous film's sole survivor, here it's Alice (Adrienne King), as the first victim. A much more likable group of kids, including short-shorts Terry, goofball Ted, and Scott offering to dance with a dog. Poor Mark taking a machete to the face and then tumbling down a flight of stairs, even when he refused to smoke pot because of his "training". There's Hillbilly Jason wearing a sack over his deformed face, wielding a pitchfork and chasing Ginny all about the campground. The pair ending up at Jason's decrepit shack, where his shrine to Pamela, complete with her decapitated head, is revealed.<br />
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Oh, and her sweater, too.<br />
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My only real complaint is the death of Crazy Ralph, who I will miss dearly as I continue my journey through the franchise.<br />
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the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-30521503578012530052015-03-01T16:08:00.000-08:002015-03-01T16:08:20.283-08:00The 13 Days of Friday the 13th: Day One<br />
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I had never seen <i>Friday the 13th</i> (1980) before today.<br />
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That is mostly true, at least. There's one instance, several years back, where the film was playing randomly on television and I left it on while I wandered around my shared townhouse. Viewed in bits and pieces, already aware the killer's identity and most of the characters' fates, it barely held my attention. There were just too many hurdles to overcome; the biggest one the lack of a hockey-mask clad, undead killer in Jason Voorhees.<br />
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Hold on, let me backtrack for a moment, yeah?<br />
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I've mentioned before, in the earliest days of this blog, that I wasn't particularly fond of horror films when I was younger. Always a little too skittish, too terrified to subject myself to the misadventures of Leatherface, Freddy Krueger or Michael Myers. I had friends, other kids in the neighborhood, who were braver than I. Whose parents didn't mind that they were viewing cinematic massacres, brutal slayings committed by maniacal dolls or people wearing other peoples' faces. These same friends would run over to tell me all about the latest in the <i>Nightmare on Elm St.</i> series, and that was enough to traumatize me. So, there was no way that I was ever planning to become a fan of horror movies.<br />
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And yet, here I am, less than two weeks away from attending my first <b>Monster Mania</b>, an annual horror convention.<br />
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Yeah, somewhere along the line, probably during my time spent working at our local video store, I started to really embrace the horror genre. Those late nights after work spent watching <i>From Beyond </i>(1986) and <i>Halloween</i> (1978), catching up with the <i>Puppet Master</i> franchise, or discovering flicks like <i>Fade to Black</i> (1980). It only got worse when I went off to college, meeting like-minded film freaks who would introduce me to to the works of Cronenberg and Henenlotter.<br />
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But there was still something missing.<br />
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Despite my newfound love for the genre, there were notable staples that I was completely ignoring. The boogeymen from my youth remained unvisited; Freddy, Chucky, Pinhead, and yes, even Jason Voorhees. I hadn't fully found the courage to watch their respective series. The fear from my youth still too overpowering. Memories that were far more terrifying than anything that appeared in any of those films. More years passed, years spent devouring more and more frightening flicks, but always avoiding that handful of franchises.<br />
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And then, only a couple years ago, around the time that I started actively collecting VHS, something happened. Something changed. Those horrors and undead killers that I spent most of my life in fear of, I realized that I had grown up with them constantly around. Older now, living a life that focused so much on nostalgia, I came to appreciate these monsters and madmen that I'd been so very scared of. Memories of playing <i>Friday the 13th</i> for the NES in my best friend's basement back in second grade. A sleepover just before middle school started, maybe our last real hurrah for those types of nights, watching <i>Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday </i>(1993) on video cassette. Hell, I even remember seeing Jason's appearance on <i>The Arsenio Hall Show</i> a few years prior.<br />
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So, yes, I started to admire Jason for being such a massive pop cultural phenomenon. I collected memorabilia; toys and books, copies of his films on VHS and CED. I still hadn't, however, really delved into his filmography. The realization that I'd seen most of his later films, but only a few scenes from the earlier movies. If I was going to attend <b>Monster Mania</b> <b>30,</b> which is celebrating the franchise by inviting several key talents from throughout its run, I really had to get going and immerse myself in the complete mythos.<br />
