Our weekly look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs, and on more distant horizons…
Trailers of new release movies are generally available on the official site links.
It’s summer blockbuster season! That means we’ll be staying home for a while, checking out what’s bizarre on Blu-ray until the summer weirdness embargo is over.
IN DEVELOPMENT:
Spirit Squad: Crime Fighting Cheerleaders: A team of kickboxing superhero cheerleaders fight a 1970s crime boss. The director says it’s meant to be a cross between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the last twenty minutes of Death Proof, but I think the existing footage reminds me more of Angel’s Revenge. Short they’re looking for funds via KickStarter, so check them out. Spirit Squad: Crime Fighting Cheerleaders at Kickstarter.
NEW ON BLU-RAY:
Barbarella (1968): A stunning Jane Fonda stars as a naïve sexpot who’s tortured by parakeets, has sex with a blind angel, and breaks the Orgasmatron while looking for Duran Duran. It’s amazing that this colorful and campy cult classic had to wait this long to get the Blu-ray treatment. Buy Barbarella [Blu-ray]
“Chesty Morgan’s Bosom Buddies”: Exotic dancer and mammarious mutant Chesty Morgan (measurements: 73FF-32-36) appeared in two movies for the amazingly incompetent but extremely lovable nudie director Doris Wishman in the early 1970s: Deadly Weapons, where she kills men by smothering them with her oversized breasts, and Double Agent 73, where she plays a spy has a camera implanted in her rack (so she has to take off her bra to snap pictures of secret documents). This Something Weird set adds The Immoral Three, a sequel to Double Agent with an actress who looks nothing like Chesty (who could?) playing the secret agent in flashbacks. You’ll probably feel like a boob if you order this set! Buy “Chesty Morgan’s Bosom Buddies” [Blu-ray]
Django Kill… If You Live, Shoot! (1967): A nameless drifter who is buried alive digs his way out of his grave to enact revenge on the bandits who betrayed him; he also must deal with a gang of homosexual cowboys. Giulio Questi’s surreal spaghetti Western If You Live, Shoot! was renamed to cash in on the popular Django character, and now 35 years later it’s being released on Blu-ray to capitalize on the buzz for Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Django Unchained. After this debut film Questi would go on to make the extremely weird and wonderful giallo Death Laid an Egg. Buy Django Kill… If You Live, Shoot! [Blu-ray]
FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:
Not the Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy) (2010): Eric Idle turned Life of Brian, the Monty Python movie about the crucified non-savior born in the manger next to Jesus Christ, into a comic oratorio. This is a live recording of a performance at the Albert Royal Hall. Did you know this existed? Watch Not the Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy) free on YouTube.
What are you looking forward to? If you have any weird movie leads that I have overlooked, feel free to leave them in the COMMENTS section.