Burial Ground: The Night of Terror – Say what you will about Bianchi’s Burial Ground but you cannot deny this film’s trashy charm! Zombies, gore, nudity, incest and one of the most unique and unsettling actors you’ll ever come across in Peter Bark; Burial Ground is a stinky, goofy, delightfully gory zombie oddity. A professor discovers an ancient Etruscan tomb and unleashes the flesh-eating denizens to roam the countryside and lay siege, with weapons, to a mansion full of potential victims! Glorious garbage!

Purchase / Rent

Zombie Holocaust – Calling Doctor Butcher! Doctor Fine! Doctor Butcher! Certified rip-off gold! Often confused with Fulci’s Zombi II (Zombie), Girolami’s Zombie Holocaust is a sleazy, gory exploitation film featuring cannibals, zombies and a mad scientist! WTF! It’s crappy and completely gonzo but stills remains a favorite amongst trash fans and cult cinema wonks. A series of cannibal encounters in the big city lead a doctor and his assistant to a secluded Asian island inhabited by a mad scientist creating zombies from dead cannibal natives!

Purchase / Rent

Zombi 3 – Fulci and Mattei craft something so hideous, so wonderfully junky that people will be talking about this film long after I’m dead and gone! Coming nowhere close to the film it purports to be a sequel of, Zombi 3 revolves around the theft of a bio weapon and the soldiers/mercenaries that must now fight their way off of the island in which the weapon resurrected the dead! Flying heads, cheap gore and the scuzziest actors ever; this is one for your shelf!

Purchase / Rent

The House by the Cemetery – Gory, nightmarish Fulci at its best! Some may poo poo on Lucio’s nightmare logic and seeming obsession with the violent set-piece over storytelling but his films are simply incredible, period. I have spoken. The House by The Cemetery is so bizarre, so weird, so goddamn confusing that you will watch it over and over again, each time gaining new insight and new appreciation. An evil that cannot die lies in wait for an unsuspecting family as they move into an old house with dark, bloody secrets staining its walls and a gate to the unknown beneath their feet. Complete your Gates of Hell trilogy by owning this film, The Beyond and City of the Living Dead.

Purchase / Rent

Black Demons – Don’t listen to us trash fanatics, this film is boring as shit and bad as hell but I’ll be damned if I haven’t watched it like eight times. Undead slaves and a house full of stupid victims, how can this film possibly go wrong? Need gore, it’s there. Need…um…undead slaves? Damn. Okay so there isn’t much in this film to enjoy and like I said it’s slow as shit sliding down a sidewalk but it’s such an odd Italy steamer that you are just going to have to experience the curse of these black devil monsters for yourself!

Purchase / Rent

Cyclone (1987) – This is a great 80′s film from Fred Olen Ray starring Heather Thomas and Jeffry Combs. Wild action and a fun cast make this a gem to watch and own!

Purchase / Rent

Repo Men – Cool story and effective action make this film a stand out. It’s a story about two best friends that repossess organs from those in default of their payments and love what they do! Best of all, no Hollywood cop-outs here!

Purchase / Rent

Jennifer’s Body – Okay first off, this film is awesome! If you get the joke then you will have fun. Come on guys the girl-on-girl kiss makes this worth a watch alone!

Purchase / Rent

Ninja – Fun, bloody, hard-hitting ninja film that has the look and feel of the Cannon films of the 80′s. There’s nothing new here but the film entertains in a big way.

Purchase / Rent

After.Life - Solid film; well made and well acted. About a women that feel/looks alive but is told she’s dead. Kinda burns slow but is still worth checking out.

Purchase / Rent

Double Feature DVD

Hoping to convince his fellow statesmen of the Helix government’s military strength in an effort to rally support for war against the city-state Triton, Lord Zirpola orders his second-in-command Ankar Moor to capture a few legendary nomadic warriors called “Range Guides” with the intention of forcing them to fight to the death in Deathsport against his lethal “deathmachines.” Moor’s mission is successful but he’s gotten more than he bargained for when one of his captives turns out to be none other than Kaz Oshay, the son of Oshay; the very woman that disgraced Ankar Moor and exiled him for betraying the “code.”

