Sharknado & Lavalantula Saga Review (with Author Ramon Youseph of Ramon Writes Blog)

[00:00:06] It's a Jacked Up Review Show, It's a Jacked Up Review Show

[00:00:45] Gautam Rehman writes, a journalist and author who talks about action movies, martial arts movies.

[00:00:52] He is the founder and the editor of Cinebejoo.

[00:00:57] He is dedicated to supporting independent film and he is currently authoring a book about tonight's

[00:01:04] subject, the mockbuster film studio, The Asylum. Best known for their Roger Corman-Esch ripoffs

[00:01:14] and airing their crud on Syfy Channel. We're talking about their most famous or shall I say

[00:01:23] most infamous chartnado franchise which also crossed over with Syfy Channel's Lava Lenshul.

[00:01:32] Welcome. Thank you Cam, it's good to be here. I'm sorry for the late. Can you hear me okay?

[00:01:38] I can, you sound great. Thank you. You've got a lot on your plate. I've seen a lot of those

[00:01:43] Kung Fu Kingdom and a bunch of other martial arts review sites so I might have seen some of

[00:01:47] your reviews but that's awesome. Thank you, well thank you for reading, I really appreciate

[00:01:52] that. It's not easy to do and I'm just glad there's still no shortage of various blogs that get

[00:01:58] started up, get exclusive interviews so it's no longer just look at the first few clickbait

[00:02:04] sites and everything. Yeah totally agree, totally agree. And so what truly brought you

[00:02:14] to the whole center stage of wanting to follow these deliberately cheesy blockbusters

[00:02:22] that make fun of other blockbuster movies? Well I've only seen as a disclaimer the first

[00:02:31] chartnado, it was a Rift Tracks live event and it was wild how they did send up some

[00:02:37] everything from Independence Day to other short movies and freaking chainsaws.

[00:02:44] Pretty much, yeah. And La Valanchyla is best known as being a police academy reunion,

[00:02:52] Steve Gunnberg, Michael Winslow, the other gal that makes the screaming noises, it was fun.

[00:02:59] And in the first La Valanchyla I think there's a blink in your misset moment from

[00:03:04] Leslie Easterbrook herself, also from police academy. I believe so, I missed it on the first

[00:03:09] viewing but someone pointed it out in another blog spot review and... She is in there. So you

[00:03:15] asked me what drew me to these crazy guys. Well look I grew up in the 80s at the sort of height of the VHS.

[00:03:27] You were there when the towers fell. I was there when nom happened.

[00:03:35] You weren't there man, you weren't there. You should have known man.

[00:03:40] But no, I mean as you know the VHS era didn't just allow for big screen stuff to be shown at

[00:03:47] home but also created a market where filmmakers made films specifically straight to video

[00:03:54] and then that evolved to DVD and streaming and so forth. So I grew up on independent movies like

[00:04:00] that. Roger Corman was one of my favorite, it still is, one of my favorite filmmakers.

[00:04:07] I actually did a fun special with Favorite Five From Fans and we decided to talk about

[00:04:12] our top five movies he directed. So we had a bunch of stuff on there and you know he's

[00:04:16] done, he's got 60 directing credits to his name so it wasn't easy. There wasn't any

[00:04:20] crossover really but I will cry like a baby when he passes away just because everyone else can

[00:04:27] will know him just as hey yeah he you know launched these famous actors and directors

[00:04:33] career Ron Howard, Jack Nicholson. It was like that's only a segment of it. How about the fact

[00:04:37] that he kind of started the whole do-it-yourself with all the Burlite Gordons and you know Full

[00:04:44] Moon, Charles Bens of the world. He's kind of the one who plays up the whole have awesome

[00:04:51] sexy actors, campy dialogue and a fun monster. And The Asylum continued to carry on in that

[00:05:00] tradition. It's the same kind of thing but what drew me to The Asylum is I grew up on

[00:05:07] what they call mock busters but what is really known as drifting so basically making a film

[00:05:12] that's derivative of something that is the popular trend. Half the time you're watching

[00:05:17] it and you're not realizing wait that's exactly but case in point Battle Beyond the Stars was

[00:05:24] derivative of Star Wars so which was produced by Roger Corman. I think really what drew me

[00:05:31] to The Asylum and this is a true story because it'll be in my book in the introduction.

[00:05:36] I was watching what I thought was the day the Earth stood still, the Keanu Reeves remake.

[00:05:42] Being a fan of the original film I was curious to see what this is going to be like and so I was

[00:05:48] surprised when it was showing on Syfy but it didn't take me long to realize that hang on

[00:05:52] a second there's no Keanu Reeves, there's no Jennifer Connelly, where the hell is Kathy

[00:05:57] Bates? Oh but it's got C. Thomas Howell in it. Me too. I was like oh this is meant to be

[00:06:02] can't be not serious too. Exactly although I did quite enjoy that one that was directed I believe

[00:06:09] by Shane Van Dyke who I spoke to about. Oh wow. Yeah so when I looked at the film

[00:06:17] I realized okay I was duped this is clearly a rip off. I was too. Yeah we've all been there.

[00:06:24] So what do you make of them how they essentially

[00:06:27] they sometimes intentionally are messing around under times they're being serious.

[00:06:33] How do you handle the various change in tone? I just go with it. I like the fact they change

[00:06:41] the tone. It keeps you on your toes. There's a real problem with film studios filmmakers

[00:06:47] where they just keep churning the same stuff over and over again and it's been there done

[00:06:52] that book. We'd rather suffer for this than the big budget stuff that should be.

[00:06:56] Exactly exactly and when we get onto Sharknado and Lava Lanchina I'll touch on that. But I just

[00:07:04] go with it you know and the fact that they it's all so varied is why it's so entertaining

[00:07:10] and it's interesting people think that they rip off you know the big Hollywood blockbusters

[00:07:16] you know. They're making fun of them. Yeah well they are but they're actually doing their own

[00:07:21] original stories and some of them are quite serious. They're not really doing anything

[00:07:25] and some of them are quite serious and some of them are just very tongue-in-cheek fun.

[00:07:29] In some ways they're better than some of the big I think it was one of the versus movies

[00:07:35] they did it had like Elizabeth of Rome from Angel and Law and Order and then they had

[00:07:39] Christopher Judge from Stargate and they were playing characters named Laverne and Shirley.

[00:07:42] I was like I see what you did there. Absolutely oh yeah. I saw Battle Dogs which had West

[00:07:50] Uni from Blast of the Mohicans and Dennis Haysbren from The Unit and that was pretty bad but that

[00:07:55] was still it was funny at first because you're like is this serious? It's like kind of sort

[00:08:01] of it doesn't really matter. It's giant dogs that kill people. But that's another thing Cam

[00:08:08] is you know these guys make these films on very low budgets over a quick turnaround. It's

[00:08:13] something like it's got to be something like five million dollars now before it used to be

[00:08:16] one or two million. It's got to be in the five or ten million mark now but they turn them around

[00:08:22] in 10 to 15 days yet they somehow managed to attract all these familiar names Christopher

[00:08:28] Judge, Elizabeth Romm, C. Thomas Howell. There you get it. And then you go on to

[00:08:33] Sharknadoes. You've got all these big names from all over making all these strange cameos

[00:08:39] and yeah it's great they don't do it for the money because I don't think they get paid

[00:08:44] that well but they obviously love what these things do and also the asylum gives some of

[00:08:51] it's like a convention appearance exactly but they give them these opportunities to direct

[00:08:58] and do pictures. C. Thomas Howell's directed a few. Bruce Davison who is the senator from X-Men.

[00:09:04] Casper Van Dien. Yeah so Bruce Davison was in Titanic 2 and he went on to direct Bigfoot

[00:09:13] for the asylum. So I think there's just something about the asylum that draws people

[00:09:19] to not just want to watch their stuff and enjoy it but want to work with them as well.

[00:09:25] They're very nice people. What's funny is I once saw them quoted as saying we don't want

[00:09:30] to do cheap knockoffs and everything. It was like interesting. So they have now made this

[00:09:38] mockbuster studio. What do you make of overall just their wanting to

[00:09:50] I wouldn't say necessarily want to be taken serious but also how they're getting bigger

[00:09:55] budgets and now they're letting their stuff be parodied by Rift Tracks which I'm sure is even

[00:10:01] wilder because you're already a campy movie. Well from the conversations I've had with them

[00:10:09] they do take their work seriously. They might turn around. Can I swear by the way?

[00:10:14] Fuck fuck fuckity fuck. I'll take that as a yes. They'll go on Twitter or X as it's called

[00:10:21] now. They'll be in interviews and they'll say hey we make shit movies. That's what we do

[00:10:25] but really they do take their work seriously. These are guys who grew up on Jaws,

[00:10:30] Close Encounters, all those ground and Star Wars, all those groundbreaking stuff

[00:10:37] and were the Super 8 generation so they want to make joyful entertaining films.

[00:10:44] They don't set out to make bad movies even though they joke about it but they just make

[00:10:50] movies that are fun, that are entertaining, that tick all the right boxes. You sit down

[00:10:54] with a bag of popcorn feet up on the table it's on the box and you're thinking yeah that was an

[00:11:00] hour and a half I won't get back but I'm okay because I've laughed, I've gasped and I come out

[00:11:06] of it thoroughly entertained and that's certainly the impression I get from having spoken to them.

[00:11:13] They take it seriously but they are having a ride doing it, having a fun time doing it.

[00:11:23] I was a big fan of Mike Mendes prior to that. I've seen just all the other goofier stuff he had

[00:11:28] done like I think he did one called like The Vault or something which was like a horror movie

[00:11:34] and a dog day afternoon type diehard type parody, a big ass spider and then now he did

[00:11:43] one which was kind of a tribute to Dolph Lundgren's over the top movies, you know Don't Kill It

[00:11:48] and of course Everyone Tries to Kill This Monster That Can't Be Killed so it's just

[00:11:51] wild how some of these guys have just kept on. Yeah funny story about Mike Mendes actually

[00:12:00] is that about 10 years ago I went to Fright Fest, I don't know if you've heard of it.

[00:12:06] Yeah yeah yeah you've heard of Fright Fest. Yeah so one of all the films that premiered there

[00:12:11] the one that always sticks in my I mean many do but the one that sticks in my mind consistently

[00:12:15] was a film called Zombievers. You've heard of it? Yeah of course yeah and I've only seen

[00:12:24] the trailer but it's yeah. Oh you should see the film and it's I think if they had released

[00:12:31] the theme at the end as a sync as a like on streaming or as a single with a video to go

[00:12:37] with it I think that could have been a bigger hit than it was but because it you know it's

[00:12:42] the very monocle of Earworm but I tweeted that I've just seen one of the best monster

[00:12:47] movies in a while and that my review of it for platformers managing back then would

[00:12:52] be up soon so Mike Mendes was on Twitter back then it was quite a you know people more

[00:12:57] interested. It's a new deal yeah. Yeah he tweeted me back and he said glad that you like monster

[00:13:03] movies I've got a film that I think you'll love you need to review oh what is it? So he

[00:13:08] sent me this link to the film and it was Big Ass Spider. Big Ass Spider see and I'm sure getting

[00:13:15] into his line of work he knew obviously they all know what they're making but they don't

[00:13:19] always know how I'm sure they're keen on marketing and what goes into that and how of course

[00:13:26] yeah it's and I think Mike Mendes like you said is is one of those guys who appreciates

[00:13:32] that there are genuine blogs out there that are passionate about film they're passionate about

[00:13:37] indie films and so the more of and these are the people who go out and will write about them

[00:13:44] and and promote them so of course he's going to reach out to any independent writer and say

[00:13:48] hey I've got a movie out that you gotta make this happen yeah yeah absolutely

[00:13:55] so and that's something I think the asylum have kind of tapped in as well

[00:14:00] someone had to take their place and if it wasn't them then sci-fi channel would have done it by

[00:14:04] their own you know two feet before they even got and then a while ago Jim Wynorski, Fred

[00:14:10] Olin Ray the whole guys who do you know skin flakes for Skinamax and other stupid

[00:14:16] you know Roger Corman movies pretty much got contacted to do their stuff as well and

