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EP31 – StarCrash on planet TerrorVision In EP31 of the Badasses, Boobs and Body Counts Podcast, your host Mike is joined by Mugumbo aka Lewis Cougill of the Traumatic Cinematic show. Mike and Lewis first explore TerrorVision (1986) and then step into Star Wars territory with StarCrash (1978). Mike and Lewis knock heads over both films as Lewis has a love for TerrorVision and Mike a love for StarCrash. In any case, this was a fun show to record as Lewis is a colorful character to say the least.
TerrorVision (23:16) Category: Body Counts Badass: None (Mike) The Monster (Lewis) Boob Count: 0 pair Body Count: 10 IMDB Rating: 5.2 Lewis’ Rating: 7.5 Mike’s Rating: 5.0 Recommend: Yes (both Mike and Lewis)
StarCrash (1:09:32) Category: Everything Else Badass: Count Zarth Arn (Mike) Akton’s Jewfro (Lewis) Boob Count: 0 pair Body Count: 25+ IMDB Rating: 3.7 Lewis’ Rating: 3.3 Mike’s Rating: 5.5 Recommend: Yes (both Mike and Lewis)
EP31 Feedback I’d love to hear feedback on this episode once you’ve given it a listen. Contact info is given at the end of the podcast. You can also comment right here on this page or send an email to: badassesboobsandbodycounts_@_yahoo.com (remove the _ before and after the @ or the email will bounce). Any and all feedback (positive or negative) will be read on the following episode.
EP31 Downloads Download from the RSS feed: BBandBC Podcast EP31 – StarCrash on planet TerrorVision Direct download: EP31_bbandbc_starcrashonplanetterrorvision.mp3 Direct from iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bbandbc-podcast Direct from Stitcher Smart Radio: BBandBC Podcast EP31 – StarCrash on planet TerrorVision Direct from SoundCloud: BBandBC Podcast EP31 – StarCrash on planet TerrorVision
Coming up in EP32 TBD – The show will be undergoing a few small format changes and will be back within a few weeks.
Show Notes: TerrorVision (IMDB) : StarCrash (IMDB) : Traumatic Cinematic
Podcast Promo’s: The Projection Booth : Dr. Action and The Kick Ass Kid Commentaries
Music: StarCrash Main Title : TerrorVision Main Title
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The Plot: Contamination opens with an abandoned ship docking in the New York Harbor. The team investigating the ship includes a group of hazardous material experts and New York City police officer Tony Aris (Marino Mase). Deep down in the hull of the ship lay dozens of green eggs. One egg lays next to a heated pipe, pulsating and making a strange noise. When touched by the hazmat expert, it explodes and kills everyone in the proximity. It not only kills everyone, but it tears their chest to shreds splattering their innards everywhere.
Aris, the sole survivor of this incident, is taken to a Government lab where he’s decontaminated and questioned by Colonel Stella Holmes (Louise Marleau). The two begin to investigate the origin of the eggs thus leading them to former astronaut Commander Hubbard (Ian McCulloch) whom years earlier was ousted by the Military due to his insane ramblings of alien life forms on the red planet.
From here, the three unlikely heroes set out to find who’s manufacturing the eggs, and why. Will they succeed in saving the world by finding the origin of the eggs? Or will the Earth come to an end on Easter morning when the eggs are delivered around the world?
** SPOILERS **
The Takeaway: Contamination (also known as Alien Contamination ) isn’t a very good film if compared to the film that inspired it, Alien (1979). The eggs are similar in shape, only much smaller and don’t seem to carry any sort of life form inside them. However, they do carry a virus that has a deadly impact on those who come in contact with them. The alien in the film is only seen for a few moments near the end and is similar to what Ed Wood Jr. used in his film Bride of the Monster (1955). It’s a large rubber squid type of alien who’s tentacles are moved by a noticeable wire being operated by an off-screen crew member. Oh, I almost forgot, the alien has one yellow glowing eye smack in the middle of its light bulb shaped head.
As far as performances go, the voice-overs for our Italian players are done quite nicely. This gives the appearance that they’re doing their jobs. Problem is, the dialogue for the film is fairly bad, this alone drags it down quiet a bit. Other aspects of filmmaking are also noticeably bad. Many close-up shots are out of focus and there are far too many scenes that linger too long. There’s no need to pan the skyline of the cityscape for 60 seconds when you could do it for 15 seconds instead. We get the point.
As far as the script is concerned, it’s convoluted to say the least. When Colonel Holmes, Commander Hubbard and Officer Aris travel to South America, Holmes and Aris drive to the coffee plantation they suspect are breeding the eggs. Hubbard gets into a single-engine plane and pilots it towards the coffee plantation, crashing it later in a nearby field. I have no idea why he didn’t drive along with the other two. Oh, wait, yes I do, this allowed him to discover the origin of the eggs (a plot device if you will), in a field being grown out of the ground. Speaking of eggs, we’re told near the end of the film that the eggs are ‘picked’ and taken to the alien queen for incubation. Wait a minute, eggs aren’t picked, are they? They’re laid, right? Never the less, these are just a couple of the plot holes in the film.
