Almighty Thor

Title: Almighty Thor

Director: Christopher (Douglas-Olen) Ray

Writer: Erik Estenberg

Starring: Cody Deal, Richard Grieco, Patricia Velasquez

Year released: 2011

Initial thoughts (Pre-screening): The last movie I watched written by Erik Estenberg was Monster. Off to a bad start already.

Their synopsis: “When the demon god Loki destroys the fortress of Valhalla and steals the Hammer of Invincibility, only the young hero Thor can protect Earth from armageddon.”

My synopsis: Just about the worst goddamn interpretation of Norse mythology you’ll ever find.

Quick review: We may be able to control our own fate, but nobody can control the direction of this meandering dogshit.

Pros: I love Marta! She was great in El Amor Prohibido. Should’ve won the Desi.

Cons: I swear to christ the opening has been used in like nine other Asylum films. And why is there an uzi?

Biggest movie cliché: The whole fucking thing. The hero is worthy, but not quite ready. Courageous, yet immature. He is trained by so-and-so, needs to blah blah blah, and so on. Jesus god…

Say a silly thing: Kevin Nash, perhaps best known as the co-founder of nWo, plays Odin even better than dumb ol’ Anthony Hopkins!

Say a mean thing: I’ve only just learned that “Erik Estenberg” is the same person as “Eric Forsberg.” As if I didn’t already want to decapitate that sneaky jew with a shovel…

Say another mean thing: The fight coordinator for this film should be beaten to death like Gaddafi.

Biggest suspension of disbelief: Cody Deal playing the lead. Shane Van Dyke very clearly should have played Thor.

Most relatable current event: In the lead-up to Infinity War, James Gunn is awfully high on the new Captain America.

Final review: It’s kind of hard to tell whether the writing is making the actors worse, or if the actors are making the writing worse. Either way, it’s still worse. I mean, my god is it worse… In one supposedly emotional scene, where Thor is realizing he may not have all the answers, some lady pushing her kid in a stroller wanders into the shot, and stares at the camera. This seriously fucking happens. Sixty-three minutes into the movie. AND THEY LEFT IT IN!!! Are you kidding me?! I honestly cannot tell if anyone involved in Almighty Thor is even trying, or if this is the best they can do. They should all feel bad about themselves regardless.

Ranking:

1.5 bees

1.5 bees

Grimm’s Snow White

Title: Grimm’s Snow White

Director: Rachel (Lee) Goldenberg

Writer: Naomi L. Selfman

Starring: Eliza Bennett, Jamie Thomas King, Jane March

Year released: 2012

Initial thoughts (Pre-screening): I can’t find any more Asylum titles on Netflix. Sad face.

Their synopsis: “When the King is killed by ferocious reptile beasts, his Queen takes control of the kingdom. She tries to kill her beautiful stepdaughter SNOW, but she escapes into the enchanted forest…”

My synopsis: I’ll let Netflix take this one, “Unlike the big screen versions, this low budget take adds dragons and other twists into the tale of an evil queen and her beautiful stepdaughter.”

Quick review: Overly complicated nonsense.

Pros: Dungeon sex.

Cons: Seriously? No midgets? Come on, man…

Biggest movie cliché: Stepmoms are bitches.

Say a kinda nice thing: Gwendolyn is a sexy, trampy queen.

Say a kinda mean thing: I mean, I guess Eliza Bennett is attractive. Sort of…

Biggest suspension of disbelief: That one “straight” elf seemed awfully angry to have the fairest maiden in all the land resting in his bed… It’s ok, Orlando, we’re all cool here. Go ahead and say it out loud. You’ll feel much better once you do.

Most relatable current event: Stepparents are embarrassing.

