Enter The Fat Dragon (aka Fei Lung gwoh gong) (1978)

[I had some issues taking screenshots, so the pictures have been taken from other sources and may not represent the actual picture quality of the film]

PLOT:

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Sammo Hung plays Lung, a young pig farmer who is pressured by his father to move to the big city to assist at his Uncle's restaurant. Lung idolizes Bruce Lee, and when his Uncle is threatened by some punks, he transforms from a bumbling country boy into a Kung-Fu master. He later has to use these skills to help his cousin, and a young lady friend who has been kidnapped, fend off a perverted crime boss and his goons.

REVIEW:

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Ostensibly a parody of Bruce Lee films (particularly Enter The Dragon and Way Of The Dragon), Enter The Fat Dragon is instead a loving tribute to Lee from Sammo Hung (who actually appeared briefly in Enter The Dragon early in his career). Released amongst a slew of films from Bruce Lee imitators, Sammo's Bruce Lee impression is eerily (and amusingly) spot on, and even if the fights don't match up to Sammo's best of the era, there's plenty of impressive action and (for once) some actually amusing humor.

Sammo built his career on being surprisingly agile for a pudgy guy, and his characters are normally underestimated for being lazy (in this film, and others, he's referred to often as "fatty" or "pig") before blowing people's minds with his shocking fighting skills. Hung is working double duty here as both actor and director, and he shows a strong talent for capturing fight scenes, particularly in the finale (where Sammo takes on a series of henchmen individually) which could have easily felt claustrophobic with the three fights taking place in an enclosed warehouse.

Speaking of the final scene, it would be hard not to mention that one of the Chinese actors is in black face with an afro. It's more comical than offensive, and was apparently included as a parody of the American practice of casting white actors as Asians. The fight scenes as a whole vary wildly in terms of quality, with most of the early scenes involving Lung easily dispatching of a group of toughs. The most amusing fight scene occurs when Sammo is asked to be an extra in a Bruce Lee knock-off film and finds himself offended at the quality of the fighting of the Bruce Lee imitator. He voices his displeasure by beating the actor (and the other extras) into oblivion.

Kung- fu film fans will find lots of recognizable faces. Yuen Baio (Knockabout, The Prodigal Son) makes an opening credits appearance, Eric Tsang pops up briefly, and Leung Ka-Yan (who starred with Sammo in The Victim) shows up as Sammo's final opponent.

The Crash Cinema DVD features a pretty ratty print of the film, but it's luckily presented in it's original 2.35:1 ratio and is subtitled. Unfortunately, the subtitles are both burned in and feature plenty of spelling and grammatical errors. That said, it's always watchable and it's not difficult to follow the minimal plot on display. The sound is acceptable, and the soundtrack (which is an obvious nod to Lalo Schifrin's score to Enter The Dragon) is amusing in its own right.

Outside of chapter selections, the DVD features no special features.

More tribute that parody, Enter The Fat Dragon may be inconsistent at times, but it builds well and the humor works with the plot instead of being seemingly tossed in randomly. A fine introduction for those interested in Sammo's work, and a testament to the respect he had for Bruce Lee and his films. It would be nice to see a better presentation of the film on DVD, but for fans of Sammo Hung or Bruce Lee, this is a must watch.

The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (1977)

PLOT:

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After the death of diplomat Henry Gropinger (an obvious parody of Henry Kissinger), the evil Professor Moriarty holds the world hostage with a threat to the end of civilisation as we know it. Representatives from around the world (including Indiana Jones' actor Denholm Elliott) convene and decide to contact Sherlock Holmes' grandson (John Cleese) to deal with the problem. Holmes, along with an incredibly dimwitted Watson (Arthur Lowe), come up with a plan to lure Moriarty out of hiding by having a gathering of the world's greatest detectives.

REVIEW:

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Scattershot, but occasionally inspired, hour long feature from 1977 with John Cleese in fine form as the bumbling last surviving relative of Sherlock Holmes. Cleese gets plenty of oppotunities to show off the silly wordplay and physical comedy that was his trademark in Monty Python, but too often The Strange Case Of The End Of Civilization As We Know It lets down what could have been an inspired premise

Early scenes with Henry Kissinger and Gerald Ford impersonators play off some dated political humor, but the introduction of Cleese as Holmes (through a tremendously misguided fight scene) and, particularly, Arthur Lowe as an almost supernaturally dim (and possibly bionic) Watson soon liven things up. Lowe's Watson is a logical progression of Nigel Bruce's blustering Watson from the Basil Rathbone films, constantly pronouncing amazement at even the most obvious of Holmes discoveries with. In one of the film's highlights, he even manages to kill the police commissioner (with Holmes watching in disbelief) through some incredible ineptitude.

