The Jerk 26th Anniversary Edition DVD

 

TITLE-The Jerk
SOURCE-26th Anniversary DVD

Talk about a film I saw often as a kid and then haven't watched in maybe 30 years. Steve Martin is a white man born into a black family in rural Mississippi. He heads out to make his life and just has wacky adventures.

The film is just one hour and almost 30 minutes of Steve Martin going wild on screen. With enough plot to connect the bits. 

For a bit he is working at a gas station. Which is a bit I remember seeing many times on  TV. Or when he joins the traveling carnival. Working as the guy that guesses your weight. He ends up hooking up with the lady daredevil motorcycle driver. Which brings one of the best scenes. Every few weeks Martin will mail some money home and send a letter. You get the famiyl all gathered around as Steve's mother reads this letter. "And I might be able to send more money next week getting a extra job,Shelia mentioned a blow job" And Steve's brother just busts out laughing while the rest of the family is puzzled.

Thanks to a tiny invention he made at the gas station Steve ends up rich. Married to Bernadette Peters and living in a huge manstion. Then he loses it all. But that money he was sending home his Dad invested it well and we end with the entire family back at the shack in rural Mississippi celebrating their new wealth.

The Jerk gets a A-.

Video Games and Me Modern times

 

In early 1997 I sold off most of what I owned. Left  a pile in the house. And moved two states to the west. Once out there and settled came back to see most of my old video game stuff was stolen. Just had a NES that had been stashed in the top of a hall closet.

Then not long before Xmas buddy from the comic shop told me "Look had to get my car fixed pawned my Playstation and the games. Here's the pawn ticket go pay for it and it is yours."

And that is how I ended up with a first model Playstation,3 memory cards and a stack of about 20 games. Thinking the rarest was Diablo. Over the next 2 years I would off and on buy PS1 games. Lots of the Namco collections. And stuff like that great collection of Activision Atari 2600 games. 

It was also the first system since my 2600 my mother would play. Not far from where I worked was a bowling alley. I never gave a shit about bowling but they had a diner. I could go there for lunch eat and smoke 2 cigs. Plus they had 2 pinball machines,always loved pinball. And a NEO GEO Cab. Which had Metal Slug and Bust a move 2. I had gotten Bust a Move 2 for my ps1. Mom was over saw me playing it asked to try it out. And yep not long afterwards she had her own PS1 and Bust a move and a few of the Namco Collections.

Sept 99 Dreamcast comes out. I am on my way to buy one. And tire blows. Well crap my spare tire is not great. Put it on and realize what I am about to spend on the Dreamcast I need for a tire. Was a bit over a year after launch a local game store had a deal. Dreamcast,1 vmu and crazy taxi for 100 bucks. By this time had a buddy that could burn Dreamcast games. And with the system looking like it was dead in the states it wasn't hard to find games cheap.

Between the emulation discs,could do 2600 to 16 bit era pretty well,and the 4 controller ports it became the party machine. Got friends over fire up the Dreamcast and put on some games. 

When Nintendo announced the Gamecube that came with the Zelda collection I got that. Played that and like the 2 X Men Legends games on it. Again it was another that got played if people were over.

Even got a PS2 for cheap. Barely got touched. I just had fallen out of video games. 

Fall of 2007 I moved again. Was bored one day and walked into Gamestop looked and saw like 10 games on the DS I wanted to play. Grabbed them and a used DS and for the next 10 years that is what I played. Still got close to 100 DS games. A good stack of GBA games. 

What changed it for me. Was getting  a Retron 5. Now I got a system that plays 8 bit thru 16 bit. Plus first 3 Gameboys. Yea the stock controllers blow. Was easy to get Genesis and SNES controllers. I got a smallish collection of retro games. Was lucky the area I live in now didn't catch onto retro video games for a few years longer than most. So was able to build a decent collection without dropping big money.

Now pretty much all I keep hooked up is that Retron 5 back in my bedroom. Then the living room....oh I got that tv loaded.

Pandoras Box-Yea finally got one. Found one that was 40 bucks shipped. Got two kind of ok at best PS3 style controllers. When I need to kill some time fire this up and got supposedly 10,000 games to play.

NES Classic-Oddly I played the hell out of this when I first got it. Now it sits. Not sure why.

Genesis Mini-Gets played often. 

