Horror Film Review: Terror of Mechagodzilla (dir by Ishiro Honda)


Megchagodzilla has returned!

The robot version of Godzilla, Mechagodzilla made his debut in 1974’s Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla.  In that film, it was revealed that Mechagodzilla was built and controlled by a bunch of aliens who wanted to use him to subjugate humanity so that the aliens could take over the Earth.  The real Godzilla put an end to those plans, not only saving the world from an alien invasion but also tossing Mechagodzilla into the ocean.

Unfortunately, it would appear that Godzilla didn’t do a good enough job taking care of his robotic counterpart because, in 1975’s Terror of Mechagodzilla, the aliens are able to resurrect Mechagodzilla and they once again sent it out to destroy humanity, starting with Japan.  Working with the aliens is a mad scientist named Dr. Mafune (Akihko Hirata).  Mafune’s daugther, Katsura (Tomoka Ai0), is a cyborg who has a mechanical and mental connection to Mechagodzilla.  Whenever her eyes glow, Mechagodizlla does something destructive.  The aliens team Mechagodzilla up with a new monster, the fearsome Titanosaurus.

 

Mechagodzilla and Titanosaurus work together to once again destroy Japan and it must be said that they appear to be quite capable of doing just that.  Say what you will about the special effects in these films, the scene where Mechagodzilla blows up an entire city block does pack a punch.  If Mechagodzilla is laser-focused on blowing stuff up, Titanosaurus just seems to be looking for a fight with someone.  Titanosaurus is a very enthusiastic monster, like a previously bullied kid who has just hit a growth spurt and now can’t wait to beat up everyone on the playground.  Eventually, Godzilla shows up to give Titanosaurus the fight that he’s looking for.

This film is one of the ones where Godzilla is firmly established as being humanity’s champion.  The atomic beast who once represented the trauma of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is now a friend to all humans.  That said, it’s hard not to notice that it takes Godzilla a while to actually show up.  He allows Mechagodzilla and Titanosaurus to blow up a lot of buildings and probably kill a lot of people before he finally puts in an appearance and orders them to stop.  It’s nice that Godzilla showed up in time to save a group of children from Mechagodzilla but you have to wonder how many of those children are now orphans because Godzilla wasn’t willing to do anything while Mechagodzilla was blowing up apartment buildings.

The majority of this film centers not on Godzilla but instead on some Interpol agents who are trying to figure out what the professor and the aliens are planning on doing.  (To me, it seemed pretty obvious that the aliens were planning on using a bunch of giant monsters to destroy humanity but maybe Interpol had some information that I didn’t.)  The agents do eventually manage to track down the aliens and the professor.  There’s some sub-James Bond style action as the agents attack the evil lair.  Despite everything that Interpol does in this film, it’s obvious that Godzilla is man’s only hope.

This was the last of the original Godzilla films.  After this film came out, it would be nearly ten years before the monster was revived and returned to once again being a threat to humanity as opposed to being a friend.  Sadly, Terror of Mechagodzilla doesn’t feature enough giant monster action.  When the monsters are onscreen and fighting, this movie is a lot of fun.  Godzilla’s visible frustration with having to deal with Mechagodzilla again is very endearing.    Unfortunately, the majority of the film gets bogged down with the humans searching for the bad guys and trying to figure out their extremely simple plot.  In the end, the movie leaves the viewer thankful for Godzilla but also frustrated that he didn’t get more to do.

Previous Godzilla Reviews:

  1. Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1958)
  2. Godzilla Raids Again (1958)
  3. King Kong vs Godzilla (1962)
  4. Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
  5. Ghidorah: The Three-Headed Monster (1964)
  6. Invasion of the Astro-Monster (1965)
  7. Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster (1966)
  8. Son of Godzilla (1967)
  9. Destroy All Monsters (1968)
  10. All Monsters Attack (1969)
  11. Godzilla vs Hedorah (1971)
  12. Godzilla vs Gigan (1972)
  13. Godzilla vs Megalon (1973)
  14. Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla (1974)
  15. Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)
  16. Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)
  17. Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
  18. Godzilla (2014)
  19. Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (2017)
  20. Godzilla, King of the Monsters (2019)
  21. Godzilla vs Kong (2021)
  22. Godzilla Minus One (2023)

6 Shots From 6 Horror Films: The Special Lucio Fulci Edition!


6 Shots From 6 Films is just what it says it is, 6 shots from 6 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 6 Shots From 6 Films is all about letting the visuals do the talking.