Kaz, his piece of Range Guide tail Deneer and the statesmen Dr. Karl and his son Marcus must now work together to survive the Deathsport and escape before the madman Zirpola has them all executed. Escaping the Deathsport isn’t the only challenge facing them though, somewhere deep in the desert a tribe of cannibal mutants have kidnapped a Range Guide child and time is quickly running out for the girl. If Kaz and Deneer cannot reach her in time, she’ll end up in the bellies of the monstrous mutants!

The desert is full of dangers but nothing compares to the deadly Deathsport! It’s kill or be killed on the backs of screaming machines!

Looking to essentially cash in on the huge success of Death Race 2000, Roger Corman attempts to re-imagine another of his productions, this time with “deathmachines” (dirt bikes) instead of automobiles and Richard Lynch instead of Sylvester Stallone. While nobody can deny Death Race 2000′s gonzo cult status or underestimate Stallone’s Machine Gun Joe, Deathsport has one thing it does not and that would be the incomparable Richard Lynch; the man is a powerhouse actor with the intensity of a laser beam. I can never get enough of his work.

Anyhow, Deathsport is a decent post-nuke entry but I did have a problem with the film, it was so goddamn dense that its hard to really immerse yourself in the film. Carradine, Jennings and Lynch constantly prattle on about “union” and “consensus” and a bunch of quasi-mystical warrior babble that left me feeling completely alienated. I understand the need to flesh out the story, build on the characters and perhaps change the perception that this would be just another Corman exploitationer but the needless exposition and the vague Moor/Oshay feud subplot just wore me down a bit. No worries, two impressive sequences featuring nudity, huge explosions and a ghastly decapitation turned my frown upside down!

Unfortunately nothing, not even full frontal nudity will scrub the image of a stoned David Carradine, yet again, in a loin cloth. Some things can never be “unseen.”

Shout! Factory have released a very cool post-nuke Corman double feature with a few extras to boot.  I’ll be honest, Deathsport is an okay film with goofy, low budget production values (plastic swords and welded sheet metal on dirt bikes) but it’s also a forgettable one; you’ll watch it, you’ll enjoy it and thirty minutes later you’ll be left with only the faintest memory of it. Check it out anyhow!

Theatrical Poster

Raped by Daniel Emerson, a young man with wealth and influence, poor Gaily Morton is devastated when the courts find him innocent of the crime he committed, thanks to the testimonies of his four friends. Unable to face life with such shame and betrayal, she hurls herself from the top of the courthouse building to her death.

Five years later the five thugs are now partners in a lucrative, and shady as hell, realty company. With strong-arm tactics at their disposal, business has never been better but their luck is about to run out when one by one they mysteriously meet grisly ends. Without any solid leads to go on besides vague descriptions of possible culprits, police Det. Dunn and a determined ex-court reporter lean on the leader of the crew, figuring he has the most to gain by silencing his friends.

The truth is far deadlier, there is one other person that stands to gain something from the gruesome murders, one person with a vendetta that demands satisfaction. Somebody…or something…is coming for Emerson and his crew and anybody else, good or bad, that may stand in the way.

Steel and Lace is, you guessed it, a rape/revenge film but this is no average low budget exploitation film, nope, this here has a CYBORG in it! Forget all those other shitty Terminator rip-off flicks, most claim to have cyborgs but you rarely get a glimpse at their “true” nature, mainly because most of those flicks just don’t have the budget to pull it off. Not this gem though, not only do we get some cyborg action but we get to see inside its head! Awesome! As if a cool ‘borg weren’t enough we also get a few red herrings, some admirable nudity and a surprising amount of gore including death-by-drill, decapitation, a penis blender sequence and more!

We’re not talking a big budget actionfest here but I’ll be damned if this wasn’t entertaining! Also on hand to lend this production a little class were actors David (An American Werewolf in London) Naughton, Bruce (“Harry and the Hendersons”) Davison, Michael (“Fringe”) Cerveris, Stacy (“The Adventures of Superboy”) Haiduk and David L. (“Laverne & Shirley”) Lander. High caliber? No but they all did a great job despite Lander’s way over-the-top scene chewing.