[00:14:20] same kind of deal they would anyone who has gotten any other movies buy them even if they're big

[00:14:27] piece of shit they often have a hysterical like self-deprecating commentary track where

[00:14:32] they're just like saying look at this I got the shot out of shot out of focus it's like

[00:14:38] if you say so yeah actually one of my favorites of that is a guy called Oliver Harper he runs

[00:14:45] a YouTube channel retrospectives and reviews he actually he actually wrote and directed the

[00:14:51] documentary in search for last action heroes and he does all these retrospective reviews on

[00:14:57] YouTube but he also does these commentaries he invites people on

[00:15:02] and he looks at big films small films any films and they'll just do an hour and a half of

[00:15:07] commentaries and it is it is absolute gold it really is but that's uh anything like that yeah

[00:15:14] absolutely love it

[00:15:20] can I ask your profile picture that's on here is that Conan O'Brien or is that really you

[00:15:25] well that is Conan O'Brien yes is he your twin uh you know I wish he was

[00:15:31] yeah he's quite something so you got me here shoot

[00:15:44] should we talk lavalanchala sharknado uh yeah uh so sharknado there are six of these I thought

[00:15:50] there was just five but six from 20 there are six 28 and last year there was for the 10th

[00:15:56] anniversary they did a 10th anniversary edition so was the quality the quality was

[00:16:03] enhanced 4k and I believe they had some extra scenes in wow and so what do you make of Ian

[00:16:11] Ziering deciding to have a huge ego and say my career is back you know I'm out of work

[00:16:16] soap opera b-movie I've gotten David Hasselhoff Bo Derek I've gotten Biffle K Fox I've gotten

[00:16:23] all these different sitcom stars to be in these movies sitcom stars wrestlers pop they've done

[00:16:30] their own walking dead knockoffs but yeah they're politicians yeah there was even Mark Cuban and

[00:16:35] was in one that's like the president Michelle Bachman and Ann Coulter I mean I'm surprised

[00:16:41] they didn't get eaten by sharks knowing what these guys they got every stupid celebrity to

[00:16:46] be in these movies is yeah that's a lot of his work she's but you know that's part of the fun

[00:16:54] I think what makes these films stand out from anything like it is as you know Thunder Levin

[00:17:02] the writer was very keen to put in a lot of pop culture references and in that way these

[00:17:08] films are very meta although it helps that if you're a film a cinephile or film nerd like us

[00:17:17] take your term unless you're in on the joke it's going to go right over your head like a flying

[00:17:23] shark yep yep and it it jumps the shark on a regular basis exactly but you know there's so

[00:17:31] many references in there and what's really good about it is that Thunder keeps the references

[00:17:37] within the films very very relevant to those specific films so of course there's going to be

[00:17:43] every Jaws joke in joke under the sun you know like in sharknado 2 you have two characters

[00:17:51] called Martin and Ellen Brody yeah doll does reference you know and you will one of the

[00:18:00] films I think it is the first one Nova Clark played by Cassie Cerbo answers the line yeah

[00:18:08] we're gonna need a bigger chopper you know as in helicopter not not chainsaw although

[00:18:13] they would do marios of these once in a while they embraced it like yeah absolutely I think

[00:18:20] I think sharknado is famous for many reasons one of them is definitely on a jokey side

[00:18:27] making change you know the first to make chainsaws cool since the texas chainsaw master

[00:18:33] but the other thing about sharknado this whole saga but especially the first one is

[00:18:40] the ability of the asylum especially the partners David Lark, Paul Bales and David Romali

[00:18:46] their ability to how can I put this to use platforms and trends to their advantage so with

[00:18:56] back in 2008 2009 when they released mega shark versus giant octopus it was a huge viral hit

[00:19:03] YouTube was in its infancy so the clip you know some of the clips were on MTV but they had over

[00:19:10] a million hits over a ridiculously short period of time and I think to this day the infamous

[00:19:17] scene of the megalodon flying in the air and bringing down a 747 is still one of the

[00:19:24] most watched so cut forward four or five years later and then you've got sharknado

[00:19:31] exploding on Twitter with every famous people talking about it I mean hell there was shark

[00:19:38] attack free megalodon with the whole I'm gonna go home and eat your you know what

[00:19:43] yeah that was um so I think monster movies in general have always had that kind of infamous

[00:19:49] deal where it's like they didn't really just oh there's uh-huh but and those are a whole

[00:19:54] different animal because those filmmakers you're taking it serious they're oblivious to how dumb

[00:19:59] it is to make a cheap cash in and meanwhile they're still getting everyone everyone wants

[00:20:04] to see it because the cover is cool at the video store you just can't help yourself

[00:20:07] curiosity kills the cat every time yeah but again you say it's these guys they sort of

[00:20:14] they've got their pulse they've got their finger on the pulse of what they do community if

[00:20:20] somebody's talking about their films they're they're in there and as soon as somebody

[00:20:24] finds that's it it goes you know it goes completely global and I think sharknado went

[00:20:30] global in a way even they didn't no they couldn't have known they knew it was gonna

[00:20:36] kill but they didn't know it was gonna kill that hard no no it didn't they just figured

[00:20:42] hey people want to watch this is like hey but you know something I think some of the reason

[00:20:48] it was so popular as well is is down to the writing of the direction uh I think thunder

[00:20:53] leaven's script for a low budget film like this is is very slick it's very clever

[00:21:01] and okay there are some plot holes in it like the whole notion of sure you think

[00:21:07] as he said in an interview and as he told me he bases as much as he you know in writing those

[00:21:12] four films he based as much as he could on scientific possibilities case in true true story

[00:21:21] case at one point he said to me that uh when the idea was given to him to to write this

[00:21:27] film which was originally titled shark store uh he when he was given the green light to write

[00:21:33] he actually did some research and read a story of a village in Australia every so often there

[00:21:41] is a talk don't jump the gun just yet there is a tornado that scoops up all this fish from the

[00:21:47] sea and then just drops it on the land so um he took that idea and then expanded it into

[00:21:53] what became sharknado there's all sorts of truth all sorts of things he looks at well

[00:21:59] okay we want to make it fun we are making something that's quite ridiculous

[00:22:02] but let's see what we can do within the bounds of realism so um I've watched these films enough

[00:22:09] times I'm still looking for the realism but uh and as for sharks in space for sharknado

[00:22:17] 30 hell no well because every franchise goes to space eventually so well if fast and furious

[00:22:24] even uh went into space impossible jason x yeah it's just leprechaun they should buy the leprechaun

[00:22:32] franchise do that would be funny and hell raiser hell raiser bloodline hell raiser

[00:22:38] I take it you listen to uh asylum case studies asylum case studies no I

[00:22:45] I don't know we've had that host on here a few times I trust the slater and she loves

[00:22:50] just ridiculing all the wacky

[00:22:55] just nonsense and having fun with it you get a kick out of your show

[00:23:01] oh I'll you'll have to send me the link to that I'll definitely

[00:23:07] but you know the the sharknado films yes they are cheesy and yes they are a little bit

[00:23:12] I couldn't tell that's kidding did you say you've only seen the first one

[00:23:18] I have only seen the first one I might have seen parts of either part three or four

[00:23:22] whichever one had mark cuban

[00:23:26] of hell no part three I believe was uh the one with mark cuban as the president

[00:23:31] okay yeah so that's the one I saw a bunch of I couldn't I had trouble with the other stuff

[00:23:37] there they are fun in the right mind I'm just I don't know I kind of like some of

[00:23:41] the just more deliberate ones that roger cormor's done like diner shard versus

[00:23:47] uh shark to post or whatever just stuff like that wasn't there one called shark

[00:23:52] to post versus oh god oh well well well wolf that's what it was yeah and that's

[00:23:57] the one yeah and there was one with a pterodactyl cross with a piranha

[00:24:02] brian speaking of yeah he gets killed in one of them yeah he is this it's just was

[00:24:08] such a ballsy way to just start this stuff off into where you're like really we're doing

[00:24:14] this right now okay but I'll tell you something I'll tell you what's delightful about these

[00:24:19] films and to an extent la valanchala is that for film nerds like us uh who really are all

[00:24:26] about the details no I'm just kidding film geeks film nerds cinephiles you know whichever

[00:24:31] one sounds best for you is all the pop culture references all the film references I mean

[00:24:39] sharknado 2 is set in New York so because remember I said thunder makes the references

[00:24:45] very relevant so sharknado 2 set in New York and you've got jud hersch in it as wait for it

[00:24:52] as a taxi driver yeah and at one point he does a u-turn in the middle of the street

[00:25:02] and you can if you listen very carefully you will hear someone yell I'm walking here I'm walking

[00:25:08] here you know midnight calvary Dustin Hoffman and you know there's all these um specific New

[00:25:17] references uh which is just great it is so like I said for film nerds like us you watch these

[00:25:25] ones and you're in on the joke you pick it up you think wow that's great but the trick to those

[00:25:30] things though is how you work it in and keeping it relevant and that's thunder's gift I think

[00:25:38] you know he doesn't just throw random things in there making you scratch head and go

[00:25:43] now why is he why have they just thrown that in that makes no sense it all makes sense it's

[00:25:48] all relevant so uh and I think for me that's really what makes it fun and you know don't you

[00:25:55] that there is a crossover between these two sagas yeah that's why I figured we'd talk about

[00:26:00] them all at once because it is very fascinating and you know Gunnberg's character is a blink and

[00:26:05] you miss it and I think it's movie four it is the foot yep shark nado the fourth

[00:26:12] oh he just comes out of nowhere you're like oh sci-fi and asylum they can do that and they're

[00:26:17] both like hey how you doing they're making fun of the whole buddy stuff but yeah uh I am big

[00:26:23] big big fan I love that landshall I you know Mike Mendoz got it the crew who did part two

[00:26:28] totally got it and I mean part two they are lampooning everyone's in Miami vice clothing and

[00:26:35] I well the opening segment of love ventula where he's like a crappy action movie star

[00:26:42] you know getting uh Tony Almeida from 44 is interrogating him and some of the other b-movie

[00:26:48] actors who are in there that you know their game yeah well what I thought was good about

[00:26:54] what I thought was sort of eye-opening if you like um not in terms of I wasn't aware but

[00:26:59] just I was watching this film thinking I can't believe I'm watching this film

[00:27:04] but first off I actually thought gosh Gutenberg looks good in this film you know he's obviously

[00:27:11] keeps in shape looks after himself he looks really good considering yeah 30 odd years since

[00:27:15] police cap the first he's been a decent actor he's just like many of these guys who are in

[00:27:19] these movies their careers didn't go exactly the way they were thinking so but that's the

[00:27:25] thing and he's playing an actor who is in that position you know he the irony is that

[00:27:29] he is playing not an over-the-hill actor but he's an actor who's his better days are behind him

[00:27:35] and now he's in cheap b-movies with um like you say Tony Almeida from 24 cards

[00:27:48] and he's as low he's as down in his career as you can get that's why I liked the beginning

[00:27:53] it just sets you up for this whole thing and you're just like yeah we went there

[00:28:00] but there was some but lavalanche it was good because um I mean first off big spiders more big

[00:28:07] ass spiders yeah instead of trying to be creeping everything like it's embracing the absurd

[00:28:13] it's just going in a fun direction wraps it up keeps it barely they're barely 90 minutes

[00:28:21] I felt like it went by real fast I just love it the dialogue is just witty and they like

[00:28:27] they are on fire and I absolutely yeah absolutely and there was some lovely little again you've got

[00:28:34] your film pop culture references in there now I don't know I don't know LA too well but

[00:28:40] there's a restaurant with the globe on there so when there's an earthquake that shakes the globe

[00:28:46] the guy in a fedora and a messy shirt running down the street

[00:28:49] ally Indiana Jones yeah I think I thought that was a nice little touch fun yeah

[00:28:57] and some of the lines and see this has a way of just saying yeah oh yeah we're going there

[00:29:02] like he just has kind of a way of inviting you into the observe versus

[00:29:07] throwing it everywhere and seeing what sticks absolutely and yeah they they keep it fun

[00:29:16] they are well shot surprisingly you wouldn't expect a movie like this to be well shot but like