Today, the 2nd of October, the TSL honors of the greatest of all Italian horror directors, the one and only Lucio Fulci!

6 Shots From 6 Lucio Fulci Films

A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin (1971, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Luigi Kuveiller)

Zombi 2 (1979, dir. Lucio Fulci, DP: Sergio Salvati)

The Beyond (1981, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Sergio Salvati)

The House By The Cemetery (1981, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Sergio Salvati)

The New York Ripper (1982, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Luigi Kuveiller )

Murder Rock (1984, dir by Lucio Fulci, DP: Guiseppe Pinori)

Horror Film Review: You’re Not Alone (dir by Eduardo Rodriguez)


Oh, screw this.

About fifty minutes into this movie, an adorable calico kitty cat is killed for no good reason.  We’re not supposed to care because the cat belonged to an annoying neighbor, the cat had a silly name (Mr. Nibbles, though considering that the cat’s a calico, it really should have been named Ms. Nibbles), and the cat was trespassing in the main character’s house.  But, to tell you the truth, I’ve had it with movies that feature animals being killed for nothing more than shock value.  Don’t get me wrong.  I know that cat wasn’t really killed and the cat’s owner probably got paid for her services but I’ve seen so many movies with so many dead pets that it just feels lazy at this point.

As for the rest of the film, it tells the story of Emma (Katia Winter) and her daughter, Isla (Leya Catlett).  Emma, a recovering alcoholic and a recent widow, has recently gotten custody of Isla.  They live in a gigantic house, one that I’m not sure how Emma affords on her salary as a waitress.  While Emma tries to bond with the uncommunicative Isla, strange things start to happen around the house.  Doors seem to open and close on their own.  The home security system keeps going off.  Things keep disappearing.  People keep disappearing.  Isla starts to talk about “the lost ghost” who apparently lives in her closet.  Isla explains that the lost ghost is “always here” and he’s always watching Emma.  Along with the ghost, Emma is haunted by memories of her past and an obsessive stalker who keeps showing up at inopportune moments.

You’re Not Alone actually gets off to a good start.  Haunted house films are almost always effective because everyone can relate to them.  We’ve all had the experience of lying in bed and wondering if someone is wandering around outside or if the sounds are just in our imagination.  You don’t even have to live in a house to have that fear.  Even when you’re living in an apartment, things get creepy once you turn out the lights,  Katia Winter gives a good and sympathetic performance as Emma and you’re on her side from the minute you see her having to deal with a snooty woman at the custody hearing.  The early scenes of Emma trying to keep calm and do her best even while her life seems to be falling apart are the best in the film.

But You’re Not Alone loses its way as it continues.  The cat dies.  A visit to a church feels like it was lifted from a hundred other horror films.  Emma’s best friend disappears in the closet but Emma never seems to notice her absence and Isla, who witnessed the disappearance, never mentions it to her.  A bunch of flies invade the house because someone’s seen The Amityville Horror.  The film commits the unpardonable sin of getting boring and a sudden twist ending can’t change that fact.

Call it the Curse of Mr. Nibbles.  Kill the cat and your film falls apart.

Horror Film Review: X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes (dir by Roger Corman)


X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes (1963, dir by Roger Corman, DP: Floyd Crosby)

Eyes.  They’re one of the most important parts of our body but they’re also frightening easy to damage. Unlike the heart or the liver or the brain, they don’t have a protective covering of skin and bone.  They sit exposed and  are easily injured.  They can be ripped out of one’s head, which is a scary thought.  As well, they tend to grow weaker over time.  I love my multi-colored eyes and I think they’re one of my best features but I still spend a lot of time wishing that they weren’t quite as vulnerable as they are.  I often say that I’m blind without my contacts or my glasses.  That’s not quite true, of course.  I can see enough to get by if I forget to put in my contacts but I still have to do a lot of squinting, enough so that most people can take one look at me and say, “You forgot to put in your contacts, didn’t you?”  In my case, my eyesight has definitely gotten even worse over the past few years.  I’ve been told that’s normal but it still freaks me out.  I worry about waking up one day and not being able to see anything at all.

