#The Blade Master (1982)

[drivinmeinsane]

If K survived do you think he would get tattoos or body mods? What kind?

Maybe! I feel like there would be some initial hesitance to change any of the regulation standards before he felt comfortable embracing the fact that he is an individual as much as any organic human is. He'd have to accept that he has a right to his own body, that he's not a tool to be utilized by a master.

In a kind of parallel to Six, I could see K getting a unicorn tattoo. It would be an homage to the only real memory he had. Even if it first belonged someone else, that memory came to mean something personal to him. The tattoo could also be considered a visual tie to family. I'll die on the hill that Ana and K were siblings in every way that mattered, damn it.

Deckard's dream 👆

Part of the reason I'm inclined to say unicorn rather than horse, is the ties the creature has to Blade Runner (1982). In the BR Director's Cut, Deckard (basically K's father imo) dreamed of a unicorn. The unicorn is a multifaceted thing, just as the replicants themselves are. Unicorns are distinct in a fantastical way from horses, even if they wear the same skin—similar to the divide between replicants and humans. They, too, were born from the imagination of man.

Outside of the unicorn tattoo, I think there would be a focus on botanicals and nature. A cowslip, a bee, garlic flowers, things like that. Probably a passage from Pale Fire as well, inked against his ribs like a secret. I think K would be more inclined to get handpoked tattoos. There is something intimate about them that I think he would enjoy.

When it comes to K and piercings or other body modifications, I don't have anything specific in mind. I find it difficult to imagine him getting earrings or anything else but that's just me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[scifigeneration]

Pluto: Netflix’s anime masterpiece explores how robots ‘feel’ when humans exploit them

by Thi Gammon, Research Associate in Culture, Media and Creative Industries Education at King's College London

There have been many TV shows and films inspired by the dual fear and excitement surrounding advances in artificial intelligence (AI). But not many exhibit such masterful craft and profound humanity as the new Netflix anime miniseries, Pluto.

Pluto is adapted from a manga series of the same title (2003-2009), created by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki. The manga version – considered a comic masterpiece for its beautiful art and sophisticated storyline – incorporated fundamental elements from Osamu Tezuka’s celebrated manga series Astro Boy (1952-1968), including the beloved android adolescent who was the titular character.

Pluto is set in a futuristic world in which humans and robots coexist, albeit within a hierarchy in favour of humans. Robots excel in various jobs ranging from nannies and butlers to architects and detectives, but they are treated as second-class citizens.

Although robots gradually gain their own rights codified into law, they are still exploited by humans, who downplay their worth and emotional intelligence. As much as humans depend on AI, they also feel threatened by it.

An AI murder mystery

Pluto, which has both Japanese and English audio versions, follows German robot detective Gesicht (Shinshū Fuji/Jason Vande Brake) as he traces the mysterious killings of robots and humans. The world’s seven most advanced robots (including Gesicht himself) and robot-friendly humans (including his creator) are the targets of this assassination scheme.

What’s most perplexing is that the murders appear untraceable. This suggests that the killer might be a very advanced robot, challenging the belief that robots can’t ever kill humans due to their programmed constraints.

This enigmatic case echoes the cautionary message found in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – beware of human beings’ ambitious dreams and creations. While the story begins as a murder mystery, it evolves into a thoughtful drama about the conflicted relationships between humans and androids.

While Pluto draws on many familiar sci-fi concepts, it distinguishes itself through its meticulous character development and the depth of its micro-stories. Every character is complex, and the audience is able to get to know them and become invested in their fates. The anime’s unhurried pace also allows viewers ample time to contemplate its philosophical questions about consciousness evolution and the powerful impacts of emotions.

Despite all its brilliance, however, the series is not without flaws. It has a dated representation of gender roles, with no female characters – whether human or robot – playing an important part. None of them break free from the stereotypical role of nurturing, stay-behind support for their exceptionally capable and powerful male partners.

Animation of the year

Pluto maintains a melancholic tone throughout – but despite this overarching dark ambience, it is at times romantic and moving. It exalts love, friendship and compassion without falling into sentimentality, evoking an emotional resonance reminiscent of Blade Runner (1982).

The series emphasises that life, or the process of living, imparts character and humanity, transcending biological organs and blood. Androids may initially be devoid of complex emotions, but they develop sentience through everyday experiences and interactions with fellow robots and humans.

Robots can even learn to appreciate music, as manifested by the charismatic North No.2 (Koichi Yamadera/Patrick Seitz), who was designed for intense combat but grows weary of warfare. The narrative underscores the simultaneous beauty and danger of emotions – particularly the destructive force of wrath.

With great technological advancements and comfort, this futuristic world is still torn by war. It poses the question: “Will war ever end?” – reminding us of the conflicts and tragedies happening in the real world. The anime suggests that an end to war is unlikely as long as hatred persists.

For me, with its beautiful art and riveting narrative, Pluto stands out as one of the best Netflix productions of all time. It’s certainly the best animated work of the year.