I don’t want to give away too much but the finale was incredibly well executed and completely unexpected, I wanted to stand up and applaud. There aren’t many director’s that would have done what director Farino did, bravo. It’s not a particularly original or complex movie that’s for sure but it has breasts, blood and a bad ass ‘bot,  making this worth checking out. I was able to catch this on cable television as there’s no Region 1 (or any region for that matter) DVD release of this so be sure to catch it on Comcast’s Impact On Demand before it’s gone.

DVD Release

Big city skip tracer Maggie and Paul Grogan, a drunk living in seclusion, inadvertently unleash a top secret government genetics weapon while looking for a missing couple. Now an unsuspecting riverside resort and a summer camp for children find themselves smack dab in the middle of a ferocious, bloodthirsty school of killer Piranha as they make their way from their freshwater surroundings to the ocean! And is if that weren’t bad enough, the government agency responsible for the mutated fish aren’t interested in saving lives, they’re simply looking to destroy the aquatic eating-machines and cover the whole matter up before the information leaks to the press.

Now it’s up to Maggie and Paul to warn the resort and campers of the impending danger before the hungry school eat everything in the water. And with only one shot to destroy the fish before they escape into the ocean and breed uncontrollably, Lost River may become Paradise Lost if the pair don’t succeed.

Joe Dante’s Piranha is a delightfully dated, blackly comedic endeavor spilling over with floating bits of flesh and surprisingly stacked-in-the-back seventies beauties. The stunning locations, numerous cult cinema personalities and highly effective special effects lend this Corman exploitationer an air of originality most Jaws rip-off cinema lacks and, make no mistake folks, this is indeed Jaws rip-off cinema. It’s fairly obvious that Dante and crew embrace that fact and run with it when the arcade game ‘Shark Jaws’ and Melville’s Moby-Dick make appearances in the film.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you that Piranha is a classic horror film but it does deserve a place of admiration alongside the watery terrors of Jaws, Orca and Tentacles. Wow did I just mention Assonitis’ Tentacles in the same sentence as Spielberg’s Jaws? The cult cinema gods must be smiling down on me now, no?

Shout! Factory are scoring big this year with their Corman line, it shows that they were listening to fans and collectors worldwide.  Releasing Piranha ’78 is a damn good business move, especially with Piranha 3D makes huge waves (pun intended) in theaters right now. True to the spirit of this film, Shout! Factory are exploiting that fact with a fabulous special edition overflowing with extras including a new widescreen transfer (still a bit rough though), commentary, behind-the-scenes footage, bloopers, trailer w/ commentary, a still gallery, additional scenes from the TV version and some TV/radio spots!

Piranha is occasionally incompetent but still flat-out entertaining and there’s more than enough goodies to keep you busy for multiple viewings.

U.S. DVD Release

The Fuma Clan have stumbled upon an explosive secret involving The Shogun of Japan and his son that may tear Japan apart but before they can move on the information, the treacherous Hattori Hanzo and his Iga Clan ninja descend upon Fuma village leaving death and destruction in their wake.

The last living Fuma Clan member and the Clan leader’s daughter must now work together to infiltrate the Iga Clan in order to collect a sample of Hanzo’s blood, establish a damning connection between The Shogun’s son and Hanzo and avenge their fallen comrades.

Lovers will die, plans will be formulated and the safety of a nation may very well rest upon the shoulders (and vagina) of the last of the Iga Clan! The Venus Fly Trap versus Honeypot Hell, only one deadly form of Ninja magic will prevail!

There’s no sense trying to convince those of you that have already made up your minds about this production that it’s somehow “fun,” pink eiga is pretty much what it looks and sounds like. It’s low budget, shot-on-video softcore porn and despite all of its many shortcomings (there are sometimes quite a few), I cannot get enough of it. I suppose if you’re interested in a comparison, pink eiga is roughly the equivalent of those wacky, shitty sex spoofs released by Seduction Cinema, like Lord of The G-Strings, Play-Mate of the Apes and SSI: Sex Squad Investigation.

I won’t waste this review blabbering on about the plot, character arcs or subtext, this is softcore porn with ninja, end of story. I went into this with absolutely no expectations and ended up mildly impressed anyhow. The Asian women were immensely beautiful, there were breasts a’plenty and by golly there were ninja! Ninja! As if that weren’t enough, director Hiroyuki Kawasaki (Lady Ninja Kasumi Vol.1) throws in an homage to the historical samurai Hattori Hanzo, or Sonny Chiba depending on whether you’re a history buff or a cult cinema geek.