Then the big thing. 2021 birthday I got the OG Evercade portable. And started getting the carts I wanted.
The Evercade is a portable and home console series of systems. They take carts. And the carts are full of licensed retro games. For example I love River City Ransom and Super DodgeBall on the NES. Those two cart only will run you 40 or more on the NES. I got Technos VOL 1 on the evercade for 20 bucks and it has those 2 plus 10 more games.

The home console evercade is the VS got that. Love it keep it hooked up the living  room tv. Just a nice little system that not only has the older games but newer games made for older systems. Like the ALIENS meets SMASH TV inspired Xeno Crisis. Then 10 months the year you connect to VS to your home WIFI and get a free game. Yep the next year they collect all 10 games on the Indie Heroes vol ??? carts.

I mentioned Bust a Move in a part of this series. How my mother loved it and got a PS1 just for that. Well she wanted to play it again. Evercade put out a series of OG Gameboy looking handhelds,the Super Pockets. And they come with Taito games built in. So she got her Bust a Move to play.

As each video game generation passes I see less and less I want to play. Guessing this Evercade ecosystem is the last I will be part of.

Video Games and Me My teen years

 

It was 1990 I was flipping through a video game magazine, odds are it was EGM or Gamepro,saw the above and and knew I had to have one. 

Having already had a chance to play the Mega Drive. Short story. Once I hit 12 and was in Jr High one of my new friends had an uncle that had lived in Japan for years. Now lived back in the states but him and his wife would go back to Japan at least once a year to visit her family. So he,named Dean,had a Famicom. We would go over to my buddy's place and play Famicom stuff months before it got released for the NES. One day over there buddy tells me SEGA had a new console and Dean had it. I was tempted after playing the Mega Drive that day to ask Dean to buy me one next trip to Japan..

By 1990 I was working weekends and  school holidays/summer break on my dad's shrimp. Getting paid as a deckhand. So between my weekly allowance, which at the time was enough for me to get 2 CDs each week from Record Bar, and shrimping money I was doing good. But I didn't just want the stock Genesis I want it and a few games. So was looking at having to save up 300 or 400 bucks.

Then I got a good idea I had a huge comic collection. Knew the comic shop owner was a huge Carl Barks fan. I had piles of Bark's Uncle Scrooge comics. Got taken to the comic shop and walked out with 200 bucks. With the 150 I already had it was enough.

Once I got the Genesis that NES was moved and regulated to the tiny B/W tv in my bedroom. For years I had a 2 tv set up in my room. One was a 13 inch B/w tv that was my first tv back there. Once I got a color tv and got the NES I would keep my 2600 hooked up to the B/w tv. Then when I got my Genesis the NES got moved to that b/w tv.  Was times there was 2 of use playing the Genesis then 2 more playing the NES at the same time. All while a CD was playing on my bedroom stereo.

A year later and I had Sonic and my Genesis was played from when I got home until I crashed out. My father was now working in Southeast Texas. Mom would go out at least 1 weekend a month to visit him. I would stay home. Was up late one Friday,Mom is gone,phone rings and it is a buddy. Asking if I could run him into town to visit his pregnant GF. 

Go get him we go visit and on the ride home he asks if I knew the local party house owner. Told him I knew the guy's name but never been there. "Pull into the Exxxon's parking lot." In buddy goes he calls the party house and they are all up. Go over meet everyone and get asked what I was doing that weekend.

This group of people would go thrifting on the weekends. I got invited to go and the next day we found a Atari 2600 with 20 games and controllers. Was 10 bucks.

Buddy that owned the party house mentions he thinks his old Atari is back at his grannies home. So trip home we stop by there grab his system and games. That night we sit there drinking cheap beer and playing Atari 2600. Which made me realize how much I missed those old games. 

The next day I called up the guy I had given all those games too. Offered him 50 bucks for the games. Get told for that much I can have them and his NES with 30 games.

And so started journey into retro video games. Back in this era 2600 systems were 5 to 10 bucks. Carts were quarter to at most 5 bucks. We had no clue what was rare. But had games we thought were. Stuff like Chase the Chuckwagon,which I had 2 copies of. Or the infamous Custer's Revenge. Hell cause out of the now 400+ Atari games in the group collection we only had 1 copy of Pitfall II. Which made us assume it was rare.

Many weekends were spent at yard sales and thrifts. We all had a notebook we kept with a list of the games we had. Plus learned that no matter how much beer you drink you can still play 2600 games.

Yea the Genesis still got played. The NES sat untouched. But the 2600s got so much play.

Wasn't until 98 and a major move that I got back into modern games. 