[ashmp3]

you are so cool and knowledgeable teo i don’t know who would find you annoying lol. can you share some of the movies you mentioned? 💕

first of all 😭 you think i’m cool and knowledgeable 😭 that’s so sweet and to answer your question well my sister LMFAO. Anyway yeah i’ll share a few i think could be useful from the architecture/set design aspect!

first i wanna start with my baby blade runner (1982) which i already said i analyzed like a lunatic but from urban planning aspect it is very masterful. Also for one project i had to pick a film and find similarities with other art/movies/etc and i did blade runner + in the mood for love (color use, elements of film noir), calvin klein ss 2018 (reinterpretation of traditional pieces in futuristic light, nice use of function of association and set design you can google it). Also, next is also another recommendation and thats metropolis (class difference through metropolis acting as an industrial center).

Next i would recommend the truman show and bc i feel like everyone has already seen it, rewatch it. Again urban planning aspect inspired me for another project where i had to make a comic book (did a horror one with suburbia as the main character).

dogville!!! It’s a bit disturbing i guess but it is lars von trier we are talking about. I recommend! Not spoiling it but they use theater as set design and the way you get the function of the space is through map of the city and interior of houses. SLAY!

playtime :-) very famous but for a good reason. This one you just gotta watch and then you will get it why i said that. I facken love tati… oh and mon oncle!!!!

i’ll just do a fast quick recommendations now because i need to 🤐 because i will spend all day on tumblr dot com okay!

solaris, stalker (tarkovsky), snowpiercer, paprika, red desert, inception, blade runner (2046), the 400 blows, edward scissorhands, american beauty, vivarium, la haine, trafic (1971), cléo from 5 to 7, breathless, the cabinet of dr. calgari, do the right thing, taxi driver, manhattan, her, lost in translation

Oh actually film noir is something i REALLY recommend to dabble in lmfao sorry quick intermission but yeah like sweet smell of success, strangers on train, the big sleep, the big heat, dark passage, double indemnity…

okay i think this is… more than enough. @nosferatism i am tagging you as promised 💋♥️

[bowelfly]

while i usually keep this blog focused on art and bugs, movies are my third big passion, and since i don't believe in streaming services i don't have a spotify wrapped for 2022 to show off but i do have a letterboxd account so i felt like going through my 2022 movie watching stats. this post is basically for me alone and will be obnoxiously long so i'll put in a read more thing here out of courtesy:

ooh so close to almost 1000 hours of movies! still 718 films is pretty good, though that does also include around 80 or so shorts, mostly animations, that i also logged.

i was averaging around 2 movies per day for the year. being 500 miles away from all your friends, family, and partner does give you a lot of free time it turns out. the most movies i watched in a single week, december 10-16, was 28. the weeks i only watched a couple things were either when i was visiting my partner or too depressed to even watch movies

one of the things i've done this year to keep myself sane in isolation was to stream movies for friends. however since i have multiple non-overlapping friend groups, there were a number of movies i watched multiple times because i have a deep psychological and emotional need to share weird shit with the people i care about. NOVA SEED, FANTASY MISSION FORCE, and BUDDHA'S PALM were the triple crown winners this year.

i only watched 7 movies that came out in 2022. my sweet spot is genre movies made from the late 70s through the mid-90s which you can see clearly if you look at my lifetime stats. predictably, i have very strong opinions about practical effects and stunts and film stock

my ratings spread for 2022 is about what it normally is for other years with a lot of things ending up in the 3.5-4 star range. maybe i'm just generous with my stars or maybe i just like what i like and try to not watch things i won't like unless they're bad in a fun way but i really feel like i've been moving away from the whole so-bad-its-good thing over the years and focusing on things that i unironically like--though these are often films that other people do categorize as bad or so-bad-its-good.

my most watched actors is a bunch of golden age hong kong dudes because i went super hard on the kung fu and wuxia films this year. like about half of these are big name stars and the other half are less well-known character actors that still are in like 200 movies playing assorted emperors and evil administrators. really glad to see my main man lo lieh running away with first place. he's most well known for playing evil white-haired kung fu masters usually named pai mei or variations of that, but he's also played the protagonist or antihero of a number of great films like FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH or THE FUGITIVE (1972, not the harrison ford one). my favorite role of his is without question Bi Gu of East Island the rascally kung fu wizard who hollers his name from offscreen before every time he enters a scene in BUDDHA'S PALM (1982).

also very pleased to see one of my favorite american character actors, brion james squeaking his way onto the list, though sad that he got separated from his best friend and frequent collaborator tim thomerson, who i think is just below the cut here.

most watched directors. i've been a huge fan of the very recently deceased albert pyun for years now, largely on the strength of his absolute god-tier masterpiece NEMESIS (1992) though he has a number of other very entertaining movies (RADIOACTIVE DREAMS, CYBORG) and also a cavalcade of very bad movies that are nonetheless all fascinating in their own ways. i could go on about him at length but this post is long enough. maybe another time.

