Friday, January 18, 2008

When bad is good


Cult Camp Classics 1 - Sci-Fi Thrillers (Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman 1958 / Giant Behemoth / Queen of Outer Space), Cult Camp Classics 2 - Women in Peril (The Big Cube / Caged / Trog), Cult Camp Classics 3 - Terrorized Travelers (Hot Rods to Hell / Skyjacked / Zero Hour!), Cult Camp Classics 4 - Historical Epics (The Colossus of Rhodes / Land of the Pharaohs / The Prodigal) (Warner Home Video): Warner Home Video has become the master of the boxed set. They've boxed up their gangster films, film noir, tough guy and legends, among others. Of course, they have a huge and rich catalog to choose from.
Those folks in the marketing department all too often aim these packages toward the serious film fan. It's refreshing to see something different.
That's the case with the four tongue-in-cheek Warner Bros. Cult Camp Classics sets released late last year. Releasing these sets with a serious face is kind of silly when you have titles like "Attack of the 50 Foot Women", "Land of the Pharoahs" and "Hot Rods to Hell."
Of course, they were supposed to be taken very seriously when first released. "Hot Rods to Hell was a diatribe against juvenile delinquents. "Queen of Outer Space" was a sci-fi film to parallel "Forbidden Planet".
Between the four sets, you have 12 high-camp films that are just great leisure viewing. Our favorite is Cult Camp Classics 1 - Sci-Fi Thrillers with the legendary "Attack of the 50-Foot Women" and the rarely seen (until now) "Queen of Outer Space".

But all of these have reasons to grab them. Cult Camp Classics 2 - Women in Peril has the wonderfully over-the-top prison film "Caged" and Joan Crawford's ignoble final film, "Trog." Cult Camp Classics 3 - Terrorized Travelers has the overwrought "Hot Rods to Hell" and the drama "Zero Hour", about a passenger asked to take over the controls of an airplane after the crew comes down with food poisoning. Sound familiar? It should. It was spoofed in the Zucker brothers comedy "Airplane!"
Cult Camp Classics 4 - Historical Epics is stocked with two lavish epics, "Land of the Pharoahs" and "The Colossus of Rhodes".
Most have special features in the forms of commentary or trailers, though we wish all of them did. And the quality of the transfers are excellent.
All of the films are available separately, though it's much cheaper to get them in the sets. We suggest you grab them all.





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