THE RUNNING MAN / Braveworld Productions, HBO - 1987

Here's a movie with a scary, uncanny prediction of the future, check it out!!.. In the year 2017, the great freedoms of the United States no longer exist, the nation has sealed off its borders and become a militarized police state (Focks News doctrine!), censoring film, art, literature and communications! With full control over the media (Bannon!!), the government attempts to quell the nation's yearning for freedom by broadcasting game shows on which convicted criminals fight for their lives. The most popular and sadistic of these programs is THE RUNNING MAN, hosted by Damon Killian. When a peaceful protest of starving citizens gather in Bakersfield, California, a police officer, Ben Richards, is ordered to fire on the crowd, which he refuses to do. The attack is carried out and Richards is framed for the murder of almost a hundred unarmed civilians!.. Wow, can't wait for that!!

It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Richard Dawson, Jesse Ventura, Jim Brown and others. I have to admit, I've never sat through the whole movie.

Richard Dawson plays Killian, host of The Running Man, he enjoys sending 'criminals' out to fight for their lives while him and the studio audience watch the ordeal on TV.

Anyway, Ben Richards is up next... Since he was framed for the murders, he now has to become... The Freakin' Running Man!!

I'LL BE BOCK!!..

Killian narrates the action for this this crowd of brainwashed friends.

Ben, now with Amber, do all they can to avoid the men chasing them. Watch out for all those damn hidden cameras!!

Here's a cool shot of a crowd watching as Buzzsaw makes his entrance!

Buzzsaw is big, burly, and, carries his trusted full throttle chainsaw and lets it doing his talking for him! Be careful, Ben!!

Killian is snarky as Hell, he has the 'law' on his side, so, he can legally come up with twisted shit and can get any evil order carried out... Sweeeeet.

Looks like Killian has Amber in a compromising position. You know, when you're rich and 'famous', you can just touch their stuff whenever you like!!

Jesse is one of my faves, here he is as Captain Freedom. He goes round and round with Ben and uses some big-time wrasslin' moves like the good old eye and nose gouge!!

Eventually, Killian get his just desserts, a big old Boston Creme Pie in the face!!!.. Check in again tomorrow when we'll have something special for you, here at... The Dungeon!!

GILA! - William Dever - "B Movie Nation" (2012)

 I like this poster because it introduces the members of the main cast, so now I don't have to do it!

 When I first started this blog, I never thought I'd be writing about a movie from 2012, because all I really wanted to do was put a renewed spotlight on a handful of teen horror movies from the 50's and 60's that featured at least one song being performed, or at least mimed! The movies I'm talking about in chronological order are BLOOD OF DRACULA (1957), ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE (1958), HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER (1958), FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER (1958), GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW (1959), EEGAH (1962), THE HORROR OF PARTY BEACH (1964), THE BEACH GIRLS AND THE MONSTER (1965) etc, and of course, from 1959, THE GIANT GILA MONSTER!

 So, I didn't even know they made a remake of "The Giant Gila Monster" called "GILA" in 2012, and even if I did, I probably wouldn't have cared, but I stumbled upon it the other night on "Prime" and I'll just say that I was pleasantly surprised enough to want to make it this week's Wayback Wednesday offering!

Well, I'm just learning stuff right and left, so the reason "GILA!" is so well done is because the Producer is a gentleman named William Dever, who has a real love of  'B' movies, to the length that he has a website I never knew about until right now called "B Movie Nation," and I suggest you go there right away if you'd like to know from A to Z about 'B's!

Brian Gross has the lead role of  hot rodder Chase Winstead! Brian has also had the role of Captain Kirk in "Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II."

 For my money, the monster ain't all that bad, especially considering the meager budget this film was made for! It's a little awkward, but at least it's a lot more effective than the original!

Great marquee shot! I'm still waiting for "Ho Ho Horror" to come out!

Nice shot of this 78 cranking out "Rock-A-Beatin Boogie" by Bill Haley and the Comets! Reminds me I need to try and sell some of my 78 collection! They didn't use all the same music as in the first version, but added a lot of songs from the era to pump it up a little bit!

 

"GILA!" is worth watching just to see the beautiful olde cars like this classic 1960 T Bird!

After he eats the farmer's wife, the gila monster spits out the bloody pitchfork she was carrying like it was a chicken bone!

The always fun to watch Kelli Maroney as Deputy Wilma takes a bead on the giant critter!

Kelli has been in a remarkable array of movies over the last 30 years like "Slayground," "Night Of The Comet," "Chopping Mall," "Not Of This Earth," "Scream Queens Hot Tub Party," etc etc. etc.

In the original "Giant Gila Monster" there was a barn dance with a local radio station DJ, and Chase performs a couple of tunes, but in the remake, there's a band playing called MG and the Gas City Three performing "Red River Rock," and then Christina DeRosa performs "Fever" with the boys, and it almost becomes "Grease"-like, but never to the point of being cloying!

Give William Dever some credit for bringing the original Chase Winstead, Don Sullivan, in for a quick role as the guy who was the authority on reptiles! Don Sullivan might only have twelve acting credits to his name, but he should he a household name just because of a couple of them besides being in two giant gila monster movies. He was also the lead in Jerry Warren's "Teenage Zombies," literally one of the worst movies ever made, he was in the super classic "Monster Of Piedras Blancas," and he was in Gene Fowler's beatnik heist flick, "The Rebel Set," and he had a small part in "Curse Of The Undead," and he was in Hugo Haas's last film, "Paradise Alley!"

