EVIL IN THE WOODS (1986)

 The main problem I have with this 80s horror/comedy, besides it being a comedy, is that the main story is just being read by a little boy in a children's book and not supposed to actually be happening in the movie itself which makes it kind of hard to care about anything that happens. It also seems like everything that happens in the book was shot first and then they filmed the wraparound sequences afterwards for some reason. To make things doubly terrible the story in the book is about a film crew making a movie about Bigfoot fighting Martians so even the stuff that happens in the book isn't real! A real mish-mosh of clips strung together with little payoff. I did kind of enjoy the snotty little boy in the beginning of the movie but he sadly doesn't appear for much of the film. 

ASSAULT OF THE PARTY NERDS (1989)

  In my ongoing quest to see everything that Linnea Quigley ever acted in before I die I arrived at this. A very USA UP ALL NIGHT-type of sex-comedy/boobie-movie, this one is clearly inspired by ANIMAL HOUSE which only came out a mere 11 years earlier. It involves a nerd-filled fraternity dealing with a rival group of jocks(or are they preppies? Maybe both). Linnea and Michelle Bauer both get their tits out but beyond those highlights it's the expected really stupid stuff.   

 There was a sequel 6 years after this which is most likely just as dumb. 

                                                 Glorious VHS cover!:

THEY CALL ME MACHO WOMAN! (1989)

  One of my favorite movies of all time is the really dumb Mexploitation classic INTREPIDOS PUNKS. It's about a gang of punks. This movie also is about a gang of no-goodniks, who in this case also run a cocaine factory, but is infinitely stupider than even that film. The problem here is that the filmmakers are clearly going for some intentional comedy in there stupid action movie which doesn't work all that well. Distributed by Troma films which seem to have added annoying sound effects for some reason(because they do that with a lot of their pickups?) and it fits right in with their all-retarded output. It was originally titled EDGE OF FEAR before Troma gave it this stupid title. Also played on cable TV as SAVAGE INSTINCT. I would say check out one of the non-Troma versions but I don't know how different those are anyway and it's really only good for a few dumb chuckles. 

 There was one more movie starring our main gal Debra Sweaney called THE VINEYARD which I assume was just as unpopular as this since she called it quits after that.

BOWERY BOMBSHELL (1946)

  This is only the 3rd in The Bowery Boys series of films. Not my favorite in the series but pretty standard for The Boys. This time they get mixed up with some bank robbing gangsters and have to clear their name. There are impersonations of Edward G. Robinson and the old SCARFACE movie in this one and also a mad scientist that turns a guy into a walking bomb(hence the title). SPOOK BUSTERS is next and that was always one of my favs just for it's haunted house setting. 

BOWERY BOMBSHELL

DOWNTOWN (1975)

  Not to be confused with director Jess Franco's DOWNTOWN HEAT made in 1991, this Franco Eurotrash nudie tells the tale of a schluby private investigator(played by Jess himself) who gets mixed up with some scheming murderous ladies. The cast here includes a bunch of folks from BARBED WIRE DOLLS which was made around the same time. This includes Lina Romay, Eric Falk, Monica Swinn, Paul Muller and others. About as graphic as you can be without being hardcore with many close-ups of vaginas. Will undoubtedly dissappint fans of Franco's more depraved horror/sleaze works since this one is intended as a comedy. 

https://fullxcinema.com/downtown-full-movie-uncut-sex-1975-lina-romay/

STUDENT BODIES (1981)

  It's kind of remarkable that this spoof of slasher movies came out in 1981 when those type of films were still being churned out in record numbers and the template had barely been set which would lead to them all becoming very predictable with set rules that they mostly all would follow.  It's also kind of weird that they chose to not include much in the way of blood and no nudity since those are both such hallmarks of the slasher flick. It's all very dumb, of course, and will really only appeal to people who are into that AIRPLANE-type of absurd humor. 

 The character of Malvert The Janitor is really the stand out highlight for me and sadly the ridiculously lanky rubber-limbed actor, credited only as The Stick, only appeared in this one film before an early death took him from us.

SOUP TO NUTS (1930)

 Historically important since this is the very first appearance of The Three Stooges on film. Not necessarily a great movie though. The Stooges, consisting of Shemp, Larry and Moe(credited under his real name of Harry Howard). here are goofy women-crazy firemen. They're not really the stars though which brings this one down a bit. Our main character is played by Ted Healy who was the leader of the vaudeville group before they ventured out on their own. AKA RUBE GOLDBERG'S SOUP TO NUTS(this was allegedly written by Mr. Goldberg(this seems to not be true) and he and some of his wacky inventions show up in the film) 

A very young Billy Barty does running headstands over and over!:

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (1940)

 Just like with THE MUMMY series of classic Universal monster films, I've never been the biggest fan of the original INVISIBLE MAN but I sure do find the sequels goofily entertaining! This one might be the goofiest but also my favorite. You get a nutty professor played by John Barrymore, his maid played by The Wicked Witch of The West herself(Margaret Hamilton) and a tough guy gangster played by that notorious tough guy Shemp of The Three Stooges! Clearly meant as a comedy or spoof this one is a good co-feature with any of the Abbott & Costello monster meeting romps. 