The scenes between Holmes and Watson work best in the film because they play to the strengths of the two leads. Cleese's barely contained rage at his partner's bungling is always amusing, while Lowe steals most of his scenes by seemingly being blissfully unaware of anything at all that is going on. As Holmes says, "he understands very little.". When it deviates from these strengths, particularly in some lengthy boardroom scenes which feature some borderline racist humor, the film suffers.

The final scenes, concerned with a meeting of the world's great detectives, is a showcase for some awful impressions (of Columbo, Poirot, Steve McGarrett, etc) and brings things to a grinding halt before the final reveal of Moriarty brings things to an amusing conclusion. The film is awfully disjointed, with some rather lame instances of drug humor obviously thrown in to be edgy, but serve as a distraction from some of the more amusing elements.

The White Star DVD presents the film in piss-poor fullscreen transfer obviously sourced from a VHS copy. The video is grainy, and there are even a few tracking problems in one scene. The audio is muffled, which makes some of the quicker dialogue exchanges difficult to make out.

The DVD features no special features. A shame, because it would be interesting to hear how this project came together.

Occasionally worthwhile but generally disappointing, The Strange Case Of The End Of Civilization As We Know It features enough amusing moments (thanks to Cleese and Lowe) to be deserving of a watch, but is too uneven to be strongly recommended.

The Devils (1971)

PLOT:

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When Cardinal Richelieu’s plans to control the country are thwarted by the willful Father Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed), the head priest of the fortified town of Loudun, the esteemed religious leader of France decides that the best course of action is to remove Grandier by any means necessary. Grandier is an unwitting ally in his own downfall--his womanizing ways (doubly inappropriate for a priest) have left him with few allies, and there are many who would wish to see him wrestled from power. Still, it is Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave) who holds the key to Grandier’s ultimate destruction; the deformed nun has become sexually obsessed with the priest, and when she discovers that he’s been secretly wed, she accuses Grandier of witchcraft and demonic possession.

Using the charges of witchcraft as a pretense, Baron de Laubardemont, Father Mignon, and Father Pierre Barre (a professional witch hunter) coerce the rest of Jeanne’s convent into playing the part of possessed nuns, and blaming Grandier for the condition. The antics of the “possessed” nuns are so over-the-top and extreme that they attract large audiences (and are so sacrilegious that the film has often been censored, and remains unreleased on DVD, in North America, to this day). When Father Grandier returns to Loudun from having met with the King, he discovers that his town is in an uproar, and that he’s at the centre of it.

REVIEW:

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Ken Russell’s The Devils, based on a book by Aldous Huxley, is a hell of a show. Those who seek out the film based solely on the controversy surrounding it won’t be disappointed: there is nudity, the sexual assault of a statute of the crucified Christ, simulated masturbation (with a large candl)e, forced enemas, immolation--most of which involves nuns. However, those drawn to the film for its apparent sleaziness may be shocked to discover an incredibly well-made film, with some fine performances by Reed and Redgrave, and brilliant production design by Derek Jarman.


In fact, those who are not so sensitive to religious taboos might find the film to be a bit of a disappointment in the filth department. The actions of the “possessed” nuns might be over-the-top, but they’re never really uncalled for or excessive, considering that you know they are being forced to play the part. You might actually think of their actions in largely symbolic terms--the literal rape of Christ brings attention to the fact that the Church has been metaphorically doing just that, as far as the film is concerned.

Russell’s zany take on the historical event actually brings to mind the work of Terry Gilliam, or the Monty Python period pieces. Some care has been taken to make the clothing, the accouterments, the material things of the film seem authentic to the period, but everything is also slightly off, over-stylized or in some way made strange, so that our perception of the action seems somewhat fevered.


