The Force is Strong With This One.

Star Wars Rogue One
2016 | PG13 | 2 Hr. 13 Min | Sci-Fi | Disney

Director:

Gareth Edwards

Writers: 

Chris Weitz

Tony Gilroy

Stars: 

Felicity Jones

Diego Luna

Alan Tudyk

Synopsis:

All looks lost for the Rebellion against the Empire as they learn of the existence of a new superweapon, the Death Star. Once a possible weakness in its construction is uncovered, the Rebel Alliance must set out on a desperate mission to steal the plans for the Death Star. The future of the entire galaxy now rests upon its success.

Hot off the heels of Godzilla (2014) Gareth Edwards is handed the keys to a prequel that we all needed in our lives (sorry Jar Jar). With an array of new charters filling in a back story to New Hope he is allowed to weave a strong story and flashy effects making Rogue One a very entertaining Star Wars Saga. Felicity Jones knows how to own the screen going from bad girl to hero right before your eyes in the way that Luke should have! Let's face it New Hope will be the weak link in the series at some point. 

At first, I was not comfortable with a CGI Peter Cushing, it was creepy yet once the story rolled on you settle in. Industrial Light and Magic really pulled this off nicely. ILM went through hours of old footage from Cushing in order to get all of his facial mannerisms right. Guy Henry then performed the role on set, while wearing head-mounted cameras that recorded all his facial movements. ILM then replaced his face with a digital mask of Cushing. As luck would have it, a face cast of Cushing made for Top Secret! (1984) had recently been found in an archive, and was of great use in this process. It is also cool to note found footage from New Hope resurfaced and the originally deleted footage from the Death Star attack shot was placed into the final battle in Rogue One. 

George Lucas reportedly loved the film so much that director Gareth Edwards posted on his Twitter feed,  "It was the most important review to me he's kind of like God, I will take that conversation to my grave, his opinion means the world to me." Rogue One is a prequel done right, and it succeeds by focusing on the details. Why did I wait so long to watch is beyond me?

Once again we are witnesses to intense aerial dogfights, armored combat vehicles, sweet looking tanks, flame-throwers, and new stormtroopers that never cease to amaze. And those Stormtroopers are truly something to gawk at. And nothing is better or more terrifying that Darth Vader slowing filling the screen! Look the movie's visuals are amazing. It may be a typical plotline the first act is a slow burn leaving with that meh feeling but I promise you the second act draws together fine for the third act leading into the big battle that will leave you in awe! 

Rouge One was how I felt as a young boy watching A New Hope for the first time leaving me giddy with excitement! Leading right up to the moment of Hope this story will not disappoint, the visuals will blow you away and the battle leaves you wanting more. One downfall and to myself a big one almost tearing me out of the movie in a hurry was the CGI use of a main charter in the end. I get it it was done to tie the movies together but ugh! Those brief moments almost ruined the whole thing for me.

4 out of 5 Stars

Shop til you drop, dead!

Chopping Mall
1986 | R | 1 Hr. 17 Min | Sci-Fi/Horror | Concorde Pictures

Director: 

Jim Wynorski

Writers: 

Jim Wynorski

Steve Mitchell

Stars: 

Kelli Maroney

Tony O'Dell

Russell Todd

Barbara Crampton

Synopsis:

A group of teenagers that work at the mall all get together for a late-night party in one of the stores. When the mall goes on lockdown before they can get out, the robot security system malfunctions and goes on a killing spree. One by one, the three bots try to rid the mall of the "intruders." The only weapons the kids can use are the supplies in other stores. Or . . . if they can make it 'til morning when the mall reopens.

To serve and protect!

Joe Bob Briggs opened up season two of his hit show The Last Drive-In Streaming on Shudder with an 80s cult classic Chopping Mall. Park Plaza Mall has just installed a state-of-the-art security system, including shutters across all exits and three high-tech robots programmed to disable and apprehend thieves! But some freak lighting storm short circuits the pannel turning this innocent bot's into killer machines. The bots were originally set to stun the thief until help arrived. 

Sadly the beautiful Karrie Emerson would only do one more movie after this.

