Synapse Films to Release Special Edition Blu-ray of “The Kindred”

IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN, SYNAPSE FILMS UNLEASHES “THE KINDRED” SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY ON OCTOBER 25TH!

In the 25 year history of Synapse Films perhaps no film in the company's storied history had as long a road to shelves as The Kindred, which took many years and a lot of hard work to complete.  Now, The Kindred is finally unleashed on Blu-ray this October 25th with a stellar new 4K restoration of the complete, unrated version of the film, accompanied by plenty of extras, making it perfect monstrous viewing for Halloween 2022!

 

Academy Award-winning screen legends Rod Steiger (In the Heat of the Night; Duck, You Sucker) and Kim Hunter (A Streetcar Named Desire; Planet of the Apes) star in The Kindred, a chilling tale of a genetic experiment gone wrong… very wrong!

The Bookmobile

In the latest episode, Joseph and Mike talked about visiting the bookmobile.

In case you've never had the experience, here's what they looked like:

They could - and did - vary in appearance depending on where they were operated and who was funding it. Sometimes they were converted old school buses, but most often they looked similar to this fella. You can tell by the yellow and brown color scheme that this was most likely from the 70s.

As for the interior:

This is a view looking from the front towards the back.  You would check your stuff out at the little station in the very back.  Again, not every bookmobile was laid out exactly like all of the others, but this is a pretty good look at the general layout you'd see.

Did you ever visit your local bookmobile?  Let us know!

"Paperback Writer"

Episode #123

As a follow-up to the previous episode, Joseph and Mike discuss R.I.F. - the old Reading Is Fundamental program, going to the library, and paying visits to the beloved Bookmobile. New regular segment "Gift, Keep, Ditch" features foes of Godzilla, and there's even an announcement about a new contest for another free movie on Blu-ray!

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/whenitwascool/Uphill_Both_Ways_123_Paperback_Writer.mp3

Movie Review: “Ip Man: The Awakening” (2022)

“Someone must stand up to injustice!”

-by Mike Imboden

Right out of the gate I should state that I’m not a martial arts connoisseur and do not have a vast knowledge of the genre.  That’s not to say I’m clueless - I mean, I grew up watching various incarnations of “Kung Fu Theater” on TV (since it usually followed pro wrestling on TV back in the 80s), and I’ve seen plenty of films since then - so I’m mainly putting that out there so I don’t get lambasted if I state something obvious or incorrectly attribute one thing or another.  I also say that because, previous to this, I have not seen any of the Ip Man movies.  Nope - not any of the Donnie Yen ones (which I need to correct because I hear they are amazing), nor any of the others that came along trying to cash in on Yen’s successful run portraying the master of the Wing Chun style of fighting who also happened to be Bruce Lee’s teacher.

It might be because of all that that I liked Ip Man: The Awakening a bit more than it was worth liking.

Movie Review: “Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan and T. Rex” (2022)

Tribeca Festival Film Review: “Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan and T. Rex” (2022) 

by Joseph Perry

Many American rock music fans may only be familiar with British musician Marc Bolan’s band T. Rex as the act that had a smash 1970s hit with “Bang a Gong (Get It On),” but Bolan and his band’s popularity in their home country was huge, approaching that of The Beatles at their heyday. The new documentary film Angelheaded Hipster: The Songs of Marc Bolan and T. Rex and the accompanying tribute album of the same name should help introduce the history of this enigmatic rock star and his work to new listeners and those unfamiliar with his legacy, while showing the influence that Bolan had on rock musicians through the decades during his career and after his untimely death at the age of only 29 in 1977.

Ip Man Contest

 As for our contest; Back in 1974 Carl Douglas knew that everybody was kung-fu fighting.  What we want to know is who are three of your favorite cinematic kung-fu fighters? 