Being a huge fan of pink eiga, I can honestly say the simulated and carefully shot sex sequences were quite pleasing to my sleazy American eyes. Could it have used a bit more violence perhaps? Well, damn it all, what couldn’t? Did the story make any sense? Some of it sure, I did have one issue with it but this isn’t Fellini, right? It was well-produced, locations were adequate, costumes were fantastic, there was no atrocious comedy and the finale was mind-blowingly sexy and cool.

If you enjoy Japanese pink films and exploitation, why not grab you a copy of Pink Eiga’s Ninja Pussy Cat, this is the one that started the whole erotic ninja craze and it’s not half bad. The extras on this disc include informative interviews with seasoned pink actress Yôko Satomi and director Hiroyuki Kawasaki, a photo gallery, trailers, original artwork and cast & crew bios. Pink Eiga (the company) have done a great job with this release.

I can’t recommend this to just anybody, especially if you have an aversion to hot Asian tail, but if you’re okay with a little softcore and the more magical the ninja the better…give it a shot.

http://pinkeiga.com/

Uncut German DVD

When a rattled photo development employee contacts local police about some suspicious pictures, Inspector Lee and his police force are horrified to discover pictures of what they believe to be dead women. The paper trail leads back to one Lam Gor-Yu, an odd introvert working as a night shift taxi driver. Believing the snapshots to be genuine, the cops raid his home and place him and his family under arrest.

Tortured by the detectives working the case and beaten by his outraged family members, Lam cracks under the pressure and agrees to confess to the crimes of murder. A further thorough search of the premises turns up not only VHS video tapes he made of his crimes but several jars containing the pickled breasts of his victims!

Needing a full confession detailing his murderous acts and the disposal of bodies, Lee coaxes Lam into describing for them his first, second and third murder. The cabbie explains the he would transform into a bloodthirsty fiend, set off by the rhythmic beating of the rain and the flash of lightning. Unleashed upon the brightly lit Hong Kong nightlife, he would use his cab to pick up fare and then trap the unsuspecting women he deemed “evil.” From there he would strangle them to death, smuggle their bodies into his family’s home, wait till he was alone and begin a disturbing ritual of howling, growling, groping and eventually dismembering.

Why did Lam commit the heinous crimes, where did he dispose of the bodies and why did he murder his last victim, a girl that by all accounts was “innocent” and undeserving of any punishment? The horrifying truth may be more than Inspector Lee and his hardened department can handle.

Those that count themselves as fans of Hong Kong’s CAT III cinema have more than likely seen Dr. Lamb as its become almost required viewing but those of you that have not seen this film should be aware that it’s simply not what one might consider normal “entertainment.” The film features all kinds of twisted perversions and shocking sequences of depravity and by most it would be considered bereft of any value to cinema. Then again, this is Wildside Cinema and around these parts the sleazier the better!

Actor Simon Yam plays the deeply disturbed Lam and his performance was positively chilling and wildly over-the-top as he mugs, sweats, contorts and cajoles. He never ceases to amaze me from one film to the next with his incredible range, going from slapstick comedy to hard-edge crime in the blink of an eye. Unlike Sir Anthony Hopkins’s cool-as-a-cucumber Dr. Lecter in 1991′s Silence of the Lambs, a film with which this film’s title was obviously meant to exploit, Yam’s Lam is a twitchy, unpredictable character that howls like a dog and uses the act of strangulation as a substitution for copulation, something the impotent beast is incapable of performing satisfactorily.

On the technical side, Dr. Lamb is brilliant, you simply cannot watch this film without admiring the art direction or cinematography. It’s absolutely gorgeous for exploitation, director’s Danny Lee and Billy Tang have created a low budget police procedural horror/crime sleazefest with the look and sound of big budget noir.  Jonathan Wong’s dark, moody jazz score compliments Lee and Tang’s serious direction and adds an extra layer of professional excellence to this production that many CAT III films lack. All of the positives aside, what would CAT III be without gore and nudity, am I right? Never fear, it’s all front and center and disturbing as hell.

