Tagged: peter manoogian

VHS Verdict: Ray Parker Jr. Kicks Ass in “Enemy Territory”!

First off today I’ve gotta say, I’m so tired of the new Ghostbusters movie rumors, the latest being that there’s a new all male version of the franchise that was announced in the last day or two. So we we now have two reboot Ghostbusters flicks coming our way and you know what? Who really gives a shit?! This whole new Ghostbusting movie thing has been going on for far, far too long, with the original cast, then no Bill Murray, on again off again, it’s happening, no it’s not, female cast, male cast, expanded Avengers universe treatment, blah blah blah-enuff already! Now onto something Ghostbusters related that actually kicks ass!!

I sat down a few nights ago to check out my recently acquired VHS “Enemy Territory” a rad movie back from the 1980’s(when you might have been able to really get people pumped about another Ghostbusters flick!) that I’ve never seen before. It’s star power being the man who made the Ghostbusters theme song a bonafide hit back in 1984- Ray Parker Jr.!!

This movie was such a damn pleasure to watch that it had me grinning from ear to ear the moment it started, perfectly bumpin’ with some totally def 80’s hip hop as we meet our movies main characters. We also see a few other cool things, Charles Band (the king of cheezy 80’s horror flicks/ Full Moon) produced this one, and Peter Manoogian who directed such awesome 80’s “so bad it’s amazing” flicks Dungeonmaster, Eliminators & Arena! So this was bound to be a good one, and it was. In 87′ this one flew pretty low under the radar and that’s a shame as this one is a total crowd pleaser for anyone who loves the 1980’s as much as I do.

This one is like a 1980’s version of “The Raid” or the more recent “Dredd” but full of comedy and goofy as characters. It tells the story of a schlubby life insurance agent, a lame white guy played by Gary Frank who heads off into the rough part of town late one night to get an elderly woman to sign off on a policy. He has to head into a super duper dodgy apartment complex, travel all the way to the top floor, the only problem is that the building is “owned” by a crazy ass street gang called “The Vampires” headed by a bad ass to the bone Tony “Candyman” Todd in one of my fav roles of his.

Yeah Gary Frank get’s into an altercation with one of the Vamps on the way up the elevator and soon all muthafukin’ hell breaks loose on this cowardly guy! Well lucky for him telephone repair man, played Ray Parker Jr. is there to save his ass! The movie’s a nonstop great time, filled with great action, over the top villains and even a crippled ally in a wheelchair that’s equipped with welded shotguns!

It’s a race for survival as Ray Parker Jr. kicks some serious  gang ass while trying to make it from the top floor to “safety” on the streets. This one’s not real keen on being PC but it’s a serious ton of 80’s fun, a true lost gem! Seek this one out and watch with friends and plenty o’ booze asap!!

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Arena: The Greatest Movie Ever?!

Ok, probably not the greatest movie ever but seriously check out this trailer for this sci fi monster movie from 1989 and tell me it doesn’t look AWESOME! It sometimes amazes me that there are movies out there like this that I have never seen. I can’t be certain of how rad or awesomely BAD it might be but the whole man vs. monster in a cheezy sci fi version of the Karate Kid sounds like a winner to me! It seems like Peter Manoogian who directed this movie was a huge fan of the Chalmun Cantina scene in Star Wars movie and that’s just fine by me as this one pretty much looks like it takes place there.

Of course you guessed it this movie was produced by Charles Band! Never has the idea of intergallactic monster boxing sounded so awesome! I am on the hunt ofr this one but of course it’s nowhere to be found on Ebay or Amazon. I am sure you can find some downloads online but another cool place to get crazy rare movies on dvd is Ioffer.com check that out too!