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Which brings us to now, to today, and to my very first viewing of <i>Friday the 13th</i> (1980) from beginning to end.<br />
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I mean, I knew what I was getting into. All about Kevin Bacon and the arrowhead, Betsy Palmer's sweater and the great debate about which film's main theme Manfredini apes more-- <i>Psycho</i> (1960) or <i>Jaws </i>(1975). I've read about Ari Lehman's wild theories, and I've heard the long list of influences and how screen-writer Victor Miller was told to simply "rip-off" Carpenter's <i>Halloween </i>(1978). The film some bizarre hybrid of several different influences, but it managed to rise above its origins as a quick, low-budget, cash-in slasher, spawning several sequels and eventually creating a media icon in Jason Voorhees. From these meager roots grew a financial juggernaut; a franchise that, three and a half decades later, still refuses to truly die.<br />
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You can sorta' see how it helped build the foundation of the '80s horror boom. It follows and expands on the rules laid out in the proto-slashers that came before, all the bits about kids paying the price for pre-marital sex and drug use, punished for their degenerate behavior by an unseen assailant. Instead of a sexually repressed mama's boy or a masked monster, however, the film's "evil" is revealed to be a mother unhinged by the death of her child. Bet you didn't see that one coming, did you?<br />
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No, of course you did, because you wouldn't be here, still reading this, unless you gave a shit about <i>Friday the 13th</i>. I can't say that I blame you; despite knowing most of the movie's major plot-points, I still found myself totally enjoying the proceedings. The Annie swerve that owes so much to Hitchcock's <i>Psycho</i> (1960). Ned's ridiculous antics, both while wearing a Native American headdress and not. Savini's practical effects work holds up and still has me wondering how they pulled it off. The cool little details like the electricity and running water constantly on the fritz because of curses, right?<br />
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Crazy Ralph!<br />
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Okay, so, let's just leave it at this-- it's a solid fucking start to a franchise that is only going to draw me further in with each passing film. I'm looking forward to spending the next two weeks educating myself more on the Voorhees, and to coming back here to share it with all of you.<br />
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We're doomed. We're all doomed.<br />
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<br />the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-18877092073424337312015-01-27T13:06:00.000-08:002015-01-27T13:06:23.334-08:00Recollecting: Into the Inferno<br />
A few months back I wrote briefly about <b>JC's Things</b>, a local second-hand shop that I had previously ignored for years before finally checking it out. What I believed to be a junk furniture store ended up being so much more; a building filled to the brims with all sorts of outdated wares, stacks of records, VHS and decades-old greeting cards. I still haven't shared a glimpse at the treasures I uncovered during that inaugural visit. And here we are again, me mentioning the shop and refusing to show off the goods. That's because a more recent trip actually surpassed the original by a narrow margin. <br />
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My father only recently, the middle of this last year, retired from firefighting. I was blissfully unaware the inherent dangers of such a profession when I was a kid, content to visit my dad at the station. Something that afforded me plenty of opportunities to try on his gear and climb all over the various trucks. So, of course, I loved collecting toy-versions of engines; Hot Wheels and Tonka and, most importantly, Takara/Hasbro. No surprise then that <b>Inferno</b> was my first major <i>Transformer</i>s toy.<br />
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That also means he was probably one of the first casualties; lost in the ether like so many of my childhood possessions. Carelessly tossed aside when something better came along. Oh, poor Inferno, forgotten and ignored, until a parent decided I no longer needed him, and either threw him away or donated him. Instead, I like to imagine him alongside the other fallen Transformers [and Gobots] from my youth, protecting Cybertron from the forces of evil.<br />