Final review: Why not just make a movie based on the original Brothers Grimm story? It’s an awesome fairy tale, which ends with the queen being “forced to step into [the] red-hot shoes and dance until she fell down dead.” Fucking evil! However, instead of fiery iron sneakers, the viewer is subject to a different kind of gruesome torture. The slow, painful torture of boredom and superfluousness. I cannot see any point whatsoever in adding dragons, demon dogs, amulets, and magic fires to Snow White. They are entirely useless additions. And the attempt to weave all of this drivel into an intelligible plot is poorly executed. The Asylum and modesty simply do not mix.

Ranking:

2 bees

2 bees

The First 100: Best and Worst

Having reviewed one hundred B movies over the past year and change, it’s time to take a look back and answer some of your most pressing questions. “What actors and actresses have stood out?” “Which directors were consistently not dreadful?” “Why in god’s name did you watch all of this shit?” “How exactly does the rating system work? It doesn’t really make sense.” “Who the fuck do you think you are saying all this mean shit about people you don’t even know?”

Let’s hand out some awards!

bee award

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: I instantly thought of Shaley Scott as Taylor in Invasion of the Pod People. There are probably other notable performances I should include, but look how many categories I gave myself. I don’t have time.

Worst Actress in a Supporting Role: Kim Little in War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave. I haven’t watched that movie in over a year, yet I still fantasize about sawing through her throat with my car keys.

Best Visual Effects: MechaHitler from Nazis at the Center of the Earth. Unless boobs count as visual effects. I’ve seen a lot of cool boobs.

Worst Visual Effects: Down syndrome Bigfoot? Invisible motorcycle? A majority of the train scenes? Papier-mache tank? Murderous/pussy eating devil baby? Ghost fight? The possibilities are endless. Let’s go with retarded Bigfoot.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Lorenzo Lamas for being a funny racist in Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus. Honorable mention to Andrew Lauer in H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, and Dr. Alan Grant, who was pretty good in Merlin’s Apprentice. I’m also going to mention Coolio, just so I can include Pterodactyl, which is probably my favorite review.

Worst Actor in a Supporting Role: All of the dragons. So many fucking dragons… Oh, and Geoff Meed in I Am Omega. I hate Geoff Meed.

Best Writing: When it comes to inserting lesbianism into a script for really no reason whatsoever, Leigh Scott is the king. (Though Tim Culley tried his best.) Unfortunately, it would be wrong to judge this category based solely on super hot girl-on-girl action. (It would, right? Hmm… … …Yeah, I guess so.) I’ll give it to Jack Perez for Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus. If nothing else, he wrote in arguably the greatest action scene ever.

Worst Writing: Liz Adams. She has a writing credit on Shark Week, and is the only credited writer of both Air Collision and Super Cyclone. Shark Week is an abomination, Air Collision is a mess, and Super Cyclone is so dumb it made me write Twister wasn’t half bad. I hate Liz Adams for that. Oh, and Geoff Meed. Fuck him.

Best Actress in a Lead Role: Let’s go with Jean Louisa Kelly in The Cyberstalking. Yes, Sinead McCafferty was a crazily hot naked alien in The Day the Earth Stopped, and Jessica Chastain was very good in Blackbeard, but JLK deserves some love. Plus, Jessica Chastain’s already been nominated for two Oscars. What more does she want?

Worst Actress in a Lead Role: I think Sarah Lieving is fucking beautiful, but she is not a good actress. However, Sara Malakul Lane is also a ridiculously gorgeous terrible actress, who, in addition, takes her clothes off. I still feel bad about myself for giving Jailbait more stars than it deserved, so I’m awarding Worst Actress to Sara, not Sarah. Have some goddamn respect for yourself, Sara! (Or don’t. I’m not judging.)

Best Actor in a Lead Role: Do you not remember Jude Law? God, that son of a bitch is handsome.

Worst Actor in a Lead Role: Rhett Giles, I guess? He’s had some big roles in a lot of garbage. He may be a good actor for all I know, but his choices are for shit. He’s The Asylum’s Nic Cage.

