Tag: comedy

Howard the Duck (1986)

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Oh boy, Enemaniacs… This week and next is gonna be a doozy at B-Movie Enema.

Near the end of 1973, the 19th issue of Marvel Comics’ anthology series Adventure into Fear, writer Steve Gerber introduced a new character that was a parody of what were once referred to as cartoon funny animals (what we would call anthropomorphic animals today). This character was cynical. He chomped cigars and was a bit ill-tempered. A little over a decade later, for some reason, largely unknown producer George Lucas… Wait… Let me double-check that. Oh… I meant to type “one of the most powerful producers, George Lucas.” My bad.

Sorry about that. But anyway, for whatever reason, one of the most powerful producers in Hollywood thought his follow-up to ending the phenomenon that was the Star Wars Trilogy should be a movie based on this character whose popularity might not exactly be as widespread outside the comic spinner racks. The movie proved to be one of the greatest missteps in film history. The movie was 1986’s Howard the Duck, directed by Willard Huyck and co-written by Gloria Katz.

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Drive Me Crazy (1999)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle3 Comments

We’ve made it, my dear Enemaniacs. It’s the final week of Melissa Joan Hart Month at B-Movie Enema. And this is the headliner for sure.

1999’s Drive Me Crazy has a bit of a story behind it. Very clearly, this was Melissa Joan Hart’s movie. It was released by 20th Century Fox, but with 90s teen movies doing pretty well, and she doing pretty well on ABC’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch, it was impossible to think there wouldn’t at least be an attempt to get her into a movie. In a way, this was accomplished the year before when she made a brief, near cameo appearance in one of the most beloved cult classic teen flicks of the 90s, Can’t Hardly Wait. That was less an attempt to get her onto the big screen and more of a “Hey, we’ve got every young up-and-coming actor in this movie, and the Kid from Dick Tracy, so… Get the teenage witch girl!” thing.

No, Drive Me Crazy was specifically for Melissa to spread her wings a bit and give the movie thing a real try. While the movie had its struggles with critics, it wasn’t that big of a flop when it came to the box office. It cost about $8.5 million and brought in nearly $23 million. Not too bad in terms of the teen movies of the era. While nowhere near the box office darling as 1995’s Clueless or 1999’s She’s All That, Drive Me Crazy turned a profit where Can’t Hardly Wait and Empire Records, both beloved cult films, did not.

I think the problems came with the reviews, and one other very big confusion for audiences that came in the form of Britney Spears.

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The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie (1989)

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This week’s B-Movie Enema review gets… biblical?

Eh, sure. Anyway, not long back, I covered The Toxic Avenger Part II, the long-awaited sequel to the smash Troma hit from 1984. Filmed at the same time was a second sequel, and the topic of this week’s review, The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie. That title should give a hint to a couple of things in this movie. First, Toxie is going to be tempted by a deal with the devil, specifically the devil that Toxie knows – Apocalypse, Inc. Second, I think the title was likely inspired not just from the 1988 Martin Scorsese film The Last Temptation of Christ, but probably more by that film’s pop culture popularity while both of these Toxic Avenger sequels were being filmed.

The Last Temptation of Christ wasn’t just a well-reviewed film for Scorsese, but it really was a hot-button topic during late 1988 and early 1989. No foolin’, the film created a BUNCH of controversy. There were terrorist attacks, death threats, and a whole lot of protests from upsetty Christians and Catholics because the film depicted a scene in which Christ, played by Willem Dafoe, and Mary Magdalene, played by Barbara Hershey, consummated their love for one another. When it comes to canonical religious texts, that’s not something the Jesus folk like to hear about. They like to think that the Christ was above earthly passions and/or Magdalene was a whore.

But I definitely digress because I ain’t no religious guy so I can’t speak to too much gospel.

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Feeding Frenzy (2010)

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The calendar flips to 2026 and, of course, B-Movie Enema is there for you, my lovely Enemaniacs!