Dr. Lamb will never be considered a great film but it’s a ‘respectable’ production featuring competent direction and solid acting and truth be told I’m at a loss to find anything wrong with the film. I suppose if I were pressed I would perhaps mention that it did contain a bit o’ comedy and lacked a little focus but that’s nothing new to seasoned HK cinema and CAT III junkies.This, in my opinion, is worth owning.

By the way, Usang Yeong Fang has killer breasts! Somebody thank her plastic surgeon for me!

Official DVD Artwork

PINK EIGA Inc. releases the touching, erotic Japanese drama
“THE JAPANESE WIFE NEXT DOOR – Part 2” on DVD!

Los Angeles, California – August 2010 – Greetings from PINK EIGA Inc! We’re a distribution company dedicated solely to the distribution of the Japanese Pink Eiga films. PINK EIGA, Inc. is thrilled to announce their newest release, “THE JAPANESE WIFE NEXT DOOR – PART 2,” veteran Pink Eiga director Yutaka Ikejima’s (aka. ‘Mr. Pink’) sequel to the hit Pink Eiga, “THE JAPANESE WIFE NEXT DOOR.”

“THE JAPANESE WIFE NEXT DOOR – PART 2”

Every choice you make can change the course of your life. This is the premise of THE JAPANESE WIFE NEXT DOOR series. Beginning exactly the same as Part One, a businessman’s life is almost complete; all he needs is a wife. He meets two women… and this time he marries the rich one — whose family just happens to be a bunch of sado-masochistic sociopaths!

Directed by ‘Mr. Pink,’ Yutaka Ikejima, and starring the sexy Yazaki Akane and with a special appearance by erotic bombshell Reiko Yamaguchi, star of part one, the JAPANESE WIFE NEXT DOOR – PART 2 is a raunchy and bizarre erotic comedy! The film had its North American premier at the prestigious 2010 New York Asian Film Festival.

DVD SPECS:
• Japanese Language with English Subtitles
• Featurette: Interview with Director Yutaka Ikejima
• Featurette: Interview with Star Reiko Yamaguchi
• Featurette: Interview with Composer Hitomi Oba
• 5.1 Surround Sound
• Widescreen Presentation
• THE JAPANESE WIFE NEXT DOOR: Part 2 International Movie Trailers
• Cast and Crew Biographies and Filmographies
• Still Image Slideshow
• Original Japanese Artwork
• Sneak Peek: More PINK EIGA Trailers

MSRP: $21.99
STREET DATE: September 30th, 2010 (Pre-Release: September 14th, 2010)

http://www.pinkeiga.com

Official DVD Artwork

PINK EIGA Inc. releases the touching, erotic Japanese drama
“Sexy Timetrip Ninjas” on DVD!

Los Angeles, California – August 2010 – Greetings from PINK EIGA Inc! We’re a distribution company dedicated solely to the distribution of the Japanese Pink Eiga films. PINK EIGA, Inc. is thrilled to announce their newest release, Academy Award® winning director Yojiro Takita’s “SEXY TIMETRIP NINJAS.”

“SEXY TIMETRIP NINJAS”

Sasuke the Ninja is tasked with finding a hidden treasure that will reestablish his clan. His only obstacle is the sexy ninja Kagero, who wants the riches for her rival clan. When they fall through a rift in time to 1980s Tokyo, they must put aside their differences and use their wits — and bodies — to survive! Academy Award® Winner Yojiro Takita (”Departures”) directs this hilarious and sexy ninja adventure!

DVD SPECS:
• Japanese Language with English Subtitles
• Widescreen Presentation
• SEXY TIMETRIP NINJAS International Trailer
• SEXY TIMETRIP NINJAS Original Japanese Art Work
• Special Feature: Interview with Ninja Historian, Dr. Alex Bay
• Still Image Slideshow
• Cast and Crew Biographies and Filmographies
• Sneak Peeks: More PINK EIGA Trailers

MSRP: $19.99
DVD encoded as ZONE 0 (plays worldwide!)

STREET DATE: September 30th, 2010 (Pre-Release: September 14th, 2010)

http://www.pinkeiga.com