WARRIORS Gets Graphically Remastered

When I look back on the cable flicks of the 1980s that forever altered my cinematic landscape I can pinpoint several landmarks, even almost 30 years later. It didn't matter if I saw them once or I saw them a hundred times, they were flicks that broadened my horizon and let me see past the safe, largely parentally-approved choices that I was familiar with to that point.

The warped DEATH GAME (1977) – in which hitchhikers Sondra Locke and Colleen Camp invade the home of Seymour Cassel with disastrous results – brought sex, nudity, crazy violence and a "what the f**k?!" attitude right into my suburban living room in the middle of the afternoon. Clearly, this new "cable" invention was going to offer more than I was seeing on the handful of over-the-air channels I was accustomed to.

Joe Sarno's LAURA'S TOYS (1975) was a memorably sleazy Eurotrash softcore sex romp of epic, earth-shattering proportions. Years later I still consider it the reason I have no particular affinity for hardcore porn. The flick's girl-next-door stars packed more erotic punch than any adult film goddess. Okay, except maybe for Seka.

The first two installments of the FRIDAY THE 13TH series were my introduction to the slasher/splatter genre that I love so much to this day, Werner Herzog's NOSFERATU: PHANTOM DER NACHT exposed me to the great Klaus Kinski (and we all know how that obsession turned out), and Albert Pyun's brilliant sword-and-sandal barbarian actioner THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER may have been my first guilty pleasure.

But I still can recall sitting and watching Walter Hill's THE WARRIORS with rapt attention. Over and over. The flick took my growing love of action films and mashed it up with the comic theatrics of bands like KISS (it's hard to look at The Baseball Furies and not see that band's influence) to produce a highly entertaining and action-packed pop culture epic.

Today, lines like "Can you dig it?!" and the mockingly brilliant "Waaaarrrrrriiiorsss, come out to pla-ay!" (uttered by David Patrick Kelly as he clinks his beer bottle-clad fingers together) have become etched in our collective pop culture psyche.

I've always thought the concept of THE WARRIORS could have been stretched beyond its cinematic outing and I know there was a video game a couple years back that gave Swan and Co. further adventures. Like THEY LIVE, I thought it was a film that could have easily translated to the small screen, giving us weekly fixes as the gang got into further dust-ups and adventures.

While it's not a weekly TV show, I am kinda tickled that THE WARRIORS is getting a "comic book remastering" as the flick celebrates its 30th anniversary. The book will debut at New York Comic-Con next week and while the initial storyline will be an adaptation of the original film, writer David Atchison says that plans are in place to publish further adventures of the gang. The comic arrives in stores on February 18 and you can check out a preview here.

Can I openly petition for a WARRIORS/EXTERMINATOR crossover in which Swan and his crew have to team up with flame-thrower-wielding vigilante John Eastland to take down a mob sleaze running a white slave trade that preys on teens?

"If youre lyin', I'll be back."

K2 Co-Star Ernie Borgnine Honored on TCM

Turner Classic Movies will be honoring legendary actor Ernest Borgnine tonight, January 26, with an exclusive episode of 'Private Screenings' hosted by Robert Osborne. They'll also be screening some Borgnine flicks, though I'm guessing two of my favorites – CODENAME: WILDGEESE co-starring Klaus Kinski and the awesome Eurotrash actioner THE LAST MATCH – will not be included on the list.

Borgnine – who made headlines a few months back by suggesting frequent masturbation was the secret to his vitality at the ripe young age of 91 – has so far been immune to my request for an interview for the Kinski book, or at least his people have been. I can't imagine a guy who would dish about his solo sex habits on national TV would be embarrassed about his days as a Eurotrash stalwart rubbing elbows with K2 and Henry Silva.

Download ROIR's So Indie It Hurts: Volume 1 for FREE

As a college radio DJ I hated them but as a music fan I always dug the cassette-only releases from the folks at ROIR Records. Forget production values, overdubs, and in some cases even studio time. The label specialized in raw, low-fi nuggets of rock and roll history, occasionally captured live, like the Dictators release 'Fuck 'Em If They Can't Take a Joke' which showacased tracks from the band's original studio LPs.

The label's roster reads like a who's who of punk and pre-punk history including the Fleshtones, MC5, Johnny Thunders, Bad Brains, the aforementioned Dictators and many more.

If you're curious and can deal with sound quality and performances that one Amazon reviewer described as "37 minutes of ... electro-shock-induced screams for mercy" you can download Volume One of 'So Indie It Hurts' for free.