We’re going to be nice and allow you to pick from ANY decade, so pretty much any martial arts star is fair game.  Just visit our Facebook page, send your answer to us on Twitter @UBWPodcast, or email us at IpManContest@ubwpodcast.com and we’ll pick three responses at random to win a Blu ray copy of “IP MAN: THE AWAKENING” provided to us by the fine folks at Well Go USA. The deadline to enter is June 30th and you need to live in the United States to win.

Movie Review - "The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue" (1974)

In 1968 with The Night of the Living Dead, George Romero ushered in the modern take on the zombie that all know today; shambling, bloodthirsty, and hard to (re)kill outside of a bullet to the brain.  Throughout the next decade until his sequel, Dawn of the Dead, landed, there were many similar, or at least like-minded entries in the sub-genre out of Europe. Jean Rollin’s Grapes of Death (1978), Bob Clark’s Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1973), and Jorge Grau's Living Dead at Manchester Morgue are just a few. Here in the latter, as the synopsis reads, "A strange twist of fate brings two young travelers, George (Ray Lovelock - The Cassandra Crossing) and Edna (Christine Galbo - What Have You Done to Solange?), to a small town where an experimental agricultural machine may be bringing the dead back to life! As zombies infest the area and attack the living, a bullheaded detective (Arthur Kennedy) thinks the couple are Satanists responsible for the local killings. George and Edna have to fight for their lives, and prove their innocence, as they try to stop the impending zombie apocalypse!"

Happy Father's Day!

8 From the 80s: Forgotten Dramas

Each installment Mike will look back to the decade of decadence and provide a list of eight things – from movies to music to memorable moments and everything in-between.  Keep in mind, this isn’t a TOP 8 list and any numerical notations are included to merely designate one item from another. Because, frankly, how can you rate one thing over another when it comes from a decade as totally tubular as the 80s?

Forgotten Dramas

“Drama” might not be the most appropriate way to describe most of the shows on this list - fantasy or sci-fi might be a more apt category - but we’re going to keep things simple and just lump all of the non-sitcom shows into this category.  Mostly because it’s the easiest way to do it, but also because this is my column.

Anyway, on with the show!

8. T. and T. (syndicated, 1987-1990)

When The A-Team was canceled, Mr. T needed some work.  So off to Canada he went where he starred in this first run syndicated crime show from 1987-1990.  All but forgotten beyond hardcore Mr. T fans, T. and T. told the story of T.S. Turner, a boxer who was framed for a crime he didn’t commit, but instead of hanging out with George Peppard, T was “rescued” by lawyer Amy Taler and the two of them solved crime together.

“A Nightmare on Elm Street 4” Costars Reunite for New Eighties Throwback Horror Film “The Bloody Man”

Your friendly neighborhood Uphill Both Ways podcasters love themselves a good eighties horror film, and well-done cinematic homages to that era, too. It looks like we have a strong candidate for the latter with the upcoming release of The Bloody Man! Read all about it in the official press information below, and check out the official trailer and poster!

Wild Eye Releasing have acquired the rights to director Daniel Benedict’s The Bloody Man, a supernatural horror film reuniting A Nightmare On Elm Street 4 : The Dream Master stars Lisa Wilcox and Tuesday Knight.

Penned by Daniel and Casi Benedict, and produced by Red Serial Films, the film tells of a young boy who, after the death of his mother, becomes obsessed with a comic book she gave him that ultimately summons the ancient monster found in its pages.

Mercedez Varble, Dan Eardley, Jason Crowe, Roni Jonah and KateLynn E. Newberry join Wilcox and Knight in the film, which is said to encompass high-end production values and plays like a cocktail of A Nightmare On Elm Street, The Goonies and Stranger Things. Wild Eye will premiere the film on digital on July 12 before releasing on physical formats later.