The Devils is a horror film, if only to the extent that the true horror of the film is not the “demonic possession,” which is completely fictitious, but the horror of a lone rational man, Grandier. Confronted with all the irrationality of religion, the passions of the mob, and the hunger for power of the highest levels of society, Grandier knows that he is doomed. He cannot compete against the overwhelming insanity and irrationality of all the forces leveled against him. What makes the film all the more successful is the fact that Grandier is not held up as some sort of ideal man, and thus made into a martyr; rather, Grandier is a mortal man with some serious character flaws. If he was entirely innocent, the film would lack any real punch. That Grandier contributes to his own downfall makes his ending all the more tragic.

Ken Russell’s The Devils really does deserve its own DVD, with a good transfer (unlike the bootleg I had to watch) and some extra features explaining the difficulty the movie experienced after its release. More people need to see this film--not just because of its controversial status, but because it’s a damn good film.

The FALLOUT 3 Reviews: Threads (1984)

It's funny how the baggage of our respective zeitgeists dictates our reactions to certain world events. I, myself, am a child of the Cold War and to be honest, when anything remotely psychotic happens in the former Soviet Union in conjunction with the word "missiles," it scares the living crap out of me.

Playing the game, Fallout 3, was a very visceral experience from me because it literally brought one of the biggest demons from my childhood straight to my game console: the aftermath of a global thermonuclear war. The threat of an atomic apocalypse doesn't have the same bite with current generations as it did with mine but when I was coming up, few things were more frightening than mutually assured destruction.

In early 1983, a British writer by the name of Barry Hines asked the dreaded question, "What if?" The end product of his effort was the screenplay for one of the most terrifying pieces of film I can remember sitting through as a young adult.

Threads...

Threads follows the day-to-day drama of two families living in Sheffield, England (the Becketts and the Kemps) against the backdrop of the Global Recession of the mid 80's.

Shortly thereafter and for reasons unexplained, an incident in the Middle East between US and Soviet forces escalates into World War III.

What follows next is a heartbreaking chain of events covering the gambit from nuclear winter, martial law, and radiation sickness to the deterioration of the very fabric of society and even the death of spoken language.

It is the bitter lesson of Lamentations 4:9. Those who die at Ground Zero will be the fortunate ones because they will be spared the horror of the holocaust to come.

Threads is by far the bigger punch to the stomach of the two nuclear war docudramas of the mid 80's (the other being ABC's made for television offering, The Day After). I know this sounds odd, but the injection of the element of hope into The Day After always made it seem like the lesser of the two films in my estimations.

The Day After didn't push the buttons that Threads did. Threads's bleak and hopeless view of the shape of things to come validated the moral of my other favorite brinksmanship movie of the 80's, John Badham's 1983 classic, WarGames.

World War III is a game where the only winning move is not to play.

I will always be grateful to Ted Turner for having the courage to bring Threads to American telvision and spending his own money to do so.

To this day, there is still quite a bit of debate concerning Threads and its place in media history as a tool of caution or blatant piece of propaganda. Either way, I was happy to see that Threads has not only survived on YouTube, but actually made it to re-release on DVD sometime in 2005.

If I learned anything from "growing up Reagan," it was that some paths are best not ventured and some mistakes are best learned from by not making them.

Such is the legacy of the Cold War.

Zapped! (1982)

PLOT:

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Patrick Stewart: Well, uh - how best to explain it; you've seen me in "X-Men" ...
Andy Millman: Yeah.
Patrick Stewart: The character I am, Professor Charles Xavier, if you remember, he can control things with the power of his mind - can make people do things and see things, so I thought, what if you could do that for real? I mean, not in a comic book world, but in the real world.
Andy Millman: Oh, all right.
Patrick Stewart: So in my film, I play a man who controls the world with his mind.
Andy Millman: Right. Oh, that's interesting.
Patrick Stewart: Yeah. For instance, I'm walking along, and I see this beautiful girl, and I think I'd like to see her naked, and so all her clothes fall off.
Andy Millman: All her - clothes fall off?
Patrick Stewart: Yes, and she's scrabbling around to get them back on again, but even before she can get her knickers on, I've seen everything. Yeah. I've seen it all.
Andy Millman: [pause] Okay. It's a comedy, is it?
Patrick Stewart: No. It's about what would happen, you know, if these things were possible.
Andy Millman: What's the story, though, what's the ...
Patrick Stewart: Well, I do other stuff; like I'm riding my bike in the park, and this policewoman says "Oi! You can't ride your bike on the grass!" and I go "Oh no?" And her uniform falls off, and she goes "Ahh!" and she's trying to cover up, but I've seen everything anyway. And I get on my bike and I ride off. On the grass.
Andy Millman: [increasingly uncomfortable] So it's mainly you sort of go around seeing ladies' tits?
Patrick Stewart: Mainly.
- Patrick Stewart & Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) in Season 1, Episode 6 of Extras

