Hunt, William Dennis

Flesh Gordon

Directors Howard Ziehm and Michael Benveniste draw from the same cliffhanging Flash Gordon serials of the 1930s as the glitzy 1980 tongue-in-cheek space opera for their soft-core spoof. Hockey hero Flesh Gordon and often-naked love interest Dale Ardor join Dr. Jerkoff in his battle against the mad Emperor Wang from the planet Porno, who has unleashed his diabolical sex ray on the Earth. Full of toilet humor, juvenile sexual innuendo, and unending naked romps and orgies, it's hardly in the same company as the Mel Brooks genre goofs Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. But amidst the slack direction, flat performances, and grungy photography are some lovingly crafted low-tech effects, including marvelous stop-motion creatures from Jim Danforth and spaceships courtesy of future Oscar winners Greg Jein and Dennis Muren. The film's best sequence is a King Kong tribute with a giant rampaging satyr (voiced by an uncredited Craig T. Nelson, who ad-libs quips in a cultured but expletive-filled whine) kidnapping Dale as Flesh buzzes him his phallic space ship. All the restoration in the world won't make this dark, grainy, bargain-basement parody look any better, but the retro effects, inspired score, and playful attitude make this silly sex romp a kitschy cult item from the randy 1970s. --Sean Axmaker

Dr. Giggles

Strictly for horror buffs with an appetite for gratuitous gore and bloodshed, Dr. Giggles is appropriately titled, since the title character (played by Larry Drake, best known as Benny from TV's L.A. Law) is a psychotic killer who chuckles uncontrollably as he eviscerates his victims. Having escaped from a mental hospital, he returns to the town where he was raised to seek bloody revenge on those responsible for the death of his mad doctor father. His chosen payback method is a lot of unnecessary surgery. But then he takes pity on a teenaged girl who desperately needs a heart transplant. Of course, he's got plenty of involuntary donors! That should tell you enough to know if you'd actually want to watch this movie, which is actually worth a few laughs--or at least a few giggles--if you're into this kind of thing. Drake puts everything he's got into his performance, and you have to admire his effort in the service of a lost cause. --Jeff Shannon

When the psychopathic son of a mass-murdering doctor escapes from a mental institution, he seeks revenge on the citizens of the town where his father was finally captured. The giggling new "doctor" uses the surgical skills he picked up from his father and a near-lifetime spent in and around medical facilities to gruesomely do away with his victims while he awaits the chance to perform his ultimate revenge -- giving one of the townsfolk a heart transplant, without anesthesia!

Critters 3 - You Are What They Eat

Flesh-starved furballs invade an L.A.

Father Christmas

This irreverent Santa breaks from tradition in many ways. He has no Mrs., owns only four reindeer, and decides to convert his sleigh into an airborne motor home for a pre-Christmas vacation. He finds France too snooty, Scotland too cold, and Las Vegas just right. Tanned and rested, he returns to the North Pole in time to sort through the mail, pack up the toys, and hit the skies. Like the Santa of the Raymond Briggs book on which this 24-minute video is loosely based, he narrates his own story (splendidly voiced by Los Angeles stage actor William Dennis Hunt). But fans of the 1973 book will find the animated version far less cranky than the original. Although the book was aimed at ages 4-8, the video may have a wider appeal, depending on how you feel about the children seeing Santa gambling at the casino tables, dreaming of bikini-clad babes, and suffering a bout of diarrhea. --Kimberly Heinrichs

Dr. Giggles

Strictly for horror buffs with an appetite for gratuitous gore and bloodshed, Dr. Giggles is appropriately titled, since the title character (played by Larry Drake, best known as Benny from TV's L.A. Law) is a psychotic killer who chuckles uncontrollably as he eviscerates his victims. Having escaped from a mental hospital, he returns to the town where he was raised to seek bloody revenge on those responsible for the death of his mad doctor father. His chosen payback method is a lot of unnecessary surgery. But then he takes pity on a teenaged girl who desperately needs a heart transplant. Of course, he's got plenty of involuntary donors! That should tell you enough to know if you'd actually want to watch this movie, which is actually worth a few laughs--or at least a few giggles--if you're into this kind of thing. Drake puts everything he's got into his performance, and you have to admire his effort in the service of a lost cause. --Jeff Shannon

The Snowman & Father Christmas

The Snowman
This charming British animated short film (it's just 23 minutes long) is a 1982 production of London's Channel 4, based on the classic children's book by Raymond Briggs and crafted with a colored-pencils-on-paper look, like fluffy, hand-drawn illustrations. Small children should be entranced by the story of a small boy in rural England whose lovingly constructed snowman comes to life and takes him flying over the white-blanketed landscapes, in a beautiful rotoscoped (traced) sequence based on live-action flying footage. Part of the charm of the film is the gentle, everyday quality of its fantasy adventures: the snowman is invited in to try on clothes and play with the Christmas decorations, then plays host to the boy at a party in the woods, at which his snowy relatives do English country dances. This is one of the very few Christmas tapes on the market that really deserves to be a holiday perennial, a gentle fable of friendship and the power of imagination. --David Chute

Father Christmas
This irreverent Santa breaks from tradition in many ways. He has no Mrs., owns only four reindeer, and decides to convert his sleigh into an airborne motor home for a pre-Christmas vacation. He finds France too snooty, Scotland too cold, and Las Vegas just right. Tanned and rested, he returns to the North Pole in time to sort through the mail, pack up the toys, and hit the skies. Like the Santa of the Raymond Briggs book on which this 24-minute video is loosely based, he narrates his own story (splendidly voiced by Los Angeles stage actor William Dennis Hunt). But fans of the 1973 book will find the animated version far less cranky than the original. Although the book was aimed at ages 4-8, the video may have a wider appeal, depending on how you feel about the children seeing Santa gambling at the casino tables, dreaming of bikini-clad babes, and suffering a bout of diarrhea. --Kimberly Heinrichs

Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders [Region 2]

Flesh Gordon 2 - Flesh Gordon Meets the Cosmic Cheerleaders