other than that, chor yuen (THE MAGIC BLADE, DESCENDANT OF THE SUN) and chang cheh (CRIPPLED AVENGERS, FIVE ELEMENT NINJAS) are gods of early wuxia cinema and fucking rule, and keita amemiya's 90s work (ZEIRAM, MECHANICAL VIOLATOR HAKAIDER, CYBER NINJA) are pinnacles of kickass japanese practical effects work.

i also watched a lot of russ meyer and john waters films because i'm a pevert.

this is mostly just a reminder to check out my WUXIA WIZARD WARS tumblr post and letterboxd list if you like movies about wizards shooting lasers at each other and summoning fucked up monsters and shit like that

finally, because i have a brain disease, i made a list of the 100 best films i watched this year, mostly first-time watches but probably like 15-20 rewatches that i especially enjoyed or think more people should know about or give another shot. if i didn't already have way too many projects i'd consider setting up another sideblog just going through all these one by one with reviews and screenshots but that's a lot of work and i am a tired old man. i might give an occasional highlight post like i did for THE BARON AGAINST THE DEMONS

and i guess that's about it? this has been an especially heavy year for golden age hong kong kung fu and wuxia films but i explored a lot of other interesting places and times and genres and microgenres and have a lot more i plan on checking out next year. i've got stacks and stacks of unwatched japanese V-cinema and pinku violence and kaiju and tokusatsu films; tons of giallo and hammer horror and eurotrash lesbian vampire flicks; classic westerns, revisionist westerns, spaghetti westerns; SOV horror, eastern european stop motion, hong kong CAT III sleaze, russian postapocalyptic dirges, poliziotteschi, krimi, and noir films; AIP and PM Entertainment action schlock; italian mad max ripoffs, italian alien ripoffs, italian conan ripoffs; approximately 300 movies with NINJA, BLOOD, or SHAOLIN in their titles; and probably some other shit too.

finally, if you've made it this far and you're a nasty little film freak like me i'll let you in on a secret: i have copies of every single one of these movies on my hard drive. literally thousands of movies dug out of dozens of digital dumpsters with my own two greasy grabby raccoon paws. if any of them particularly catch your interest but you can't find a copy, well you can maybe slip old professor bfly a little private request and get yourself a copy of whatever you need. it may take some time since i only have so many google drive accounts unless someone wants to subsidize a deluxe mega.nz subscription for me to mass-upload things to. i also have a soulseek account sharing the entire hoard but it's very slow and not always online but you can DM me for that as well. again though you may have to be patient because i am old and tired and slow and have a full time job and a hundred dumb hobbies and social anxiety and generalized brain damage

happy new year everyone now go watch a movie about some dudes kicking the shit out of each other for me

[shhhhimwatchingthis]

Horror/pop culture influences to the Hatchetfieldverse

As a disclaimer i have not listened to every talkback or livestream in its entirety and this is not in any way meant to be The Definitive, Master, Absolutely The Only Right List list. this is just me sharing some horror knowledge and where I think influences lie. please feel free to add on to this list!

The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals: The biggest connection I can make is Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) about aliens taking over the bodies of humans as part of a plot to invade earth. where the term "podperson" comes from

Black Friday: I know the premise is based on the real life Tickle Me Elmo craze in 1994. (people trampling each other for the doll) in terms of pop culture the evil/haunted doll is a trope as seen in Chucky (1978) and Annabelle (2014). Wiggly is an eldritch being, the black and white, the cults, madness (we'll get into eldritch later)

Nightmare Time: So many nightmare time episodes give B-horror vibes and I love it

The Hatchetfield Ape Man: what B horror is made of. I love how retro this one feels even as it takes place in the modern day timeline (Ted and Hidgens are in it, there's a mention of texting and Ted's pornhub premium account, and yet Lucy feels like a such a period character) feels like an old B creature movie (the creature from the black lagoon comes to mind)

Watcher World: to an extent haunted amusement park is a trope (hell its in classic scooby doos) loved ones turning on each other and possesion/influence is seen in a lot of paranormal horror (the conjuring 2, the exorcist) illusion based horror is done really well is Mike Flanagan's Oculus (2013)

Forever and Always: the android and the clone plots feels like classic SF. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep/Blade Runner (1982) Philip K Dick style sci-fi.

Time Bastard: the song itself is a James Bond tribute. a time loop is a great storytelling frame that can cross genres, although the ImplicationsTM always hover around horror. Groundhog Day (1993) is the classic timeloop example, if more lighthearted.

