Monster of the Day #1611

Ah, the ’70s, when you made your low-budget Euro zombie film and it still made sense to hire a bunch of over the hill ‘name’ actors to star in it. Still, John Carradine. So it *has* to be good, right?

Basically watched TV all weekend, and by TV, I mean Netflix. They dropped The Defenders, which is basically the Avengers for their four Marvel superhero shows. It was pretty good, if short at only 8 episodes. Still, that kept the pacing tight. And the scene where all the heroes first end up in a big brawl together is perfect.

Iron Fist is still a hapless dumbass, which annoys me no end (he should be the most centered of the characters, like Bruce Lee or Chunk Norris). On the other hand, he wasn’t carrying the show, so he wasn’t nearly as annoying as he was on his own program. I hope they fix him, though. They are doing a good job of establishing his out of left field friendship with Luke Cage, anyway.

Even better, Netflix drops a show that I know NOTHING about until I saw the notice. Million Yen Women starts as a very high concept show. A very socially awkward and uncomfortable unsuccessful novelists is living with five young women (my penchant for Japanese girls doesn’t hurt here) who were invited by a mysterious party to live at his house, paying him an outrageous million yen a month rent.

I loved the fact I had no idea where it was going. It unfolded at a blessedly stately pace, which I great enjoyed, but which could never get boring because each episode only runs 24 minutes or so. The thing with Japanese shows is that they being very light or VERY dark, so seeing where the program led was delightful.

Actually, having two new shows the same weekend worked well, as I alternated episodes of each. That way I gave each show a little breathing room.

Anyway, what did you guys do?

  • Flangepart

    “I’m not ‘undead’ so much as ‘only mostly dead.’

  • Gamera977

    Well, not much here. Watched a couple episodes of ‘Magnum P.I.’ and a great Korean thriller ‘A Hard Day’ on Netflix. I saw ‘Million Yen Women’ pop up as recommended for me, I had no idea it had been dropped.

    And watched a few internet videos on the upcoming STD- I mean ‘Star Trek: Discovery’… I think the acronym fits pretty friggin’ well. Not only is it set in a THIRD timeline different from the regular series and the Abramsverse now I see they’ve turned the ‘Klingons’ into Drazi from ‘Babylon 5’. ‘Star Fake: Trainwreck’ would be a far better name.

    Funny Carridine would come up though. In the ‘Road Warrior’ type RPG we’re playing my guy as Wyatt Earp/Judge Dread sorta Sheriff that I’m describing as looking like John Carridine as a gunslinger.

  • kgb_san_diego

    I finally got around to Train to Busan, which is quite, quite good indeed.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    I moved to a new place. Hottest weather I can recall. So, not as much fun as your weekend.

  • Rock Baker

    I finally saw SONG OF THE SOUTH over the weekend, and needless to say I found it a completely delightful experience. I ended the weekend with another Disney period live-action film with animation sequences, SO DEAR TO MY HEART, which was of course charming but wasn’t the most compelling production Walt produced either. Screened a gorgeous print of THE 4D MAN, noticing this time around just how much they tried to make Robert Lansing come across like Steve McQueen (the original choice for the picture). What a flick, with some imaginative effects and an intelligent script. I particularly love how they handled the climax, where a cop sets down his revolver on the control panel to man some dials. The gun isn’t the focus of the shot, but we notice it. Then it isn’t seen again until after it’s used minutes later. Most films would’ve had a character eye the gun and serve the weapon it’s own close-up before they took it in hand. Nice, subtle work here, and the film is all the stronger for it.

  • Ericb

    I love the 4D Man. It scared me as a kid and I didn’t know until it was released in DVD that is was made by the same producers that made The Blob which was the other movie that really scared me when I was young.

  • Ken_Begg

    I liked Million Yen quite a bit. If you watch it, let us know what you thought.

  • Flangepart

    I thought Lansing quite good in the role. What happens re; his brother, was a surprise.

  • I watched the Void, a crowd funded Horror flick very much in the mold of John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness but far more ambitious, with a lot of great practical effect creatures. Not always very clear (and the soundtrack sometimes booms too much), I enjoyed it a great deal.

  • bgbear_rnh

    I was going to recommend “Comrade Detective” but it is Amazon.

  • Gamera977

    Thanks, if I get the chance to check it out I’ll be sure to let you know., I’ve got about 84 or so things on my Netflix queue and I only watch 1-2 a week so it’s slow going…

  • Gamera977

    Cool, it’s on my Netflix queue, I’ll have to bump it up,.

  • Ken_Begg

    I started watching that, but the intro with Channing Tatum and the producer more or less singing the praises of Communism turned me off. I’ll try it again some time and just skip the intro.

    There is a post-Communist Soviet detective series on Netflix called Sniffer that’s basically a USA Channel series made in Russia. Pretty much exactly, although the cockhound best friend probably wouldn’t make it in American TV now.

  • Spent the weekend at GenCon (eventually, got stuck overnight in Atlanta first) being overwhelmed with the sheer amount of STUFF, still trying to unfry my brain. Got Larry Correia’s autograph though, so a successful weekend consolidating my membership in the ‘wrongfans having wrongfun’ club.

  • bgbear_rnh

    That silly intro also threw me off, but as it gets into the actual show, it is clear that the series is mocking communism with smiling pictures of Ceaușescu and all. I assume they thought of the intro as simply ironic, like they were taking it seriously.

  • Rock Baker

    Indeed. Some rather brilliant scripting which plays counter to our natural expectations.

  • FOR SHAME! FOR SHAME! Don’t you know that the having of wrong fun is wrong and therefore not fun? And get excited for someone who isn’t even a real author yet, no less!

    I’m not a big one for autographs and all, but Correia is one of the writers I might make an exception for. His blog page alone is glorious.

  • Gamera977

    Awesome! I’ve been reading Correia’s novels and blog for years! I did get to shake Col. Tom Kratman’s hand a few years ago.

  • I’m a huge fan of both books and blog, so while I usually skip anything involving lines, I had to say hello. I brought my copy of The Christmas Noun. Apparently Adam Baldwin is recording Tom Stranger 2 as we speak.

    The fun part was watching one of the “real writers” in all his gloriously bemanbunned hipster glory absolutely fuming that Larry had fans and he, well, didn’t.

  • The Rev.

    I just got back from a week-long visit to see the family up in Iowa. We went to the Iowa State Fair and not much else, which I was perfectly happy to do. It was good to see them all again.

    I wish Netflix would stop putting out all these interesting series. I can’t keep up.

  • The Rev.

    Yes. Yes, it is.

  • The Rev.

    Hey, I heard that Sandy Petersen guy was going to be there as well. Did you happen to meet him? Man, I’d love to get his autograph.

  • zombiewhacker

    But this wasn’t a Euro zombie film. Wasn’t this House of the Seven Corpses?

  • Oops, you’re right, for some reason I thought it was. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen this one.

  • I might have done. Maybe. Hard to say with so many folks there.

  • Eric Hinkle

    Hah! We should be more ashamed of our schadenfreude, but really, those guys have no one to blame but themselves.