Tagarchief: Star Wars

JK launches YouTube-channel with three shorts

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

“As far as back as I could remember, I always wanted to be a filmmaker.”

After a break of nearly 20 years I am back in the film business. And this time in the online age. Through my new channel – Jeppy’s Video Circus – I plan to release short videos regularly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am starting off with three shorts that went live this week:

Enforcer Nr. 1
He is introduced as a legendary character in the first Godfather, but then he is quickly killed off. What is the background story of Don Corleone’s hitman Luca Brasi?

Modern Conquest
After the second world war came another war, this time for the contents of our wallets. The country that did best for a while was the one with the most cultural impact. You guessed it, the US and A.

Sharpshit Troopers
This short focuses on a single line from the original Star Wars. Were stormtroopers originally meant to be perceived as dangerous? That is something that good old George Lucas did not make explicitly clear in his original vision as you will see.

There’s more to come in 2021!

Cult Radar: Part 10

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

The final one?

FilmDungeon.com is glad to explore the video trenches to find that oddball treasure between the piles of crap out there. Off course a treasure in this context can also be a film that’s so shockingly bad it’s worth a look, or something so bizarre that cult fans just have to see it. Join us on our quest and learn what we learn. Hopefully we’ll uncover some well-hidden cult gems.

Researched by: Jeppe Kleijngeld

Westworld (USA, 1973)

Directed by: Michael Crichton
Written by: Michael Crichton
Cast: Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin

Before the big budget HBO-series, there was the cult movie Westworld. And it’s a blast also! Delos Vacation is the vacation of the future today. Go to Roman World, Medieval World or Westworld to fuck and kill. But, as usually happens in movies about AI, robots get tired of being humanity’s servants and go rogue. The decadent will pay for their behaviour! Much like the vacation advertised by Delos, Westworld is Big Fun.

Enemy Territory (USA, 1987)

Directed by: Peter Manoogian
Written by: Stuart Kaminsky, Bobby Liddell
Cast: Gary Frank, Ray Parker Jr., Jan-Michael Vincent

An insurance agent and phone repairman get trapped at night in a massive tower building. This is the territory of the Vampires, a deadly gang. What follows is the typical ‘stalk and kill’ scenario. Unfortunately, the movie did not age well and is thus not very tense by today’s standards. The acting is also poor, so unfortunately there is not much to recommend this for.

Starship Troopers: Invasion (Japan / USA, 2012)

Directed by: Shinji Aramaki
Written by: Flint Dille (screenplay), Robert A. Heinlein (novel)
Cast (voices): Leraldo Anzaldua, Shelley Calene-Black, Luci Christian

Third sequel to Paul Verhoeven’s original sci-fi classic Starship Troopers from 1997 and this time it is animated. Want to know more? The first sequel was horrible and the second was not all that great. This one is a pretty decent made-for-DVD flick, much like Clone Wars is for the Star Wars prequel trilogy. The first part is mostly marine macho bullshit, but the animated girls make it all worthwhile (all the animation is pretty well done). In the second part, the makers actually manage to add a story worth adding to this bug-infested universe. Could have done with a little more suspense and over the top gore, but it is certainly worth a look.

Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 (Italy, 1988)

Directed by: Lucio Fulci
Written by: Claudio Fragasso (story), Claudio Fragasso (screenplay)
Cast: Deran Sarafian, Beatrice Ring, Ottaviano Dell’Acqua

This masterpiece (originally called Zombi 3 in Italy) is a cash-in on Zombie Flesh Eaters/Zombi 2 which was made to profit from the zombie-rage caused by Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, which was released as Zombi in Italy. Still with me? This one is about an infection on a small island caused by the military working on bacterial weapons (again). The virus causes people to eat each other. The zombies in this film are the first fast & furious zombies(*1) I’ve seen, that would later appear in films such as 28 Days Later that resurrected the genre. And some of them even talk. Not that surprising though, this was three years after Bub(*2) after all. They are killed pretty easily though. No brain impalement required. Though not as atmospheric as the original Zombie Flesh Eaters, Fulci still delivers in terms of shocks and bad taste. To be concluded by Zombie Flesh Eaters 3/Zombi 4.