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Since he was originally released in 1985, I initially believed this Inferno to be part of Hasbro's <i>Commemorative Series</i>, reissues that were made available in Toys"R"Us during the '00s. The condition was a little <b>too</b> good to be a legit '85-version, wasn't it? I mean, sure, he's missing both his hands and any additional accessories, but the plastic was so crisp and clean that it looked like he just came out of the package. A little digging revealed that this was, however, a G1 Inferno and not a reissue. Something to do with the forearms being retooled on later releases to remove the "missile-firing" action that the original, this very same one, possessed.<br />
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So, yes, despite a few missing pieces, I'd say he was a solid score for a measly two bucks.<br />
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the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-53427816710881571872015-01-21T20:02:00.000-08:002015-01-21T20:02:27.354-08:00One Month Later<br />
Excuses and apologies.<br />
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They've become par for the course around these parts the last several months. It looks like I run a blog of infrequent updates and broken promises. I'm back and gone again, back and gone again, until the inevitable day where the posts just stop altogether. Too easily distracted by social medias that require the bare minimum of effort; Twitter with its 140-character "updates" and an Instagram full of quick pics with little thought put into each caption. Both accounts have already well surpassed this blog in terms of followers, which shouldn't bother me at all, but totally does.<br />
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I feel pathetic admitting that, because how can I expect anyone to come here and stick around when there's never any new content.<br />
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Oh, but the plans that I had when I started <i>It's Trash Culture</i>. There's always plans that wind up as broken promises to myself, ideas that never materialize or projects that end long before they truly begin. All these self-fulfilling prophecies of doom whenever I think of attempting something creative. The evidence speaks for itself.<br />
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This is what several years worth of notes looks like. Lunch-breaks and late nights spent jotting down concepts, scenes and snippets of dialogue. Yeah, I've always wanted to write comic books. I grew up wanting to create worlds full of ridiculous characters and trippy adventures and all the brightly-colored bullshit that I read and loved in the pages of my favorite comics. It's one of the few things that I have wanted to do since I was a kid, but besides the scribbles you see up above, well, I haven't made any attempts to achieve this life-goal. Some of these concepts are over a decade old, so it seems unlikely they'll ever move beyond those index cards and random sheets of paper.<br />
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I realized earlier that this blog was starting to suffer a similar fate. Wasting time trying to brainstorm ideas for posts, writing them down on the back of receipts and scraps of napkins, but never taking the time to post them. Sometimes I'd go so far as to take pictures, upload them with the intention of sharing them here, but I'd get distracted, too easily distracted, by reruns of <i>The Golden Girls</i> or napping on the couch.<br />
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I could go for a nap right now, actually.<br />
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All this may mean nothing going forward, but my hope is that I finally get my fucking act together and start posting here more. No promises, no guarantees, but I hope.<br />
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I hope. <br />
the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-58034064841944391682014-12-21T18:59:00.002-08:002014-12-21T18:59:53.733-08:00Flea Market Finds: Cars, Cards & Comics<br />
Back to brag!<br />
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I've returned to show off all the goods I scored this morning at the flea market, well before revealing the stuff I promised to share several weeks ago. That's just how we roll here, I guess, with the false promises and always pulling swerves. It is probably a good thing that no one cares about anything going on here. Not even me.<br />
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Here's some things, non-existent readers.<br />
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One of the booths that I've been passing by for <b>years</b> belongs to an older gentleman and it consists entirely of "vintage" sports-cards and various long-boxes of comic books. I usually skip on flipping through bins of comics at the flea market, mostly because I have my local comic shops with their dollar-bins to peruse on a regular basis. However, my collecting has transitioned lately to completing runs of titles, something I've never been concerned with before, so now I have a reason to dig through any boxes of books I stumble upon.<br />
