VHyesterdayS Trailers: The Films That Time Forgot

A while back I decided to kick off the VHyesterdayS series with a tape that kept calling my name, Communion. I had fun watching the movie again, even if I was petrified, but do you know what really stuck with me? The trailers at the start of the tape! I'm a guy that watches and is aware of a lot of films, but I hadn't heard of a single one of the movies featured in these trailers!

It got me thinking about all the films that were direct-to-video or had a very short life span in the theatre and have been left to rot, considered too weak to eke even the smallest profit. These movies may have had a limited VHS release and aren't likely to hit DVD, Blu-ray, or even a streaming service.

So here are three of those "lost films" and because I'm so lazy, it's actually the exact three that were featured on my M.C.E.G./Virgin release of Communion from 1989!

Limit Up

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Limit Up is a comedy film starring Nancy Allen, Dean Stockwell, Danitra Vance, and Ray Charles. It was written (co-written with Luana Anders) and directed by Richard Martini. From what I can tell the film had a premiere in Chicago - where it is prominently set - in 1989 before being released direct-to-video in 1990.

The film follows Nancy Allen's character, Casey Falls, as she makes a deal with the Devil (portrayed by Danitra Vance of SNL fame) in order to make it big in soybean stocks. INB4 all those non-fat soy lattes!

Does it look like a by-the-numbers 80s comedy movie? Yes. Is that a problem. Absolutely not!

As is the case with all of the films I'll be featuring today I have not seen Limit Up, so I can't speak to it. A VHS copy would only cost around $6 CAD, but to have it shipped to My-Neck-of-the-Woods, Canada would be an additional $25 or so, so I haven't made the purchase. A quick search showed me that some individuals actually got their hands on a DVD copy of the film from Amazon, but my best deduction is that these were VHS ripped copies that were illegally distributed through the platform and are no longer available. I can't find any information that the film saw anything outside of its original VHS release.

That said, it appears that Limit Up is available on Amazon Prime Video in the US! It means I can't watch it in my region, but hopefully someday it'll be available in the Great White North and I'll be able to give this movie a watch. It looks like a fun little comedy/fantasy that I'd definitely like to check out.

Trust Me

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Next up is Trust Me, starring Adam Ant, David Packer, and Talia Balsam. It was written and directed by Robert Houston, who is probably best known for this role of Bobby in The Hills Have Eyes. 

It's a crime movie in which Adam Ant's character, James Callendar, may or may not kill off Sam Brown (David Packer) in order to make his art more salable in the cutthroat art market. It could be a fun comedy romp based on the music and visual cues of the trailer or it could be a straight-forward drama. The trailer is so bad I can't even tell. I somehow gleaned as much as I did amidst the sea of shoulder-padded blazers and neon colours.

This is certainly not a movie I'd like to see, but you can score a VHS copy of the film from $7 to $10 CAD, plus shipping and handling. I couldn't find any streaming services that carry Trust Me, but I did find the entire film uploaded to YouTube, if you're so inclined!

Queen of Hearts

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Queen of Hearts is a feel-good drama directed by Jon Amiel, starring Vittorio Duse, Joseph Long, and Anita Zagaria.

It was the first film directed by Jon Amiel, who worked in TV for the BBC for several years prior. He would go on to have a solid career in Hollywood with films like Sombersby, The Man Who Knew Too Little, Entrapment, and The Core, as well as successful TV shows like The Borgias.

This is more of a teaser than a trailer, with a run-time of about a minute, so it's difficult to get more than the feel of the movie from it, but it is about a family of Italians who live a whimsical life running a café in London.

Look at that title card! It stands out like a sore thumb. It looks like it was created by a local TV station or something. I sure hope it didn't make it into the final cut of the film.

Queen of Hearts is another movie I won't seek out personally, but not for the same reasons as Trust Me. The teaser coupled with the accolades of the director speak to the film being just fine, but it doesn't look like my cup o' tea. That said, you can find a VHS copy of the film at auction for around $13 CAD plus, I'm sure, some hefty shipping and handling on top.

