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We continue passing the savings off to you!  More Alpha Home Video releases and a few others.

Man, oh man....I can't get enough o' this company.  Their output is fairly impressive, and so-far, they're a cult film and B-fan's wet dream, with a catalog growing to rival schlock movie masters, Goodtimes Home Video (the kings of the mid-to-late 1980s) and their heirs, Rhino Home Video (home of the MST3k video, amongst other things).  And...to beat all...they're so goddamn cheap.  The Alpha website lists all DVD releases for 5.98, and the highest I've ever paid in a retail outlet is 7.99.

First up for this round of Cheap-Assathon 2003 is an old favorite of mine, Gene Autry's foray into sci-fi, Mascot Pictures 1935 THE PHANTON EMPIRE.  I'm a long-time cliffhanger serial fan, as well as having a more than natural interest in the oddity known as "The Singin' Cowboy", especially the works of Autry.  So, needless to say...I had to have these discs. The Plot:  Evil archeologists discover that Aurty's ranch is atop an ancient underground city called Murania, and stop at nothing to see Gene lose it.  Along the way, the country and western crooner goes underground (the entrance to the city looks alot like Bromson Canyon), where he and his comedy reliefs

Alpha's two disc PHANTOM EMPIRE release

(one portrayed by a personal favorite, Smiley Burnette) battle a wicked queen and her army of extras from the Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials and goofy robots to keep Radio Ranch on the air.   Fun is had by all.  THE END.   This was an eagerly awaited release for me, because it was the first serial I ever saw (having caught it a chapter at a time on the old PBS show "Matinee at the Bijou" in my youth).  It also meant I could finally retire my Rhino Home Video "Channel 1000" two tape VHS set I've had for an eternity.  The transfer is fairly clear, with some slight (what seems to be) MPEG artifacting during some of the early chapters on Volume One.  The best to be expected I guess for a film of this age that has never had a proper restoration.  The audio is hideous, as it is in every other release I've seen, though, with a constant hiss hovering on the soundtrack.

Next...we stray a little from the gospel of Alpha into the open arms of MGM's Midnite Movies collection for their new Psych-Out/ The Trip double feature disc.  At the 12.99 retail I pay for these things, they still qualify as being Cheap-Ass , even though MGM is a major, mainstream manufacturer, because ....well..it's 2 flicks for under 20 bucks, man.  This disc in particular is well worth whatever cash ya pay for it, if only for the Bonus Materials included on "The Trip" side.  Two featurettes about the making of this counter-culture cult classic, plus a theatrical trailer and an audio commentary by director Roger Corman.  Plus, there's a groovy feature that allows you to turn yer TV into a psychedelic light box, man.  Far out! The Plot:  Well...um... Peter Fonda has a bad trip involving some Corman Poe flick stock footage.  That's about it.  A real bummer.  It's hilarious to see Dennis Hopper as an acid head, and Bruce Dern is hip to the scene as a friend of Fonda's character who guides him through his acid hallucinations.  The End.

It's a trip, man....

This is probably the best I've seen out of these MGM double feature discs.  The picture is great (as always with the MGM stuff) and the supplemental material is worthy of some of MGM's newer mainstream releases.  I 've never been a big fan of the hippy/drug culture stuff from the sixties (man, I really hated that when it came back as retro nostalgia when I was in high school and college, circa the early 1990s), being more of a fan of the goofy innocence present in the Elvis flicks and beach party movies of the era.  But, having dropped acid before in my misspent youth, I found the Jack Nicholson-scripted journeys into the center of your mind to be decent enough entertainment.

Last but not least in our shopping extravaganza is Ground Zero Entertainment's Kung Fu Zombie disc.  Another 12.99 purchase, this is film I've read about and knew I just had to see.  Probably the most chop-socky fun I've allowed myself to have since viewing Jackie Chan's Spiritual Kung-Fu or The Story of Ricky. The Plot:  Billy Chong fights the possessed corpse of his father and a bad-ass kung-fu vampire.  Crazy wire-work and typically goofy Asian humor abound.  The End. The picture, even though it seems to be a compressed faux widescreen, is great, thought they seem to have used a print missing a slight bit of footage at the end *they cut the shock  Night of the Living Dead inspired ending a little short.  The only extra stuff on the disc is an assortment of old school Asso American trailers of varying quality.  Still...I ain't complaining.  Reccommended.

Kung Fu Zombie