Jane's a Car: this is Stephen King all the way baby. Christine (1983) is novel/film about a killer car, the owner of said car's growing obsession with it, and the cars violent protective but deadly nature

The Witch in the Web: this is trickier for me. the witch is an ancient trope and Willabella Muckwab is a classic witch in the woods. I mean thats fairytale, Hansel and Gretel, luring children stuff. Hannah as a psychic child, and a very powerful one feels very Stephen King, (Eleven from Stranger Things is the same type of character)

Nightmare Time Two

Honey Queen: In terms of the relationship between Linda and Zoe, Death Becomes Her (1992) comes to mind. theres just something about the ruthlessness of these two antiheros. also Gerald is a plastic surgeon much like the male protagonist of that film

Perky's Buds: okay the weed turning birds sentient i can't speak to but birds in horror is a trope for sure, Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) is perhaps the most famous. The Hatchetmen being portrayed as an insular dangerous hillbilly family is also a trope, seen in The Hills Have Eyes (1977) and Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Abstinence Camp: Ah, the slasher. quintessential modern horror. Abstinence Camp is probably most like Friday the 13th (1980) with both the summer camp setting and the focus on the chastity (or lack there of) of the teenagers and that being the reason for their deaths. (other famous slashers being Psycho (1960) Halloween (1978), and Scream (1996))

Daddy: Peter pan syndrome or the forever child reminds me a bit of The Orphan (2013) though I admit that's not exactly the dynamic here. creepy child forcing a relationship is the twist in Ginger Snaps 2 (2004). cults spring up ALOT in hatchetfield, specifically the idea of wealthy elite worshipping the lords in black in exchange for power. this is an eldritch trope, as seen below.

Killer Track: satanic rock music or music that drives teenagers to the devil is an old panic. In terms of pop culture the premise of the cursed song itself (listen and you die unless you force other people to listen) is The Ring (2001, for the American remake) in The Ring a cursed video kills the watcher in 7 days, unless they show the tape to someone else.

Yellow Jacket: children fighting in death matches is popular now because of The Hunger Games, although the dystopian tropes roots of this is seen earlier in Battle Royale (2000) or The Long Walk (1979) (hello AGAIN Stephen King).

hatchetfield in general: the spooky town/weird town/horror town is a personal favourite trope of mine and hatchetfield qualifies. also seen in Welcome to Night Vale (2012) and the cartoon Gravity Falls (2012) to name only two. Also the ever iconic Twin Peaks (1990)

eldritch horror: the center of hatchetfield lore is the Lords in Black and they're eldeitch horror, that is massive, almost unknowable and incomprehensible extra-demensionsal beings whose scale and power to humanity is like an ant and a boot (we're the ants). explored in the works of HP Lovecraft (most famously The Call Of Cthulhu) but an enduring branch of horror in its own right. Common staples include another dimension(s) where the creatures are from (the black and white in our case) , cults worshipping the Beings for power (the starry children, Linda's wiggly cult) and madness or a corruptive influence. a great modern example is The Magnus Archvies

other influences: saw a Mariah Rose Faith tweet that said she was watching Evil Dead and could see the hatchetfield influences and yeah, the Evil Dead (1981) trilogy is very campy, very self referential horror with a starkid like sense of humor (there's a Toronto musical version Evil Dead Live that is Very Starkid, its infamous for having a "splash zone" where if you're an audience member sitting in those seats you WILL be covered in fake blood)

scream, similar to above, very meta, mixes of comedy and horror.

bonus: Hey Melissa: while not exactly the same reminds me of Misery (1990) about a woman who comes across her favourite author in a car accident, she rescues him and cares for him...and then won't let him leave. body horror, capture,obsession its all there. also based ON ANOTHER STEPHEN KING BOOK GOD DAMN IT.

what horror do you see in hatchetfield? what did I miss? let me know!

EDIT: Nerdy Prudes Must Die: Bullied teenagers getting revenge on the popular kids who tormented them: Carrie (1976 for the film) (what's up Stephen King, pull up a chair), also Heathers (1988). A group of teenagers covering up a bad thing they did and being picked off by the person they wronged is also a trope, seen in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) Nerdy Prudes is also the first stage show to include The Black Book. The black book, a grimoire or spellbook of edrtich knowledge reminds me of the Necronomicon. The Necronomicon was introduced to pop culture by HP Lovecraft, it appears in multiple of his own works, and then later in works by different creators, including The Evil Dead films. Lovecraft loved the idea of the Necronomicon appearing in other peoples work, as it built up a collective horror/eldritch mythology within our culture. Its appearance in so many works, has cemented the Cursed book/Book of The Dead/within pop culture.

[docrotten]

PUPPET MASTER (1989) – Episode 248 – Decades Of Horror 1980s

“December 8th, 1:46 A.M. Researcher and principal psychometric subject about to embark on sexual experiment number 517A; hopefully will be opening up a channel to Neil Gallagher; experiment may utilize various sexual aids and certain assorted apparatus; descriptions to follow.” Uh, what kind of puppets are these? Join your faithful Grue Crew – Chad Hunt, Bill Mulligan, Crystal Cleveland, and Jeff Mohr – as they delve into the still-growing Puppet Master franchise with the one that kicked it all off: Puppet Master (1989)!