[00:29:21] I was impressed with the quality of the film so these are a little bit of movies yeah

[00:29:27] the VFX in la volantia I've got to admit okay it's not big studio it's not big budget

[00:29:34] whether digital or ILM didn't come down off there no

[00:29:38] oh but you've got to admit you know these are pretty decent considering the low budget

[00:29:46] I mean look people thought joker with Joaquin Phoenix was low budget is 70 million

[00:29:51] these films are not even made weren't even made on anything resembling 70 yeah well and

[00:29:59] what they managed to do with it I mean and again that goes back to sharknada

[00:30:04] low budget quick turnaround but actually some some pretty decent effects some great scenes

[00:30:12] you know it works but la volantia there is certainly in the production values something

[00:30:18] very very slick so hats off to Mike Mendez and the other writers on the crew I think so

[00:30:25] I forget their names now to be honest sign of age I'm afraid

[00:30:29] I'm sorry to be warned but you know they did a really good job with that and same with

[00:30:36] to lava to lunch which I think is a great title for I mean yeah you know it's a it's

[00:30:44] a play on too fast too furious absolutely I mean it works yeah mockbuster mentality yeah

[00:30:51] yeah absolutely the only thing I'll say about to lava to land chiller is

[00:30:57] Gutenberg seemed to be very angry in that film he was he was almost doing

[00:31:03] christian bail in the dark night where he had to really overemphasize his intensity I don't

[00:31:09] know how much of that was deliberate deliberate whether he was mocking that I think he was

[00:31:15] making fun of how he never got to really play the serious roles because he's seen him be

[00:31:19] serious in some bad movies yeah it was like what's going on yeah absolutely true absolutely

[00:31:26] true but you know again that film pulls it you know pulls off the stops you like you said you

[00:31:32] mentioned my amp you know they they go into a store they kyle reese this thing yes

[00:31:41] they again if you're in on the joke if you know it you know it and that's what makes

[00:31:46] these films so much fun they go in and they come out like uh crocket in tubs to a slightly

[00:31:53] bastardized version of yan hammers miami vice i mean is you're watching this as they're going

[00:31:59] oh yeah this is just gold absolute gold

[00:32:07] again and again they start off in the film dressed as police officers

[00:32:12] so that harks back to police academy and it's just great i mean it's one of those things you

[00:32:18] can go back watch over and over again like airplane like um the original uh airplane

[00:32:24] you can go back and watch that again and you think you know all the jokes you think you

[00:32:28] know all the uh the gags and skits and everything and then you think hang on did i

[00:32:34] just miss them did i miss something all these years and it's the same with this one you

[00:32:39] with these ones and sharp made it you go back you watch you listen and you're always going to

[00:32:44] find something and i think the reason for that is because they they play out so quickly like

[00:32:50] you said it's barely an hour and a half and it goes so quickly and because it's a very very

[00:32:57] quick these are very very quick films they don't muck about absolutely straight into the action

[00:33:02] it all unfolds and you come away you know you can't say you don't know what you're in

[00:33:07] for or didn't get something exactly and you've hit the nail right on the head there uh camp i

[00:33:15] will see you know what you're getting with these films yeah you know what you're getting with

[00:33:20] these films that's why we like to do this we see so many people get heated over whether or

[00:33:24] not you liked barbie hymer or what have you and i'm just like let's just talk about movies

[00:33:29] that are less divisive

[00:33:33] like if you don't like these guess what no one cares like this is kind of one of those things

[00:33:40] and i'm gonna ask you a question um about these films and about silent films in general

[00:33:48] there's a lot of people who are very very down on these films very hard on them

[00:33:52] oh i see so many snobs on any kind of movie i see people make fun of digital

[00:33:56] filmmaking i feel attacked because i that's what i got yeah it's like um the asylum did a movie

[00:34:04] uh about 10 12 years ago called uh moby dick 2010 and yeah it was uh written by

[00:34:14] uh one of the studio's uh partners uh paul bales now it's the mo it's the home of melville book

[00:34:21] in a modern setting so the p quad is a submarine and ahab is a submarine commander

[00:34:28] and yes he is hunting for a giant whale because uh this aquatic mammal than a previous attack

[00:34:35] took his leg and left him with a scar and now he's going to you know go and get his revenge

[00:34:41] and rene o'connor from um zena warrior princess yes wait for it she plays uh

[00:34:52] michelle melville and she actually utters the line call me michelle call me ishmael

[00:34:58] but this is what port burke it's a good fun film low but you know low res vfx okay again

[00:35:05] it's an asylum movie turned over in 10 days but you've got barry bostwick as ahab he turns

[00:35:10] in a brilliant performance and you can tell he's loving every second of it yeah in the

[00:35:17] script paul bales actually incorporates lines from the book mind he gives nearly all the best

[00:35:23] lines to bostwick as ahab so he's uttering lines like i'll strike at the sun if it insults me and

[00:35:29] you'll go oh he tasked me he tasked me i shall have him and all these other all these famous

[00:35:35] lines that have been used and referenced in other films and it's a fun film but it's

[00:35:40] actually very clever and people i think when they look at low budget they just see low budget

[00:35:45] they think oh moby deck 2010 what a load of cons wallop sorry that was being very british

[00:35:50] though what the hell no i'm just kidding but all right they'll look at it and in the words of in

[00:35:56] the words of bill hicks they'll look at these songs and say oh what a piece of shit but it's

[00:36:00] i'm not here to judge but no it is interesting because to your point some stuff i mean just

[00:36:06] like with some of these references some i feel like a lot of us a lot of people have

[00:36:12] gotten stupor over time just because they got their head up their ass they are looking at

[00:36:16] they want it all front and center it's like well the best comedy isn't front and center it's

[00:36:21] there's something going on in the background like i have you seen ted lasso

[00:36:27] no that's not that's something i haven't caught over here okay it's on apple tv and

[00:36:32] i don't subscribe to apple tv because i subscribe to enough channels and no it's fine uh

[00:36:37] there's well so what works about this international production is uh there are like

[00:36:44] 10 things going on in one scene and you got to rewind to find all the gags that are happening

[00:36:50] like one like you can staging it gets points uh improv it gets full-blown points like uh we

[00:36:59] even re saw an episode because we saw that uh ryan styles and colin mockery were credited

[00:37:05] as the canadian announcers in one episode it was one of those it was written we're like where are

[00:37:11] they and my sister's like i think i know we fast forward we find the exact scene and you had to

[00:37:16] listen in just to find those voice cameos we're like that's awesome they did that 10 second

[00:37:23] cameo and bear like 10 out of you know a million people found that uh but uh it's an

[00:37:30] actor show just because the comedians are all doing their own thing and it has something it

[00:37:34] corresponds to what's happening in the scene but you can tell they're all kind of in gear they know

[00:37:40] where their character is and what they should be doing instead of just overstaging it like that

[00:37:46] you're not going to find many errors of someone sitting down and then standing up in the next

[00:37:50] shot they're all very wide angles and they're all doing something outrageously funny kind of

[00:37:57] like major league or one of those other just ensemble pieces you're just like so i kudos

[00:38:03] to all these guys here they are all like some of them are playing it straight some of them

[00:38:10] are just going very hammy and over the top but they're all in character that whole movie and

[00:38:17] you know they can just say hey easy paycheck goofy campy movie but at the same time they knew

[00:38:23] what they were in for and they knew it was going to be hysterical and it says a lot for

[00:38:28] some of the actors we've talked about like they're very picky about generally what they do

[00:38:32] Carlos himself has gone on to direct a lot of tv but for the longest time he would joke i went

[00:38:37] from crappy soap operas to the awesome show 24 so it's funny seeing all these guys just kind of

[00:38:47] let loose i mean i think there was one guy from the sandlot who was in there also so

[00:38:51] it was just funny just seeing like you say them embrace the camp and yeah i feel like everyone

[00:38:59] every once in a while i will kind of like when you have to dispute what's a hellraiser or die

[00:39:04] hard kind of inspired movie i sometimes have to do this too with what is a b movie and like it

[00:39:09] can be something big budget but that's like a genre throwback like spillberg has said you know

[00:39:14] indiana jones it's a b picture you know alien star wars those are b pictures but they're big

[00:39:19] big ass budgets yeah you know terminator started out as a low budget b picture it was

[00:39:25] a slasher in cyborg form but then got bigger and bigger you know it those are just as relevant to

[00:39:33] the nature of a b movie as an old 40s gangster noir or a creature feature by roger corman so

[00:39:40] it's annoying to have to kind of dispute that once in a while it's like well

[00:39:45] i mean tarantino movies you could probably give a b movie label because they started out

[00:39:50] very low budget you know very abstract very atypical that's very true that's absolutely

[00:39:56] true uh but there are big budget b movies i mean case in point the meg movies the

[00:40:01] meg deep blue sea yeah any of those jaws i mean well the mech dinosaur

[00:40:10] carnivore yeah but the mech and mech too although they're based on books written by

[00:40:14] a guy called steve alton i think it was it is yeah based on a series of books they're asylum movies

[00:40:22] absolutely don the dragon wilson has made a career of low budget fight to the death movies

[00:40:28] all these van damme knockoff guys all these other slasher queens and every other lifetime

[00:40:33] movie it's kind of a b movie exactly um again lower budget uh uh genre expectations

[00:40:43] a kind of a camp nature to it or lowbrow if you will i mean every other skin of maximum

[00:40:48] you know it's just all kinds of just all of them have some formula they want to follow

[00:40:53] whether it's i'm fighting you know you know lans henrickson for a while was in a bunch

[00:40:58] of movies where he was fighting sasquatches tony tine was in a few movies where he was

[00:41:03] shooting zombies capitalizing on his fame with night of the living dead remix that's right yeah

[00:41:10] and always playing charismatic villains or henchmen

[00:41:15] they are the definition of a b movie i mean look at michael ironside every other paul

[00:41:19] verhoeven movie you know it's just yeah they can't help them absolutely will do a throwback

[00:41:26] to tj hooker or captain kirk whenever he gets a chance because he knows you know something

[00:41:33] what's great camp is lavalangela and shark nado they embrace that they embrace all of that

[00:41:40] they know what they are they make no bones about it what's your favorite of the six

[00:41:46] of the six still the first one all right the first always the best but

[00:41:53] um i kind of got a little soft spot for shark nado too for um

[00:42:01] a number of reasons one of them being is that i met robert haze at a comic con event

[00:42:07] you know the um ted striker from airplane and we had a little chat about yeah and we had a

[00:42:14] little chat about his work really really nice guy and i think he was pleased i talked to him

[00:42:18] about something other than airplane but he was happy to talk about that and i asked him you know

[00:42:22] as i said have you got anything coming out and he says well i can't talk about it right now

[00:42:27] he says but you know i have been working on something that's um you know it's a bit like

[00:42:32] my character from airplane i said okay um so i can't say anymore and then i watch sharp nado

[00:42:39] it opens up on a plane um where you've got two things being played out thin looking out the

[00:42:46] window seeing sharks when nobody else does so replaying terror at 37 000 feet the twilight

[00:42:53] zone episode yeah that's right and then flying the plane is none other than robert haze yes

[00:43:02] and i was just waiting for the gallons of sweat i guarantee you

[00:43:06] yeah well and that's a spoof movie i guarantee you has probably been more watched than the actual

[00:43:11] thing like uh probably more people have seen instead of rovin hood prince of thieves probably

[00:43:16] more people have seen men in tights the parody which is probably cool thing and i feel like

[00:43:21] that's the same thing with airplane less people have seen airport and more people have

[00:43:26] seen the spoof movie that's making fun of all those disaster films but because it's so cool and

[00:43:32] amusing in its own right you know it's just i think i mean much like naked gun it's it's smart

[00:43:38] dumb that i see so many other people who i mean and same deal with police academy it's just dumb

[00:43:44] but it's really really original and it's dumbness so it's in fact i use the i use the

[00:43:51] rule all the time when i get franchise fatigue inevitably i just go just be the odd number out

[00:43:57] just stop after part seven there's no need for anymore so so it's it's film number seven you

[00:44:06] start to get franchise that's where i say you know we really don't need to go here if and

[00:44:13] so that's where i am with all these superhero movies but kudos to them they they've done

