“Spacehunter: Adventures In The Forbidden Zone” (1983) – Classic American Space Opera

Time for another nostalgic trip back to a certain wacky Catgirl’s innocent childhood and a “Lil’ Kitten Classics” review of one of those films of my youth. Our subject this time? Why the 1983 Space Opera 3D epic, “Spacehunter: Adventures In The Forbidden Zone”. 3D? But… but… “Miyuki,” you ask, “Ummm… Don’t you reeeaaally dislike the eye wrenching torture of 3D movies?”. Yes, Gentle Visitors. Yes, I do… But as a wee girl, this particular one showed up at my local cinema in the early 80’s as one of that decades glut of such 3D films during the effect’s attempt at a revival back then. It was the legacy of those 80’s films that pretty much convinced me just how much I despised this particular film special effects gimmick.

Our synopsis? Ok.. ok.. just hold your horses, we’re getting to it. 🙂 “In 2136, an intergalactic bounty hunter named Wolff answers a distress signal that leads him to the plague-ridden planet of Terra Eleven, where he teams up with a spunky orphan girl named Niki to rescue three shipwrecked women from the evil clutches of the sinister mutant cyborg dictator Overdog and his twisted minions.”

Yep. Nothing amazing or novel about this one. It pretty much celebrates the two-fisted pulp scifi serials of an era bygone combined with the post-apocalyptic feel of an Italian “Road Warrior” rip-off. Still, back then it really did make a certain lil’ kitten one happy, happy lil’ girl one hot Saturday afternoon.  However, you do have to realize I was all of 10 years old  the summer this one came along…. 😉

So… wanna hear about it all? Then hitch up your blaster, boot up your trusty android companion, and buckle up for the jump to hyperdrive and by all means… “Read On”!!

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“Guardians of the Galaxy” (2014) – American Comic Book Scifi/ Space Opera

Another “Movie Nite” for my sweetie and I and this time we actually made an evening out for it with a trip to our local cinema to see the latest entry into the Marvel Comics superhero franchise, “Guardians of the Galaxy”. Now… admittedly, and perhaps surprisingly… superhero films aren’t really something this wee Catgirl has ever really liked compared to some of the other fantasy films I usually watch. However, the chance to actually get out to the movies with Carolyn usually means watching something a bit more in line with her tastes compared to an evening in with some of my crazy foreign film choices, so a movie like this one is about the closest we come to satisfying both of us. Hehehe… and in any really good relationship it’s all about finding those areas of common ground… 😉

Our synopsis? How’s this then: “In 1988, following his mother’s death, a young boy is abducted from Earth by the Ravagers, a group of space pirates. Growing up in the vastness of outer space, some twenty-six years later on the planet Morag, brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan and his army of minions, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits and criminals–Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon; Groot, a tree-like humanoid; the deadly and enigmatic Gamora; and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand–with the galaxy’s fate in the balance.”

Not being a big comic book geek, I honestly didn’t know a thing about these characters, but when my sweet Carolyn said, “Now, honey, I just know you’ll like it… it’s got a killer green assassin woman, a walking talking treeman, and an intelligent  smart-ass homicidal gun slinging raccoon in it. Trust me… this is definitely your kind of movie.” Honestly… how do you argue with logic like that? She just knows me too well…. 😉

“The Day of the Triffids” (1963) – British SciFi/ Horror/ Apocalypse

I’m back with more Apocalyptic fun and another Review in our “End of the World As We Know It” movie marathon here at the Litterbox with another nostalgic “Lil’ Kitten Classic” from 1963… the British Sci-fi horror classic, “The Day of the Triffids”. A horrible global epidemic of blindness… a savage worldwide attack by ambulatory carnivorous plants… and civilization crumbles!! Ummmm? Wait a moment? “Killer Plants”? Really? Seriously? Oh yes, indeed, Gentle Visitors…. Add this to your list of possible Doomsday scenarios. The entire human race reduced to nothing more than walking Miracle-Gro for an invasion by hungry walking plants from outer space. 🙂

