Weekend Drive-In Preview: Oct. 23 - 24

This blog is a bit late. So by now, you might have missed the late night screening of the Don Stroud/Larry Bishop/Tyne Daly biker epic "Angel Unchanied."

It's not too late to plan your weekend drive-in. Here's what's on TV tonight and tomorrow:

Saturday, Oct. 23
THIS
8 p.m.: "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka"
I saw this movie in Corpus Christi the year it was release. My mom, sister and I were the only ones in the theater! Still, it's an awesome parody of 1970s blaxploitation movies and features several stars of the genre (Jim Brown, Isaac Hayes, Antonio Fargas).

Midnight: "I Escaped from Devil's Island"
This low-budget flick was released in time to capitalized on the popularity of the Steve McQueen/Dustin Hoffman prison movie "Papillon." It's actually pretty good. Christopher "Rat Patrol" George leads the getaway from the hellish Devil's Island prison. Jim Brown co-stars. I just learned that Martin Scorsese was tapped to direct this and turned it down to make "Mean Streets."

2 a.m.: "Angels from Hell"
I have not seen this, but my DVR is set. The plot of this late 1960s biker flick focuses on a Vietnam vet who returns from the war and forms a motorcycle gang. Sounds promising.

4 a.m.: "Elvira's Movie Macabre: The Giant Gila Monster"
It's great to see Elvira back on TV again. We've needed a horror host/hostess on the tube. This week, she hosts a pretty bad 1950s monster movie. It's pretty talky and the music is awful, but it's worth a watch to hear Elvira's commentary.

Encore Action
7:10 p.m.: "Fire Down Below"
Steven Seagal should have been watching his waistline instead of the environment. This is another of his eco-message action flicks.

Encore Westerns:
7 p.m.: "Pat Garret and Billy the Kid"
Director Sam Peckinpah hated the studio's final cut of this long, revisionist western. I have not seen his original draft of the movie, but some die-hard fans love that version. The version that's on this evening is okay. Look for Bob Dylan as a knife-throwing badass and listen for "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (played too many times throughout the movie).

Encore Mystery:
2:20 a.m.: "Cat People"
I saw this in junior high at the movies and loved it. It's pretty erotic, so imagine how I probably felt watching this in the theater with my parents! It still holds up, and ends with an awsome Bowie song. And did I mention how freakin' hot Nastassja Kinksi is?

HBO
4:45 p.m.: "Spider-Man 2"
I don't know why the "Spider-Man" franchise is being rebooted. The first two films are great. The third one sucked, so skip it if you haven't seen it yet. This second installment is pure comic book fun with Alfred Molina stealing the show as Dr. Octopus.

HBO Family
7:45 p.m.: "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead"
How many times can HBO show this movie??? It seems like it's been on every day for the past five years. It's a pretty klunky early-1990s comedy with Christine Applegate (still on "Married with Children" at this time). She plays a teen who takes over the household when the babysitter dies. Of course, no one cares that some old lady buys it early in the movie. This movie's actually like a Z-grade version of "Working Girl," but I still like it.

HBO Zone
8 p.m.: "The Day the Earth Stood Still"
This is an awful remake of a classic. Keanu Reeves is at his most robotic as alien Klaatu who has a message for the citizens of Earth: "You're gonna die!!!!" The original movie offered a Cold War warning, but this one is about the environment. It's a little too serious and too reliant on special effects.



CW39
2 a.m.: "Elivra's Movie Macabre: Satanic Rites of Dracula"
More Elvira! Yay!! I saw this under the title of  "Count Dracula and his Vampire Bride" at a midnight movie in Kingsville, Texas when I was 11. This should bring back some memories! Christopher Lee as Drac and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing. What a pair!

Weekend Drive-In Guide: Oct. 15 - 17

I really should have written this entry last night. Already, two AWESOME films have aired on THIS TV: "Night of the Comet" and "Deep Space" (with a stellar cast that includes Charles Napier, Julie Newmar and Ron Glass!).

Anyways, the rest of the weekend looks to be just as cool. Dig this Saturday line-up:

Encore Mystery
11:30 a.m. CST: "Bubba Ho Tep"
Bruce Campbell as Elvis teams with Ossie Davis as a guy who thinks he's JFK. They battle a mummy who is stealing souls in a Texas nursing home. Directed by Don "Phantasm" Coscarelli, this movie is excellent. Campbell kicks ass as the King.

Encore Action
1:30 p.m. CST: "Starship Troopers"
Humans take on bugs in this adaptation of Robert Heinlein's novel. I can't think of another movie with more gunfire than this war-crazy epic. The awesome cast includes Michael Ironside, Clancy Brown and Neil Patrick Harris (in Nazi-like regalia). It also includes a young (and hot) Denise Richards.