[00:44:17] their own parodies of it and i mean roger corman actually did his own thing he used to do black

[00:44:21] scorpion and a bunch of other just wacky stuff for sci-fi and showtime where you're like

[00:44:26] really is that really a thing wow okay i that's funny well it's it's funny you mentioned

[00:44:33] superhero movies and roger corman in the same sentence because i hear there's talks of possibly

[00:44:39] releasing his version of the fantastic four but of course marvel don't want that to happen

[00:44:46] why because they're going to revamp the fantastic four but wouldn't that be something if that i

[00:44:53] haven't seen it it is a lot of fun we'll return after these messages if you like small

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[00:46:20] it is yeah i'll say that yeah it's you know something's wrong when that's like the best

[00:46:24] version and the big budget ones missed the point uh but no it's good point uh they are

[00:46:30] in brand management they're they're doing what paramount did where they said hey you

[00:46:33] can do your own star drag fan films just don't make any money off it and then they said oh

[00:46:37] by the way we can still sue you or remove them if we feel our brand is in violation

[00:46:42] because we realize they're actually better than what we got so i think yeah any studio

[00:46:47] can rupture its fandom and at the same time fans can be have too much time on their hands

[00:46:52] and we're at that unhealthy point where we are i mean we're seeing it with celebrities like

[00:46:58] i don't know about you when the whole amber herd johnny depp thing came out everyone was

[00:47:03] like pick a team and i was like i don't want to pick a team i'm not on either team and it's i was

[00:47:09] the same i was the same but many people want to do that it's like you got to pick a team and

[00:47:12] i'm like oh i'm not letting people profit off all our endless debates and everything i

[00:47:21] it really doesn't matter i'm not supporting their materials so like

[00:47:27] when a celebrity says something shitty on social media i don't even need to interact

[00:47:31] i just move on i'm just like okay there i'm gonna stop going to their page i mean there was a

[00:47:37] celebrity who died recently who had done a lot of cool things but he because he will not be

[00:47:43] named was sharing endless articles and even contributing to bright part i was just like

[00:47:50] i don't want to follow you this is not healthy to follow you i'm just going to

[00:47:55] have to block you and love your work from afar yeah exactly and that's the only way to

[00:48:00] handle any situation like that because the way i see it is and you mentioned johnny depp amber

[00:48:06] herd and yeah we'll say you've got to pick a side and oh he or she will never work again

[00:48:11] it was like well eventually you gotta stop watching johnny depp movies or you gotta stop

[00:48:15] watching amber herd movies first off i don't think there's any such thing as an amber herd

[00:48:20] movie i don't think she has ever the leach ever been the lead he's always been a supporting

[00:48:24] so we're good they've always been supporting you're there to see jason momoa you're there to

[00:48:28] see um what else she'd been in never back down you know a lot she doesn't have a bunch of guest

[00:48:34] appearances including crippled minds it's like yeah no you're fine and then yeah depp he's more

[00:48:39] of an ensemble guy nowadays so same deal is like i don't have to i'm not going to boycott

[00:48:44] a movie because one star is a troublemaker no absolutely not and because the thing is when

[00:48:50] you boycott a film because of one person then and let's just say for the sake of argument

[00:48:54] and i'll keep this really short uh let's say you take i don't know a few hundred thousand people

[00:48:59] i mean there were some cancelled celebs in some of these movies and that was part of what made

[00:49:03] them funny yeah see i mean mel gibson was recently in a movie where he plays a shock jock

[00:49:11] radio guy you can't tell me that they're not in on the chuck on that

[00:49:17] but you know just uh say about the boycott if you were to take say 100 000 people with

[00:49:22] you're not hurting just the celebrity you're hurting the director the writer producer all the

[00:49:27] extras that is true absolutely when you're supporting a film you're not supporting it

[00:49:32] might be one person that draws you to it you could be a johnny depp fan or you might even

[00:49:37] be an iron zehring fan there's a way to compromise i mean yeah we're gonna talk about

[00:49:42] certain movies but because they're bi-problematic filmmakers we're not going to do uh tributes to

[00:49:48] said filmmaker but we're still going to remark on the brilliance of said movies so i will inevitably

[00:49:54] at some point when i do some more of these actor specials i'm gonna mention some movie they've

[00:49:58] done that was helmed by none other than palanski or witty allen and i'll just say hey you know

[00:50:03] at least i'm not doing a tribute to them i'm just doing a tribute to the overall movie in

[00:50:08] which this actor you know leads the cast and they are quite excellent in speaking of problematic

[00:50:17] people in films one of the recumbers recurring guest um cameo not he's not cameo actually he's

[00:50:24] not an integral part of the shark neighbor saga but he's ever present and that is matt lauer

[00:50:31] um yeah although we don't get the shows over here in the uk we have our own morning shows

[00:50:36] new shows but even i've heard of matt lauer and the controversy surrounding him and to see

[00:50:43] him now in in this film you think yeah okay i just remember when uh tom cruise did an interview

[00:50:52] that went south and then they did a parody on it on jimmy kimmel like a few weeks later where

[00:50:57] they made it look like he digitally punched him yeah in the face so i think

[00:51:04] because he's never gonna get work again i think a lot of that has subsided i think a lot

[00:51:08] of people are now questioning just they're not standing up for bullies in the workplace anymore

[00:51:15] and it used to be oh don't piss off the boss or zack they'll wreck your career they'll talk

[00:51:20] shit and i think everyone is finally yeah learning to stand on their own two feet

[00:51:25] and not chicken out and actually say hey you know you're out of line you need to stop

[00:51:31] you need to act your age you know yeah didn't what's that old hollywood cliche that um such

[00:51:37] bullies would bound around and you're you're never work working this town again yeah yeah

[00:51:42] the tables have kind of turned on that in a way haven't they they really have

[00:51:48] absolutely but you know that's one of the things i love about the asylum is

[00:51:54] um speaking to the partners for the books i have interviewed uh all current and past founding

[00:52:01] partners of the studio is they're yes they're pushy yes they you know they expect a quick

[00:52:10] turnaround and a certain level of quality but you know they're very very um they're very kind

[00:52:16] to their team and they've fostered an environment on set whereby people come in uh looking to

[00:52:24] break into the film business will work on every aspect of a film and they'll go away

[00:52:28] with so much knowledge of how to make a really well yeah and actually i interviewed a guy called

[00:52:34] christopher olin ray yep who is rey's son he is fred ellen rey's son hollywood chainsaw hookers

[00:52:42] that classic uh featuring lanaquigley the lovely lanaia yep um i i interviewed him about

[00:52:50] his work with the asylum because he also directed a couple of my favorite films um he

[00:52:57] actually said that uh he went to work on i won't name the hollywood project because i don't think

[00:53:03] it's fair um but he went to work on a sort of a fairly big hollywood uh film was the fourth

[00:53:11] film in a franchise in fact and he was there to do a specific job but he was looking he said

[00:53:17] i was looking at these guys and they were doing their job he says they don't know what

[00:53:21] they're doing because i know more about their job than they do and they're getting bigger bucks

[00:53:27] than me and i'm thinking yeah that's usually the case sometimes you know you're paying a lot

[00:53:33] of money and you're not getting uh you know you're not getting the the quality that you

[00:53:38] expect whereas working on a low budget film under a tight turnaround you have to think on

[00:53:43] your feet you have to pay attention because they're not going to hate themselves and you

[00:53:49] learn so much and so and i think that's one of the great things about the asylum yes they are

[00:53:54] a machine of film production but everybody comes away from their having learned so much and

[00:54:02] they carry that into their careers and you have to be able to laugh this off and they're

[00:54:08] really big on giving up and come as a chance there's a couple of filmmakers who've connected

[00:54:13] with me and they had just started out you know co-writing or doing a bit of shadowing of

[00:54:21] producers of the producers and the directors and now they're directing their own movies

[00:54:27] like aquarium of the dead if you haven't seen that film i have and it's on showtime

[00:54:35] you've seen aquariums the dead i believe i have with tom size more and bivouac yeah it's

[00:54:40] yeah and dc douglas who is um asylum regular he's having so many of those he's a very talented

[00:54:45] voice actor too he is he is known for his voice he told me on twitter when i mentioned

[00:54:51] that i'd just seen aquarium the dead and i thought his character he was partly with another

[00:54:56] actor i forget his name there again it's the age but uh the thing i remember is he came back

[00:55:02] says oh yeah i had a lot of fun on that film you know improvising all our lines and i

[00:55:08] thought god no wonder they were some of the best moments in the film because they looked so

[00:55:12] spontaneous some of them you know so it was great to have him feed that back to me and say

[00:55:18] you know what it was a 10-day shoot we didn't have time to muck about but we got to improvise

[00:55:25] and give the film uh um you know a really good lift just to elevate it above the regular

[00:55:32] of low budget films that you see with our improvisation nice so and again like i said

[00:55:41] the guys they really foster that uh that's probably and that's why i'm writing the book

[00:55:47] because i love their content i love their product not all of it you know nobody is ever going

[00:55:54] to make a perfect film every time you know even even paramount water is perfect nobody's

[00:55:59] perfect but you know they make good stuff it comes from the heart it's designed to entertain

[00:56:05] they know and they foster a great working environment you know and i i think their story

[00:56:12] is one that really does need to be told especially now they've been going 25 years

[00:56:17] they've battled just a way it'll be there legal action did you know that yeah oh yeah

[00:56:23] especially the uh the lord of the rings one i think they got in some trouble yeah age of

[00:56:30] the hobbits they had to change to either empire of the elves or lord of the elves that's what it

[00:56:35] was yeah they got in trouble with um with their at lack of their pacific rim mockbuster

[00:56:41] atlantic rim i think they got in trouble with that if the name's close enough they're

[00:56:46] gonna press on them and it's like well that's kind of what a ripoff is yeah but you

[00:56:51] know which one really got them in trouble was the daviors uh sorry the day the earth stopped

[00:57:00] fox were threatening to sue the studio luckily they managed to to settle it but um that could

[00:57:07] have that could have been a real 50 less units you'll be fine yeah well as it happens

[00:57:15] the studio production that's why they hate it because someone's grandma will buy that copy

[00:57:21] and study actual movie yeah yeah exactly but do you know something that's okay because there

[00:57:30] is as i don't know if you know the story of how they got into making mockbusters

[00:57:36] uh their first real mockbuster was uh their own take on war of the worlds yeah yeah we started

[00:57:43] at the beginning that's how we got into it yeah so that's how they got into it and uh that was

[00:57:49] written and directed by david lat that was his pet project came out around about the time of

[00:57:54] in fact he'd gone to they were just when they were still distributors and only just started

[00:57:58] making movies they went to just find other people's movies and distribute them yeah yeah

[00:58:05] but they went to blockbuster you know the the video chain of old sadly no longer with us

[00:58:11] um and they said look you know i wasn't crazy about the fees

[00:58:16] no i shouldn't have to do a monthly fee especially if i don't go that month yeah

[00:58:24] oh no i did a pay as you watch thing uh we had that option here but he went to blockbuster

[00:58:29] he said look i've got this idea you know if there's a big budget film that comes out i

[00:58:34] might you know if i were to do my own version do you think i'm paraphrasing here i'm sure the

[00:58:39] conversation was more sophisticated you know how would you feel about that and he told them about

[00:58:44] the idea of war of the worlds and they said yeah that'd be great because people will come in

[00:58:48] you know people love that so he made war of the worlds with c thomas howe uh it was a hit

[00:58:56] it apparently was literally flying off the shelves and so they went back and they said

[00:59:00] can you make more of these and that's how it started with them that's how they really got

[00:59:05] into it blockbuster said give us more of this stuff people can't get enough

[00:59:10] and the same when they started developing the relationship with sci-fi same thing you know we

[00:59:16] need original movies they're not going to be shown in the cinemas except maybe as a one-off

[00:59:21] special yeah they're going to be beamed on they're going to be shown on cable and satellite

[00:59:26] and now streaming netflix the same all these people guys were saying no one's going to

[00:59:31] get it can you make us some content we'll give you the ideas what we're expecting and they said

[00:59:37] yeah sure and and that's how shark nado started as well that was a sci-fi idea hey we want you

