CRASH AND BURN / The Weapons Of The Future Are Alive - 1990

This is the follow-up flick of ROBOT JOX, in this one, Unicom is a powerful organization overseeing most of the world after its economic collapse and have banned computers and robots in an attempt to insure economic stability. When a Unicom Synth Zoid infiltrates a southwest TV station and kills the manager, a revolution against the gestapo-like corporation, a Unicom delivery man must help the rest of the station survive!

It stars Paul (LETHAL WEAPON 3) Ganus, Megan (TRANCERS II) Ward, Ralph (FIVE EASY PIECES) Waite, Bill (THE BLOB '88) Moseley and Eva (THE BARBARIANS) LaRue. This was a direct to video production directed by Charles Band, I have to admit, the acting is top shelf!

Our hero, Tyson Keen, is assigned to the Unicom TV station way out in the desert somewhere...

Out back of the facility is a giant robot that had got a 'crash and burn' computer virus and is now non functional.

Beautiful women work at the facility. Parice gets comfortable as Arren watches. Not to be outdone, Arren takes her top off for us. Supposedly, Arren is just 16 years old!

The TV host and his girls relocate in the medical ward, preparing for a thermal storm.

Then, the station manager is targeted for assassination, like, what's going on around here?!

Arren is trying to get rid of the computer virus and get the giant robot up and working again. She attains limited success with the effort.

We find out that Quinn is a Synth Zoid and is killing off the humans at the facility, here, he tries to choke out Arren! This is kinda weird, in 1981, my art pal and I came up with a comic story about robots called, WE ARE THE SYNTHAZOIDS!

Tyson, Arren and Parice try to escape the place in a classic 1959 Ford pickup (everyone else is dead) but Quinn attacks them, he barely holds on as Tyson tries to shake him loose!

Then guess what happens?.. Right, the thermal storm hits! An electrical bolt strikes a tower.

Wouldn't you know it, the tower falls and traps Tyson and Quinn beneath it. At this point, Quinn is battered to Hell, but he is still trying to get his metal hands around Tyson's neck!

Arren splits the scene and tries to get the robot up and going in an attempt to save Tyson.

And, it works!! The lumbering giant heads toward the fallen tower...

It goes to the tower and picks it up, freeing Tyson, and Quinn! Our hero is just barely able to escape Quinn's grasp, so, Arren has the robot stomp the HELL out of the evil jerk!!

Then, the giant robot malfunctions and falls to the ground. But, mission accomplished!

Well, it turns out that Parice is also a Synth Zoid, it looks bad for Tyson until Arren shows up with a special rifle and blows her metal head off! Tyson and Arren leave the facility in the Ford pickup and disappear into future... Tune in tomorrow when Eegah!! brings his club to the fight!

KID MONK BARONI - Leonard Nimoy - "King Of The Ring" (1952)

 Tonight I've got a Ringside Special Welterweight Wednesday for you, and it's a movie that packs a wallop for a number of reasons! Even though he's the star of the show, look what amazingly small credit Leonard Nimoy gets on this poster!

"Kid Monk Baroni" just might be one of the most interesting movies you never heard of! I wasn't familiar with it, I just sat down to watch a 50's boxing movie being the big fan of the sweet science that I am, but this film is something else, it's real a pop culture jewel, but I digress!

 The credits roll "Introducing Leonard Nimoy" and this is Mr. Spock's first starring role, but he did have two very very minor parts previous to "Kid Monk Baroni," in "Queen For A Day," and "Rhubarb!"  Some of Leonard's other super cool, but less familiar roles include "Them!," and "The Brain Eaters!" He was also in the "Twilight Zone" episode "A Quality Of Mercy," and not one, but two "Outer Limits" episodes, "I, Robot," and "Production And Decay Of Strange Particles!"

Beautiful view of 1952 New York sky scape!

If you get in trouble, it's a one way trip to the Police Dept!

How's this for two classic icons in one shot? Jimmy Olsen and Mr. Spock!

The opening shot says. "The Billy Goat Gang" in "Kid Monk Baroni," but this gang of 50's punks shouldn't get mixed up with The Bowery Boys or The Dead End Kids, because except for the one fool who steals everything he can stick under his coat over and over, this group of young men is devoid of humor! Jack (Jimmy Olsen) Larson is Angelo, Budd Jaxon is Knuckles, Archer MacDonald is Pete, Wayne (The 7th Is Made Up Of Phantoms) Mallory is Tony, Ted Avery is Joey, and Leonard Nimoy is Paul 'Monk' Baroni.