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Of course, only a handful of the dollar books that I picked up today add to the particular runs that I'm aiming to finish off. The rest were a series of single issues that caught my eye with their bizarre subject matter. Most notable, and my personal favorite find, is <i>DC Special #27</i>, dated May 1977, which features characters like Captain Comet and Tommy Tomorrow battling both traditional dinosaurs and oddly-dressed dino-men hybrids.<br />
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Also, dig that <i>Archie Meets The Punisher.</i><br />
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I don't really have much to say about these <i>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles</i> wax-packs. I have a fondness for anything TMNT, and my love and adoration for trading cards is well-documented.<br />
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Cowabunga..?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPKmQ4cbTnsQQGfi1n2FqA_NjOC9W0vlhEnSzQvVi_ftqV5MPhPaw5HUe5X8_VK0WOMndJ6amxwZAgnpClLzRQRc1yqftgumyII0eGTClt2LFKIOkayvOj6Ouz9QNTxx-MGycom_bi_8E/s1600/fleaboot.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPKmQ4cbTnsQQGfi1n2FqA_NjOC9W0vlhEnSzQvVi_ftqV5MPhPaw5HUe5X8_VK0WOMndJ6amxwZAgnpClLzRQRc1yqftgumyII0eGTClt2LFKIOkayvOj6Ouz9QNTxx-MGycom_bi_8E/s1600/fleaboot.jpeg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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What hasn't been mentioned here before on the blog is <i>ReBoot</i>, one of my favorite Saturday morning cartoons from the mid-'90s. A Canadian-produced series, it was the first to feature entirely computer-generated animation, and was the result of over a decade's worth of hard-work and dedication from Mainframe Entertainment. It originally aired on ABC starting in 1994 and ran for four seasons.<br />
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I was nearly a teen when the show first started, so the idea of collecting action-figures based on it was far from an appealing one. Of course, here we are, two decades later, and I have zero reservations when it comes to picking them up now. In fact, I was pretty psyched when I discovered Bob and Megabyte sitting in a box surrounded by various other loose figures. There was no way that I was going to leave them behind, especially where they were only a couple bucks each.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU3BiBoZab8JxTb1F1VHxj-hQBvd5tqx0toFsZkguHUczAqfJM_wggLmLysDwmAzH5O6ibwXoKNDrr5AqL-Jo07hU-WQbkKf9887kOgRIfaXioVHJd0T6AwBizoaEntgsFKCNbFXG4VTM/s1600/fleamisc.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU3BiBoZab8JxTb1F1VHxj-hQBvd5tqx0toFsZkguHUczAqfJM_wggLmLysDwmAzH5O6ibwXoKNDrr5AqL-Jo07hU-WQbkKf9887kOgRIfaXioVHJd0T6AwBizoaEntgsFKCNbFXG4VTM/s1600/fleamisc.jpeg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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Here's a few more of their box-mates that I rescued. <br />
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I'm not ashamed to admit that all three of these items are duplicate purchases; I own or did own every single one of these guys at some point. I've actually picked up Panda Khan six times over the course of my life, though nearly all of them have found other homes. This one is no exception. He'll be going out in a package shortly, part of the prize for a contest I'm running over on Instagram [@itstrashculture].<br />
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Weed-Killer is staying with me, since he's a replacement for his duplicate "older brother" that I had before. My original was gifted to Brian from <a href="http://awakeohsleeper.blogspot.com/">Awake Oh Sleeper</a>, one of my favorite artists/bloggers, and a genuinely friendly and extremely generous dude. Go check out his site [if you don't already] and admire his unique and totally rad aesthetic sensibilities. Seriously, I am always in awe and envious of his work.<br />
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And no, your eyes do not deceive you, that third item <b>is </b>a McDonalds Happy Meal toy from <i>Batman: The Animated Series</i>. I am not going to reveal which one, though, because it is also part of my prize-pack giveaway and I don't want to risk ruining the surprise should the winner read this.<br />
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Even though I can almost guarantee that he/she will not.<br />
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The same vendor that I scored those loose figures from also had a set of Ertl <i>Dick Tracy</i> collectible cars. They were released back in 1990, the same time as the feature-film, and there were four different vehicles to choose from. The only one of the quartet that I cared about was Dick Tracy's patrol-car, but here I am several hours later and I'm starting to regret leaving behind Itchy's car.<br />
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I can't reenact a chase-scene with only one car, can I..?<br />
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This was the big score, the main reason that I walked away with anything from the seller's booth. I can't recall the last time I ran across a sealed box of Marvel Universe trading cards, never mind the several that this particular vendor was offering. Series one through three were available, so naturally I split the difference and picked up 1991's Series II.<br />
