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Still Lovin’ Vintage SyFy Movies…

August 29, 2023

If there’s still a ten-year-old boy buried in you somewhere, you can appreciate vintage 1960 science fiction movies like Dinosaurus, because hey, who among us wouldn’t jump at the chance to fight a T-Rex with a steam shovel?! You’ve always wanted to, right? ‘Fess up, now… 🦖

We all know that explosives, atomic or otherwise, can unleash beasts from the past from the ocean bottom, frozen underground rivers, you name it. So when blasting to expand a harbor on a Caribbean island brings a T-Rex, Brontosaurus, and caveman to the surface that are reanimated by lightning, you all know that mayhem is gonna ensue…but a least you may get a dinosaur ride out of it!

Possibly this girl below has had worse dates than this one, too. At least she doesn’t have to provide an intellectually stimulating conversation…

Now the climatic scene of Dinosaurus featured a foreman (Caucasian, of course!) in an excavator battling a T-Rex on the edge of a precipice. This has got to be iconic for brains versus brawn, or the modern versus the primitive…and we’ve seen variations on this theme play out on cinema screens since, such as Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley in a power lifter suit fighting the formidable alien queen in Aliens…

Well, our human hero in Dinosaurus gives the T-Rex several uppercuts with the earth mover bucket before deciding that he can get better momentum against the carnivore by swinging the whole rig around against him, a tactic which wins the day and gives us hope for tourism on that Caribbean island…hooray for heavy equipment manufacturers and Earth-denuding capitalism! 😸

Whether it’s for simple nostalgic value, to laugh along with outdated special effects, or to simply appreciate the heritage of the genre, vintage science fiction movies continue to be a kick to watch…

Categories: alternative realities, creature features, extinct species, horror, movies, sci fi
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Comments: 3 Comments

“Howl;” Werewolves on a Train!

August 20, 2023

Werewolves on a train? – –Well, why not…it worked for snakes on a plane, and monsters and other nasties can be even more horrifying if their victims are somehow in a confined space with less chance to run or escape…

So take a British night train out of London, have it break down in a deep, dark forest infested by werewolves, and you’re set for some claustrophobic gory fun. Being British, however, this will be a proper train, complete with a tea cart girl dispensing tea and chicken sandwiches. There is a guard on duty, working a second shift but well-attired in a dress jacket, asking passengers for tickets…

Things start to go awry when the train hits a deer which clogs under the wheels, necessitating a stop where the investigating engineer becomes victim #1. Werewolves gradually approach and then infiltrate the train, which passengers progressively barricade. As the barricades are breached, the characters of passengers are revealed, and hand-to-hand combat becomes necessary with the werewolves, which to me rather resemble Yeti with upgraded dentition…these are humanoid werewolves, with not nearly enough hair and snout. I like a werewolf with a good muzzle, so I fault the creature design…

As the Nazis discovered, you can only push Brits so far, and in one memorable scene, a well-attired book-reading gentleman goes absolutely medieval on a werewolf’s head with a fire axe! Howl is recommended for moments of black humor such as this, and you can catch this 2015 film on Netflix or Utube…

It‘s the last train to oblivion! 🙀

Categories: anthropomorphic, furry, horror, movies, paranormal
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RIP, Paul Reubens…

August 2, 2023

I was shocked and deeply saddened by the recent death of actor and comedian Paul Reubens, not knowing that he was battling cancer. Best known for his Pee-Wee Herman character in his red bow tie, white shoes, and several sizes too small gray suit, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse ruled 1980’s Saturday morning kid’s television, presenting us with a twisted world that appealed to children and secretly adults alike…

I grew up watching wild and crazy children’s TV hosts like Soupy Sales and Sandy Becker, and Pee-Wee Herman was just the logical extension of the demented kiddie show host, a perpetual 10-year-old boy trapped awkwardly in a man’s body. I’m a man-child too, ‘ya see, the 10-year-old in me still secretly loving Godzilla movies…

Paul Reubens recognized the enduring power of childhood. A few other comedians have too, as did the late great Andy Kaufman when he memorably lip-synched the theme to Mighty Mouse, complete to a vintage recording with earnest expressions and dramatic gestures…

Pee-Wee Herman in his Playhouse created an entire twisted world for us, a microcosm of madness complete with a cowboy, a sea captain, dinosaurs, anthropomorphic furniture and devices, a robot, and even a genie in a box! It was a world of enchantment far preferable to reality, and we felt that we belonged there! Paul Reuben’s “Playhouse” world was a fully fleshed out alternative reality drawn from bits and pieces of our childhoods, the better parts, really…