Video Games and Me The Early Years

 

I was born at the perfect time to experience that late 70s thru early 80s video game boom. Got vivid memories of being a kid of maybe 4. Standing on a chair so I could play Space Invaders. My older cousin standing there pumping quarters into the machine. 

And I was hooked. Every place had  a few video game machines. Grocery stores,corner stores,gas stations and I would ask for quarters. Go out to have pizza at Godfather's Pizza for dinner, that means I get a chance to play Tempest and Centipede. Dad wants to goto a nearby lounge to shoot pool, I want to go cause the place has Dig Dug and Zaxxon.

Then not long before I turned 5 and started Kindergarten two older cousins each got an Atari 2600. So visits to see them meant I got to play video games at home and didn't need quarters. I wanted a 2600 bad. Factoring in inflation that 2600 would be 250 or so in modern money. Which was way more than my parents would spend on me for Xmas or my birthday. Then thanks to the already mentioned Godfather's Pizza I found me a way to get one.

Godfathers had a contest. Was a picture of the mascot in the newspaper. Cut it out color it and there was 3 prizes. 1st place was trip for 4 to Disney World,which I had been too already. 2nd place was a Atari 2600 system. 3rd place I don't remember. I colored that picture. Got mom to drop it off. Then weeks later we get the call I have won second place. 

The ride to town and then back home felt like it was 5 hours long, when it was at most 30 minutes round trip. Get home dad hooks it up and we start playing Combat. Which was the only game I had. It is 2 player only. It was Friday when I won it. That night after I goto bed it starts raining. Lots of the county floods. School gets canceled for 3 days. So I am stuck at home with a new Atari. Only got a 2 player game and Mom don't play it. That Monday after dad got home from work   Mom went "grocery shopping" and said I couldn't come. Which was odd. Normally I would go with her and read comics while waiting. She gets home hours later and has me a new game Pac Man. Yep it is hated  now but I played the living fuck out of it back then.

From then and IIRC this was September 1980 until summer of 84 I would get like 2 or 3 games for Xmas and 2 for my birthday. Would trade games with my cousins and friends that lived nearby. And I had a decent collection built up. Even had the track ball controller. 

Then the crash of 84 hit. Now I had no clue what happened. Just that it went from being 25 to 40 for an Atari game to games being 10 bucks or less. Now I could buy them myself. Xmas and Birthdays went from gettiing 3 games at each to getting 20 games. By 86 my 2600 collection was over 100 games. Mom carried a list of what I had in her purse and at places like TG&Y and Woolco finding games for a buck.

1986 we get back from Xmas break. Buddy telling us he got a new video game system. The NES, with a pile of games. Seems his dad had to order it from some store up north.

Now those games looked ,to us back then,just like the arcade versions. No more "Oh this is so close to the arcade." Nope we had legit arcade games in the home. So again begged parents for a NES. Got told nope already got the 2600 and piles of games.

Too young to get a job. My allowance  ain't much. But I had a huge Hot Wheels,Star Wars figure and comic book collection. And all those Hot Wheels got sold. Buck for each car. There was 50 or so bucks. Sold the Star Wars figures for 2 bucks each,they had all their guns. Now I got right at 90 bucks. NES I want is 130. My birthday is soon. Will get cash so I will have that NES soon.

Day of my birthday I am opening gifts. Keeping a total in my head of how much cash I got. Between aunts and grandparents got right at 170 total now in cash. Sweet can get a NES and maybe a game too.
Then mom brings out a huge package. I open it and there is the NES. 

So next day I head to the nearest KB toys and got as many games as 170 bucks could get me.

The rest of that summer break was spent playing my huge stack of games. Being not only one of the few kids in the neighborhood with a NES but also having close to 15 games meant by 10am there was always a few kids over playing the NES.

Just like with the 2600 I would get a few games for my birthday and Xmas. Usually 2 at each. But by now I was working part time on my father's shrimp boat. So I had money. Maybe a year after this the 2600 stopped working. Knowing what I know now I am betting it was a faulty power supply, a super easy fix. But back then I just assumed I needed a new system. And yea the 2600 jr was 50 bucks. Still 50 bucks was 1 or 2 NES games. The 2600 got boxed up and put in the closet. That huge box of over 200 now 2600 games was given to the lil brother of a girl I was dating.

1990 is when it all changed. New system, rediscovered the 2600 and learned the joys of retro games.