Our synopsis? How’s this grab you: “On a beautiful clear night in 1963, people all around the world are treated to a once -in-a-lifetime blazing spectacular from deep space… a meteor shower. In London, merchant seaman Bill Masen misses the show as he’s hospitalized with damaged eyes following emergency surgery. The following morning he awakens to find no one answering his bell. He removes the bandages himself and soon realizes that he one of the few people still left with sight as everyone who observed the meteor shower is now blind. Society quickly collapses beneath this unexpected event coupled with the sudden onslaught of the Triffids, flesh eating plants that are now surprisingly ambulatory, spreading  rapidly and devouring the helpless human race.”

Yep…. I know, I know…. it all sounds pretty darn goofy. But… not really any more goofy than the sudden reanimation of the brain munching undead, our old friends, the Zombies. Lil Miyuki saw this one on a Saturday morning “Creature Feature” TV waaaay back in the late 70’s (Or so my vague memories tell me…) and I remember being pretty darn sacred by the whole notion of big killer weeds with poison stingers. Scared enough to still remember it all fondly some 30 odd years later, and that’s saying something… So, if you recall this neat lil’ story too, than how about you “Read On” Gentle Visitor and share some of those feeling with this wee Catgirl? Unlike the Triffids, I promise I won’t bite…. 😉

“Los Últimos Días” aka “The Last Days” (2013) – Spanish Sci-Fi/ Apocalypse

Whew…. I’m still at things, although there are times I think I need to clone myself to get it all done… Here we go again with some more “End of the World As We Know It” fun here at the Litterbox with another Spanish film,  “Los Últimos Días” aka “The Last Days”, that takes the idea of the Apocalypse and gives it yet another somewhat unique and unexpected cause as it’s premise. No big explosions… no global pandemic… no ravenous monsters or aliens… no divine rapture… Nope. Nothing but good ol’ agoraphobia. Well… OK… “agoraphobia on steroids”… but still… really nothing more than just being afraid of the great outdoors. Hmmm? So you think it doesn’t really sound all that bad to you? Just fort up inside your cozy house with all your stuff and wait for the “crazy” to harmlessly pass on by? Certainly nothing “world shattering”, eh? Well…. you’d be soooo sooo wrong.

Our synopsis goes like this: “2013. A mysterious epidemic spreads across the planet. Soon all of humanity develops an irrational fear of open spaces that causes panic attacks so severe they result in almost instant death. Eventually, the world population finds itself trapped inside buildings. As the Spanish city of Barcelona descends into chaos, Marc and his colleague Enrique, set off together on an almost impossible quest to cross the city and find Julia, his missing girlfriend, and Enrique’s hospitalized father, without somehow managing to ever go outside.”

Yep… talk about an original idea. When I saw the Trailer for this one, I just knew I was hooked. Luckily for me… right around that time, the UK Region 2 DVD made it’s appearance. One quick shopping trip later and this wee Catgirl hooked herself up with a copy just in time for our Apocalypse Movie Marathon. So… if you still want more End of the World fun, then just hunker down and “Read On” to hear all the details…. 😉

“When Worlds Collide” (1951) – American Doomsday Sci-Fi Classic

So… if we’re gonna do a proper “End of the World As We Know It” festival this month, then it’s a given that I’m gonna have to do a review of the classic 1951 George Pal film, “When Worlds Collide”. (Psssst! It also lets me do a nostalgic “Lil’ Kitten Classic” Review too at the same time… Gotta love those nifty 2-for-1’s!! 😉 ) This granddaddy of cinema Sci-fi doomsday stories has it all… volcanic disruptions, forest fires, earthquakes, massive tsunamis and floods, along with the pre-apocalyptic breakdown of society right before our earth gets gobbled up by a rampaging alien sun. Yep… you really can’t get anymore “Doomsday” than that…

If you’ve been unlucky enough not to have seen this classic, then our synopsis for it goes as follows: “A dying star hurtles through space on an unavoidable collision course with Earth. The last hope of Earth’s citizens lies in the hands of daredevil pilot Dave Randall and brilliant astronomer Doc Hendron, who will supervise the construction and flight of an interplanetary rocketship that will carry a handful of lucky human survivors to start the race anew on a strange new planet.”