Frankly, I think the title is a misnomer since most (if not all) of this material comes from an age when the term "indie" wasn't even used to describe bands like the Fleshtones, Bush Tetras or Dickies but who am I to argue with free music?

CINEMARETRO #13 -- The Big Gundown

If you're a Klaus Kinski fan chances are you're also a Spaghetti Western fan.

I grew up watching Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name" flicks and other westerns on UHF channels, but I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan of the genre, even though Sergio Corbucci's THE GREAT SILENCE is one of my Top 5 Kinski Films.

In discussions with other film buffs and Eurotrash nuts I find that people who love Spags really love 'em. If you fall in that group you may want to check out the latest issue of CINEMA RETRO which includes a feature on THE BIG GUNDOWN starring Lee Van Cleef and Thomas Milan and efforts to restore the flick to its original glory.

Among the other great features in the latest issue is entertainment journalist Bruce R. Marshall's fascinating story behind Lee Van Cleef's 1960s cult western The Big Gundown. At this point in his career, Van Cleef was relishing the fact that Sergio Leone's two Dollar westerns had rescued him from financial catastrophe when he could not longer find suitable work in Hollywood. Unlike Clint Eastwood, however, Van Cleef was happy to continue on in the Spaghetti Western genre, making films of varyiing degrees of quality, but always maintaining his position as one of Europe's top movie stars. His 1968 western The Big Gundown teamed him with another popular star of the genre, Tomas Milian under the direction of Sergio Sollima. The film stood out as being a cut above the rest of the pack, but what most fans don't realize is that the movie they've seen is probably not the original, far superior version. In his article for Cinema Retro, Bruce R. Marshall takes a comprehensive and fascinating look at a grass roots effort to restore this movie to its original glory. Marshall interviews a fan who goes under the name of Franco Cleef whose interest in the film has lead him to approach Columbia/Sony about investing in an official restoration of crucial scenes that were cut. However, the film's cachet is not commercial enough to interest Hollywood. Thus, Cleef has taken it upon himself to painstakingly piece together the most complete English -language version of the film possible, using disparate sources to find the relevant footage. (An official restored version of the film has been released in Germany by Kochmedia-dvd.com, but it does not have an English soundtrack.) In Marshall's interview with Cleef, every nuance and aspect of the film is discussed, including specific missing scenes which greatly alter the motivations of the characters. The article also features exclusive comments from the film's director Sergio Sollima as well as a sidebar by Retro's German correspondent Mike Siegel on the history of the German restoration. The article also presents an abundance of extremely rare stills, movie posters and soundtracks from the film.

You can find out more at the CINEMA RETRO website or just pop on over and subscribe.

Combs Cooks

I love cookbooks and I love horror films. So how come I'm just finding out about It Came from the Kitchen, a 2007 cookbook that collects recipes and food-related anecdotes from horror and science-fiction personalities?

Even better, the cookbook contains a recipe from none other than Herbert West himself, actor Jeffrey Combs.

Combs, star of RE-ANIMATOR (and its sequels) as well as the underrated Lovecraft-inspired horror flick FROM BEYOND, contributes his recipe for Tortilla Soup, a tasty looking blend of peppers, spices, beef and beans that will surely warm you up on a cold winter night.

You can check out the complete recipe – and stay on top of all the Combs news that's fit to print – by visiting The Combs Corner, an excellent blog devoted to the popular actor.

BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD

My love for all things Batman pretty much knows no bounds and cuts across all eras of The Caped Crusader's career. So it was with great interest that I started watching BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD over at The Cartoon Network on Friday nights. Based on the classic DC superhero team-up title, each week finds Batman teaming with another hero to take down a supervillain.

My first reaction to news of the show was faint skepticism. As a child of the 70s I suffered through lots of SUPERFRIENDS episodes and other lame Batman cartoons just to see The Caped Crusader in action. My patience was finally rewarded with the excellent BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, still my favorite adaptation of Batman on-screen (big or little), but it has been off the air since the 1990s and succeeding incarnations of an animated Dark Knight Detective have been hit-or-miss (namely BATMAN BEYOND, THE JUSTICE LEAGUE and the recent THE BATMAN).

The new show show walks a pretty fine line between THE ANIMATED SERIES and SUPER-FRIENDS, though it hews closer to the former most of the time. Yes, the dialogue can be a bit hokey, the depiction of Batman gives the character strength that often seems superhuman, and there's a fair amount of gadgetry. But the overall feel of the show is such that I don't feel like a complete and total dork settling in to watch it on a Friday night while my daughter sleeps and the wife works late.

