Cinema Head Cheese: Podshort! - California by blink-182 (2016)

Kevin reviews the latest album from a pop/punk trio with a long history.

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Movie Review: CBGB (2013)

Hilly Kristal(Alan Rickman) isn't known as a great business man but he is known as someone with vision.  Vision to see past bleak walls and empty floor space in a bar located in the Bowery in New York City.  Hilly decides to open up the "CBGB" as he intends to bring in the next big thing in music; Country, Blue Grass, and Blues.  What happens is something a bit different, but does bring in Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers.  The movie plays out much like a comic magazine.  scenes would change by showing what looked like a comic book page with panels and word blurbs.  I liked how it played out and it kept the movie fun and engaging.

"CBGB" does not claim to be one hundred percent historically accurate but it does serve for excellent entertainment and absolutely incredible music.  The film starts out with the founders of "Punk" magazine, John Holmstrom(Josh Zuckerman) and Legs McNeil(Peter Vack), drawing and discussing their vision of their upcoming issues.  This is the one part of the film that I wish would have been explored more.  I would have found it fascinating to see how a magazine in the 1970s would get off the ground from someone's basement.  The two founders do show up throughout the film however to interview different punk music artists.  It was cool to hear quotes from the artists and also see the cartoon artwork from the magazine.

Now back to the club where Hilly is needing to book some musical talent.  This is where Terry Ork(Johnny Galecki) comes in.  He is the agent of a band called "Television" and they are looking for a place to play.  Despite what the initials "CBGB" stand for, "Television" auditions anyway.  Hilly, being the visionary he is, agrees to let the punk band play shows at the "CBGB."  This is where things change.  "Televison" receives a great review and now the "CBGB" is the place to be.  Other bands/singers go on to play the CBGB like; Blondie, The Dead Boys, Talking Heads, The Ramones, Patti Smith and many others.

While I loved the music in "CBGB," I was not a fan of the quality of sound.  These were supposed to be live events inside of a dive bar but every song played was the studio version.  There was a level of rawness that went missing and may have been a large part of why this film did not do well theatrically or with many critics.  There wasn't much of a timeline for this film either.  The news was on at the bar, but unless you really know when those events took place, you may not know what year you're in(unless it all happened within a couple months).

I did enjoy "CBGB" as it is a comical look at a life with ups and many downs.  I was entertained by the rise of a small club that was a beacon for amazing music and it was thanks to Hilly Kristal.  The movie didn't claim to be more than what it was, an entertaining and partially true look at Hilly Kristal's life.  In the credits, at the end there is even a call out of how the filmmakers know Iggy Pop never played the "CBGB" and for the viewers to, "get over it."

There were some interesting casting choices which, for the most part I liked.  Malin Ackerman as Debbie Harry, Taylor Hawkins as Iggy Pop, Justin Bartha as Stiv Bators, Rupert Grint as Cheetah Chrome and Mickey Sumner looked great as Patti Smith.  The casting of Joel David Moore as Joey Ramone was not my favorite.  It was a bit distracting but at least there weren't many lines.

On the scale of up to five Pile Drivers, I am giving "CBGB" four.  A fun movie about an era of music I really enjoy.  The soundtrack alone makes it worth checking out for me.

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Movie Review: La Bamba (1987; Columbia/Twilight Time)

...considering the historical events associated with the previous film, which this viewer partook of and reviewed, a while back, it is sort of ironic that the year 1959...closely associated anti-establishment movement, initiated by political warfare guerrilla Che Guavara...would also be the same year, which bore a headline of great tragedy, of equal precedence...media & headline-wise...and the subject of this viewer's next review...

...date line, circa 1959.....Cuban President Fulgencio Batista is forced from power, and in his place, Fidel Castro becomes the reigning Cuban Premier.....Television viewers were taken to strange, surreal and sometimes horrific places, which lay 'somewhere between the pit of man's fears, and the summit of his knowledge', with the premiere of "The Twilight Zone".....the Xerox company introduces their very first copier.....The epic film, "Ben Hur" holds it's star-studded gala premiere, in New York City.....And disaster strikes down a small, single-engined 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza plane, one fateful winter's evening, on the outskirts of Clear Lake, Iowa...the fiery crash, claiming the lives of famed rock-n-roll musicians Buddy Holly, J.P. Richardson (...aka 'The Big Bopper'), and 17-year-old Richard Stevens Valenzuela, also known as Ritchie Valens.....

