Andy

Yesssssss all of that. Like Empire, the film has great cinematic contrasts. The clean polished nightclub, the jungle, the supersaturated reds and shadows, and the blinding daylight of the finale, making their escape from darkness literal and joyous.

The teaser poster did its job perfectly.

Deathstalker (1983) Oh this is ridiculously fun! Antihero Richard Hill wears a blonde wig the production designer got at a Halloween store. The story is so thin, there’s nothing to get in the way of all the fights, rotoscoping magic effects, and oh yeah tons of nudity. This is a Conan ripoff done right. Deathstalker does indeed battle a pig headed monster like in the poster. Oddly enough, this came out the same year as Return of the Jedi, and the monster in the film looks a bit like one of Jabba’s Gamorrean Guards. Lana Clarkson plays Deathstalker’s woman. A Valeria to his Conan, she holds her own with a sword, and fights topless, but with a cloak bearing it all, as though she stepped right from the pages of Heavy Metal. Come to find out, the actress as sadly murdered by Phil Spector in 2003 at age 40. This is the first of four in the series. I understand part 2 is the best regarded. This was a solid 8/10 for stupid sword and sorcery entertainment. I laughed.

Pretty much, yes.

Maybe. But this (absolutely awesome) photo from Joe Sikoryak via Lukas Kendall’s blog tells a different story from the same time. This is an early Trek convention photo from 1974. The thing that struck me, beyond how amazing these costumes are, before anyone called it “cosplay” (God, I despise that term), is that most of them are female. And fairly attractive by conventional standards by the looks of it too. I guess they’re still what people would call Nerds, but if I were the right age in ‘74, this is exactly where you’d find me trying to meet the Rand to my Kirk.

“Comfortable” Yeah, let’s go with that.

Me, singing along to Parade of the Slave Children:

From the chatter on Facebook it sadly sounds like if it does return Adrianne Palicki won’t be a part of it.

Andromeda was more than patient with his frivolous overuse of the transporter. I expected her to get up and say “Bollocks! Materialize them yourself, wanker!”

Wow! This one sounds right up my alley after reading a few reviews. Sounds like a campy horror comedy with late era Hammer sensibilities. I will look forward to your review. Definitely adding this to my list!

It made it as far as a children’s book and record and the comic book adaptation. But not sure it was filmed either.

What the hell. Pledged. Let’s get this done.

Or in other words, Anything Goes. Truly, two simple words that sum up this perfect epic of entertaining mayhem, never to be taken as seriously as its predecessor. Critics often use the phrase “Roller Coaster Ride” metaphorically, and I’d argue that if it didn’t begin with Temple of Doom, there’s no better film that fits that description. Literally.

One thing about the newspaper clippings, the reviews were overwhelmingly positive. There was no inclination toward the negativity that somehow emerged in the internet era.

Well, shit.