Director Lucio Fulci, a diabetic who was slowly going blind during the final years of his life, was infamous for including scenes of eyes being either pierced or gouged out in his films.  The New York Ripper even featured one scene where an eye was slit in half with a razor blade.  (This occurred in a close-up, no less!)  In Joe D’Amato’s Beyond the Darkness, there’s a scene where a mad taxidermist replaces the eyes of his dead fiancée with glass and for me, that’s one of most disturbing elements of the film.  Horror directors understand the vulnerability of the eyes and the sadness when life is extinguished from those eyes.  Eyes are said to be the windows to soul and when those eyes are lifeless, it’s a reminder that a living soul is a fleeting thing.

Perhaps that’s why 1963’s X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes is such an effective work of art.  Directed by Roger Corman, the film tells the story of Dr. James Xavier (Ray Milland), a doctor who has developed eye drops that, when taken, allow one to have x-ray vision.  Dr. Xavier claims that the eye drops will allow doctors to more easily diagnose their patients and certainly, he has a point there.  His friend, Dr. Sam Brant (Harold J. Stone), points out that the eyes are directly connected to the brain and that using experimental eye drops on them could potentially drive a person mad.  Dr. Xavier proves Dr. Brant’s point by losing his tempter and accidentally pushing him out of a window.

Ah, x-ray vision.  It all starts out fun.  Dr. Xavier is performing miracle surgeries and seeing what everyone looks like naked.  (The swinging jazz party scene is a classic example of how 60s B-movies teased audiences while never quite showing everything.) But once he’s forced to go on the run from the police, Xavier finds himself making a living as a carnival psychic while still trying to refine his eyedrops.  Xavier’s sleazy manager (Don Rickles) tries to turn Xavier into a faith healer but, with Xavier’s x-ray vision growing more erratic and more intense, Xavier ends up running off to Vegas with a former colleague, Dr. Diane Fairfax (Diana Van der Vils).

And again, it’s all fun and games as Xavier uses his powers to cheat at cards.  But then the megalomania kicks in and, after Xavier basically announces that he’s cheating, he finds himself being chased through the desert by a police helicopter and freaking out as more and more of the universe is revealed to him.  Much like a Lovecraftian protagonist who has been driven mad by the sight of the Great Old Ones, Xavier finds himself overwhelmed by the center of the universe.  At a tent revival, a preacher shouts, “If thine eye offends thee, pluck it out!”

The film’s final image is a shocking one and it stays with you.  (There were rumors that the film originally ended with Xavier shouting, “I can still see!” but Corman himself said that never happened.)  Even without that final image, this would be one of Corman’s best films, a surprisingly intelligent and rather sad story about a man who, in trying to see what is usually hidden, was driven mad by what he discovered.  Ray Milland was well-cast as Dr. Xavier and watching him go from being a somewhat stiff but good-hearted scientist to a raving madman at a revival is quite an experience, a testament to the vulnerability that all humans share.  In the name of science, Xavier goes from being a respected researcher to being chased through the desert by a helicopter.  The man who wanted to be able to see everything finds himself wishing to be forever blinded.  Sometimes, the film suggests, it’s best not to be able to see everything around us.  Sometime, the mysteries of the universe should remain mysteries and the rest of us should respect our own vulnerabilities.

Horror on the Lens: The Terror (dir by Roger Corman, Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Hill, Monte Hellman, Dennis Jakob, and Jack Nicholson)


Have you ever woken up and thought to yourself, “I’d love to see a movie where a youngish Jack Nicholson played a French soldier who, while searching for a mysterious woman, comes across a castle that’s inhabited by both Dick Miller and Boris Karloff?”

