Documentary month Day 13 film 13 Shock Cinema 1 and 2

Shock Cinema 1 and 2
1990
Brentwood DVD

Hosted by Brinke Stevens,this is a documentary that seems to have been filmed at various horror conventions. Brinke goes around and interviews the following people.Charle "Puppet Master" Band,Fred "Evil toons" Olen Ray,Jeff "Leatherface:TCM III" Burr,Scott "Intruder" Spiegel,David "Nightmare Sisters" DeCoteau,J.R. "Tempe" Bookwalter,Forest J "Famous Monsters of Filmland" Ackerman,Melissa "Angelfist" Moore and about 14 more people. Most of the interviews are interesting. But the suffer cause of how short they are.Brinke does a decent job as the host,but doesn't have the skills to really coax interesting info outta some of the people. Also another negative is each volume is about an hour long. Which for how many people are talked to,isn't enough time to really get much done. Shock Cinema 1 and 2 gets a D.

Documentary month Day 12 film 12 Slam School

Slam School
2002
BCI DVD

This DVD was made in conjunction with the California based Empire Wrestling Federation. In it we have two guys,one of whom was the original Black Ranger on Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers,who go to learn how to become pro wrestlers.

The school is run by Jesse Hernandez. Who is better known as a referee in WWF and a jobber in AWA. Him and one of the wrestlers from the EWF take the two guys and step by step teach them some of the basic wrestling moves. Then we get to see each guy attempt to do these moves.

Sadly this is a pretty boring documentary. The moves they teach are mainly things that anyone  who has watched pro wrestling for more than a few years should already know how to do. Neither Jesse or the other trainer have much charisma. I really have no idea who the target audience for this documentary is. Wrestling fans would be bored to tear with in the first 10 minutes. The only thing that kind of makes it stand out is it does have the original Black Power Ranger in it. Slam School gets a F.

Documentary month Day 11 film11 A night at the Movies:Stephen King

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A night at the movies:Stephen King
2011
TCM TV airing

A night at the movies is a regular series of specials on the amazing Turner Classic Movies channel. And this October they did one with Stephen King. Running right at an hour long it is a must see for any fan of Mr King's work.

We get Mr King sitting down and telling us all about the various horror cinema he loves. Starting with the stuff he saw as a kid at Saturday morning double features,then at the drive-in,and finally up to modern day. He divides it up in segments like Vampires,supernatural,etc. In some ways this comes off as a update/follow up to his great non-fiction book Danse Macabre. Mr King is great at getting to the root of why certain things scare most people. And that part is my favorite thing in the documentary.

I have no idea when this will be aired again. I bet next year in October TCM will show it again. A night at the movies:Stephen King gets a B-.

Documentary month Day 10 film10 End of the Century The story of the Ramones

End of the Century The Story of the Ramones
2005
Rhino DVD

I have been a huge fan of the Ramones for over 30 years now. And was lucky enough to see them 3 times before they broke up. Well a few years back 2 different documentaries about the band came out. The first one I saw was "Ramones:Raw" which was made up of behind the scenes footage Marky "Monkey boy" Ramone filmed during the years he was touring with the band. I found this one very disappointing and kind of worthless. Then there is End of the Century. Which is almost perfect.

We get a great history of how and why the band was formed. Turns out most of the core members all grew up together and formed the band cause well they really had nothing else to do. There is plenty of interviews with people who knew the guys before they became famous. And we get to know the Ramone's real personalities.

The next section of the DVD deals with them starting to tour and the recording of their first album. And WOW this section had info that I had never heard before. Which is strange cause I have done a pile of research of the Ramones.

Next up we get all kinds of interviews with the surviving members. Sadly before this was done Joey had died. But at least we got interviews with Johnny and Dee Dee. Now I had always heard that Johnny is kind of a right wing asshole,and his interviews proves this. Dee Dee sounds and looks like a drugged out Carol Channing. Which always makes me laugh.

One part I really enjoyed is the interviews with all the people that were part of the band for short periods of time. Like Richie,Elvis and CJ. The interview with Richie confirms the stories I have always heard about why he left the band. It seems he wasn't getting his fair share of the money they made off the t-shirt sales. This really sucks,cause he was IMHO the best drummer they ever had.

The DVD has a plethora of extras. Mostly parts of interviews that got cut from the final film. But the best part is a part where Tommy Ramone sits down and tells us who wrote what on the first 3 albums. End of the Century The Story of the Ramones gets an A.

Documentary month Day 09 film 09 His Name was Jason

His name was Jason
2009
Anchor Bay entertainment DVD

This is a  2 DVD documentary about the series of films
that Jason Voorhies has appeared in. Hosted by Tom
Savini,it has interviews with some of the cast. Plus a whole
bunch of people that have nothing at all to do with the Friday
the 13th series. Plus the DVD release came with a coupon to
$7 off a ticket to go see the remake. Well since at the time a
ticket at the local theater was only $7 I got to see the
remake for free.

We get a virtual tour through out the history of the Friday
franchise. Sadly there is so much more this documentary
could have done. There is so many people that were in the
Friday films they could have tracked down and interviewed.
But instead we get segments with one of the guys from
Psych and Adam Green.

Weirdly the second disc which contains stuff that was taken
out of the documentary is better than the actual
documentary. I get the feeling that with some good editing
there is a great documentary here.
Overall unless you find this cheap,like say 5 bucks or under
avoid it. His name was Jason gets a D-.

Documentary month Day 08 film 08 Beyond the Mat-ringside edition

Beyond the Mat-Ringside Edition
1999
lionsgate DVD

When I first heard about this documentary back in 1998 I was super excited for it. So I ended up driving to Houston to see it when it hit theaters. Then bought the dvd as soon as it came out. Well then in 2003 I found this newer version.

