Back to the Apes, Part II

I can't say enough about how much I Heart my new Planet of the Apes Blu Ray Collection. I Heart it so much I bought one for my Mom for Mother's Day. Probably what I Heart even more than the Collection itself is the fact that I have a Mother who actually wanted it for Mother's Day - and who spent half a day looking for someone at work to tell about it - who would appreciate it.
She ended up finding a co-worker (another woman - how awesome!) who not only appreciated it but told my Mom stories about how she and her siblings would play 'Planet of the Apes' when they were kids. So, yes, us girls that heart on the Apes, we are out here, and we will kick you in the ding-ding if you hate on our monkey movies.





As much as I love these movies, I've always had kind of a 'blah' spot in my heart for Part II, Beneath the Planet of the Apes. For me, as a kid, it was the Tuesday movie during Ape Week, the one you had to get through to make it to my stone cold guilty pleasure favorite, Escape From the Planet of the Apes.

Beneath kind of disturbed me as a kid - it didn't really scare me as much as the freaky white people living underground just grossed me out. They literally made me nauseous, and when I think back to my childhood memories of this movie, they're almost always accompanied by a queasy feeling in my stomach. So I've always had a 'take or leave it' philosophy towards this movie.




So I decided I'd just 'get it over with' and watch Part II. And then I found that my memories of the movie were not quite accurate. For one thing, most of the movie does NOT take place underground (which I thought it did), and there's actually more Ape City action than I remembered. Also what I did not remember is that Cornelius and Zira have a very small role, and Cornelius is not played by Roddy McDowall. Which is not because Mr McDowall was too high-falutin' to strap the monkey suit back on, but had previous commitments that prevented him from taking the role. (Thanks, Special Features!)

BTW - in the other 'Thanks But No Thanks' Category of Special Features, the documentary on POTA points out that the special effects budget was cut on Part II, which led to a lot of inferior makeups in the background. Which - once you're aware of this, you can't help but notice. Like all the time.

Anyway......BTPOTA is, for the first half,, basically a remake of POTA. Astronaut crashes, other astronauts die, astronaut finds Nova and then talking monkeys, astronaut gets captured... you get the drill. Adding to the remake feel is our star James Franciscus, who, in my opinion, is basically Charlton Heston Lite. You know, it's made to taste similar but with half the cheese.


So 'Chuck MC Lyte' Franciscus runs around Ape City, gettin' into scrapes and making friends with Corn and Zira. He's also looking for 'Chuck Original Recipe' Heston at the same time. Nova is not a lot of help, since she can't speak, but she can drag Chuck Lyte around to all the important places, including the place that Taylor disappeared.






And it turns out that place is underground, in the old New York Subway, with the weird creepy bald people that make my stomach hurt. Probably the last part of this movie that I really enjoy is the time that James Franciscus and Linda Harrison spend exploring the location. Then the baldies who worship the Big Bomb come in the picture, and it's just okay for me after that.





Then Voila! Our Friend Chuck returns for the ending just in time to wrestle James Franciscus (which, if you think about it, is just about as awesome as the Elvis vs Elvis fight in Kissin' Cousins).

and curse out the Bad Monkeys again before he blows all the shit up.
The End.


I don't feel that I'm giving anything away here - even with a big ole bomb, the ending of this movie is just about as anti-climactic as they come. It's literally over with a peep. The End, now bring on the FUN one with Zira and Cornelius (Roddy McDowall's Back! Yay!) and Victor from Young and the Restless.

And that's about all Mother has to say about Part II. The film does look gorgeous on Blu Ray, and I did enjoy most of the movie, even if it is just a remake of the first one. I'll definitely include it in the next time I decide to watch all the films, even if I do turn it off right about the time of the 'Chuck vs Chuck 2.0' smackdown.

Till next time, Dearhearts, when we dive in and swim around in the guilty cheese fest that is Escape From the Planet of the Apes,
Mother Firefly

Planet of the Apes - Blu Ray

It looks all kinds of GORGEOUS and it was like watching it for the first time ever. I've seen this entire series on TV (B&W and color), VHS, and DVD. I even watched it all night long while I recovered from a nasty 24 hour flu once. But I've never been so.....ENAMORED of it as I was today. I usually take notes while I'm watching movies, but I couldn't take my eyes off it. I can't wait to see the rest.

If you love this series (or even if you just like the first one), GET IT.



.

Can't wait to get into the rest.

It's a MADHOUSE!
-Mother Firefly

Night of the Living Dead Puppet Show on DVD!!!

There are many things I love about living in Milwaukee, but one of the things I love the most is that I live in a city where something as fantastic as the Night of the Living Dead Puppet Show began. (Screw you, stupid Fonzie statue!) And believe me, one day I expect to read those words in Entertainment Weekly. Not 'Screw you, stupid Fonzie statue' (although that would be freakin' KILLER) but the part about the NOTLD Puppet Show having its origins in Milwaukee.

Seriously, people, it's that good - and it's that FUNNY. But while you're waiting for NOTLD : The Puppet Show to invade the rest of the country - and I predict they'll do just that - you can support the movement by purchasing the DVD from their website. (Plus you'll laugh your ass off, so what do you have to lose, people??)

Click on the link and follow the directions HERE:

And the main page here: Angry Young Men, Ltd

My original review from Zombie Con X HERE.

Quote from the website also follows the clip:




"Night of the Living Dead: The Puppet Show, Better Than Live(?) features a High-Def studio filming of the half-hour show. Plus, special features include a blooper reel, a new short short, a commentary version of the 2007 live show, and a 51-min Essential re-edit of the original 1968 classic. Order fast before they are gone! Just $10 plus $4 shipping.
Email info@angryyoungmenltd.com for details."