If you haven't seen the show yourself, try and catch this week's episode "Dawn of the Dead Man". This one is easily my favorite episode yet of this new Bats cartoon, this time with a very horror bent as Bats, Dead Man, Green Arrow and Speedy team up in the UK to battle Gentleman Ghost as he tries to raise an army of undead villains.

Packed with great horror imagery including a skeletal ghost horse and a mountain of skulls under a graveyard, the episode has a serious 70s/horror Batman vibe including one of those iconic teaser cover images with a tombstone reading 'Here Lies Batman' with his utility belt draped over the corner.

Check out the network's schedule to see when it re-airs and give this new twist on an old Bat a try.

And while you're at it, point your browser to Bat-Blog, a great blog about Batman shows, comics, movies, toys, characters and collectibles.

Seems Like a Nice Girl But She is NOT The Black Widow

IRON MAN 2 casting rumors continue to swirl, including Sam Rockwell (whose every role seems to get labeled his "breakthrough performance" only to see the film bomb), the hot again Mickey Rourke, and – according to a story at SlashFilm – Emily Blunt.

Blunt, memorable as the high-strung assistant in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, seems better suited as a non-superhero romantic interest but the story reports that she's being considered for the role of The Black Widow, a curvy, hot Soviet-spy-turned-assassin.

Don't get me wrong. Blunt seems like a nice gal and a fine actress. But The Black Widow she is not. Not to get all comic nerd geeky on you or anything.

Vote for HAMMER & BEYOND in Total Film Blog Awards

I'm pleased to announce that our good pal Holger Haase and his terrific blog HAMMER AND BEYOND: All About the World of Hammer Movies & Talent has been selected as a finalist in the Total Film Horror Movie Blog Awards. Not only does Holger do a great job with his blog but he's been a help to me and my zines/projects over the years, contributing a great piece about Oliver Reed's final watering holes to Hungover Gourmet #7 (still available from our store) and providing moral support and translation assistance with various Kinski-related projects.

Help support a true friend of ER and vote for HAMMER & BEYOND today!

An Underdog Sports Comedy... with Balls!

As a former high school tennis player I'm glad to see the sport get a little love in the Underdog Sports Raunchy Comedy Genre. I can't think of too many juvenile sex comedies that have plundered tennis' goldmine of potential jokes about balls other than JOCKS, a late 80s comedy about a college tennis team that featured both Richard Roundtree and Christopher Lee in its cast. (In an interesting coincidence, JOCKS was directed by Steve Carver, whose name came up last night while I was finishing BRONSON'S LOOSE! about the making of the DEATH WISH films. Review to come.)

So I was glad to see a note pop up in my mailbox this morning alerting me to the existence of BALLS OUT: GARY THE TENNIS COACH, a stupid-looking underdog raunchy sports comedy (with vomit jokes) starring Randy Quaid and Sean William Scott. Give the name recognition of the two stars and the fact that the flick was directed by Danny Leiner who brought us the great HAROLD & KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE I have a feeling I may be just the audience BALLS OUT was aimed at. Let's face it, my wife actually bought me a copy of OUT COLD for Christmas so I could enjoy it's inanity whenever I pleased instead of waiting for it to show up on cable or Comedy Central. "We'll always have Pedro O'Horny's..."

And, yes, I know Leiner also directed DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR?, but you know what, the fantasy marriage between Kumar and the giant bag of pot in H&K more than excuses any cinematic indiscretions. Any guy who put that on film forever gets a free pass in my book.

I've already bumped BALLS OUT to the top spot in my NetFlix queue and it appears I'm not the only one that was waiting for a tennis-oriented sports comedy (with vomit jokes)... there's a short wait.

In the meantime, check out the trailer below...

FIVE FOR HELL (1969)

William Tecumseh Sherman once said “War is hell”. Apparently, he never trained under the watchful eye of Lt. Hoffman (Gianni Garko billed here as John Garko), a gum-chewing, softball “throwing” GI charged with assembling a team of crack soldiers for a deadly suicide mission… as if there’s any other kind.

In the flick’s goofy pre-credit sequence, Hoffman rides through the training fields, watching soldiers prep for what must be an upcoming war against Cirque du Soleil. They swing past trenches on parallel bars, acrobatically dispatch enemy combatants, and even spring over treacherous barbed wire thanks to handy trampolines.

