Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Transylvania Twist

  • Directed by: Jim Wyrnorski
  • Written by: R. J. Robertson
  • Cast: Robert Vaughn ("Man From U.N.C.L.E", "Backstairs at the White House"), Playboy model Teri Copley, Steve Altman ("A Plumm Summer"), and the legendary Boris Karloff ("How the Grinch Stole Christmas")
  • Year: 1990
Contrary to popular rumor, this 1987 collection of comedy skits is not about a group of female employees from Amazon.com on a mission to the lunar surface. It's a series of unrelated spoofs and sketches designed to resemble an aimless night of TV channel-surfing, and the satirical targets include grade-Z science fiction films of the 1950s, sex films of the 1930s, hospital soap operas, and Playboy video centerfolds. There's a charity drive in which legendary bluesman B.B. King pleas for donations to help "Blacks Without Soul," and Ed Begley Jr. thinks he's the son of the Invisible Man, which would be fine! if he weren't as visible as everyone else. The various sketches feature an all-star cast including Rosanna Arquette, Griffin Dunne, Carrie Fisher, Michelle Pfeiffer, the late Phil Hartman in an early role, and many others. It's strictly hit-or-miss, and many of the sketches fall flat, especially since the subjects being spoofed (the title sketch is a send-up of the actual 1954 movie Cat Women on the Moon) are funny enough without being satirized. Even though Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide describes most of the sketches as "astonishingly unfunny," this can be a very amusing movie if you're in the mood for a no-brainer with a lot of familiar Hollywood faces. Now a modest little cult film, it's the kind of disposable entertainment that maintains its appeal almost in spite of itself. --Jeff Shannon 72 page glossy staple bound magazine covering queens of the b-movies. Color photos, interviews & articles.A librarian from Transylvania must collect the f! ines on a 200-year overdue book, "The Book of all Evil." Durin! g his tr ip to the castle, he meets Marissa, a gorgeous rock star and heir to the castle's fortune. There they must confront the only other heir to the fortune and the book, Uncle Byron; and Uncle Byron has a very, very, very broad smile. Format: Color, DVD, NTSC Language: English Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.) Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Number of discs: 1 Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Studio: New Concorde DVD Release Date: March 27, 2001 Run Time: 90 minutes

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