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SIDE ONE1 Blackie Is... 2 The Sore Losers 3 Modern Day Freak 4 Invader Ace 5 Hoodlum, A.D. 6 Guntown 7 Knockturne 8 Alien Brains |
SIDE TWO9 Mike Was Always... 10 Funky Kuntry Capers 11 Gotta Let Your Spirit Ride 12 '68 13 No Teasin' Round 14 Bump & Grind 15 Vice Party |
SIDE THREE16 Kerine Loved To Bang... 17 Solar Prime 18 Rock N' Roll Band 19 Spi-Fi (Subsonic) 20 Smack Dab (In the Middle) 21 Shovel Fight 22 Wild Sound 23 African Cowboy 24 Bad Man |
SIDE FOUR25 D'lana Is... Was... 26 Go Go Goliatha 27 Suicide Wipers 28 Time of Day 29 (I'm a) Sore Loser 30 GarageFather |
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CEASE AND DESIST RETRO FILMS!Recently, through this review posted by "Movie Collector" on YouTube, I learned that a company called RETRO FILMS in Germany had released an illegal bootleg version of THE SORE LOSERS. Not only did this company make no attempt to reach out to me, but they also go as far to claim the copyright on my film THE SORE LOSERS which they do not own. This edition also includes my Sony videos for Guitar Wolf which RetroFilm does not own. This is public notice to RETROFILMS to Cease and Desist from the illegal duplication and distribution of THE SORE LOSERS.If anyone knows how to get dvd copies of this rare and intriguing edition (as well as other rumored European Sore Losers bootlegs) please contact mike@guerrillamonsterfilms.com |
![]() 30 SECOND FELCH #1 "In every instance, good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished for his misdeeds..." Comics Code Authority of America, 1954 "Blackie" (Jack Oblivian) plays an alien "immortal" from the killer frequency. In 1954 He was sent to the American South to randomly kill 12 people. He ends up only killing 9 and is sent back to "the invisible wavelength" a loser. 42 years later he escapes and returns to Earth to kill the remaining 3 victims (and only 3!). If he succeeds he will be sent back and be faced with a hero's death. During his journey he joins up with a motley crew of criminal types (one an old friend "Mike (Mike Maker) also now an immortal) and finds himself in more trouble than he bargained for when one person more than needed is murdered. From there the story goes on to become a quite complicated, convoluted tale but, nonetheless, highly entertaining. The flick definitely delivers the exploitation goods: decent amounts of violence and the usual T&A we expect from a JMM film. Visually the film is a feast of bizarrely violent and sexy imagery. We're treated to electric chair catfights, rotting corpses, Guitar Wolf abducting D'Lana (Tunnell), hippie murder, tits, and EC comic nailed to a hot chicks face, global apocalypse, etc etc. The special video FX are quite creative, especially the transformation in the opening scene of "Blackie's" spacecraft into a four-wheeled hot rod. Also impressive is the gravesite scene with the transparent crosses. There are many other interesting special FX. The editing is also solid, as are the camera angles. The integration of the music and the sound effects are also pretty good. Unfortunately there are moments where the dialogue had to e dubbed in and these moments weaken what is, for the most part, a highly satisfying low-budget flick. |
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![]() I should also mention the dialogue which is creative though-out (particularly during the character narration segments). The constant references to the U.S. governments banning of William Gaines' EC Comics horror titles (Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Haunt of Fear, etc.) is quite interesting, as is the importance which these comics play to the lead characters. It's almost as if JMM is adapting the governments theory of what these comics could do to the youth of America (turn them onto mindless and random violence) and applying that to his lead characters "Blackie" and "Mike". This is how I chose to read the element of the film, regardless of how ridiculous it may seem and far removed it probably was from JMM's vision and/or intent. The main cast is quite good with Jack and D'Lana (as "D'Lana / "Goliatha") shining brightest. D'Lana brings an element of subtlety to her performance which really makes it work. She can handle deadpan humor rather well and is, of course, quite photogenic. The lady has star appeal in spades. Jack travels through the films with a creeping sense of doom & desperation very evident in his performance. Kerine (Elkins) is suitably over the top throughout the film, delivering plenty of energy in a somewhat one-dimensional character. Mike is fine but isn't given a lot of opportunity to stand out amidst the other lead roles, and is therefore eclipsed by the others. Of the 'smaller part' performers Guitar Wolf (as the aliens / "Men In Black") are wicked fun (and visually steal the show). Sexploitation film pioneer / producer / icon David F. Friedman plays "the Elder" (essentially playing himself as a cigar-chomping, wise old patriarch) and is good. Hugh Brooks and Ghetty Chasun also put in solid performances (Hugh was great in "Teenage Tupelo" as rockabilly star "Johnny Tu-Note"). Torontonians should hit Suspect Video and check the film out for themselves. Call 'em up, tell 'em ya want it, and tell 'em Glenn sent ya. Suspect Video (416) 588-6674 & (416) 50-7135. |
