The VHS Strikes Back

JAC's Patreon pick this week is the 1988/89 movie Earth Girls Are Easy. Written by Julie Brown, directed by Julien Temple, this stars Geena Davis, Jim Carrey, Damon Wayans, Jeff Goldblum, Julie Brown. This musical sci-fi adventure is sure to have Chris gushing.

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Plot Summary:

Three furry (and funny) aliens travel around the universe in a spaceship and receive a broadcast showing human females. They are fascinated by these shapely creatures and discover that the broadcast came from Southern California on Earth. Meanwhile, Valley girl Valerie Gail feels her cold fiancé Dr. Ted Gallagher is slipping away and decides to seduce him. Instead, she catches him cheating on her with a nurse, throws him out, smashes his things and refuses to see him again. The aliens' spaceship crash lands in Valerie's swimming pool - putting a decided damper on her future wedding plans in Las Vegas. She brings them into her home; and the aliens prove to be quick learners and absorb American popular culture and language through television.

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This week it's a classic from Director Martin Scorsese, Goodfellas from 1990. This biographical crime film is based on the book Wiseguy, written by Nicholas Pileggi and stars Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, and Paul Sorvino.

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Plot Summary:

Henry Hill might be a small time gangster, who may have taken part in a robbery with Jimmy Conway and Tommy De Vito, two other gangsters who might have set their sights a bit higher. His two partners could kill off everyone else involved in the robbery, and slowly start to think about climbing up through the hierarchy of the Mob. Henry, however, might be badly affected by his partners' success, but will he consider stooping low enough to bring about the downfall of Jimmy and Tommy?

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Chris has gone back to the well again, with the 1998 martial arts action movie, Deadly Ransom. Co-produced, co-written and starring the man himself Loren Avedon, this also has Brion James, and you won't believe the twist!

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Plot Summary:

A wealthy banker and his daughter are kidnapped by a gang of thugs. The girl's boyfriend, who serves in the special units of the US Navy, is in possession of particular psychic powers. It will be thanks to these powers he will discover the place where the two abducted were locked.

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Maff takes us a little further back in our time machine to 1963 this week! But despite hitting the cinemas then, it's later on when it really becomes a cult classic and a favorite for many on tv. It's Jason and the Argonauts, the mythological fantasy adventure film distributed by Columbia Pictures. Directed by Don Chaffey and starring Todd Armstrong, Nancy Kovack, Honor Blackman, and Gary Raymond.

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Plot Summary:

Jason has been prophesied to take the throne of Thessaly. When he saves Pelias from drowning, but does not recognize him as the man who had earlier killed his father, Pelias tells Jason to travel to Colchis to find the Golden Fleece. Jason follows his advice and assembles a sailing crew of the finest men in Greece, including Hercules. They are under the protection of Hera, queen of the gods. Their voyage is replete with battles against harpies, a giant bronze Talos, a hydra, and an animated skeleton army, all brought to life by the special effects wizardry of Ray Harryhausen.

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A British classic is next up courtesy of Patreon Matt Bates, and it's the 1987 comedy-drama, Rita, Sue and Bob Too. Based on the play by Andrea Dunbar, this is Directed by Alan Clarke and stars Michelle Holmes, Siobhan Finneran, George Costigan, and Lesley Sharp.

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Plot Summary:

Realistic story of working-class Yorkshire life, alternately serious and light-hearted, as two schoolgirls have a sexual fling with a married man.

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It's back to 1986 with this little-known indie action-fantasty movie, The Wraith! This one's Dave's pick, this one is produced by John Kemeny, written and directed by Mike Marvin, and starring Charlie Sheen, Sherilyn Fenn, Nick Cassavetes, and Randy Quaid.

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Plot Summary:

Packard Walsh and his motorized gang control and terrorize an Arizona desert town where they force drivers to drag-race so they can 'win' their vehicles. After Walsh stabs the decent teenager Jamie Hankins to death for being intimate with a girl whom Walsh wants for himself, the mysterious Jake Kesey arrives, an extremely cool motor-biker with an invincible car. Jake befriends Jamie's girlfriend Keri Johnson, takes Jamie's sweet brother Billy under his wing and manages what Sheriff Loomis can not - the methodical and otherworldly elimination of Packard's criminal gang.

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Chris has gone back to the well this week and it's the second of our Stallone double bill, with Rocky V! Much maligned but still has some stand out moments, so let's see how this one stands up!

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Plot Summary:

Rocky Balboa is forced to retire after having permanent damage inflicted on him in the ring by the Russian boxer Ivan Drago. Returning home after the Drago bout, Balboa discovers that the fortune that he had acquired as heavyweight champ has been stolen and lost on the stockmarket by his accountant. His boxing days over, Rocky begins to coach an up-and-coming fighter named Tommy Gunn. Rocky cannot compete, however, with the high salaraies and glittering prizes being offered to Gunn by other managers in town.

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Trent Sorrow has our Patreon pick this week and has gone with the iconic Cobra! Directed by George Cosmatos and written and starring Sylvester Stallone, this has one of the most recognizable video covers in the shop! 

If you enjoy the show we have a Patreon, become a supporter. www.patreon.com/thevhsstrikesback

Plot Summary:

As crime runs rampant in the United States, the hard-as-nails LAPD Lieutenant, Marion "Cobra" Cobretti, is the only cure for the crime-infested urban jungle of Los Angeles. In the meantime, a string of seemingly unconnected and unmotivated random assaults on civilians will soon drag the hardened officer into a violent war against the psychopaths of the secret organisation "The New World". With the criminal society's sole purpose to weed out the weak, Cobra will escort an important witness--the young model, Ingrid--out of town to protect her; however, the movement's delusional killers will stop at nothing to track her down. Now, the only one who stands in their way is the one-man army Lieutenant. Are they prepared for Cobra's nasty bite?

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Patreon Blake's back with a bang and another Aussie cult classic, Bad Boy Bubby. Written and directed by Rolf de Heer, this one stars Nicholas Hope, Claire Benito, Ralph Cotterill, and Carmel Johnson. Chris thought he'd seen his worst movie of 2022 but there's still time for Bad Boy Blakey in our last episode of the year.....

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Plot Summary:

Bad Boy Bubby is just that: a bad boy. So bad, in fact, that his mother has kept him locked in their house by convincing him the air outside's poisonous. After a visit from his estranged father, circumstances force Bubby into the waiting world, a place that is just as unusual to him as he is to the world.

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Another Christmas classic this week with Dave's pick, The Muppet Christmas Carol! Directed by Brian Henson with the screenplay by Jerry Juhl, this is based on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. It stars Michael Caine, Dave Goelz (The Great Gonzo), Steve Whitmire (Kermit and Rizzo), Jerry Nelson (Robin), and Frank Oz (Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Sam Eagle).

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Plot Summary:

Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie and the entire cast of the Muppet universe come together to re-tell Charles Dicken's immortal classic "A Christmas Carol" This was the first time the Muppets appeared on screen since Jim Henson's death in 1990. Michael Caine gives a magnificent performance as Ebenezer Scrooge in a world full of muppet comedy and almost scary performances from the "Ghosts of Christmas past, present, and yet to come".

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