Contamination isn’t all bad though, as the film has that Italian feel to it (it’s an Italian production after all) and this comes from a couple of things. The film’s score is composed by Goblin favorite Agostino Marangolo and has that distinct sound like so many other Italian films of the same era. Dr. Turner’s partner is voiced by Zombie favorite Al Cliver. And the film’s special effects are brought to you by Giovanni Corridori. Speaking of special effects, there aren’t a whole lot of them in Contamination. In fact, with the exception of a couple of gun-shot squibs, all we see are exploding chests. Now don’t get me wrong, these scenes are plenty bloody and there are quite a few of them, but aside from the aforementioned, there’s not much more. The alien is also very disappointing. Like I mentioned above, it’s really nothing more than a giant rubber creature attached to wires. Ed Wood Jr. and other 1950′s “B” filmmakers made a living by using creatures just like this, so there’s no reason Luigi Cozzi couldn’t do the same.
Film Facts: Contamination was written and directed by Luigi Cozzi (credited as Lewis Coates) and was co-written by Erich Tomek. The films cinematographer was Giuseppe Pinori and its editor was Nino Baragli. The film was shot over a five week period in and around Rome Italy, New York City, Florida and Colombia. It was distributed by The Cannon Group and released in August of 1980. The films foundation clearly comes from Ridley Scott’s Alien as exploding chests and an alien queen harvesting eggs are similar to that of Scott’s film. Contamination was also classified as a video nasty due to the over the top, slow motion, chest bursting scenes.
Prior to Contamination , Luigi Cozzi directed Starcrash (1978). Starcrash was heavily influenced by Star Wars (1977) but ended up being a very poorly made film, but one I recommend if you’re after extra cheese on your pizza. Cozzi’s other directorial efforts after Contamination are lack-luster to say the least. As a writer, Erich Tomek’s resume consists of comedy more than anything else. He did however write the Jesus Franco schlock-fest Bloody Moon (1981). Cinematographer Giuseppe Pinori shot Lucio Fulci’s Murder Rock (1984) but other than that there’s nothing on his resume worth mentioning (at least nothing that I’ve seen). As the films editor, Nino Baragli is the real rock star in this crew. With 214 titles on his resume, Baragli was a real working-mans editor for sure.
Thoughts In My Head: - If hazmat suits don’t protect you from deadly exploding alien eggs, why keep wearing them? - These police uniforms look like cheap Halloween costumes - Is destroying evidence (including dead bodies) before fully investigating the crime area, smart? - Slapping a woman in the face apparently makes things all better - Just because you have a mane of hair on your chest doesn’t mean you need to show it - This movie reminds me of Alien, only a terribly bad version of it - I think the alien’s eye is a car headlight - This alien has a vagina-shaped mouth - No amount of room ambiance (or effect fog) could hide the wires moving the alien tentacles
Favorite Badass or Badass Moment: Cyclops, just for being a bad rubber prop Favorite Boobs or Boobs in a Scene: Sorry kids, no boobs in this one Favorite Death Scene: Any chest bursting scene, and there are a few of them
Boob Count: 0 pair Body Count: 17
IMDB Rating: 5.1 / 10 My Rating: 6.0 / 10
Final Thoughts: Despite some of my negative comments, Contamination remains one of my favorite Italian produced science fiction/horror films as there’s something very alluring to it. And even though Contamination only gets a slightly above average rating from me, it doesn’t mean I won’t recommend it. If you’re like me and like your Italian horror movies with a bit of cheese, then you shouldn’t miss this one.
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Podcast Listening Portals Follow BB&BCs via Email Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Join 734 other followers Like us on Facebook! Fresh off the Twitter Press A very well produced episode in that of EP42: The Ghost and Mr. Chicken with host @ stupid_hamster - BBandBC Podcast wp.me/p2bXgm-16x 1 hour ago #FF @ DavidArrate @ BrobocopWeeps @ RJHern @ GrindhouseDave @ proboothcast @ ThePhantomErik @ TheJesseb83 @ RobDET thanks for the continued support! 1 hour ago @ GreydonClark good to see you on twitter Mr. Clark. Big fan and a friend of @ proboothcast 2 hours ago @ proboothcast @ bionicbigfoot Answered! 