Category: Reviews

Our Man Flint (1966)

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It’s a swingin’ good time here at B-Movie Enema!

This week, we’re going to look at the first of a couple of films from producer Saul David, who wanted to create something sort of like James Bond, a massive breakout star by this time, after only four incredibly popular Bond films in four consecutive years. David wanted this new hero to be a different “cup of tea” to Bond. This guy was going to be sensitive and sensible. He’s going to be loyal to his own individual code.

This new hero is Derek Flint, a spy extraordinaire. He used to be an agent of Zonal Organization World Intelligence Espionage (better known as Z.O.W.I.E.). He is now retired and just hanging out with his live-in babes, whom he calls his “playmates.” This swinging rich bachelor, who has four girlfriends, is played by James Coburn.

His role as Derek Flint in this film, 1966’s Our Man Flint, would actually serve as Coburn’s first actual lead role in a motion picture. Prior to this film, Coburn had been in quite a few supporting roles. Saul David would say that Coburn was undoubtedly one of the most interesting-looking actors working in films in the 60s. He had to be David’s Flint.

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Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle2 Comments

On March 19 of this year, Carlos Ray Norris roundhouse kicked his way into the afterlife after spending the last 50 years being seen as a legitimate action badass, a guy who seemed to be a bigger-than-life figure, and a hero to many Gen Xers. We knew him as Chuck Norris. In 1972, he played Colt in the Bruce Lee martial arts classic, The Way of the Dragon. At that time, he was an incredibly skilled martial artist. In fact, he was a champion and a very difficult guy to face off against for years, leading up to his casting as Bruce Lee’s nemesis in that film. Lee recognized Norris as an appropriate opponent.

A few years later, Norris became an action star of his own in Breaker, Breaker, Good Guys Wear Black, A Force of One, and The Octagon. Going into the 80s, Norris was well-positioned to become a major action star. After the phenomenally popular Lone Wolf McQuade, Cannon Films pounced on the opportunity to cast Norris as their leading action star for an entire decade, solidifying him as a mythical figure kids grew up watching, later turning him into a popular meme by creating well-meaning jokes about how tough he was in the face of impossible opponents (like natural catastrophes, celestial objects, and, yes, even death).

Decades later, Norris largely retired from acting, instead appearing in commercials, doing philanthropic work in areas of the world with less-than-satisfactory HIV/AIDS care, and occasionally doing political rallies with conservative candidates. While I don’t agree with his politics or religion, I do appreciate Norris for that action star status he had when I was a kid, just looking for action movies and punching and shooty shoot guys on a Saturday afternoon on cable. On March 19, 2026, a big piece of the youth of a lot of guys I know, myself included, was sad to hear Norris was hospitalized in Hawaii for a sudden medical emergency and had subsequently died. I had just weeks previously written a review for Missing in Action, but opted to largely leave that review alone upon release, so this already-planned follow-up’s preamble now serves as the official B-Movie Enema eulogy for a man who will most definitely continue to appear on the site. Rest in peace, Chuck Norris.

And now, let’s talk about Missing in Action 2: The Beginning.

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Halloween II (2009)

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Happy Halloween, my dear, ghoulish Enemaniacs! We’ve made it… Rob Zombie’s Spookshow at B-Movie Enema went overtime, but also will conclude today, on the greatest and spookiest of all days, and as they all say, “Everyone deserves one good generational family trauma.”

Yesterday, I looked at the oft-reviled 2007 version of Halloween. The opportunity for him to do that remake came at the pinnacle of Rob Zombie’s popularity as a horror filmmaker. He was basically able to write the check himself for whatever he wanted to do after The Devil’s Rejects scored big with horror fans and even some critics. However, I’m not entirely sure what horror fans expected from Zombie. Did they think Zombie was going to make a slick thriller like Carpenter would? Did they expect Zombie to basically make a shot-for-shot, scene-by-scene remake like Gus Van Sant did with Psycho in 1998? Why did they think it wasn’t going to be more in alignment with House of 1000 Corpses and the aforementioned The Devil’s Rejects?

I don’t know what people expected because we got a Rob Zombie movie. A Rob Zombie movie, I might add, I like more today than I ever did at any point in the past. But this kind of derailed him as a potentially viable horror auteur going forward. He had a ton of goodwill built up, and it all got spent and flushed down the toilet by the Halloween fans simply railing against it for days, weeks, months, years, and now decades. But that movie did make enough money out of the gate for producer Malek Akkad to say he wanted a sequel.

And boy, what a sequel 2009’s Halloween II is.

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Halloween (2007)

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Looks like we made it!

Every year at B-Movie Enema, you can expect two things. First, October will have a theme. Second, Halloween is a special time of year. So much so, I will throw in a special Halloween review for bonus times. Well, once you realize that I chose October 2026 to be “Rob Zombie’s Spookshow,” you had to know what that meant for this weekend, right now, right here.

