Month: June 2019

Shitty Movie Sundays: Turkey Shoot, aka Escape 2000

At first glance, a viewer could be forgiven if they thought Turkey Shoot, also released as Escape 2000 in the US, comes to us via an Italian master of shitty cinema such as Enzo G. Castellari or Alfonso Brescia. Turkey Shoot has the same look and feel, but it hails from Australia.

Directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith, from a screenplay by Jon George and Neill D. Hicks, Turkey Shoot takes place in a near future where an unnamed fascist regime has control over vast swathes of humanity. Like in all good totalitarian states, citizens who insist on holding onto their personal freedoms are sent to reeducation camps. Turkey Shoot follows the tribulations of the three newest detainees at Camp 47. Continue reading “Shitty Movie Sundays: Turkey Shoot, aka Escape 2000″

Photo Dump: Concrete City

This is one of my best urbex gets. Located near Wilkes-Barre, Concrete City looks like it’s been through a war, but all the bullet holes are just garden-variety Pennsylvania vandalism. Combined with the natural decay (the site has been abandoned since the 1920s) and the graffiti, it makes for an interesting cross of destructive aesthetics.

Photo Dump: Boyce Thompson Institute

Here is a gallery of images I took at the abandoned Boyce Thompson Institute in Yonkers in 2009. The building had been recently boarded up, and I wasn’t interested in a breaking and entering charge, so urbex that day was restricted to the marvelous greenhouses. AbandonedNYC went a few years later and was able to get inside, however. The property was sold and redeveloped not too long ago. Alas, the greenhouses did not survive.

Photo Dump: Air Force Museum

I took a trip to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio recently. The museum consists of four gigantic aircraft hangars packed full with weapons of war. Old planes, new planes, prop-driven planes, rockets, jets, fighters, bombers, transports, experimental aircraft, drones, cruise missiles, nuclear bombs, slow planes and supersonic planes — the museum even has a gallery of ballistic missiles. I was struck by the sheer amount of genius and financial expenditure that went into creating all these amazing machines. Just the existence of these objects is a testament to scientific and engineering advancement, and we used all this know-how to kill people.

Museums are difficult places to photograph, but I did manage to get a few shots that I think are worth looking at.

Shitty Movie Sundays: Samurai Cop

Samurai Cop, the 1991 stinker from writer/director/producer/editor Amir Shervan, has more shitty filmmaking moments than are possible to recount in any review of reasonable length. Here’s a sample:

  • Fight scenes and car chases have sped up footage to simulate quickness. It’s not subtle, either — approaching Benny Hill Show levels of speed.
  • A great deal of dialogue was recorded in post. That’s not unusual. But Shervan did many of the voices himself, dubbing the voices of stars and bit players, alike. That is unusual.
  • There are a lot of cops in this flick. Many of them wear uniforms. Some of those uniforms don’t have badges.
  • Star Mathew Karedas cut his glorious locks after principal shooting wrapped, but was called back months later for reshoots. Shervan put a ridiculous wig on his head with little regard to whether or not it looked right. It does not look right. In at least one scene, it briefly popped off of Karedas’s head.

Continue reading “Shitty Movie Sundays: Samurai Cop”