Critapocalypse Episode 9! You can’t handle the truth!

So we finally made it on to iTunes, little did Apple know that we plan to take them down from the inside but that is neither here nor now.

Hedgehog power sabotage bots. If it’s good enough for a Sonic villain it is good enough for me and Tom Atkins.

You know the drill at this point but just in case me (Matt) and Ant (Ant) talk about things we have done, played, listened to or watched. If that isn’t e ough we do also go completely off tangent so for all your non tangential tapestry of talking check out THE Critapocalypse podcast.

Critapocalypse-podcast Episode 9 YOUTUBE!

Critapocalypse-podcast Episode 9 SOUNDCLOUD!!!!

Search for us on iTunes and please like, comment and subscribe.

I love you guys.

Critapocalypse Episode 8! Great Cock Fire of Balls!

We have banded together once again to discuss the finer things in life, not wine, cheese and stale crackers but video games, films, music and occasionally, life.

Life?

You know the drill at this point and if you don’t you will get the jist pretty quickly. We review stuff while we chat the night away, we then record these mad ramblings and edit them into a format for your earholes.

Fuck you, Fuck you, Fuck you, Fuck you and Fuck you. You fucking son of a bitch.

This week we talk about (Time codes for youtube only):

Total Overdose: 00:01:20
Infamous First light: 00:09:42
Chinese Zodiac: 00:14:47
The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies: 00:22:14
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and lamentations for original gaming: 00:31:32
Grown Ups 2: 00:46:44
13 Assassins: 01:02:11
Worms Battlegrounds: 01:08:50

So get your steaming pile of sex voices right here:

Critapocalypse Episode 8 Youtube

Critapocalypse Episode 8 Soundcloud

Charles Band’s ‘Puppet Master 8: The Legacy’

I really cannot express my disappointment when watching this movie and realising that it is essentially a series of clips from the previous films. I really cannot justify reviewing this as a film, if you wanted to see everything that is shown here you probably would have watched the previous films in this series.

ROMANCE!

The “story” revolves around Peter Hertz (Jacob Whitkin) who was the young boy saved by Andre Toulon in the third film. Peter is now the Puppet Master and has been cornered by the mysterious Maclain (Kate Orsini) who is seeking a way to destroy the nefarious marionettes and save the souls trapped inside. Eventually she kills him or something along those lines, many clips of other films are shown in between.

ACTION!

It’s difficult to pinpoint the reason for Charles Band to create this film using mostly footage previously seen. On one hand it could have been that he wished to show the journey the puppets have gone on but if that was the case you would pick scenes of emotional depth and not just murdering. This intention could have been for this to just be a kill compilation but then you have to question the book ending segments involving Maclain and Peter.

SUSPENCE!

All in all this really shouldn’t be classed as a separate film, it feels more like a DVD extra that would come in a box set more than a piece deserving any narrative. I recommend avoiding this and give it an Adam Sandler, you know it’s going to be shit but it depends on your tolerance for that sort of thing.

Thank you for all the monies!

Critapocalypse Episode 7! No stopping us now!

We return to you this week in nostalgic mood, reminiscing about the year gone by.

Look at that magnificent bastard!

Please follow us as we discuss what we liked and what we didn’t like so much from 2014.

Within this episode we discuss: Penny Dreadful, Guardians of the Galaxy, Godzilla, Tranformers 4, EA Sports UFC, Sunset Overdrive, Shovel Knight, Download 2014, The Flash and Bojack Horseman.

Someone made my thoughts into a picture before I thought them! (All credit goes to the person who made that image)

SOUNDCLOUD!!!!

Critapocalypse Episode 7 Soundcloud

YOUTUBE!!!!!!

Critapocalypse Episode 7 Youtube

Critapocalypse Episode 6! HOLY SHIT!

We are back once again with the renegade master!

A rare moment of chilling out in the world of The Walking Dead.

Here we are with Critapocalypse Episode 6! This week we talk about Return Of The Living Dead, GTA 5, The Equilizer, Nightbreed, Rocky IV, Persona 4 and the first half of The Walking Dead Season 5. So feast your ear holes on some free entertainment.

Not a David Cronenberg holiday snapshot.

Here is the Soundcloud link:

Critapocalypse Episode 6 on Soundcloud.

Here is the link for you Youtube lovers:

Critapocalypse Episode 6 on Youtube.