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I was already a dedicated Marvel Zombie when these cards were originally released, and discovering the more obscure characters featured in this set was the real draw for me. Instead of the pages of their comics, it was Marvel trading cards that first introduced me to characters like Death's Head, Sleepwalker and The Grim Reaper. My friends and I must have spent hours pouring over and trading this particular series, trying to be the first of our group to put together a complete set, including the much-desired <b>Limited Edition Holograms</b>.<br />
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I plan on taking my time opening the thirty-six packs within. Some I'll tear into later today, sure, but the rest I'll leave for days that I need a nostalgic pick-me-up to chase away a grey or lonely day. And it will probably be a few years before I work up the nerve to open the last one.<br />
the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-42568523107676367332014-12-14T15:24:00.001-08:002014-12-14T15:24:48.671-08:00Journey Into Mystery Boxes<br />
Remember when I would occasionally blog about comic books?<br />
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Remember when I would occasionally blog..?<br />
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I promised to show off some of the goods I picked up at <b>JC's Things</b> a few weeks back, but before I get to bragging about decades-old crayons and Dolly Parton Christmas albums [spoilers], I wanna gab a bit about one of my many weaknesses. There are a number of Kryptonites in my life, but none as enticing and dangerous-to-my-wallet as the comic book grab-box. My local comic shop never has a shortage of them, and it seems like I fall victim to their siren song more often than not.<br />
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Let's see you try and resist 50 different comics for a mere $11.99, though.<br />
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I've mentioned before that I'm a total sucker for mystery packs and grab-bags, blind-box toys and random packs of trading cards. The idea of opening a package, not entirely knowing what treasures could lurk within, is so appealing to me. There's the risk of discovering nothing worthwhile, the contents within could all be a total wash. It's a gamble, I know, but that thrill of anticipation and uncertainty before digging in is what always draws me back.<br />
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Enough yammering on, it's time to get to the comics.<br />
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<b>THE BREAKDOWN:</b><br />
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Titles and publishers always vary in these grab-boxes, and so does the initial release-date for books. I've picked up several that featured books from the '70s and '80s, but this particular one didn't date back quite that far. The earliest issue included is cover-dated November 1993, and a majority of the books included are from the last several years.<br />
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Marvel Comics made up the bulk of the box, one single issue over half its contents, at twenty-six books. DC was a distant second at sixteen, and the remainder was comprised of several small publishers, including Dynamite, Dark Horse and Valiant. That's about par for the course with the boxes I've purchased in the past.<br />
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The real risk is acquiring duplicate copies, books I'd picked up in the past either as monthly purchases or something dug out during my frequent dollar-bin splurges. It's unlikely that I'd ever find a box that didn't contain at least a couple dupes included, and this one was no exception. Of the fifty books lurking inside, I already owned seventeen of them. Not the best turn-out, but the extras make for good trade fodder or little extras in my giveaways.<br />
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<b>THE BEST:</b><br />
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My definition of best is pretty unique, because I doubt most collectors would consider mid-'90s DC titles like <i>Extreme Justice</i> or <i>The Book of Fate</i> as great finds. I would never argue that these were top-quality books, but that particular era of comics was when I really started getting into them, so I have a total nostalgic fondness for anything released at that time. Bonus points if they featured C- or D-list characters like Maxima, Guy Gardner or Speedball.<br />
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I've not-so-secretly admired third-tier heroes more than their ultra-popular contemporaries since I was a kid, and it's a trend I don't see bucking any time soon. Further evidence of this can be found at my long defunct Tumblr account -- <a href="http://gradezheroes.tumblr.com/">Grade-Z Heroes</a>.<br />
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<b>THE WORST:</b><i> </i><br />
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<i>Sovereign Seven</i> issue number one, dated April 1995, wins this superlative with ease.<br />