[00:59:43] to make a film called shark storm can you come up with something little did they know that

[00:59:49] shark nado wasn't just about to explode in the lives of iron xering and tara reed it was

[00:59:55] going to explode all over i want you'll find this funny i i did meet her when i think around

[01:00:00] the time they were doing the yeah the second uh shark nado she was not very kind of that

[01:00:08] convention like she just stormed through a bunch of people including me without as if we

[01:00:12] weren't there so but i think she's finally getting back on her feet after finding all

[01:00:18] this money from these wacky movies well i can't see as it's done or any harm because i think

[01:00:26] aside from the american pie reunion she was i don't know if she was she was doing much because

[01:00:34] thing is with the uk yeah is that when a big a names uh actor or actress or whomever

[01:00:41] uh goes quiet we tend to lose track of them it's easier to lose track of them but chances

[01:00:46] are they're probably doing a lot of tv movies made for tv movies hallmark movies those sorts

[01:00:51] in states but she kind of went quiet and then she suddenly showed up in shark nado and

[01:00:58] you know some the snobs will say oh god look how low her career is for them but i thought no

[01:01:03] that's a really good move because now you're attached to a worldwide cult phenomenon you're

[01:01:09] gonna be known for something else remember this in american pie it's giving you a platform to

[01:01:14] do other things and you look like you're having fun with it and actually to be fair

[01:01:18] i was very pleased for her i mean i'm not i don't dislike tarah reid i'm not a fan either

[01:01:25] but i was very pleased to see her back in something of some quality doing well as a

[01:01:32] co-star you know i thought it's nothing but great for her but shark nado in the tradition

[01:01:40] of asylum did that for so many other actors give gave them a platform or a cameo i think

[01:01:47] will wheaton is in shark nado too he is one of the passengers blanket of men

[01:01:53] and of course the big bang theory script writers worked that into one of their episodes because

[01:01:57] i think there's a bag oh yeah they're all watching the same stuff you know they're

[01:02:01] retweeting clips on twitter the next day just so they can mock each other but you know when

[01:02:06] you talk about shark nado cam is i don't think people truly still get uh just how much of an

[01:02:12] impact it had i mean in deadpool 2 that um wayne asked cable so many questions and one of the

[01:02:21] questions is what number shark nado are we on in the future yeah because in shark nado 3 um

[01:02:30] no not shark nado 3 in the sixth shark nado sorry uh finn shepard asks a future self

[01:02:38] what deadpool movie are we on

[01:02:43] but that i think is um indicates just how big these and i'm not quoting me i'm quoting what

[01:02:51] some other people say these cheap little movies these are how big they are across the world

[01:02:55] and it is nearly always the small movies that become cult classics and become uh forever

[01:03:06] remembered i mean we talk about roger corman a lot piranha battle beyond the stars is edgar

[01:03:13] albino going back to the 50s and 60s when he did the po films you know those films are

[01:03:18] classic revered they're still watched you know it's these low budget films that are

[01:03:24] the ones that will last it's these ones that sort of pave the way so um and i think shark

[01:03:31] nado has said as the meme said if you think that you've got your ideas are ridiculous just

[01:03:37] remember somebody said i know why don't we make a film about a tornado for the shark

[01:03:42] fucking shark nado yeah it's ridiculous but you know what they made six films

[01:03:49] they made six films it worked people are 10 years later are still talking about it

[01:03:54] they'll be talking about it for another 10 years yeah absolutely sadly la valencia are

[01:04:02] not so much i think la valencia's problem was that they they used up all their best ideas

[01:04:08] in the second film uh well the really good ideas were all in the first film and it linked

[01:04:15] him beautifully but i think when mike mendez uh didn't return for the sequel uh you could tell

[01:04:22] there's a lot of good jokes in there it was a lot of fun but there was just something missing

[01:04:26] the same reason why fifth and sixth movies don't work as well they're still good but

[01:04:32] six and fifth and six movies of shark nado uh sadly didn't have thunder leaven doing the

[01:04:38] script because for four across four movies you've got thunder leaven you've got the stars and

[01:04:43] you've got antony ferranti you've got this team that works so well makeup artist a makeup artist

[01:04:52] but you take thunder out and suddenly you realize something's missing i think the

[01:04:57] problem with lava lanchula two lava two lanchula they used up all their best ideas

[01:05:02] and do you remember it was just a two-trick pony i think really yeah i think they couldn't

[01:05:07] have done a three they would i think um i think we'd have all switched i think everyone

[01:05:12] would have stopped laughing by then yeah and um but shark nado you know the asylum did the

[01:05:19] absolutely right thing by shark nado they made a six they wrapped it all up and said right

[01:05:23] that's it let's put that to bed because we're going to move on to other things like three

[01:05:28] lots of top gunner movies you know the top gun uh uh mockbuster they've made three of those

[01:05:35] oh i haven't three of those i haven't been at red box lately so they're quite good um but top

[01:05:43] yes the top gun era you but what's interesting robert's been in a bunch of them there was one

[01:05:48] giant gorilla monster one he's barely an instrument and you're like but he's like

[01:05:53] the first build guys but you know what i think is funny camp is it took 35 years for tom

[01:06:00] make a sequel to top gun it took asylum three years to make three top style movies

[01:06:10] yeah i mean doing knockoffs slash parodies i mean come on man

[01:06:17] but you know something as well with the asylum movies i think they

[01:06:21] they're quite bold in there in a way um there's an there's an iranian american

[01:06:27] comedian called mars jabrani i love him i'm not the terrorist but i play one on tv yeah oh he's

[01:06:34] great and he joked in um i forget which of his stints it was now was it access of evil tour or

[01:06:41] i love that it was so much fun yeah or was it i'm not a terrorist but i played one on tv

[01:06:46] he talks about how you know racially in terms of diversity hollywood is breaking

[01:06:51] barriers but he says you won't see a middle eastern air playing an airline pilot

[01:06:59] yeah there is an asylum movie i forget what it's called i think it's

[01:07:04] i can't remember what it's called because it changed title a couple of times and can't keep

[01:07:09] up when films oh the one where he's playing like the agent guy yeah it's yes but there is

[01:07:14] there is a middle east it's uh airline disaster form and there is a middle eastern

[01:07:20] pilot and he is the hero of the film and i thought oh mr jabrani would be so proud if

[01:07:26] he could see this you have a middle eastern pilot in fact paul bale said that you know

[01:07:33] they were woke and trendy before being woke and trendy became the zeitgeist so to speak so

[01:07:41] you know but they they were you know these silent are quite ground breakers in that way

[01:07:46] you know strong yes their films are cheesy yes they're cheap but you know they don't they're

[01:07:53] not object they don't object to doing strong female characters strong gay characters you know

[01:08:00] they're not bothered by all of that they just think these characters will be interesting

[01:08:05] they'll make the movie fun you know let's put them there and remember whilst stalone and

[01:08:12] company spent years talking about making making a female expendables expendable

[01:08:22] david lap paul bales david ramali and christopher olin ray and yeah hold our beer and lo and

[01:08:29] behold the mercenaries was made with bridget nelson kristin aloken from terminator yeah

[01:08:35] it's great vivica fox who is a an asylum alumni um cynthia rothrock my favorite um one of my

[01:08:45] favorite martial arts stars of the 80s and zoe bell um he you know is a stunt woman uh she

[01:08:52] doubled for himotherm yes kill bill you're talking to a b-movie lover yes i i know this

[01:08:58] and it's a great film it's it's what you know it's what it's what millennium films avi luna those

[01:09:05] people should have made ages ago and now i promise i'll have you back on for an expendables

[01:09:11] special if you ever want okay um i don't know how much i'll have to say about that other than

[01:09:18] i i walked out halfway through expendables four that would be fine we we like all kinds of

[01:09:24] it doesn't matter if you like it or hate it we just want to we just want to validate everybody

[01:09:29] i don't there's very few films i hate uh if anything that's like i write reviews

[01:09:35] uh you know this from seeing my bio um i'm not a um i don't know who your top film

[01:09:41] reviewer is that writes in the legacy media or has their own show but we have a guy here

[01:09:45] called mark commode um we used to have a guy called um malcolm he's recently passed away

[01:09:52] i just call him mark commode like going to the restroom you know mark commode is not averse to

[01:09:58] watching an asylum film and completely slagging it off you know doing it down tearing which

[01:10:03] makes me wonder is like come on just examine it even if you're not the audience for it the

[01:10:09] whole idea is do i recommend this or was it too much you know that's but you know something

[01:10:14] whether a film costs two million dollars or 200 million dollars you know that's somebody's

[01:10:19] baby people have toiled and worked hard to produce someone wanted to spend time making it so

[01:10:25] i don't know you know and so i can't recommend all these movies but i'm not gonna

[01:10:30] just sit my ass down and be like you can't like that but you know if somebody's going

[01:10:35] to make a movie called charmed or lavalanchula you know i'm thinking okay is sounds a bit

[01:10:40] preposterous but i'll sit down and watch it and i will give it due consideration because

[01:10:45] somebody group of people taking the time spent money to make it and if i'm going to review it

[01:10:52] i'm not going to tear it to pieces and say oh the vfx was shit the actor was wooden and

[01:10:57] especially if that's the point actually have you heard of a film called blackbird

[01:11:04] just can't that sounds familiar have you heard of a film called blackbird i'm looking it up

[01:11:13] i think okay the same nil sam nil yeah now blackbird is a film that was written produced

[01:11:24] directed funded by and starring lord of the dance himself michael flatley

[01:11:33] and it's kind of like james bond meets casablanca and it's everything you would

[01:11:37] expect from what you could term either a magnum opus or a vanity picture now when this film came

[01:11:44] out okay well actually it was stuck in hiatus for four years i'm not entirely sure why and

[01:11:51] the release of the film there was a lot of campaigning especially by a group here in bristol

[01:11:57] called the bristol bad film club because i'm living bristol in the uk okay so the bristol

[01:12:02] bad film club campaigned to get this film released and it was finally released uh two years ago

[01:12:09] and it got slated in the media mark commode said something like it is the worst movie i've ever

[01:12:15] seen and i've seen um sex he says that about everything though yeah so i spoke to uh the

[01:12:23] founder um one of the founders of the bristol bad bristol bad film club

[01:12:29] uh at the screening that they put on for blackbird and i asked him i said do you think they

[01:12:34] completely missed the mark or were they on point and he said something quite interesting he said

[01:12:39] the problem with the press uh and he didn't say it's a criticism but he did say the problem is

[01:12:44] they're coming at it from a certain point of view so they are looking at as they are

[01:12:49] expecting a certain quality of always production acting he said and they're asking all these

[01:12:55] questions and that's fine he said but is it entertaining is probably the most important

[01:13:00] question you ask most of them want to ask that yeah and at that screening of blackbird on the

[01:13:05] big screen in an old iMAX theater 200 people came to see it and 200 people had a great time

[01:13:11] and at the end of the day isn't that what sometimes isn't that what movie making

[01:13:15] should be about you would think yeah we don't get me wrong up and up has a place in movies

[01:13:23] the killing fields plays an important role but sometimes you just want to watch some good fun

[01:13:29] shit and and the asylum has plenty of that in fact one film i'll recommend definitely the

[01:13:40] asylum does and i can't say enough good things about it um it deserves more kudos than it

[01:13:45] got it's a film called foreclosed so the number four and closed and it's kind of like

[01:13:52] and it's kind of like a home invasion thriller and it stars jamie kennedy

[01:13:57] i think i saw that showtime was showing a bunch of these movies yeah um i think it's a

[01:14:04] cracking movie and it was great to see jamie kennedy do such a left field role for him

[01:14:12] uh i thought he did an absolute bang-up job and you have paul servino in there and james

[01:14:18] denton and marley matelin one of my favorite actresses it was a good solid thriller with

[01:14:25] likable characters and a great villain you know and that's what you want from a good thriller

[01:14:31] as if you if you want someone else you might be on your wavelength for this you might want

[01:14:35] to check out matt courier of the direct-to-video connoisseur he does a lot of these kind of

[01:14:42] movies and the more independent the better the more send up of hysterical stuff even better

