A quick update on things.

Before I get into any updates involving my site or Rogue Cinema, be sure to read my mini-review for "Near Dark" right here in my blog. (CLICK HERE for the review.)

Ok, so I've slowly been getting more work done on my overdue review for "The Beast of Hollow Mountain." I'm finding it hard to build up any momentum, but I can assure you that that particular review will appear at the Vault very soon. (Along with reviews for "The Valley of Gwangi" and "Spacemen & Go Go Girls Double Feature.")

In other Vault news, I've recently allied myself with WTF-FILM.com, an excellent online store that boasts a small, but mouth-watering collection of cinematic obscurities and rarities such as "The Deadly Mantis," "The Green Slime," and "Prophecies of Nostradamus!" If you see anything you simply must have then you can score yourself 10% off your purchase by clicking on this banner:

If you use the shopping cart on the site, type in bmfv10 to obtain your 10%-off coupon! If you'd rather send a money order or pay with PayPal, then e-mail the webmaster and let him know that Jordan sent you. ;-)

In Rogue Cinema news, I have yet to get my butt in gear on that stuff. I'm planning on sending out interview questions to Johnny Allen Shaw, the director of "My Big Fat Homeless Berkeley Movie" and I should start taking notes for my monthly Genre Watch article soon. Then there's the stack of screeners I have to watch.... (You know, sometimes this feels more like a job than a hobby.)

Lastly, expect to see more mini-reviews here on the Blog as I would like to type up the occasional short review every now and again after watching a movie. The next two films I plan on writing capsule reviews for are Clive Barker's "Nightbreed" and Takashi Miike's "Audition."

That's it for now, so I'll catch you on the flipside b-movie fans! Blog ya later! ;-)

Mini Review: Near Dark (1987)

Believe it or not folks until this very night I have never seen "Near Dark." The main reason is because the opportunity never presented itself until recently in which I bought (a used copy of) the old Anchor Bay single disc release for $5.95. And it was definitely a good buy! The film centers around a young man named Caleb who makes the mistake of falling in love with Mae, a mysterious young woman that isn't big on horses or the sun. Yes folks, Mae is a vampire and soon she turns her new boyfriend into one against his will. Soon Caleb falls in with Mae and her nomadic (and usually sadistic) family of vampires but calls it quits when the bloodsuckers try to make a meal out of his sister and father. Caleb manages to escape from the vampire clan and actually returns to his human form after receiving a complete blood transfusion from his father (played by Tim "Jack Deth" Thomerson). And when the film finally comes to a head, it delivers a quick and extremely anticlimactic ending.

"Near Dark" is a pretty good entry into vampiric cinema though it does take a bit too long to get started, and ends far too quickly than you'd wish. Bill Paxton easily steals the show in this movie as Severen, the most violent vampire of the bunch. His performance is extremely memorable and he definitely overshadows the rest of the crowd, even Lance Henriksen, who plays the key role of Jesse Hooker, leader of the vampire clan. Another plus in this flick was the awesome makeup f/x done of the vampires! These guys suffer so much sunburn and battle damage, and the special effects team just went all out! (Bill Paxton looks pretty messy toward the end of the film and plenty of blood oozes out of his ravaged face.) The effects were easily the best part of the film! As for the "Tangerine Dream" soundtrack.... the movie could've done without it; it just didn't seem to fit! (Another case in point, the theatrical cut of "Legend" features music by Tangerine Dream which is thankfully missing from the Director's Cut.) The music was so out of place at times, that it made my buddy Chris and I burst into laughter on several occasions. Seriously in the future folks remember this little equation: Tangerine music in a film = BAD IDEA!

All in all, I would definitely recommend "Near Dark" as it is a very well made movie with some interesting concepts involving the vampire mythos. And the makeup f/x and the fantastic cast more than make up for the plodding storyline and lousy music. So I'm more than happy to announce that this movie is worthy of THREE out of FIVE 'RADS!'

I'm a Member of Movie Bloggers.com!

I got an invite to join Movie Bloggers.com late last week and after mulling it over, I figured "eh, what the hell" and signed up. If you have a Blog and write about anything movie related in it on a frequent basis, then why not sign up too? Just click on one of the little buttons over on the left column of the page (should be right under my mini-profile) and you'll be whisked away to the site. Signing up is quick and painless and soon, lots of people will be visiting your blog to read about movie stuff!

Blog ya later b-movie fans!