“Godzilla: The Official Guide to the King of the Monsters” Roars into Bookstores This September

Uphill Both Ways readers and podcast listeners know that Mike and Joseph are huge fans of Godzilla, so they are anticipating — as all aficionados of The Big Fella should be — Welbeck Publishing’s incredible tome Godzilla: The Official Guide to the King of the Monsters, due September 13, 2022. Written by writer/actor/director/producer and full-on Godzilla enthusiast Graham Skipper (of Sequence Break fame), this is the first officially licensed book to cover the complete Godzilla movie franchise, including both Japanese and Western films. Following is information from the official press announcement.

Discover the complete history of Godzilla in this definitive, official guide to the King of the Monsters.

Godzilla: The Official Guide to the King of the Monsters celebrates more than 60 years of movie mayhem in an exceptional, fully illustrated book. An official publication in partnership with Toho Co., this must-read guide brings together every incarnation of the world’s most famous creature for the first time – including all the Japanese and Western movies, as well as Godzilla’s most celebrated appearances in TV, comics and video games.

"Everyday I Write the Book"

Episode #122

Ernest Hemingway once said "There is no friend as loyal as a book" and if that's true, then Joseph and Mike have an army of buddies! Join the guys as the talk about the books that they read as kids back in the 70s (and early 80s) and find out who read works by people like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and who read Beverly Clearly and the ghost writers behind the Franklin W. Dixon pseudonym. We'd say this episode is a "real page turner", but, well - it's a podcast and that wouldn't make a lot of sense. So click the link and listen already!

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/whenitwascool/Uphill_Both_Ways_122_Everyday_I_Write_the_Book.mp3

Corinth Films’ Science Fiction Triple Feature Picture Show

Way back in olden times when watching a movie meant going to a theater or tuning into whatever was playing on the few TV channels available, there was a lot less to be picky about.  It was during this era that many of us, including myself and podcast co-host Joseph Perry, were exposed to classic sci-fi and horror films from a couple of decades earlier thanks to local horror-host programs that regularly aired those genre films. The rarity of being able to watch this stuff back then made it easier to ignore their shortcomings and enjoy them all the more. Now, in the digital age of entertainment, a lot of these films are unavailable or are poor quality transfers usually airing on free services that plunk commercials into their movies on a clockwork schedule regardless of what’s happening in the film.  The ones that HAVE gotten a physical release were from a while back, mainly when DVDs were the next best thing after videotapes - and even then the quality was sometimes lacking due to compression used in order to squeeze as many films onto a disc as possible.

Movie Review: "Row 19" (2022)

"...in Russia, Spooky Plane Find You!"

-by Mike Imboden

Right outta’ the chute I need to say that we here at Uphill Both Ways were of two minds when it came to this. On one hand, it’s a Russian production and, well, the last thing we want to be doing here is supporting that country these days.  Since we’re Gen Xers here we grew up with the USSR as our “boogeyman”, so it’s not a huge leap for us to wash our hands of anything to do with Russia.  On the other hand, however, we’ve got no real way of knowing if the people involved with Row 19 support their country’s current actions, so would it be fair of us to hold them accountable and disregard their film?  Ultimately we agreed that ignoring the film would be something that they’d do, and we’re supposed to be better than them, right?  Art is art whether you agree with it or not, so after drawing the short straw I got a screener from Well Go USA and sat down to see what we had sold our souls for (I’m kidding - we didn’t sell or souls - but we DO have to say “do svidaniya tovarishch” whenever we sign off on our podcast now).

So, Row 19.

Quick Update

Congrats to the winners of our Row 19 contest.  There were some interesting - some scary, some kind of funny - entries and we enjoyed reading them all.  While we wanted to give everyone a copy of the movie, we only had the few that Well Go USA provided for us, so we tossed everyone's names in a virtual hat and had our buddy RetroBot 2XL choose the winners. If you didn't get picked, don't sweat it - we've got a new contest for another free movie which we'll announce on this week's show!

Here on the website we'll have our review of the aforementioned Row 19, a new "8 From the 80s" entry, and any bits of news that come across our collective desk that we think you all might find noteworthy.