[01:14:51] but to get back to my question then surely these films the asylum movies um shark nado

[01:14:57] especially lavalanchala uh they should be entertaining well you mentioned earlier um about

[01:15:04] steve gootenberg cameoing in um shark nado fourth awakens because iron sewing had a blink

[01:15:13] in your miss it moment in the first lavalanchala but what's great about that scene with goutenberg

[01:15:18] is he pulls up he shows up with the mother of all villainous automobiles pristine he shows

[01:15:28] up with pristine there's you know was it 1957 red plimoth fury it drove him by itself playing

[01:15:38] 50s music and colton west which i think is the coolest name for an actor colton west

[01:15:45] reminded him and he says she has a mind of her own and she's bad to the bone i'm thinking

[01:15:54] oh thunder thank you so much for that that was lovely that was just absolutely icing on the cake

[01:16:03] and it's but it's entertaining and if you're in on the joke it's great

[01:16:07] and that's what movies should be by and large you know and true so they're so they're a

[01:16:12] little cheap but they're entertaining and that's what the asylum guys do that's what these

[01:16:18] films shark nado and lavalanchala are they're fun i'll tell you this my wife um

[01:16:25] i wanted to show her the first shark nado and she was very hesitant but i didn't want to make

[01:16:30] her do anything she didn't want to do nobody wants to do that one day i said look just

[01:16:34] give it a try if you don't like it ask which it was on netflix at the time so we watched

[01:16:39] it she watched it and this was the biggest compliment she could pay the film she went

[01:16:45] yeah well i like that better than i thought i would

[01:16:52] and we like so yeah so don't get me wrong she hasn't watched any of the other since and i have

[01:16:57] not forced it on her but you know for her to say yeah i got something from that i i got the

[01:17:03] joke yeah uh i think that's again kudos to um the team behind that for antoni ferranti

[01:17:12] thunder leaven your team at asylum sci-fi the cast you know they put together a a fun film that

[01:17:21] can melt even the hardest of hearts not that my wife has a hard heart she's

[01:17:24] she's lovely and she loves her she loves her films almost as much as i do so um but you

[01:17:30] know things like that aren't her taste so for her to sit and watch and get something from it

[01:17:34] i think that's that's pretty good going

[01:17:42] and it's not easy to get people on the right track sometimes i think just because

[01:17:49] it's just easier to bitch really it is yeah but the thing is uh films are like anything so

[01:17:56] it's subjective taste at the end of the day um there can be some pretension there can be

[01:18:03] some absolutely you know there can be some i don't like to use the word toxic fandom because that

[01:18:09] that can also be used to apply people who are just passionate but um i think yeah some films

[01:18:17] are crap in my eyes some films are great in my eyes but what i think is is a is a bucket of

[01:18:23] crap uh you might think is absolute quality and that's fun that's i mean it would the world

[01:18:29] would be a boring place if we all like the same thing but there are there are bloggers there are

[01:18:36] commenters there are filmmakers who say oh no no no you you can't like those films because

[01:18:44] it's like for example dc versus marvel or you know if if one of that fan or you're not

[01:18:53] i don't have time for that rubbish you know you have your own taste that's fine

[01:18:59] there's something out there for everybody you just got to find your i hope there is man

[01:19:03] doesn't seem like it half the time we're just let's just kick the shit out of each other

[01:19:08] we're being different yeah there is there is that element i was watching the last jedi uh

[01:19:15] the other night actually and it reminded me of there was i couldn't believe what i was

[01:19:21] seeing as someone who grew up watching star wars from the very beginning i was there man

[01:19:25] i was there back in the day um for the first time people were outraged by this film okay

[01:19:33] it's not you didn't like it that's fair enough but they were petitioning jj abrams and uh

[01:19:40] kathleen marshall and disney saying please remake this film and make it like this

[01:19:45] it was so ridiculous if i hate any movie i'm not pressing the remake button why do it

[01:19:53] but we don't need another batman versus superman fiasco where we force this many changes it's just

[01:20:00] like yes take it or leave it no one is forcing you yeah like this just move on i love and

[01:20:08] that's the thing i long for sometimes i long for the good old days where you watched a film

[01:20:13] you argued with somebody about it for a little bit about why you thought it was crap or why

[01:20:17] you thought it was like the greatest thing since citizen came you talked about it you

[01:20:22] got out your system and then you moved on because you were waiting then for the next big thing

[01:20:29] and i think now there is an element of uh snobbery we talked about earlier there are

[01:20:35] still people who will there's a guy i as a reviewer that i really really admire he's fab

[01:20:41] i won't say his name because i might meet him one day i want to talk to him but he

[01:20:47] he he writes for empire magazine regularly and whenever an asylum movie comes up he shreds them

[01:20:53] and i'm thinking really do you have to be that mean do you really have to i mean it's not your

[01:20:59] thing that's fine explain why break it down a little bit but instead of you know and it's

[01:21:05] like with mark promote saying that about blackbird okay it's not your thing that's fine

[01:21:10] write an analysis do a really good in-depth podcast into why you think this film doesn't

[01:21:16] work suggest where flatly could have done better and move on but no everything seems to be

[01:21:24] if it's shit let's attack it let's destroy it let's make sure they never make another one

[01:21:28] again and somebody come along and remake it someone's got to take the fall yeah i think

[01:21:34] you've had that discussion uh on a couple of your episodes about the nature of toxic fandom

[01:21:40] and how it's a label that's misapplied but it's there is that element that's just completely

[01:21:48] decimate anything that doesn't fit their um blinkered narrative and like you said that

[01:21:57] sort of pretension that if you don't see what i think you mentioned about mad max as well

[01:22:01] you were talking about mad max fury road in one episode yeah and we we acknowledged we had

[01:22:08] hot tags about different franchises and everything and that's all you can do this is like hey this

[01:22:13] did a lot of things for other people was i or this crowd personally impressed or hey we liked it

[01:22:21] we didn't love it or we liked it but not as much as everybody else so you know you got to

[01:22:26] pretty much just plant your flag and justify it but like you say sometimes fandom seems to

[01:22:32] think no i gotta be the loudest voice in the room it's like that's that's that's a turn off

[01:22:39] oh i'll tell you what it reminded me of uh i i went to a comic con years ago this is even this was in

[01:22:46] 98 it was a babalon 5 convention oh wow yeah uh you know back when jerry doyle was still alive

[01:22:54] and at this particular gathering was chatting with a few people i've made some new friends

[01:22:59] and we were chatting away and the conversation went to star trek and so of course they were

[01:23:04] talking about the movies and they were all collectively agreeing that star trek the motion

[01:23:08] picture was the worst of the original star trek movies and i naively said well actually i quite

[01:23:16] like it in fact i think it's one of the best that's my personal opinion please don't jump

[01:23:20] down my throat because and the reason i say that is because that's exactly what these people

[01:23:26] i got hammered for daring to say this is one of the better movies and i thought okay i'm

[01:23:34] stepping out how dare we be different but there's there is this snobbery there is this sort of

[01:23:40] um uh feeling towards asylum movies it's kind of one of the reasons i'm writing the book

[01:23:46] uh i think people when they see b movies indie movies they think oh they're just churning out

[01:23:53] crap i think canon films is to break from that because they did actually churn out a lot of shit

[01:23:58] but they turned out some gems but they churned out a lot of shit and i think people think these

[01:24:04] studios just sit here sign off on a project it gets filmed it gets sent you know but no

[01:24:10] actually the the asylum as i've said before they're passionate about what they do they're

[01:24:15] you know the um they're they grew upon the classics what we call classics now star wars jewels

[01:24:27] and they want to make entertaining films they care about their product and their and the

[01:24:32] story of how they got there is a fascinating one so i think in the book i wouldn't really

[01:24:37] want to tell that story i want to tell their stories say like there's a reason why

[01:24:41] these guys have never lost money on a film it's because of the relationships they build

[01:24:45] it's because of the way they market their product it's how they capitalize on trends

[01:24:50] when something picks up and goes global they go after it they follow it and they take it

[01:24:55] as far as they can so um you know i'm i'm hoping i'll i don't know if i'll change some

[01:25:02] minds if i do great it'd be nice for people to read the book and think hmm those guys are

[01:25:08] actually quite clever aren't they and in a way they are i mean who else would come up with the

[01:25:14] term mockbuster copywriting and who else will actually dare to um make a top gun um again

[01:25:31] they call it drifting it's not uh it's not mockbusters and it's nothing new like i said

[01:25:38] corman did it with star wars and then there was a phone called star crash which was a derivative

[01:25:43] of star world wielding a very strange lightsaber but you know they make all these um these

[01:25:52] really good uh mockbusters that when you actually watch them there's some they're

[01:25:57] actually quite different and there's a nice fun element to it there's a nice serious element to it

[01:26:03] uh i mean titanic 2 is quite an interesting film i spoke to jane van dyke about that

[01:26:12] because he wrote directed and starred i had to be fun yeah um i mean okay i think i described

[01:26:19] when somebody asked me when i said oh i watched titanic 2 they said oh who made that

[01:26:24] oh a studio called the asylum and said what's it like i said well they said oh is it a sequel

[01:26:29] to james cameron's titanic i said no i didn't know it's not a sequel i said but if you want

[01:26:34] to compare it to james cameron's uh epic uh of cinema i'll say this it's twice as entertaining

[01:26:43] and half as long wow and they went i said there you go and it was like much shorter film

[01:26:51] but it was so much more entertaining now but with titanic 2 there was a little bit of an

[01:26:57] environmental message in there because global warming was melting the ice caps causing tsunamis

[01:27:02] which had the impact that which then set off the as dc douglas says in that film history is

[01:27:08] about to repeat itself it sets all that calamitous thing off but it was nice to have

[01:27:13] that little message in there importance of the environment without being too pretty they've

[01:27:20] said it they've done it now let's get on with the movie and there's a lot of that in there too

[01:27:26] so uh they do they really do make good stuff and the shark nado films i think is gonna

[01:27:33] that's gonna be their legacy in fact paul baez has said on his tombstone uh you know here

[01:27:38] lies the guy who produced shark nado or something along those lines but i think

[01:27:45] worst things to have on your repertoire i suppose i mean whatever you know

[01:27:52] whatever lands you in the place where you want to go i i feel like a lot of people also just

[01:27:58] feel like they have to be inclined to agree i must agree it's like man you don't have

[01:28:02] to agree at all but they're here no as i said before it would be a very boring place if we

[01:28:09] all like the same things there would be no creativity there would be no innovation

[01:28:15] there would be no people out there taking risks looking to break ground and do new things

[01:28:22] and i don't think we would be as adventurous to try new things

[01:28:27] you know if you it's like if you only ever watch um thrillers or if you only ever watch

[01:28:31] romance films that's fine but why not break out of that and say watch shark nado there's

[01:28:38] romance in shark in the shark nado films you know what more what more could you want from

[01:28:45] uh iron's airing and taro reed as a um an estranged couple who rekindle their love and

[01:28:53] face you know and and rebuild from a divorce and a shark nado attack i mean

[01:29:00] surely there's some you know i think yeah differences is what differences of opinion

[01:29:06] differences of taste is what really uh makes being a movie fan so joyful and so interesting

[01:29:15] so and asylum movies are can be quite polarizing but when you get somebody who

[01:29:22] shares that passion for them and because they've made 300 plus movies there's plenty to argue

[01:29:28] about well which is your favorite um shark nado film which is your favorite asylum movie

[01:29:33] which mockbuster did you like have you seen their christmas movies somebody once said asylum

[01:29:39] made christmas movies oh yeah and actually whenever you if you had a cheap b movie company

[01:29:46] absolutely and also when disney started doing their live action remakes of classics

[01:29:54] you know asylum thought why don't we do our own version so aladdin comes out and next thing

[01:30:01] you know adventures of aladdin comes out uh which in a way is probably far more interesting

[01:30:08] because you know you're not going to get a remake of something that was far better you're

[01:30:13] going to get the asylum's own interpretation on a classic story the fact that it comes out

[01:30:19] the same time as aladdin is neither here nor there but you know it's going to be interesting

[01:30:25] I would hope I mean just because we're getting cynical about every other thing being digital

