Catherine Mary Stewart – Tripping Through Gateways

Grant, Biscuit and Milo are three young punk rockers who decide to drive cross country to California. But on the way, a gang robs them and kills Milo. When the police blow them off, Grant is determined to get revenge on the gang.

Along the way, Grant meets a young woman who provides he and Biscuit with new outfits and a car.

Dudes has never quite been able to get outside it’s cult movie status, in large part because it is a amalgam of genres.

The punk rock trio are fish out of water, and yet, the film follows the conventions of the western. To boot there is the supernatural element suggesting Milo and Biscuit are being helped by the long dead spirits of a cowboy and a Native American tribe slaughters by the gang leader. Is he re-incarnated? Is he a great grandson? Is it just a drug induced dream?

The tale takes Grant and Biscuit from nihilism to life with a purpose. Grant and Biscuit are both likable young guys. And you really have got to try hard to not like Catherine Mary Stewart.

Dudes is a fun adventure with a group of surprisingly endearing characters.

The world is abuzz over the arrival of a comet that will come unusually close to the earth. High schoolers Regina and Samantha are not into it and miss the show. They awake the next morning to discover that the world has changed.

Apparently, the comet came a little to close…people outside were reduced to dust, while most people indoors are simply disintegrating a bit more slowly, resulting in scary mutants. Only people, Such as Regina and Samantha, who were protected by certain environments were unaffected. After meeting up with a guy named Hector, the girls make contact with people who claim they can be of help…hint, they are not decent people.

Night of the Comet is a very teenage take on the whole “Last Person on Earth” concept. At first, there is little drama, as the girls were miserable putting up with their stepmother. So they celebrate, raiding a shopping mall. Of course, this does not last long and soon Regina, Samantha and Hector find themselves trying to escape a dark cabal of scientists. And it works pretty well. Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney are engaging leads and the film has several great b-movie favorites.

If you start to heavily scrutinize “how stuff breaks down” if there is nobody around to run it, the films tidy ending probably falls apart…but it is a fantasy and it is a fun one.

Alex Rogan is stuck in a dead end life. He, his mom and little brother live in a run down trailer park. He wants to take his girl friend Maggie and get out…but the options seem to be dwindling. His main outlet for his frustrations is a video game called Starfighter.

This leads to the most excitement the park has seen when Alex beats the game…but then it is back to real life. Until that night when Alex is visited by the video game maker. Calling himself Centauri, he invites Alex to join him on a short trip. Alex does not realize this will change his life forever.

The video game was actually a simulator that was meant to test potential pilots in an intergalactic war. Reluctant at first, Alex finds himself forced to put himself aside to help in something much larger than he.

The Last Starfighter is imaginative and fun, with a great cast of characters. Alex (Played by Lance Guest) is a likable dreamer, which is important as such characters can also come off as painfully whiny. Instead, you genuinely feel for him when his college goals seem crushed. Catherine Mary Stewart (Night of the Comet) is Maggie, who is more down to earth, not as worried about escaping the potential future of their small town life.

Centauri is one of those big idea pitchmen who is certain Alex is just what the Star League needs. He is brought to life by the great Robert Preston (Harold Hill in the 1962 version of the Music Man). Dan O’Herilihy is Grig, a jovial and kind reptilian co-pilot for Alex in their Gunstar.

Probably the biggest knock against the film is that it was made in the infancy of digital effects. Unlike Tron two years earlier, everything is not meant to look like a video game. Now, mind you, it looks like a late 90’s video game…so it was advanced for its time…but the purely digital spaceships look very low tech.

The Last Starfighter is certainly not the first story about a dreamer getting their wishes, but it is very successful at making it a fun ride. It is the humor and heart that allows it to overcome limitations such as severely outdated digital effects. The Last Starfighter is a minor science fiction classic.

The 80s were the heyday for Cannon Films. Electric Boogaloo is the story of Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. Their goal? To make Hollywood Blockbusters. Things did not quite pan out, in spite of their tries.

What we got were schlocky gimmick films and attempts to create trends with their films. This documentary chronicles the rise and fall of their studio Cannon Films.

The film talks to a thorough list of their directors, actors and employees that offer a entertaining and fascinating look at the studio’s rise from sexploitation films to goofy dance films to Chuck Norris actioners.

The film offers some interesting tidbits I was unaware of. One example? The Chuck Norris Vietnam POW action flick Missing In Action was actually the second film. The director of the film told Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus the first film (which was not yet released) was terrible. So they released the sequel as Missing In Action, and the first film was released as Missing in Action 2: The Beginning.

I found the documentary was interesting and enjoyable. The Cannon world was a crazy one. Interestingly, the cousins refused to be interviewed for the documentary, instead funding their own (the Go-Go Boys: The Inside Story of Cannon Films) and beating Electric Boogaloo in release by three months.

Tag: Catherine Mary Stewart

Sick of Waiting for the World to End (Dudes, 1987)

Home Alone (Night of the Comet, 1984)

Over Achiever (the Last Starfighter, 1984)

Cannon Blasts (Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films, 2014)