Of course you have!  Who hasn’t?

Well, fortunately, it’s YouTube to the rescue.  In Roger Corman’s 1963 film The Terror, Jack Nicholson is the least believable 19th century French soldier ever.  However, it’s still interesting to watch him before he became a cinematic icon.  (Judging from his performance here and in Cry Baby Killer, Jack was not a natural-born actor.)  Boris Karloff is, as usual, great and familiar Corman actor Dick Miller gets a much larger role than usual.  Pay attention to the actress playing the mysterious woman.  That’s Sandra Knight who, at the time of filming, was married to Jack Nicholson.

Reportedly, The Terror was one of those films that Corman made because he still had the sets from his much more acclaimed film version of The Raven.  The script was never finished, the story was made up as filming moved alone, and no less than five directors shot different parts of this 81 minute movie.  Among the directors: Roger Corman, Jack Hill, Monte Hellman, Francis Ford Coppola, and even Jack Nicholson himself!  Perhaps not surprisingly, the final film is a total mess but it does have some historical value.

(In typical Corman fashion, scenes from The Terror were later used in the 1968 film, Targets.)

Check out The Terror below!

October Positivity: The Wager (dir by Judson Pearce Morgan)


In 2007’s The Wager, Randy Travis plays Michael Steele, an Oscar-nominated actor who….

Stop laughing, that’s not nice.

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that Randy Travis is not exactly the first person that I would cast as an Oscar-nominated actor.  And, I’ll also be the first to admit that having Randy Travis act in this film makes it even harder to believe him as someone who could someday be nominated for an Oscar.  A lot of country music stars have tried their hand at acting and most of them have been able to survive on the basis of their own authenticity.  But there’s nothing authentic about Travis’s performance here.  Even when he picks up a guitar and sings a song about the difficulties that he’s facing, he’s not convincing.  In this, it’s not so much that Travis is a stiff actor as he just seems to evaporate whenever he’s on screen.

As for the film, Michael Steele is an actor who is known for his strong faith and his refusal to do sex scenes.  When a director (Bronson Pinchot) throws a fit over Steele’s refusal to shoot once such scene, Steele says that he’ll do the scene but only if it’s followed by a scene in which his co-star has to deal with being a single mother.  OUCH!  Michael Steele seems like he’s fun at parties….

(Apparently, it doesn’t occur to Michael that his character could wear a condom.)

Wait a minute.  This guy has the same name as that jackass who is always on the news talking about how he’s a Republican who thinks everyone should vote for the Democrats.  I wonder if that’s intentional.  Anyway….

Michael Steele’s career has had its up and downs.  His recent divorce from Annie (Nancy Stafford) has damaged his family friendly image.  But his Oscar nomination and the fact that he’s expected to win has once again made the world’s most popular star.  But then — scandal!  A tabloid photographer snaps a picture of Michael talking to a young actress at his house.  In the background, a little kid watches.  Now, the kid is a part of the Big Brother program and Michael was just trying to help the younger woman with her career but it doesn’t matter.  Soon, Michael finds himself being portrayed as being some sort of pervert.  When he punches a photographer, he finds himself getting arrested — RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS CHURCH!

Now, as you may have guessed, this is yet another retelling of the story of Job, with Michael having his faith tested by one disaster after another.  He doesn’t lose his faith and, as a result, he wins both an Oscar and he also becomes a hero when he rescues the kid from the Big Brother program from his abusive stepfather.  Anyone who thinks that God wouldn’t have a hand in who wins an Oscar obviously did not listen to Will Smith’s acceptance speech.

The Wager is a film that would probably not be made today.  Today, you’re not likely to see a socially conservative, faith-based film where a successful actor is wrongly accused of being a pervert.  Then again, you also probably wouldn’t see a politically liberal film in which a successful white male actor was wrong accused of being an abuser, not in today’s cultural climate.  On both the Left and the Right, attitudes towards Hollywood have changed.  Beyond the film’s political and cultural subtext, its portrait of the Oscars as being the most important event of the year also feels rather old-fashioned.  I imagine it felt old-fashioned in 2007 as well….