Pee-Wee Herman expressed the inner child in all of us, and represented the way that we wished we could respond to inflexible humorless adults if we were not ourselves expected to be respectable grown-ups. Pee-Wee was Peter Pan with a sarcastic sense of humor…

Paul Reubens was more than just Pee-Wee Herman, too. He had movie and TV roles in which he was virtually unrecognizable, such as The Spleen in the under-rated film Mystery Men, was a vampire in the Buffy series, and played the father of Batman villain The Penguin…

But it is as Pee-Wee Herman that Paul Reubens will best be remembered, and while not everyone’s cup of tea, it’s certain that he’s left many of us smiling….and just remember that if you hear the Secret Word, scream real loud! Adults hate it when you do that…

Categories: absurdities, alternative realities, Brilliant but twisted, humor, movies, television
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Comments: 9 Comments

“65” the Movie, Works!

July 12, 2023

If you blended Star Trek, Alien, and Jurassic Park together, you’d probably get something like the movie 65, now available on Netflix. The title refers to 65 million years ago when that legendary asteroid impacted with Earth, affecting the planetary history forever….

Now if you were to take an ancient alien-type pilot who was transporting 35 passengers in hypersleep to an unspecified destination before an asteroid shower perforated his ship and forced it to crash land on the Earth of 65 million years ago, you’d have the basic premise of the movie. Our pilot and the only other sole survivor, a girl, must brave the perils of ancient Earth, and locate their escape craft, all before the main asteroid of 65 million years ago arrives to ruin everyone’s day. The predacious dinosaurs who attack our hero and his charge are outclassed by his laser rifle and some really neat mini-bombs, but outnumber him greatly, making this a syfy survival flick. You know they’ll survive, but get knocked around a good bit with numerous close escapes, and it’s all rollicking good fun that’s paced well, and doesn’t pretend to be more than it is…

Laser (and phaser) rifles are definitely cool! They give you so much more of a presence than just a hand phaser. James T. Kirk knew this, and looked like a boss holding one. Did you know that his phaser rifle sold for $615,000 at auction? That’s not a bad trade-in allowance considering that it was an older model compared to those seen in The Next Generation. Wouldn’t you like to own a laser rifle? ‘Fess up, now…

But I digress…Adam Driver shines as the alien but humanoid pilot, looking and reminding me a bit of Keanu Reeves in the part. You may want to catch this Dino-tastic film, because it goes quickly to the action, and future tech versus saurian hordes is a fun ride… 🦊

Categories: aliens, alternative realities, animals, furry, historical, horror, movies, sci fi
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Comments: 8 Comments

Of AI’s and Androids…

July 3, 2023

With Artificial Intelligence and robotics improving and growing exponentially, we are seeing more speculations about their evolving role in the future in the media and film. The question is, will we get lovable, benign intellectual androids like Star Trek’s Data, or Terminators that are our intellectual and physical superiors, and relentlessly intent on our destruction?

Until fairly recently with the notable exception of the robotic Maria in the 1927 film Metropolis, many androids were depicted as styled after males. That boy’s club was recently invaded by the arrival of M3gan in the movie, and Arisa in the Netflix series, Better than Us.

Now Arisa (above) was styled as an attractive young woman, and her intended marketing in this country was as a sentient companion and sex toy. Surprise, however…her origin was in China, where she was originally designed as a kill-bot! When her perceived adopted family is endangered, Arisa shifts instantly into that mode, neutralizing threats with extreme prejudice, and absorbing gunfire with only cosmetic damage…

M3gan (Model 3 Generative Android) is created by a brilliant robotics engineer as a playmate, teacher, and care provider for her niece when that girl’s parents die in a road accident. Standing about 4’ tall and resembling a 10-year-old girl, M3gan is intended to protect her charge from physical and emotional harm, but exceeds the limits of her programming and soon eliminates a dog, a neighbor, a bully of a peer, and eventually the CEO of the company who intends to merchandise her, performing a memorable and inhumanly lithe dance before she does so. It’s kind of a pre-slaughter celebratory thing, ‘ya see…and who can blame the girl, since the CEO is only getting what he deserves?!

So bring on the killer fem-bots! I confess to being in love with robots and androids since first laying eyes on Robby the Robot in Forbidden Planet….💕 🦊

(…and so successful was M3gan that a sequel is in the works! Catch Better Than Us on Netflix, and M3gan on Amazon Prime Video…)

Categories: anthropomorphic, artificial intelligence, horror, movies, paranormal, Questionably creepy, sci fi, speculation
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Comments: 18 Comments

“Beetlejuice 2” is coming!