Decades of Horror 1980s Episode 248 – Puppet Master (1989)

Join the Crew on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel! Subscribe today! Click the alert to get notified of new content! https://youtube.com/gruesomemagazine

Decades of Horror 1980s is partnering with the WICKED HORROR TV CHANNEL (https://wickedhorrortv.com/) which now includes video episodes of 1980s and is available on Roku, AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, AndroidTV, and its online website across all OTT platforms, as well as mobile, tablet, and desktop.

André Toulon, a puppet maker, one day discovers an old Egyptian formula able to create life and decides to use it to give his puppets life. The Nazis covet this knowledge and, in desperation, Toulon commits suicide. Some years later, four psychics visit a former colleague who suddenly commits suicide. Along with his widow, they uncover the secrets of the Puppet Master.

  Directed by: David Schmoeller

Writing Credits: David Schmoeller (screenplay by) (as Joseph G. Collodi); (story by) Charles Band, Kenneth J. Hall, J.S. Cardone (uncredited)

Produced by: Charles Band (executive producer); Hope Perello (producer)

Music by: Richard Band

Puppet Effects Created by: David Allen Productions

Selected Cast:

Paul Le Mat as Alex Whitaker

William Hickey as Andre Toulon

Irene Miracle as Dana Hadley

Jimmie F. Skaggs as Neil Gallagher

Robin Frates as Megan Gallagher

Matt Roe as Frank Forrester

Kathryn O’Reilly as Carissa Stamford

Mews Small as Theresa (as Merrya Small)

Barbara Crampton as Woman at Carnival

David Boyd as Man at Carnival

Peter Frankland as Assassin #1

Andrew Kimbrough as Assassin #2

Ed Cook as Pinhead (voice)

Linda Cook as Leech Woman (voice)

Tim Dornberg as Tunneler (voice)

Bert Rosario as Blade (voice)

Michael Laide as Jester (voice)

Just what the Grue-Crew ordered (or maybe just Crystal), killer puppets!!! Charles Band and the merry band of misfits – Blade, Jester, Pinhead, Tunneler, Leech Woman, Shredder Khan, and Gengie – scream and slice for airtime in this first entry in the Puppet Master series. Originally intended for a summer theatrical release, the film skipped wide audiences for the booming direct-to-video market… and became an instant franchise, spawning 14 sequels and crossovers… and counting.

At the time of this writing, Puppet Master is available for streaming from the Full Moon Channel, Peacock, Shudder, and Tubi as well as PPV from Amazon and Redbox. The film is available on physical media in Blu-ray format as a stand-alone disc or as part of various boxed sets from Full Moon Entertainment. 

Every two weeks, Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror 1980s podcast will cover another horror film from the 1980s. The next episode’s film, chosen by Chad, will be The Beast Within (1982). It should be interesting when the Grue-Crew go talkabout with this one.

Please let them know how they’re doing! They want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans – so leave them a message or comment on the Gruesome Magazine Youtube channel, on the Gruesome Magazine website, or email the Decades of Horror 1980s podcast hosts at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com.

Check out this episode!

[grandhotelabyss]

A little late in the game, but had you received a Sight and Sound ballot, what would be your top 10 (I was reminded of the list because Paglia’s ballot was floating around Twitter recently, relentlessly mocked, but I mean, they're all fine films, and cinema is a populist, bourgeois medium...)

My list will be more controversial than hers. People reacted against her campy historical picks, but as a gay-male-identified lesbian she's entitled to them. Even her Italian-American self-assertion via The Godfather is unexceptionable, and most of the rest were revered Euro art films. Network TV used to play The Ten Commandments annually around Easter—do they still do this?—and as a kid I watched it every single year, religiously as it were, relishing its ludicrous maximalism. Does that count for nothing? But still, I came of age in a different era than Paglia, learned to ask different things of the form, and anyway am not the all-around cinephile the Silent and Boomer critics tended to be, bowled over as they were by the thing's novelty. (I made some notes on my taste here.) I find refreshing John David Ebert's assertion that cinema before about 1970 doesn't interest him much; he says the same about comics, and there's more truth in that, too, than people want to deal with. The point is not to disparage the early masters in either form but to observe that the whole standard of the art rose, as well as its technical capacity. I could argue by application the same for the novel: it doesn't get good until about the middle 19th century, admirable as Cervantes may be. I believe it was George Bernard Shaw who said that the later entrants in any genre tend to be the best, not the earlier. (Shakespeare, whom Shaw disliked, might be an exception, unless we consider him the epilogue to classical rather than the prologue to modern drama.) Here, then, is my admittedly idiosyncratic list, in chronological order. The favorites are crowded into a 30-year period, possibly the high point of the art form; as announced recently on Substack, I'm in my middlebrow era, so I tried to avoid both wholly personal "comfort-watch" choices of a trashy nature (sorry, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) and extremely high-minded selections I am "supposed" to admire (I do admire Tarkovsky, but do I love him?); I hesitated to put anything very recent because the test of time is a real test.

