Fan restyle of 1984 David Lynch's DUNE

In 1984 David Lynch directed the movie representation of Frank Herbert sci-fi classic DUNE. If you haven't read the novel I strongly advise you to do it because it's a masterpiece of science fiction literature (and that's not just my opinion).
Anyway, Lynch's film got alternate reviews. Many, including Herbert himself, gave the movie a high rate, while others despised it because of the complication of the plot and the deviations from the book story.
I personally liked the film but I can admit that the realization can be at least seen as controversial.
A talented fan, Sasha Burrow, a Los Angeles based 3D modeler and animator, is relentlessly working on a project to "revamp" the movie, with a focus on the special effects.
Here below you can see the showreel, dated March 2010, and appreciate the improvements so far tested on the film. Considering the quality of the improvements and the fact that Sasha's currently working alone, the effort is really heroic.
You can find more information and keep track of the improvements on Sasha's blog: DUNE Special Edition.
The guy's looking for help, so if you feel able to join this interesting and commendable project, just contact Sasha.

B-Movie Cast 104 is Out! - Teenagers from Outer Space 1959

A new episode of the B-Movie cast is available at http://bmoviecast.com/.
Check the website to listen to the episode and subscribe to the podcast!
You can drop your comment to the show with their Toll Free Number 888-350-2570

The Moon Nazis Are Coming – The First Iron Sky Footage is Out!

Thanks to my friend Vince of the B-Movie Cast that let me know that the first footage of Iron Sky was released yesterday.
I don't know if you are aware of this movie but it drives me crazy! I can't wait they finish and release it.
Iron Sky is being produced by Energia Production a Finnish independent movie company. The movie is set in an alternative timeline where (or better when) bunch of Nazis managed to escape to the moon and install a base on the dark side of the rock.
In the 2018 they are ready to come back to Earth and attack!
You can find more information aboout this amazing production on the official website here.
If you like alternative timelines, science fiction and world war two stories then Iron Sky it's for you! If you happen to be an expert in some movie production areas drop a line to the production. Moreover, if you happen to have some money to invest you can finance the production. Just check the web site for more information.
See the footage here below and.. watch out for the invasion!

B-Movie Cast 100 is out! - Special 100th Show! Dr. X 1932 Return of Dr. X 1939

A new episode of the B-Movie cast is available at http://bmoviecast.com/.
Check the website to listen to the episode and subscribe to the podcast!
Due to job meetings and trips I couldn't post this before but I won't let this week pass without mentioning that another B-Movie Cast episode is out and it's number 100!!!
So congratulations guy, it's an important achievement you reached!

From the episode synopsis:
On today’s: It’s our Special 100th show and Nic, special guest Juan from the creepy swamps of south Florida and I will be talking about Dr. X and the Return of Dr. X. Plus we have a ton of feedback from our great listeners.
Toll Free Number 888-350-2570

B-Movie Cast 99 is out! - Shock Waves 1976

A new episode of the B-Movie cast is available at http://bmoviecast.com/.
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Here's the synopsys of the show:

Beneath The Living, Beyond The Dead, From The Depths of Hell’s Ocean!
What’s the link between Monk, Flipper and Underwater Nazi Zombies you ask?
Well you’ll find out on today’s show as Nic and I will be taking a trip to Florida to talk about the film “Shock Waves” from 1976 starring Peter Cushing, Brooke Adams, Luke Halpin and John Carradine.

B-Movie Cast 98 is out! - The Psychotronic Man 1980

A new episode of the B-Movie cast is available at http://bmoviecast.com/.

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The Wicker Man: of pagans and lust

Last night I was up to watch a movie I wanted to check since long.

The Wicker Man is a 1973 British movie based on David Pinner's 1967 novel The Ritual.

The story begins with a deeply Christian police officer that is driven to investigate in the disapperance of 12 years old Rowan Morrison on the fictional island of Summerisle off the cost of Scotland.

Soon after his arrival and having met some peculiar characters like Mrs. Morrison who seem uninterested by the daughter disapperance, and the arrogant landlord and his uninhibited daughter Willow, the officer begins to suspect that there's something strange about the island and its people.

As the investigation proceed the detective gets totally aware that the Summerisle people worship pagan deities. Itìs the ruler of the island, Lord Summerisle, that gives word to his suspects by declaring that the island has abandoned God since long. The stiff bigot sergeant is in complete shock but determined to put a stop to the unholy paganism and solve the case of the disappeared child. 

However from this point on the events begin to turn grim and the officer inexorably falls into the spider web that will lead him to find the missing girl and meet the Wicker Man.

The Wicker Man shows great images of a frigid forgotten land and a very impressive music. The scene with Willow dancing and singing naked in an attempt to corrupt the God fearing policeman, is just unforgettable.

IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes classify this movie under horror even if The Wicker Man doesn't show any of the typical situations of horror movies. Yet the film is disturbing and chilling in a way that is difficoult to explain. Summerisle seems a paradise with all its treehuggers and lustful babes but this paradise its currupt by madness and a naive cruelty.

Did I mention that this film is great? No? Well, it is.

If you are looking for more in depth information about the movie then check the wikipedia article here.

Here below the theatrical trailer of the movie.

B-Movie cast 97 is out! - Outer Limits Part 2

A new episode of the B-Movie cast is available at http://bmoviecast.com/.

