Mr. Rock ‘N Roll: The Alan Freed Story

Originally airing on NBC Television in 1999, this made for TV movie tells the story about the famous radio DJ Alan Freed who is credited as being the man who coined the phrase “Rock & Roll”. Back in 1951, the radio was king and the music scene was growing rapidly in the Rhythm & Blues genre but the times found it being seperated from the stations primarily listened to by a white audience and not getting any airplay whatsoever. The film takes some clear liberties in
how Freed actually started his adventuring into the Rock & Roll sound I am sure, but the film is entertaining enough to make it something enjoyable to watch. Played by Judd Nelson, the film shows Freed as someone very genuine about the music he was helping to grow. They show him rising to great notoriety rather quickly but this is probably based on the constraints of this being a television film. We see Freed meet his sweetheart Jackie McCoy who becomes his wife and mother of his children. She is played by the lovely Madchen Amick who is apparently now a star of the current cable show “Californication”. We watch as initially Freed’s efforts were met with considerable hesitation, and after all this was based on the white audience considering the Rhythm and Blues sound as something only the colored people listened to. Fortunately for everyone involved he didn’t let that stop him and as he observed the kids from his area buying up the new sound he kept on promoting it. We see him setting up area shows to showcase the talent and eventually taking his act to the big and small screen. I liked some of the premise on how he worked his angle and telling people that if he liked it he would play it, and if he didn’t that he would not. Clearly the radio DJ back in this time ruled the roost and were pivotal in some acts rising to amazing heights while others faded into obscurity. The film also stars singer Paula Abdul and gives us a decent representation of a number of the times biggest acts. Among the bands we get to enjoy music from are Frankie Lymon, Jackie Wilson, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley & The Comets, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley and Little Richard. I liked getting to see the “live concert” settings as they were reenacted since the players seemed to be pretty good at bringing those legends to life for the small screen.

I had to say that while this didn’t seem to be the most historically accurate film that it was still a lot of fun to watch and the characters are played well enough to be considered convincing. A clear downside is the editing where the commercials were originally placed as the viewer can see where each one was based on how the film cuts back and forth. If you are a Judd Nelson fan or someone who is interested in the Alan Freed story then this is a worthwhile purchase or rental for you to look into.

Learn more about the legendary Alan Freed via his Wikipedia entry: HERE

Title: “The Vampire Princess”
Studio: Smithsonian Networks
Release Date: 10/14/2008
Genre: Documentary
Rating: 3.5/5

Reviewed By: Ken Pierce (copyright 2009) for PiercingMetal Musings

If you are a Horror fan and have never seen the original film “Dracula” or even its remake, then you need to stop reading now, take care of business and then return to be a little more up to speed on things. If you have then we can safely and easily continue because the Smithsonian Networks film “The Vampire Princess” discusses some of the potential histories that just might have led up to the inspiration behind the writing of this classic work of literature. From the moment it begins, this historical journey reminded me a lot of a show I grew up on entitled “In Search Of”; this was a great mystery meets documentary series hosted by Star Trek’s Leonard Nimoy. The premise of “The Vampire Princess” takes the view that instead of a man being the sinister player that “Dracula” was modeled after that it was instead done based on the life and hard fate that was experienced by a real 18th century bohemian princess by the name of Eleonore von Schwarzenberg. It is possible after all and when the viewer watches this film they might agree with me.

The film takes you to the castle of the princess and some recent excavations where three bodies had been uncovered. They were buried in an unusual manner for the time which was referred to as “Magia Pasthuma” – the ritual to prevent the dead from rising, or in this case “the undead”. I will leave the absolutely eerie facts about their actual findings to those who watch it to prevent being a spoiler. We also are taken back into the history of the princess who was a firm believer in a lot of mystical medicines and cures for illnesses. She was a strong advocate of legendary healing processes and even regularly drank the milk of wolves to guarantee her fertility and sire a male child. They take us on a journey into the castles vast historical archive where every event that ever took place had been written down and stored in books that make up an expansive library. I must admit that this would make for an interesting DVD of its own as they transfer the information onto the medium of today if they should ever undertake such an endeavor. The archives document the debilitating illness where she was literally wasting away and they take us up to her eventual death from it. We learn of the post mortem autopsy done by the medical staff and they said that such an involved practice was not common to the time and in the end it all just adds levels of strangeness to the tale of this tragic figure.

