“Strippers Vs. Werewolves” (2012) – British Exploitation/ Horror/ Comedy

Time for another wee bit of silly mind-rotting cinema fun and a look at the new British Horror/ comedy mash-up, “Strippers Vs. Werewolves”. What? You mean you really didn’t know that the eternal enemy of Werewolves wasn’t Vampires but Exotic Dancers instead? Well consider yourself lucky a certain goofy Catgirl was around to set the record straight and keep you all informed of such things…. Hehehe!!

Our synopsis goes along these lines: “At the “Vixens” strip club, a dancer named Justice performs a private lap dance for Mickey, a man who violates the no-touching policy … by sprouting fangs and claws and trying to eat her! Justice panics and takes the only option open to her: she drives a silver fountain pen through Mickey’s eye, into his brain, killing him instantly. Oops…

Jeanette, the club’s owner, believes murdering customers is bad for business, so she orders the club’s bouncer to quietly dispose of the body. There the matter should end … if Mickey hadn’t been a member of a bloodthirsty and vengeful pack of werewolves.

When Mickey’s corpse surfaces, Jack Ferris, the werewolves’ charming and vicious leader, swears bloody vengeance and sends his pack out to hunt down the killers. Little does he know, Justice is actually the fiancée of his second in command, Scott. To make matters worse, Justice bites Scott during sex and now may be infected with the curse of lycanthropy herself!

Add to the mix the masturbating man-child werewolf Barker, Sinclair, a nerdy occultist with low self-esteem, a few sexy Vampire girls, and a bevy of the most beautiful women this side of heaven and you have the perfect recipe for balls to the wall, skimpily clad, strippers on werewolves action-packed goodness.”

Now…. My sweetie, Carolyn, is always bugging me to find us more movies, without subtitles, where everybody speaks English for a change…. even if it does look like one of my utterly crap-tastic “guilty pleasure” baaaaad movies. Hehehe…. well… they do speak English in this one. I can at least promise her that much…..

So. What are you waiting for, silly? You can’t fool me… you know you wanna “Read On”…. a certain Catgirl Princess knows you only too well…

“The Unborn Child” aka “ศพเด็ก 2002″ (2011) – Thai Ghost/ Horror

Time for some creepy ghost action, Thai style, with a look at director Poj Arnon’s 2011 effort, “The Unborn Child”. Been a while since I’ve gotten to watch any Thai films, but thanks to a recent Taiwanese release with those ever so nifty English subtitles on board, it was finally time to give it a try.

Our synopsis goes sorta like this: “Crime-scene photographer Tri, his wife Pim, and lovable little 5 year old daughter Yaimai become haunted by the spirit of an angry child after Tri is assigned to film the body of a woman discovered after an illegal abortion gone wrong.

As he investigates the mysterious events surrounding the case, the danger deepens for his family and secrets he thought long past return to seek vengeance in the name of the spirits of a horde of helpless infants trapped in a grisly existence beyond death where only anger and hatred remain.”

I’ve heard that this one is a bit overly preachy and exploitative… and it’s based on a true Thai news scandal from a year or so back, with a lot of “moral instruction” intended for a Thai audience at large rather than entertaining a foreign one…. but darn it…. it’s just been soooo long since any Thai horror has made it’s way to this wee Catgirl that I’m willing to take a chance and give this one a try. I mean…. it’s got oodles and oodles of ghost babies….. how can that not be super creepy?

So… without further delay, let’s get right down to it and see for ourselves just what sort of creepy hijinx those baby ghosts can get up to, shall we?

“War of the Arrows” aka “최종병기 활” (2011) – Korean Martial Art/ Action

It’s been a looooong dry spell here at the Litterbox, as Life seems to be conspiring to keep lil’ ol’ me busy lately, but finally I’m back at it, with a look at Korea’s 2011 Martial Arts action epic adventure “War of the Arrows”…. and a special “guest star” appearance by our friend Elpeevio of “Things Fall Apart” to join in the fun.

Oh how exciting, I have never been a “guest star” before, I’ll be doing my best to add to the experience of this review. How about the Catgirl gets us started with a little synopsis of what this one is all about?

Our synopsis goes as follows: “Set in 1636, during the second Manchurian invasion of  Chosun Korea, young Nam-Yi’s entire family have been branded as traitors by the Crown, but he also happens to be the best archer in the Joseon Dynasty. Living his life in hiding within the household of his father’s one remaining friend, Nam-Yi’s only desire in life is to keep his sister, Ja-In safe from any harm. However, on the day of his sister’s wedding, the villages of Joseon Korea are attacked by the Qing Dynasty of China. The border village in which Nam-Yi and Ja-In live is directly in the path of invasion and Ja-In gets kidnapped by the elite troop of Qing to be taken back north as a slave. In order to rescue his sister from the raiders, he departs from his demolished village with only the bow that his father had bequeathed upon him before dying. Disrupting his mission to save his sister is Jyu Shin-Ta, a fierce Qing warrior who leads the elite troop. They are relentless in their chase to bring down Nam-Yi, who has but one day to save his sister from slavery. As Nam-Yi finally gets a hold of his sister, Jyu Shin-Ta comes between them and a fierce battle between two of the finest warriors unfolds.”