*1 At least some of them are. Others are as slow and dumb as ever.
*2 Of Day of the Dead fame

Zombie Flesh Eaters 3 (Italy, 1989)

Directed by: Claudio Fragasso
Written by: Rossella Drudi, Rossella Drudi
Cast: Jeff Stryker, Candice Daly, Massimo Vanni

Whoever green-lit this dog? Exploiting the extremely capable zombie master Romero is one thing, but at least come up with a rip-off that delivers some of the goodies. The acting in this Italian piece of trash is HORRIBLE and so are the dialogues. The direction is a complete joke now that Fulci left. This distracts so much that watching it is a complete waste of time. Only for the braindead, others avoid at all costs.

Westworld

Enemy Territory

Starship Troopers: Invasion

House on the Edge of the Park (Italy, 1980)

Directed by: Ruggero Deodato
Written by: Gianfranco Clerici, Vincenzo Mannino
Cast: David Hess, Annie Belle, Christian Borromeo

From the director of Cannibal Holocaust comes an early home invasion flick, very much like Funny Games. A psycho and his simpleton buddy crash a party of young folks and as the night progresses, they use (sexual) violence on them. Often quite unpleasant to watch, but the acting is pretty decent. With a nice little twist at the end.

The Cars That Ate Paris (Australia, 1974)

Directed by: Peter Weir
Written by: Peter Weir, Keith Gow, Piers Davies
Cast: John Meillon, Terry Camilleri, Kevin Miles

Ozploitation flick about the small town of Paris, where the inhabitants cause fatal car crashes to plunder the vehicles. Strange early creation of Australian director Peter Weir, who went on to make great films like The Truman Show, Fearless and Dead Poet Society. This one provides in mood and production design (low budget, but cool), but misses the finer touches that Weir displayed in his later work. A must see? No. But interesting and entertaining enough.

Space Shift (USA / UK, 1992)

Directed by: Anthony Hickox
Written by: Anthony Hickox
Cast: Zach Galligan, Monika Schnarre, Martin Kemp

This masterpiece, also known as Waxwork II: Lost in Time, is a sequel to the 1988 film, Waxwork. After dealing with evil waxwork, this time the heroes travel through time in what appears to be a horror reenactment game. They become part of stories like Frankenstein, Alien and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The writing of this homage is not very well done. But is does feature legend Bruce Campbell in an amusing role.

Mega Force (Hong Kong / USA, 1982)

Directed by: Hal Needham
Written by: Bob Kachler, James Whittaker, Albert S. Ruddy, Hal Needham, Andre Morgan
Cast: Barry Bostwick, Michael Beck, Persis Khambatta

From the director of Smokey and the Bandit comes another hilarious eighties classic. About a phantom force, armed with the latest technology, that is called into action whenever geopolitical problems arise. The leader of the team: Ace Hunter! And the action, stunts and gadgets can compare with James Bond… almost. Worth watching if only for the soundtrack and images of the ‘MegaForce’ on their special motorcycles.

Assault on Precinct 13 (USA, 1976)

Directed by: John Carpenter
Written by: John Carpenter
Cast: Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer

Suspenseful early flick from great horror maestro John Carpenter. About L.A. gangs who team up to assault a nearly abandoned police station kamikaze-style. Very tense atmosphere and excellent character building. Remade in 2005 with Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne and Gabriel Byrne, but the original is better.

House on the Edge of the Park

Space Shift

Mega Force

© FilmDungeon.com, October 2019

Power of Grayskull

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Een anderhalf uur durende documentaire over He-Man? Tuurlijk. Zelfs voor een kind van de jaren 80’ zoals ik is het makkelijk te vergeten hoe groot deze hype was.

Het verhaal van He-Man begint in 1977. Fanboys snappen het al, dit was het jaar dat Star Wars uitkwam. Er was op dat punt nog nooit een film succesvol vertaald naar speelgoed. Star Wars veranderde dat voor altijd. Speelgoedmaker Mattel, wiens grootste successen tot dat moment Barbie en Hot Wheels waren, keerde het om. Ze begonnen met de speelgoedlijn en de rest kwam later.