Encore
7 p.m. CST: "Superman" marathon
See all four "Superman" movies on Saturday night! For my money, "Superman the Movie" is the best of the bunch. "Superman II" ups the action ante with superpowered Kryptonian villains. "III" goes off the deep end by adding Richard Pryor to the cast. And "IV" is a pretty awful anti-nukes movie. No matter how cheesy these films might seem today, they are still waaaay better than the depressing "Superman Returns."

Happy Birthday Ed Wood!

Happy birthday to Ed Wood! The schlockmeister behind
"Plan 9 from Outer Space" and "Glen or Glenda" was born this day in 1924. He passed away in 1978, but his legacy as B-movie maestro lives on.

Hammer Time!!

THIS TV rocks.

This cable channel (320 on Houston's Comcast) is always a source for awesome old school movies. Tonight, however, THIS kicks off a marathon of movies starring Fred "The Hammer" Williamson!
Football fans will recall that the Hammer was a defensive back for several football teams and played in Super Bowl I -- and supposedly knocked out of action during the first play of the game.

He went on to make some great B-movies in the 1970s, then starred in a few decent Italial action films (including the Black Cobra triology).

Tonight's Hammerfest will showcase some of the man's finest movies moments. Here's a rundown of this evening's films:

5 p.m. - "Hammer": The perfect movie to launch an evening with the Hammer. Williamson plays a boxer who rises through the heavyweight ranks only to find himself at odds with the mob. This isn't the movie that launched his career (Robert Altman's "M.A.S.H." holds that distinction), but it pretty much kicked off his run in a host of blaxploitation films. Great film! Also starring B-movie great William Smith.



7 p.m. - "Original Gangstas": This 1996 movie marked a minor comeback for Hammer and many of his peers (Jim Brown, Pam Grier). Williamson plays a former teen hood turned pro football coach who returns to his hometown to help clean up crime. Great movie! Not only is Williamson reunited with Brown and Grier, but he again teams with director Larry Cohen (who directed him in "Black Caesar" and "Hell Up in Harlem").

9 p.m. - "Hell Up in Harlem": This is the sequel to Williamson's signature movie, "Black Caesar." At the end of that movie, his mobster character Tommy was supposedly killed. He miraculously survives several gunshot wounds to continue his dominance on the underworld. A sub-plot involves ledgers implicating high ranking politicos in crime activity. Lots of action, and a great coast-to-coast chase that ends in an airport slugfest.

11 p.m.: "Original Gangstas": If you missed it earlier, here's "O.G." again.

1 p.m.: "Soda Cracker": This 1989 film is also known as "The Kill Reflex." It's not Hammer's finest effort but does have its moments. Williamson plays a cop nicknames Soda Cracker (not really sure why), who goes toe-to-toe with nemesis Bo "Walking Tall Pt. II" Svenson (wearing some cheesy jogging suits). He also finds romance with former Bond babe Maude Adams. The highlight is a pretty funny showdown between Hammer and a remote controlled helicopter.

DVR Drive-In Review: Airport 1975

By now, more people have seen disaster spoof "Airplane!" than the films that inspired it ("Zero Hour" among others).

One of the films parodies in the Abrahams-Zucker Brothers classic is "Airport 1975." This has been airing on HBO lately, so if you spy it on the digital guide, tune in.

First of all, the cast along is worth the watch: Charlton Heston, George Kennedy, Myrna Loy, Sid Casesar, Jerry Stiller, Norman Fell, Karen Black, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Gloria Swanson (as herself!!), Linda Blair and Erik Estrada!

The plot is pretty unbelieveable. A businessman (Dana Andrews, who also starred in "Zero Hour") has a heart attack while piloting a small plan en route to a business meeting. His craft smacks the cockpit of a 747 passenger jet killing two of the pilots and blinding the captain.

Even before the crash, drama was unfolding aboard the 747. A child (Blair) is in desperate need of a kidney transplant. An aging fim star (Swanson) is working on her memoirs. A lush (Loy) can't get enough boilermakers. A loudmouth (Caesar) won't shut the hell up. And the head flight attendant (Black) can't get a commitment from her lover (Heston).

All these problems go out the window when the unmanned plane is headed toward mountain country.

It's up to the disaster duo of Heston and Kennedy (who also starred in "Earthquake" together) to try and get this bird on the ground. Someone comes up with the idea of using a jet helicopter to catch up with the runaway jet. Then, some unlucky fool would be lowered into the hole in the cockpit.

Luckily, the plane is stocked with booze to keep passengers from running wild. And it's also fortunate that Chuck Heston can pull off any cinematic miracle: parting the Red Sea in "The Ten Commandments," winning an epic chariot battle in "Ben Hur," kicking ape ass in "Planet of the Apes" and of course, passing as a Latino in "Touch of Evil."

I can't recommend this movie enough. The celebrity cast is worth the watch, but any chance to hear Heston grunt "God dammmit!" while wearing a safari suit and aviator sunglasses is definitely cool. And don't those boilermakers (using Olympia beer) look tasty???