The archeologists bring us to the tomb of the princess which is far away from the rest of the members of the royal family final resting places and even stranger is the tomb itself. Apparently, Eleonore is not only buried in the regular casket, but covered by holy earth and covered in concrete. It seems as though the ruling factions of the region wanted to make sure that once she had died that she did not come back for an unwelcome visit. In the end the film leaves you with a number of questions but I always felt that “In Search Of” did the same thing and as result sparked ones curiosity about learning more when it came to the subject being discussed. If you are a fan of vampire legendry and other things that go bump in the night then this is a great way to spend an hour.

Official Website: http://www.smithsonianchannel.com

Purchase The Film On Amazon.com:

Title: Attitude For Destruction
Genre: Rock & Roll Horror Fantasy
Label: Cleopatra Records
Release Date: 4/15/2008
Rating: 2.5/5

Written By: Ken Pierce (copyright 2008) for PiercingMetal Musings

“Attitude For Destruction” is a Horror Fantasy film that takes a little bit of movies like “Trick Or Treat” and “Rock And Roll Nightmare” and blends them with the premise of a young and successful Hollywood Rock band that are on their way to the top and soon find themselves dealing with witchcraft and the living dead as they make their quest for musical greatness. It begins in a club where the band “Hollywood Roses” and their lead singer Drake have just performed and are soon solicited by Record Company powers that be who wish to sign them to a multi-album deal and determine that they don’t want Drake as a part of the deal. The singer balks about the decision that the rest of the guys make about their respective futures as he would sooner the band wait on such success rather than sell their souls to such a corporation. Since the band wants the success without more waiting, they seek to toss Drake out of the band and instead beat him to death, dispose of the corpse and move on to sign the deal with the record company with no one any wiser to the crime. Of course you know there is more to this or the movie would have had a happy ending only twenty minutes in and with this type of film that is never the case.

Fast-forward a little bit of time into the future where everyone is celebrating their new found success and we are speaking of the band and the record company execs as well as singer Drake’s ex-girlfriend who has now begun dating one of the other dudes in the group. The celebrants are systematically hunted down and murdered by what appears to be a zombie of their deceased singer and with him being dead and their being famous saying he is pissed would be an understatement. He’s been brought back to life by the ex-girlfriend who we learn early in the film is a practicioner of the Satanic arts and since these peoples actions cost her a boyfriend she is going to make sure that everyone pays what they owe in spades. The first ones to buy the farm are the greedy record company executives and this scene might make any struggling musician jump from their seats cheering, but we do not condone such behavior and request that all remain seated. From this it continues on and on until its resolution.

There are some pretty graphic scenes of murder and a couple of gratuitous nude shots (and hey this is a Horror movie about a Rock and Roll band so what did you expect), but nothing is truly over the top enough to send you running for a sink to toss the cookies into. The music pumping in the background reminded me a little bit of Guns ‘N Roses and LA Guns and the singer Drake’s resemblance to Axl Rose is probably just a coincidence It’s a fun movie and definitely worth the hour plus that you would spend watching it even though the acting could have been just a little bit better. Overall the production was sound based on the premise that was being delivered. Readers are going to have to watch or rent this themselves to see what happens to the band as far as whether they all get murdered, or their reuniting with the dead singer, or even his chances of recording his own album and releasing it years later using the same name of the band without any of original members. I guarantee that you will not predict the ending even if such things are that which you are known for.

Starring: Jed Rowen, Colby Veil, Simon Burzynski, Annmarie Lynn Gracey, Laura Lyon, Mighty Mike Murga, Brian Ramian, Monte Hunter, Geoff Stirling & Tanya Sabat.