Or just skip that and get the DVD! That's right, MGM owns distribution rights of the film and a DVD can be purchased through Turner Classic Movies for around $30 CAD. Sorry, from what I can tell, there are no streaming options available.

So that's it! I have to say, I was surprised to find that Limit Up was available for streaming and that Queen of Hearts actually landed a limited and expensive DVD release. For that reason it's hard to call them "lost", but I think they still remain films you likely never even heard of regardless of their availability.

I hope you enjoyed this (probably) boring trip through the films that time forgot and if you actually read the whole thing... I have nothing for you, but regret!

Cheers,
R

Memory, Blog: Those Creepy Alien Shows

For one reason or another throughout my life I've found myself drawn to TV shows and films about the paranormal and I'm not talking about those reality shows, like Ghost Hunters. Specifically, for me, it is anything to do with aliens and UFOs. It's a contributing reason for my obsession with The X-Files, but it goes much deeper than that.

I want to preface this by saying that I don't believe in aliens. I don't think there's some grand conspiracy that a group of intergalactic beings from another planet/dimension/reality/whatever are visiting earth in ships, abducting people for experimentation, and screwing around with livestock.

I think my fascination with the subject is three-fold.

One reason is that I'm captivated with the idea that there are people out there that whole-heartedly believe in it all. And I don't mean this as a condescension, like, "How could someone believe in this crap!?" It's more akin to wanting to understand why they believe what they believe. It's probably like a secular philosopher trying to better understand religion.

The second reason is that I find alien and UFO stories to be like the ghost stories of our generation. We live in a world driven by science, so of course our fireside stories are that of science fiction. It kind of just makes sense.

The third and most major reason is that the idea of aliens scares the ever-loving shit out of me.

I have zero context to offer you as to why, but when I was really little I had nightmares that the Martians from Sesame Street were going to take me from my bed at night. I had to be the only kid on the planet petrified of Muppets.

They're still creepy.

This fear was exacerbated one fateful day by my unwitting mother who picked up a new video for me to watch: E.T.: The Extraterrestrial. And why woudn't she? It was an international family-friendly hit! As soon as I saw E.T. for the first time, plodding around the forest with his freaky glowing heart, I was instantly traumatized. I can't recall so much as breathing throughout the rest of the viewing, but I somehow survived it. I had a new face for my fear and it was the dough-eyed alien that every other kid at school had on their bed sheets.

See, it's petrifying!

Considering I was so afraid of the subject I have no idea why, but I would try and watch anything that featured aliens, which in the late-80s and early-90s was no problem. The paranormal was a hot topic and one could simply flip to any channel on a Friday night and find a program featuring unexplained phenomena.

The result was a fascination with those hokey paranormal TV shows that used to cover the pages of the TV Guide. For me, it all started in the early 90s when A&E began airing re-runs of In Search Of..., which was one of my favourite TV shows ever. The ideas and topics were so interesting and they would often feature the crazy stories of aliens or UFOs that I was craving, but presented in a way that wasn't all that scary.

Okay, that's BS, I was still scared to death, but I could make it through an episode, so long as all the lights were on. I think this is why I found the courage one night to watch a relatively new show called Unsolved Mysteries, which although it wasn't strictly a paranormal show had the occasional alien/UFO-related topics. In fact, it was an episode of Unsolved Mysteries that spurred on my fear in a big way, but we'll feature that story another time.

There were all sorts of paranormal shows that cropped up in the wake of Unsolved Mysteries, like Sightings and Encounters, both of which tried to employ the trappings of a real news magazine show to make the topics at hand seem that much more credible. And lets not forget the myriad of one-off specials, like Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction or Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County.

My obsession continues to this day, so this is just the beginning for this topic on the site. I already have some related posts in the works, but I thought it made sense that I outline my fear and fascination with aliens and UFOs in films and television before we really begin to scan these starry skis... I mean skies.

Cheers,

R

Theatrical Cut - Captain Marvel

Have you had enough of all the controversy surrounding the release of Marvel's latest film, Captain Marvel? Well, Cole and I took in a viewing and here we are talking about the film without any of the BS!