My email is on its way, Barbara!

-Mother Firefly

Horror Blogger Alliance

Yippee!!

As of this week, I am a proud member of the Horror Blogger Alliance:




As are many great blogs that I read (or try to read, anyway!) When I heard about this, I thought it was a fantastic idea.

Click on the picture, check out the great blogs, make a martini, and enjoy.

Also I want to say thanks to everyone who signed up to follow my blog in the last month. I usually make it a habit to add people to my blog list who do that, and I haven't been keeping up with that. I appreciate everyone who's signed up - I know I haven't been posting much lately. Which makes me all kinds of sad - and I have all kinds of great excuses - but pffft, who cares, let's get to The Scary!

But before we do.......I do have one big THANK YOU I need to send out to a dear friend of mine who just made my house 10% scarier (at least)

My friend Mandy got me a gift certificate for graduation and I knew what I wanted to spend it on. But then I kept procrastinating and second guessing myself. FINALLY I decided to just do it - and it was out of stock. Adding insult to injury was the fact that said item was on eBay for about three times the money. I held on to the GC, kept the item on my wish list, and one day.......(cue the ta-da sound effects)...
He showed back up - at the same price he was before.

Now he lives with me.
And quite frankly, I'm scared of him.
Which makes my lil black heart all kinds of happy.
Thanks, Miss Mandy!

DROOLZ

This sweetness came in my mailbox today:


No, WAIT, it gets better:

I am a HUGE Planet of the Apes fan. but I have never owned ANY of them. Not on DVD,not on VHS, not even taped off the TV.

More to come..............

Beware The Blob!

After Nintendo finally drank the Netflix Kool-Aid and joined the X-Box and the PS3 in being able to stream movies instantly to our TV, and after spending one morning watching Happy Tree Friends, two episodes of Masters of Horror (and not the GOOD episodes either), three episodes of SOAP (didya hear me, my friends? FRIGGIN' SOAP. Now just give me streamin' Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and I'll cry tears of joy.), and falling asleep during a totally not-about-Bigfoot-really documentary called 'Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie' ,Mama finally settled on something I could really get into.

Beware the Blob is not only my favorite kind of cheese ball movie, it's one that I remember from childhood.


Since this is a Blob movie, it makes perfect sense to play the credits over a montage of:


A Kitten!!!!!
Awwwww. I hereby make the proclamation that more bad movies start with kittens!!!

Well, I hope you enjoyed the credits brought to you by Kittens! Inspired by Kittens! because we're about to cross the line into stupidity.
First, we have this couple, and I'm at odds as to who is the weirdest. The husband, who is camping in the living room; or his wife, who apparently is all kinds of okay with this arrangement.

The good news: Kitten's back!

The bad news: He has the unfortunate luck to be owned by these two weirdos.

Wifey finds the 'specimen' and when she asks her husband what it is and why he has it, he's all 'don't worry yer purty lil head about it'

which is apparently how the director feels about us.

And the director, by the by, is none other than:

J.R. Ewing.

Yes, it's true, Larry Hagman directed this slice of 70's cheese.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OHMIGOD ITS GOT ME BY THE JEANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lookie what's on TV:

Oh, the irony.
Now that the blob's out and about town, here comes the sequences of random blob killing:

In the tub with gettin yer Fez On!

Joining your makeout sessions:

And it all comes down to the showdown at the bowling alley/ice rink. I remember watching this movie when I was very young (I think it was a double feature with the original Blob) and my mom and I had it playing on a small TV in the kitchen while we made cookies. I actually remember a lot of the ending, including these scenes:
yes, they are wearing BULLET PROOF vests while shooting at the blob.



And I've never forgotten the ending:
LOLZ.
And that's about it for Beware! The Blob. The Blob just goes around....doing Blob stuff. Which is pretty much what happens in all of the Blob movies. Kind of crazy when you realize that we've had not one, not two, but THREE dang movies made about a pile of killer jello. That's the kind of fucked - up reasoning that also got us more than one movie about killer tomatoes. (Which Lord Knows I heart the first one, but c'mon). Anyway, it's fun, it went down fairly quicky and easily, and the dude with the yorkie and the fez made me laugh.

I said SOAP, people!
Mama Firefly

A Perfect Movie

Mama is at the end of her rope. I really don't know what else to do.
After giving up not one, not two, but THREE weekends to this illness that's been plaguing me (more on that in another post)

Maybe what I need is A Perfect Movie. There are many movies that I love with all of my little black heart but few of them that I would label as Perfect.



The Omen is one of those movies. From the script to the acting to the rottweilers to the score to the nanny flapping in the breeze; for my money, you can't do much better than The Omen.

(Aannnnnnnnnd as a creepy aside, I was in the middle of typing when Miss Baylock came in the room and is all Jedi Mind Trick with, Yo, I'm the New Nanny, and No, You Don't Need to Check My References, Bitches.....and not once but TWICE while typing that last sentence I woke up under some kind of trance with about two sentences of type consisting of nothing but 'pppppppttttttttttttttttttt' or 'nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn')

Some Things I Love:

The montage sequence filled with one 'happy family' picutre after another. Any one of them in and of itself looks like nothing but shiny, happy people. Put them together with THAT music and whoa, hold on.


Lee Remick wears a blue turban to CHURCH. A Freaking Blue Turban. And she rocks the shit out of it.
The 'Look at me, Damian! It's all for you!' still remains, for me, one of the most bone chillingly frightening things I have ever seen on film.
When Monkeys Attack!

Freaky Shadows that Predict Death!

I feel the same way about going to church:


Until later, wish me back to a speedy recovery....

Mother Firefly