Scary_Mirage

I'm a bit baffled by the fascinatingly bad Wesley Snipes/Dennis Hopper 1992 crime film "Boiling Point." It was seemingly distributed by Warner Brothers but the 2007 Japanese DVD release is from Universal. (It also contains Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean subtitles, but not English ones.) I can't trust Wikipedia and the Internet that this was a 1993 film with a 10 million USD budget because the DVD copyright says 1992 and the film looks like a lower budget TV movie with a washed out look, reliance on closeups, and a cheesy score that sounds like it was lifted from a Lifetime channel movie or episode of Unsolved Mysteries.... this feels like it was filmed in the late 80s instead. Despite the two main actors and a number of famous supporting cast members, nothing quite gels together and this 86-minute film feels like it lasts for two hours because it's really unclear how plot point A is related to point B or what the characters motivations or reactions are to the events of the film and the characters do not go on meaningful journeys. This desperately needed a better editor and tighter script. I imagine this was purely a paycheck performance for Hopper and Snipes because by 1992 they had been in a number of much higher caliber films and Boiling Points plays out like the kind of Z-level trash you'd find on the USA channel at 2 AM in the morning. I really would like to know how this got made. It's not as crazily-bad as Nic Cage's Deadfall, but it's in that same tier of cinema, a pale imitation of "To Live And Die In LA."

I just wanted to say I read this thread title as "107 Penises From Heaven" and thought it would be a very different film.

I'm happy HDTGM got back to doing a legit bad, bonkers film that could have been good, as opposed to the more intentionally-bad/no-expectations Z-budget films recently. I'm honestly surprised the gang didn't find the time to get into Christopher/Prince's incoherent speeches about love and God. To me, the funniest meta-omission about Under A Cherry Moon is that the film's title song, "Under A Cherry Moon" DOESN'T EVEN APPEAR IN THE FILM! It's a track on Parade, the soundtrack album for this film.

Oh man, I've seen "1"! Totally forgot about it because it's a documentary.

Corrections and omissions: Paul misspoke - the (awful) Jim Carrey movie is "The Number 23", not Se7en. There actually is a good time numeral film - 4:44 (Last Day on Earth), which is 2011 film directed by Abel Ferrara about people trying to find the meaning life on the final day of Earth's existence. (Scientists predict that due to cosmic radiation destroying the ozone layer, all life on Earth will end on 4:44 AM EST.) 4:44 is a doubling of 2:22!!! P.S. And, fun trivia, in Japan (and other East Asian countries), 4:44 is an unlucky time because the pronunciation of four is 'shi', which is also the word for death (and the characters look similar.) So in many Japanese horror films and video games (e.g. Katasumi and 4444444444, Harvest Moon) 4:44 has a creepy significance. Hotels and hospitals often don't have a fourth floor or a room 444, like how in America hotels won't have a 13th floor.

Wow, Paul and Jason got really horny from My Demon Lover. Lines from the intro banter: I got excited. He was such a SEMINAL... It BLEW my mind. I remember this movie COMING out... I was so EXCITED to see a movie with Nick but it was too ADULT for me... And then the story of Paul's strict father and nudity... Omissions: I can't exactly say I'm surprised you guys didn't notice this because it's pretty esoteric trivia, but My Demon Lover is a knockoff of a Japanese short erotic horror/romance/comedy animated film called "Call Me Tonight." Seriously! My Demon Lover was released on April 24, 1987 whereas Call Me Tonight was released on July 28, 1986 - a whopping NINE MONTHS EARLIER! Call Me Tonight is a comedy about a young man who turns into a demon when he gets sexually aroused, so he calls a telephone sex club operator to help cure him of his strange problem. Or maybe for some reason 1986-1987 was a super horny time and two unrelated film productions on opposite sides of the Pacific got the idea to make a comedy about a guy who turns into a demon when he gets aroused, but I WANT TO BELIEVE in the interconnection of the late 80s and demon lovers on people's brains. Call Me Tonight is short and has excellent animation, demon designs, and is bonkers in all kinds of different ways, so if you have half an hour, I'd recommend it as a forgotten gem. There's a Spanish subtitled version on Youtube, and an English subtitled version on Bitchute. https://www.bitchute.com/video/un-uMOClSp8/ Perhaps Japan got its revenge for being ripped off - My Demon Lover has that wonderful demon hand, and 1993 manga series Hell Teacher Nūbē features a schoolteacher/exorcist who uses his own demon hand to protect his students from ghosts and monsters. P.S. Further HDTGM connections: Call Me Tonight was the first in a four-episode series from Animation International Co. (AIC) called "Pink Noise"; the fourth and episode,"Bodyjack", was released in 1987. It's about a mad scientist who creates a device that lets a young man's spirit go into a woman's body so that he can experience sex as a woman. HDTDGM-covered 1992 sci-fi "classic" Freejack sounds like a watered-down version of this lecherous adult short film! Conspiracy? I say yes!