I feel a little remiss not saying anything regarding the controversy surrounding the film, so what I'll say is that this is a really fun action, comic book film. If you've been reading Marvel Comics as long as I have, you might even find Captain Marvel to be the most "comic-y" (I'll call Encyclopedia Britannica and have the word added, post-haste) of the MCU films to date.

There's all sorts of anti-feminist vitriol and conspiracy regarding Rotten Tomatoes review scores and the belief that Disney has been pushing this film a little bit extra, because it's bad and they secretly want to trick you into seeing it.

This is an MCU film; they sell on name alone. They make bonkers money, no matter what. The Disney Stonecutters don't need some wild agenda to get you into the theatre to see Captain Marvel. It's a good movie that stands on its own two legs just fine and it is worth your time to see it, especially if you're going to see Avengers: Endgame in a few weeks.

Disney has been brokering deals with theatres for a long time when they are releasing their films. They have the hot movies and they know it, so they can "ask" certain things of theatres that want to screen them, like early "VIP" showings the night before release or a certain proportion of screens dedicated to their films, and get away with it. They did the same thing with Star Wars: The Last Jedi in 2017, which caused a big media buzz, as well. This isn't something special they've cooked up for Captain Marvel out of some crazy feminist conspiracy.

If you're looking for a fun two hours, turn your brain off, log off of social media, and settle into Captain Marvel. Cole and I found it really enjoyable and there's setup there for Avengers: Endgame hitting the silver screen on April 26th!

Make Mine Marvel,

R

VHyesterdayS - Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Here's some more VHS love to spice up your Friday!

As promised, in this edition of VHyesterdayS we'll be chatting about what I'm pretty sure is a 1992 release of Terminator 2 by Carolco and Live Entertainment.

I mention a Subway commercial that appears at the start of the tape, in lieu of any teasers for other films. I said in the video that it was a franchisee commercial, but I just got my thoughts jumbled. It's a regular old Subway ad from the early 90s. I wrote my notes over a month ago, wrote down that the actor looked like a franchisee, got it all mixed up when I was recording, and since this is my second time in the last few weeks re-doing this video, I'm not fixing it!

Welcome to the wonderful world of un-professional, just doing it for the kicks, content creation, folks!

Here's the ad:

As always, I hope you get something out of my obsession with old VHS tapes!

Cheers,
R

EDIT: It appears that Lionsgate feels that my video somehow infringed on their copyright for Terminator 2 and even after disputing with YouTube my video has been disabled. I don't see me having time in the near future to re-record the video to avoid copyright infringement (I played the trailer for the movie in the background without audio, if you're wondering) so for now, unfortunately, this video is dust. If I can upload a revised version in the near future, I'll make sure to update this post and make an announcement on my Twitter feed!

EDIT2: I've moved the video to DailyMotion. Have a watch!

VHyesterdayS - The Terminator

Here we are once again as I dig through my personal treasure trove of VHS tapes and pull out some of the gems.

I can still recall when I first saw Terminator 2: Judgement Day, but I can't really recall my first viewing of The Terminator. I've always felt that T2 was the better movie - and that still stands - but I must say that over the years the original Terminator film has grown on me significantly.

In this episode of VHyesterdayS we examine a late VHS release - the 2000 Alliance Atlantis Canadian copy of The Terminator - and have a brief chat about some of the releases that preceded it.

I hope you enjoy!
R

Memory, Blog - The Sunday Night Ritual

I've found myself turning more inward lately and my obsession with nostalgia has hit an all-time high. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or... no, you know what? I'm not old, you're old! Whatever!

Ahem, excuse me.

Anyway, I find myself more interested with watching films on VHS than on Blu-ray, with playing the Nintendo Entertainment System than the Nintendo Switch, and eating kid's cereals over a nice steak dinner.

Okay, that last one might be a bit extreme... maybe.

I thought it might be fun to start writing about some of this nostalgia as a way of bottling it, so here goes!