Meanwhile, the four couples decide to have a party in a furniture store where three of them work. In true B-Movie fashion, a few of them begin to have a drink, party, and of course have sex. >Side note from one that has worked in the mall I can confirm this type of behavior did happen! Oh yes, it did happen. In fact, while working in a small theatre we would confiscate the alcohol that people snuck in but forgot to pick up after the show well, what do you think we did with it pour it down the drain? <  So how does the carnage begin? Simple its the 80s and when a girl needs a smoke she needs a smoke! But when your out you send your boyfriend to the vending machine out in the mall for a pack.

Just gaze upon that cigarette machine and all its retro glory. 

I'm going to show my age here but remember cigarette machines like this? They were a bitch to pull on that drop arm. Do you remember when you could smoke in the mall? It does not seem that long ago. I can still see those poor maintenance people sweeping up everybody butts laying around. Hey, maybe the smoking ban is why malls are doing so poorly now? Ok back to the movie, of course with our chump walking the mall and our short circuit robots on patrol the action starts to set in. 

Killbots

Would you believe the guy who brought us an enchanting mermaid from "Splash" to the man-eating sharks of "Lethal Weapon 4", to the inspirational heart light of “E.T.” made the Killer Bots? Crazy as it seems Robert Short took old electric wheelchair parts along with an escalator tread to make one of the horror Sci-fi iconic looks. And with this being a Roger Corman film the budget was low and the special effects would take up a huge chunk of that. Special Effects artist Roger George was the man behind the exploding head as well as other special effects that look pretty amazing. He also worked on may Corman pictures but also gave us effects on Terminator, Repo Man, and The Howling.  George and Short's companies have gone on to win Academy Awards for there work in other films. 

Scream Queen Barabra Crampton 

With a young cute cast its odd that only a few of them went on to do other movies. Of course, the wonderful Barbra Crampton is never afraid to take off her top. And Kelli Maroney was coming off of the hot Night of the Comet. She was cast because director Jim Wynorski had a crush on her. "I had seen Kelli in a couple of things and I wanted to date her. So, I figured the one way to make that happen was to put her in a movie," said Wynorski. And we get a quick glimpse at Rodney Eastman as a shoplifter tracked down my the non-killer bots. Eastman later went on to star in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master.

Kelli Maroney's Crazy 80s hair is a safe place for spiders to live.

Upon its initial limited release on March 21, 1986 Killbots did poorly at the box office. However, it fared better when it was re-released as Chopping Mall. The name Chopping Mall was a suggestion of a janitor working in the mall at the time. It was back in 1986 when I first gazed upon the VHS cover I could not wait to take it home. I loved it then and I still love it now. For a low budget, Corman flick Chopping Mall's pace is very crisp and never really slows down. With great actors, and an interesting story followed by a killer soundtrack Chopping Mall is still worth the watch. Even if this time around I was watching the background more then the movie reliving my retail days. 

3 Bloody Brains out of 5

The weapons of the future are alive...

Crash And Burn
1990 | R | 1 Hr. 25 Min | Sci-Fi | Full Moon Features

Director: 

Charles Band

Writer: 

J.S. Cardone

Stars: 

Paul Ganus

Megan Ward

Ralph Waite

Synopsis:

Unicom is a powerful organization overseeing most of the world after its economic collapse. They have banned computers and robots in an attempt to ensure "life, liberty, and the pursuit of economic stability". When a Unicom Synth robot infiltrates a southwest TV station and kills the manager, a revolutionary against the Gestapo-like corporation, a lowly Unicom delivery man must help the rest of the station survive through the incoming "thermal storm".

The Bait and Switch

Ok, Uncle Charlie, I see what you're doing here! Crash And Burn is capitalizing on the Stuart Gorden cult classic Robot Jox that came out the year before. What's the catch you ask? Well, you have this giant robot on the poster in the same fashion as Robot Jox. Spoiler alert this one has nothing to do with Robots! Well ok, the last few minutes we are treated to David Allen's stop motion bot that is on the poster. Yet we do get a simple little tale that in the end works. For the small budget, this one has a tight story and that is what counts. J.S. Cardone has penned plenty of Full Moon Features but it would be his retelling of Prom Night (2008) and Stepfather (2009) that he will be remembered for. 

Mr. Walton? 