Hi Paul and company. I've been listening to HDTGM since the beginning. (You're one of the first podcasts I downloaded.) I was shocked by your announcement to cover Cool World because this film is particularly traumatic to me. Let me explain. I was in elementary school when this film was released and I saw the previews many times and developed some interest in watching it, probably simply because I had been exposed to it repeatedly. I don't recall ever noticing it in theaters, but maybe half a year later I found it in my local video store and rented it. (My parents didn't notice or care what the film was about.) There have been several delicately bad films from my youth that you have reviewed - such as Masters of the Universe and Streets of Fire, which I LOVED as a kid, and to this day I still rationalize their flaws because they were so magical and intense to me as a child filled with the wonder of the silver screen. But when I watched Cool World on VHS, my heart died. It was the first film I watched that was incomprehensibly bad and nonsensical that I was confused, and then relieved when the film was over. Yet it left me with the horrible realization and knowledge that films could be so awful I couldn't understand how bad they were. I know now that children don't have the finest tastes in the arts, but Cool World destroyed my youthful innocence of taking for granted that films would entertain me in a sensible way and taught me that the world of adults was a scary, dark place of nightmares. I don't think I'll ever forget the fall into Cool World with the weird buildings and scary mouth and the gangster baby who pisses on his chasers to escape them. Coincidentally, about three movies ago I decided to rent the DVD of Cool World from my local Tsutaya video store to give it another chance and was sadly disappointed to realize the movie was even worse than I remembered as a child! This is a minor point, but I was surprised that you all didn't mention that the special effects shots of merging the human actors with the cartoons is very low quality, even though Who Framed Roger Rabbit? blended live action and animation much better a few years earlier. (I guess there were too many horrific things already to discuss in the episode.) The quality of Cool World's process seems to be on par with the poor chemical blending technique used in Jean Claude Van Damme's Double Impact.

Bemused in the podcast that you guys referred to the arcade game's ending twist of the brothers fighting each other to the death to win Marion's affections but showed the Nintendo Entertainment System version in which Jimmy is "revealed" to be the gang leader (though I admit I never realized until now that it's possible in the NES version Jimmy's coat in the final room is a potential serial killer/fratricide trophy in Marion's room!) To share some personal memories, I received the NES game as a present when I was a kid and my grandmother watched me play and commented that it was strange Billy punched people with "coffee mugs." I explained that those pixels were his fists. Also, I watched the movie on rental VHS when I was a tween and thought it sucked: the cameo of the arcade game during the Billy-Jimmy fight was the best part of the movie! Linkage to previous HDTGM film: the plot of Streets of Fire (gang kidnaps sexy girl; lover boy fights gang to rescue her), directly inspired the plot of this Japanese video game and many others in the 80s. It saddens me that the anime-style Neo Geo arcade game based on this live action film (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byIIafnor_s) is not good yet still much more enjoyable than the movie itself.

