December is Documentary month at Double T's Blog of Reviews

First off thanks to everyone how came and read some of my reviews back in October. That was the biggest month for this blog so far. So I was thinking about doing some other theme months. I could do the norm and review nothing but X-mas movies in December. But two things. 1 everyone will be doing that and 2 there isn't many X-mas movies I really like. So instead I will be focusing on documentaries. Now I don't know if I will be watching a documentary everyday. But I will do my best to get at least 20 or so watched this month. Hope yall enjoy.

Pick what I watch next

Got a handfull of stuff I have never seen from archive.org. So I figured let the 3 people reading this pick what I will watch next.

Slashed dreams AKA Sunburst-1975-Robert Englund

http://www.archive.org/details/SlashedDreams_658

The rats are coming! the werewolves are here!-1972-Andy Milligan

http://www.archive.org/details/TheRatsAreComingTheWerewolvesAreHere

The werewolf of washington-1973-Dean Stockwell


http://www.archive.org/details/WerewolfOfWashington

Devil times Five-1974-Leif Garrett

http://www.archive.org/details/DevilTimesFive_977

Scream Bloody Murder-1973-Slasher

http://www.archive.org/details/ScreamBloodyMurder

The Galaxy Invader-1985-Don Dohler

http://www.archive.org/details/GalaxyInvaderMPEG2

The Astral Factor AKA Invisible Strangler-1976-slasher

http://www.archive.org/details/astralfactorrr

The Vault of horror-1973-comic book

http://www.archive.org/details/CountSchlockulasShockShowVolume12

Drive In massacre-1976-slasher

http://www.archive.org/details/ShockerInternetDriveIn-Week12MassacreDoubleFeature

Land of the Lost Season 01

I was a little too young to see or enjoy this show during it's original run on NBC Saturday morning. But by the early 80's it was syndicated. Airing every Sunday morning on this great independent UHF channel. I would make it a point to get up at 5am just so I could watch it. Well then it stopped airing and I never got to learn if Marshall,Will and Holly ever escaped from the Land of the Lost. Sure CBS reran it for a short while in 1985,where it replaced the short lives but brilliant Pryor's Place. But it seemed like they only showed the first season that time. Well I had almost completely forgotten about the show,till the Sci Fi Channel did a marathon. I recorded about 4 hours of the marathon and had a blast watching the show for the first time in over 20 years. So when earlier this month I found the Universal first season release at a local Fred's store for $5 I couldn't pass it up.

During the opening credits we find out how our lead trio enter the Land of the Lost. And we get a super catchy theme song that will stick in your head for days. After 5 episodes introducing us to the land and some of it's perils,we get a great episode that helps add to the mythology of the show. We are introduced to Enik who is a non-savage version of the show's lead villains the Sleestaks. We learn that the various glowing crystals we have been seeing around the place have many different uses. One of which is opening portals to various dimensions and time frames. This is built on even more in episode 15. Holly meets an older woman that helps her save Marshall and Will. But it isn't until the end that we find out that the older lady is actually Holly from the future. Stuff like this wasn't very common on mid 70's Saturday morning TV shows. Then there is the final episode of season 1. Titled "Circle" it is a well done show,that easily could be the finale of the entire series. But we ended up getting two more seasons. I know I have seen most of season 2,but don't think I have seen more than 2 or 3 episodes of the last season.

This DVD set is bare bones. We get all 17 episodes,but no extras at all. But still the picture and sound look better than I have ever seen them. Land of the Lost Season 01 gets  B-.

Hey Vern It's Ernest the Complete series

By 1988 Jim Varney had done "Ernest goes to camp" some DTV stuff and a shit pile of commercials. So he was given his own live action Saturday Morning kid's TV show. I remember seeing a few episodes and really enjoying it. But by the time "Hey Vern It's Ernest" hit the airwaves I was more interested in sleeping in on Saturday than watching a TV show. But a few weeks back I saw that the entire first,and only,season had been released to DVD. Plus it was priced at $5. And now over the past few weeks I have watched all 13 episodes.

Hey Vern It's Ernest the  complete series
1988
Mill Creek Entertainment DVD set

We start off with a great cover that is very much in the spirit of the show's opening credits. The set has 2 DVDs. Each has around 2 1/2 hours of this somewhat forgotten classic kid's show. I would have liked if they included subtitles or closed captions. But that is a very very minor complaint that isn't  a big deal since the set has such a low price.

Each episode has a main focus,IE Outer Space,Scary Things,Movies,etc. And in most episodes Jim Varney plays at least 4 other non-Ernest characters. Plus we get some other people that were all in the first few Ernest films.

What really surprised me is how the show has held up. I was in my mid teens when it first aired and I did find it funny,but not nearly as funny as I find it now. And I am mid 30's now. I would love to find out why this only lasted one season.Also why that season is only 13 episodes. I thought that most Saturday morning shows of the late 80's did at least 17 episodes per season.

The picture and sound are great. Before this release all you could find was some old VHS releases that didn't look near as good as these DVDs. I am pretty sure that not all the episodes got a VHS release. Hey Vern It's Ernest gets  a B.

Spokanarchy!

Spokanarchy!
2011
Carnage & Rouge DVD

I have always enjoyed documentaries about music scenes. So when I received this DVD and it's soundtrack I was excited to watch it. Spokanarchy! is about the 80s era Spokane Washington punk rock scene. Before seeing this film I had seen the documentary "Hype" which was about the Seattle 90s era music scene. And I had no idea that during the 80s that eastern Washington had such a thriving and great punk rock scene.

We get interviews with at least 15 different bands. And through them we are told the history of the punk scene in that era. It seems that Spokane was a forgotten city. No big concerts came to the city. So the kids started up their own clubs to play music at. One of the places that most of the bands played was an old auto body shop called Moes. But sadly the place ended up getting closed down by some conservative forces.

Through out the film,we get to see all kinds of live footage. Which captures the raw emotion and power of the music. Two bands that stood out to me are Sweet Madness and Terror Couple. Sweet Madness has a very pop sound,but without the cleaned up sound that most pop bands have. And Terror Couple has a more standard 80's era punk rock sound. From the various interviews we learn that Sweet Madness is the band that really started the whole scene in Spokane. And I can see why,they have a infectious energy that makes me want to sing along.

But the documentary isn't all happiness. We get to see how heroin infected the scene and almost killed it. We get a chilling scene where one guy is shown shooting up. And you get to see the scars and track marks all over his body. Now I have always had a major fear of needles,and seeing him shoot up into his scared up and damaged foot freaked me out.

The DVD also has a great slide show that has plenty of zines and flyers from that era. It was lots of fun to see these. I have always had a love for DIY zines and flyers and these didn't disappoint. There is also a trailer,a short film plus the Spokane reunion that took place a few years ago.

This documentary easily is in my top 10 music based documentaries of all time. It is a great time capsule of a music scene that I doubt most people outside that area knew much about. After watching it,I ran to my computer ripped the soundtrack and put it on my MP3 player. The soundtrack has 16 tracks from 13 bands. The standout tracks are. Sweet Madness-I need Electricity,Terror Couple-This is Spokane,Fuck LA,S&M-Overdose OK,TFL-Sharon Tate and Sweet Madness Concrete River. The rest of the songs on the soundtrack are OK. But the above mentioned ones are what caught my attention.

So to sum it all up,If you are a fan of documentaries,punk rock music or just music in general this is a DVD you need to see. Spokanarchy! gets a A-.

Deathmate Black

Deathmate Black

This was the other Deathmate book done by the Image crew. And it seems that Jim Lee and Mark Silvestri's studios did most of the work. Set in what seems to be a few years in the future. This shows a world that reminds me of the world from Battle Angel Alita. You get a team made up of members of Cyberforce,Wildcats,X-O Manowar and Turok. And what made this book stand out for years,you get the first apperence of most of the Gen 13 teens. While this has great artwork and a pretty interesting story,it has almost no ties to the other 7 Deathmate books. But this is still my favorite of all teh Deathmate books and the only one I have read more than 4 times. I liked how they updated Turok and the various changes done to the other Valiant heroes appearing. I know for some time after this came out it was the only of the Deathmate books that you had to pay over cover price to get. Mainly based on how hot Gen 13 was for a time. But now it is found in the cheap bins along with the rest of this series. If you feel the need to read Deathmate and don't know where to start pick this up. There is really no need to read the rest of the series to understand what is going on. Deathmate Black gets a B+.