Cinema Head Cheese: The Podcast! #83 - DVDAO

Kevin is joined by fellow Abnormal Entertainment host Jacob O'Neal from The Gorram Nerd Hour to discuss songs based on the movies they're in. They run the gamut from pop to rap to comedy while exploring the impossibility of a certain sexual maneuver and the importance of being punctual.

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This episode is sponsored by the following:

Movie Review: Lost Horizon (1973, Blu-ray)

Review by- Rob Sibley

Musicals are hit or miss with me, sometimes I dig em... other times not so much. So I was pretty damn curious when I popped in the Twilight Time Blu-ray release of 1973's “Lost Horizon”. Before seeing the film I already knew that it was a massive failure for the studio and was pretty much a joke in Hollywood. I can happily say I enjoyed this wonderfully inept musical. Yes, it's a bad film but with a lot of good stuff in it. 

LH is a musical remake of the classic 1937 Frank Kapra film which starred Ronald Colman and Jane Wyatt. That film by all means is a masterpiece of it's time and still holds up to this day. Sadly the musical remake of which I'm reviewing didn't have the talented Kapra involved. But they did bring in a heavy weight to do the music and it was none other then the legendary Burt Bacharah. On top of that you have the acting... well singing talents of Peter Finch, Liv Ullman, Sall Kellerman, George Kennedy, Olivia Hussey, Michael Yorke, Bobby Van and last but certainly not least the late great British thesp John Gielgud.

Movie Review: Marley (2012)

The thing I love most about documentaries is that they are always a source of education. Whether you know nothing or think you know everything about a subject, there's something to be learned. Though I'm not well versed in reggae, I, like most people, know a few songs by Bob Marley and The Wailers. We can all sing along when one comes on the radio or pops up in a commercial. We see the t-shirts and posters all over the place. The funny thing is that many of us don't really know much about him. To be honest, I always thought he died from a gunshot. I had much to learn, and in two and a half hours, I learned plenty and enjoyed it all.

Movie Review: Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2009)

I grew up on metal. First it was Motley Crue and Iron Maiden. Then I got into Bands like Pantera and Sepultura. Most importantly, there was The Big 4: Slayer, Anthrax, Megadeth and Metallica. They defined thrash metal. Just before them, there was a band called Anvil that set the tone for them all.

Buy Anvil: The Story of Anvil on DVD

In Toronto, Anvil singer Steve "Lips" Kudlow works his way through life at an average job while working toward an exceptional dream. At age fifty, he and his childhood friend and bandmate Robb Reiner are able to keep hope alive when a European woman promises to manage the band through a small European tour. This is an insight into what originally caused the band to remain mostly anonymous to music fans. Poor management and worse decisions kept the band down, but they never gave up.

Movie Review: Bob Dylan Revealed (2011)

I have always been fascinated with Bob Dylan. Not that everything he has touched has been gold, but his work has always been unique, with no real compromises. Like Orson Welles (my other favorite iconic artist), he seems to me to have always been in search of something and never willing to repeat himself, no matter the risk or lack of rewards. So I was thrilled when this disk landed in my mailbox, courtesy of the secret underground known as Cinema Head Cheese.

Buy Bob Dylan Revealed on DVD!

Movie Review: Young@Heart (2007)

I've watched many documentaries over the past few years. Some are informative. Some are just plain interesting. A select few can be called inspirational. The Young@Heart chorus is a group of people in their seventies and eighties who get together to create renditions of various pop songs.They are led by Bob Cilman, a man in his fifties who chooses the music and directs the group's shows.

Buy Young@Heart on DVD

The group performs songs by Coldplay, The Ramones, Sinead O'Connor and James Brown. We basically start at the beginnings of a new show. The group has traveled around the world for years, and now it's time to put together a few new songs.

Movie Review: Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004)

I grew up in the 1990s, when thrash metal was really growing. There were four bands that really set the core of that genre. Those were Slayer, Anthrax, Megadeth and Metallica. Though they're my least favorite of the four, there's no doubt that Metallica is the biggest. Don't get me wrong here, I enjoyed everything up to the black album, but Metallica never seemed to feel as free or open as the other three bands. It seemed like they created more marketable stuff, especially from the black album forward. Load was terrible, and Re-Load was worse. What I heard from St. Anger seemed very effected by modern boring metal. To be honest, I would rather watch a doc on any of the other bands, but the idea of watching such a legendary band from my youth go through counseling and the loss of Jason Newsted was very intriguing to me.