Best Director: Anthony C. Ferrante, Thunder Levin, and C. Thomas Howell have all turned in multiple winners. If I had to pick from only those three, I’d give it to Thunder Levin for AE: Apocalypse Earth and American Warships. He not only directed, but wrote those films. If Rhett Giles is The Asylum’s Nicolas Cage, Levin is Asylum’s Tarantino. Really though, I’m just going to give it to Jack Perez for Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus.

Worst Director: I think I have to go Liz Adams again, for directing Air Collision and Super Cyclone. There are directors who have put forth worse films than Liz Adams, but they’ve also turned in some decent work. (I’m looking at you, Justin Jones.) The Kondelik Brothers suck, but Liz Adams probably sucks more.

Best Picture: It’s no secret Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus is my favorite B movie. It wins, and will keep winning until I see something better. No, it did not garner the maximum four-star review, but only Clash of the Empires did that, and for all the wrong reasons. I would, however, like to give an honorable mention to Cleaver Family Reunion. The trailer makes you want to kick a small dog in the stomach, but it’s actually a pretty funny movie.

Worst Picture: I’ve only ever given two films zero stars. 2012: Doomsday and Monster. But Monster was not only horrendous, it was also so goddamn disappointing. It’s a monster movie that takes place in Japan, yet the final product is an enormous, disrespectful, smoldering pile of shit in the mouth of the kaiju genre. I’m tempted to watch the film again, simply to reaffirm my hatred of it. Or maybe I’ll just stab my penis with a rusty safety pin for ninety minutes. Whichever.

Sherlock Holmes

sherlock

Title: Sherlock Holmes

Director: Rachel (Lee) Goldenberg

Writer: Paul Bales

Starring: Ben Syder, Gareth David-Lloyd, Dominic Keating

Year released: 2010

Initial thoughts (Pre-screening): It’s going off Netflix in a week! Hurry!! While you still have time!!!

Their synopsis: “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective faces the ultimate challenge when enormous monsters attack London.”

My synopsis: Holmes and Watson have to figure out why Londoners are seeing monsters. And by monsters, I don’t mean other hideous-looking, late 19th-century Londoners.

Quick review: I suppose it was decent enough.

Pros: They didn’t completely butcher the idea of Sherlock Holmes.

Cons: The five minutes of Dr. Watson partially descending a mountain face has to rank as one of the most pointless scenes in Asylum history. Clumsily done and immeasurably worthless.

Biggest movie cliché: Don’t worry, all the Sherlock Holmes catchphrases are ever so discreetly jammed into your auditory canal.

Favorite quote: “Sensationalist claptrap!” Perhaps The Asylum should consider changing its name.

Say a nice thing: Miss Ivory can take a good choking. I like her.

Say a mean thing: Compared to Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Syder portrays Sherlock Holmes with the grace of a sugar-addled retarded child trying to lick his shoulder blades.

Biggest suspension of disbelief: Are you serious? How and why is there a fucking dragon in this?! Goddammit…

Most relatable current event: The latest on BBC’s Sherlock.

Final review: The character of Sherlock Holmes takes an event which seems supernatural or impossible, and logically explains how such a mystery could happen, via his superior intellect. Thankfully, The Asylum understands this. I was worried for a second. The plot is still really stupid, don’t get me wrong, but at least there wasn’t an actual Kraken that Sherlock Holmes had to fight. Although, the ending chase scene featuring a hot air balloon/helicopter with a machine gun trying to shoot down a giant robot dragon may be worse. I haven’t decided. Overall, I expected it to be worse than it was. Recasting Sherlock and rewriting the villain’s motivations would have improved the film greatly.

Ranking:

2.5 bees

2.5 bees

Sleeping Beauty

sleepingbeauty

Title: Sleeping Beauty

Director: Casper Van Dien

Writer: R. Dessertine, Casper Van Dien

Starring: Finn Jones, Olivia d’Abo, Edward Lewis French

Year released: 2014

Their synopsis: “When a young prince and his trusted aide learn of a beautiful Princess’s cursed eternal slumber, they embark on a journey to rescue her. They must battle an evil queen and legions of undead monsters before she will be free.”