![]() I feel compelled to begin my review by clarifying that I am better than you. I am smarter. I am better versed in all cultures, philosophies, religions, and mass-mediums. While you are certainly entitled to your own opinions, chances are they're wrong. I would hazard to guess that there are less than a hundred people in the world that will appropriately understand and appreciate Sore Losers. Statistically, it is unlikely that you'll be among them. Statistically, you're probably an inferior film-goer. But hey, you've got a one in sixty-five million chance of being as spectacularly flawless in taste as yours truly. Luckily, you don't have a worthy forum for your opinions. Your diseased taste can only affect the pimps and pigs near and dear to you, creatures beyond help as it is. But I, on the other hand, sing songs that make the Furies weep. As Orpheus, my words are pure and true. And truly, Sore Losers is the single most important film of the past ten years. It has single-handedly renewed my faith in the waning format. For eighty-nine minutes, I was engaged in an epiphanic indiscretion with cinematic genius, sexy and unrestrained. This holy visage is something akin to the maximalist contempt of Gregg Araki, but with the playful filthiness of a John Waters exploit. Surely this film is a treasure misplaced by angels. It goes like this: A men-only alien race, the invisible Lo-Fi Frequency, send assassins to earth under the guise of preserving western culture. The missions are of the highest social importance, and failure on the part of an assassin would leave him labeled a loser, or worse, exiled to earth forevermore. Lo-Fi elder David Friedman (yes, motherfucking sexploitation legend David fucking Friedman!) dispatches Blackie to Memphis, Tennessee in 1955 to kill twelve beatniks. Trouble is his time is short, and the coffeehouse subculture isn't exactly thriving in the area. He only manages to kill nine and returns in disgrace. Forty-two years later, he is sent back to earth to finish the job. He tracks down his blood brother, Mike Maker, and the two promptly kill a nurse and a convenient shop owner. Fate joins them with Kerine, a voluptuous, leather clad hermaphrodite with a propensity toward murder. Blackie grants him/her immortality, and he/she offers to kill his/her mother, thus completing the assignment. But in the heat of passion, Kerine kills both her mother and father, thus bringing the death count to thirteen. Blackie is once more a loser. |
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![]() The elders give Blackie one more chance to redeem himself. He is ordered to sacrifice Goliatha, a motorcycle-riding strongwoman, thus raising Kerine's mother (the thirteenth victim) back from the dead, effectively resetting the count to twelve. Simple enough. Or it would be without the meddling of a team of an intergalactic FBI agents and mysterious Men in Black (played by the beloved members of Japanese punk band Guitar Wolf!!!). Also in the mix is a topless angel and a boa-constrictor whom dispense beers of knowledge, another Lo-Fi loser, and enough 1950s comics and Johnson Smith catalog goodies to give collectors a four-hour erection. You see, I told you you wouldn't fucking get it. Why don't you go revisit Jaws or Princess Bride and leave the intelligent viewing to me, huh? What makes this film so incredible isn't the acting, or the sound work, or the editing, or the DVD cover art, or even the soundtrack, though the soundtrack is quite impressive. No, this film is amazing simply because it exists at all. To say I am overly skeptical of the future of film would be an understatement. The trends are depressing, to say the least. Studio productions are created solely by marketing surveys, marginalized for maximum appeal until they are stripped of anything distinctive or creative. Independent filmmakers, meanwhile, are drowning in a world where affordable DV equipment and YouTube promotion means every five-year-old with a lawnmower can manufacture a biography on his fucking cat. There simply isn't room for inventiveness, nor has there been for thirty years. Finding this experimental and gritty gem was like discovering a living fossil. But as amazing as the carnivorous amphibian Koolasuchus is, it doesn't even begin to approach the value of Sore Losers. Obviously, my pretentious diatribe is mostly in jest, though I really am better than you. But it is true, most people will not like this film. But I loved it, so I wholeheartedly encourage you to seek it out, which could be tricky. The Guerrilla Monster homepage is as good a place as any to start. The Moral of the Story: When space alien elders tell you to kill hippies, you should stop to ponder their motives. |
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