Crazy lil’ me likes a good swashbuckling Martial Art film almost as much as my Ghost Stories….. It’s probably that “Warrior Princess” deep inside me aching for some heroic action, so naturally when this one slipped onto my radar a while back I just knew I’d have to give it a look see. I mean…. “Rambo” crossed with “Robin Hood” and seasoned with more than a little “Crouching Tiger” meets “Musa the Warrior”…. I can honestly say it’s certainly got this wee Catgirl plenty interested. So then… does it indeed have the goods? Will it live up to the hype and suitably sate my need for extravagantly gorgeous period action and adventure? And…. most importantly of all… will my sweetie like it too, subtitles and all?

I have grown to love the Martial Arts genre too over the last few years, and the Korean take on things is always a little different to that you find in Chinese and Hong Kong films.  I think the film initially intrigued me by the use of Bows and Arrows rather than the normal swordplay, and I am a total sucker for Joseon-era stories with the amazing outfits and the strict Confucian society.  This really was a massive hit in its homeland, and I was rather surprised to see it got a limited North American Cinema outing.  We also have it on DVD and Blu-ray here in England too, which is nice.

So… really only one way to find out what we all thought of it, o’ Gentle Visitors, and that’s to “Read On”…

My Lazy lil’ Butt…

Yep…. it’s been a while since I posted here at the ol’ Litterbox. So darn long that I’m thinking many of you Gentle Visitors have just plain started asking yourselves, “Just where is that goofy lil’ Catgirl?”

I wish I could say I had lots and lots of good reasons for my absence of late, but the truth is after last month’s bout of “Spring Fever”, I got hit with the double whammy of having to play “catch up” on all the important responsibilities I let slide while being all silly and hyper for so long. Couple that with an increase in my workload as our restaurant gets closer to the Graduation Weekends at our local colleges and it’s left me tired and feeling just plain lazy when I do get any free time of my own.

Still…. I have manged to dig out a bit and buckle back down, so I’m hoping that even though I’ve pretty much blown my “New Years Resolution” all to heck soon I’ll be back on track with things here.

First up… I hope….. should be a special “shared review” of the Korean action film “War of the Arrows” with our friend and fellow Asian film fanatic Elpeevio both here and at his blog, “Things Fall Apart”. Assuming he hasn’t just plain given up on my silly spastic lil’ butt that is….

Beyond that, I’d like to get some more Reviews done in the next few days and maybe one or two other ideas I’ve been thinkin’ of….

And hey….. you never know….. it could actually happen.

‘Till then, “Meow, meow for now!”

“Cinco De Mayo” Neko-style!!

Well….. Ok…..

So maybe  “Cinco De Mayo” has come and gone…. and although I did have some fun with it at the restaurant on Saturday, I’m thinking, that perhaps  this bit of goofy video I bumped into over at Twitchfilm says it all about how just about anything can be made better…. with ninjas!!

Seriously silly…. just the way yours truly likes them. Enjoy!!

“7 X 7″ Link Award

It’s a new month…. and so far April is certainly living up to it’s reputation for “April Showers”, but at least all this time indoors the last week or so has helped me to shake my crazy desire to run around outside all the time.

Luckily that gives me time to catch up on things here at the ol’ Litterbox that I’ve let slide lately, so there will be more Reviews soon…. as well as my chance to take care of being tagged by our dear Blogging friend Miss Novia Rozet at “Polychrome Interest” as one of her choices to be awarded the “7 x7″ Blog Award….

Now… while I’ve always been a bit shy of participating in these sorts of things, this particular one sounds like so much fun, and I’m truly touched to think Novia thought of including lil’ ol’ me out of all the many people she knows and could have chosen, so how could this wee Catgirl not want to join in the fun? Party pooper, me? Never….

So…. curious to see what it’s all about? Why then just “Read On” and see for yourself…

“Kalevet” aka “Rabies” (2010) – Israeli Horror

A new month… and although your Favorite Catgirl may have been a bit a slacker here at the “ol’ Litterbox” of late, I have indeed finally managed to shake off my annual bout of “Spring Fever” and so I’m back at it again with a look this time out at Israel’s first foray into the realm of the horror film (at least as far as this wee lady has been told….) and a review of the Region 1 release of “Kalevet” aka “Rabies”.

Our quick synopsis goes: “Rabies” relates the story of a brother and sister who run away from home seeking sanctuary in a deserted nature reserve. When his sister falls into the booby-trap of a psychopathic killer roaming those same woods, the brother sets out on a desperate race to find help. In a macabre twist of fate the rescue of his sister soon becomes inexplicably entangled with the lives of a group of young tennis players, a forest ranger, his girlfriend, and his dog, as well as a pair of police officers…. some of whom might just prove to be even more dangerous than the psychopath himself.”

