The B-Masters Cabal

Comment from Joshua
Time: November 1, 2007, 3:18 am

The Astro-Zombie at night, his battery pack having been knocked loose in a fight, stumbling down the street with a flashlight pressed to his solar-celled forehead

This scene alone justifies anything else in this movie.

Comment from Ken Begg
Time: November 1, 2007, 7:38 am

Why, this is outrageous! I just reviewed that movie myself!

Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: November 1, 2007, 8:34 am

The next thing you know, Liz and the others will be slapping themselves on the forehead and saying, “Astro-Zombies”!? Why didn’t I think of that?

Comment from Nathan Shumate
Time: November 1, 2007, 8:55 am

I really don’t know if “think” and “Astro-Zombies” should be in the same sentence.

Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: November 1, 2007, 9:33 am

Maybe there was “thinking” involved with that film, but it was thinking on a plane that is incomprehensible to us mere mortals.

So there was actual nudity in this film? (I’m still naive enough to get surprised when a pre-70s film has nudity in it)

Comment from Nathan Shumate
Time: November 1, 2007, 9:34 am

No, but there were bikinis and exposed brassieres.

Comment from Ken Begg
Time: November 1, 2007, 10:29 am

The dancing lady was topless, but covered in body paint, at least on the DVD.

Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: November 1, 2007, 10:38 am

We get that during Carnival season on regular TV here in Sao Paulo.

Comment from Nathan Shumate
Time: November 1, 2007, 10:46 am

Whoops, forgot the dancing lady. Which tells you how engaging that scene was. (It’s pretty bad when even the pointless club scene in Blood of the Zombie is more alluring.)

Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: November 1, 2007, 10:59 am

Was it worse than the Tivoli song?

Comment from Tom Meade
Time: November 1, 2007, 11:25 am

What is the best nightclub scene, however? A Shot In the Dark?

Comment from Tom Meade
Time: November 1, 2007, 11:26 am

this requires emphasis

good job, Nathan

Comment from Nathan Shumate
Time: November 1, 2007, 11:35 am

Thank you, Tom. I have earned my rest from the subgenre for another year.

Comment from KeithA
Time: November 1, 2007, 12:04 pm

Best nightclub scenes = any of the ones from Jess Franco’s films. You may not like the films themselves, but the nightclubs always seem wonderfully cool.

Comment from Matthew Fudge
Time: November 1, 2007, 12:05 pm

I wonder is ‘Zombie’ could be the most over-used work in movie titling?

I wonder if titling is a word?

Comment from Matthew Fudge
Time: November 1, 2007, 12:05 pm

I mean’t overused word, dammit.

Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: November 1, 2007, 12:08 pm

Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster had a great nightclub scene…one of the best.

Comment from Matthew Fudge
Time: November 1, 2007, 12:12 pm

Nightclub scenes now seem to be an excuse for Warner Bros (or whomever) to display 3 mins of their latest pop act in a seamless bit of corporate synergy. In fact there’s something to be said for when the girls from Charmed (fer instance) turn to eachother and say “wow it sure is great the Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s bus broke down outside”. This also used to happen a lot in Buffy.

Comment from KeithA
Time: November 1, 2007, 12:34 pm

The “Hey our bus broke down so we might as well play at this school’s dance” routine has been around forever.

As for abuse of the word “zombie” and/or “living dead” in film titles, it’s gotta be a close race between that and “Ninja.” And yet, there are remarkably few zombie ninja movies.

Comment from Songino
Time: November 1, 2007, 12:45 pm

Well…the bands in Buffy were rarely (if ever) named. Aimee Mann had a line of dialogue, but apart from that I can’t really think of any of the bands being named in the show. So if it was a corporate ploy to get their bands featured, it failed, since I can’t name a single band that appeared on Buffy based on any in-show referencing, and I just watched the whole series last month. Heck, the only reason I know that that one person from that one band that spoke that one time is Aimee Mann is cos I saw a line of trivia on a website about it.

I can’t speak for Charmed, though. Never seen it.

What I have (unhappily) seen is an old episode of Full House where all the girls are fighting over a ticket to a Counting Crows concert. Gah.

Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: November 1, 2007, 1:03 pm

I remember an episode of Full House when they fight over going to a Beach Boys concert as well.

Keith, wasn’t there a zombie in Ninja Hunter (Wu Tang vs. Ninja)?

Comment from Nathan Shumate
Time: November 1, 2007, 1:18 pm

And of course the classic Cosby Show episodes where they meet Stevie Wonder… and Lena Horne…

Comment from Ken Begg
Time: November 1, 2007, 1:45 pm

Well, this actually goes back to the days when movies generally tried to appeal to as many people as possible (as well as the cross-advertising thing). This was particularly prevelent in comedies, and in general Marx Brothers films and Abbott & Costello movies often came to a screeching halt to allow for interplay between a romantic interest couple and a dance number or two.

