Tag Archives: Christopher Mitchum

Aftershock (1990, directed by Frank Harris)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

It’s the future and society has collapsed.  America is now controlled by the evil Commander Eastern (Richard Lynch) who, with the help of a propagandist known as Big Sister and a paramilitary leader named Oliver Queen (John Saxon), rules with an iron hand.  Colonel Slater (Christopher Mitchum) is the leader of the revolution that threaten to overthrow Eastern’s regime.

Two revolutionaries, Wille (Jay Roberts, Jr.) and Danny (Chuck Jeffreys), are stuck in one of Eastern’s prison.  Every day, they fight for their lives and they wait for a chance to escape.  That chances come in the form of Sabrina (the beautiful Elizabeth Kaitan), an alien who lands on our planet under the mistaken assumption that Earth is an utopia.

When Sabrina, Willie, and Danny finally manage to escape, they have to make it to Slater’s headquarters while avoiding the bounty hunter (Chris DeRose) who Queen has been sent to capture them.

A fairly standard rip-off of the Mad Max films, the most interesting thing about Aftershock is the cast.  I already mentioned Mitchum, Saxon, Lynch, and Elizabeth Kaitan but there are also appearances from Russ Tamblyn, Michael Berryman, Matthias Hues, and Deanna Oliver.  For a movie that looks cheap and doesn’t really bring anything new to the postapocalyptic genre, there are a lot of very talented people in this movie.  (Even talented people have to pay the bills.)  Most of them are only on for a few minutes.  The instantly forgettable Jay Roberts, Jr. and Chuck Jeffreys are the actual stars here.  Jeffreys was a stunt man who was famous for his resemblance to Eddie Murphy.  He looks good in the action scenes but otherwise, he and Roberts don’t make much of an impression.

At least Elizabeth Kaitan gets a decent amount of screentime.  Kaitan appeared in a lot of movies in the 80s and 90s.  None of the movies were very good.  She got stuck with roles like the girlfriend in Silent Night Deadly Night Part 2 and a victim in Friday The 13th Part VII.  Kaitan got roles primarily because she was beautiful but she had a likable screen presence and more than a little talent.  In Aftershock, she gives a convincing performance as a stranger in a strange land, one who has her own eccentric way of viewing things.  Her performance is the best thing about Aftershock and the main reason to watch.

 

 

The TSL’s Horror Grindhouse: The Day Time Ended (dir by John “Bud” Cardos)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

At the start of 1980’s The Day Time Ended, the Williams Family has relocated to the desert!  

(Why the desert?  I have no idea.  I’ve been told that the hot air of the desert would be ideal for my asthma but then I’d have to live in the desert and, from what I’ve seen in the movies, bad things always happen in the desert.  If it’s not aliens, it’s zombie cowboys.)

Grandpa (Jim Davis), Grandma (Dorothy Malone), Richard (Christopher Mitchum, looking a lot like his father, Robert), Beth (Marcy Lafferty), and their young daughter, Jenny (Natasha Ryan) have moved into a very nice ranch house that appears to be sitting in the middle of nowhere.  The house comes with a barn, a few horses, and …. ALIENS!

At first, Jenny is the only one to notice the strange blue light that keeps glowing behind the barn.  But soon, the rest of the family is seeing UFOs and weird (but kind of cute) creatures are knocking on the front door and saying hi.  Lizard men appear in the distance and beckon for the family to follow them.  Soon, the house itself is being zapped through time and space….

This is going to be a short review but, then again, The Day Time Ended is a short movie.  With a running time of only 75 minutes (not including the end credits), The Day Time Ended feels less like a movie and more like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone.  That said, if it was an extended episode of The Twilight Zone, it would be considered to be one of the more enjoyable episodes of the series.  While none of the characters are particularly complex or deeply written, the cast is believable as a family and everyone does a good enough job that the viewer won’t want to see anything bad happen to any of them.  (I’m also happy to say that all of those horses are really pretty and — fear not! — for once, no harm befalls any of the animals.)  The motives of the aliens are kept ambiguous throughout the film, leaving the viewers as confused and intrigued as the family and the final shot is somehow both silly and tremendously satisfying at the same time.  The Day Time Ended is a B-movie but it’s an entertaining B-movie.

Directed by B-movie specialist, John “Bud” Cardos, this is one of those movies where the cheapness of the special effects add to the film’s charm.  Initially, the UFOs are represented by lights darting through the sky.  (Residents of Texas will immediately think of our beloved and yet unexplained Marfa Lights.)  When the UFOs are finally seen in close-up, they are obviously plastic models but, in this age of excessive CGI, there’s something undeniably charming about the idea of going to the trouble to build plastic models.  The claymation aliens are adorable!  Seriously, there are some films that you just can’t help but kind of love and, for me, The Day Time Ended is one of those films.

An Election Day Blast From The Past: Betty Boop For President

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

betty_boop_for_president

Here in the States, it’s Election Day!  Have you voted yet?

Now, I understand why you may not want to vote.  The candidates aren’t inspiring.  None of the issues seem to have much to do with your life.  Washington never changes.  Blah blah blah.  All I know is that it’s been raining here all day and I still took the time to vote!  So there!

Myself, I’m in Texas and we pretty much already know who is going to win all of the elections down here.  However, if I lived in California’s 24th Congressional District, I definitely would have voted for Chris Mitchum for Congress.  Why?  Because he’s Robert Mitchum’s son, of course!

(And he looks a lot like his father too!)

And, just in the interest of bipartisanship, I hope that Clay Aiken does well in his race up in North Carolina because my ultimate hope is that we’ll eventually have a Congress that is completely made up of reality show contestants and retired grindhouse movie actors.

A girl can dream, can’t she?

Anyway!  As you watch the election results come in and you either get really happy or really depressed, why not take a trip back to the 1932 with this cartoon Betty Boop For President?  If nothing else, it proves that dysfunctional politics existed before 2014 and will continue to exist long after 2014.

Enjoy!