Yes, it’s time to talk about Rob Zombie’s Halloween from 2007 (with, of course, the sequel coming tomorrow for the holiday itself).

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31 (2016)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle1 Comment

After this week, we’re 66.7% of the way through this October’s spoopy theme, Rob Zombie’s Spookshow, here at B-Movie Enema!

I ain’t gonna lie… We kind of peaked last week with Rob Zombie’s best film of them all, The Devil’s Rejects. I mean, not only is it a well-crafted, very viscerally terrifying film, but it kind of was the pinnacle of Zombie doing his 70s retro grindhouse thing. Where are you gonna go from there? Well, today, in the year of our Dark Lord 2026, we know where he went. We’ll talk about that starting next weekend. But he kept rolling with this retro grindhouse, throwback to 1970s exploitation horror, probably well past its prime.

Certainly, by 2016, it seemed reviewers were kind of done with it. This week, we’re looking at one of his films that I have not actually watched, 31. In fact, to date, this is the only Rob Zombie movie I haven’t seen. I largely didn’t see 31 because I heard not-so-great things about it. Despite getting some pretty cruddy reviews, it still holds around 47% on Rotten Tomatoes. That’s actually not as bad as you might think based on the talk around it.

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The Devil’s Rejects (2005)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle2 Comments

Welcome to the very exact midpoint of this year’s Rob Zombie Spookshow here at B-Movie Enema.

In 2003, after a couple of years of trying to find a distributor or studio willing to take a chance on his grindhouse throwback, Rob Zombie introduced a terrifyingly raw and visceral form of horror that, maybe ahead of its time, really put audiences through more of a horrifying experience than a form of entertainment. This was his debut movie, House of 1000 Corpses. It really played like the nightmarish and realistic grit that was seen in movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. At times, it felt like you were watching something you weren’t supposed to see. It was equal parts a movie narrative and a window inside a scattered and deranged mind.

What made the movie terrifying were the members of the Firefly family. Specifically, Otis, played by Bill Moseley, himself a veteran of the TCM franchise, Baby, played by Sheri Moon Zombie, and friend and accomplice to the family, Captain Spaulding, a deranged clown played by Sid Haig. They were violent. They were antisocial. In the case of Captain Spaulding, he was charismatic. In the case of Baby, she was sexy – a honeypot waiting to reveal a psychotic who liked to play with her prey.

While working on House of 1000 Corpses, Zombie would have what he called a “vague” idea for a story that featured the brother of a sheriff the Fireflies killed coming back for revenge on the family. This revenge plot leads him on a manhunt for the three most interesting characters to complete his revenge. Thus was born what is undoubtedly Zombie’s masterpiece, The Devil’s Rejects.

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The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (2009)

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Welcome back to Rob Zombie’s Spookshow at B-Movie Enema!

Last week, we looked at Rob Zombie’s take on The Munsters. While that movie ended up with some mixed results, it showed something that I don’t think many people realize about Zombie by looking at him, listening to his music and his on-stage persona, and the films he’s made over his movie career. Zombie has a real love for stuff he grew up with too. He isn’t all exploitation, foul-mouthed characters, and disgusting redneck murderers. No, he still likes comic books, the family-friendly TV shows he grew up with, and animation.

This brings us back to two elements of Zombie’s early influences and career that I hinted at last week. One of the guys he wanted to be was Stan Lee. Obviously, Lee is best known for his work in Marvel Comics, but it’s clear that Zombie sees Lee as a showman, something he would end up becoming in his music career. He also sees Lee as someone who created a shared universe of characters that seem to naturally fit in when they interact with one another. Zombie’s films have that shared universe feel to them. They all kind of show a darker side under the surface of the rest of the world’s brighter shine.

Now, when it comes to this week’s movie, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, it’s clear this is taking on that love of comic books that were directly from guys like Stan Lee. This is Rob Zombie’s animated feature that is much more on the action and superhero side than the horror. It’s the yin to his horror yang growing up. It also features another famous Bela Lugosi element.

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The Munsters (2022)

Published on by Geoff ArbuckleLeave a comment

Welcome to the most wonderful time of the year at B-Movie Enema!

Ah, yes… October. The weather gets cooler. The movies get spookier. B-Movie Enema celebrates an anniversary. Each year, I choose a theme for the month, and I thought it was high time to feature the works of one Robert Bartleh Cummings, better known to the world as singer/songwriter/producer/filmmaker/actor Robert Zombercrombie.

Er… I mean Rob Zombie.

Now, to get things started with what I’m dubbing Rob Zombie’s Spookshow, I think it’s important to understand that I’m not here to bash on Mr. Zombie’s films. I actually have a more nuanced take on his works. While I can say not all his movies are exactly my speed, there are a few of his works I very much like (one of which I will definitely review in a couple of weeks). The movies that aren’t really my speed still aren’t entirely worthy of the onslaught of snarky commentary the internet is oh so well known for. And speaking of… Let’s kick things off with Zombie’s 2022 take on The Munsters.

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