Tagged: star
Herve Villechaize: The Pop Star?!
I’ve loved the show Fantasy Island when I was a kid, it always managed to scare the shit out of me! You know I’ve recently watched several episodes of the show again and it still totally holds up. A super cool concept and a killer cast-which brings me to one of it’s legendary characters “Tattoo” played by Herve Villachaize. He etched the phrase “Ze plane, ze plane” into people’s minds for all of eternity!
But a little known fact about Herve was that back in 1980 he had a small musical career too! Yep in the middle of his incredible success with Fantasy Island he recorded a single for Epic Records. Turns out Herve was also quite a crooner with some seriously rad style.
The single featured two tracks “Why” & “When a Child is Born” unfortunately the songs didn’t catapult Herve to arena tours with Michael Jackson and the song ‘Why’ was released again and included on the Epic records compilation “Children of the World”. Here’s some live footage of Herve gettin’ down with his attempted pop hit ‘Why’!
After that as the popularity of Fantasy Island continued to grow Herve’s ego also reportedly began to grow too. He was said to be quite demanding and difficult to work with insisting that he be paid equally with Ricardo Montalban’s salary. He ended up getting fired from the show and his star power proved quite relevant as the show’s following dwindled during a final season with no Tattoo. Hunt down his Epic single if you dare!
Still haven’t had enough? Well here’s some more Herve killin’ it live again!!
VHS Verdict: ‘Thunder Run’ Proves That in the 80’s Old Guys Kick Ass!
I dusted off a VHS copy of ‘Thunder Run’ from 1986 last night and we got to see a hotshot 67 year old action star kickin’ major ass in his souped up semi truck! Yeeehaw! Yep this one was a total blast, if you’re looking for some seriously over the top action and crazy car chase trucker mayhem then you just won the fuckin’ lottery!
Forrest Tucker is the man here, a retired truck driver named Charlie who’s asked by an old friend/ Gov’t operative to drive a load of plutonium across a barren Arizona highway to lure out some psychotic terrorists and take them out once and for all. Sounds like a fool proof plan huh?
Nope this one doesn’t give us Jean Claude Van Damme or a Chuck Norris type kicking ass, instead you get an elderly bad ass geezer who tricks out his rig with a bunch deadly secret weapons he can activate via dashboard flip switches. We’ve got some classic bad guys too, their leader, a poor man’s Michael Ironside look alike with a nasty attitude and of course naturally a nasty facial scar (because we all know evil people sport nasty facial scars) does his best to be the perfect evil 80’s villain. The best part of the flick though is when the actual dangerous drive cross country begins and Charlie discovers his grandson is hiding in the cab and is fully ready for duo tag team terrorist ass whoopin!
So once the action kicks into high gear it really just does not let up. Nope this one has crazy terrorists coming after the big rig from every direction on motorcycles, fake cop cars, weaponized Volkswagon Beetles & rival semi trucks. Charlie and his grandson get down and dirty roasting terrorists with flame throwers that they’ve installed into the sides of the semi, battering rams and some truly outrageous big rig road antics.
This is the type of flick where it don’t take much more than a scratch to blow the fuck out of car with huge amounts of fire shit flying everywhere. It’s nice to actually see real explosions again in a damn movie that’s for sure. One scene in particular where they jump the 18 wheeler (with plutonium in back mind you) over a moving train! Oh and the finale through the ridiculous laser tunnel is a total blast as well. So check this one out if you’re jonesin’ for a different type of action flick and action hero as ‘Thunder Run’ will deliver the goods on all cylinders and then some! This one’s worth hunting down!
Iron Man The Pop Singer?!
Weird, today I stumbles across Avenger’s star Robert Downey Jr’s solo album he put out in 2004 called “The Futurist”. Strange stuff-I had no idea he was an adult contemporary singer! Ahhh yes my least favorite genre of music!
It seems that I’m not the only one who’s head this info skipped over. The album pretty much tanked when he released it and he went on to state that he probably wouldn’t ever attempt another one. Hey I think it was a good thing he dropped the music career personally-I’m not sure what you think but I could live with out hearing this song again…
Don’t Mess With Weng Weng….Seriously!!
After viewing the incredibly entertaining Machete Maidens Unleashed last night I can say I have a much greater understanding on the whole Grindhouse phenomenon of the late 60’s, 70’s & early 80’s. What the movie focuses on is the American film making that took place in the Philippines during this time which featured tons of B movies, ridiculous monsters, naked women & my favorite part of the documentary, the introduction to Weng Weng the world smallest action star!
Real name Ernesto de la Cruz, better known as Weng Weng, stood only 2 feet 9 inches tall and was a master in Jeet Kune Do and was a marvel to behold. His most famous roles were in “For Y’ur Height Only” and “The Impossible Kid” where he played Secret Agent 00. Apparently there’s a documentary out there about him called “The Search for Weng Weng” which I am sure would be quite an interesting film. Sadly though he passed away at the age of 34 from a heart attack. But I do look forward to seeing as many of his films as possible as they look simply amazing…check this incredible action martial arts scene out for yourself!
Universal Dork 