Mikels isn’t the only one to stretch out a movie this way), although his Girl in Gold Boots was built upon it. Still, other then contemporary bad filmmakers like Al Adamson (Dracula vs. Frankenstein), Ray Dennis Steckler (Incredible Strange Creatures Who…), Arch Hall (Eegah), Del Tenney (Horror of Party Beach), etc. all used musical numbers to stretch out a film, many of them actually employing night club acts as the rationale.

Comment from KeithA
Time: November 1, 2007, 2:31 pm

If you cut out the musical numbers, all the remaining pieces of every Elvis film could be compiled into a single 90-minute film where Elvis is an honest tour guide/pilot/actor/racecar driver/waiter/acrobat/roustabout who must battle an army of rich snobs.

So what’s better: Todd Sheets’ “Zombie Bloodbath” or Todd Sheets’ “Zombie Rampage” ?

Comment from Nathan Shumate
Time: November 1, 2007, 2:47 pm

As soon as I watch the latter, I’ll answer you, if I don’t first choke on my own vomit.

Comment from Songino
Time: November 1, 2007, 3:28 pm

That’s the spirit! Onward to victory! EXCELSIOR!

Comment from Braineater
Time: November 1, 2007, 6:09 pm

And yet, there are remarkably few zombie ninja movies.

All it took was the one “Zombie Ninja…” movie to kill that idea permanently. Just ask Nathan’s therapist.

Comment from John Doe
Time: November 1, 2007, 7:52 pm

hmm. well played mr. shumate. this year’s month of the living dead is perhaps the best to date.

Comment from Nathan Shumate
Time: November 1, 2007, 9:06 pm

AAAAGH! FLASHBACK! Damn you, Will!

Comment from Matthew Fudge
Time: November 2, 2007, 4:56 am

It’s understandable in cheap movies, where the producers are looking to stretch things out to feature length, but when on some well funded corporate tv shows the cameras linger far too long on the act playing in the background you know somebody somewhere is promoting something.

….so are they Ninjas who were bitten by zombies, or zombies who were subsequently trained to be ninjas? Coz the latter would be harder I reckon….
“remember the ninja is silent as the wind”
“gaaaarraaahhh”

Comment from Nathan Shumate
Time: November 2, 2007, 5:58 am

In the podcasted show “The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd,” in last year’s Halloween episode, the evil Dr. Steve lured Dr. Floyd (along with his protege Dr. Grant, and their faithful robot companion Chips) to a Japanese ninja graveyard, and raised an army of zombie ninjas.

…Who promptly fell apart when anyone struck them.

Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: November 2, 2007, 6:20 am

I’m pretty sure Ninja Hunter, a Chinese movie, had a scene where the Chinese heroes fight corrosive zombies. However, I don’t think the ninjas were in the same scene. If you put “Ninja Hunter” in the search engine at YouTube, you can find it.

Comment from KeithA
Time: November 2, 2007, 11:32 am

I do love Ninja Hunter, as I love pretty much every Alexander Lou film. And while there are certainly kungfu films with zombies in them (like KUNGFU ZOMBIE), and probably at least a couple instances of zombie ninjas (or ninja zombies), my primary shock comes from there not being even more of them. I guess ZOMBIE 3 did have that kickboxing zombie in a tight t-shirt…

Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: November 2, 2007, 1:45 pm

Well, we’ll always have our zombie ninja from the climax of Ninja III: The Domination.

Comment from John Doe
Time: November 2, 2007, 5:49 pm

the webcomic “Supermegatopia” had a story line where ninjas battled pirates and then became zombies. Does that count?

Comment from Braineater
Time: November 2, 2007, 7:36 pm

Ninjas, pirates, zombies… hmmm… good stuff, but something’s missing here.

Ahh, yes: monkeys. Gotta have monkeys. Zombie ninja pirate monkeys. Preferably ROBOT zombie ninja pirate monkeys. Oh, but wait — “Scary Go Round” has probably done that already. Never mind.

Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: November 2, 2007, 7:38 pm

A question for the philosophers: Why do monkeys have more entertainment value than many human actors?

Comment from Songino
Time: November 2, 2007, 8:51 pm

Because monkeys…

1) are better on roller skates
2) can publicly smoke cigars with impunity
3) are more likely than most actors to fly into a violent, poop-flinging rage (although I’ve heard the weirdest stories about Brando)

Comment from lyzard
Time: November 2, 2007, 9:08 pm

I am not generally into monkeys (I share somewhat Dr Freex’s resentment at the “Aww, monkey” expectation), but I thought I might take this opportunity to point out that the Buster Keaton film The Cameraman has THE - BEST - MONKEY - EVAH.

Although, granted, there’s no flinging….

Comment from The Rev. D.D.
Time: November 26, 2007, 10:01 am

The webcomic Dr. McNinja had a couple of recent storylines where, first, a drug was introduced that gave anyone who used it ninja powers. Some of them ended up dead. Then, when Ben Franklin’s clone resurrected himself thanks to a special concoction he’d created, the rupture in the planes between life and death brought a lot of people back to life as zombies…including some of the ninjas.
Seriously.
Just go read it, it’s f’in’ awesome.