Then again, this is a film in which Randy Travis plays the best actor of his generation so perhaps it’s best not to take any of it too seriously.  The miscasting of Travis pretty much sabotages the movie from the start but, on the positive side, Bronon Pinchot is amusing as a bitchy director and Jude Ciccolella has a few good scenes as Michael’s supportive agent.  Give those men an Oscar!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Baywatch Nights 2.12 “Frozen Out Of Time”


Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Tuesdays, I will be reviewing Baywatch Nights, a detective show that ran in Syndication from 1995 to 1997.  The entire show is currently streaming on YouTube!

From Iceland to Malibu, you can’t keep a good Viking down.

Episode 2.12 “Frozen Out Of Time”

(DIr by Rick Jacobson, originally aired on February 9th, 1997)

After a volcanic eruption in Iceland, a frozen Viking boat is discovered floating in the ocean.  Inside the boat are two Vikings, who have spent the past 900 years in blocks of ice.  Under the orders of Dr. Lancaster (Edward Mulhare), the Vikings are transported to Malibu.  Lancaster’s plan is to thaw the Vikings out and see if they can be revived.  Daimont Teague, who has a habit of popping up anywhere that someone is trying to do something stupid, is not sure if Dr. Lancaster knows what he’s doing so he decides to call Mitch and Ryan to the lab.

Now, you can justifiably say, “What is Mitch going to do with a frozen Viking?”  It’s a legitimate question.  Of course, you can also wonder why Dr. Lancaster thinks that he’ll be able to revive the Vikings.  I mean, they’ve been frozen for 900 years!  That’s a long time to float around in a block of ice.

Of course, the Vikings are revived.  Unfortunately, it turns out that they were on that boat because they were trying to settle a blood feud.  The first Viking (Sven-Ole Thorsen) goes on a rampage through the lab and then runs around Malibu pier.  Mitch and Griff are able to capture him and bring him back to the lab.  Unfortunately, the other Viking (Nils Allen Stewart) has woken up and the two Vikings soon reignite their interrupted duel to the death.

I’m actually leaving out a few details but you can probably guess everything that happens in this episode from what I’ve told you.  It’s not really a shock when Mitch turns out to be an expert in Viking culture.  It’s also not a surprise when the two Vikings end up killing each other and Mitch gives them a traditional Viking funeral.  It’s not just that Mitch puts them on a wooden raft and then shoots a flaming arrow at it.  It’s that Mitch dramatically yells, “Valhalla!” while doing so.

Myself, I’m a bit curious about how the Vikings manage to go right back to fighting as soon as they thawed out.  It would seem like, after 900 years of lying prone in one position, they would be a little bit stiff.  I would imagine that there would at least be some backpain or maybe a touch of arthritis.  (I mean, I’m not even 40 and I’ve already got arthritis in my ankle.)  Also consider that the Vikings have no trouble breathing the air, despite the fact that Los Angeles’s polluted air is undoubtedly a lot different from what their lungs are used to.  And that’s not even to mention all of the germs that the Vikings have never experienced before.  It seems like the Vikings should have at least had a cold or something.

Was this episode a good one?  Hey, it featured David Hasselhoff, Angie Harmon, and two 900 year-old Vikings.  Of course, it was good!  Baywatch Nights is always at its best when it embraces the absurdity and there’s nothing more absurd than this episode.

“Documentary” Review: Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison? (dir by Joel Gilbert)


There’s a reason why I put the word Documentary is scare quotes when I titled this review.

Yes, 2010’s Paul McCartney Really Is Dead is listed as a documentary on Tubi, Prime, and probably every other streaming site in which it has appeared.

Yes, the film is full of archival footage of the Beatles and it opens with a lengthy discussion about the time that John Lennon said that group was bigger than Jesus.

And yes, the film does present itself as being a documentary.

That said, I don’t believe any of the claims made in this film and I doubt the filmmakers do either.  Much like that time travel documentary that I reviewed a few years ago, this film is obviously a mockumentary, a hoax that a few people online have taken seriously.  Fortunately, it doesn’t appear that as many people have taken this film seriously as they did with that Man From 3036 film.  I guess that counts as progress.