Now this one is a real classic. Schlocky and dated and oh, soooo darn melodramatic, it’s still manages to be a big screen cinematic experience that even today still holds up as great entertainment, at least in a certain goofy movie loving Catgirl’s honest opinion. What? You need convincing? Why then just “Read On” and let this wee Catgirl plead her case and perhaps make it one of your favorite “old movies” too! 😉

“Pacific Rim” (2013) – American Sci-Fi Action Blockbuster

If you grew up in the late 70’s and early 80’s… like a certain wee Catgirl did… then there’s a real chance you too got to spend your Saturday Afternoons glued to the TV watching the plethora of Japanese “Kaiju” films that played endlessly here in the US for the entertainment of children (and more than a few adults, no doubt…. 😉 ) with a day off from school and faaaar too much free time on their hands. Godzilla… Gamera… Rodan… Mothra… King Ghidora…. a seemingly endless horde of giant “rubber suited” monsters whose main mission in life seemed to be to pop out of someplace, be it the depths of the ocean, some arctic deep freeze, or the cold endless void of outer space to find a city and kick the living crap out of it while smashing the mightiest of human armies who were powerless to do much more than even slow them down. Ahhhh… the memories… 😉

Well now…. it’s been… **ahem**… a “few” years since wee lil’ Miyuki gleefully squealed with joy at the apocalyptic antics of all those rubber suited monsters as they stomped and kicked the freaking beejeebits out of Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama and all points east, but thankfully it seems, this wee Catgirl wasn’t the only one enjoying the guilty pleasure of watching that mayhem all those years ago. Our blogging friend Stephen aka Elpeevio of “Things Fall Apart” remembers those old films fondly as well… and when the new Blockbuster Sci-Fi film “Pacific Rim” promised to give all us nostalgic monster movie fans a heapin’ helping of Kaiju fun, it wasn’t hard to convince a crazy Kitten like me that Carolyn and I needed a “Movie Night” out for a change so that we might do another “Dual Review” on this one.

Actually my relationship with such movies and ideas is a little more distanced. As you know, in the UK during my **ahem** formative years, we only had 3 TV channels (and one of them was very part time, the others only broadcast 15 hours a day at best), and so we really didn’t get much imported Children’s programming, and a Godzilla movie would have been incredibly unusual to be shown (yes, believe it or not people, there was a time before downloads, before DVD, before VHS). I do remember really loving “Battle of the Planets” (The Americanised version of “Science Ninja Team Gatchaman”), which had a little bit of Mecha going on. However, whilst I did not know the whole world behind them, I did get a bunch of Macross model kits as a present (other kids got Airfix Aeroplane kits, I got giant Robots… I think a formative parenting choice there), which I adored and played with until I was far too old to admit. The Monster movies was actually more likely to have been rooted in my childhood obsession with Dinosaurs (what young nerd isn’t?), which led to me finding a big picture book about these films in the local library. So my younger experiences was about Movie Stills, Posters and ideas.

I always forget just how saturated the American people are by media compared to the rest of the world. Even before the advent of Cable TV we still received about a dozen broadcast channels just in our area when I was little. Probably why this girl turned into such a movie geek… 😉

Anyways, Gentle Visitors… if the idea of “Giant Robots going all MMA wrasslin’ on gnarly alien mega-monsters to decide the fate of all Humanity” also sounds like your idea of fun family entertainment, then maybe you’ll wanna let Stephen and I tell you all about it. So then…. Watcha waitin’ for? “Let’s get ready to Rrrruumble!!” 😉

“Space Battleship Yamato” (2010) – Japanese SciFi/ Action

This time, it’s off to Japan for the recent live-action big budget blockbuster remake of an old Anime classic, “Space Battleship Yamato”. If you are as big an Anime fan as this lil’ Catgirl, then you’ve already heard about this one, and have probably been waiting for it as eagerly as me… well, it’s finally out on Hong Kong Region 3 DVD (and even Blu-Ray) with those ever so handy English subtitles we all cross our fingers and hope for.

