Category: TYTD Reviews

Finishing the Complete Twelfth Season (2022)

Season 12 was a season punctuated with several rather big moments for the channel, ones im very proud of. It was the season that helped us ease into monthly streaming, it was the season to feature our longest review (“Sweet Insanity” – Thanks to Peckingforgoodtv for being a good sport on that one!) it featured probably our most mainstream review (I Spit on Your Grave) and our most obscure review (Santa’s Pocket Watch)

It saw the wind down of “The Comedy Dining Experience” and probably our crowning achievement for the year, as not only did we smash through 150k views (for the 2nd time I might add) BUT! we also FINALLY hit 1000 subscribers after over 6 years of weekly uploads. It’s been a hell of a road, but its one im fiercely proud of, and one that I simply couldnt have done without the help of our wonderful viewers and the many friends and creators i’ve made along the way.

Latter in the year seasons (basically the September – December stint) are always a little less fun for me. Don’t get me wrong! they ARE still very fun, otherwise I wouldnt do them the way I do. But with the pressure to do spooky stuff at Halloween and Christmassy stuff at Christmas, it usually means that at least 8-10 of my 16-18 slots for the year are eaten up with a rigidly structured type of arrangement. one of the things I really love about the February – June/July run is the fact that it’s in total free flow. I can plan the season out months in advance, but all it takes is one release to creep into my radar and I can easily swap it into the schedules with no problem. With the September – December run, im not as carefree.

But this year was a little bit different, Being able to collab with so many wonderful people across this season really helped to keep things fresh and keep my interest on the ball. The fact this years halloween special theme was “Poundland Horror” meant I wasnt rigidly stuck to one genre for a full month and could relax into the season quite nicely. and even the christmas specials were perked up somewhat by being able to tackle movies like “Winterbeast” with George. It just made things a lot less dogmatic and more, just for the fun of it. Yes I didnt get to do everything I wanted to do this season, but I got like; 95% of it done, and thats good enough for me!

Of the two seasons that made up 2022, Season 11 was probably the most fun to work on, but Season twelve was almost certainly the most rewarding. The former was the last hurrah to my old system, and the latter was me basically relearning how to do my trade having upgraded all my kit over the summer. and Season 12b (Im not calling it Season 13, theres no way im cursing this thing right out of the gate) is going to be the biggest and longest season we’ve ever done to date! I honestly cant wait for you guys to see it when we premiere on Feb 3rd 2023!

All I can say is, Season 12 was a fun one, and I hope 2023 keeps that postive energy coming!

by tytdreviews

A Wrestling Christmas Miracle – (2020)

Not content with ONE dose of Ken Del Veccio madness in the form of ‘A Karate Christmas Miracle‘ I just HAD to keep digging and eventually wind up watching it’s spiritual sequel. Because of COURSE I did.

What I will say for this film is, across the board, its better than the first film technically. that still doesnt save it from being demented in my opinion.

I really hope they make this duology a trilogy some day, as Id love to get a nice tryptic going with these films. I dunno…maybe ‘A Ballet Christmas Miracle’?, ‘A Golfing Christmas Miracle’? hmm…how about ‘A Kickboxing Christmas Miracle’? that one could have legs (LITERALLY!)

In either case, the madness is over…for now, and I can finally get back to covering other christmas specials like ‘The Christmas Consultant.’ *shudders*

This poster is not as good as ‘A Karate Christmas Miracle’ in my opinion.
by tytdreviews

Santas Pocket Watch (Santas Time Piece) – (1988)

This films a total enigma, I honestly spent more time researching for it than the runtime of the film, the time it took to write the script, edit the script and edit the video for the review. theres literally almost nothing out there. But…this is the danger of what happens when things fall through the cracks. you end up with releases where theres not even a thread that could open up exploratory options. This films a total dead end and it’s a shame because its curmugeonly and charming in equal measures.

Dont get me wrong, it’s nothing amazing. But I feel it captures a warmth that you just dont see in a lot of contemporary christmas movies. So if you can find a copy (its pretty proliferated) and you can find it cheap, i’d say absolutely go for it!

I find it hilarious that the title of this film has next to NOTHING to do with this film.
by tytdreviews

Winterbeast – (1992)

Well, its a bit late! but heres the first of our christmas specials, and rather wonderfully, we’re welcoming back George from The Best Little Horror House In Philly to help us take on a stop motion cult classic like you’ve never seen!

The one big thing I can say about this is, I didnt actually pick up on the ‘Twin Peak’ themes and references (to my UTTER shame) until George sent his side of the script over! I was so busy focussing on the execution I totally missed it! but im SO glad George caught it, because as soon as I heard it, suddenly the whole thing took on a completely new life!

It’s kind of a good news/bad news with Winterbeast. the good news is Vinegar syndrome have done a lovely restoration of it on bluray! the bad news is, it’s part of the ‘Home Grown Horrors’ boxset which only has a limited number of copies left! So nab this while you can! and thank you SO much to George for jumping in on this one with me 🙂 he’s awesome and I hope we get to work together agains soon!

by tytdreviews

Camp Blood 2 (2000)

If Nukie is a film that isnt worth your Vitriol. Camp Blood 2 ABSOLUTELY is. my GOD this films dull and incompitent.