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B-Movie cast 96 is out! - I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

A new episode of the B-Movie cast is available at http://bmoviecast.com/.

Check the website to listen to the episode and subscribe to the podcast!

High Plains Invaders

Just finished to watch High Plains Invaders and I feel like giving a fresh comment about it.
HPI is a 2009 Canadian movie made to be run on cable tv channels and similar. It was filmed in Romania by a Romanian company.
The plot is simple and straighforward: aliens bugs assault a Colorado town of the late 19th century and a bunch of citizens struggle to survive and then, later, to wipe the alien menace out of planet Earth.
As I said the plot hasn't anything original about it. The bugs looks like the babies of the aliens from The War of the Worlds, except they're not machines and don't shoot laser beams but uranium rocks.
The characters aren't bad after all. I especially liked that of a female bounty hunter that, even if unlikely to fit the historical period, has an enjoyable -even exaggerated- attitude of a though woman and speaks like a mob leader. Jules, the scientist, is interesting because he isn't the classic I-know-everything savant and sounds instead quite shocked by something his scientist brain can't compute.
All in all High Plains Invaders isn't bad. It's an enjoyable movie for a relaxed evening. If you like the western genre and sci-fi movies like me, then High Plains Invaders is worth a rent. Just don't expect to go anywhere off the beaten track with the storyline.

B-Movie Cast 95 is out! - Mesa of Lost Women

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Zombieland Rocks!

Yesterday night I finally managed to watch Zombieland.
After a dinner with pizza and beer I collapsed on the sofa and put the dvd on.
I already heard that the movie was good and I found it so. Zombieland it's one of those movies with no pretence of being an award winning film and that's probably one of the reasons why it's so enjoyable. I practically liked everything of Zombieland.
First the setting. I just love apocalyptic movies and this is set after the father of all the Zombie outbreaks.
Then the charcaters. The main character Columbus, a guy that reminds of one of Revenge of the Nerds, meets Tallahassee a kick ass Zombie Hunter and later the though-sexy-wild Wichita and her twelve years old sister Little Rock.
The movie is not only comic, fast and full of raging zombies but succeed in mixing these elements so well that it caught me from the beginning to the end without glitching.
The finale with the massive Zombie shooting in the theme Park is just epic.
There are rumors of a sequel. I hope they'll do it because I sure I want to see how the four keep on surviving when even the last Twinkies expired...

The Outer Limits episode 1: The Galaxy Being

Thanks to a good friend of mine, I recently discovered B-Movie Cast, a weekly podcast that discusses B-movies, cult moves and many more nerd stuffs. The podcast itself is really neat. In each episode the host Vince Rotolo together with his co-host Nic "BMovieMan" present a movie, they review it with lots of details and sometimes gossip about the production, all in a relaxed way. Ample space is then left to the contributes from the listeners. Emails are read and voice messages are listened to. The hosts are very competent and for each contribute they have comments or answers to questions.
I’ve always appreciated B-Movies especially those of the Hollywood golden age and later movies of the sixties and seventies. However I can’t say that I there was really a passion for that stuff, the fondness was latent, it needed something to dig it out and expose it to consciousness. I timidly begun to listen to B-Movie cast but the familiar attitude and the soft tone of the speakers plus the richness of the exposition immediately took me. With every episode the guys at B-Movie cast select and present movies and shows which usually date somewhere from the fifties to the seventies. This is a perfect system for a neophyte like me to discover films which are not only fun but are like a window opened on a world of the past with all its different culture conventions, fashion and technology.

In episode nr. BMC90 of February 18th 2010, the show presented the first installment of a series of episodes on the America tv series The Outer Limits which aired from 1963 to 1965. The series is all about the confrontation of men with the mysteries that invade the space of the normality and rip it apart.
The series opening is somehow mythical. The picture of an oscilloscope appears and immediately the cold voice of a narrator states:

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits.

As I’m already a tv series addict, this episode of B-Movie Cast prompted me to acquire the series. By now I only watched the first episode “The Galaxy Being” which is about a SETI style wannabe researcher who make contact with an alien species which is then summoned to our planet by the negligence of a secondary character. I advise you to listen to the episode of B-Movie Cast for more information about the plot.

I was really amazed by the general appeal of this series. Despite the fact it was obvious it was fifty years old, I found the narration and the character definition really modern. I mean, the characters felt real, and the tension of simple human beings forced to confront something so unnatural to them , was nearly palpable. The fact that the being arrived to our world during the night, the constant presence of static noise, the close-ups of the being prowling the city, enforced the sensation of an obscure force distressing the human minds. Despite from the beginning of the episode it’s clear to the viewer that the being isn’t evil, its very presence on the earth generates a sensation of madness that wobbles through the people. Only in the end –which I’ll not discuss it- the humans can glimpse hope of if not comprehension, acceptation of something so alien to them.
The special effects aren't really bad considering the period of time and the fact that it was a television product. The costume of the being is very convincing in showing it a creature of electronic power. I can say the same regarding the effect of the radiation boom.

If you like tv series and if you don’t necessarily despise old shows, I really advice you to watch The Outer Limits because it’s really promising. I plan to watch other episodes very soon and I will report about them in this blog.

Be also sure to check B-Movie Cast at http://bmoviecast.com/