David DeCoteau’s ‘Puppet Master 7: Retro Puppet Master’

Here we go again, back into the fray once more my friends, once more into the bitter night. Puppet Master 7 is a prequel to all the films preceding it, we will finally learn where it was that Toulon learnt to the secret which allowed him his string less marionette’s (A plot point first seen all the way back in Puppet Master 2). Let’s get into the wood and paint of this. 

Fun Fact: This is not Swedish for college.

So we join Andre Toulon (Guy Rolfe) on the run from the Nazis and hiding out in one of his old bases located in Switzerland. Within his puppet case he finds the head of one of his original creations named Cyclops and recounts the Puppet Master Origin story to his animated marionettes.

The story starts with a man named Afzel (Jack Donner) a 3000 year old Egyptian sorcerer running from some assailants through Cairo. He defeats his pursuers and begins his journey to Paris. We cut to Paris in 1902 and the young Toulon (The Room’s Greg Sestero) whose friends are helping him operate his puppets in a large theatre. Meanwhile Elsa (Brigitta Dau) is the daughter of an ambassador and has run away in order to escape her father’s tyrannical hold.

Elsa arrives at the theatre to watch the show but is distracted once she spots and falls instantly in love with Toulon. Afzel appears on the steps of the theatre injured by 3 Egyptian mummies resurrected by Suketh; Toulon is told the story of the spell of animation (Which Afzel stole in the beginning) and taught the secret thus taking his first steps to becoming the Puppet Master. Elsa’s father does not approve of her new love, deciding that it is best for her to be taken away from Paris and married to another (Which he appears to have chosen).

The 3 mummies return and kill Toulon’s friends when they attempt to defend the theatre. Using the souls of his fallen comrades Toulon animates his friend’s puppets and the fight is on, to save Elsa, stop Suketh’s groovy ghoolies and escape Paris, all the while making his first steps towards becoming a true Puppet Master.

These are reanimated mummies.

I don’t know if you can tell from that plot synopsis but this film has a lot going on and (Surprisingly) handles it all very well. The story makes some modicum of sense which is great, I just wish this was the start to the series and not the end of the initial run. Information is given in a clear way and Guy Rolfe’s scenes offer a nice intro, I have stated previously that he was a highlight of these movies and that still rings true in this entry. All the puppets are given the souls of Toulon’s friends and this makes us slightly more invested in them but it isn’t made clear if they are the same as the current iteration of puppets.

This guy went on to start the Realdoll company.

All in all this film does well at adding to the mythology and isn’t difficult to enjoy. The accents maybe terrible in places and the cliché characters could be ripped from any film but this is a cheesy horror film which means we allow some small indiscretions. I enjoyed this movie and would recommend watching it before any of the other films. It serves as another nice high point, gives context to the different puppets and shows us the basis for Toulon’s romance with Elsa.

The spell requires you take a squat on the dead bodies face.

I hold this film in high regards and would give it a Timothy Olyphant, it won’t be the film you expect to watch but it’s always a bt of a treat.

David DeCoteau’s ‘Puppet Master 6: Curse of the Puppet Master’

We are back to Puppet Master and the first reboot of the series after it was initially intended to end back on chapter 5. New cast but no new puppets and an attempt at continuing to use the lore previously are the first of many miss steps, in an attempt to avoid too much. Lets get into this torrid tale of the darker side of man.

Actually, this is not a bad scene.

We open up on the House of Marvels Museum which we are shown is now the home of Andre Toulon’s creations. The Bodega Bay Hotel is in the past and to show this we are interested to Dr Magrew (George Peck) and his daughter Jane (Emily Harrison) who treat the Puppets as curious playful creatures (Although the Dr does make note of the previously murdery tendencies). We are interested to a local young man named Robert “Tank” Winsley (Josh Green) who gets picked on by the local boys because he is large and meek. Tank is a very skilled whittler, spending time on his hobby to escape the mean spirited locals and kill time while working at the local gas station. Soon the Dr is recruiting Robert to help him create a special puppet designed by Andre Toulon but never created. As Robert helps the Dr we see that he maybe under the effects of something as his previously meek nature becomes increasingly violent. When we finally discover the nature of the Dr’s plan it seems that Robert can no longer be saved but can love bring him back from the brink?

Cannon fodder.