(I should note that, after writing the paragraph above, I looked up Joel Gilbert’s YouTube profile and saw that he has specifically stated that the film is a mockumentary.  So, good for Gilbert!)

As for Paul McCartney Is Really Dead, it opens with director Joel Gilbert explaining that his production company received several mysterious cassette tapes.  They were mailed from the UK.  The man on the tapes claims to be George Harrison and says that he’s recording the tapes on his death bed.  He explains that, in 1966, Paul McCartney was killed in a car crash.  A fake Paul (nicknamed Faul) was brought into the group and, for the next four years, the Beatles recorded with this imposter.  John Lennon, fearing that the fans would turn on the band if they ever learned of the deception, inserted clues throughout the Beatles’s album covers and in their songs.  A lot of those clues were only evident to those who played the song backwards.  Turn me on, dead man!

The conspiracy theory that Paul McCartney was decapitated in a car accident and was replaced by a man named William Campbell has been around for a while.  It’s generally agreed that the rumor first started to circulate way back in 1966 and it’s been theorized that the Beatles themselves were aware of the rumor and they occasionally made references to it as a private joke.  Of course, it’s just as possible that the Beatles knew nothing of the rumor and all of the “clues’ were actually just coincidences that were overanalyzed by conspiracy theorists with too much free time on their hands.  For instance, one widely cited clue was a picture of Paul McCartney wearing a patch that apparently said “OPD.”  The theorists decided that OPD stood for “Officially Pronounced Dead,” whereas the patch was actually one worn by members of the Ontario Provincial Police and it actually read “OPP.”

Paul McCartney Is Really Dead features someone pretending to be George Harrison going over all of the clues on the album covers and in the songs.  He hits all the major points, including the famous Abbey Road cover.  However, the faux Harrison goes on to claim that the Beatles were forced to pretend that Paul was alive by a sinister MI5 agent named Maxwell.  Maxwell explained that word of Paul’s death would lead to a suicide epidemic amongst young British woman and it would also leave the UK vulnerable to the communists.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Of course, as unbelievable as that sounds, it’s really not that much different from a lot of “real” conspiracy theories that can currently find circulating online.  A spoof works best when its credible.  While the theory that Paul is dead may not be credible, the fact that people will believe the dumbest things is.

It’s easy to laugh at first, largely because the guy doing George Harrison’s voice doesn’t even seem to have a British accent.  While the Beatles looked at the dead Paul, Maxwell commented that the injuries Paul had sustained in the car crash had left him looking like a walrus.  “I AM THE WALRUS!” John supposedly shouted at Maxwell.  If you can’t smile at that, what can you smile at?  But then, towards the end of the documentary, it’s suggested that John’s assassination and the near fatal attack that George Harrison suffered in 1999 were actually due to John and George threatening to reveal the truth about Faul.  At that point, the whole thing gets rather offensive.  This could have been an enjoyably daft hoax if the filmmakers hadn’t tried to pass the tapes off as being from George Harrison.  (Personally, I would have used either Maxwell or Rita, the girl in blue who was supposedly with Paul at the time of the accident, as the narrator.)

As for myself, I love conspiracy theories but I don’t believe 99% of them.

Guilty Pleasure No. 71: Submerged (dir by Fred Olen Ray)


THUNDERSTRIKE!

Listen, if you’re going to watch the 2000 film Submerged, you better be a  big fan of the term “Thunderstrike,” because it’s repeated so many times that one gets the feeling that the actors just loved saying it.

Thunderstrike is a satellite that was built by western businessman Buck Stevens (Dennis Weaver).  He and his daughter (Nicole Eggert) and her sort-of boyfriend (Hannes Jaenicke) are all flying to Hawaii so that they can conduct more tests on the Thunderstrike.  However, arms dealer Owen Cantrell (Tim Thomerson) wants the Thunderstrike for himself so he sends a mercenary named Jeff Cort (Coolio.  Yes, Coolio.) to steal the plans from the airplane.  The plan is to kill the pilot, substitute a new pilot, and then crash the plane into the ocean …. which is pretty much what happens, despite the best efforts of heroic CIA agent, Rex Manning (Maxwell Caulfield).

