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Reviews
Pagan Invasion Volume 2: Invasion of the Godmen (1991)
Wow. This is amazing for all the wrong reasons.
I'm no expert on yogis or Hinduism, but I did get the distinct sensation that this production cherry-picked the more hollow and self-serving examples of their target for the day. Given the sheer volume of crap in the Halloween installment (which i am equipped to analyze), I can also assume most of the more damning claims are near-complete fabrications, similar to a bad Mondo film. But if you enjoy feeling a bit of righteous anger at closed-minded, manipulative people from time to time, give this a go. It gets the job done.
Pagan Invasion: Halloween Trick or Treat (1991)
....what? Haha, no, really....?
Well, this was interesting. I'd heard it was a real humdinger, and it didn't disappoint. Despite suffering from rather dry hosts and voiceovers, this is so chock-full of factual errors and laughable interviews, i found myself doing mental double-takes every couple of minutes, alternately laughing at the BS these folks are distributing with snow shovels, and glaring at yet another casual (and uninformed) swipe at other beliefs. Find it on YouTube if you can spare an hour; maybe take a drink every time someone says something blatantly false.
Transformers: Animated: S.U.V.: Society of Ultimate Villainy (2008)
An alliance of several of Detroit's human "supervillains" is presented with the deal of a lifetime- or so they believe.
Bumblebee, running off on his own against orders, fails in his attempts to capture three "supervillains" in one day- Nanosec, Angry Archer, and Professor Princess. Bee's vehicle mode has developed some sort of hiccup, characterized by a discharge of blue energy. It seems that an as-yet-unidentified Allspark fragment is causing the problem. As it turns out, that fragment is in the hands of the ironically fast-talking new villain, Slo-Mo. Her fragment, shaped like the hands of a clock and set into a pocket watch, has the ability to temporarily disable machines, and apparently reverse the aging process, as demonstrated by Nanosec's reclaimed vitality (he was last seen withered and helpless due to overuse of his super-speed suit). She has forged an alliance with the neighborhood nasties: the Society of Ultimate Villainy. Their first group caper is nearly halted by the cops, who are unaffected by Slo-Mo's timepiece(even though it clearly worked on Nanosec). However, they're invited into a nearby getaway vehicle via a mysterious cell-phone call. The driverless, Humvee-like transport gets them to safety in short order. Their newest ally recruits them over the phone to carry out a series of thefts, nabbing components that will yield a weapon that will net them a ridiculous amount of money on the open market. The S.U.V don't seem to mind not knowing who the heck they're working with, but the final component is Slo-Mo's clock, which she refuses to give up. The Hummer transforms into slick salesman Swindle, who forcibly takes the timepiece, protected from its effects by one of his innumerable gadgets. His weapon completed, Swindle calls up Megatron to shill his wares, but is stomped by the enraged S.U.V. and several Autobots bearing jimmy- rigged force-fields to protect them from Swindle's creation. Amusing moments abound; Swindle's Ron Popeil-esquire dialog, and a mustard-yellow Pokeball among his many devices, are my favorite highlights. But the S.U.V. suffers slightly from the presence of several rather goofy villains in one place at one time, and a few (minor) continuity errors are present.
Transformers: Animated: Along Came a Spider (2008)
Flashbacks abound as angry techno-organic Transformer Blackarachnia arrives to stalk the Autobots....
It's the Autobots' first Halloween, and obligatory human-child companion Sari Sumdac is getting them into the spirit of the season. Optimus Prime is feeling distracted, though, and as Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Sari head out to go trick-or-treating (in vampire, ghost, and classic-series Optimus costumes, respectively), we're treated to a series of flashbacks to his early days in the Autobot Academy, when he, the pompous Sentinel, and power-mimicking Elita-1 snuck out onto a restricted-access planet in search of an abandoned Decepticon vessel- and the Energon cache that presumably remained inside. After a vicious skirmish with giant spider- like creatures and a hurried retreat which led them to their original goal, the trio were almost home free(minus the Energon, in favor of running more quickly) when Elita-1 fell behind and was seemingly destroyed when the Energon blew up. Prime's brooding is interrupted when Bumblebee calls him up with a request for help; Sari, 'Bee and Bulkhead are being followed by a giant spider-like creature...As Optimus rolls out, the spider-thing reveals itself as the surprisingly curvaceous Blackarachnia, incapacitating the costumed Autobot duo. When Prime arrives, she sends him careening across the street, then takes off with Sari. In a showdown on the rooftops, Blackarachnia reveals herself to be Elita-1, now a half-organic "freak" due to her desperate attempt to survive by "copying" the spider-things' abilities on that fateful day we've been revisiting. She's come for Sari's Allspark Key, with which she plans to purge herself of her organic components, becoming normal once more. Her plan backfires, though, and it turns out she can no longer survive without said components. Optimus saves her, but she states it'll be a long time before she'll trust an Autobot again, and makes good her escape with a nasty sting to Prime's chest. The episode concludes with Optimus sadly reflecting on his having (even mistakenly) abandoned his friend on that distant world, and the bitter creature that was once Elita-1 sobs quietly atop a night- shrouded building. All in all, the genuine angst balanced by occasional comic relief makes this a well-put-together tale that adds even more depth to already impressive characters.
Transformers: Animated: Garbage in, Garbage out (2008)
There's a new 'bot in town, and his name is Wreck-Gar. Classic shout-outs ahoy!
Sadly, I never caught this on TV, but went so far as to track it down on YouTube, braving the insufferable loading time of my sub-par computer. It was well worth it. In this gem of an episode, an Allspark fragment animates a garbage truck. The face of the constantly cheerful Wreck-Gar, remarkably similar to Mr. Yankovic's, is but the first of several nods and in-jokes. His helmet is an old-fashioned TV, a shout-out to his 80's incarnation, who spoke almost entirely in television quotes, and whose action figure makes a cameo appearance among the collection of random junk in our new hero's backpack. The ridiculously suggestible, help-anybody-who-asks Wreck-Gar derives his name from his initial moniker of "worthless wreck; walking pile of garbage", and proceeds to accidentally foil the capture of local B- grade villain, the Angry Archer, sow confusion and garbage amongst the populace, and prematurely set off Lugnut's Punch of Kill Everything, mistaking the wind-up of Luggy's signature attack for a high-five- while reciting the Universal Greeting from The Transformers: The Movie. Later, driving a garbage scow infested with Allspark-mutated, frighteningly omnivorous nanobots toward the city (believing that he is meant to deliver garbage to the populace), he responds to Ratchet's protests with "I am Wreck- Gar; I dare to be stupid!" Loaded as it is with references to the original movie, this is an ideal place to start for fans of the classic series who aren't sure how well Animated will stack up. I highly recommend it.