In 1993 my favourite TV show aired for the first time on Friday, September 10th. You guessed it, it's The X-Files. I haven't hidden my love for this show, have I? It dominated the air waves on Friday nights for three years, but in 1996 Fox made the bold move to air it on Sundays and man, did it work!

You see, the 9 o'clock timeslot (10PM for me in Atlantic Canada) was previously known for the Sunday Night Movie on other networks, like CBS, ABC, and NBC. This is when many TV stations would fight for a hot "new to TV" film to air, so viewers could wind down their weekend and just veg in front of the TV. The ABC Sunday Night Movie actually aired from 1962 until 1998.

Viewership began to wain, however, and this is when you started to see a lot of big made-for-TV movie events, like NBC's The Beast, which aired in two parts on Sundays in April 1996, or ABC's Storm of the Century, which was broken into three installments starting on Sunday, February 14th, 1999.

NBC promo for Peter Benchley's The Beast from April 28th, 1996 courtesy of Dinosaur Dracula

Fox decided to waste no time in finding a viable alternative to steal your attention during those precious couch potato hours before the school/work week began anew, so they moved their most popular drama into that timeslot, where it lived until its (not so) final episode in 2002.

At the time, even series creator Chris Carter didn't like the move. Fox executives were putting a lot of stock in Carter's next big thing, Millenium, which took the coveted Friday night space from The X-Files, but with a feature film in the works and more and more accolades rolling in, The X-Files was no worse for the wear.

Promo for The X-Files move to Sundays, circa October 1996 (sorry for the suggestive thumbnail)

Now, Fox already had my attention on Sunday nights with The Simpsons. What a great foothold to launch The X-Files new timeslot on? You already had millions of viewers watching the station anyway, so if you slap TVs hottest show after it, you've got people locked for hours.

The only thing that Fox varied was the meat in this delicious TV sandwich. The 8:30 ET slot had a variety of content over the years and there were several delicious fillers, but for one reason or another none of the shows stayed on the menu (I'll stop now with the sandwich puns). There was King of the Hill, Futurama, and even Family Guy, all of which used this slot as a launching pad before moving to another day and time, but the show that finally stuck was the unlikely Malcolm in the Middle, which I believe (and don't quote me on this) stayed on Sunday nights even after the glory years were well and done with, in 2006.

Sunday nights were a very bittersweet time. It sounds crazy, because I didn't dislike school or anything like that. In fact I liked it for the most part. I just looked forward to and enjoyed my weekend so much, that I started lamenting their end starting on Saturday night, while I typically watched whatever late night movie aired on TV (which we'll talk about in the future, I'm sure). By the time Sunday night came,  I was in full despair!

In our house Sundays were for family. My folks and I would pilgrimage to both of my parents' sides to see relatives for dinner; one in the afternoon and the other in the evening. I didn't see much of my friends and there wasn't any time to play my video games, but it was always good to eat great food and see my cousins.

When the evening came, it was "me time" and I took full advantage of it.

I would rustle up a snack - provided I was still hungry after all the food we had that day - and cozy into my bed with all the lights off, save for the glow of the fuzzy old TV screen, complete with tin-foil encrusted rabbit ears to catch the over-the-air signal.

And there I'd stay until 11 o'clock. The opening acts of The Simpsons and whatever second comedy show that followed it were a nice way to relax before the creepfest of The X-Files hit the screen, but also not the best way to close out and get a good night's rest!

This time period was The Simpsons apex for me. The show was coming off the highs of the Conan O'Brien years (1991 to 1993), which is when I was cemented as a fan. Around 1998, however, my interest started to slip. I did continue to watch until 2002, but if I missed it for whatever reason, it wasn't the end of the world. For as many times as I've watched The X-Files, I've never really gone out of my way to revisit The Simpsons chronologically from this era (I have caught lots of classic episodes in syndication). If only that Simpsons World service would launch here in Canada!

I kept my little Sunday night tradition up starting in junior high right until my first year of university, which is crazy to think of looking back now. I remember I wasn't as into it after I left high school. The X-Files without Mulder and Scully didn't interest me as much and (as I mentioned) I wasn't getting the same laughs from The Simpsons anymore, but I can still recall how I felt watching the finale to The X-Files to this day. It was a somber moment - an end of an era - and I knew it.