Except it is a comedy, and instead of Patrick Stewart we have Scott Baio as Barney Springboro, a geeky high school student, Willie Aames as his best friend Peyton, and Felice Schachter as Bernadette the love interest.

But he does have telekinesis, and he does get to see everything. Well, tits at least.

REVIEW:

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Half teen sex romp and half 70s live action Disney film, Zapped! was a staple of 80s cable television, and even spawned a sequel eight years later. Pairing marketable television stars with fantasy wish fulfillment and T&A proved to be box-office boffo, though the lowbrow comedy betrays what is generally an amusing feature with a surprising amount of heart at its smutty core.

It's main flaw is a series of subplots which serve to pad the run-time, but just take focus away from the main characters. While the romantic exploits of the school principal, or the reaction of Barney's parents to his odd behavior (think Carrie/The Exorcist), feature a few amusing moments, they serve no real purpose. Even odder are two fantasy sequences, one featuring the U.S.S. Enterprise getting eaten by a dog (don't ask), and the other a pot fueled dream about Albert Einstein and salami (really don't ask) that definitely feel out of place.

As a whole, the cast do an acceptable job. Willie Aames was nominated for a Razzie award for his performance here, but he doesn't really stand out as particularly bad (Check out Bibleman if you really want to see Aames at his worst). He basically reprised the role along Scott Baio in the sitcom Charles in Charge a few years later. Felice Schachter (Nancy on The Facts Of Life) as the geeky school president fairs a lot better and brings a sincere sweetness to the role. Heather Thomas (The Fall Guy) is appropriately busty and bitchy as the head cheerleader and object of Peyton's "affection", and it's always nice to see the late Scatman Crothers get some screen time as Dexter Jones, the boy's baseball coach.

But this is the Scott Baio show, and the one time teen idol usually manages to hit the right note between sensitive and dorky. Barney shares a lot in common with the Kurt Russell roles from late 60s/early 70s Disney flicks with his gee-whiz reactions to his new powers. My favorite thing about his performance, however, is the far off glassy look he gets whenever he uses his ZAPPING ability. Very goofy, but despite looking like a dozy mental patient during these scenes Baio is perfectly capable in the role.

The special effects in the film are certainly not-so-special, usually accomplished by having not-quite-invisible wires float objects around the room. In one particularly egregious scene, Barney is mooned by two teens and proceeds to float them across a park (after pulling down their girlfriend's tops). The effect is so poor that the whole sequence becomes surreal and a tad disturbing. Barney's display of power at his baseball game shows some enjoyable echoes of a similar sequence in The Absent Minded Professor, but in general the fx have aged badly.

What really works in the film is the romance between Barney and Bernadette, which manages to develop almost naturally despite all expectations to the contrary. The film doesn't hide from nudity or sex (though it has a junior-high attitude towards woman, and is almost tame compared to other sex comedies of the time), but director Robert J. Rosenthal shows surprising restraint in showing the progress of the relationship. It's a small thing in the grand scheme of the film, but the small amount of heart on display really rises parts of the film above the teen-schlock of the time.

The MGM DVD of the film is a flipper featuring both the widescreen and fullscreen versions. Image quality is fine, though awfully bright, and suffers greatly during some of the special effects sequences. The soundtrack features some painfully 80s music (sometimes playing behind a montage. Depending on your preference this may be a plus or a minus.

The release features no special features. Not even a trailer. No Scott Baio commentary? Bah!

Slightly above average teen sex comedy is actually sweeter than one might expect, though some excruciating subplots, sub-par special effects and dumb comedy keep it from reaching the rather modest heights of the genre. Best watched for a combination of nostalgia and boobies.