I strongly URGE this podcast to review Supergirl (1984)! I just watched the superior "international cut" and it even was colossal clusterfuck of squandered talent, poor filmmaking, and unbridled camp. Since Superman III, IV, and Man of Steel have already been covered, I think it important in this new era of gender equality and #MeToo to review this highly problematic motion picture which, I felt, surpasses Superman III in levels of failed humor and setting back the genre decades.

Hi, Paul! I have a correction to a correction. In this minisode, the caller who's talking about ninja is incorrect. Actual ninja (which was not really a class of person but rather a way of doing espionage) did not wear black clothes at night - that is a common misconception caused by years of ninja shows and popular fiction in Japan (which then came to the West.) I happily had the opportunity to study Japanese History for one year with Dr. Karl Friday, one of the best samurai historians who writes in English, who always cleared up this fiction: http://h-net.msu.edu...lk1pw&user=&pw= Also http://www.cracked.c...ncorrectly.html http://www.chinatown...ption-ninja.htm http://www.illuminat...hives/ninja.php http://www.artofmanl...w-ninjas-wrong/ tl;dr version from Cracked.com : The ninja outfit is ridiculous, if you think about it. If you're an assassin and your job is to blend in, you don't do that by dressing in a black bodysuit that screams "ninja" from a mile away. So, they dressed like normal people--workers, monks, merchants, basically anything that looked as un-ninja as humanly possible was the perfect disguise. This way, they could sneak around unnoticed, day or night. On rare occasions when they needed to move through the dark undetected, they still didn't wear black. Dark blue is the color you want if you want to blend in at night; someone in all black would stand out like a silhouette. More commentary from me - The idea that ninja wear black outfits probably comes from Japanese puppet theater (bunraku) in which the stagehands (kuroko) wears all black because the audience is supposed to pretend that they don't exist. Hundreds of years ago, kabuki (plays with dancing) and then art prints started have the 'ninja' characters wear all black, borrowing the convention from puppet theater, and thus the misconception was born. Also, samurai were not loyal at all and constantly betrayed their 'masters' for money, but that is another story...

As a reluctant fan of Highlander (it is my best friend's favorite movie and I have watched it over 6 times and have it on VHS, Japanese LD, US DVD, UK DVD, Japanese DVD, BD, and 4K remastered BD, I was fairly horrified when I watched even the Renegade Cut of Highlander 2 on DVD nearly 20 years ago. I'm a little happy I never saw the theatrical cut, but I kinda feel like torturing myself after this episode. I would recommend the other, horrible entries in the series - 3, 4, the anime, the cartoon TV series, and especially Highlander 5: The Source. But they should really watch The Source: Russian DVD cut, not the US fixed-up Syfy channel cut. Terrible production values, random cannibals without warning or explanation, the plot not making a lick of sense, a baffling ending. The Sauce is mind-meltingly terrible and amusing.

I, too, am shocked they haven't reviewed this one yet. Watched and love/hated it many times on VHS and cable back in the 80s, a few years ago I bought a friend the DVD. Just the other day I found the Blu-Ray in the clearance bin for $4, now I get to experience the widow of the web all over again. Come on, guys, do it. Because of the badass glaive, Krull occupies a niche space in our cultural memory even though it is totally bonkers.

Correction (perhaps). Allow me to explain why the gods' blood is "gold." The blood they bleed is not normal blood, it's ichor. In Greek mythology the gods and demigods don't have red blood, but rather an immortal type of blood called ichor which is gold in color. Yes, I know this movie is about Egyptian gods, but they included the riddle of the Sphinx, which is a Greek, not Egyptian myth, so I think it's likely the makers just thought "gods have gold blood" because they remember that aspect of Greek mythology.

God, I watched this film last night because I stumbled upon it at my local video store. IN-FUCKING-SANE. Or "bonkers" as we like to call them. Totally over the top acting and bizarre and jarring choices and musical cues. Man, I hope they cover it some day.