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Somehow, in some strange turn of events, I've already owned several copies of this particular comic, despite having no strong positive feelings for the works of Chris Claremont. I can appreciate, and even enjoy at times, his work on Marvel's <i>The Uncanny X-Men</i> title for so many years, but there's almost nothing else in his body of work that I admire. One of the few creator-owned books to sorta' reside in the proper DC Universe, it featured a team of original characters and a very unique interpretation of Darkseid, ruler of Apokolips and one of the most powerful villains in comic history.<br />
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I'm not sure what compelled me to pick it up fresh off the stands when it was originally released, but we'll chalk it up to the wildly fluctuating hormones and moods of a recently teenaged Trash Man. I mean, seriously, look how hot their team-leader, Cascade, is.<br />
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Ignore the part where her code-name is a brand of detergent.<br />
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<b>THE VERDICT:</b><br />
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It certainly wasn't the best grab-box I could have scored, but it contained enough small gems and old favorites to justify pissing away twelve-bucks. There were a handful of really solid books, the type of stuff I'm looking forward to reading and sorting away into my collection. A few to throw in with a large stack of trade-in material, and a few that I'm hoping to share with friends sometime in the New Year.<br />
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the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-17379041053521386792014-11-30T12:50:00.000-08:002014-11-30T12:50:01.251-08:00Salvage Saturday Spent at JC's Things<br />
Discovering new treasure troves, entire locations full of forgotten pop culture gems, is getting more and more difficult as time marches on. I blame a combination of things, but the biggest culprit has been and still is eBay. People look to that site and see that old, collectible items can occasionally fetch top dollars, so obviously everything that's been buried in their basement these last two decades must be worth a fortune. This belief is often incorrect; their trash is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, and usually it's a low, low number. That doesn't stop yard-sales and "antique" shops from marking up their items ten-fold, asking big bucks for worn-and-torn goods, niche items and actual garbage.<br />
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Somehow, in some miraculous way, I was able to stumble upon a second-hand shop that wasn't pricing their wares too high. An entire shop full of decades-old products, reasonably priced, and it just happened to be hiding out ten minutes down the road from my house. It was Christmas come about a month too early, and I wasn't complaining.<br />
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I'd actually driven past <b>JC's Things</b> plenty of times, but always assumed that it dealt solely with used furniture. Yesterday was no exception. I was on my way to an entirely different thrift shop, a couple towns over, when I was struck with the sudden urge to pull into JC's parking lot. Not sure why, couldn't explain it to you. There was just something magnetic drawing me in, and I am awfully glad that I didn't attempt to resist. I knew from the moment that I stepped inside that there was something special about this place.<br />
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Unlike most of my favorite thrift shops, there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the layout; not even a semblance of organized chaos. So, yes, I was immediately in love. There were shelves and shelves of miscellaneous items, old new-stock and rusty tools, bins of vinyl albums, vintage holiday decorations. My heart skipped a beat at the sight of stacks of VHS and boxed Intellivision games.<br />
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Yes, you heard correct, they still have complete, boxed Intellivision titles.<br />
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It only took a few minutes for me to realize that this was somewhere special, somewhere I could spend hours upon hours searching through boxes of <b>stuff</b>. A place to uncover forgotten treasures, pop cultural relics that needed to be rescued and loved. I'm not embarrassed to admit that I was giddy at the prospect of wasting my Saturday afternoon getting my hands dirty in search of some real, old-school trash.<br />
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You'll be happy to hear that I did not walk away empty-handed, but dismayed to learn that I won't be bragging here today. No, you're gonna have to wait a little while before I start showing off the goods. It will be well worth it, though, especially if you're a fan of transforming robots, spinach-eating sailors or country music legend, Dolly Parton.<br />
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Stay tuned, boys and girls.<br />