The FALLOUT 3 Reviews: Doomsday (2008)

Well, after three months of exploring The Capitol Wasteland and otherwise goofing off, I've finally beaten Fallout 3. What is Fallout 3 you may ask? Only the greatest role-playing game available for the XBox 360 that is not named Mass Effect.

To make a long story short, Fallout 3 is pretty much an amalgamation of every piece of post-apocalyptic or sci-fi material ever captured on film or in the written word since about 1930's. The game finds it's roots as much in the old Flash Gordon movie serials with Buster Crabbe as it does the Mad Max films or even Logan's Run.

The game refrences so much material that it soon dawned on me just how much the end of the world has contributed to the box office and my DVD shelf. This inspired me to revisit and review some of my favorite movies that literally begin after the end.

... the end of the world that is...

Since Fallout 3 is a pastiche, then the logical beginning of the Fallout 3 reviews should be a pastiche.

In this case it is Neil Marshall's 2008 instant cult classic, Doomsday.

Chances are that if you're reading this blog and fit the same viewer demographic as we do, then you already "know" the plot of Doomsday even if you haven't seen the movie, so I won't insult your intelligence with lengthy exposition.

In 2008 (the year the film was released no less), a disease known as (what else) the Reaper virus rips its way through Scotland. The British government reacts swiftly by fortifying Hadrian's Wall and turning into the UK version of the 38th Parallel: a totally fortified killzone.

As fate would have it, the virus makes its way to Great Britan a few years later and the government decides to take action to save its own neck.... er... preserve peace and stability.

Prime Puppet... er... Prime Minister Hatcher (Alexander Siddig) and his right hand man, Canaris (David O'Hara), send for domestic security chief Captain Nelson (Bob Hoskins). Nelson then discovers that there may be uninfected survivors in Scotland. Nelson is ordered to send a combat team into Scotland to acertain whether or not a cure to the Reaper virus has been developed in secret and to bring that cure back to London.

Nelson chooses Major Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra complete with bionic glass eye) to lead the squad. Their mission: find the whereabouts of the mysterious Dr. Marcus Kane (Malcolm MacDowell, who incidentally does some voice work for Fallout 3), the last scientist known to have been working on a cure before the outbreak of the Reaper virus in Scotland.

I'll have to admit, when I first saw the trailers for this film last winter, I really thought this was going to be the dumbest movie ever. That is, until I noticed that mad genius, Neil Marshall, was at the helm.

If you were scared out of your wits during The Descent or Dog Soldiers (a.k.a. the best werewolf movie since the early nineties), then you have Marshall to thank for that. Enjoyment of Doomsday is directly tied to your expectations going in.

If you're expecting deep philosophical moments of self-inspection then this isn't the movie for you. Doomsday is an unapologetic homage to Marshall's favorite B-Movies and your job as a movie geek is to much your popcorn, enjoy the gory deaths, and see if you can spot all of the other films that Doomsday draws inspiration from.

Believe me, there are a bunch.

Ironically, my main gripe with this movie about the end is... well... the ending...

Most of my favorite post-apoaclyptic movies end on rather bleak notes and Doomsday is no exception. The problem is that given the rather frenetic pace set by Doomsday, I really was expecting a bit more of a vicious settling of earthly accounts rather than the subtle and surprisingly bloodless transition to the end credits.

Still, if you're looking for a film to anchor your Last Days marathon some Saturday then Doomsday is as good a film to lead off with as any.

Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2008) (Capsule Review)

Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2008) - Fabulously entertaining documentary showing the rise and fall of Australian exploitation cinema throughout the 1970s and 80s. We get the expected appearances by Russell Mulcahy (Highlander, Razorback) and George Miller (Mad Max), but it's the lesser known faces (and films)to American audiences which make the biggest impact. Brian Trenchard-Smith (director of Dead-End Drive In, BMX Bandits, and Turkey Shoot) gets a lot of attention, particularly from Quentin Tarantino who is, as one would expect, a huge fan of the genre. Features plenty of nudity (including a jaw-dropping clip of John Holmes) and gore, but it's all played up with a great deal of fun and style by director Mark Hartley, and the editing is magnificent, making even the cheapest piece-of-crap look worthy of being in the distinguishing genre fan's collection. Enlightening, engrossing and highly recommended for fans of films that hurtle wildly off the beaten track.