Now that's what I call recreating a scene!

To wrap it up, the whole cast sings "Laugh, Children, Laugh," a song written by Don Sullivan! What could be more fitting than that? I hope Don got a decent royalty check! I'd give you a sound clip but I don't want to get sued by somebody I respect so much!

More than just a movie, "GILA!" is more of a tribute to Don Sullivan and all the 50's 'B' movies! Maybe there is hope for the future after all thanks to guys like William Dever!

MOVIE SPACESHIPS OF THE FIFTIES

Here's a special post to end the month! These are movie spaceships built on Earth to explore the universe, no alien spacecraft or TV rockets are included... Enjoy!

Here's the beautiful ship in DESTINATION MOON from 1950, a nice way to start the show.

ROCKETSHIP X-M also came out in 1950, I have fond memories of this one because they played the crap out of it on TV in the fifties, the ending is sad...

FLIGHT TO MARS hit the screens in 1951, what a classic spaceship. I swear, the colors in this movie are just freakin' amazing!

Another awesome spaceship in WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, also from 1951. This time they build a long rail to shoot it into space!

This beautiful ship appeared in ABBOTT AND COSTELLO GO TO MARS in 1953. My parents took me to see it and I loved it, A & C were my favorite comedians at the time!

Here's the cool spaceship from CAT-WOMEN OF THE MOON in 1953, nice shot...

Looks like they reused the Cat-Women ship again in PROJECT MOON BASE in 1953. This movie has some amazing accuracies about landing on the Moon.

Check out the great looking British ship from SPACEWAYS, also from 1953. This movie is pretty damn boring, too much drama.

Another movie I saw a lot on TV was RIDERS TO THE STARS from 1954, chasing that meteor and the dead spaceman were my favorite parts.

Space hardware was modernized for CONQUEST OF SPACE in 1955. The crew crash on Mars and end up growing a plant before they head back to Earth.

Just when the spaceships were starting to look modern, good old Mr. BIG came up with KING DINOSAUR in 1955 and used a freakin' V-2 Rocket to get to a distant planet... Gimme a break!!

Also in 1955, THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT had this beautiful spaceship that crashes into the British countryside with many mysteries inside after going into space!

 

Randall Landers pointed out in a comment that we omitted SATELLITE IN THE SKY from 1956, so, here it is, making our list complete, thank you R. What a beautiful spaceship it is too, white no less!

FIRE-MAIDENS OF (FROM) OUTER SPACE in 1956 also used a V-2 Rocket to get to their destination in space, again, gimme a break!

My favorite movie from the fifties is FORBIDDEN PLANET, saw it in 1956 when my dad took me to the theater! It totally blew my little 7 year old mind, an unforgettable experience. This is the only saucer spacecraft in the post, the C-57D!

WORLD WITHOUT END from 1956 used this very nice spaceship, a really exciting flick!

Then, in 1957, Ray Harryhausen had this very cool ship in 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH! Saw this one at the theater too, a great movie for us little sci-fi guys...

I also saw THE INVISIBLE BOY in 1957, loved it because of Robby the Robot. Here's a shot of the huge spaceship Robby and the Invisible Boy use to go into space!

My second favorite movie from the fifties is QUATERMASS 2 aka ENEMY FROM SPACE, I love blobs!! There's the spaceship in the background that saves Earth from the alien invaders... Saw this one at the theater too!!

Even though I saw FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON in 1958, I really don't remember much about it. The rocket launch is one of the worst ever, the model is stationary, letting the smoke from the flames shoot up above it... LAME!!!

That great Allied Artists spaceship is back in IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE, reused from WORLD WITHOUT END... Hell, why not?! That's one of my favorite backgrounds.

This rocket from MISSILE TO THE MOON in 1958 reminds me of a model I built in wood shop with Eegah!! in the 8th grade!

Here's a little shout out to Bernie with that tailless animated rocket in NIGHT OF THE BLOOD BEAST from 1958.

Gawd, I even saw QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE in 1958, and again, they reused that Allied Artists ship! I liked the big spider reused from WORLD WITHOUT END and the cool sound effects.

Here's a small look at SPACE MASTER X-7 from 1958 as it has an encounter with a space blob and brings it back to Earth, photo found by Crashsq, thanks pal.

I saw WAR OF THE SATELLITES in 1958, liked it a lot. Check out those squat spaceships, they had to carry the Satellite pieces into space!

Eegah!! and I saw ANGRY RED PLANET in 1959, wow, it was a wild roller coaster ride for two sci-fi guys!! They use an Atlas rocket, obviously so they could use actual footage of an Atlas launch to cut in for realism...

Eegah!! and I also saw BATTLE BEYOND THE SUN in 1959, we really enjoyed the ride. Those Russian rockets were impressive, but, we liked the two bizarro monsters the best.

Toho kicks some butt with BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE in 1959. The Earth and Alien spaceships are really fun to watch in action!!

I'm pretty sure we saw HAVE ROCKET, WILL TRAVEL in 1959, again, they use an Atlas rocket. Give us The Stooges any day of the week!!

That was fun, I like putting things into order, can't believed I'm finally done... Check back soon for more cool junk from... THE DUNGEON!!