This film has the feeling of the red heading step child of the Puppet Master series, some of the elements of the series are here but seem distorted. One element that makes a welcome return is the puppets requiring a soul to be animated, this actually becomes central to the plot but also offers a reason for the finale. The puppets themselves are slightly under utilised especially when initially they were a vessel for vengeance, this is one thing that probably came from the need to “Soft Reboot” the whole series and gave them more flexibility for future entries.

“Oh, I’m not one of those high falutin city folk.”

These dungarees should have been included in the credits.

The cast are not quite at the level of the other entries and struggle with some of the dramatic scenes but as this is a horror film we always allow some bad acting. Guy Rolfe does not appear as Ambiguous Nazi Puppet Yoda this time around which is upsetting since he was always the best thing about these films. The main character Robert is played as unintelligent but functional within this world, to make sure we are always aware of his intelligence they dress him in denim dungarees for the entire film (Like a weird new version of John Steinback’s Of Mice and Men) which is more than a bit condescending.

He is holding a briefcase which would lead us to believe he owns more clothes, he does not.

To be absolutely honest this film is not good, it is difficult to watch and takes forever to reveal information most people will guess in the first few minutes. I like the Dr and they bring in a the Karate Kid style bully which is fun but sadly both characters lack any definition, becoming far too evil early on in the film.

The perfect weapon to hold sideways and threaten people with.

This is the film that reinvigorated the series but after watching it I really cannot see why. I wouldn’t recommend it and once again give a David Spade, you may remember a time when you enjoyed it but that time passed long ago.

Hey, they are wearing matching clothes!

Critapocalypse Episode 5! Now with youtube!

Critapocalypse is back and we have more interesting shit to discuss.

From video games to TV and movies you won’t find a better place to give you an irrelevant opinion, sometimes we veer wildly off topic and begin disucssing the events of the last 2 weeks but thats all in the name of keeping you entertained.

Mummies Alive! It’s scarab.

Check out the links below for your bi weekly dose of Matt and Ant in your ears.

Critapocalypse Episode 5 – Soundcloud

For those more visual based fans of the show here is the Youtube link.

Critapocalypse Episode 5 – Youtube

This week we discuss Far Cry 4, WWE Survivor Series 2014, Hunger Games – Mockingjay Part 1, Gems of War, Snowpiercer, Elite Dangerous, Dragon Age: Inquisition and Super Castlevania 4.

Jeff Burr’s ‘Puppet Master 5: The Final Chapter’

We are back to Puppet Master and this time it is apparently personal. You know the deal at this point and hopefully don’t expect too much from these films, the supposed final chapter was going to be the end to the series but they decided to carry on with the franchise. This is the 2nd film in the series to be a direct sequel to the previous installment bringing back Gordon Currie, Guy Rolfe and Teresa Hill. Lets dive into this tale of dark goings on in a world beyond the vision of man, a world populated by animated creatures by devious magic. Lets get it on.

Not a police station.

So the film opens with the previous protagonist Rick Myer (Gordon Currie) being accused of murder due to the killings at the Bodega Bay Motel. Rick has a witness who would be able to confirm that he did not murder his friends but sadly the witness is his girlfriend Lauren (Teresa Hill) who has fallen into a coma. After hearing his torrid tale of terrifying tools manifested by the god Suketh, the new head of artificial intelligence and Ricks new boss Susie (Chandra West) decides to post bail and help investigate further. Turns out Suketh is still stewing about the whole losing to a mortal thing and takes the drastic action of putting his essence into one the spiky bastards from the last film. With Suketh now on Earth hunting Rick he will need all his friends back again to prove his power, possibly defeat Suketh and save Lauren. Will he suceed witht he help of Obi Wan Toulon (Guy Rolfe)? Will he take the mantle of Puppet Master? What will worry the world of who Suketh be?

Weird but in a sexy way.

I have watched many bad films in my time, sometimes those films are campy neon drenched madness and sometimes they are boring dull repetitive wastes of celluloid. At this point we have experienced some bipolar quality issues from this series and this film doesn’t help, considering the entry before The Final Chapter was enjoyable on a few different levels, it is even more dissapointing to watch something like this. On the plus side because Suketh has put his essence within a vessel to send to Earth we no longer have to see the awful puppet version but the negative effect of this is we don’t get the slight campy feeling of this obviously awful thing bumbling about. The villains are once again the scabby little things which have no personality or shock value (Especially now they have been used for 2 films).

