2020 is over, thank the good lord. Well, maybe I am weird, because I have at least one fond memory of 2020 and that is getting married. Even with everything 2020 will have at least that wonderful memory. It also changed the way I live, in some ways for the better.
We end 2020 as we do, reviewing the year, revising some thoughts and looking ahead to the next year. Enjoy.
We wrap up our discussion of Dune with a trip down a rabbit hole of true insanity. Jodorowsky’s Dune was a monstrosity of likely drug induced hallucinations and philosophy. His goal was some combination of showing the viewer the experience of being on mind altering drugs and believing in a cult like messianic figure. It likely would have succeeded but also made less sense than David Lynch’s Dune, and had less verisimilitude as a representation of Frank Herbert’s novel.
Jodorworsky’s Dune - a view into the ravings of an egomaniacal artist, who was an average at best and likely not even average film maker, who thinks he was and is a giant of the industry.
We move from the insanity that was David Lynch Dune to the much better Sci Fi Channel miniseries of Dune and Children of Dune. If you are going to watch a Dune adaptation make it this one. The mini series are both well acted, directed and written. The story is largely true to novel and where it differs it is an improvement in that it clarifies things that Frank Herbert left unclear or streamlines sequences that were clunky and overly long.
The saga of Dune is far from over however as next week we take the crazy up to 12.
We begin the Dune month with David Lunch 1984 Dune what will we think of the first attempt to get Dune on the big screen?
Thankfully our month long exploration of Turkish knockoff films ends this week, with Turkish Superman, or Supermen. The knockoff follows Tayfun AKA Superman and his adventures saving, Alev, aka Lois Lane, from criminals who want to steal her professor fathers secrets of the Kyrpton stone, which can turn any object into gold, or any living being, including an unfortunate cat, into ashes.
Its a bad knockoff, with terrible acting and music and fight scenes, but it is better than anything we watched this month.
Next month we ratchet up the action, with Dune December.
Did I say action, I meant long political discussions about booking kickbacks are revenue and writing it off from taxes as a cost of doing business, and discussions on selective breeding programs and backroom political subterfuge. A month of deep meanings coming up!
Thank you Ragemaster
Turkish Star Trek, at least, at least it has a plot, and a time travelling, out of time, clueless space tourist. That said this is a fairly faithful recreation of Star Trek and the characters. It appears the actors studied the show and characters to get a handle on them. The “movie” itself is basically a remake of the 1st Season TOS episode, The Man Trap, with some other episodes such as Amok Time and Arena sprinkled in. It’s hands down the best we have reviewed so far, and will probably remain the best film we review in Turkey month.
***There is an intermittent audio glitch. A phone somewhere was occasionally duplicating Scott’s audio feed. I was unable to fix it in post production. We apologize and believe we have identified the issue so it should not occur again next week***
What do you get when you re-use Star Wars clips, the theme song to Indiana Jones, inject a crazy amount of hand to hand combat, trampolines and a story line about power of the synthesis of the human brain, soul and religion, that appears to have been written by Jack Handy from SNL?
Turkish Star Wars. You get Turkish Star Wars.
Turkish E.T. is an experience. As best as we can tell its about a clay potato and protagonist who is leading a revolution consisting of his friends as they attempt to take over an amusement park and help the clay potato get home. I don’t, its a mess that has to be experience to be understood. Be warned though, ET will haunt your dreams.
This month, courtesy of the Ragemaster, we are reviewing low budget knockoffs of major science fictions properties made in Turkey. Get ready for bad, horrible, terrible films. Thanks Rage!
What do you do if you want a horror film with disturbing imagery and a sci-fi film that carries a significant meaning? Thanks to Videodrome, you can have both in one film. We are finishing off horror month with a sci-fi tale that introduces us to the unbridled debauchery of media influence in our lives and how it can control or destroy us.
Krusty The Klown’s version, not Sinatra’s.
Send in, the Klowns. Those murder happy Klowns. Send in those space-bound and homicidal schmaltz, by the bowlful. Klowns. Send in, the killer Klowns. Sci-fi Malady reviews them heeeeeeeeere!
We are joined by our friend Matt from Cosmic Anomaly Productions as we discuss TerrorVision. What is Cosmic Anomaly Productions you ask? It is fan produced audio play adapted from the Darth Krayt saga done by DarkHorse Comics. Ragemaster might also be involved. So, our friend Matt joins us to breakdown the awesome 1980’s sci-fi horror film Terrorvision. It is slapstick, gruesome, over the top and full of shall we say adult themes.
It is our favorite time of year, Horror Month, or as Ethan calls it, Streetwalker Month. All this month we review great or not so great, or just plan terrible sci-fi horror, and make sure we enunciate really well.
What happens when you mix GM seatbelts on a spaceship, Roger Corman, a violating space slug, and Freddy Kruegger all in space? Today we find out with our kick off episode Galaxy of Terror.
Today’s episode, according to Scott, is about a deadbeat dad, a mother chasing her loopy kid, and a Frenchmen trying to contact aliens through a game of Simon. What makes this possible is that the US military has decided to let their D-listers take over guarding this ultra-important mission to make contact and get back missing persons, allegedly abducted by aliens. Despite there being an actual story arc with a plot that one can track on a traditional plot arc, Scott will insist it is an Abrams style mystery box with no answers or discernable plot. Luckily, our friend Ethan from Age of Geek and Drive Back the Night podcasts, joins the crew to try to set Scott straight. Good luck Ethan, for when Scott’s confused, he’s confused.
This week of Steven Spielberg September we review the original Jurassic Park
This week we review one of Steven Spielberg more well know and loved works E.T.