Hoffman hand picks his suicide squad and ends up with the acrobatic Nick (Aldo Canti), musclebound McCarthy (Luciano Rossi), safecracking Siracusa (Sal Borgese), and Johnny White (Sam Burke), an explosives expert whose glasses and mousy nature make him a natural for the nickname “Chicken”.

Their mission? Break into the Nazi stronghold at Villa Verde and get a look at the documents for Hitler’s devious “Plan K”. With the Allies blocked “at the foot of the Gustav line” details of the plan could save the lives of 50,000 soldiers.

After a dry run that tests all of their trampoline-bouncing, softball-throwing, safe-cracking acumen, the team assembles in their barracks and dances around far more than I suspect was really going on during WWII.

But that’s about as far as the lightheartedness of this action-comedy goes and FIVE FOR HELL – directed by Gianfranco Parolini (billed as Frank Kramer) – quickly shifts gears and turns into a surprisingly gritty, tense mission flick.

Helping the squad in their mission is curvy double agent Helga Richter (Eurotrash icon Margaret Lee, VENUS IN FURS), a cold and conniving member of the Villa Verde staff who isn’t above covering her own ass or exposing it, depending upon the situation.

As if this wasn’t enough, FIVE FOR HELL (aka FIVE INTO HELL) features the great Klaus Kinski in a meaty supporting role as the sinister SS Colonel Hans Muller. Kinski, who was born to star as a sinister Nazi, lights up the screen as the evil and suspicious colonel who butts heads with General Gerbordstadt (Irio Fantini), the Villa’s commandant, and desperately wants to get into Helga’s pants, even though he suspects her of being a spy who framed her lover for murder. Kinski infuses Muller with an almost giddy charm as he pursues Lee, finally tightening the noose around her neck until she has no options left.

Though it’s a bit of a stretch to buy the obviously Italian stars traipsing around in German uniforms – a fact the script actually addresses in one standoff with SS guards – the screenplay by Parolini and Renato Izzo (from a story by Sergio Garrone) keeps the action moving with enough gun battles, chases and explosions that you’re more than willing to suspend your disbelief. By the time the 42% Dirty Dozen begins their assault on the villa you won’t care that only two of the members of the squad speak Deutsch (which makes the others wonder if they’re spies) or that Garko throws like he’s having an epileptic fit.

Thanks to a nerve-wracking villa assault, a willingness to kill any member of the cast, an action-packed finale and great performances from the always reliable pair of Garko and Kinski (who starred together in two SARTANA flicks and the excellent THE PRICE OF DEATH) FIVE FOR HELL totally delivers.

FIVE FOR HELL can be found in many cheapo WWII DVD packages. An anamorphic widescreen version is available from the fine folks at Xploited Cinema.

Love That Jarvis Kid

Good news FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER fans. (Oh! Oh! That's me!) According to the fine folks over at ShockTillYouDrop.com, Paramount Home Entertainment is prepping a special edition DVD of the flick for release later this year. While I'm a Jason buff and F13 lover, FINAL CHAPTER is tops in my book thanks to the presence of Corey Feldman as Tommy Jarvis and the great Crispin Glover who gets dispatched in one of the great FRIDAY scenes of all-time thanks to a corkscrew and what I believe is a machete.

Check out this trailer for FINAL CHAPTER (which, by the way, was followed by seven more Jason flicks not to mention the upcoming remake)...

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

That's the tune that's being sung here in Baltimore.

No love for John Harbaugh as Coach of the Year (on a team that could have openly revolted given the veteran leadership and the fact that Rex Ryan wasn't named head coach). Joe Flacco gets zero votes as Offensive ROTY (all he does is go 11-5 for a team expected to finish in the cellar after he was expected to be third string behind Troy Smith and, gasp, Kyle Boller).

And, in the most egregious display of media bias against the Ravens, Ed Reed leads the league in INTs, returns two for TDs, plays hurt all year and anchors one of the best D's in (channeling my inner Jaws) The National Football League and he gets 8 votes for Defensive Player of the Year and finishes third?

I pity the fools. My prediction for the Ravens/Titans game? I'll let Clubber Lang weigh in...

What I Watched in 2008

No elaborate rating systems for me, there's just three categories: Highly Recommended, Recommended and Not Recommended. Your mileage may vary. I know I'm forgetting some titles but this is as close as I'm going to get for a list from '08...

