Gridman the Hyper Agent - 1993-1994

This was a TV series that ran in Japan in the early 90's. It's about a superhero and three foul-mouthed teenagers who fight against Kahn Digifer, who lives in the Computer World. He's aided by Takeshi, another teen and one of the most pathetic characters ever put on screen. Over the course of 39 episodes, these children fight against each other in some very strange scenes.

I don't even know where to start with this one. For the first couple episodes, Naoto does a trust fall when he goes into the computer. This quickly ended, and soon after, we didn't see him fly through the air to merge with Gridman. That came back in a couple episodes, but it just wasn't the same without the trust fall.

Takeshi is pathetic for a number of reasons. The main one is that he gets upset for the stupidest reasons. Not every time. Just most of the time. Let's take the most memorable. Takeshi has a crush on Yuka, the somewhat bossy girl in the group. He gets mad because she "didn't take his letter." But he didn't talk to her or even get the letter out of his pocket! 

I don't know if it was the person doing the captioning or if everyone in this show decided to curse all the time. It was just a bit jarring, especially when the smaller children did it.

We all loved this show, and we're sad it's over. They took most of the fight footage and turned it into a really terrible American version called Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad. The one episode we watched made zero sense, and we were upset about the reused footage. 

My favorite character was Ippei. He was misunderstood and given way too much crap. Some of the episodes were more unkind to him than others (I'm looking at you episode 16!), and I just liked the way he handled things.

I would definitely watch this show again. I don't know what it is about these old superhero shows, but I love them. Gridman has given us a lot of laughs, and I believe he deserves a place in our Cinematic Universe. Great Show!

P.S. Gridman shares a few things with Ultraman. We're currently watching the 1966 series.

From Hell It Came - 1957

After reading the summary for this movie, we immediately pressed play. I mean, who can pass up a chance to see a tree terrorize an island?

So, the plot of this movie is really strange. A prince is getting killed by being staked to the ground and listen to people accuse him of killing his father. He denies the accusation and curses them all. After stabbing a voodoo doll and sledgehammering a dagger into the prince's chest, they stand him up in a wooden box and bury him.

Elsewhere on the island, there are scientists and a woman who runs the trading post. She has a questionable accent and a nasty habit of getting herself into trouble. When the woman doctor arrives on the island, Bill tries to convince her to marry him and leave the island. She goes hiking in her heels, and they come across the prince's grave. The woman convinces Bill to dig it up, and they take it back to the lab. Somehow, Dr. Woman has determined that the stump-man has a human heartbeat, and she wants to use her formula on it to try and keep it alive. Instead, the tree-man (since they dug him up, he's taller now) wakes up and runs amok all over the place.

The monster for this movie was hilarious. He was really slow, but no one escaped him! The way they kill him at the end was amazing, and I think that scene inspired the Stormtroopers in Star Wars. Those three guys shot a gillion bullets. Bill was so annoying, I wanted to slap him. His superpower was being pessimistic about everything and condescending to Dr. Woman. She was annoying as well. Who hikes around the jungle in heels?!

I'm not sure this one can be classified as amazing. If you've got some time and need some background noise, this might be a good choice. Overall, I was entertained, but I don't think I'd watch it again. I'm still giving it a Good Movie! review, but it's not an instant classic.

Monster From a Prehistoric Planet (Gappa: The Triphibian Monster) - 1967

We were reading summaries, and this one caught our eye. It was a quick pick for movie night. The movie is listed on the internet as Gappa: The Triphibian Monster, but it was on Tubi as Monster From a Prehistoric Planet. Apparently, the movie was released in Japan as Giant Beast Gappa, so I have no idea where the Triphibian title came from.

A group of scientists and reporters head to an island in the South Pacific to gather exotic plants, animals and native dancers. Instead, they find a lost civilization (that amazingly speaks their language) and an egg. While they're in the cave, the egg hatches, gross stuff comes out, and they end up capturing a lizard.

The financial backer for the trip was a man (basically John Hammond from Jurassic Park) who publishes Playmate Magazine, and he wants to build Playmate Land. This one isn't full of scantily clad women, though. The expedition brings back the little guy, but his parents have awoken, and they want revenge!

First off, I'm going to say that I had fun with this movie. I wanted to clear that up since I'm going to be pointing out some things that were pretty bad.

The big thing that was irritating was how dark the movie was. I've seen movies that were dark, but I think this one was the worst. There were times when I had no clue what was happening. Next up is the music. Wow, it was terrible. The worst had to be when they were in the bar (?) with the singing women. We were glad the monsters took that place out. Last up is the length of the destruction scenes. I'm always up for a good miniature destruction, but these went on forever. At one point, there were so many planes getting shot down, I was actually losing interest.

The end was great. Reuniting the family was so weird to watch, and then listening to the woman talk about how she wants to quit her job so she can cook and wash diapers was pretty cringey. I am left with questions. Like why did they call it Monster From a Prehistoric Planet when it's clearly from Earth? Also, why did the monsters have chicken beaks? And why was that one kid green!? (That was a lighting thing, but he still looked green.) I'm giving this one a Good Movie! review. The voice actors added to the mirth, and there's just too many amazing things going on.

The Brain from Planet Arous - 1957

It took a couple of minutes to choose our candidate for movie night, but I was interested in the "rival brains" mentioned in the synopsis.

Steve and Dan head to Mystery Mount(ain) to check out random, intermittent radiation alerts. They're attacked by a giant brain from the planet Arous, and Dan is killed. Steve's body is taken over by Gor, our evil brain.

Val also comes from his planet to capture Gor. He needs a body to inhabit, and Sally (Steve's finace) doesn't want her father to volunteer. To his credit, the man agreed to everything. He was the most agreeable man I've ever seen. He took everything in stride, and nothing phased him. Since Sally is whining about her dad helping, Val inhabits George's body. George is a white shepherd and a good boy. FYI, George is not harmed during the film.

This movie was funny. I saw they used contact lenses with metal foil to create the creepy effect on Steve's eyes. That doesn't sound pleasant at all. I laughed so hard when I saw the brains. They were cute, and the eyes on them conveyed a "meh" attitude. The ending was insane and confusing. Did Val just leave after Gor was defeated? I think watching the "fight" scene was the best part. Gor is just floating around while Steve chops at his fissure of Rolando. Crazy.

Out of the three of us, I think I enjoyed it the most. I loved how confusing and silly it was. I'm giving it a Good Movie! review. 

RIP Dan...