Euro Western Double Feature Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe/Any Gun Can Play DVD

TITLE-Euro Western Double Feature The Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe/Any Gun Can Play

SOURCE-Alpha Video DVD

As a kid I hated westerns. Mostly cause we had one Color TV in the house,yea I'm that old. And many times I would be watching  something and Dad would walk in and turn the channel to usually some shitty John Wayne movie or Gunsmoke.

Over the past 20 years I have started dipping my toes into westerns. Finding ones I enjoy. And it was thanks to LCOTL over at Sleaze Fiend Magazine that I discovered this channel on YT packed with westerns. 

Late one night couldn't sleep so wanted something brainless to watch. Saw on that YT channel was a martial arts/western combo. The Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe was it's title. And I watched it and loved it. Amazing widescreen print and good sound. 

Once the  film was over rushed to Amazon ordered  a pack of 8 westerns,with one of them being Shanghai Joe and his Fighting Fists. 

Got that set and the print on there is a VHS rip. Looks like ass sounds like ass. Made a note to get a better copy one day.

That day was a few months ago. Once  a week I do a circuit of the thrifts,junkstores and pawn shops locally. Buying up stuff. Found sealed at the church thrift the above pictured DVD.

The print is better than my old one. Sound is better but still not as good as what is on YT.

Shanghai Joe is a Chinese worker. He wants to find work. Ending up working for a ranch. Coming into a conflict with a gang that is enslaving latinos they get from across the border.

Basic kung Fu plot mixed with standard Western plot. The fights are what elevates this. The big bad hires a pile of assassins to kill Shanghai Joe. One of whom is the madman Klaus Kinski. 

Now Any Gun can Play is odd. I had never heard of it and before the first reel was over I realized this was a satire of the popular westerns of it's era. A decently done satire. With Edd Kookie Byrnes as a greaser looking cowboy. Yes Edd Kookie Byrnes,best known to anyone under 50 as the washed up Celebrity Peg and Al met on Married with Children,the same episode with Anthrax appearing.

Any Gun Can Play is a widescreen print. With some damage but nothing major. The sound is fairly decent.

Only  extras on this disc is a pile of trailers. For the 50 cents or buck I paid for this I was happy with 2 films.

Now time to continue the search for a good copy of Shanghai Joe on DVD or Blu Ray.

The Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe gets a B. Any Gun Can Play gets a C+
 

Teen Titans Go Vol 1 Party,Party TPB

 

TITLE-Teen Titans Go VOL Party,Party
SOURCE-DC TPB

Yea I know the cartoon is hated. I saw it here and there and it was ok at best. This tpb supposedly reprints the first 6 isssues of the Teen Titans Go comics series.

You get a pile of 4 to 8 page stories. Imagine the old Archie digests but the stories got a slight superhero bend to them. And you will get cameos from people like Red Bee and Darkseid.

The art ? It looks like the cartoon so it works. The stories? They aren't bad. Lots of pop culture references. Like the story about the team going on a America's Got Talent like show,and facing the Brotherhood of Evil.

Or the really well done Slumber Party story. Starfire,Raven,Jynx and Bumblebee are having a slumber party. The guys all get sent out. And wacky hijynx happen.

Never would have bought this for cover price. 13 bucks when you factor in sales tax. The buck or so I paid is about what it was worth to me.

Cause these short stories made perfect reading material for when eating or when on the throne.

Teen Titans Go Vol 1 Party,Party gets a C+

The New Adventures of Batman The Complete Collection Blu Ray

TITLE-The New Adventures of Batman Complete Collection

SOURCE-Warner Brothers Blu Ray

I would have loved to been a kid in the past 20 years. When you got a new comic movie or tv show almost every month. Back in the mid to late 70s I was lucky if every 5 years we got a new cartoon. Which is why when this Batman cartoon debuted in the late 70s I was there every Saturday to see it. Loving Bat Mite and wondering why Bat Mite wasn't appearing in Superfriends on ABC.

Then the show stopped airing and I just forgot about it. Sometime in the late 80s had just got in my new CBG issue,Comic Buyers Guide,and in the classifieds saw someone selling COLLECTOR copies of this series on VHS. Not wanting to take a chance I passed.

Then I found this blu ray set cheap. And found the show is mixed bag to me know. It has the goofy plots of the Batman 66 tv show,which makes sense with Adam West and Burt Ward voicing Batman and Robin in this. 

Thinking this has to be the first Batgirl in animation. She is decent  in here. And very much like her Batman 66 portrayal.

With only 16 episodes they didnt go through that much of Batman's rogues gallery. You get Joker of course,and Penguin. Mr Freeze,who is one that became bigger thanks to BTAS. And a odd costume for Catwoman that I only remember seeing on this show.

As  a kid seeing this once a week and not having much else that was comic book related ot watch I loved it. Now seeing all 16 episodes over a weekend and it's flaws are very much there in your face often.

The prints used look and sound good. Only extra is a 18 minute short titled The Dark Knight Revisited. I think I have seen this before on another set. You get the same talking heads you got on all the Batman the Animated Series BTS extras on those releases.

The New Adventures of Batman Complete Collection Blu ray gets a C-.

 

The Barbarians Blu Ray

 

TITLE-The Barbarians

SOURCE-Scorpion Blu ray

Oh Cannon,they never saw a hit they weren't ready to rip off. Conan was big. So Cannon wanted a Barbarian movie. Hired Peter Paul and David Paul (Known as the Barbarian Brothers) and made this cheap. It failed the Paul Twins made 2 more films then kind of faded away. Not that many years ago one of them passed.

The movie? It is your standard Conan the Barbarian 80s era rip off. Big muscle having hero,or heroes in this case. Attractive woman in little clothing as a love interest,being Eva Larue in this film. Then some crazy cult leader/magician villian,Richard Lynch in this film.

Watching this for the first time in decades,I am sure this is one of the many Cannon films I saw late at night on Showtime and TMC in the early 90s,I notice how the Paul Twins looked and were outfited in a way that made them look like live action versions of the Masters of the Universe figures that were huge in the mid 80s. Really this is a better He Man movie than the one we got so far.

The blu ray looks good sounds good. Extras is a pile of trailers. Then a commentary from Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson.

Oh crap can't forget got Michael Berryman as one of the henchmen of Richard Lynch. Dude was just made for a film like this.

Out of the three Barbarian Brothers films I have seen,the other 2 being Think Big and Twin  Sitters,this is the best.Yea it's dumb. But you knew that when you looked at the cover.

The Barbarians gets a B.