May 24, 2023

From Batman to Beetlejuice, Michael Keaton has played them all…and if there’s one movie sequel that he’s wanted to make, it’s been of The Ghost With The Most. Well, in September our long wait will be over with Beetlejuice 2 due to arrive! Our favorite bio-exorcist will again thank heavens be played by Michael Keaton, who after 35 years can probably play the role with less makeup.- -Yes, Beetlejuice will finally be back, and “more juicier than ever!” I’m in…

In the sequel which acknowledges the passage of time, the goth girl Lydia from the original movie has grown up, and had children of her own. Jenna Ortega, titular character from the Netflix series Wednesday has been brilliantly cast to play the daughter, which should be right up her alley.

In Beetlejuice 2, we will again return to the strangely bureaucratic world of the afterlife, although plot details have been few and are tightly under wraps. Presumably we’ll get to hear more of Harry Bellafonte’s Calypso music score. There has been reference made not only to Lydia’s daughter, however, but also to Beetlejuice’s WIFE, so we know that Beetlejuice is truly a soul in hell…

I’m really looking forward to revisiting the dark and at times grotesque world of this fantasy/horror/comedy, and can’t wait to hear Beetlejuice once more announce, “It’s showtime!”

Categories: absurdities, alternative realities, Brilliant but twisted, horror, humor, movies
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“Sing 2” Superior to Original

March 7, 2023

Kid’s movies are a great source for furry characters, and so when I was able to stream Sing 2 in the privacy of my own home, no one was any the wiser, and I was all over it! Now Sing was a good movie, but Sing 2 fits into that rare category of movie sequels that are better than their originals…

To simplify a movie with actually fairly complex story arcs, koala producer Buster Moon takes his small town cast to the big city where he must negotiate through a hard-core wolf producer, Jimmy Crystal, which he does by claiming affiliation with a long-unseen rock legend, Clay Calloway, a grizzled and grief-stricken lion voiced by U-2’s Bono who’s been mourning his late lioness wife Ruby for over 15 years…

Well, the rock-legend is finally coaxed on board, and his star power helps launch Buster Moon’s space musical, Out Of This World. All of the original movie’s characters return, and a few new ones are introduced as well, including Nooshy,a knockout of a break-dancing lynx, and Porsha, the daughter of the big-city wolf producer, who’s a teenaged ditz but utterly fearless, and full of performing potential…

(Notice the detail. Porsha is wearing a Clay Calloway shirt!)

Well, Out Of This World gets produced, and it’s pretty spectacular in its song and dance scenes. The starship evens bears a passing resemblance to one of Starfleet issue, with warp nacelles visible. The movie imparts some underlying themes such as dealing with loss, and holding onto your dreams. With major stars performing the voiceovers and songs you’re sure to recognize, Sing 2 is well worth a look for fans of anthropomorphic animals…two paws up! 🦊

Categories: alternative realities, anthropomorphic, furry, furry movies, movies
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“Cloverfield 2” is Coming!

February 6, 2023

Not everyone is a fan of the CloverVerse, but Cloverfield has been called the best Godzilla-type movie done by Hollywood. The original 2008 Cloverfield movie was commercially successful, although in my case it was an acquired taste due to the “found footage” format of the film as filmed by the shell-shocked, ground-level perspective of the young people who attempted to survive a monstrous attack.

10 Cloverfield Lane from 2016 was a different kind of offshoot of the franchise, anchored by the star power and acting of John Goodman, and set in the paranoid and claustrophobic setting of an isolated survivalist rather than in the big city. We did get to see some actual aliens in the closing segments of the film, and they were worth waiting for, having advanced technology and biomechanical ships…

Then there was 2018’s The Cloverfield Paradox, a muddled and confusing installment set on an orbiting space station where an international team of scientists attempted to solve Earth’s critical energy crisis using a particle accelerator but unintentionally opening a rift in space to an alternative dimension from which flowed monsters to our reality. Rifts in space…where would science fiction tales be without them?! This device however explains how Earth received the Cloverfield monster (code name, “Clover”) in the first place, and so is a necessary link in the CloverVerse. As the sole surviving scientist returns to Earth, the enormous monster is already here, and rears its hideous head into the heavens, roaring in the last moment of the film. The Cloverfield Paradox was relegated almost immediately to Netflix, and may largely be seen only there today…

There is little that is presently known about the next planned Cloverfield movie, other than that it intends to be a direct sequel to the 2008 original, and may pick up from where the creature, having thoroughly trashed New York, has survived a tactical nuke. Reportedly the “found footage” viewpoint of the original film will be abandoned, so the monster won’t be shown just in fleeting partial glimpses again. Rumors are rampant; we may see the whole of human civilization plagued by multiple monsters, or perhaps a new creature will be introduced to fight against the original. Kaiju type films have been known to do those kinds of things, and it should provide a fine spectacle in any case… RAWRRR! 🙀

( Watch the skies!!!)