Kathleen Freeman has 294 credits to her name, and has been in almost every movie and TV show ever made between 1948 and 2003, but she still sounds funny with her Italian accent as Kid Baroni's Mom!

Instead of molesting boys, the local priest teaches them to box in his makeshift gym in the basement of the church! Monk is slow at first but shows he has potential, especially in the power department!

Monk starts boxing in local amateur matches. He wins six matches and six watches, and every time he takes them to the pawn shop and gets two dollars, but after the sixth one, the guy at the pawn shop says enough is enough! He can only sell so many watches!

So Monk turns pro!

Monk has this horrible clubbing/chopping style that looks to me like it would even be illegal in a MMA match today, pounding down on the back of his opponent's head and neck!

Monk also likes classical music! This is a super classic 'Bozo-Approved' listening room at the local record store!

Because his face is slightly disfigured, Monk had never had any luck with girls until he meets Allene (Adventures Of Superman) Roberts as Emily Brooks! Emily makes Monk feel better about himself!

Monk falls in with a less than legitimate manager and team of backers, and they want him to exploit himself, and go all out as a bad guy, no matter what it takes!

Monk is really an intelligent and thoughtful person, but this new persona kind of fits his style too!

After he takes a beating, and his self confidence is waning, Emily suggests to Monk that maybe he should try and get some plastic surgery so that he will feel better about himself!

Here's the new good looking Monk! He's now so full of confidence that it's turned him into a cocky asshole!

Monk kind of forgets about Emily and picks up on Mona (Space Patrol) Knox, but she's just playing him, and after she gets him to buy her some furs etc, she drops him like a hot potato!

Time for Monk to take his new look into the ring!

Now Monk has gone from Mr. Excitement to the most boring fighter in the ring because he doesn't want to get hit in his pretty face any more!

If you like Leonard Nimoy, or boxing, or 1950's movies in general, I don't think you can go wrong wasting 79 minutes watching "Kid Monk Baroni." If it's a not a knockout, it's at least a unanimous decision!!

THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE / Nero-Film AG - 1933

Today's post is a movie by German great Fritz Lang, the story's about a new crime wave that grips the city, and all clues seem to lead to the nefarious Dr. Mabuse, even though he has been imprisoned in a mental asylum for nearly a decade! This is a beautiful 111 minute restored print recorded on TCM a few years ago.

It stars Rudolf (THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI) Klein-Rogge as Dr. Mabuse, Gustav (PANDORA'S BOX) Diessl, Rudolf (SEX IS NOT FOR VIRGINS) Schündler, Oskar (PYGMALION) Höcker, Theo (M) Lingen and Camilla (HAUNTED PEOPLE) Spira.

Here's Hofmeister, a rogue policeman out looking for clues about the new crime spree in Berlin, he's being chased by some criminals. First, they roll a barrel bomb at him and he ducks into an alley just before it blows the Hell up! Then, he calls the Inspector to inform him of his plight, and, the lights go out!

At the medical center, the class is being lectured on the strange case of Dr. Mabuse. At one point after being in a coma, the doctor sits up in bed in a hypnotic state for months. Later, he starts writing incoherent words and sentences non-stop! In other words... Coo coo, coo coo!!

The attending doctor becomes hypnotized after he sees the ghostly figure of Mabuse standing in a corner of the room. This can't be good since the evil doctor is an expert on hypnotism!

The Inspector goes to see Hofmeister in his cell at the medical center, he's loony as a mad loon. He has actually been hypnotized, so, the Inspector leaves without getting any info from him.

Here are some crooks awaiting their orders from a mysterious voice behind the curtain.

Back at the police lab, dude has discovered that the scratches they found on some glass was the reverse image of the name... Mabuse! What the Hell.

Then we go to the home of an art collector and see some unusual artwork!

Guess what shows up!.. Right, the ghostly figure of Dr. Mabuse!!

This guy becomes hypnotized after Mabuse takes over his body. Check out the face of Mabuse!

Love this shot of the Inspector in his office.

And this one with a subtitle after the cops bust some crooks!

Alas, yet another crook killed by the police! Nice shot, ha-ha!

Our young lovers survive a flooding room after a near death experience!

There are a number of these rear projection car scenes that remind me of the ones in the wild and wooly, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.

Mabuse completes another hypnotic transaction before everything goes south.

At the end, Hofmeister is free of the spell and is taken away from the medical center! And, the real Mabuse goes insane again... Speaking of again, check in Wednesday for more, from, The Dungeon!!