TOMB OF NOSTALGIA: EAT MY DUST! (1976)

EAT MY DUST! (1976)

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A year before Smokey And The Bandit and a good three years before The Dukes Of Hazzard, Ron Howard led a cross county chase in this Roger Corman produced action/comedy. The story is simple…teen Hoover Niebold (Ron Howard) wants to impress beautiful blonde Darlene Kurtz (Christopher Norris) who has a love for fast cars. Hoover steals the fastest stock car on the track, belonging to local legend Big Bubba Jones (Dave “Mr. Kincaid” Madden) to take her for a ride. This joy ride turns into a hot pursuit as his sheriff father (Warren Kemmerling) leads the chase, followed by a posse of drunken stock car racers and inept deputies!

Car chase flick is written and directed by Charles B. Griffith who wrote a lot of scripts for Corman during the 60s, 70s and 80s, including many of his classics. It is a light, fun and fast paced effort that made a lot of money for Corman and New World Pictures. The film was part of a deal with Ron Howard, who had star power from Happy Days and was looking to direct. If he starred in this, he could make another film for Corman from the director’s chair, which would become Grand Theft Auto. The result is a good time with a lot of slapstick comedy and an almost non-stop chase with young Hoover outwitting his dad’s deputies and Big Bubba’s drunken buddies. As with most Corman films, there is a lot accomplished with a little and Griffith brings a light, breezy fun to the proceedings and keeps things moving quickly. It’s silly and goofy, but energetic and there is plenty of stunts and crashes for car chase enthusiasts to enjoy.

Howard plays Hoover much like a grown up version of his Opie Taylor from The Andy Griffith Show. He’s a bit of a country bumpkin, but is clever enough to outwit his pursuers. Howard has charm and is very likable as the rebellious teen willing to do anything for love. Christopher Norris is pretty and spunky as the object of Hoover’s affection, Darlene. The two make an endearing pair as they outwit the nitwits in their county. The supporting cast all have a good time playing their roles with over-the-top, slapstick efficiency, too and it’s fun to watch them. The film also stars Howard’s brother Clint, a known cult favorite character actor himself.

This film is now considered a cult classic and in an indirect way got Ron Howard started on a career as a prolific and highly regarded director. It’s silly, funny and loaded with plenty of chases and crashes. It was a successful film for Corman’s New World Pictures and predated the “redneck” car chase craze started by Smokey And The Bandit by a year. A fun little movie and another example of Roger Corman’s craft as a producer.

-MonsterZero NJ

3 rebel caps.

 

 

 

 

TOMB OF NOSTALGIA: THE WRAITH (1986)

THE WRAITH (1986)

“Roadblocks won’t stop something that can’t be stopped!”- Sheriff Loomis (Randy Quaid)

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If there ever is a flick that screams “80s”, it’s Mike Marvin’s The Wraith. From it’s delightfully 80s fashions and hair, candy colored cinematography and heavy metal soundtrack (tracks listed below), this film is a ton of fun simply for the nostalgia alone. The story takes place in a small Arizona desert town were a thug by the name of Packard Walsh (Nick Cassavetes) rules over a vicious gang of car jockeys. Aside from racing, their hobbies are stealing cars, bullying townspeople and even murder when it comes to anyone even looking at the object of Packard’s twisted attention, Keri (Sherilyn Fenn). But Packard starts to lose his grip when mysterious stranger, Jake (Charlie Sheen) comes to town with eyes for Keri…and a mysterious car shows up as well, that starts taking out Packard’s gang. Are this stranger and this car connected?…and what do they have to do with the death of Keri’s previous boyfriend, Jamie (Christopher Bradley)?

Written and directed by Mike Marvin, this is a goofy…though taken fairly seriously…flick that is a mix of The Car, The Terminator and The Crow, though it predates the latter, with it’s protagonist avenging his own murder, by three years for the graphic novel and twelve for the film. It’s basically a series of fast paced car chases set to blasting heavy metal with each contest ending in flames and twisted wreckage. The film is a lot of fun, if you can get past the awkward performances from some of the supporting cast and the cheesy dialogue, such as the snippet above. There is never an explanation as to how Jamie is able to return…in a blaze of cheesy 80s animations effects, no less…and why he looks like Charlie Sheen or has a pimped up Dodge. There are some other very strange elements here that are never explained, such as the victims being dead yet showing no bodily damage, as one would in a car crash, and whenever The Wraith claims a victim, one of his metal arm or leg braces disappears…WHAT? Who cares as long as we’re entertained and The Wraith does that, scatterbrained plot or not. When we are not getting heavy metal blasting on the soundtrack, there is a perfectly 80s electronic score by Michael Hoenig and J. Peter Robinson and that candy colored cinematography is photographed by Reed Smoot. An almost perfect example of the kind of low budget flick that dominated the mid to late 80s and could still be seen in a theater where flicks like this belong!