…thats all I have to say, Having now seen Camp Blood 3 (within the woods) I can say this is*probably* the most watchable of the 3. But thats REALLY not saying much.

Ugh.
by tytdreviews

*Sigh*… Nukie (1987)

…Look, whatever I say at this point is VERY likely to be overshadowed by the frankly ludicrous events that Red Letter Media have comitted in January 2022, auctioning off a sealed copy of Nukie for tens (possibly hundreds by the time the auction closes) of dollars after woodchipping 103 OTHER copies.

While I absolutely found tremendous catharsis in seeing that happen (please feel free to destroy as many copies of ‘Nukie’ as can be collected. At the same time, they absolutley havent helped my case here. The entire point of the below review was to basically say ‘Dont put this film on a pedestal. its actual garbage, its beyond boring, its beyond any form of actual critical note, just leave it and let it fall off the radar and into obscurity’

What they’ve done has now meant that that absolutely cant and wont happen, and that, if anything, it’s much more likely than ever to get some kind of Bluray release. I honestly have no further comment to make about this film than what I say in my below review. I wont be selling my copy of ‘Nukie’ to make a quick buck, nor will I be proliferating the “Oh man! it’s SO bad! YOU GOTTA SEE IT!” myth.

I repeat what I said in my review here; Nukie is an unremakrable film that should be forgotten and isnt worth your time. it’s not worth anything close to a ‘status’ and if you want affirmation that what im saying is correct, look at how much time the RLM guys ACTUALLY spent reviewing this movie. it’s THAT unremarkable.

GOD I hate Nukie.
by tytdreviews

Champagne and Bullets (GETEVEN) – 1993

Champagne and Bullets was another one of those films that kept getting pushed back, missing out on being a part of previous seasons by a hairs Breadth. Originally scheduled for Season 10 it JUST missed out and ended up getting pushed back to Season 11, where it got as far as being recorded and put on the timeline ready to edit, before another film came in (Night of the Demon) that JUST pushed it out once again into this season.

A long time coming, I have kind of mixed feelings ultimately about Champagne and Bullets. I think it definitely has its moments, but on the whole, I can think of ‘entertainingly bad’ movies that appeal to me more. it’s still a good time for the most part and I can absolutely recommend checking it out, if you can ever find a DVD copy (the Bluray copies now long out of print and goes for silly money)

by tytdreviews

The American Ninja 5 (1993)

And so, we arrive at the end of our coverage of the ‘American Ninja’ sequels (dont ask about the original…we’ll do that one at some point, but lord knows when) and…well…it’s been a bit of a death spiral since part 2, But part 5 was kinda, sorta, not as bad as part 4! Yes, it isnt *technically* an ‘American Ninja’ movie, yes it has David Bradley in it playing a COMPLETELY different character from the last two films and YES, it was a bit of a hatchet Cannon job…but then, the best films they made WERE often cheap cash ins on bigger movies and balls to the wall action goodness.

In that sense, this film honestly excels and I would really rather consider it the *true* ending to the franchise, than have to sit through ‘American Ninja 4′ again…

So this review was blocked in most places, which is a pain. But i’ve split the video out into a US friendly and EU friendly version. which you can access here.

by tytdreviews

The Giant Claw (1957)

One of the first collabs of the season and we landed an absolute winner with Jonathan North, I was first put in touch with Jonathan via Trivial Theater who’s good friends with Jonathan and has appeared on his channel multiple times reviewing family friendly cult classics. Obviously given the nature of my content, I didnt want to scare the guy too badly with ‘Wicked World’ or ‘The Corpse Grinders’ So I thought i’d have him on to talk about a movie thats been on my ‘To Cover’ list more or less since I started the channel!

I love ‘The Giant Claw’ I unapologetically love it, its cheesy, goofy, easy on the gore but surprisingly violent and the titular Giant Claw doesnt get nearly enough credit for being as interesting a creature as it is.

While I dont think I won Jonathan over totally, he was kind enough to invite me onto his channel over Christmas 2022, which was very nice of him. and I of course would love to have him back some day.

Easily one of those films where the poster is doing a HELL of a lot of heavy lifting here.
by tytdreviews

Wicked World (1992/2019)

When it came to an opening episode for season 12, it was really a case of the planets quite wonderfully aligning. I have a real soft spot for the works of Barry J. Gillis. Ever since I first caught his opening feature “Things” damn near a decade ago, I’ve been entertained and impressed with his work ever since and when AGFA announced early last year that they were reissuing Barry’s 2nd feature “Wicked World” well, it all fell into place. I’d just started work on this season at that point, and it arrived WELL in time for me to cover it.

So! given the draught of Gillis titles i’d covered on the channel, his big bluray debute of “Wicked World” really seemed like a no brainer! it has everything you could possibly want in a Gillis movie and more!

If you’d like to grab a copy of Wicked world, theres limited stock available via Vinegar Syndrome Here

And for you really wild cats out there, Barry actually has a new film currently in production and due out imminently with updates coming via his facebook page, which I highly recommend checking Here

Seriously, AGFA have done some lovely work here and the set’s MORE than worth the price of admission to me. one I can definitely recommend!
by tytdreviews