My synopsis: A group of (at the very least) bi-curious men go on a confusing, generally unnecessary quest.

Quick review: None of this made sense, or was interesting. At all.

Pros: Oh my god. Grace Van Dien, please.

Cons: I’ve never seen anyone less affected by the death of a sibling.

Biggest movie cliché: Rampant homosexual undertones.

Say a mean thing: Olivia d’Abo is fucking terrible in this.

Say a creepy thing: Which lips can I kiss on Princess Dawn to wake her up?

Biggest suspension of disbelief: Prince Jayson is looking for a princess? An actual, female princess? Haha, sure he is…

Most relatable current event: Go to your regular news site right now. Somewhere, there’s most likely a story about how you’re not getting enough, or the right kind of, sleep.

Final review: I did a fair bit of sleeping of my own during this movie. It’s lack of intelligible plot lulled me into a nice nap. I rewound, and tried a second time. Still got nothing. I suppose the film isn’t really all that bad, it’s just so incoherent. It’s also full of superfluous characters, a number of whom come back into the story arbitrarily, because sure, why not? The movie is just fucking everywhere. And goddamn you for the eventual sequel. If Grace Van Dien isn’t in it, there’s no way I’m watching. She’s a goddess.

Ranking:

2 bees

2 bees

Clash of the Empires

clashempires

Title: Clash of the Empires (Also known as: Lord of the Elves)

Director: Joseph J. Lawson

Writer: Eric Forsberg

Starring: Sum Korng, Khom Lyly, Srogn

Year released: 2012

Initial thoughts (Pre-screening): Via IMDB Trivia: “Originally titled ‘Age of the Hobbits’ until Warner Bros/New Line Cinema, MGM and Saul Zaentz sued The Asylum.” Haha.

Their synopsis: “In an ancient age, peace-loving tribe are enslaved by a race of flesh-eating dragon-riders. The young tribesman Goben must join forces with their neighbor giants, the humans, to free his people and vanquish their enemies.”

My synopsis: Rock people kidnap some tree people, then a stone-headed black guy and a hot Asian chick help the remaining tree people save their brethren.

Quick review: I swear to god, this may be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s historically terrible, but nonstop laughs. It’s a masterpiece of shit.

Pros: The dubbed American voices are hysterical. Not sure if the actors’ English was that harsh, or the producers just didn’t care for the high-pitched midget voice.

More pros: The “dragons” are giant komodo dragons. I can accept this. Also, the return of giant spiders!

Biggest movie cliché: The obstinate tribal chief is a bit of a pill, huh? I’ll bet he never changes his ways in the nick of time!

Favorite quote: “Earth Mother, thank you for your goodness.” “All the same! …To me!” And a plethora of others. The shoddily dubbed-in voices are so fantastic.

Say a nice thing: Bai Ling is gorgeous. How is she almost 50?

Say a crass thing: Omi wants to fuck Amthar so bad, but his dick’s probably bigger than her body. I don’t see how that’s going to work physically.

Biggest suspension of disbelief: Not sure how the constant, sharp bursts of laughter didn’t puncture my lungs.

Most relatable current event: AirAsia Flight 8501 crashed in Indonesia. That is an apt comparison.

Final review: I’m fairly certain they didn’t intend to make the best worst film ever, but this has it all. There’s a hot chick, midgets, godawful dialogue, horrible editing, hilarious voice dubbing, embarrassingly bad fight sequences, mythical creatures, abysmal acting, emotional strikeouts, ludicrous plot turns, and so much more. Normally, I reserve the higher rankings for movies that are actually decent, but Clash of the Empires is such a catastrophic abortion of awesomeness that it deserves the highest ranking I can give. Congratulations to all parties involved! You’ve got quite a failure on your hands!

