Bill Makes Podcasts Posts

Have you ever seen a dragonfly larvae?

If not, hint: THEY ARE NOT PRETTY, but I think that we can absolutely agree that the final product is astoundingly beautiful, nature’s iridescent little Sikorsky helicopters.

The lesson here is that beautiful things can come from ugly things.
That within a bad idea, a great product can be brought into the world.

So it is with Hammer’s 1957 production of “The Abominable Snowman”.
Upon first blush, you’re like okay, it’s a Bigfoot movie, let’s not get too excited about it, but then – then you see that it has Peter ‘effin’ Cushing in it.

And you start watching it.

And you change your mind.

This movie is really, really good.

Made just three years after the classic “Gojira” by the same director, “The Mysterians” is one of those movies where you wonder just what the hell happened between initial idea and finished film.

A cautionary tale against the proliferation and use of nuclear weapons, we have flying saucers, a Giant Anteater Robot, Disco Overlords bent on world destruction and, of course, marrying our Earth women.

It’s just as bonkers as it sounds.

Sharks!
Nature’s Death Torpedoes, or Misunderstood Gentle Ocean Creature?

Before Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws”, people probably didn’t give sharks a second thought.

After the movie, well, it’s a different story, and sometimes that story should not have been told, which brings us to this month’s movie, “Mako: The Jaws of Death”.

When one thinks of Great Britain, we think of Downton Abbey, Queen Elizabeth, punks with big mohawks, and of course, Winston Churchill.

We might think about Stonehenge, Rendelsham Forest, and of course, David Icke.

To many among us, Hawaii is a distant paradise.
It is a remote, mysterious, exotic travel destination.

We envision sandy beaches, clear blue water, drinks with umbrellas, and beautiful women in grass skirts to greet us as we exit the plane.

We do not, however, envision “Hard Ticket to Hawaii”.

When it comes to luchador movies, masked wrestler movies made in Mexico, there is a certain amount of disbelief that is necessary to really enjoy them.

To do this, we must go to a place that I call Horror Mexico.
There is the Mexico that exists right now, and then there is Horror Mexico.

There’s something about being a Secret Agent that people just love.
Danger, excitement, fast cars, alcoholic beverages, smooching and of course, being able to dress really, really well.

You come out of a James Bond movie wanting to get the girl and have someone place a martini in your hand.
That’s the sign of a good Secret Agent movie.

Secret Agent Fireball is not a good Secret Agent movie.

The Seventies were a weird dang time.
We had Nixon, the Vietnam War,  Disco, Jaws, Bigfoot and of course, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

UFO Target Earth was made 3 years before Spielberg’s flying saucer film, but it is light years ahead in incoherent plot, poor acting and Commodore 64 generated computer graphic weirdness.

You don’t have to be high to understand this movie, but it might help.

When it comes to vampires, and especially the King of the Vampires, Dracula, you want someone who will kick ass, take names, snap your neck like a pencil, and steal your girl.

If you look at Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan’s work on Marvel’s “The Tomb of Dracula” comic book from the 1970’s, you will see what I am talking about.

With “Count Dracula’s Great Love”, however, we get someone a bit different.