 There is a 1983 TV-movie with this same title starring Gilligan(Bob Denver) who makes a lady invisible which I think I need to see sometime. 

THE WEEKEND MURDERS (1970)

  Caught this as part of a giallo marathon down at the local weirdo arthouse theater yesterday. When it first started I wasn't sure if it even was a giallo since it's set and filmed in England with what are supposed to be a bunch of upper crust rich English types. Little did I know that most of the cast is comprised of Italian actors and the director was also an Italian fellow, Michele Lupo, responsible for a bunch of those old swords n' sandals movies and a personal favorite spaghetti crime flick MEAN FRANK AND CRAZY TONY. Kind of similar to his FRANK AND TONY movie this one straddles the line between comedy, with it's bumbling cop characters and seriousness, with all the murdering going on. It does seem more like a spoof of the whole giallo genre than anything else but it certainly seemed to be a crowd pleaser with all it's goofiness. Sadly it seems to be pretty obscure. 

Known in Italy as CONCERT FOR A SOLO GUN?:

THE MUNSTERS' REVENGE (1981)

  It took 15 years to make a sequel to the first MUNSTERS movie(MUNSTER GO HOME) and this time they just get a made-for-TV deal which feels like an overly long episode of the show except in color. We get a new Marilyn(Jo McDonnell) and Eddie(K.C. Martel) which is very strange since everyone else is obviously older. Not particularly good but we do get to meet some of their extended family including cousin PHANTOM OF THE OPERA(Bob Hastings) and aunt Elvira The Witch(Anita Dangler)(which I think predates that other more famous baddie Elvira by a few months). The CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON shows up with a bunch of other monsters(including Tor Johnson!) but only in robot form to assist Sid Caesar as the evil Egyptian criminal mastermind trying to rob his brother, who's a mummy, of his ancient pendant. You'd be better off just going back and watching a few episodes of the original show for a few chuckles.  

RESIDENCE FOR SPIES (1968)

Jess Franco gives us a comedic spy movie here starring Eddie Constantine who was famous for starring in Jean-Luc Godard's ALPHAVILLE a few years earlier. This was before Franco delved into the more sleazy/exploitation portion of his career which is really the stuff I love best so this one is not anywhere near the top of my personal favs. Might be of interest to fans of 60s James Bond and spoofs of that sort of stuff but I don't think the action is anything near what you would want from your standard spy flick of the era.

THREE LITTLE PIGSKINS (1934)

  Before watching this 3 Stooges short I had no idea that Lucille Ball had ever appeared with Moe, Larry & Curly. I also had no idea Roger Moore, who shows up briefly as a henchman, did! Besides these cameos this one isn't all that exceptional. The Stooges get mistaken for football heroes and end up playing ball very badly and that's about it.

 

DISORDER IN THE COURT (1943)

 One of the Three Stooges shorts I've seen the most thanks to it being in public domain for some reason and ending up on pretty much every cheap-o Stooges set released on DVD or VHS. This one has the boys in a courtroom causing their usual chaos. They try and murder a parrot, shoot a man's toupee and, of course, smack the shit out of each other among other things. A classic if you're not sick of seeing it yet. 

                          Nothing says cheap-ass VHS quite like a crayoned cartoon drawing!:

MR. WISE GUY (1942)

   This is the 8th film in the East Side Kids series, right after the classic SPOOKS RUN WILD, and it's kind of a forgettable one. The kids get sent to a reform school this time and have to solve a murder. Not much stands out about this chapter except maybe the black kid(Ernest "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison) getting covered in white paint and ending up in white-face after stealing a chicken. Also we find out Muggs'(Leo Gorcey) first name is Ethelbert. Not exactly essential unless you're some kinda completist. 