So… 2025, huh? That sure was a… year, wasn’t it? There was that one thing that happened. There was that other thing. You know the one. Yeah. That one. But there were, like, one or two good things that happened too, right? The Washington Commanders were only 33 points and one more win away from a sixth Super Bowl appearance in franchise history. That was exciting for exactly 20 minutes of that late afternoon. I got to interview Tjardus Greidanus, the director of the great 1990 thriller The Final Sacrifice. So, on balance, 2025 sucked, but a couple of fun things happened.

To kick 2026 off, I call upon an influence of B-Movie Enema… RedLetterMedia. This is also the first of two times I’ll call upon those fucking hacks from Milwaukee this year. In order to really honor them, I should start with their 2010 feature film, Feeding Frenzy, featuring the media group’s mascot, the psychotic elderly man, Mr. Harry S. Plinkett.

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Terror Eyes (1989)

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Welcome back to B-Movie Enema and the second chapter in my two-part Vivian Schilling adventure!

Last week, I looked at the movie that is Schilling’s best-known movie, Soultaker. The popularity gained by the movie is mostly thanks to Mystery Science Theater 3000. That is a tad unfortunate because the popularity also gave it a reputation… not a good one at that. It’s not that bad of a movie, but the riffs from the Satellite of Love often wire viewers’ brains to think that the uncut movie is every bit as bad as the comedy of MST3K’s writers want you to think it is for their jokes to work. Don’t think that’s me saying that MST3K is bad or anything. There would be nothing more opposite than that. It’s just how things are.

This week, we have a movie from Schilling’s filmography that is even earlier in her timeline than Soultaker. This week, I’m going to review the horror/comedy anthology Terror Eyes.

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Eight Days a Week (1997)

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Welcome back to B-Movie Enema!

We’ve got something of a returning character in this week’s movie. Writer/director Michael Davis originally got started as a storyboard artist. Between 1989 and 1992, he actually had a few interesting credits on his resume. In 1989, he did the storyboards for the Kevin S. Tenney film The Cellar. The very next year, he stepped up in terms of quality films with 1990’s Tremors. The very next year, 1991, he did the storyboards for a highly anticipated sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. In 1993, he wrote the first of three Prehysteria! movies released through Full Moon Features under their Moonbeam Entertainment imprint for children and family films. Then, in 1994, he wrote one of the main stars of 2016’s Alyssa Milano Month, Double Dragon.

But this week, we look at Davis’s sophomore outing as a director, Eight Days a Week.

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The Allnighter (1987)

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Welcome back to another bodacious review at B-Movie Enema!

The 80s… I’m surprised there were any movies like Reds or Gandhi or Terms of Endearment or Out of Africa released during that decade. It seemed like most movies from the era were either muscle-bound hunks of men with giant guns or sexy boner comedies or beach party movies… that were also boner comedies. In a sort of way, the 80s revived the beach party movies of the late 50s and early 60s. I guess people, for some dumb reason, like seeing sexy people in skimpy bathing suits frolicking and making kissy faces with each other.

Enter writer/director Tamar Simon Hoffs and her 1987 comedy The Allnighter. Now, The Allnighter was one of those movies that ALWAYS caught my eye at the video store. Why? Because Tamar Simon Hoffs put her own daughter, singer Susanna Hoffs, on the cover with her graduation gown wide open and her skimpy matching bra and panties showing. That’s a hell of an ad campaign.

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Petey Wheatstraw (1977)

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Black Horror Halloween comes to a close on the greatest day of them all, Halloween!

Welcome to B-Movie Enema, and, brother, do we have a good one to close things out. If you think about it, Ganja & Hess was this artsy kickoff for the month. Then we got into some voodoo business in a movie that is maybe more about the dialogue than anything else. Right in the middle is the movie I will never forget because it had a giant killer dick. Then, last week, I opted for a movie with a strong cast and some good ol’ fashioned spirit possession.

So, how can we possibly finish this month off after all those bangers? With the movie that I promise you is my favorite of the whole month. I think about the artistry that started the month. Now, it’s time for more art. Give it up for the comedy stylings of my main man, Rudy Ray Moore, and the 1977 comedy Petey Wheatstraw!

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