Big Tits Zombie (2010/E1 DVD in 2D and analog 3D)/Elvira’s Movie Macabre: Mega Movie Marathon (E1 DVD Set)/Nipples & Palm Trees (2012/Cinema
Epoch DVD)
Picture: C+/C/C Sound: C+/C/C Extras: C-/C/C- Main Programs: C-/C+/C-
Here is
some exploitation meeting sexploitation, usually for comic reasons…
First we
have a release with one of the most obvious titles of the year: Takao Nakano’s Big Tits Zombie (2010) which is offered
on DVD in regular 2D with some scenes done sloppily in analog 3D, which means
the old blue/red glasses that usually don’t work that well. The Japanese production is shot on digital
video of some kind with some good color, a does of blood & nudity and every
tired grindhouse reference you can think of.
It works better in its native Japanese language, but this lame tale of
exotic dancers and the undead is dead on arrival and not even a sustainable
joke at a very short 73 minutes. I
expected at least some more amusements, but it is as bad as it sounds and even
genre fans will have problems with it. A
Making Of featurette is the only extra, give or take the two paper pairs of 3D
glasses also included.
Elvira’s Movie Macabre: Mega Movie
Marathon gives us
a chance to catch up on some of the double feature DVD sets we may have missed
before. Issued in times as a holiday
gift, it remarkably does not include these three fun double features including
Blue Sunshine and They Came From Beyond Space we covered at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5878/Elvira%E2%80%99s+Movie+Macabre
However,
it does include a few others we did. The
six DVDs offer the following, with the link to the previous covered included
where applicable:
1) Night
of the Living Dead & I Eat Your Skin
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11397/Elvira%27s+Movie+Macabre+Double
2) The
Satanic Rites of Dracula & The Werewolf of Washington
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11397/Elvira%27s+Movie+Macabre+Double
3) The Terror (Roger Corman’s infamous,
mixed pairing of Boris Karloff and a then-unknown Jack Nicholson) & Eegah! (with Richard Kiel as the
unintentionally hilarious prehistoric monster)
4) Scared To Death (an early color Bela
Lugosi mad science flick) & Tormented
(a wedding has potential terror involved)
5) The Brain That Wouldn’t Die & Manster (two “people get experimented
on howlers)
6) Lady Frankenstein & Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter
(considered two of the worst films to feature any of those characters… ever!!!)
The point
is that our host presents the films and sometimes interrupts them with
comments, making it a way to see bad films with an amusing twist and she can be
likable. You can see why she has some
fans. A nice set (no pun intended),
extras include a Music Video (including a making of it), Christopher Ameruso
photo shoot of Elvira and Behind-The-Scenes featurette included on each DVD.
Finally
we have Dylan Reynolds’ Nipples &
Palm Trees (2012) which is not a Horror entry, but can be as gaudy and
goofy as one in a would be comedy (or is it drama) of a man (Matthew James)
trying to find success in Hollywood while being sidetracked by sleeping around
too much and we get every sex and dead-end Hollywood cliché you can imagine,
albeit more graphic. After a while, I
gave up on this 90-minutes exercise producing anything more despite some
promise, but the set-up was initially promising, if briefly as it turns
out. Now you can see for yourself.
Extras include a Slide-show and trailer.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Big is on
the soft side with its limited analog 3D hardly working, while the same on Palm is much softer with aliasing
errors throughout, so good luck watching either. All of the Elvira discs offer various aspect ratios, but is 1.33 X 1 just the
same and most of the entries here are 1.33 X 1 films. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 sound on all is a
mix of stereo, location audio and monophonic sound that is not great in any
case, but Big has the least amount
of problems, so it is the sonic champ by default, especially in Japanese.
- Nicholas Sheffo