The story? Well, if you aren’t familiar with the old Anime, then here it goes: “In the future, the human race stands on the brink of extinction at the hands of unknown and unstoppable alien invaders the Gamilas. Enduring ceaseless bombardment from deep space has left mankind trapped on a radiation-soaked, nigh-uninhabitable Earth. But one hope remains, the message of a device supposedly capable of cleansing the poisoned Earth sent by a benevolent alien race, located on the distant planet of Iscandar somewhere far beyond our galaxy.

Earth’s only remaining hope is the last giant star-cruising battleship in her possession, the resurrected WW2 Japanese battleship Yamato, now refitted with a warp engine and armed with the Wave Motion cannon capable of incredible mass destruction, the first help from far off Iskandar. To accomplish this seemingly impossible task, the Yamato is hastily launched with a ragtag crew of personnel, including angst-ridden fighter pilot Susumu Kodai (Takuya Kimura), Captain Okita (Tsutomu Yamazaki), and sexy fighter pilot Yuki (Meisa Kuroki). With them, the Yamato must race against time and battle it’s way across enemy controlled space to find Iskandar, save the dying Earth, and ultimately defeat the evil Gamilas once and for all.”

Yep…. that’s pretty much the way I remember the plot of the old TV show. So will such a classic Anime successfully translate from the animated small screen to the big budget movie screen? Guess your truly will just have to take a look and find out. 🙂

“Night of the Comet” (1984) – Classic Horror/ SciFi/ Zombie

Well…. after a couple of weeks of inactivity, I’m finally back and yep…. it’s time for another nostalgic filled trip back to the wondrous times and fond memories of lil’ Miyuki’s youth and another of my “Lil’ Kitten Classics” reviews. This time up we have, from 1984, the goofy classic  zombie fest “Night of the Comet”.

Starring Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney as spunky teenage sisters forced to fight Zombies and evil government creeps in the aftermath of a worldwide apocalypse caused by the close passing of a comet, this one had all the goofy genre conventions needed to captivate a young zombie fan like me…

Naturally I just had to watch it….. and this time it was at the movies on the big screen! How I managed to trick my Mom into taking me and my friends one evening is a tale into itself…. Hehehehe!!

Let’s just say it’s a good thing she never really watched TV all that much…..

Anyway… lets get on with the fun! So by all means, let’s all “Read On”, shall we?

“Chrysalis” (2007) – French Cyberpunk Scifi/ Action

Something a bit different for your perusal this week, the French Scifi/ Cyberpunk action film “Chysalis” directed by Julien Leclercq has finally made it’s way here to Region 1 DVD and your Favorite Catgirl needed just this sort of change of pace, so for our Review this time out, we’re off to Paris in the year 2025…. and naturally enough science is up to no good…..

The synopsis reads: “The near-future, year 2025. A high-tech surgeon and her daughter are involved in a horrific car accident – with the young girl nearly losing her life. However, with the most advanced technology at her command, the surgeon is able to restore her daughter to health….. but with dire consequences.

Meanwhile gung-ho police officer Hoffman loses his wife and partner in a pitched gun battle with an escaped gangland criminal. Seeking revenge his investigation takes him all the way to the surgeon and a clinic run by the iron hand of technology where all is not as it seems.”

“Simple, non?” (Betcha didn’t know your “Princesse Magique des Fille de Chat” spoke a lil’ French, eh?…… or at least I can find “Bablefish” when I need it… Hehehehe!!)

So will this be a gritty futuristic detective film with edge-of-the-seat action and taught drama wrapped around a cautionary treatise on the dangers of technology run amok? Or will it just plain stink….. and not in a good way. Let’s all “Read On” and find out!!