That's right Ralph White headlines a pretty solid cast along with Megan Ward's first movie and by far the best charter goes to Bill Mosely. Let's go back to Ward first, of courses she will go on to do many B movies including Arcade, Encino Man, and one of my favorite hidden gems PCU. She hit's her role like a veteran as the story revolves around her character. Delivering a top performance you can easily see how her parents were a big influence on her career. Her parents were drama teachers and cast her in plays they produced. When she was 9, her mother's job at a modeling agency led to her doing commercials for local department stores. I have always enjoyed watching her in almost any role she has been in (Sorry General Hosptial not you). 

The true hero tho happens to be one of the bad guys, Bill Moseley once again finds himself playing the sadistic yet dark comedic villain. Moseley is strong in this one with his smirky slimy character that saves this movie.  He gives it just the right amount of grit! 

The one thing the movie does well it visually draws you into a dark, grim world that we have destroyed. The desolate feeling comes through as they run around this old factory that is just as dank as the outside world. You do get a Blade Runner vibe on a much lower scale. 

One downfall or shortcut that was taken lies in the futuristic look that they try to produce. I had a hard time thinking a robot was still running on an Amiga 128 and 3" floppy disks. This is tech that was old when they were making this movie. I get that maybe this is what she put together from old scrap to make the TV station work, to run the a/c that keeps them alive but to run a robot? Eh, I was not buying that at all.

Finally, in the end, we get to see the Robot in action. David Allen's (Ghostbusters 2, Puppet Master) special effects work well here. It's kind of sad they did not do more with his talent on Crash and Burn. Special effects and a tight story teamed up with Bill Moseley are enough for you to tune into Crash And Burn. Somehow everything comes together with a late-night cable vibe that keeps you engaged. This might not be the greatest movie I'm going to watch during the COVID sit in but it was not the worst either.  

3 out of 5 Stars

The end of Earth will not be the end of us.

Interstellar
2014 | PG-13 | 2hr 49min | Sci-Fi | Paramount Pictures

Director: Christopher Nolan

Writers: Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan

Stars:

Matthew McConaughey

Anne Hathaway

Jessica Chastain

Synopsis:

Earth's future has been riddled by disasters, famines, and droughts. There is only one way to ensure mankind's survival: Interstellar travel. A newly discovered wormhole in the far reaches of our solar system allows a team of astronauts to go where no man has gone before, a planet that may have the right environment to sustain human life.

If this is your first visit to the Cave welcome! Interstellar is part of the Robots In Film Blogathon Hosted by Quiggy over at The Midnite Drive-In and Hamlette's Soliloquy please make sure to check out the other 18 bloggers taking part in this event. 

From his humble low budget independent cinema roots to some of today's biggest blockbusters Christopher Nolan has become one of Hollywood best storytelling and acclaimed writer-director. Here is a quick recap in case you have forgotten, Nolan's first break came from his own independent movie Memento that landed him Batman Begins trilogy to Oscar Nominations for Memento, Inception, and of course his latest hit Dunkirk the man does amazing work. And Interstellar was an Oscar winner for Best Achievement in Visual Effects and maybe Han's Zimmer deserved a little more Oscar love with an amazing soundtrack! Although we are not here to talk about Nolan so let's talk robots and the true heart of this movie his daughter. 

You can not take away just how beautiful this movie is without a great cast and story to go along with it. Hidden underneath all the Sci-Fi jargon and amazing special effects lays a wonderful story about a Father and Daughter. Mackenzie Foy may have started her movie career with Twilight but in Interstellar she turned on her acting prowess pulling hard at your heart strings! The father-daughter storyline really had me close to tears along with a clear punch to the stomach making sure the audience felt her pain! Such an amazing job for this young star. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in several award groups that year and winning four of them. Honestly, Interstellar would not have been as good without this young one. Ok, the Robots...

TARS and CASE are the two robots which are part of the Endurance crew. TARS is a former marine robot with angular limbs and a sarcastic attitude. TARS' personality can be characterized as witty, sarcastic, and humorous, and with those traits programmed into him, they make him a better-suited companion. TARS also appears to be somewhat more versatile than CASE, being suited for tasks ranging from piloting to data collection. Voiced and puppeteered by American actor Bill Irwin who also operated and controlled the heavy machinery which weighed almost 200 pounds. Later the actor was digitally removed during post-production as he was a few inches taller than TARS.