1 day ago Excited to say we will be speaking w/Fred Olen Ray on the next BBandBC Podcast episode, Scream Queen Hot Tub Party. Look for that next week! 1 day ago Follow @digitalhorror Recent Posts BBandBC Podcast EP42 – The Ghost and Mr. Chicken BBandBC Podcast EP41 – The Black Godfather BBandBC Podcast EP40 – Meet The Feebles BBandBC Podcast EP39 – Tenebre BBandBC Podcast EP38 – The Milpitas Monster BBandBC Podcast EP37 – Batman: The Movie BBandBC Podcast EP36 – Sharky’s Machine BBandBC Podcast EP35 – Humanoids From the Deep BBandBC Podcast EP34 – The Funhouse BBandBC Podcast EP33 – The Beyond Blogroll 100 Years of Horror After Movie Diner Andy Sidaris Dot Com B-Movie Bargain Bin Back on Line Back on Duty Beardy Freak Blood Sucking Geek CheesyFlix.com Cinema Schminema Cinematic Shocks Devour the Podcast Exploding Helicopter Hard Ticket to Home Video Head in a Vice Isaac' s Picture Conclusions Let's Sneak Into the Drive-In Mentertainment Tonight Parlor of Horror Promote Horror Schlock Treatment Strictly Splatter.com The B-Horror Blog The Last Dragon The Projection Booth The Timothy Carey Experience Tim's Film Reviews Trash Film Guru Wafu FM Wide Weird World Of Cult Films Written in Blood Blog at WordPress.com . The Parament Theme . Follow Follow “Badasses, Boobs and Body Counts” Get every new post delivered to your Inbox. Join 734 other followers Powered by WordPress.com Send to Email Address Your Name Your Email Address Cancel Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Email check failed, please try again Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. %d bloggers like this:
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Fresh off the Twitter Press A very well produced episode in that of EP42: The Ghost and Mr. Chicken with host @ stupid_hamster - BBandBC Podcast wp.me/p2bXgm-16x 1 hour ago #FF @ DavidArrate @ BrobocopWeeps @ RJHern @ GrindhouseDave @ proboothcast @ ThePhantomErik @ TheJesseb83 @ RobDET thanks for the continued support! 1 hour ago @ GreydonClark good to see you on twitter Mr. Clark. Big fan and a friend of @ proboothcast 2 hours ago @ proboothcast @ bionicbigfoot Answered! 1 day ago Excited to say we will be speaking w/Fred Olen Ray on the next BBandBC Podcast episode, Scream Queen Hot Tub Party. Look for that next week! 1 day ago Follow @digitalhorror
A very well produced episode in that of EP42: The Ghost and Mr. Chicken with host @ stupid_hamster - BBandBC Podcast wp.me/p2bXgm-16x 1 hour ago
#FF @ DavidArrate @ BrobocopWeeps @ RJHern @ GrindhouseDave @ proboothcast @ ThePhantomErik @ TheJesseb83 @ RobDET thanks for the continued support! 1 hour ago
@ GreydonClark good to see you on twitter Mr. Clark. Big fan and a friend of @ proboothcast 2 hours ago
@ proboothcast @ bionicbigfoot Answered! 1 day ago
Excited to say we will be speaking w/Fred Olen Ray on the next BBandBC Podcast episode, Scream Queen Hot Tub Party. Look for that next week! 1 day ago
Recent Posts BBandBC Podcast EP42 – The Ghost and Mr. Chicken BBandBC Podcast EP41 – The Black Godfather BBandBC Podcast EP40 – Meet The Feebles BBandBC Podcast EP39 – Tenebre BBandBC Podcast EP38 – The Milpitas Monster BBandBC Podcast EP37 – Batman: The Movie BBandBC Podcast EP36 – Sharky’s Machine BBandBC Podcast EP35 – Humanoids From the Deep BBandBC Podcast EP34 – The Funhouse BBandBC Podcast EP33 – The Beyond
BBandBC Podcast EP42 – The Ghost and Mr. Chicken
BBandBC Podcast EP41 – The Black Godfather
BBandBC Podcast EP40 – Meet The Feebles
BBandBC Podcast EP39 – Tenebre
BBandBC Podcast EP38 – The Milpitas Monster
BBandBC Podcast EP37 – Batman: The Movie
BBandBC Podcast EP36 – Sharky’s Machine
BBandBC Podcast EP35 – Humanoids From the Deep
BBandBC Podcast EP34 – The Funhouse
BBandBC Podcast EP33 – The Beyond
Blogroll 100 Years of Horror After Movie Diner Andy Sidaris Dot Com B-Movie Bargain Bin Back on Line Back on Duty Beardy Freak Blood Sucking Geek CheesyFlix.com Cinema Schminema Cinematic Shocks Devour the Podcast Exploding Helicopter Hard Ticket to Home Video Head in a Vice Isaac' s Picture Conclusions Let's Sneak Into the Drive-In Mentertainment Tonight Parlor of Horror Promote Horror Schlock Treatment Strictly Splatter.com The B-Horror Blog The Last Dragon The Projection Booth The Timothy Carey Experience Tim's Film Reviews Trash Film Guru Wafu FM Wide Weird World Of Cult Films Written in Blood
100 Years of Horror
After Movie Diner
Andy Sidaris Dot Com
B-Movie Bargain Bin
Back on Line Back on Duty
Beardy Freak
Blood Sucking Geek
CheesyFlix.com
Cinema Schminema
Cinematic Shocks
Devour the Podcast
Exploding Helicopter
Hard Ticket to Home Video
Head in a Vice
Isaac' s Picture Conclusions
Let's Sneak Into the Drive-In
Mentertainment Tonight
Parlor of Horror
Promote Horror
Schlock Treatment
Strictly Splatter.com
The B-Horror Blog
The Last Dragon
The Projection Booth
The Timothy Carey Experience
Tim's Film Reviews
Trash Film Guru
Wafu FM
Wide Weird World Of Cult Films
Written in Blood
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