The main cast is fun and give their parts their all. Charlie Sheen is suitably mysterious as the handsome stranger that comes into to town to woo Keri. As The Wraith, the character is in a suit of space-aged armor, so Sheen is only on screen sporadically in the scenes with Sherilyn Fenn and Matthew Barry, who plays Jamie’s brother Billy. Fenn is a little wooden, but looks incredibly hot as Keri. She claims not to be Packard’s girlfriend yet is too frightened to walk away from him…until dreamy, mysterious Jake shows up. She and Sheen do have a bit of chemistry on screen. Cassavetes is a perfectly slimy, psycho villain and we can’t wait till he and the avenger with the futuristic Dodge meet on the highway to Hell. Randy Quaid is fun as the tough guy Sheriff, who is the only one who stands up to Packard, as is Clint Howard a hoot as one of Packard’s eccentric goons. As for the supporting cast, here is where some of the acting gets really shaky and provides some unintentional laughs. 80s horror fans can also keep a look out for a familiar face, as there is also a small role from Intruder and Night Of The Creeps star Elizabeth Cox as the girlfriend of a guy who loses his car to Packard in a race.

The Wraith is a blast of 80s fun and while it wasn’t a big hit back in the day, it has earned a following as a cult classic. Sure the script is a bit on the goofy side and a lot of things are never explained, but the film is entertaining enough to get passed all that, especially now with the delightful and bountiful 80s nostalgia. The film is a remembrance of the type of flick they don’t make anymore…outside of some recent homages…and is a real good time especially when accompanied by some of your favorite brews.

-MonsterZero NJ

3 nostalgically fun wraiths.

 

 

 

 

 

Track Listing from the Soundtrack CD

1. Where’s The Fire – Tim Feehan
2. Those Were The Days – Honeymoon Suite
3. Hearts Vs Heads – Stan Bush
4. Hold On Blue Eyes – LaMarcha
5. Young Love, Hot Love – Jill Michaels
6. Secret Loser – Ozzy
7. Never Surrender – Lion
8. Bad Mistake – James House
9. Wake Up Call – Ian Hunter
10. Matter Of The Heart – Bonnie Tyler

Songs featured in the film but not on the CD

1. Smokin’ in the Boys Room – Mötley Crüe
2. Addicted to Love – Robert Palmer
3. Scream of Angels – Nick Gilder
4. Power Love – Lion
5. Rebel Yell – BillyIdol

 

…and Clint Howard, just because…

 

TOMB OF NOSTALGIA: EVILSPEAK (1981)

EVILSPEAK (1981)

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Evilspeak is an early 80s possession/revenge flick that is a lot of fun…mostly for the wrong reasons, but is still a goofy, gory good time.

The story opens with a sequence from ages past where a Spanish priest, Father Esteban (Richard Moll) is expelled from the church for his apparent turn to Satanism. We then open in modern times (well, 1981) at the West Andover Military Academy, whose chapel was founded by none other than that same Father Esteban. We also meet Private Stanley Coopersmith (Clint Howard), an orphan assigned to the academy and a sad and lonely misfit who is constantly picked-on and abused by both the instructors and the cadets. While on punishment assignment cleaning the church cellar, he finds a hidden room and a sinister looking book. Coopersmith uses his advance computer skills to translate the book and soon unleashes the demonic spirit of Father Esteban through his computer and uses the fallen priest’s powers to exact cruel and bloody revenge on all those who have tormented him.

Directed and co-written (with Joseph Garofalo) by Eric Weston, this movie comes across as Carrie meets The Exorcist and Weston takes his flick very seriously, despite being a very silly movie at heart. Even with a serious approach, the camp factor is prevalent and accentuated by Roger Kellaway’s ridiculously melodramatic score, complete with over-the-top chorus vocals, and it makes the already ludicrous moments all the more fun. The script dumps every indignity possible on poor Stanley and it becomes quite laughable, but not as much fun as when the Esteban possessed Coopersmith takes his bloody revenge out on those who have done him wrong in the overblown finale set inside the chapel. The film is certainly entertaining up to this point, but really takes off in the last act, with a levitating, sword-weilding Coopersmith leading an army of hungry wild boars to decimate his enemies. Yes, you read that right. The gore is quite graphic and Weston saves most of it for the climax, so it has the impact it needs. The cast all appropriately overact though, we do sympathize with the bug-eyed Coopersmith as it seems the deck is always stacked against him…till he starts to mess with Esteban’s Satanic textbook. Add in all the 80s nostalgia and this flick definitely is a lot of fun…especially with some brews to accompany it.

Not a great flick, but a very nostalgic and entertaining one. It combines the loner revenge story with a possession movie and while given a serious tone, has a lot of fun with the elements of both. The cast all ham it up despite Weston’s straightforward direction and the director does know when to cut loose and when to hold back. There is a lot of graphic gore especially in the climactic scene and overall, this is a wacky flick that really entertains in grand 80s style. A lot of bloody fun and the type of flick that seems to be a lost art. Also stars R.G. Armstrong, Hamilton Camp, What’s Happening’s Heywood Nelson and That 70s Show’s Don Stark as chief antagonist Bubba.

-MonsterZero NJ

3 (out of 4) wild boars.

 

 

 

 

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