Daredevil vs Spider-Man DVD

 

TITLE-Daredevil vs Spider-Man 

Source-Buena Vista Home Entertainment DVD

Wow over 20 years ago this came out. Guessing to promote the live action Daredevil movie. You get 3 episodes of the 90s Fox Kids SPiderman the animated series. Starting off with one where Peter Parker gets Matt Murdock as his lawyer. Fun stuff and makes me wish there was a legit release of this series.

Then a classic 68 Spiderman episode with THE KINGPIN. Now this is a series I haven't got the connection to that so much of my generation does. I lived in an area where it wasn't rerun for years. I knew of the series but never saw it until I got a vhs with a few episodes in a trade in mid 90s. Cheesy and cheap but worth  seeing.

And the last full length extra A Fantastic Four episode with Kingpin. This is not good. Really the only Fantastic Four cartoon worth seeing is the one made in the 2000s after the live action films.

I do like now having a physical copy of at least a few of the Spiderman the animated series show. Just makes me wish when Disney XD was rerunning it often I had recorded them to dvd-rs.

One odd thing I want to point out is the early 90s Computer graphics used for the web swinging scenes in the 90s show makes those parts look very dated. Where as using traditional animation for those scenes in the 68 show doesn't make it look old. Even with that show being close to 30 years old when the 90s show started.

Daredevil vs Spiderman is decent. Glad I didn't pay the 15 to 20 bucks this had to cost when  it first came out. Got this recently at a junkstore for either 50 cents or a buck.

Daredevil vs Spiderman gets a C+.

Juni Ba's Monkey Meat Issue 3

 

TITLE-Juni Ba's Monkey Meat #3

PUBLISHER-Image 

Not that long ago I got 200 random indie comix. So one evening while dinner was cooking, I will make a pizza once a week for dinner, I sat down and just grabbed a handful of these random comix and started reading them.

This issue starts off with what appears to be two bums sitting up against a wall. Telling stories of the past. About a delivery boy. With a very important package. Seems this boy was stolen as a baby by the Fae. Then once he was a teen released back into the real world. He became the best delivery person in the world. 

So he was tasked with delivering a very very important package. Just one thing 

A TROLL UNDER A BRIDGE!!!!

Yep this tall tale told by drunken bums is a retelling of a classic fairy tale. 

The Troll is strong and tough. The Delivery Boy has a secret weapon. A potion that allows him to keep on living after dying. A potion that caused a zombie outbreak. Still this package must be delivered.

Then the ending> SPOILERS<

The package was another young child that was stolen by the Fae and out Delivery Boy brings her home to her parents.

And this tall tale telling ends with the parents and that child visiting the bums and giving them beer.

This was wild. Feels like there is a very hidden story under all this. One I would catch more of if I had read the first 2 issues. 

Juni Ba's Monkey Meat Issue 3 gets  B.

Joysticks DVD

 

TITLE-Joysticks

SOURCE-MVD DVD

I was the perfect age when the late 70s/early 80s video game boom happened. Just old enough to play and enjoy all the arcade classics. But still young enough that I had to ask for quarters.

Had to be early 2004 when I learned about Joysticks, a T&A comedy from the early 80s. Set at an arcade it is your normal old white dude wants to shut down "INSERT POPULAR TEEN HANGOUT". And the teens team up to stop him.

The cast is pretty much b level stars. Joe Don Baker is the lead villain. Got Jon Gries,from Napoleon Dynamite,as Vidiot. A video game addicted new wave looking dude. Corinne Boher as the love interest and daughter of Joe Don, yall might remember her from Revenge of the Nerds IV or High Spirit(TV SHOW). The from Newhart you got Daryl as one of Joe Don's henchmen.

Nerdy dude gets hired on at the arcade. Learns the manager won't play video games cause of an incident in his past. Joe Don wants the arcade shut down. And his valley girl daughter Corinne is dating the manager. Jon Gries as Vidiot has a gaggle of women that follow him around and act like the ghosts from Pac Man.

You watch this movie for 2 reasons. One is to see al the classic arcade machines. And it isn't just the well known stuff,there is a great scene with Satan's Hollow which has OVERSIZED Joysticks. The other reason is of course the nudity. And the film is packed with bare boobs.

No real extras on this release. It is a film I doubted would get past VHS.

If you have already seen and loved all those early 80s T&A comedies like Porkys and Revenge of the Nerds track down Joysticks.

Joysticks gets a B.