I am really amazed this movie got made, and like Paul, I was angry when I saw it back in the early 90s. However, I'm amazed because the first Mannequin was just barely a 2 out of 5 stars film, so I was shocked it got a sequel. This movie... definitely 1 star.

Correction (maybe?) to this minisode and the last episode on Mannequin - did anyone else notice that Paul pronounced "tourist" like "tor-ist" (o er - rhymes with "for"). It really sounded weird to me, having lived 24 years in America. Does Paul call a concert "tour" a "tor"? Does anybody else? I know Londoners pronounce it with a schwa (uh) instead of an -er sound at the end, but in America I've always heard it as "too-rist", (sounds like "too/soon.")

Probably because I hate myself , I've spent the last few days watching all of Steven Seagal's film in order. This is the most Segal, the worst Seagal, the only film Segal himself directed... and it is absolutely BONKERS. Please do everyone a favor and examine this steaming pile. It is the most unintentionally hilarious pile of shit. Thanks!

"Sin" of omission: This film was doomed from its very title, which needed a correction. It should not have been called "The Apple." In the Judeo-Christian Genesis myth, which takes place in the Middle East, the forbidden fruit is mostly likely a fig or pomegranate - you know, fruit trees native to the region 5000 years ago. It wasn't until the Renaissance that Western European painters started painting the Garden of Eden's forbidden fruit as an apple. So, the film should have been titled "The Fig." Not that it would have prevented it from being a trainwreck. But you'd think that the Israeli director would have known this.

Oo, another one of my favorite 80s cult films. And since you guys love Canon, maybe Highlander isn't too far behind! And hey, HDTGM connection - like Masters of the Universe, Streets of Fire got an (unofficial) sequel by Albert Pyun in 2012 called "Road to Hell." The movie focuses on Cody and Ellen and even gets in a cover of "Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young." Streets of Fire wasn't a hit in the US, but it was a pretty big deal in my country, Japan. "Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young" was covered in Japanese by Megumi Shiina as "Kon'ya wa Angel" (Tonight an Angel) and was the theme song for a 1986 prime time TV drama called "Janus no Kagami" (Mirror of Janus). The song was a hit and peaked at #7 on the Japanese Oricon pop chart. Japan is the third biggest music market in the world, behind the US and UK. Here's the amazingly bad opening for Janus no Kagami: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se1rM9UH-ZA Streets of Fire also went on to influence Japanese pop culture in a few, interesting ways. Megazone 23 Part 1, the first big anime OVA (original video animation), featured SOF playing in a movie theater and recreated the kissing in the rain scene. The OVA for the Red Photon Zillion anime, which was released in the US in the early 90s as "Zillion Burning Night", is a remake of SOF. In the video game Final Fight, by Capcom, the main character of Cody is based on SOF's Cody. And in the US, indie rock band "The Protomen"'s second album, is largely inspired by SOF, and the album cover is an homage to the movie poster. https://en.wikipedia...Father_of_Death "Tonight Is What It Means To Be Young" is also used as the finale for the musical "Tanz Der Vampires" (Dance of Vampires). That musical is written by Jim Steinman, who wrote the Fire Inc. songs in Streets of Fire.

Correction for the Minisode: The video game Life Force is NOT based on the 1985 movie. This 1986 game's original title is "Salamander" in Japan. When the company, Konami, released in the USA, it changed the title to Life Force (note the space) and changed some of the graphics to appear that the spaceship is flying through a bio-organic robotic entity. There was a 1985 arcade game in the USA called Commando, but it has no relation to the Arnold movie. Salamander is a game in the Gradius series of space shooters by Konami. The plot is about defeating the space invaders of the Bacterium Empire, who are trying to conquer the people of the planet Gradius. Incidentally, Salamander was so popular in Japan that a 3-episode direct-to-video animated series was made based off the games. I own all 3 original Laserdiscs! Also, Paul is wrong - this game is widely considered to be one of the best 8-bit shoot 'em up games of the 80s.It has excellent graphics, music, and gameplay. By the way, I saw the 1985 movie Lifeforce on VHS in 1990. I was seven years old, and somehow my parents let me rent it from our local video store. They didn't watch it with me, and now that I look back on it, LIFEFORCE RUINED MY LIFE. I remember the copius nudity and terrifying sexual violence. Now I'm thirty-two years old, I live alone, and I have never been on a single date in my entire life. Is it because Lifeforce traumatized me into thinking that attractive people and sex are attempts to steal my precious lifeforce and turn me into a zombie? I may need to go see a therpist...