Highly Recommended
--------------------------------
Black Killer
Blastfighter
Bloodsucking Freaks*
Bloody Moon
Cannibal Terror
Dead & Buried
The Fog*
Fright Night*
Halloween III: Season of the Witch*
Hands of Steel
High Voltage
Iron Man
Island of the Damned
King of Kong
Lady Terminator
Lover of the Monster
A Nightmare on Elm Street*
OSS 117
Phantasm II*
Pieces*
The Price of Death
Raiders of the Lost Ark*
The Ruthless Four
Salt In the Wound*
Silent Night, Deadly Night*
Starcrash
Who Can Kill a Child?
Wicked, Wicked

Recommended
---------------------
30 Days of Night
American Hardcore
Beast In Space
Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll
The Boogeyman
Chosen Survivors
Circus of Fear*
Commando Leopard
Curious George
The Dark Knight (would have made Highly Recommended had I not rewatched it on DVD)
Dawn of the Mummy
Devil Hunter
Double Target
The Dracula Saga
El Conde Dracula*
Evil of Frankenstein
Flashpoint
Foods of the Gods*
The Foreigner
For Your Consideration
Gotham Knight
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
Hard to Kill*
The Hellbenders
The Hulk
I Am Omega
I Am Sartana, Your Gravedigger
I Know Who Killed Me
In the Folds of the Flesh
The Incredible Shrinking Man*
Indiana Jones & The Crystal Skull
Juno
Kinski Paganini
Last House on the Beach
Made of Honor
Man, Pride, Vengeance
The Mist
Monster Squad*
Mr. No Legs
The Net (Kinski version, not Sondra Bullock)
Nightmare City
Open Water 2
Opera*
Quantum of Solace
Ratatouille
RE: Extinction
Recount
Rescue Dawn
Return of the Living Dead*
Secret of the Red Orchid
Superbad
That Man in Istanbul
There's a Noose Waiting for You Trinity
Ticker
To Kill a Rat
Urban Justice
Werewolf Shadow

Not Recommended
---------------------------
Asylum
Destroy All Monsters*
Diary of the Dead
Equinox
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Frontier(s)
I Am Legend
Midnight Meat Train
Mother of Tears
Sex and the City
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2*

* indicates rewatch

Most Anticipated Flick of 2009

WATCHMEN, SWATCHMEN. This is the most anticipated flick of 2009 for yours truly. To say that the red band trailer for CRANK 2: HIGH VOLTAGE is not work safe is putting it mildly. If you have to leave work now to watch I say it's worth it.

Play the Henchman 24 Memorial Playoff Challenge

"But I could never be a henchman..."

Not true Henchman 24. You were one of the greats. Alas, you will be missed and in your honor I have started the Henchman 24 Memorial Playoff Challenge. Come and join the fun. There are no real prizes for winning the group challenge, just the best prize of all... bragging rights.

He may have been #24 in rank but he's #1 in our hearts. Okay, maybe #2.

The group password is: monarch.

Farewell to a THG Contributor & Influential Zinester

A week or so ago I heard some sad news and hoped it wasn't true. Unfortunately, it was. Frequent THG contributor and influential zine creator and writer Bill Landis passed away in December.

Bill's gritty Times Square trash film and street-level sociology zine Sleazoid Express was hugely influential on a number of the junk cinema zines that appeared in the 1980s as horror and sleaze cinema had its last gasp in the theaters and exploded on VHS. It would be years before I got my hands on copies of those original cut and pasted, photocopied zines and for a long time I was only familiar with Landis and his zine through articles he occasionally wrote for the pages of Film Comment.

By the time I started Exploitation Retrospect in 1986 Landis was gone from the scene but I finally had the chance to get to know him a little when I interviewed him and Michelle Clifford, co-author of the Sleazoid Express book and his partner in reviving the zine back in the late 1990s when we needed it more than ever.

After the interview Landis, Clifford and I exchanged e-mails on occasion and the pair wrote a great piece entitled 'Eating Out the Deuce: Remembrances of Meals Past' for the pages of THG, one of the most popular pieces to appear in the print edition or on-line. Landis and I continued to chat via e-mail over the years, discussing everything from articles he'd written for the pages of Carbon 14 to topics I was exploring for freelance pieces.

The world of sleaze cinema and junk culture will miss his insights and observations into a world most will never know.

Celebrate the New Year with A Bevy of Trash

Happy New Year to all our readers! Here's hoping 2009 is a great year and that we actually get the ER book finished.

To ring in the new year I've posted reviews of MOTHER OF TEARS, BLOODY MOON, WEREWOLF SHADOW, EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN, HALLOWEEN III, DEVIL HUNTER, BURIAL GROUND, MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN and THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN to the ER website.