Defenders Of Space (aka Phoenix King) (1984)

PLOT:

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(taken directly from the $1 DVD cover)
Nicholas, a hypocritical ruler of the Zinba Empire, wants to expand his territory. His plan is to turn the Earth into his own private colony. His detailed plan starts by cutting off all of Earth's defense forces by destroying the city of Orion.
Meanwhile, a group of youngsters are spending their vacation on Mars. Not until they discover the destruction on Earth do the realize the danger they are in. They find Dr.Han and Fred in an underground Cave. Dr. Han believes that somewhere on Earth, there is an immortal bird called, The Phoenix King. He is said to be the guardian of the Earth and only this mythical creature can defeat Nicholas. Therefore, the adventurer's set off for the Phoenix's alleged home and the Earth's only hope.

That about sums it up in a convoluted (Zinba empire? Phoenix King?) and nonsensical way. The actual plot is simple: Bad guys attack earth, youngsters have to get giant robot in order to fight them off. Works for me.

REVIEW:

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As a kid I required only two things in my entertainment: a) Robots and b) Explosions. Luckily, I grew up in the 1980s where both were available in huge quantities, and often packaged together. My sugar addled brain was pelted by Transformers, Go-Bots, Wheeled Warriors and the mysterious Japanese Robotech, and I gladly watched it all. Around the world, variations of these cheap (and marketable) programs were made to saciate what appeared to be an unlimited demand, and soon screens were flooded by cheap Japanese cartoons, cheap American rip-offs of Japanese cartoons, and inevitably, really cheap Korean rip-offs of these American rip-offs. Defenders Of Space (originally titled Phoenix King) was one of these.

According to the trailer which plays before this (60 Minute) feature, it's possible that Defenders Of Space actually played in a few theaters in the mid-80s. This is an amazing thought, as often the film barely registers as animation, having more in common with the micro-budget Marvel Comics cartoons of the 60s with barely moving frames being strung together. Characters float across the screen, and you can sometimes see the animation cell (and the dirt on the frame) moving across the screen. This is bottom of the barrel stuff.

As was often the case with cheaply made 80s animation, the dubbing here is pitiful and features a handful of actors covering all of the voices. The dubbing of the enemies (particularly the EVIL ruler, impressively named Nick) is amateurish and often embarrassing. Also, thanks to the needlessly convoluted back-story, these characters alternate between delivering massive amounts of exposition, and trying desperately to fill up the characters open mouths with anything at all. There's also major inconsistencies present, particularly in the look of the Phoenix King robot once he arrives.

Despite all of this, this whole thing could have been saved if the Phoenix King, once uncovered, delivered some bad-ass robot action. It started off well, as Phoenix King shares an impressive resemblance to the Transformer called Inferno. In fact, the resemblance is nearly impossible to ignore, particularly at the film's ending. Phoenix King has (rather easily) destroyed the baddies and saved earth, but after landing in Orion he shows off his greatest power of all. Indeed, after all of that waiting we finally get to see what PK is made of as he TRANSFORMS into a..

Fire Engine. Hey! Just like Inferno!

Yep. This is a future where traveling to Mars is a routine task, and laser blasters are a dime a dozen, and this guy's amazing ability is to turn into a truck that squirts water. The whole thing plays like poorly made Inferno fan-fic written by a painfully lonely geek.

NOT Phoenix King

The Digiview Productions DVD is watchable enough, though the DVD format makes even the most minor flaws easy to pick out. This film is routinely available in the dollar bins, and I picked it up in a package with two other cheaply made Korean films for a couple of dollars. If you're a fan of awful animation and giant robots you may get a kick out of it.

Included on the DVD is a trailer for the film, as well as short previews for other animated films available from Digiview Productions including Nursery Classics, King Solomon's Mines, Captain Nemo Vol. 4, Captain Nemo Vol. 3, The Man In The Iron Mask, The Last Of The Mohicans, Beauty and Warrior, Greatest Fighting Heros (yes, Heroes is mispelled), Girls We Love, Our Funniest Friends, Defenders Of Space, Ali Baba And The Gold Raiders, Space Thunder Kids, Protectors Of Universe, and Black Arrow. Most of these appear to be collections of public domain cartoons, or oddly European animated features based on public domain properties. My personal favorite title is Protectors Of Universe.

The price is right, but there are infinitely better ways to get your giant robot fix.