A lil update before I go to bed.

Hey gang! Sorry I haven't been blogging much, but I've been keeping very busy. I've got a lot to do for Rogue Cinema this month (with less time than usual because this stupid month is missing three days!) and I have a lot planned for the Vault! Speaking of which I just updated the DVD Shop and upgraded and updated the Poster Shop as well. Be sure to check them out and do a bit of shopping if you have any extra cash. Every purchase helps keep the Vault (and its poor webmaster) alive! Tonight I began work on my review for "The Beast of Hollow Mountain." The review is about 50% complete or so and should be done within the next few days. After that I'm going to tackle "The Valley of Gwangi" and the "Spacemen & Go Go Girls Double Feature" and then I'm going to dive into my Rogue Cinema material head first! If I manage to get all of that done within the next two weeks, then you may expect to see a review for "The Host" over at the Vault before February ends. (But I make no promises on that.) After I get the new stuff completed and uploaded, I plan on taking time to really dig in and get my older reviews back online. So once March rolls around, don't expect to see too many NEW reviews at the Vault, but do expect to see some old ones (that look new!).

Well that's it folks, I'm wiped out! I'll blog ya later!

SUPERBOWL!!!!!!

I was supposed to work today, but due to some curious happenstances at work, I've got the day off and can now enjoy the greatest sporting event mankind has ever known (next to "Beerfest" of course ;-). I'm leaving for my girlfriend's house in a few hours with an empty stomach that will soon be filled with wings, pizza, soda, chips, and maybe a beer or two! WOOHOO! SUPERBOWL! GO COLTS! LEAVE SOME HOOF-MARKS ON THE BEARS! CHICKEN WINGS!!!!!!!!!

The best part? I get to watch the game in Dolby Surround Sound on a flatscreen, HD-ready TV that's what..... 62... 64 inches? I forget, but its BIG! WOOHOO! Blog ya tomorrow football fans!

The Vault's January traffic stats!

Hey Blogheads, the Vault has experienced a huge surge in traffic since the big move late last year! If this keeps up, I imagine that the Vault will have 5,000+ unique visitors a month by the time December rolls around. Maybe even more! Here's January's traffic at the lil' ole Vault: (For comparative purposes, here's last month's traffic.)

1,308 unique visitors (408 of which have added my site to their Favorites folder) ventured into the Vault and racked up 1,631 visits and a whopping 40,358 hits! (And on a side note, my best day was January 25th, with 72 unique visitors!)

The five most popular reviews at the Vault in January were: The Monster Squad, Arena, Alien Predators, The Alligator People, and Frankenstein vs. the Creature from Blood Cove!

The Vault was visited by folks from across the world, from over 50 countries! Once again America gave its (relatively unknown) favorite son the most lovin', with Canada, Australia, and Great Britain making up the remainder of the heavy hitters. (Apparently most English-speaking nations find my site at least a little bit interesting.)

The most used keyphrase used to find my site last month was "resident evil extinction." (Due to a news story that I posted on the main page concerning the next Resident Evil film.)

Not a bad start to 2007 at all if I do say so myself. I've already had over a hundred unique visitors and it's only the third day of the month!

All I can say is keep visiting people! Knowing that a good number of folks from across the globe are viewing my site will be a help in getting me off my lazy arse to get some reviews uploaded! ;-) That's all I wanted to share tonight b-movie fans, so for now, I must bid thee goodnight.

February issue of Rogue Cinema is online!

Hey gang, the latest issue of Rogue Cinema (www.roguecinema.com) is now online and though it's smaller than the last few, there's still three interviews, five articles, and NINETEEN movie reviews to browse through! Here are my contributions:

An Interview with Chris and Jim McLennan

Rogue Cinema Genre Watch - February 2007

Review: The Host (2006)

Review: My Big Fat Homeless Berkeley Movie (2006)

Review: Spacemen & Go Go Girls Double Feature (2006)

The next issue will show up on March 1st and already I have plenty of stuff to do! I'll be interviewing Johnny Allen Shaw, the (homeless) director of "My Big Fat Homeless Berkeley Movie," doing yet another Genre Watch article (and maybe a new kaiju article if I have the strength), plus I've already got a few screeners to tackle including "The Monster of Phantom Lake" and "Whispers from a Shallow Grave!"

That's all the Rogue Cinema news I have for you, so as I always like to say.... Blog ya later!