Hello there internet people! It looks like I've fallen behind on my movie reviews...

So keep an eye out and in the next few weeks I'll post reviews of:

The House by the Cemetary
Exorcist Master
Super Inframan
Mad Monkey Kung Fu
Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter
and
Four of the Apocalypse

What Does Your Blog Say About Your Personality?

So I found Typealyzer, site that analyzes a web page and attempts to predict their Myers-Briggs Type Indicator from the writing. It sounds fascinating to me so I thought I'd try it out on my blog.

It was classified ESFP (Performer).

I especially like the picture the site uses with the description:

While I do recognize some of those traits in myself, however the algorithm works it is going to be heavily influenced by content of the blog. In other words, I've written thus far mostly about cult movies and craft projects and in the process written the phrase "totally awesome" more often than any human being over 14 should be allowed to.  If I wrote a bunch of articles about differential calculus or linguistics, I doubt the Typealyzer would assign the same type.

I would add that I did have a Myers-Briggs test administered to me about ten years ago. It came back ISFP, but I've lived a lot (and switched genders) since then, so I suppose it's plausible I'd score differently if I took a test again.

The Incredible Never Ending Hand Stiched Rag Rug.

No, I haven't forgotten abandoned crafting in favor of inflicting my reviews of obscure movies on the world. In fact, I am up to my eyeballs in my current project:

Okay, it's not quite up to my eyeballs exactly, but still, I got of work ahead of me. I am making a rag rug from a stack of old clothes (and one full sized bed sheet) that were in too bad a shape to toss in the big yellow clothes donation box around the corner from my house.

So I cut my big pile of old clothes (and one full sized bed sheet) one inch wide strips and braided them into one long multicoloured rope. Then I took started to coil it into a strip and stitch it into a rug. Did I mention that I am hand stitching all this? Well, I am because I don't have a sewing machine.

That's what I've got so far, and it took most of a roll of thread to get that done. I'll do an update on this project when I this finished (it may take me a little while).   

The Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

The Simians have returned and they still want Earth for their new home. Unfortunately, like the last time (Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla). Godzilla stands in their way. Their solution? They pose as human and put together a project to build a new Mechagodzilla with which to battle Godzilla (the previous one was destroyed by Godzilla, and the beginning of the movie has a recap of that battle).


Now, the more astute of you may be asking,"But that sounds kinda like their last evil world domination plot?" Apparently also recognizing this flaw in their plans, the Simian's leader, Mugal (Goro Mutusumi) enlists the help of mad scientist, Dr. Shinzo Mafune (Akihko Hirata) and his cyborg daughter, Katsura Mafune.

Dr Mafune has a normally peaceful giant aquatic dinosaur, the Titanosaurus, under his mind control. Dr Mafune shares the Simans' goal of destroying humanity and loans them the use of his Titanosaurus. Actually he seems to be more eager to destroy humanity than the Simians as he unleashes Titanosaurus on Yokosuka. And at this point we can ignore the actions of the non-kaiju characters and enjoy the carnage as Godzilla battles Mechagodzilla and the Titanosaurus in Yokosuka and the Japanese country side.

This movie was the last of Toho's Showa era Godzilla movies, they wouldn't make another one until 1984 when they rebooted the series with The Return of Godzilla. It was also the last movie directed by Ishiro Honda, who directed not only the original Godzilla in 1954, but a series of interesting tokusatsu films from the 50's through the 70's.


I'd recommend this movie to any Godzilla fan, and if you wanna see more in this vein, I'd suggest also watching Destroy All Monsters, and King Kong Escapes.

Imdb

The Mighty Peking Man (1977)

If you can see only one campy 70's King Kong remake, see The Mighty Peking Man. If you wanna see two campy 70's King Kong remakes, see The Mighty Peking Man twice.

When an earthquake in the Himalayas unleashes a gigantic ape man and his bikini-clad pet blond girl (played by Evelyne Kraft), fortune seeking adventurer Johnny (played by Danny Lee) hauls them both off to Hong Kong and puts them on display. The ensuing antics pretty much follow the rest of the plot of King Kong.

 This movie the Shaw Brother's response to Dino De Laurentiis's 1976 King Kong remake. The Shaw Brother's film in my opinion manages to be much more fun while having a smaller budget than other.

I got my copy as part of the Rolling Thunder Pictures Presents
triple feature along with Detroit 9000 and Switchblade Sisters. However if the prospect of nearly six hours of low budget movies doesn't excite you, this movie is also available to stream on Netflix.

Also known as Goliathon.

 

Amazon vs. Supermen (1974)

This is a silly, silly movie.

When militant bikini-model amazons ride out on the warpath it is up to local superhero Dharma (Aldo Canti) to protect the  villages in the valley (that is why they give him one-fifth of all their harvests after all!) But Dharma can't fight off an army of Amazons with just his mad jumping skills, his spiffy leather mask, and his half-length red cape, so he enlists the help of superstrong Moog (Marc Hannibal) and kung fu master Chung (Shaw Brothers actor Hua Yueh). Together the three of them spend much of the following ninety minutes getting into fights. With all this fighting going on, will they ever manage to find enough down time to fashion a stockpile of homemade firebombs and three wooden tanks for their final battle against the amazons?

This movie was a co-production by legendary Hong Kong studio Shaw Brothers and Italian studio Cinemotografica, and was released the same year Shaw Brothers released the better know Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires with Hammer Studios. The film was shot in Italy and despite the  Shaw Brother's participation, it doesn't have that their Hong-Kong movies do.

Should you decide to look up this movie yourself, I must warn you, the soundtrack just might drive you to jab pencils into you ear.

Also known as Supers Stooges vs the Wonder Women.

Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops (1961)

Also titled: Maciste Nella Terra Dei Ciclop

When the evil Queen Caprys invades a neighboring city state, it is up to heroic strongman Maciste (played by bodybuilder Gordon Mitchell to prevent her from completing the job by preventing her from feeding it's infant king (and descendant of Ulysses) to her pet Cyclops.  What follows is a series Maciste's heroic exploits: wrestling a lion, helping the bad guys move giant containers of wine into their palace, playing tug of war over a pit of hungry lions (the makers of this movie must have been fond of lions), and waking up next to a very large muscular man after a night of heavy drinking. All while wearing nothing but a loin cloth.

The film is fairly typical of Italian Sword and Sandal movies of the time and the main character, Maciste, is also featured in a whole series of Italian movies in the 1920s and again in the 1960s. The film has faded badly to a yellow color, but this is common among old low budget films. The plot isn't the most coherent in the world and I found myself wondering how the various scenes connected to each other. If you like old B movies I would recommend rounding up a group of victims -er "friends" to watch it with while. (Though I think that's the only way anyone ever watches these movies!)

Atlas Against the Cyclops