Ranking:

4 bees

4 bees

Dragon Crusaders

Title: Dragon Crusaders

Director: Mark Atkins

Writer: Mark Atkins

Starring: Dylan Jones, Cecily Fay, Shinead Byrne

Year released: 2011

Initial thoughts (Pre-screening): I don’t want to watch another Mark Atkins dragon movie right now, but this is going off Netflix, which unfortunately means I have to.

Their synopsis: “A group of fugitive Knights Templar attacks a pirate ship and they are cursed to turn into hideous monsters. To fight the curse and ultimately save the world, they must defeat the wizard-dragon who is determined to destroy it.”

My synopsis: A shitty orphan witch, who is admittedly pretty hot, can only cast vague curses, which leads to the accidental gargoyling of some runaway knights.

Quick review: Same dragon, different day.

Pros: The fight scenes are generally not terrible. And whose idea was it to put both women on the same horse? Genius.

Cons: All this curse business is just lazy, bullshit writing.

Biggest movie cliché: The worst dragon is always “the black dragon.” Racist…

Say a nice thing: Cecily Fay is a sexy badass.

Say a mean thing: Mark Atkins is a dragon cuckold who has no understanding of how to make a decent film.

Biggest suspension of disbelief: Not sure I buy Spandex existing in this ancient, magical realm.

Most relatable current event: The store owner that Mike Brown robbed for cigarettes probably called him a “brack dragon” after he left. Probably.

Final review: It’s always just the same damn thing, isn’t it? A sorcerer, witches, knights and dragons, peasants… The genre should be left alone, unless you can actually write a story that’s not only semi-interesting, but plausible. And I don’t mean plausible by normal standards; Asylum standards will do just fine. But no, Mark Atkins and his raging dragon boner will not leave well enough alone. Oh my god with this fucking guy and dragons! It’s so annoying. This is, however, his least shitty dragon film I’ve seen, but he’s got one with Nazis that I’ve yet to review. Not gonna lie, kind of looking forward to it. In six months or so.

Ranking:

2.5 bees

2.5 bees

 

Atlantic Rim

atlanticrim

Title: Atlantic Rim

Director: Jared Cohn

Writer: Richard Lima, Thunder Levin, Hank Woon Jr.

Starring: David Chokachi, Jackie Moore, Anthony ‘Treach’ Criss

Year released: 2013

Initial thoughts (Pre-screening): I really enjoyed Pacific Rim, which was basically a $200 million B movie. Perhaps foolishly, my expectations are high.

Their synopsis: “When giant monsters crawl out of the Atlantic Ocean and attack the Eastern Seaboard, the U.S. government is forced to trust A.I. robots to defend the country.”

My synopsis: I don’t think it’s “A.I.” if humans are piloting the robots. Which they did, fighting sea monsters who are born under oil rigs. Then one of them did the Tony Stark from The Avengers and saved the world.

Quick review: The special effects were quite good, my only issue was they didn’t go far enough. The acting should have been CGI’d as well.

Pros: David Chokachi’s character liked to get drunk and annoy his girlfriend.

Cons: The street toughs at the beginning of the movie were laughable with their chains and talk of “Cali kush.” The monsters look suspiciously like dragons.

Biggest movie cliché: Love triangle. Will she choose the sensitive one or the bad boy?

Say a nice thing: It was pretty badass when the submarine came flying out of the water and crashed into the aircraft carrier, exploding and sinking it.

Say a mean thing: Everybody salutes like a fucking pussy.

Biggest suspension of disbelief: What was with Treach saving the little white girl while simultaneously sounding like a pedophile? Nothing about that scene made any sense.

Most relatable current event: The new Godzilla movie!! Fuck yeah!!!

