Gutbrain Records

Tuesday, 11 January 2005

I'm home sick from work today. I hate being sick, but I like having a chance to catch up on my movie-watching. This morning I watched Dragon Swamp, a Shaw Bros. production from 1969, starring Cheng Pei-pei, who is always great. I don't think I can add anything to the review linked above, other than that I wasn't bothered by the quality of the special effects or the wirework.

Criterion is finally releasing Sword of Doom, one of my favorite movies, on DVD. They had done it on laserdisc years ago. I saw it probably about ten times in movie theatres when I was a teenager. One time while I watched, I counted how many people get killed — about 120, as I remember. Toshiro Mifune kills 14 people in what is basically a cameo appearance. Anyway, thanks, Criterion. How about a DVD of King Hu's The Valiant Ones?

Alice will be joining the great band Morex Optimo tonight at 8:00 pm EST on free103point9 Online Radio! Tune in!

Right now on the Gutbrain TV set is a late-'50s JD movie called T-Bird Gang, which my friend Dan gave me a while back. It's a low-budget B picture with a soundtrack by Shelly Manne & His Men. The first two minutes of the film are scored by drums solo, then the combo comes in. How did Shelly Manne get involved with this movie? The music is cool.