Buy Metallica: Some Kind of Monster on DVD

The Movie Burrito: Volume 9 - GG Allin, Killer Puppets and a Troma classic.

On this Feburary edition of Cinema Head Cheese’s The Movie Burrito, we’re highlighting four very different DVDs, Todd Philips' masterpiece, Hated: GG Allin and The Murder Junkies, Combat Shock: Tromasterpiece Collection and the new release of the Canadian puppet sitcom, Puppets Who Kill: The Best of Seasons Three and Four from MVD Visual.

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In 1985, filmmaker Buddy Giovinazzo set out to create an experience for filmgoers that would not only make us think a little more about how our veterans were effected both physically and mentally by the Vietnam war but at the same time put the viewers through the hell along with the lead character, Frankie Dunlan (Ricky Giovinazzo). This film was called Combat Shock and didn’t just strike a nerve - it severed it .Although it’s comparable to Scorcese’s, Taxi Driver (both with their protagonists struggling ex-vets with mental illness) it’s far less upbeat. Yes, even Taxi Driver was Disney next to the horror of Combat Shock. Troma has included Combat Shock in their Tromasterpiece line with both versions, the original cut under the title, American Nightmares ( 100 minutes ) and the version commonly seen, running 92 minutes.

Buy Combat Shock on DVD

Movie Review: G.G Allin and The AIDS Brigade: Live in Boston 1989 (2010)

Back in the early 90’s, there was a Tower Records not too far from my home that I'd occasionally try to hit after school. I would always find myself picking up VHS rentals of stuff I couldn’t find in the Blockbusters littering my neighborhood. This place had everything: graphic Italian horror ,exploitation from Something Weird Video and shocking art-house flicks like Salo and Man Bites Dog. It was my one-stop shop for everything that would eventually corrupt my innocent little cabesa…oh and there was G.G Allin's documentary, Hated, too. Here, at Tower Records in Mesa, Arizona, I became fascinated with this fairly untalented punk-rocker. If you haven't yet been exposed to the brilliance of Hated, in short, it's a very well produced documentary; one of the best of its ilk . It wasn’t long after this that I was buying bootlegs of this real-life freak show’s sparsely attended but rarely boring concerts.




The pride of Lancaster, New Hampshire now has a new DVD from MVD Visual called, G.G Allin and The AIDS Brigade: Live In Boston 1989, which highlights his surprisingly tame years (for G.G, at least) with his band the AIDS Brigade. Don’t get me wrong about it being tame, this DVD also contains two of his most shocking live-performances in its bonus features section - post-AIDS Brigade with The Murder Junkies . Much of the songs you may come to know and love from G.G Allin and The Murder Junkies are present in the “AIDS Brigade” performances: I Wanna Fuck Myself, Kill the Police, I Wanna Rape You, Cunt on The Loose, I Live To Be Hated and of course, G.G’s classic ditty, Expose Yourself To Kids. If you haven’t heard Expose Yourself to Kids, you’re in for a treat. It’s a little infectious after a while, kind of like G.G fapping his famous microscopic tackle - that he so lovingly flicks at the audience.



The AIDS Brigade footage is enjoyable enough in it's simplicity( minus the antics ), but it’s just a precursor to the inevitable poo-flinging, piss-guzzling, concert-goer-blowing G.G, we know all too well. Let’s just call it “The Calm Before the Shit-Storm”. The bonus features contain two shows from 1993: Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon. These shows are prime examples of what transformed G.G Allin into the infamous, destructive persona that he relished in the final years before his death. Soon we see G.G defecating like a rhesus monkey after a Starbucks and broccoli binge. And yes, much like said primate, throwing his butt-mud at the audience. Liza Minelli never did that..or at least, when I went. It’s gross stuff folks. Add a turkey-baster into the mix, amateur pyrotechnics, self-mutilation via microphone, and you soon forget how lousy a singer he is. Are we really listening though?


If you’ve made it past the third paragraph, you may just have an interest in G.G Allin and The AIDS Brigade: Live in Boston 1989. I will say, this is indeed strong stuff, but, with that said, anyone with any curiosity of this truly one-of-kind performer needs to check this DVD release out. Just remember to duck.