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the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1933667965651690643.post-69438701970020515182014-09-30T18:30:00.000-07:002014-09-30T18:30:30.938-07:00Total Trash Tuesday: Leprechaun: Origins (2014) and Candy Corn Pebbles<br />
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There are few things that go as well together as junk food and bad movies. Apologies to PB&J, and so sorry to put you down, Hall & Oates, but it's true. The one-two combo of unhealthy snacks and trashy cinema is a devastatingly sublime thing; and it's a staple of my, uh, lifestyle. Still, no matter how much I enjoy it, or maybe because of, well, you might mistake me for a masochist, what with the absolute shit that I subject myself to.<br />
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Today, our inaugural <b>Total Trash Tuesday</b>, perfectly illustrates the type of garbage that I regularly feed my body, my mind, and my soul.<b> </b><br />
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<b>THE FILM<i>:</i></b><i> </i><br />
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<i>Leprechaun: Origins</i> (2014)<i> </i>is billed as being the seventh film in the series; something of a reboot to the classic franchise featuring Warwick Davis as a murderous, wise-cracking leprechaun. Produced by WWE Studios, and yes, that would the pro-wrestling company that brought the world Hulk Hogan and a villainous dentist known as Isaac Yankem, it "stars" one of the company's former superstars, Dylan "Hornswoggle" Postl, as the titular mythological creature.<br />
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Titles aside, there is nothing here that resembles the franchise of old; gone is any dark humor, the charm and, yeah, the silliness that permeates the decade-long series. Viewers are left with a quartet of college-aged Americans backpacking across Ireland, a bland collection of twenty-somethings on a crash-course with an ancient evil that sorta' looks like a reject from <i>The Hobbit</i>.<br />
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Look, I may joke about the villainous creature's appearance, but there's some real serious flaws that need to be addressed. The main problem that the film faces is how damn mediocre it is. I get that film-snobs may decry the original <i>Leprechaun</i> (1993) and the five sequels it spawned, but they're frequently fun and always bordering on completely bizarre. Here, another decade later, and the team behind <i>Origins</i> seem to take several steps back, delivering a sub-par slasher that features every hackneyed trope you'd expect in a horror film.<br />
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The film's Final Girl fumbles with keys. She trips or falls nearly a half dozen times. Her more promiscuous best-friend even utters the phrase "cabin in the woods" without the slightest bit of irony.<br />
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Its complete lack of originality or unique identity are doubly unfortunate, because otherwise, it's a competently made feature. Despite a few missteps, and an obnoxiously overused Leprechaun-vision, director Zach Lipovsky knows what he's doing. And the four young actors are all, I don't know, serviceable. Both facts only further frustrate me as a viewer; realizing that with a bit of creativity, a fresh idea, the people responsible for <i>Origins</i> could have made a really solid flick.<br />
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Better luck next time, I guess.<br />
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<b>THE FOOD:</b><br />
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Infinitely more surprising, while I wandered the aisles at my local Target, was discovering that Post had released a limited-edition cereal for the Halloween season. All the attention being heaped upon General Mill's trio of terrifying monsters, it appears that Fred and Barney's popular offspring, Pebbles and Bam-Bam, were being overlooked. Gone the Fruity and Cocoa varieties<b> </b>of <i>Pebbles</i> cereal, replaced by a <b>candy corn flavor</b>.<br />
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The idea of a candy corn cereal sounds awfully unappealing; pretty damn gross, actually, even with Halloween staring us in the face. Thankfully, it's the last thing you'll think of when you finally muster up the courage to pour yourself a bowl. The cereal's scent, subtly sweet, is the first thing that will hit you. It's pleasant, a faint marshmallow-y, and will not remind you of falling leaves or pumpkins at all. The same goes for the taste; it's a vague, almost bland sweetness that barely resembles candy corn. Fantastic box graphics aside, this could easily stand-in for a Christmas or Fourth of July-themed Pebbles cereal.<br />
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Like the film I watched while I half-heartedly finished my bowl, I'd mark these down as nothing special.<br />
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the Trash Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14102451795524437819noreply@blogger.com5