I still reminisce about those Sunday nights (clearly). In my hectic lifestyle these days I almost never get a quiet relaxing two hours to myself and I have no real "rituals" that I can always bank on each week. And that's fine! I love my time with my wife and kids and things may be nuts right now, but I know I'll be looking back on these very days in 10 years wishing I could have them back, as well. Possibly I'll be reminiscing while I'm kicking back and watching some primetime television on a Sunday night... you know, if that sort of thing even exists anymore.

Hope you enjoyed,
R

Super Mario Odyssey (2017) - Nintendo Switch

So, where to begin? First off, it's difficult to even write something like this, because the Super Mario series - as a whole - has transcended the concept of review, in a way. I mean, when was the last time you played a bad Super Mario game? Hotel Mario and Mario is Missing aside. Really, all we can do here is talk about how good Super Mario Odyssey is, but I do have some weird feelings about the game, so hopefully there's something of interest here.

To begin, let's talk about how long I've waited for a game like Super Mario Odyssey. Back in 1996, Nintendo published Super Mario 64 on their then flagship system, the Nintendo 64. It was a wild departure from the constant of the series, featuring 3D platforming and navigated with Nintendo's all-new (crazy) controller. Instead of the usual "run to the end of the stage" gameplay everyone had grown to love, the player was given an open world and told to play however they wanted to find secret hidden stars in each of the varying stages found within Peach's Castle.

A new beginning for Mario - Only For Nintendo 64!

This new open gameplay was very refreshing for me and Super Mario 64 stands as one of my favourite Mario games of all time. Nintendo followed the success of Super Mario 64 with Super Mario Sunshine on the Gamecube, which was met with mixed reviews. It continued the newly minted open Mario playstyle, but featured the gimmicky F.L.U.D.D. pack, which resulted in some seriously buggy 3D platforming.

After Sunshine, there were the Super Mario Galaxy games on the Wii, which although they feature the same play of Super Mario 64 - or at least the DNA is there - there is a lot of linearity and the fun of exploration isn't present. This was the same with Super Mario 3D Land on the 3DS and Super Mario 3D World on the Wii U. Both are great games, don't get me wrong, and the 3D platforming is on point. It's that exploration and open world experience that's missing here, as these games go back to the "run to the end of the stage" gameplay I mentioned before.

Super Mario 3D Land is one of my favourite 3DS games

So finally after all this time - 21 years to be exact - Nintendo has finally made a Super Mario title with that open world exploration I loved about Super Mario 64 in Super Mario Odyssey. As it has been 20+ years, everything about this game is bigger and better than any Super Mario title before it.

Just look-a how-a happy he is when you-a save-a your game!

The game features an entire world, loaded with completely new lands for Mario to explore, chock-full of all new baddies and power-ups that the player has never experienced.

For power-ups, much like in Super Mario 64, it's all about Mario's hat. In this game, the hat is actually a being from another world on a quest to find his friend, kidnapped by Bowser. The Princess has once again been kidnapped, as well, so Mario and Cappy - the aforementioned hat - set out to stop the villainous King Koopa once again.

This time around, however, there's almost no limit to the power-ups Mario can acquire, as Cappy can turn Mario into anything the plumber throws him at. Want to be a Goomba? Throw your hat at one! A giant T. Rex? No problem! A zipper? Kinda weird, but sure thing!

Mario and Cappy have a long way to travel to find and defeat Bowser this time around, so they need a ride, which comes in the form of an old, battered airship, The Odyssey. With this they can land in each and every world Bowser ransacks in his ultimate goal of marrying Princess Peach and becoming the King of the Mushroom Kingdom!

Mario as a Fire Bro!

As I said, each stage is all-new. They may feature some tried-and-true gameplay, but there are totally fresh enemies intermixed with some of your favourites, like the Hammer Bros. or Bullet Bill. The variety here is astounding. When you think about how much work the programmers had to put into the game, considering Mario can become pretty much any enemy he sees, it blows your mind.