Beyond the Mat is a documentary that follows around a handful of pro wrestlers and gives us a idea of what goes on outside the ring. The main people it follows are Mick "Mankind/Cactus Jack" Foley and Jake the Snake Roberts. Foley is at a pivitol moment in his career. He knows cause of injuries his career is almost over. But he has finally made it to the big leagues and wants to make as much money as he can before he retires. We get to see his infamous fall off and then through the cage at a Hell in the Cell match. This is still one of the most shocking moments in wrestling.Then we get to see how his I quit match with The Rock effects his kids and wife. Who are at ringside. Foley takes 20+ chairshots to the head,and you can tell this causes much pain for his family.

Jake the Snake is a sad case. At one time he was one of the biggest names in pro wrestling. But drug problems have now effected him a bunch. He is stuck doing small shows for $50 a pop in tiny towns. There is a scene in which he goes to see his daughter,and you can tell they really can connect. Then later on we get to see a scene that was filmed right after Jake has smoked some crack. And this scene is chilling.

Beyond the Mat ringside edition is a loaded down DVD. We get a neat feature that has Mick Foley and Jesse Ventura watching the film and doing commentary. Plus it ports over the older commentary that has the ring legend Terry Funk. Beyond the mat ringside edition gets a A.

Documentary month Day 07 film 07 Clive Barker Art of Horror

Clive Barker the Art of Horror
1992
Paramount VHS

I had actually forgotten about this short documentary until last October when someone mentioned watching it. This was a promo tape. When you rented Hellraiser III and sent in your receipt to Paramount you got this tape. Some where over the years I lost my copy. So  I was pretty happy when I got a new one.

This is a very short,a little over 30 minutes,interview with Clive Barker. He talks about his thoughts on horror and where he thinks it is headed. We get lots of clips from the various films based off Barker's stories. Sadly pretty much everything in this documentary is stuff that I had heard before in various interviews with Mr Barker.

While this is a interesting piece of horror history,mainly cause of how it was distributed. It is overall disappointing. Clive Barker the Art of Horror gets a D+.

Documentary month Day 06 film 06 Stan Lee's Mutants,Monsters and Marvels

Stan Lee's Mutants,Monsters and Marvels
2002
Columbia Tristar DVD

This DVD is made up of two short documentaries. The first one is titled "Creating Spider-Man" and the second is "Here comes the Heroes". Both of them have Stan Lee sitting down in a comic shop and being interviewed by Kevin Smith. Now quite a few years ago I had picked up both of these documentaries on VHS and loved them. So when I found the DVD at Biglots a year or so ago I knew I had to get it.

The Spider-man centric documentary is up first. And Stan talks about what inspired him to create what I believe to be the first teenage super hero. Plus we get information about Spidey's original artist. Smith of course ask the one question that is on lots of the comic fans mind. Is Mary Jane Watson named after "Mary Jane"? Stan claims he had no idea at the time that Mary Jane was slang for pot. And I do believe Stan on this. One thing I would have liked is more info about how it was for Stan to be working with my favorite Silver Age comic artist Steve Ditko. But overall this is a nice source of info on the early years of the Spidey comic.

Next is another documentary,again with Stan Lee and Kevin Smith. This one about some of the other big name heroes that Stan co-created in the Silver Age. We get lots of great stories about how the famed "Mighty Marvel Bullpen" worked. Plus Stan tells stories about what caused him to create heroes like the Fantastic Four,Thor,Hulk,etc. My only real complaint about this segment is I wish it was longer. But still it is a entertaining watch.

Now the DVD has some extras that weren't on the VHS release. The main one,to me at least,is Stan telling his side of the story about the never released Roger Corman Fantastic Four film. It somewhat contradicts what I have heard from other sources,but is still pretty good. Stan Lee's Mutants,Monsters and Marvels gets a B-.

Documentary month Day 05 film 05 Not Quite Hollywood

Not Quite Hollywood
2009
Magnet DVD

Now before watching this I really didn't know shit about the Australian exploitation film industry. Sure I had seen the Mad Max films and Dead end Drive In. But didn't know how many great films had come outta Australia in the 70's and 80's.

We start off with a quick history of the Australian film industry. And how for many years there was almost no real homegrown directors. But then in the 70's there was an explosion of well done drive in cinema. It started off with mostly sex comedies. But then morphed into every other genre.

What made most of these films stand out was the amazing stunt work. The stunt men down under are fucking insane. We get lots of behind the scenes footage of the stunts being performed. I am surprised more of these stuntmen didn't die doing these crazy stunts.

Well the DVD is loaded with extras. We get a great commentary that has lots of the directors that are talked about in the film. There is a Quentin Tarentino interview with Brian Trenchard-Smith. Plus lots of other fun stuff. Not Quite Hollywood gets a A.

Documentary month Day 04 film 04 Decline of Western Civilization 3

Decline of Western Civilization 3
1997

Been wanting to see this documentary for years now. But since it has never been released I figured I would never get a chance to see it. But thanks to someone I managed to get a copy.

Decline 3 is about the punk rock kids that are homeless in 1997 LA. We get to see their daily lives. Which seems to mainly be begging for change and drinking as much beer as they can afford. Most of these kids come from abusive backgrounds and left home at an very early age.

We also get some footage of LA punk bands of that era. And really none of them appeal to me at all. They all have lots of energy on the stage,but the music and lyrics don't connect with me at all.

Overall this documentary isn't near as good as the first one,but as good if not better than part 2. I would love to find out why it has never gotten any kind of real release. The one rumor I keep hearing is music rights issues. But anyway Decline part 3 gets a B-.