Meshes of the Afternoon, 1943, Maya Deren

Breathless, 1960, Jean-Luc Godard

The Exorcist, 1973, William Friedkin

Blade Runner, 1982, Ridley Scott

Videodrome, 1983, David Cronenberg

Wings of Desire, 1987, Wim Wenders

Nixon, 1995, Oliver Stone

Magnolia, 1999, Paul Thomas Anderson

Mulholland Drive, 2001, David Lynch

Lost in Translation, 2002, Sofia Coppola

[emma-dennehy-presents]

Decided to get down with some top tier Conan the Barbarian rip offs. Starting out right with Ator, the Fighting Eagle (1982). This gem was hastily slapped together after Conan released in Spring 1982. It was out in Italy by the end of 1982 and the US in early 1983. Hopefully I can continue with Ator 2, aka The Blade Master (which was hastily slapped together after Conan the Destroyer dropped in summer 1984). That is up to the God of Seeds/Peers.

It is probably one of the better ones to test the waters with, as there are notable RiffTrax and MST3K versions available. Watch at your own risk, with these 80s fantasy movies. I doubt there exists one without highly problematic elements, and casual SA abounds.

[laresearchette]

Thursday, February 01, 2024 Canadian TV Listings (Times Eastern)

WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES?: AFRICA RISING WITH AFUA HIRSCH (BritBox) THREE LITTLE BIRDS (BritBox) CLONE HIGH (Crave TV) A BLOODY LUCKY DAY (Paramount+ Canada) FARMER WANTS A WIFE (CTV) 9:00pm THERESA CAPUTO: RAISING SPIRITS (Lifetime Canada) 9:00pm

WHAT IS NOT PREMIERING IN CANADA TONIGHT: GENIUS: MLK/X (ABC Feed; Premiering on February 04 on Nat Geo Canada at 9:00pm)

NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:

AMAZON PRIME CANADA 12 ANGRY MEN (1957) THE ALAMO (1960) ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN 2 (1996) ALONG CAME A SPIDER (2001) ANNIE HALL (1977) BASEKETBALL (1998) BASIC INSTINCT (1992) BLADES OF GLORY (2007) THE BOUNTY (1984) CHORUS LINE (1985) THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK (2004) COP LAND (1997) THE CORE (2003) THE CROCODILE HUNTER: COLLISION COURSE (2002) EAT PRAY LOVE (2010) THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980) ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM (2005) EVENT HORIZON (1997) FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (1971) FROM BEYOND (1986) GANG RELATED (1997) GET OUT (2017) GHOST WORLD (2001) THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1979) GROWN UPS (2010) GROWN UPS 2 (2013) HAIR (1979) HALLOWEEN H20: 20 YEARS LATER (1998) HOT FUZZ (2007) I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO (2017) IN THE CUT (2003) JEEPERS CREEPERS 2 (2003) JUST FRIENDS (2005) KISS THE GIRLS (1997) LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER (1982) LIFE (2017) THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE (1977) MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA (2008) MY LEFT FOOT (1990) THE PEACEMAKER (1997) QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER (1990) RED ROCKET (2021) REMO WILLIAMS: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS (1985) RIDDICK (2013) RIDE ALONG (2014) SARAFINA! (1992) SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (2010) SCREAM (1996) SCREAM 2 (1997) THE SECRET OF NIMH (1982) SHREK FOREVER AFTER (2010) SNAKE EYES (1998) SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL (1987) THE SWEETEST THING (2002) TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY (2006) THE VAMPIRE LOVERS (1970) YOUNG ADULT (2011)

CBC GEM LE MYTHE DE LA FEMME NOIRE MASTERS OF SEX: (Season 1) ON THE LINE: THE RICHARD WILLIAMS STORY

CRAVE TV 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU BOYZ N’ THE HOOD CLONE HIGH (Season 2 Premiere) THIS LIFE THOSE LEFT BEHIND

DISNEY + STAR LOVE & WWE: BIANCA & MONTEZ (Season 1) PIXAR’S SELF

NETFLIX CANADA THE 5TH WAVE THE BIG SICK BOYZ N THE HOOD EAT PRAY LOVE FAME AFTER FAME HAPPY FEET HOME ALONE HOME ALONE 2: LOST IN NEW YORK HOUSE, M.D. (Seasons 1-8) IN A WORLD… LITTLE WOMEN (1994) MINIONS MR. DEEDS SALVES QUIEN PUEDAL (ES) SEVEN THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION THE SKELETON TWINS THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU TUSK

NHL HOCKEY (SN) 6:00pm: NHL All-Star Thursday

NBA BASKETBALL (SN1) 7:30pm: Pacers vs. Knicks (TSN/TSN3/TSN4/TSN5) 7:30pm: Lakers vs. Celtics (SN1) 10:00pm: 76ers vs. Jazz

DRAGONS’ DEN (CBC) 8:00pm (SEASON FINALE): Catching up with 13 companies that braved the dragons to find out what happens after the Den; the dragons discuss the key takeaways from the show and what its legacy means to them.