On that note, a HDTGM connection: 1987 was the year that killed Cannon with three very high budget films, starting with the previously-reviewed film Over The Top. At $25 mil, $12 mil of which went to Sly's salary. Over The Top lost money ($16 mil domestic box office), and Cannon was banking on Masters of the Universe, Superman IV, and Spider-man to save it. As we all know, MOTU and Superman IV failed so hard, Spider-man production was canceled. There are a number of interesting what-ifs with Masters: Universal was originally interested in the movie, but would only give a budget of $15 mil, so Maetel went with Cannon. If Masters had been financially profitable, Masters of the Universe 2 would have been made, and it would have been ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. Likely direct-to-VHS, Masters 2 was set to have a budget of $4.5 mil, with B-film director Albert Pyun (of the direct-to-VHS 90s Captain America film) and starring surfer Laird Hamilton recast as He-Man. The plot was going to take place on Earth -again- and have He-Man pretending to be a football player attempting to stop Skeletor, who diguises himself as a evil industrialist named Aaron Dark and is destroying the Earth's environment. The costumes and sets were prepared for this film, and Cannon had announced it, but ultimately they scrapped it and instead recycled the costumes and sets for Pyun's film Cyborg, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Masters 2 would have made for a truly brutual HDTGM experience!

Oh, small correction. They talk about hoverboards in this episode ripping off Back to the Future 2. It's the other way around. MOTU was released in 1987. Back to the Future 2 was shot and released two years later in 1989... and incidentally, in BTTF2 the hoverboards are manufactured by Mattel, the MOTU toy company! Perhaps they are Robert Zemeckis' subtle hommage to MOTU... Mattel had approvals on everything in this movie and refused to have any exisiting toy characters killed. The new characters of Blade, Saurod, and Karg were originally the director's idea. He convinced Mattel they could make new toys for them. I think they made figures of Blade, Saurod, and Gwildor.

Frank's son was a MOTU fan, and after asking him various questions about Skeletor, agreed. So like Raul Julia in Street Fighter, but it actually worked. Incidentally, Frank says in interviews that Skeletor is his most favorite role in entire career... and he did not even receive a Best Actor nomination. ROBBED!

Why doesn't Skeletor kill He-Man while he's chained up? Maybe because he's secretly in love with He-Man! http://www.buzzfeed.com/adambvary/masters-of-the-universe-a-tragic-gay-love-story#.qtjYDxpbz

Skeletor's crack troops are definitely robots. A few of them speak, all with the same robotic voice. I do like Nerd Paragon's theory, but we only see one area of Eternia, the desert immediately surrounding Greyskull (aka California desert?). We don't even see the city that Skeletor teleported into and attacked! So it's probably safe to assume there are other biodomes and lifeforms on the planet. Had the film received a budget of say, $30 mil instead of $17 mil we would have seen Snake Mountain and other locations on Eternia. Moving the action to Earth was done to save money. Funnily, Paul and company mention the musical score of Bill Conti (who also did the Rocky and Karate Kid series) ripping off Star Wars, but I thought it sounded more like Superman. But yes indeed, the film heavily borrows a lot from Star Wars, much due to its budget restrictions. Though Skeletor falling into the lava pits of Greyskull seems too similar to Emperor Palpatine's death in Return of the Jedi.