The Crippled Masters Film Masters Blu Ray

 

TITLE-The Crippled Masters

SOURCE-Film Masters Blu ray

2010 or 2011 I first saw this insane late 70s martial arts film. My trust dvd player that  could also play DIVX/XVID files had died. I made a trip to the nearest Best Buy, over an hour away. Had 300 bucks. Dropped 150 on another player then the rest was spent on DVDs. Got a Grindhouse Experience set from Video Asia. And since buying that set that was all VHS rips put on DVD I have bought 2 of the films again on Blu Ray. 

Now yea I know Crippled Masters is easy to find cheap on DVD or streaming. And seeing that VHS rip that is easy to find is enough to catch your attention. How many martial arts films have your two heroes being one dude with no arms and the other dude has no legs? I just loved this movie so much I wanted a good copy. And this Blu ray from Film Masters is a great copy.

Film Masters is basically the new Film Detective. In that they take Public Domain films or stuff that has never really gotten a release and put it out. Load the disc up with extras and if you are a fan of stuff like Frankenstein's Daughter or Redneck Miller these two companies are your best bet.

Fully remastered from 35mm archival elements the front cover proclaims. And this looks better than I have ever seen this movie look. 

Look at those extras. Got a info filled commentary, with some digs at the owner of Video Search of Miami. A fun documentary on the history of Martial arts films in the US. The original 1982 US trailer and a newer re cut one. Almost 20 minutes worth of classic Martial Arts trailers from Something Weird. Then you see a booklet mentioned.

16 pages of info about the film. Love when companies do this now. Use to be every dvd had a card listing the chapters. Now we get nothing from the big studios. Which is why I try to pick up smaller label releases like this one.

So what about the film? Simple we got one dude with no arms and his brother who gets acid poured on his legs. But they get trained and can put the no leg brother on the other brother's shoulders and we got a supreme fighting machine.

You don't go into older martial arts films like this for the plot. You watch them for the fights. And these fights are great. I for years just assumed this was made by one of the big studios that made martial art films. Nope this was made by some small company in Taiwan.

If like me you grew up with Kung Fu theater airing right after cartoons on Saturdays and miss those days this is worth grabbing.

The Crippled Masters Blu Ray from Film Masters gets a B+

The Amazing Mr No Legs

TITLE-The Amazing Mr No Legs

SOURCE-Massacre Video Blu ray

This is one I thought would never escape VHS hell. Back in the mid 70s you would have all kinds of films hitting theaters. After finding a martial arts expert with no Legs a script was written and we got this classic.

Mr NO Legs is a film I would have rented if any of the video stores had had a copy. I never saw it mentioned in genre mags or books. Wasn't until 2004 or 2005 on the late Tracker 3 I found a VHS rip. Grabbed it and that beat up vhs rip got watched so many times. 

Mr No Legs is a mob enforcer. He not only has a wheelchair packed with weapons, throwing stars on the spokes and shotguns,he is a KUNG FU MASTER.

Ya this is a gimmick movie. The scenes with Mr No Legs fighting are great and why this film is remembered. The rest of the film is slow and forgettable.  With the car chase at the end being one of the few none no leg kung fu fight scenes that sticks in my memory

Now this film ain't from some big studio. So Massacre had to use a French Print,that was slightly edited. So for a few scenes they had to use a lesser master. And the print quality drops for those scenes. Still this looks and sounds so much better than the VHS rip we all have seen over these years.

No real extras on here. We got the trailer,then some other trailers for other films. Just never thought this film would hit DVD much less Blu ray.

The Amazing Mr No Legs gets a C-.

Cheech & Chong's Hey Watch This DVD

 

TITLE-Cheech & Chong's Hey Watch This

SOURCE-Vivandi DVD

So almost 20 years ago now the classic stoner comedy duo reunited and put out a new film. Now  this isn't like their old films. Nope this is them on a stage in Texas doing a mixture of their old bits and some new stuff.

Growing up I got introduced to Cheech & Chong cause of my older cousins. Yep I was the 8 year old renting Up in Smoke from the video store. 

When I hit my mid teens I started hearing their old records. Which means all the bits on this from those I knew. Thankfully they update them some. 

We get the classic hitchhiker bit. Which they did in Up in Smoke. The bit with Tommy and Cheech as dogs,with Tommy's wife playing Fifi the poodle.

Loved the solo stuff from both in this. Chong does a long bit about getting arrested and going to jail for selling bongs. 

Cheech shows his musical chops two times. First as Alice Bowie,doing  Earache my Eye. Then as Red doing a new song.

Yea if you aren't a fan of them already this won't make you one  I bet. Still if you are a fan this is worth seeing.

Cheech & Chong's Hey Watch This gets a B.