Actually, wait a minute.  Maxwell Caulfield’s character is named Jim Carpenter.  Well, I don’t care.  He’ll always be Rex Manning to me!

While Special Agent Mack Taylor (Brent Huff) tries to stop Cantrell from stealing the Thunderstrike, Captain Masters (Fred Williamson) tries to figure out a way to bring the plane to the surface.

If this sound familiar, it’s because Submerged has the same plot as Airport ’77.

If it looks familiar, it’s because Submerged lifts a lot of footage from Airport ’77, including the scene where the plane crashes, the scene where the plane settles on the ocean floor, and the scene where the plane is lifted off the ocean floor.  Even a scene of water pouring into plane is lifted from Airport ’77, which means that the plane in Submerged suddenly has a staircase that no one apparently noticed before.

Submerged was directed by the wonderful Fred Olen Ray and seriously, how can you not love it?  Between the cast and the fact that it features all of the best parts of Airport ’77, this is a film for which the term guilty Ppeasure was invented!  It helps that the cast, for whatever reason, appears to be taking the film rather seriously.  This film was Dennis Weaver’s final screen appearance and he seems to be having a ball playing a cheerful good old boy who can’t wait to put a dangerous satellite in the sky.

Plus, the film features Rex Manning!

Plus, Jack Deth!

Plus, Black Caesar!

Plus …. THUNDERSTRIKE!

Previous Guilty Pleasures

  1. Half-Baked
  2. Save The Last Dance
  3. Every Rose Has Its Thorns
  4. The Jeremy Kyle Show
  5. Invasion USA
  6. The Golden Child
  7. Final Destination 2
  8. Paparazzi
  9. The Principal
  10. The Substitute
  11. Terror In The Family
  12. Pandorum
  13. Lambada
  14. Fear
  15. Cocktail
  16. Keep Off The Grass
  17. Girls, Girls, Girls
  18. Class
  19. Tart
  20. King Kong vs. Godzilla
  21. Hawk the Slayer
  22. Battle Beyond the Stars
  23. Meridian
  24. Walk of Shame
  25. From Justin To Kelly
  26. Project Greenlight
  27. Sex Decoy: Love Stings
  28. Swimfan
  29. On the Line
  30. Wolfen
  31. Hail Caesar!
  32. It’s So Cold In The D
  33. In the Mix
  34. Healed By Grace
  35. Valley of the Dolls
  36. The Legend of Billie Jean
  37. Death Wish
  38. Shipping Wars
  39. Ghost Whisperer
  40. Parking Wars
  41. The Dead Are After Me
  42. Harper’s Island
  43. The Resurrection of Gavin Stone
  44. Paranormal State
  45. Utopia
  46. Bar Rescue
  47. The Powers of Matthew Star
  48. Spiker
  49. Heavenly Bodies
  50. Maid in Manhattan
  51. Rage and Honor
  52. Saved By The Bell 3. 21 “No Hope With Dope”
  53. Happy Gilmore
  54. Solarbabies
  55. The Dawn of Correction
  56. Once You Understand
  57. The Voyeurs 
  58. Robot Jox
  59. Teen Wolf
  60. The Running Man
  61. Double Dragon
  62. Backtrack
  63. Julie and Jack
  64. Karate Warrior
  65. Invaders From Mars
  66. Cloverfield
  67. Aerobicide 
  68. Blood Harvest
  69. Shocking Dark
  70. Face The Truth

AMV Of The Day: Godzilla (Dragonball Z)


In order to celebrate the first day of Horrorthon, how about an AMV?

Song: Godzilla – Eminem ft. Juice WRLD

Anime: Dragonball Z

Creator: Rangazee (as always, if you enjoyed this video, we encourage you to subscribe to the creator’s channel and give them lots of likes and nice comments)

Past AMVs of the Day