If you cannot tell, that puppet has been shot.

The plot plods along and we get to a place that makes sense within the realms of the fictional universe that has been set up, the problem is that the universe has lost it’s most dynamic and interesting character. The sense of a scrambling need to bring back Toulon is evident towards the end when we once again get an appearance from Guy Rolfe giving the same message from Puppet Master 4. There is no use in asking why in this film because we know why, money. Everything wrong with this series is the continuation of a series that should have died but didn’t, it should have died but like Toulon they retcon what they can and revive it.

Suketh Sucketh. See what I did there, fucking word boom.

Blargh, well it happened I watched it and now we have to do Puppet Master 6. In terms of a school for this one it gets a David Spade, you’ll remember the past and a little nolstagia will drift in but then you remember what it did later on which makes you sad.

Stop it Guy Rolfe you are better than this!

Edward D. Murphy’s ‘Raw Force AKA Kung Fu Cannibals’

Look at that title! Who needs marketing when you have a name like Kung Fu Cannibals! I found this film by chance, my friend was trying to find something to watch and emerged with this classic on a blank DVD (We had reservations after recently watching Ringu but braved the possibility of death via media). Hastily scribbled on the label was the name and nothing else, we salivated that the prospect of the spectacular idea of martial arts man eaters (I beg someone to use that title for a movie). I sat and as the film blared into life I gave my time willingly (The beer helped me lavishly lay down my precious minutes). Let’s get into this tale of high kicking cannibal chaos.

Glossy leaflets welcome people to Warrior Island which means they must have some sort of marketing department.

Cameron Mitchell appears to love boats and topless martial artists.

So we open up on 3 women being flown to an island by 3 lecherous young men and 1 Hitler impersonator, upon arriving at the island the women are offered to some monks who trade them for a large quantity of jade. One of the women is not to the monks liking and she is rejected (This appears to upset her greatly) which causes her to panic, run off into some bushes and subsequently get killed by a blue zombie samurai. Cut to Capt. Harry Dodds (Cameron Mitchell) bitching about the cruise ship owner Hazel Buck (Hope Holiday) to the resident cook and martial arts expert Go Chin (Rey Malonzo). Soon enough it is all hands on deck as they set sail for Warrior Island but not before doing some shopping in town (Which seems to consist of bar’s, brothels and the Jade goods equivalent of Walmart). After encountering the lecherous bastards and one man Adolf fan club they find themselves being chased on the high seas as the boat comes ever closer to reaching Warriors Island. Will they meet the mad manic monks masticating maidens? Is the price of murder really just some green rocks? Who is doing the marketing for Warriors Island because the leaflets are excellent.

This man is simply called Religious Freak in the credits and is fucking insane.

This guys name is now Bowie and arrow.

This movie is amazing so there is no bad this review! Between the poor acting, broken dialogue and terrible ADR there are moments of true brilliance but the parts that are bad still manage to entertain. This film has entered my collection of so bad it’s good right next to the insane Miami Connection (Both films back to back would be a great double bill) and seeing this brought a sense of people really enjoyed making something with every intention of creating greatness.

Here is Shitler and his henchmen.

More good! So the actors all seem to be in this film to make something great, this is evidence by several scenes that contain a gleeful energy as people jump into shot with a smile ready to take down bad guys. Cameron Mitchell plays it straight but every so often you get the sense that even he is having a laugh. One of my favourite lines comes from one of the final scenes in which Mr Mitchell screams “I saw Clint Eastwood do this once!” to which he turns and corner and just fires at the enemy making the line completely irrelevant. One women explains that she is on the run from the Mafia for around 20 minutes before entirely disappearing from the film never to return again (I think we are to assume she perishes on the boat but this is never confirmed).

Bandit plus axe equals murder.

This isn’t a problem but the romantic sub-plots are entirely pointless as everyone seems hell-bent on getting naked regardless the occasion but I think that the massive amounts of nudity may have stemmed from an attempt at pleasing several audiences at once.

Spoiler: Zombies!

If you are looking for a film that contains Horror, Action, Adventure, Drama and masses of bewbs you cannot do much better than this underrated classic. I highly recommend it and give the film a brilliant Tom Atkins, you will never feel like you have wasted your time viewing this little known masterpiece.

These monks love their job.