Despite being a robot who follows the order of his crew, TARS is quite intelligent and is capable of acting on his own. I really love the idea that TARS is not your atypical R2-D2 type robots, in fact, he is pretty basic, he is a block. I suppose here on earth if we can't save our planet how are we going to build fun looking robots right?

Even tho he is a block he is pretty amazing and holds the space story together like most robots do. With that said not only where Foy and TARS amazing Nolan had a job to do bring us a space odyssey that we have not seen since Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.  But fear, not Nolan contrives a great scene:**Light Spoiler** When Cooper comes out of the hole to find that time has slipped forward decades while he’s been away he has 20 years’ worth of video messages that show his little kids have turned, in the blink of an eye, into two middle-aged adults.  And all of this is underscored by Zimmer who playfully toys with the audience with Straussian themes relying on heavy, wheezingly religiose, organ-type chords moving you to tears!

As a light-year-spanning quest to save the human race, this is the director’s broadest canvas by far, but also his most intimate. And against the alien backdrop of black holes, wormholes, and strange new worlds, Interstellar stands as Nolan’s most human film to date. The visuals will keep you in the movie, the heartfelt story of a father and daughter will move you, and the soundtrack emerges you completely into a new world. Interstellar is well worth the three hours of couch time!

4 out of 5 stars

Outer space was her playground

Moonie and the Spider Queen

2013 | Color | 27 Min | Sci-Fi | R | Producers Releasing Corp.

Director: Nicola Cuti

Writer: Nicola Cuti

Stars:

Nikoma DeMitro

Anthony Wayne

William August

Moonie, the Starbabe, can live in outer space without any life support. The secret as to how she can do this is worth millions. She rides through space on her astercycle and one day accidentally crashes into the starship piloted by Perry and Torry. The two men see the fortune in Moonie but before they can bring her to Earth, she takes off in order to rescue her sister Star babes being held captive by Phobia, the Spider Queen. With the help of Perry and Torry, she frees her sisters and vanquishes the evil spider queen to a fate worse than death.

Holy crazy bat sh@t batman! I woke up early today and did not want to wake up the rest of the house so I headed down to the Man Cave and fired up the Roku to check out a new channel put out by Fred Olen Ray called Retromedia Tv. As I was perusing the catalog when I stumbled onto a tile called Moonie And the Spider Queen, And with a short run time of 27 minutes I felt good about my time being wasted. Oh yeah, this was nuts and in a good way.

             

-70 Degrees and Dropping!

Arctic Blast
2010 | Color | 1 Hr 32 Min | Sci-Fi | PG | F.G. Fim Productions

Director: 

Brian Trenchard-Smith

Writer: 

Jason Bourque

Stars: 

Michael Shanks

Alexandra Davies

Saskia Hampele

When a solar eclipse sends a colossal blast of super chilled air towards the earth, it then sets off a catastrophic chain of events that threatens to engulf the world in ice and begin a new Ice Age.

So what do you do on your first day off and it's in the 90's outside? You watch a cheesy movie about an Arctic Blast killing people all over the world. Disaster films are always so much fun aren't they? Arctic Blast was made for a Canada TV network and fits the SyFy network mold perfectly. 

See Teenage Girls Thrust Into the Weird Pulsating Cage of Horror!

Teenage Zombie
1959 | B&W | 73 min | Horror | Unrated | Horror
Starring:
Don Sullivan(also in The Gaint Gila Monster of the same year)
Katherine Victor (who later worked for Disney)
Steve Conte
Brianne Murphy

Director: Jerry Warren (Frankenstein Island & The Wild World of Batwoman)

Writer: Jerry Warren

DVD Extras:N/A


Story: While boating, a quartet of teens, Reg , Skip, Julie, and Pam, accidentally discover an island run by a mad scientist named Doctor Myra who intends to turn everyone in the Untied States into a Zombie. The teenagers become trapped on the island and are temporarily imprisoned in cages. They are freed when other teenagers arrive with the sheriff (who turns out to be in league with Doctor Myra). A complicated fight scene serves as the climax, in which a de-zombified gorilla arrives just in time to attack Dr. Myra's henchmen and allow the teens to escape. When they are safely back on the mainland, it is implied that the teens will receive a reward for discovering the island, and will have an audience with the President of the United States.