He-Man was een massief gespierde held. Dat was nieuw toen. De volgende stap was hem een formidabele tegenstander geven. Dat werd natuurlijk Skeletor. Toen volgden nog allemaal coole ondersteunende personages: Evil-Lyn, Teela, Man-At-Arms, Mer-Man, Beast-Man, et cetera. Het volgende design was Castle Grayskull. Great! Maar met het doodshoofd erop lijkt het meer op Skeletor’s basis, hoe zat dat? Toen begonnen de makers het verhaal vorm te geven. Het kasteel is van geen van beide, maar wie twee helften van een magisch zwaard bezit krijgt de ‘seat of power’.

In 1982 kwam de eerste reclame van Mattel en de geweldige ontwerpen trokken kinderen gelijk deze fantasiewereld binnen. Wat ontbrak was echter een medium om het verhaal te vertellen. Dat werden in eerste instantie mini-comics. De uitvinder van de Saturday Morning Cartoon, Lou Scheimer, besloot er vervolgens een serie van te maken.

He-Man kreeg ervan langs van de cenzuurders omdat het zo gewelddadig zou zijn. Daarom werd er een stom moreel lesje aan het einde geplakt. Maar los daarvan was het een geweldige, vermakelijke serie. Kinderen waren er gek op. En Mattel verdiende miljarden. Tussen 1982 en 1987 zorgde de gespierde held voor 95 procent van de groei bij Mattel. Die laatste jaren was het zelfs groter dan Barbie. Om de groei vast te houden werd er ook nog een vrouwelijke held geïntroduceerd; She-Ra. In 1987 kwam de behoorlijke ‘live action’ film met Dolph Lundgren en Frank Langella.

En daarna doofde het kaarsje langzaam uit. Tien jaar later probeerde ze het nog met een nieuwe versie van de serie, maar dit is nooit van de grond gekomen. De makers in de docu verklaarden het succes doordat het gaat over je eigen innerlijke ik transformeren met je eigen kracht. Mijn eigen verklaring is dat het, net als Star Wars, een briljante schurk heeft. We houden ervan te fantaseren over onze donkere kant en dat is de aantrekkingskracht van een serie als He-Man.

Lees ook: 10 favoriete slechteriken uit jaren 80’ tekenfilms

Why Bringing Back Palpatine in Ep IX was the Right Decision

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Like always when a Star Wars movie is released, the fans and general public are bitching and complaining. One of the major complaints about the recently released Episode XI: The Rise of Skywalker, was that it brought back the presumed dead emperor Palpatine. They think this is a chickenshit move to please fans who were unhappy about the direction the previous installment – The Last Jedi – was taking the franchise. I’m about to tell them why they are wrong.

First of all, if you accept the decision to make episode VII, VIII and IX in the first place, you’ll have to accept the rise of a powerful new enemy. It is called Star Wars after all; there has to be conflict between the forces of good and evil. This enemy must also be very powerful. At least as powerful as the defeated empire. Or there won’t be much tension. This new force of evil became The First Order.

Secondly, who is gonna command this mighty new enemy? It seemed that Supreme Leader Snoke was the brains behind it, but that would have been strange and unsatisfying. Don’t forget, it took Palpatine a whole trilogy (episode I, II, and III) to build up the Galactic Empire through an elaborate Master Plan. Are we supposed to believe that out of nowhere, a dark lord would arrive and overpower the newly established republic? No way. Only the master of the dark arts of the Sith could manage such a feat.

And thus, Palpatine somehow survived his fall in Return of the Jedi, and in the shadows of Exegol worked on his revenge. I like the idea that he created Snoke to do his bidding. And now, finally after 42 years of Star Wars films, he is finally defeated and the force is balanced once again. Yes I know, Anakin Skywalker had already brought balance. But again, if you accept the decision to make new movies in the Skywalker timeline, you’ll have to accept that there are still major tremors in the force that have to be evened out.

Yes, The Rise of Skywalker, is a safe movie. Rather than taking chances it sticks to the familiar elements Lucas created long ago. But it is visually stunning, features great acting, and brings an emotional punch or two. J. J. Abrams did an excellent job and now, Star Wars is really really finished. We might have to wait a very long time before the next really epic fantasy series comes along…