[01:30:34] doesn't mean you can't enjoy it I mean no I see so many people who will not watch a movie just

[01:30:40] because the poster is cheap and like well you haven't actually seen the movie marketing

[01:30:44] fucks up all the time I don't watch trailers anymore because I know it's not the movie

[01:30:49] true enough so why get all angry just watch it or don't just watch it absolutely don't

[01:30:59] absolutely and I think you mentioned trailers and you hit the nail on the head I mean

[01:31:04] I love a good trailer um I like sort of being teased and tantalized about upcoming films

[01:31:10] but I'm so long in the tooth now when it comes to films I can usually judge by the

[01:31:16] trailer whether a film is going to be good or not or in my opinion well I that's why I don't do it

[01:31:21] because usually it's all deleted scenes or it's not done yet or it's not the movie like the

[01:31:27] movie is a thriller but they made it look like an action movie because they took an explosion

[01:31:32] yeah it's like I don't I'll read I'll read reviews um but not until either a

[01:31:41] if I'm writing a review enough people have talked about it but yeah but it's like

[01:31:46] but if I'm writing a review and other people have already reviewed the film I'm about to review

[01:31:51] I go dark until I've written the review the same as if I'm about to see a film I thought let

[01:31:57] me go and see the film then I'll make it my own mind and I think the reason I've started

[01:32:01] doing that is because in the past so many times I've read reviews and it's not a taste thing

[01:32:08] it's actually an accuracy thing somebody had written a review of Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow

[01:32:14] with the infamous Johnny Depp oh lord and they they did the film down in a big way

[01:32:21] and that's fair enough that they didn't like the film but they said something about

[01:32:25] the big reveal not being supernatural after all I mean everybody knows even I know uh you know

[01:32:33] Washington Irvine's Plastic Tail we know it's a spooky story we know it's a scary story

[01:32:39] um but they said oh this one didn't have the supernatural element and then I watched the film

[01:32:45] I thought what the hell film were they watching when they reviewed that you know Christopher

[01:32:51] Walken as a headless horseman chopping off people's heads which is which is how is this

[01:32:59] not supernatural what bloody film were you watching for god's sake I'm not reading your

[01:33:03] shit because you don't know what you're talking about and so now I try and you know I might delve

[01:33:11] in a couple of things but professionally I won't read other people's reviews because I

[01:33:14] don't want it to sour my own thoughts and opinions but if there's something I really want

[01:33:18] to see and I don't want again my mind sort of set before I go in I'll I'll go dark and

[01:33:25] just leave the reviews alone sorry I'm rabbiting on no it's fine I've I think a

[01:33:32] lot of people I mean I like how you're not holding back because I see somebody else who will

[01:33:37] they're like ah I can't do well I'm 53 years old and I think uh um when you get to that age

[01:33:46] you hold back less but I don't think I'm saying anything controversial I like to think

[01:33:52] whatever I'm saying is with all due respect uh because I think even I think all film anybody

[01:34:00] who makes a film I'm always in awe of them whether they're making cheap shit films or

[01:34:06] great big blockbusters I love how you just went straight into it yeah yeah but it doesn't matter

[01:34:14] you know I'm in awe of people who have a vision of something and they bring it to life

[01:34:18] I interview filmmakers some of my friends I see uh festivals and we catch up they're filmmakers

[01:34:25] I'm in awe of people with a vision who can create things and tell stories in a way

[01:34:29] I never could do I mean god if filmmaking was so easy I would do it but no I tell different stories

[01:34:38] I know what you mean it's but yeah for somebody to I think to be able to sit down

[01:34:44] and turn out a script in 10 days uh I think that's that's awesome that is an incredible

[01:34:49] gift to be able to rally a cast of actors and a production crew and guide them and direct them

[01:34:58] to bring this thing to fruition the hustle that goes to producing um you know I think it's an

[01:35:04] improvement I think it's a great thing to do it doesn't matter what level you do it it really

[01:35:09] doesn't creating something people that's the other thing I'll see too I will see people

[01:35:14] just be like it has no value to me it doesn't mean it doesn't have value to anyone else

[01:35:19] if I'm gonna hate on something there literally better be nothing happening to where it's like

[01:35:25] why do you even make it but sometimes some people like nothing much happening and pretty

[01:35:31] pictures so I don't know it's true enough and that's fine if that's what you want but

[01:35:37] let other people consume the media they want to consume and enjoy it and discuss oh man

[01:35:42] keep exactly exactly it's it's freedom of choice it's everything is subjective as I said before

[01:35:51] we all like the same shit uh we would just be stagnant as a society I've had other guests on

[01:35:57] here before who have gone the way of saying we all want the same thing yeah I'm I like

[01:36:06] variety um I like variety I will go and watch fast and furious and then I'll just keep an eye on

[01:36:14] you know the latest if we all wanted the exact same kind of movie things would definitely get

[01:36:19] boring absolutely but I'll go watch fast and furious especially if Jason Momoa is in it

[01:36:24] again because like uh fast x was great fun but then I'll look at um Asylum's updates to see

[01:36:29] if they're also releasing a latest fast and fierce movie because that they've done a couple

[01:36:35] of fast and fierce movies which are mockbusters of the fast and furious so or I'll go and watch um

[01:36:43] one MDMX and it is like extremely to kill or something yeah badly no more because he's

[01:36:48] he's shuffled off his mortal coil blessing but it's like years ago when Dune came out

[01:36:53] I actually I took my eye off the ball Dune part one came out as someone who's read Frank

[01:36:59] Herbert Dune Sharks yeah yeah I was really looking forward to this and then I saw with

[01:37:04] even more delight that uh the Asylum put out Planet Dune starring Sean Young

[01:37:13] beautiful best of both worlds I get a revamped reimagined uh

[01:37:22] blockbuster film you know big budget film of one of my favorite sci-fi novels and I get

[01:37:29] the Asylum's take on it I mean it's gonna happen what else are you looking for yeah I know it's

[01:37:39] yeah absolutely so uh you know variety is the key and having like I said having different tastes

[01:37:47] is great I mean if drive-in theaters were still as popular as they were in the 60s to 80s

[01:37:55] I don't think we'd be having this conversation I think even direct to video would even be in a bit

[01:37:59] of a shuffle a bit of a pickle because I think everyone's just so accustomed to just having

[01:38:05] all those meat and potatoes thrown in front of his like yeah be patient

[01:38:13] I'm familiar with drive-in movies but we don't really we never really had them in the UK

[01:38:16] because I didn't really do start doing it I knew about them but I didn't really do it until

[01:38:21] like Covid hit that's even where I saw Sonic actually I think um we don't do drive-in movies

[01:38:30] but I think there are sometimes movie events like I went to a screening of I'd hope man

[01:38:35] in a cemetery you know uh but and there's some outdoor screenings like lost boys in a zoo garden

[01:38:46] you know why not but uh because I think drive-in movies weren't popular here because

[01:38:52] of the weather because of the weather yeah well we have rain nine I'm just person this

[01:38:59] time of the year I believe it dude weather's gonna start getting even more kooky yeah yep

[01:39:08] uh sharknado certainly uh told me that the weather's just gonna keep getting worse each time

[01:39:14] it's more atmospheric than we believe yeah it's like in sharknado too they're saying oh I know

[01:39:22] what to do about this we'll just make these bombs we'll throw them into the sharknado

[01:39:26] that'll be fine okay that's not working these are bigger and badder than before

[01:39:36] sharknado three shit what we did before isn't working I know let's get him into space

[01:39:42] let's fire a giant space yeah but it's the same it's you know if you want to be pretentious you

[01:39:49] want to read into these movies and analyze them you could say well this is a statement of

[01:39:55] environmental you know of the state of the environment that god if you think torrential

[01:40:01] rain during summer months was bad wait until you get heavy snow in the spring you know

[01:40:07] you've got that to come and you've got arctic weather in autumn or

[01:40:12] you know whatever if you like said if you really want to read into it that much

[01:40:21] or you know one of these days the volcano in hawaii is going to erupt and outcome

[01:40:27] lavalanchalus uh funny enough the thing about lavalanchula actually is I find them a bit

[01:40:33] more creepy especially when I read that apparently you'll have to look this up and

[01:40:37] I'll have to look it up but um there's a facebook page called IFL science which stands

[01:40:43] for and I don't know if I can say this I fucking love science and apparently inside

[01:40:51] volcanoes you there do live or used to live giant snails what uh yeah not inside the the

[01:40:59] lava but quite near the volcano you know quite near the volcanoes and the shell is is as solid

[01:41:06] as metal uh but it but it keeps it's well insulated so it keeps them from burning up

[01:41:11] inside so the fact that there are giant snails that can live near volcanoes means

[01:41:16] that the concept of the lavalanchula is probably a little bit too close to reality you know

[01:41:23] I mean if these if these snails were spitting lava then my god we'd really be in trouble

[01:41:29] although we could run away from them because um they're slow buggers but I mean

[01:41:38] so either that or turtles yeah we already got gamma so well turtles I think are already covered

[01:41:45] with the right those pesky teenage mutant ones oh well there you go well this camera was the

[01:41:51] godzilla equivalent so I mean all right ninja turtles yeah they're they're already the

[01:41:57] superhero equivalent so yeah they're okay they're overrated

[01:42:03] we need some the godzilla movies at the moment you should check out uh asylum's uh

[01:42:07] ape series of movies so when kong versus god a time yeah they did eight versus monster and I

[01:42:16] think now they're doing eight versus mecha yeah those were one of the ones I saw that had

[01:42:21] erin roberts yeah I think it's the second one that has erik roberts he's doing well in the

[01:42:28] whole b-movie uh field at the moment isn't it because he was in a series some of roger

[01:42:34] corman's films like shark's bus uh he's he's getting quite a few asylum pictures he was the

[01:42:39] villain in black bed the film I mentioned earlier so um I mean he's always been a bit of a

[01:42:46] b-movie star in a way because he did best of the best uh you know the karate film with uh Simon

[01:42:53] the re brothers and he did a few other things he's not always been a big screen actor he's

[01:43:00] done some oh so you mean this other one because there was a sam neill one from like

[01:43:04] 2019 you're talking about this one from 2022 yeah yeah so I did see with Michael he he was

[01:43:11] yeah Michael flatly of Michael flatly yes so I didn't see news of this rift tracks was

[01:43:17] thinking of riffing it before it even come out I'm like she's let it come out first

[01:43:21] let the dust settle then exactly then riff on it but no he's he's um he's done quite well

[01:43:30] erik roberts uh yeah train suits dark knight yeah yeah he's doing good but you know something

[01:43:38] even though he's going to be remembered as a b-movie actor the other thing he's going

[01:43:42] to be remembered for is runaway train yeah so yeah and as much um andre kozlowski's

[01:43:50] film that canon funded and I thought was interesting in the canon documentary electric

[01:43:56] muggle they said it hadn't been a canon film runaway train will be held up as a

[01:44:01] classic in wartime and I totally agree with that um so he's got that to say look look

[01:44:07] yes I did a lot of these uh movies and yes I know why I did them but you know I've got

[01:44:14] these in my arsenal as well a nice mix of good quality cinema so good yeah and tom

[01:44:24] sizemore uh you mentioned tom sizemore yeah he's in his I think his last film that he did

[01:44:30] before he passed away was either the fight for pandora which was the um avatar

[01:44:37] muggle buster yes or bullet train down which was the bullet train um yeah which I also enjoyed

[01:44:47] as much as bullet train itself because they're two very different movies but he you know he

[01:44:53] seemed to enjoy a bit of a career in in the b-movie and michael madson as well

[01:44:58] wow uh appeared in a couple of he's got a great line in a film I saw the first megalodon one

[01:45:06] is that the one where he's um at the end the megalodon breaks into the ship and he's sitting

[01:45:11] there and he's smoking he's just smoking you're like she's this movie is all over the place

[01:45:15] and there's a time I know it's great but there's another film I think is called shark attack

[01:45:22] and he his daughter is trapped it's a plot taken from two-headed shark attack where they're on an

[01:45:27] unstable island that starts sinking and there's this shark circling them you know like it's a

[01:45:32] buffet waiting for one of them waiting for her to fall in and that'll be like his midnight