Categories: aliens, alternative realities, animal presence, creature features, doomsday, furry horror, horror, movies, sci fi
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Peter Pan: Neverland Nightmare

December 12, 2022

I’ve always felt that there’s been something a bit “off” about the character of Peter Pan. I mean, an ageless boy with elvish ears who can fly without wings, hangs out with “The Lost Boys” on an island called Neverland, and consorts with a fairy called Tinker Bell? Should we call the authorities now, or later?!

Well, the venerable 1911 children’s story by J.M. Barrie has now fallen into the public domain, and is going to get the same creative, horror-styled remake that Winnie the Pooh and Bambi have or will have coming to them. Peter Pan was always somewhat dark and sketchy, even in the original story. I mean, he practically kidnapped Wendy, and had broken into her house on a previous occasion in search of his shadow! Is that trippy, or what?! He almost killed the Darling children by forgetting to give them the pixie dust that conferred the powers of flight…

And don’t get me started on Tinker Bell! Sure, she looks innocent and cherubic, but she got jealous of the attention that Peter Pan was giving to Wendy, so much so that she might have done something. I think that Tink could be a real Prima Donna…

The Lost Boys are kinda interesting too, and very arguably furry. I mean, they are often depicted as in the image below, wearing fursuits, animal costumes to the uninitiated. Not great ones, to be sure, but fursuits nonetheless. According to the source material, the Lost Boys fell out of their prams while their Nannies were looking the other way in English places like Kensington Gardens. If unclaimed for a week, they were spirited off to Neverland to be with Peter Pan. There, they would fight with Peter Pan against pirates like Captain Hook. It was a good life, really, and you got to wear a fursuit. Pirates and a fursuit would have worked for me. Color me envious… *sighs* 🦊

So what can we expect out of the Neverland Nightmare as directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield? It will be a very dark tale, like the Winnie the Pooh and upcoming Bambi adaptations. You know good ole Captain Hook, who supposedly lost a hand to a crocodile? Well, perhaps Peter Pan just might have cut that appendage off! I do so love “bedtime stories for children you hate… “ 🙀

So while this Neverland Nightmare might give us Peter Pan as a mini-psychopath, things could get really interesting in 2024, when the character of Mickey Mouse will supposedly fall into the public domain. We do live in interesting times, ‘ya know…. and now, I’m wondering if Peter Pan Peanut Butter contains pixie dust. Should we call the FDA? Eating peanut butter has always been a natural high for me, as well as a guilty pleasure. Perhaps unintentionally consuming pixie dust is why I write this blog. And does pixie dust contain actual pixies?- – Urg, gagg! 🦊

Categories: Brilliant but twisted, fantasy, furry, horror, movies
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“Bambi: The Reckoning“ Is Coming!

December 7, 2022

I have to admit that I am not a great fan of hunting. Perhaps that’s because hunters consider those of my kind varmints, and perhaps it’s because I abhor seeing the spectacle of lifeless deer strapped to cars during hunting season in my state. We all know what hunters did to Bambi’s mother. And I say that payback time is hell…

I have a personal history with the Disney movie, Bambi. It was the first movie that my mother took me to. Think of it, I was five years old, and my own mother takes me to see a stag flick! Is it any wonder that I would grow up to be a furry? But enough of my childhood trauma. With a number of beloved childhood classics now falling into the public domain, they are now subject to revisionist treatment, and what’s coming out is either darkly hilarious or simply horrific, depending on your perspectives.

And so from the folks who brought you Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, we have upcoming Bambi: The Reckoning! Let the hooves fall where they may, I guess…

Forget the 1942 Disney film with its tale of loss, life, and love..this is an extremely dark retelling of the original 1928 story, with Bambi retooled as a vicious killing machine on rabies. Yes, I…CAN…DIG IT!!!

Now the source material of the Bambi character is a 1928 novel by Felix Salten innocently named Bambi, A Life in the Woods. The original story passed into the public domain in 2022, and so is fair game for a horror movie treatment. The 1942 Disney version is not. Film maker Scott Jeffrey will not be allowed to use any of Disney’s character design for Bambi, but is rather drawing inspiration from a Netflix production called, The Ritual. In it, we will see Bambi’s transformation into a revenge-driven nightmare following the slaughter of his mother by hunters. One can hardly blame the guy…

Production begins in January of 2023, so no trailers are currently available, and all we have is a hint of the new character design. I, for one, will cheer on the exploits of this Rambuck. So bust ‘em up, Bambi! Let the games begin… 🦊

One can hardly do better, however, than this SNL visitation of the same theme. Enjoy!

Categories: alternative realities, anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, fantasy, furry, furry movies, movies
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Comments: 8 Comments

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