ALMOST PARADISE (CTV2) 8:00pm: Alex's ex-wife shows up with her new fiancé asking Alex to sign their divorce papers; however, when the fiancé is mistaken for Alex and kidnapped by an old enemy, Alex finds himself racing to rescue the man.

HOLMES FAMILY RESCUE (CTV Life) 8:00pm: A family is left financially drained and with an unfinished, dangerous mess after a contractor abandoned their two-story addition project; Mike, Sherry and Michael must contend with the triple threat of plumbing, electrical and HVAC issues.

THE NATURE OF THINGS (CBC) 9:00pm: A pristine river in Quebec is granted rights through legal personhood, protecting it and those who call it home.

FOR THE LOVE OF CHOCOLATE (Super Channel Heart & Home) 9:30pm: Preparing for the annual Masters of Chocolate Festival, Aria's plans get rattled when she loses her partner shortly before the competition. However, a dashing single father soon steps in to help Aria find the winning ingredient.

CANADIAN REFLECTIONS (CBC) 11:30pm: Tiny; 541: A Place for the Community

[georgebuckettwo]

"Special Effects Master Douglas Trumbull On The Set Of Blade Runner (1982)"

[movinginpicturesfractructures]

Blade Runner is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, and written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples.[7][8] Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The film is set in a dystopian future Los Angeles of 2019, in which synthetic humans known as replicants are bio-engineered by the powerful Tyrell Corporation to work on space colonies. When a fugitive group of advanced replicants led by Roy Batty (Hauer) escapes back to Earth, burnt-out cop Rick Deckard (Ford) reluctantly agrees to hunt them down.

The film buildings clearly evoke Futurist Architect Antonio Sant’Elia and French artist Moebius’ imaginative vision of city of the future (the latter was invited by Scott to work on the film, but unfortunately he was busy working on an animated feature called The Time Masters). Key architectures include: the Ennis-Brown House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1924 and here used as the house of the main character Rick Deckard, the streets unravelling around the Million Dollar Theatre, and the setting for the climactic rooftop scene (“I saw things you people wouldn’t believe…”, remember?). We are speaking of the Bradbury Building, an architectural landmark in Los Angeles originally built in 1893 by local architect Sumner Hunt on behalf of mining millionaire Lewis Bradbury: a feast of cage elevators surrounded by wrought-iron grillwork, geometric patterned staircases, and a central court with glazed brick, ornamental cast iron, marble and a skylight flooding the space with natural rather than artificial light. Also, in the case of Blade Runner, Nighthawks by Edward Hopper has played a major role in defining the atmosphere of the film, sharing with it the same oppressive haze and mist that veils every single scene. Lastly, and most surprisingly, the movie employed strictly analogical devices and techniques – like scale models, dioramas, backdrops – to recreate the Los Angeles of tomorrow, thus turning the behind-the-scenes a quite paradoxical temple of craftsmanship. — Di Alessio Gentile ELLE DECOR

[ofthuinn]

John Hejduk. Sketches for characters from the Lancaster/Hanover Masque, 1980–1982. CCA Collection.