[01:45:38] snack and she's on the phone to her dad who's michael madson and he utters this great line

[01:45:44] which is I think is a masterpiece of screenwriting he usses this line he says okay

[01:45:50] sweetheart you've been through hell now you're gonna have to go through high water

[01:45:55] I thought oh thank you thank you that film would not have worked if it didn't have

[01:46:01] would not have drawn me to it because I would have thought okay it's an asylum movie

[01:46:06] but it's another trapped on an island shark movie but when he uttered that line I thought

[01:46:11] yeah I've got to see that because that's just great and you won't get a lot of lines or moments

[01:46:17] like that I think from bigger budget you won't get a lot I don't think you'll never get it

[01:46:24] at all you're less likely to see it because they're all about they're all very serious

[01:46:30] everything's got to be spot on and they don't always get it right but you know they went

[01:46:35] with that line and it worked worked in the context of the film so I thought yeah I've got

[01:46:39] to see that and it didn't disappoint and Michael Madsen I mean he's great he you know he can phone

[01:46:45] a party amazing and steal the show so you know you can't go wrong with him especially when

[01:46:53] he played Rudy in the remake of the guest away back in 1994 there you go yeah yeah you know

[01:47:00] he just steps on the screen you're like yeah this is going to be a good ride I'm going to

[01:47:04] enjoy this it's good that asylum can get these actors and actresses in who

[01:47:10] um don't need very little direction they're experienced they're charismatic uh they're

[01:47:16] seasoned they bring all that to these pictures and they just say just point me in the right

[01:47:20] direction and I'll do the rest and as um who was I watching as John heard the late John heard

[01:47:28] his classic case in point uh sharkmado was his was his one saw his one I think was his

[01:47:35] penultimate movie every scene he was in he absolutely nailed it very you know John has

[01:47:43] always been home alone soprano is in areas there's a very relaxed actor you know I mean

[01:47:49] by a relaxed actor you know they just walk in and they just deliver the line and the emotion

[01:47:54] with such ease they just make it look like child's play and he brings all that to sharp

[01:47:59] made the first sharp made in film in much the same way that duttonberg in the first

[01:48:04] lava lancia just walked into that part and again it wasn't wasn't Shakespeare he's not

[01:48:12] going to get the academy award for it um but he pulled he pulled off every line should there

[01:48:19] be an academy awards for b-movies I think there should be a movie movies there'll be a u-ball award

[01:48:26] for the worst of the b-movies and then there can be a roger corman award for the best ones

[01:48:31] yeah I think there should be one for the you know best boot best b-movie actor best

[01:48:35] b-movie actress we do sarcastic award shows annually on here but yeah there could be one

[01:48:41] telecast that make it you know because oscar oscar's are fine BAFTA's are fine but

[01:48:47] again they're coming at films from a certain perspective and I think if you want to recognise

[01:48:52] films but don't fall into that category for the effort if nothing else indeed to recognise

[01:48:59] something that does stand out from the rest that's fine um but mind you there are so

[01:49:04] many film festivals and some of these films do get shown there so they do pick up accolades

[01:49:09] um I have friends of mine who they're currently you know a lot of their film careers

[01:49:13] they make short films and they tour the festival circuit and they pick up all these

[01:49:18] gongs and off the back of that they then get more work um so you know I think well

[01:49:25] the reason why these you know some of these asylum films shouldn't occasionally get some

[01:49:29] recognition wouldn't be the end of the world if they don't because they'll always have

[01:49:34] their fan base but I don't think there's I don't think the idea of awarding them something

[01:49:41] is too ridiculous maybe a little bit ridiculous but not too ridiculous because I've said before

[01:49:50] you know people make these films they they're passionate about them they want to do a good job

[01:49:56] and if the effort pays off that sure they'll be rewarded with high viewing figures on a

[01:50:02] streaming platform high dvds or blu-ray sales uh maybe even open the door to a 4k restoration

[01:50:09] somewhere down the line but uh you know it'd be nice for them to say um the award for

[01:50:16] uh most brutal shark kill should go to iron's airing in shark nade 3 where he flies in space

[01:50:26] into the mouth of a shark and then somebody had to do it versus the whole pops open a parachute

[01:50:33] as the shark falls into the atmosphere burns up you know yeah give him an award for that why not

[01:50:41] why don't why not what's stopping you what why not oh well stopping me I have other things I

[01:50:50] need to do but hey if somebody creates an if somebody creates an award for that I'll watch

[01:50:57] you know I'll watch it somebody makes if mike mendez comes back does lava lancha the three

[01:51:04] I'll be skeptical but I'll watch it I won't give it a fair crack someone's got to do it

[01:51:10] absolutely absolutely and it's like the asylum name um I'm I'm rarely I won't fall out of love

[01:51:20] um for of asylum movies there will always be good ones there will be bad ones they are I'll say

[01:51:27] this and I don't mean this in a bad way but they are now sticking to what is popular and

[01:51:33] that is the mock busters they will do they will do some left field movies we'll do them

[01:51:38] until we don't want to see them anymore and they'll still do it and then make fun of how

[01:51:42] we don't want to see them exactly but you know they seem to be now a friend of mine

[01:51:48] said it's lazy filmmaking I said no they're they are one of those film companies who learned the

[01:51:53] mistakes from canon films they've got a business model that works they will milk it until there

[01:52:00] is a decline absolutely they don't overstretch their budget they don't try and somebody wants

[01:52:06] I got asked why don't these guys you know they work on the name the most you're going

[01:52:11] to see it on the name alone even if the movie is bad but I got exactly and I got asked why

[01:52:18] do these guys make a big budget film for this why don't they get cinema releases

[01:52:23] and I said because they have a model that works if you stray too far from that model

[01:52:28] you run the risk of total humiliation and your business could go down the tubes if it doesn't

[01:52:34] work because you know you've got to raise you've got to raise the money to make that film and then

[01:52:41] off the back of that film raise more money to make the next one because chances are that went

[01:52:45] over budget you read about some of the big Hollywood productions some that have gone

[01:52:50] way over budget and of course so many box office and they lose money David Lark, Paul

[01:52:58] Bales, David Romali they've got a model that works for them they've got a fan base that is

[01:53:03] eagerly eager and waiting for the next oh eager is gonna be so many of them will show up even

[01:53:08] dressed as tornado sharks of course or ice sharks is uh you know they seem to be doing a lot of

[01:53:19] mockbusters and they're doing a lot of shark movies um but that's because there is a taste

[01:53:25] for it I think there's a real taste for shark movies as evidenced by the fact that

[01:53:32] uh you've got a documentary in which the guys from asylum feature the shark exploitation

[01:53:36] documentary that's on shadow um but uh oh wow somebody I somebody I know called Rob Hill who

[01:53:43] wrote the bad movie Bible actually yes a feat you know that book yeah he did a joust exploitation

[01:53:52] feature on his youtube channel so people are intrigued by shark movies and want to see more

[01:53:58] of that it brings out the wacky side of life yeah exactly I don't know why people want to see

[01:54:04] sharks uh eat people in the water and then will happily jump in the ocean themselves

[01:54:12] but the asylum guys have tapped into something that works they have a fan base they know

[01:54:18] that sci-fi or whomever will come to them and say you know we'd like you to do so like with

[01:54:25] z nation for example um z nation ran for five years was a big hit on sci-fi and then netflix

[01:54:32] picked up I think the last couple of series um I'll have to get clarification from that when I

[01:54:38] get the guys to sit down and chat with me again but netflix I think picked uh picked up

[01:54:44] an option and then turned and then they all turned around and said why don't you do a

[01:54:48] follow-up you mentioned black summer throughout the series you know the time when it all

[01:54:54] started with the zone the spinoff of uh yeah zombie nation z nation yeah yeah but just like

[01:55:01] um just like the walking there was the walking dead and fear the walking dead

[01:55:05] you've got z nation and you know yes you do but z nation is another one that's full of those

[01:55:14] cinephile pop culture references in fact I posted something on the asylum page uh under the

[01:55:21] section under the hashtag friday fun uh which ball of which rolling ball is more dangerous

[01:55:27] the uh the ball of critter pelt from creatures to the next course

[01:55:33] or the rolling zombies from z nation which one is more dangerous

[01:55:40] you know but somebody obviously saw that and thought yeah we need to put that

[01:55:45] put that in here because that's going to be fun and it worked so

[01:55:52] yeah um I'm still just so you know I'm still writing the book uh I've done two chapters uh

[01:55:58] I haven't spoken to a publisher yet I'm trying to finish the blubbin thing first

[01:56:02] and I've got some more research to do but I'll tell you what once it's once it's finished

[01:56:06] and a publisher is online I will let you know sweet and if you want to talk more about

[01:56:12] that and maybe I'll read you some exits happy to do that for me this has been

[01:56:17] absolutely pure dedication glad we got to finally do it and I better let's get some shit out but

[01:56:23] man uh talk about just there's no limit to nutty even when there is like people will milk it and

[01:56:34] cut it down but how cool that you get to make sense of the fun nonsense yeah

[01:56:42] yeah there's not much really to make make sense of I mean it's there but ultimately kind of like

[01:56:49] here's the line the points don't matter exactly exactly at the end of the day these films like

[01:56:55] sharp nado films lava landshut films they put a smile on our faces for a whole host of reasons

[01:57:02] whether it's the preposterous nature of what they're presenting which is tornado sharks

[01:57:08] or giant lava spitting spiders you might find that entertaining or like I said before I've said

[01:57:14] time and again for us is spotting those little references you know let's call Reese the shit out

[01:57:20] of this and uh hey I'm walking here you know seen in sharp nado and all those little references

[01:57:27] um you know we can spot the joke oh that's brilliant I love that when's the next one coming

[01:57:32] up

[01:57:35] you know are they nutty yeah but you know what these films put smiles on our faces and what's

[01:57:41] wrong with that yeah nothing that's the answer nothing drunk oh man always a delight sir

[01:57:52] oh it's a pleasure talking to you camp I really like your show I'm following with great aplomb

[01:57:57] it's great show very kind very good good work I try to be as again diverse as we can be just

[01:58:06] have a little bit of everything for everyone and don't want it to be to where we're just like hey

[01:58:11] you know only talk about this only talk about that it's like no let's actually kind of bring

[01:58:17] everyone out of their comfort zone and do something fun that's always good and actually

[01:58:23] it's always good to be out of one's comfort zone it is you you find out even more why you do or

[01:58:30] don't like something actually in many ways do you know it's funny um because with I think

[01:58:38] when I explain shark nado to people I'll keep this short they all say well what's the appeal

[01:58:45] of it and I explain it to you and I swear similar to you this is what we've been doing

[01:58:50] two hours and yeah and they will shrug they'll give up or just be like some of them don't even

[01:58:56] want to mix it yeah but I say to them guys you've got a film in which Robert Hayes is flying

[01:59:02] a plane that's being attacked by shark nado by a sharp nado before that he's arguing with his

[01:59:08] co-pilot whether they're going to have the chicken or the fish

[01:59:13] never mind the shark nader it's robert hayes back in a plane so what are you going to have

[01:59:16] the chicken or the fish and you want to go

[01:59:24] ah the chicken or the egg never gets on that argument chicken or the fish that's right

[01:59:31] favorite slide by Leslie Nelson oh man miss Leslie there's another perfect example of a

[01:59:36] man who went from doing absurd movies to then doing movies that were deliberately in on the

[01:59:41] absurdity and yeah we need more of those agreed I agree with actors um so yeah I will link many of

[01:59:50] your stuff uh links on here you you you've plugged uh your upcoming project uh man yeah

[01:59:58] you're welcome back anytime just for as you say uh the book once the book tour resumes

[02:00:04] look forward to it but yeah I've really enjoyed this um always always always fun

[02:00:13] definitely a fan I'll keep posting on the show and yeah if you want to talk about anything else

[02:00:19] I'm happy to oblige perfect okay have a good rest of the day absolutely likewise get some sleep

[02:00:28] thanks bye bye and be sure to put up your curtains and

[02:00:33] drain the sink and make sure no sharks are sneaking in definitely do that I've got the

[02:00:38] not that they would but you never know with this absurd science in these movies yeah

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