For as long as I can remember I’ve been in love with film.  Growing up in the 80’s, getting to understand the process of how films were made wasn’t very accessible unless you were lucky to catch a behind-the-scenes special on HBO or Showtime for some big new release.  It wasn’t till laserdisc and eventually DVD where the fans would be able to look beyond the magical curtain of cinema and get to see the process of how a film was made.  I still get giddy with excitement watching some of my favorite directors getting to work their magic behind the scenes. One of my favorite behind-the-scenes features Full Tilt Boogie (the making of for From Dusk Till Dawn) I credit for getting me to take a stab at filmmaking, and after all, they make it look so easy.

Over the years companies have been trying to cash in on the process of documenting the process of making a film.  When Project Greenlight emerged as a competition show about a lucky screenwriter getting a chance to make his script into a feature film, I couldn’t help but watch with fascination and the slightest twinge of jealously.  After all, anyone who’s ever attempted to write a script or make a movie would do just about anything to have that opportunity.  It’s that foot in the door that so many dream about but so few ever get the chance even to see.  Personally I was a fan of Project Greenlight, but after a couple seasons, it seems it never could quite pull in the viewers the producers had hoped for.

"Three years ago brash billionaire daredevil Sly Baron vowed to make space tourism a reality. Today his lucky passengers are boldly going where none of them have been before. No, not Delaware...space."

It's a new frontier for the Scooby gang, but not the final one to be sure. Scooby Doo has spanned generations and over 40 years. Since the 1960’s the name and conventions have become a part of the pop culture. The original cartoon series had a series of conventions. The Scooby gang would drive around in their green Mystery Machine van and solve ghostly mysteries. Fans of the show quickly grew to learn that these spirits and goblins were usually just normal people using scare tactics to get revenge or make a profit. The cartoon classic spawned music albums, live action movies, and several new shows and animated features.

There was a new cowboy in Dallas, and he wasn’t throwing touchdown passes. But Walker was almost gone before he could really get started. After just four episodes, the show’s production company suffered financial collapse, and the show was rescued at the last minute by CBS Productions, who would continue to run the show for its nearly decade-long run. For nine years Norris brought us the ultimate Texas Ranger in a formula cops-and-robbers show. The show often became a parody of itself, but maintained a solid viewership throughout. Hell, Norris even sings the theme song. Truthfully, what started as a one man show (it was originally called Chuck Norris Is Walker, Texas Ranger) had become a good working ensemble that probably kept the train going for so long. Walker (Norris) is a tough-guy Texas Ranger. He is partnered with Sydney Cooke (Peebles) and Jimmy Trivetti (Gilyard) who’s an ex-jock with a brain. Walker had a love interest and eventual wife in the local assistant district attorney Alex Cahill (later Walker) Together they fight the evils that come to the high plains of Texas armed with their fists, six-shooters, and Stetsons.

Fans of Norris were never disappointed in what they got here. The requisite martial arts and tough-guy talk are present pretty much in every episode. There’s a popular T-shirt design that lauds their hero in epic fashion. One of my favorites is : “McGyver can build a plane out of gum and paper clips, but Chuck Norris can kill him and take the plane.”  Another brags: “Some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas”. And there’s the humorous: “Chuck Norris knows what Willis is talkin’ about”.

Imagine if in the not too distant future you could have the opportunity to be young again, and for the right price you could possibly never have to worry about ever growing old ever again.  RPG looks into this possibility and the chances people are willing to take for this chance to indulge their youth once again.  But like with anything that seems too good to be true, there is a catch, and in this game there are actually two catches.  First you need to have the millions of dollars in your bank account to even play the game, and the second catch is that you have to be the lone survivor of the game to receive the award of lasting youth. 

It didn’t take me much to get hooked. The idea alone had me engaged in the film, but what worried me most is how well this film would work with such a meager budget. After all, this is virtually a straight-to-DVD release.  Well, my hat’s off to the filmmakers not just for crafting a fun story but also doing a great job at executing the film successfully.

The days of Lon Chaney and Boris Karloff are long gone, but Hollywood refuses to give up on the classic monsters these men and others once brought to live on the big screen.  Despite how many years have passed since these monsters of the night first terrified audiences, filmgoers continue to fork over their cash to see these stories rehashed again and again. In the new release of Frankenstein vs The Mumny, we see the revival of two classic monsters and the opportunity to see them battle head to head.  Without the big budget to support this monster smackdown, is it still worth watching, or is this a battle that should have remained dead?

The film dives in on a modern take of the Mary Shelly story we are all more than familiar with. Now Professor Frankenstein (Max Rhyser) spends his days teaching at the local college, while his nights are spent in his lab trying to restore life to the dead.  Simultaneously at the same school an Egyptologist is studying the find of her career. After an excavation in Egypt, a newly discovered mummy is brought to the university.  This lovely Egyptologist is Naihla (Ashton Leigh), who seems to be also smitten with Professor Frankenstein.