OBJECT

SUBJECT

6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

1 The caboose is hooked up to the freight train

6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

The Summer Visitor holds up her mirror

2 The bilges of the barge are opened

The Bargeman pulls in the rope

3 The Hotel awnings are lowered

The Transient sits on the edge of the bed

4 The wind begins to blow on Tower Hill

The Sentinels watch

5 The telescope zooms in on its subject

The Retired General adjusts his field glasses

6 The curtain is raised

The Retired Actor applies the mascara

7 The barometer remains steady at 29.05

The Weatherman begins to perspire

8 The Sexton receives the oil

The Surveyor puts on his tan knickers

9 The Farm Land is covered in snow

The Farmers hum

10 The trees are protected

The Community curses

11 The garden tool sheds are locked

The Gardeners plant

12 The old clothes wagon is pulled out of the barn

The Old Clothes Man searches in his bag

13 The scare-crow’s hat is adjusted

The Keeper of Scare Crows ties the straw

14 A horse fly bites the arse of a cow

The Farm Animals stir

15 A needle is placed into the horse’s neck

The Veterinarian sleepwalks

16 The porch is covered in red dust

The Reddleman dusts off his sleeve

17 The silos are empty

The People sleep

18 The Store House is full

The Preserver checks the lists

19 The burlap bags bulge with seed

The Sower grasps his fallen seed

20 The blade is removed

The Reaper sharpens the blade

21 The steel deflects

The Old Farmer remembers

22 The hedges are cut

The Elders are filled with jealousy

23 The spike is driven

The Players measure the distance

24 The streamers hang

The Children cut their soles

25 The bicycle is repaired

The Travelling Performers stretch the wire

27 The vents are closed

The Workers complain

28 The boiler room is silent

The Dwellers dwell

29 The School House is lonely on Sundays

The Students sing a song

30 The book bleeds in leather bindings

The Librarian mends a binding

31 Sounds emit from double-hung windows

The Cellist fingers

32 Damaged vegetables are placed in wood crates

The Merchant scratches

A32 Sweet when chilled in ice

The Butterwoman churns the butter

33 The “A” Frame is waxed

The Carpenter builds a frame

34 A thousand-legger crawls over the bricks

The Mason looks for his trowel

35 Suction-rubbers separate the glass

The Glazier cracks the glass

36 Lies are sealed

The Fabricator fabricates

37 Joints are soldered

The Repairman solders the joints

38 Needles are placed in leather

The Chiropractor/Acupuncturist yawns

39 Fat boils in the vat

The Butcher plucks a chicken

40 Ovens fired

The Baker kneads

41 Butterflies exhibited

The Citizens vote

42 Ticket-tape shut

The Toll-Taker smokes a cigarette

43 Blood bank full

The Physician injects

44 Quiet

The Undertaker contracts

45 Flood lights lit

All

46 Suspended

The Convert thinks of the other side

47 Filled with wood stools

The Transfers wait

48 Nordic porcelain

The Master Builder washes his teeth

49 Pipes flushed

The Druggist hides the evidence

50 Maintained by vacuum cleaners

The Bank-Key Man grinds a key

51 Interiors painted green

The Proprietor sucks an egg

52 In constant motion

The Farm Manager broods

53 Guaranteed licence

The Observers make a sign

54 Bull’s eye replaced every fortnight

The Inspector replaces his revolver

55 Zoological implications

The Trapper springs the trap

56 Taped arguments

The Lawyer writes the brief

57 1 to 10

The Accountant snaps his pencil

58 Hollow guilt

The Useless peer into the rooms

59 Ordered interned

The Suicide makes a mistake

60 Greek origin

The Collector wipes the frame

61 Wood

The Accused capitulates

62 Steel

The Judge reads the sentence

63 Concrete

The Priest confesses

64 Stone

The Dead

65 Funnels constructed by Trombone-Maker

The Widow wails

66 Function depends on air

The Balloonist lights the flame-thrower

67 Dust

The Void remains silent

68 Time/Still-Life/Nature morte

The Keeper of the Time fears a delay

[guillotineman]

On the set of Blade Runner 2019 (1982)

[cinematicwasteland]

The Blade Master aka ATOR 2 (1982)

Muscle-bound Ator and his mute East Asian sidekick travel from the ends of the earth to save his aged mentor from the evil, mustachioed Zor.

[oldschoolfrp]

Symmkyn’s Edge, an unbreakable magic blade that can be summoned once per day:  “There were supposed to be twelve of them in existence, the master Wizard Symmkyn having died -- rather horribly -- while creating the thirteenth.”  (Denis Loubet illustration for Timothy Zahn’s story “Symmkyn’s Edge,” The Space Gamer 48, February 1982)

[brokehorrorfan]

Scream Factory has revealed the specs for its The Sword and the Sorcerer 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray, which releases on March 15. The 1982 sword-and-sorcery fantasy film is directed by Albert Pyun (Cyborg, Captain America).

Pyun co-wrote the script with John V. Stuckmeyer and Tom Karnowski (who went on to executive produce Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Knives Out). Lee Horsley, Kathleen Beller, Simon MacCorkindale, George Maharis, Richard Lynch, and Richard Moll star.

The Sword and the Sorcerer has been newly scanned in 4K from the original camera negative with Dolby Vison HDR and DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo. Special features are listed below.

Disc 1: 4K UHD:

Audio commentary by director Albert Pyun

Disc 2: Blu-ray:

Audio commentary by director Albert Pyun (new)

Interview with director Albert Pyun (new)

Interview with actress Kathleen Beller (new)

Interview with co-writer John Stuckmeyer (new)

Interview with editor Marshall Harvey (new)

Interview with special makeup effects artist Allan Apone (new)

Interviews with special effects artists Charles, Edward, and Stephen Chiodo (new)

Dedicated to Jack Tyree – Cast & crew remember stuntman Jack Tyree (new)

Trailers From Hell – editor Marshall Harvey on The Sword and the Sorcerer

Theatrical trailers

TV spot

Still gallery

Meet Talon, a daring mercenary who conquers castles and dungeons alike with his lethal three-bladed sword. But when Talon learns that he is the prince of a kingdom controlled by an evil sorcerer, he is thrust into the wildest fight of his life. Can Talon rescue the beautiful princess and slay the warlock, or will he fall prey to the black magic of medieval mayhem?

Pre-order The Sword and the Sorcerer.