Film Title: “Tarzeena, Queen of Kong Island”
Studio: Infinity Resources Inc.
Release Date: (DVD) 9/2/2008
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Erotic Comedy
Review Rating: 3/5
Written By: Ken Pierce (copyright 2008) for PiercingMetal Musings

“Tarzeena, Queen of Kong Island” is a film that takes an adult-oriented comedic spin on the type of B-Movie serials along the lines of the ones that focused on Tarzan of the Apes , but as expected in films of this kind – the buff and burly jungle lord is instead a bikini-clad sex-sation.

The plot begins with an adventure team who head out into the deepest jungles in order to find Tarzeena and her simian associate and once she is found they are all pitted against the evil machinations of a sinister scientist. The expertise of jungle adventurer Jack Carver is put to the test against the knowledge of the land that Tarzeena and her gorilla sidekick possess and once Tobanga (the ape) is captured by the sinister Dr. Mortimer, they all put aside their differences and work together to save him. Tarzeena “convinces” one of the groups’ unlikely heroes to help her cause using the best methods available and I guess you already know what I am talking about. Since this is one of those adult related comedy features I have to inform the readers that a healthy amount of sexual activity is going on between the cast of characters but don’t you fear as this is not really pornography but instead something that one might find “accidentally” while surfing some late night cable channels. The whole plot is rather thin and the dialogue rather juvenile and jokes corny but in the end this is amusing and to be brutally honest Ms. Nguyen is a stunner in and out of her jungle bikini. The film opens up with Christine taking a refreshing waterfall bath much to the appeal of the various jungle creatures who they pan back and forth to as “voyeurs” of the activity. You don’t see anything crucial on the young ladies in the film and when it comes to the guys it’s only bare bottoms and chests that you see – nothing more. For lack of a better description., I guess the best way to view these scenes is as being done with a slight burlesque view and offering more of a tease than a please.

So do the adventurers and the jungle queen manage to save Tobanga in time or does the evil Doctor move closer to his cruel goals, well that would be telling. It’s up to you to either rent this from your favorite online retailer or purchase a copy via the provided links or take your chances that late night channel surfing on the appropriate channels will have you finding just how this ended up playing out.

Cast:
Tarzeena – Christine Nguyen
Mandy – Nicole Sheridan
Ted – Alexandre Boisvert
Jack Carver – Evan Stone
Shana – Syren
Dr. Mortimer – Mike Gaglio
Jed Slater – Ed Polgardy
Tobanga – Himself

Title: “Savage Planet”
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Released: 3/14/2008
Rating: 1/5

Written By: Ken Pierce (copyright 2008) for PiercingMetal Musings

Well, this one really sounded like it would appeal to me when I popped it in because it was set in the the far away future where Earth is no longer inhabitable and mankind must seek out a new place to continue to prosper and go on.  The film stars Sean Patrick Flannery and Sarah Danielle Madison who folks might remember from Young Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park III respectively but despite the talented actors efforts the script and dialogue are quite lacking when it comes down to it.  The film begins with an exploration team landing on what comes to be called “Planet Oxygen” which appears to be just like an Earth of the past with lush jungles and plenty of resources to help mankind carry on.  There also appears to be some sort of magical element that the planet possesses which comes off as a miracle cure and regenerator but all of these great things come with one deadly pitfall —— a species of prehistoric cannibalistic bears.

Yeah, so after the exploration team that found the place gets wiped out we of course return with more scientists to get this miracle element but the team needs to face off against these monster bears at each and every turn.  When you look at some of the scientists among the number you can pick out who might and should go first and its like watching one of those classic slasher films where you just knew who was going to get it next.  It’s not ruining it by saying that the group of them gets cut down to a smaller number in pretty short order, but I will not let you know how the end game gets played out.  Does the miracle goop make its way to the old Earth and end up as a confection in most restaurants or do the prehistoric monster bears dip the remaining scientists into it as they nosh to their hearts content?  You will have to either Netflix or purchase this one to get your answer.

This was not the worst Science Fiction film I had seen in a long time, but it sure wasn’t one of the best either. It’s watchable once and probably will have a great future as something to be picked on by some sort of Mystery Science Theater 3000 sort of thing. If you are someone who is into movies that leave you shaking your head and wanting the time you spent returned to you then this is a good way to keep that need fed. Enjoy.