And for all that's new, there's so much fan-favouring and nostalgia here. Occasionally you'll find these fun little challenges where you actually go into an HD 2D form of the original Super Mario Bros. They are all-too brief, however. Every time I discovered a 2D section I found myself wishing they'd make a whole new Super Mario Bros.-style HD game. It was so much fun.

In a way, Super Mario Odyssey is the penultimate Mario game. It's a love letter to fans of the series, while still delivering something fresh and wonderful.

I did have some issues with the game, however. To be honest, I'm completely torn. I want to love Odyssey. I really do. And some of the time I spent with it was borderline whimsical. My major problem with the game is a hang-up of my own, really, which is why I made sure to make this counterpoint very carefully.

This game is a collect-a-thon. Much more than any Mario game before. In Super Mario 64, each new world would feature seven Power Stars. The player didn't need to collect them all, just as many as they needed to continue through the game. Only 70 of the stars were needed to face Bowser, but 120 were available to collect in total. Some of these required you to collect 8 red coins in each stage, or 100 regular coins. So, Super Mario 64 definitely had a collect-a-thon aspect to it.

In Super Mario Odyssey, this has been turned up to 11.

To power the Odyssey on their adventure, Mario and Cappy need to collect more and more Power Moons from each new world. You only need so many to power the Odyssey and move on, but in some of the stages you can have up to 70 or 80+ moons to collect and there are a whopping 999 in total. Now, the collect-a-thon hound might see this as a great thing. There's so much game here!

For the crazy completionist, like myself, this was painful and daunting. I usually would force myself to complete all the available moons in a level before moving on to the next, but it was taking forever and I found myself sick of playing the same stage for so long trying to find them all. I literally don't think I could play the Wooded Kingdom if I tried right now.

Hmm, what's this?

Cool, a puzzle for another hidden Power Moon!

I eventually had to overcome my own hangups and just play through the game organically. Sometimes I'd try and collect lots and lots of Power Moons, while other times I'd just get enough to move on. This made the overall experience more enjoyable, but also simultaneously annoyed me.

In Super Mario 64, you were given a general hint to find the next star and you would have to route it out. It made for plenty of exploration, but not too much. In Super Mario Odyssey, some of the Power Moons are right in front of your face and easy to find, but some are hidden diabolically. Couple that with the sheer number and you can find yourself, like myself, completely bored and tired with a level.

Now, with that negativity aside, I still came out enjoying Super Mario Odyssey. Once I decided to just move through the game and worry about the collecting later I had a blast.

The whole experience was amplified by the fact that I played through the game with my son. He was three at the time and this was his first real Super Mario experience. I've played some of the older titles with him, but he kind of lost interest. This game, however, was such a grand adventure he was completely riveted. I actually played the majority of the game with one Joy-Con, because he wanted to hold the other and "play along". It was a bit of a handicap, but completely worth it.

The ending of the game might be one of my favourite gaming moments of all time. I won't spoil what happens, but my son and my wife were both staring in rapt attention, shouting and yelling in excitement as I navigated the final throes of the game. It was legitimately exhilarating and so much fun.

In the end I really enjoyed Super Mario Odyssey, but I wanted to love it. I wanted to feel the way I felt about Super Mario 64 and even though this game has it all on paper, I still find myself enjoying its predecessor more.

I need to spend some more time with Super Mario Odyssey now that the "pressure is off" and I've completed the storyline. There's a whack of end-game content to complete on top of getting all the 999 Power Moons and I know there's a lot of fun there. Altogether I put about 25 hours into the game and I'm certain there's another 45+ waiting for me.

At the end of the day, Super Mario Odyssey is, without a doubt, the most ambitious Mario game to date. It's a true love letter to the fans and a reason, in my opinion, to own a Nintendo Switch. If you're a fan of the series, you owe it to yourself to play it. Just don't be crazy like myself and try to enjoy the experience, instead of grinding your gears worrying about all those Power Moons.

As always, I hope you enjoyed,
R