Final review: Everything about the final battle in New York City was embarrassing, aside from the special effects. Usually in this kind of movie, it’s the opposite. You save your best for last. Overall though, the movie wasn’t terrible. Poorly portrayed one-dimensional characters reciting lame dialogue, but it was visually well-done and mostly well-edited. Had a good action-movie pace. I’m surprised I was not (completely) let down.

Ranking:

2.5 bees

2.5 bees

Dragon

Dragon_film_2006

Title: Dragon

Director: Leigh Scott

Writer: Leigh Scott, Eliza Swenson

Starring: Amelia Jackson-Gray, Matthew Wolf, Jon-Paul Gates

Year released: 2006

Initial thoughts (Pre-screening): Wow, an Asylum movie with dragons. Shocking…

Their synopsis: “Princess Alora Vanir embarks on a secret mission to stop the dark elves from the Forest of Sidhe, who have declared war on mankind.”

My synopsis: A princess and some commoners, all trying to speak with accents, travel through a light brush to kill a dragon or get to a city or stop a war or something. They meet a witch and fight people in blackface.

Quick review: Mostly involved people standing around oak trees, talking about destiny and honor. It was like watching a debate team LARP.

Pros: There was only one dragon. And it died. (Spoiler alert.)

Cons: The fight scenes were as awful as the acting.

Biggest movie cliché: Dragons.

Say a nice thing: Leigh Scott, a noted fan of lesbianism, kept his urges subtle. This gave the witch and her servant character dimension, and kept them from being just two sluts who scissor in the forest. (Though that also would’ve added to the film.)

Say a mean thing: Seriously, fuck dragons.

Biggest suspension of disbelief: Nobody would fight an enormous, evil, fire-breathing dragon by gently prodding in its general direction with a sword.

Final review: The concepts and dialogue were unoriginal and stale, the pace dragged, the actors were trying much too hard, and I’m certain it was filmed in somebody’s backyard. Other than that it was fine. A fairly standard olde-timey, slay-the-menacing-dragon adventure B movie.

Ranking:

2 bees

2 bees

King of the Lost World

kingofthelostworld

Title: King of the Lost World

Director: Leigh Scott

Writer: Carlos De Los Rios, David Michael Latt, Leigh Scott

Starring: Rhett Giles, Sarah Lieving, Bruce Boxleitner, Jeff Denton

Year released: 2005

Their synopsis: “When a plane crashes on a remote tropical island, four survivors emerge from the wreckage to find a prehistoric world untouched by the sands of time.”

My synopsis: The first thing I’m noticing is that there are way more than four survivors. Half of them go on an adventure, the other half… Then a native tribe… Nuclear bomb.

Quick review: This was so sloppily written and poorly acted.

Pros: Painted jungle lesbians. (Reminder: Leigh Scott loves lesbians.)

Cons: If you want people to have supposedly survived a plane crash, lose the explosion. Explosions tend to incinerate people, not make them slightly unkempt.

Biggest movie cliché: Goddammit! Why is there a fucking dragon in every Asylum movie?!

Biggest suspension of disbelief: Impossible to choose. It’s very likely the entire script was a game of Mad Libs that got out of hand.

Say a nice thing: Sure are a lot of pretty ladies in this movie.

Say a mean thing: I get there’s not really a film here, but if everyone would have just died in the plane crash, I think we’d all have been better off.

Say a sarcastic thing: It’s a good thing all the major speaking roles were given to terrible actors instead of Andrew Lauer.

Most relatable current event: I heard something on the radio recently. Apparently, King Kong… Went to Hong Kong… To play ping pong… (Get this!) …With his ding dong!

Final review: There are three credited writers for this film. My guess is they each wrote a version of the script, then blindly combined them to form an unholy, nearly unwatchable reimagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World. The only positive is that I wasn’t bored watching it. The women are quite attractive and the story changes on a dime, which sated my short attention span.

Ranking:

1.5 bees

1.5 bees