Yeah… yeah… I know. Yours truly reeeeeaally isn’t the biggest fan of slasher genre films… but hey… an honest to goodness Israeli one? Can I really miss out on something as odd as that? I’m thinkin’ not…

So… given that the Israelis are actually smack dab in the middle of what might just be the biggest “reality show” of true life horrific gore and violence most days, it definitely makes you wonder just what sort of spin can their film-makers be expected to give this tired ol’ genre?

Intrigued maybe…? Wanna find out some more? Then just follow this goofy Catgirl and let me tell you all about it….

“El Monstro del Mar!” (2010) – Australian Exploitation/ Horror

Hmmmm? A goofy movie spoofing all those gory 70′s “Bad Babes Gone Wild” rubber monster grindhouse horror films that this girl grew up watching on late night TV in the 80′s….. Think this wee Catgirl could pass up a chance to see a movie like that? How about if it were made in…. Australia? Ok, ok…. sign me up.

Our synopsis? How about this: “Three gorgeous but deadly femme fatales, Beretta, Blondie and Snowball, hole up in a small beach-side community after their latest murderous spree attracts the wrong kind of attention. But not all is as it seems here in this small town. A few of the locals try desperately to warn them of the dangers of going into the water but these wanton vixens will listen to no one’s advice and they brazenly take to the sea. Unknown to them however, their wild seaside frolic has awakened a horrifying beast from the depths of the ocean. It isn’t long before these sexy sirens are hip-deep in trouble as the sea itself rises in a tidal wave of blood and they face the fight of their lives against the terrifying Kraken. …El Monstro del Mar!”

Originally released on an Australian Region 4 DVD, importing such a crazy lil’ film was just too much for this wee Catgirl’s budget to handle… Thankfully, it wasn’t all that long before a much more price friendly Region 1 DVD came along for me to snatch a copy of. Am I expecting a cinematic masterpiece for all the ages? Nawwww…. but I do think I’ll catch some goofy exploitation goodness all wrapped up in a bit of nostalgic homage to the brain rotting “guilty pleasure” films of my somewhat miss-spent youth. Never a bad thing….

Have some memories of your own of those terrible video nasties your Mom or Dad never wanted you to watch when you were an impressionable youth? Then you’d better “Read On”… ’cause I’ll bet you won’t want to miss this one either…

Spring Fever…

Sigh…. I know Gentle Visitors…. I’ve been a bad, bad kitten lately….

My “New Years Resolution” to post more regularly here at the ol’ Litterbox has pretty much gotten shot to heck lately by the last few weeks of unseasonably warm, deliciously enjoyable, spring weather hereabouts. It’s had me in the grip of my usual annual “Spring Mood Swing”…. but it’s happening a good month or more earlier than is normal for me. You all know what THAT means…

Yes…. these last few weeks, I’m just a bundle of twitchy manic energy, complete with my normal bout of seasonal insomnia and inability to repress my desire to just plain get outside and “play” constantly….. which has made buckling down and getting any movie watching, or writing, or getting serious about anything just about impossible. So…. just what the heck have I been up to lately?

Well…. an afternoon off by myself has provided me the opportunity to try to suppress my frantic need to frolic for at least long enough to let you all catch up on your Favorite Catgirl’s personal life…. and another quick “Diary” posting to show you all that…. despite my silly manic desire to get back outside and enjoy the sun…. I’m still here. So… before those warm breezes lure me away… you’d better “Read On”…..

“L’Île : Les Naufragés de la Terre Perdue” (2011) – French Fantasy/ Adventure

February has faded away into the rear view mirror, and with March so newly upon us, it’s time for your favorite Catgirl Princess to swing by France for a look at the recent fantasy adventure “L’Île : Les Naufragés de la Terre Perdue” aka “The Isle : Castaways of the Lost Land”.

Our synopsis: “The Atlantic Ocean 1942: After the crash landing of their plane which was to take them to South America and to save them from the German occupation in France,Franck, Albert and Pierre land on a mysterious island. Exhausted, they end up making camp on the beach, but at dawn, Pierre is awakened by an appalling cry which seems to emanate from somewhere at the heart of the island. With a feeling of impending dread gripping them, they decide to venture inland… Will they be ready to face the fabulous and terrible hidden secret of the Isle?”

I nearly missed this particular lil’ film… but luckily stumbled across the Trailer during one of my afternoon Internet surfing expeditions. It wasn’t hard to pick up on the feeling that it has a whole “Mysterious Island” meets “Lost” vibe about it. Oooohh…. and 1942… you just gotta know that means Nazis!! Neko just loves evil Nazi villains in her movies… soooo darn over-the-top and nasty. A wee bit of work located yours truly her own copy, thanks to a bit of shopping at Amazon France…. so let’s all get right to it and see how it played out.

Yes, yes… it’s time to “Read On”….