H.O.T.S. (1979)

 This was originally supposed to be title T & A ACADEMY and that might be the perfect title to describe what you get here. A very obviously ANIMAL HOUSE-influenced story of a group of girls getting revenge on a snooty sorority by creating their own group called H.O.T.S.(what that actually stands for is only revealed at the end of the movie) and stealing away all their men. A very stupid movie that includes bumbling cops and mobsters(one of which dons a robot suit at one point), a post-PATRIDGE FAMILY Danny Bonaduce as a rocking student, nekkid sky-diving, various nekkid Playboy playmates of the era, a bear and a seal as mascots, fat girl jokes that will offend your progressive blue-haired friends, sped-up BENNY HILL running, a conehead and ends it all with a strip football match. There's plenty of T & A on display and if you can handle the the extreme dumbness this is a fun ride. 

 Interestingly Cheri Caffaro, star of the GINGER series of sexploitation films in the 70s, was one of the co-writers of this but doesn't appear in the film.

 

                         Released on video in Germany as simply AMERICAN TEENS!:

THE BOWERY BOYS MEET THE MONSTERS (1954)

 I watched this one right after SPOOK CHASERS which I thought was the worst Bowery Boys movie I'd ever seen and I believe this might be the best one the Boys did. It was obviously inspired by ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN and apparently was also the highest-grossing film in their long-running series. Since this is clearly a very low-budget deal, as were all of the Boys adventures, you're not getting very top-shelf monsters. There's a couple of mad scientists, a vampire lady, a man-eating plant(owned by Grandma Walton(Ellen Corby) from THE WALTONS TV program) and a killer gorilla and robot thrown in for good measure. The kooky family that lives in our monster house is kind of Addams Family-ish with their large Lurch-like butler and creepy mansion home. There's also a couple of brief scenes where someone is turned into a hairy Mr. Hyde-like monster. While obviously not on the level of Abbott & Costello this is still good for a goofy late-night watch. 

SPOOK CHASERS (1957)

    This might be the worst Bowery Boys movie that I've seen. It was one of the last films for the Boys, there were only 3 more to go and I haven't seen any of them yet and I'm not sure if I really want to! By this point in the series(the 44th film?) Leo Gorcey, the main character in all these films!, had quit leaving Huntz Hall to be the star and if there's anything more annoying than a solo Hall I've yet to see it. It's like watching Costello without Abbott except not even that good! If that's not bad enough Leo's dad Bernard Gorcey(who played store owner Louie) had passed away so they replaced him with Percy Helton who also seems like a big step down in charisma. The story itself must have been done a hundred times by this point in time by everyone from The Three Stooges to Abbott & Costello about an old spooky house and some gangsters trying to spook our protagonists. Not exactly a laugh riot. 

KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE (1988)

  I had successfully managed to avoid seeing this for many years up until a few nights ago when a friend of mine took me to a midnight showing in a local theater and it was just as stupid as I had anticipated. I know it's a favorite of many 80s kids, in fact there were a few folks in attendance all dressed up in full clown attire for this event, but I've never really seen the appeal of clown cinema(unless you're making a John Wayne Gacy docudrama of course!) I will give the film high points for all the great-looking practical effects done by The Chiodo Brothers. Can't say much for their directing abilities but apparently most people don't seem to mind. Luckily for me Stephen Chiodo never directed another feature. 

This could have been a much better film if it was 4 minutes long and starred The Dickies!:

DEEP SEA MONSTER RAIGA (2009)

                                                  "Your farts don't smell fishy like this." 

  I feel like a modern-day giant monster movie with a bunch of cgi-enhanced scenes is something I should probably hate immediately but having given this one a chance I found it entertaining enough for a breezey 80 minutes. Obviously this story has been done to death in Japanese cinema starting way back with GODZILLA in 1954 but this time they go the mostly comedic route with a monster who looks a lot like Big G except with some flipper hands, bigger back spikes and the ability to control lightning. I guess growing up and watching so many of these films from a young age this seemed different enough to amuse me. Monster turds, cute Japanese schoolgirls, actors breaking character and lots of stupidity are a few highlights. AKA RAIGA: THE MONSTER FROM THE DEEP SEA and RAIGA: GOD OF THE MONSTERS

 There is a sequel that came out in 2021 called GOD RAIGA VS. KING OHGA and there's a similarly titled REIGO: KING OF THE SEA MONSTERS that predates this from 2005 but I don't think that has any relation or is a comedy.

                   Very unfitting J-pop music for a monster movie trailer!:

HIS NAME WAS HOLY GHOST (1972)

  This spaghetti western reminded me of those TRINITY films since it's a comedy featuring a duo(Gianni Garko as the titular hero and Chris Huerta as his large bearded comapnion who bonks people on the head in a manner very reminiscent of Bud Spencer in those earlier films) and it devolves into lots of silly slapstick antics before everything is over. Luckily I like those type of films. There's not much else to say about this except that if you can deal with stupid comedies give it a look. 

                                                                   German poster: