American Lowrider DVD Review

 

TITLE-American Lowrider aka Perfect Sunday Aka Lean like a Cholo

SOURCE-DVD

Thanks to streaming so many are selling off their DVD/Blu Ray collections. Which means the market is flooded. One of my local sources for used media has a big shelf of dvds/blu rays/cds/vhs. Buck each buy 10 get 1 free. 

I was in this place recently had found 7 dvds I wanted so was looking for 3 more to hit the 10 mark. Saw the above cover and figured what the hell take a chance on what appeared to be a b-level comedy.

Plot is simple our leads are three brothers who live with their parents. Early in the film they get challenged to a low rider bounce off and lose. They dont  have the money to pay off this lost bet,but a local "wise guy" pays it for them and they got a week to repay the wise guy. The film is a remake of "Friday" but this time with an all hispanic cast.

So looking at the cover you would expect Danny Trejo to have a huge role...I knew better. Knew that after he became a name he would appear in low budget films for small parts. Usually be on set for a day and get about 15 minutes of screen  time. I am betting Danny was on set for at most 2 hours,cause his screen time is at most 3 minutes and almost all of that is in one scene early on.

And as you can see up near the top this movie had 3 titles. I started off as Perfect Sunday. Made in 2010 this film sat on the shelf. No distribution. A company that specialized in films aimed at the growing Hispanic market was going to distribute the film but wanted a title change. So for a short bit this film was known as Lean like a Cholo. Still no distribution. But in 2013 RedBox wanted some exclusive titles and so they put it out and that is when it got the American Lowrider title.

Which is an odd title cause after the bounce off in the first 10 minutes low riders aren't part of the film.

How much you enjoy this will depend on how much you like low budget comedy. Yea half the jokes fail. But I still enjoyed this. And it is one I doubt I watch again in the next five years.

American Lowrider gets a solid C.

National Lampoon's Barely Legal

 

TITLE-National Lampoon's Barely Legal AKA After School Special

SOURCE-Sony DVD

National Lampoon,use to be the name that you trusted for funny movies and a great magazine. Then by the mid to late 90s anyone could license the National Lampoon name and put it above the title of their film. Which lead to piles of really shitty films with National Lampoon over the title.

It was 2004 or maybe 2005. I had recently been linked up to a torrent site that was packed with screener dvds. Nice rips of these screeners and usualy in the DIVX codec. Bonus I had 2 dvd players that could play DIVX files. While browsing that site one day after work I saw the title National Lampoon's Barely Legal and grabbed a rip. Burnt it to a cd-r and the plan was watch it my next day off. Somehow that rip on the CD-R got tossed onto a spindle and sat unwatched until 2007. 

Was a shitty time in  my life I needed a laugh and saw National Lampoon and yea I knew the odds were this movie would suck. Still put it in the player and hit play. A bit over 90s minutes later it was over and I had laughed more in that  hour and 1/2 than I had in weeks. Which is why years later when I found the above pictured DVD at a thrift I grabbed it. Having lost that CDR years ago. 

Our leads are 3 guys in high school. They run the AV club and use that to cover their side business. 

Bit of history. I'm almost 50. So when I was in high school it wasn't like now where everyone has access to porn. Nope just having a Playboy gave you status. And thanks to someone I knew that owned a video store,and me owning two VHS vcrs,I had access to porn tapes. And could make copies. Most of my 3 years at high school I was copying these movies and selling them. Cause I thought about it back then guys my age wanted 3 things,beer/pot/porn. And the first two if you got caught with them at school you got in big trouble. But get caught with porn they just took it from you and sent you home for a day. Many days I would show up to the high school with 4  or 5 vhs in the bback pack,labeled as Married with Children reruns,which it was actually stuff like One Night In  Bangkok or Sweat ont here. 

These high school guys,one of whom works at a video store,are making copies of the pornos and selling them. Then the video store guy loses the job. So now they gotta get a supply of porn to sell. 

And they come up with the idea of filming and selling porn. They call their production company and website After School Special and claim it is ran by the nerdy guys you knew in high school.

Of course to make porn they need women. So armed with bad fake IDs our trio go off to the nearest strip club. They find a lady interested iin making  the movies and our wacky hyjinx start.

The cast is odd,a mixture of people you will know then others that have solid careers in b movies. Tom Arnold is the father of the main guy. You got Horatio Sanz as the Ron Jeremy Stand in. Amy Smart as the pretty girl that is interested in our lead guy. 

Speaking of Horatio,he gets mad cause these After School Special guys are making too much money. And we get a crazed Horatio trying to track down and kill our leads.

Now yea this isn't nearly at the level of the comedis National Lampoon was putting out in the 70s and 80s. But it is way way better than shit like RoboDoc or that second Van Wilder movie.

As for the second title. Guessing since National Lampoon is a very US thing.So outside the US and maybe Canada,this movie is known as After School Special.

So if you want a halfway decent comedy,with a plot that by 2003 was becoming a thing of the past,give Barely Legal a watch.

National Lampoon's Barely Legal gets a C+

Blue Beetle Graduation Day TPB

 

TITLE-Blue Beetle Graduation Day

FORMAT-Trade Paperback

Back earlier in 2023 I heard a Blue Beetle movie was coming out. Then heard it wasn't gonna be Ted Kord as Beetle and I figured ok I will just wait till the film hits streaming to watch it. Cause while I have been told the current Blue Beetle(Jaime Reyes) is a unique take on this generational hero I rather not pay 12 bucks for a ticket to a movie with a version of a hero I am not use to.

Then not long before the film came out I was in Walmart,one of the major drawbacks of living outside a small town is there isn't many places to shop. And in the book section I saw the TPB pictured up above. A TPB that reprints the 6 issue long Blue Beetle Graduation Day mini series. And included a HUGE pull out poster. With it only being 15 bucks for the TPB I took a chance. IE I bought it tossed it onto the "To Read one day" pile and forgot about it.

Not many months into 2023 my mother let me know she didn't feel like she should drive anymore. Which means when she has to go see her doctors I now drive her. No biggie. Back in September she had an appointment to see one of her many doctors,nothing major just a check up to make sure her meds were working. Knowing that usually waiting rooms have nothing worth reading and if there is a TV it is tuned into a News channel when I have to drive Mom to an appointment I will load a few podcasts up onto my tablet and bring a comic book hardcover/TPB/OGN with me to read.

This day I over slept. Got up and instead of having an hour or so to get ready I had 20 minutes. Instead of my normal going through my unread pile and narrowing it down to 2 or 3 books I just grabbed the first TPB that caught my eye.

Get her to her appointment 10 minutes early. Sit down put on the newest episode of The Movie Graveyard podcast and started reading my first Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle comic.

In what felt like 10 minutes,turned out to be closer to an hour,Mom was done and I still had 2 issues to read. And as soon as I got home I made lunch and sat down and finished this TPB.

Now sure I knew the basics of Jaime becoming the new BB. And I have always enjoyed how DC has different generations of a hero. Like how there has been what 4 or 5 official Robins so far. As a kid and teen I had read the second Blue Beetle,TeD Kord,in his own series then his time in the Justice League. This 6 issue collection does a good job  of not only explaining Jaime and his family but also showing what makes Jaime different from the two previous Blue Beetles.

Jaime is suppose to be at his high school graduation,nope he is off fighting a super villain. And in this battle which only lasts a few pages the writer,Josh Trujillo, gives a good glimpse into Jaime's personality. For me he reminds me of how Stan Lee wrote Peter Parker for those first 50 issues.

After defeating the villain Reyes heads off to his graduation. Here is a minor complaint I have about this mini series. Jaime Reyes and his family speak Spanish  in this comic. Cool. But we are not given a translation. Yea I took 2 years of Spanish in high school. Like with any skill if you don't use it often you lose your ability in it. And after halfway learning Spanish I didn't use that skill for so long the only Spanish I remember is all lucha libre terms. 

And this is why in an hour I only got 4 issues read. I was having to stop get my phone and use Google Translate to find out what was being said. Normally the average comic from DC or Marvel I can read an issue in 4 to 7 minutes tops. This one was taking me much longer cause of having to pause to translate.

Reyes family hates him being in danger cause of his powers. Which are supplied by a Scarab. And Jamie is sent off to live with family in another town for the summer. Plus Superman meets up with Jaime and after a talk we are given the impression that Jaime is more powerful than he knows.

These 6 issues do what they are suppose to do. Introduce us to this new Blue Beetle. Give us various future story ideas. And if what I have read about the Blue Beetle movie is true these 6 issues were changed a bit and that is what the film is based on.

Adrian Gutierrez hands the pencils and now he is a name I will look out for. The art is a neat mixture of manga style with modern Capeshit style. 

This collection also did what I am assuming they wanted it to do. Give the people that see the Blue Beetle a easy entry into the Blue Beetle comics.  Cause that is an issue with Comic Book Movies. Think about it this way,say you see a few of the X-men films and now want to read the comics. Where do you start with X-men? And having read the X-titles for over a decade straight I can't think of a great starting point. Blue Beetle Graduation Day TPB is that great starting point. 

After finishing this TPB I went and added the next one to my wishlist. Planning on one day ordering it.

Blue Beetle Graduation Day TPB gets a C+. 

SGT Rock vs The Army of the Dead

 

TITLE-DC Horror SGT. Rock VS The Army of the Dead

FORMAT-Hardcover

Over the past 4 years I have re-discovered my love for the War genre of comic books. I have a circuit of thrifts/junkstores/pawn shops/antique malls I hit up a few times a month. At one at the booth where I normally find comics and dvds cheap I saw a huge stack of late 70s/early 80s Charlton War comics. Grabbed an issue with a Vietnam War cover. 

Then as sometimes happens that comic sat unread for over a year. Late one night when I couldn't sleep I did what I have always done if it is late and I can't sleep. I grabbed a stack of unread comics and sat at the bar in my kitchen listening to music and reading. 

After reading that Charton war comic,Battlefield Action, I went and set my clock. I wanted to get up and be back at that Antique Mall as soon as it opened. Knowing that odds are good most of those war comics are still there.

3 hours of sleep and I am off ot Vendors,yes the Antique Mall I wrote about close to 10 years ago. Go straight to the booth and not only is those Charlton War books there but so is a nice stack of DC War titles.  And seeing a cover of Sgt Rock I had a memory flash back on me.

When I was a kid on my mother's side I was the only grandchild for right at 6 years. Usually once a month my parents would drop me off at my Grandparents' home on Friday and I would stay there until Sunday or Monday. And every Sunday after Church Grandpa would drop Grannie off at the house then him and I would walk to a local newstand. Grandpa would grab the local Sunday paper and the New Orleans Sunday paper. Tell me "Grab you some comics." Which I quickly learned grab 3 bucks worth of  comics,and back then that was 4 to 6 comics. And Grandpa would grab either a SSgt Rock or GI Combat comic. If there was none of those he would grab whatever Charlton War comic was available and had a WWII story.

Sure as a kid I knew Grandpa had served in the  navy. But I really had no clue that this World War II I was reading about was the time when Grandpa served.

Once back to the house,while Grannie made us lunch Grandpa would read his comic and newspapers. Then he would have me read him at least a story or two out of whatever comic Grandpa got.

So I am standing in Vendors,head full of memories of my now dead Grandpa. I bought every war comic in the bin. And since I have learned how much fun these comics could be.

In early 2023 I heard about how Bruce "Ash from Evil Dead" Campbell was writing a Sgt Rock mini series for DC. Thought it was odd that an actor mostly known for horror&comedy was writing a war comic. Then saw this mini series would be part of the DC Horror line.

With the mini series being 6 issues and the average comic now priced at almost 5 bucks an issue I decided to wait till this mini came out as a TPB. I love horror and love SGT Rock. But wasn't ready to drop 30 bucks to read a story. Not when I knew the TPB would be 20 bucks.

Skip ahead to a few days after Xmas 2023.Flush with Amazon giftcards,and wanting comics to read I saw that not only was SGt Rock vs the army  of the dead was out in collected form but also Amazon had the hardcover for cheap. Thinking it was 12 bucks shipped. Ordered it along with a pile of other TPBs.

Been after dinner a few nights a week sitting at the bar listening to a podcast or music and reading a tpb/hardcover/OGN out of my huge unread stack. The day Sgt Rock came to the house I was reading it while having dinner.

Under that gorgeous Gary Frank cover to issue 1 this tale starts. Nearing the end of the war Germany is losing. Low on supplies and troops Adolph Hitler has one last hope. One of his scientist thinks he has come up with a way to reanimate the dead.

After some US soldiers encounter these Zombie Nazis the comic gets going. Sgt Rock and Easy Company are stuck with a boring duty. When Rock gets a message telling him they are needed for a top secret mission he is ready.

In this first issue Bruce Campbell shows he is a Sgt Rock fan. This series is made for the older audience. Which means we get an unrestricted war book. And Bruce uses this to give us the SGT Rock that was always hinted at in the old series.

Rock and Easy get outfitted with top of the line weapons and gear. Then are told what they have to do. They gotta go deep behind enemy lines And do whatever it takes to destroy the Nazi Zombies and how they are being created.

Issues 2,3,4&5 are just jam packed with action. Pages full of Easy Company doing what they do best. Killing Nazis! With issue 6 containing what we have all been waiting for. A fight that anyone that has ever read any SGT Rock before has wanted to see. Sgt Rock vs Hitler during the last days of World War II.

The twist is this Adolph Hitler has been injected with the serum that reanimates the dead. Yep Zombie Hitler vs SGT Rock!!

Of course SGT Rock wins. Hitler dies. Skip ahead and Rock is in the hospital recovering. Where we get a hint that we might get another SGT Rock mini series. 

Yea the story is damn good,the art is really good. And let me speak on the art a bit. The main covers,this series had a pile of variant covers,are by Gary Frank. An  artist I have enjoyed since the 90s. The interiors are by Eduardo Risso. Eduardo's art is nice. Has this dark feel to it that works well with the horror story.  My only real complaint about this hardcover is I do wish Gary Frank had did the interior art.

Being a hardcover I was expecting this to have some extras. Which it does. The art above is one of the variant covers. And a pile of variant covers are reprinted after the main story. Another extra and I have noticed DC does this often,is under the dust jacket on the front cover is an Army Sgt's rank patch. Little small things like this make this Hardcover stand out.

If you like horror comics grab this and read it. If you like war comics grab this and read it. 

DC Horror SGT Rock vs The Army of the Dead Hardcover gets a B+