Van Dammage: The Tape Freaks Binge

Once upon a time the Tape Freaks household was sucked into an epic Jean-Claude Van Damme marathon. We watched 36 of his films from 1986-2012 leading up to the release of Expendables 2, and each one was wonderful in it's own right. Here are some of the tidbits we learned on our epic journey through the Jean-Claude Van Damme catalogue.

He plays doubles more than you'd think: If you were to guess, you might say JCVD played his double in maybe two movies. But you'd be wrong, because Van Damme played his double in four different movies. Early on he played twins in Double Impact, and then later on in Maximum Risk (though both twins are never on screen at the same time in that one). He also played multiples of his character in Time Cop, and in Replicant he plays his character's genetic copy. (Replicant is the outlier of the group as it came out in 2001, and the other three came out in the 90s. Why was that so popular in the 90s?)

Bloodsport and Kickboxer are basically the same movie: And we watched them way too close together.

JCVD had to cool it on doing the high kicks: His signature high kicks were apparently extremely hard on his hips, forcing him to have surgery on both. (Rumor has it that not long after his surgery, he shot that commercial where he does the splits over two semi trucks.)

Almost all of his movies explain his accent in throwaway dialogue, but it's (almost) never about him being Belgian: There are lines in his movies about being everything from French to French-Canadian, but only in JCVD do the filmmakers go with him being Belgian. (Though JCVD takes place in Brussels, so it hardly counts.) This would be less aggravating if Van Damme hadn't been referred to as "The Muscles from Brussels" for most of his career.

He had a reality TV show: Oh no, I'm sorry according to his IMDB he had a "TV series documentary", my mistake. Never the less, if you wanted to know all about what JCVD was getting up to in 2011, I'm sure you can find the whole series on the internet.

July's Mystery Move: First Clue

Clue #1: This month's theme is Van Dammage! That's right, we're screening a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, and it's a Van Damme goodie.

But that's not all! 

This month's screening falls on the 4th of July, so starting at 5pm we'll be hosting a potluck-grilling party outside the lobby of the Trylon! Bring something to grill/share, and then watch our carefully selected JCVD flick! (See our Facebook event page for more info.)

Tape Freaks Presents: July's Mystery Movie at the Trylon Cinema, Wednesday, July 4th, BBQ @ 5:00-7:00pm, movie starts @ 7:00pm, only $5!

****Purchase advance ticket here****

June's Mystery Move: Third Clue

Clue #3: Although this film is usually lumped into the shot-on-video category, it was actually shot on an old newsreel camera and edited down to VHS.

Tape Freaks Presents: May's Mystery Movie at the Trylon Cinema, Wednesday, June 6th @ 7:00pm, only $5!

****Purchase advance ticket here****

June's Mystery Move: Second Clue

Clue #2: The majority of this movie's cast and crew did not work on another film, except for one actor who was in a handful of stuff including some notable exploitation movies, a great short lived 00's sitcom, and a Coen brothers movie!

Tape Freaks Presents: May's Mystery Movie at the Trylon Cinema, Wednesday, June 6th @ 7:00pm, only $5!

****Purchase advance ticket here****

Aliens: Star Slammer

Another installment from illustrator, lover of film, and occasional Tape Freaks contributor Izzi Xiques.

Star Slammer (also known as Prison Ship) is Fred Olen Ray's very late contribution to the women-in-prison genre that was all the b-movie rage in the mid 70’s. And although aliens do come into play, they're not the most interesting parts of this movie. The action gets going when the prison's sadistic-dominatrix warden lets a marauding gang (lead by a man who hallucinates space wizards) onto the prison ship. The gang's looking to exact revenge on one of the prison's newest inmates, Taura. She was incarcerated after burning the hand of the not-so-lucid gang leader in order to stop him from raping her. Learning that the gang is on board the ship, Taura plans a mass prison break where she'll have to fight fellow inmates, rabid aliens, as well as the patriarchy. And she does all this in full 80s active wear!

Now that all sounds great already, but to truly appreciate any of Fred Olen Ray movies, you have to understand that he took low-budget movie making to the next level. Olen Ray used the majority of his original budget to rent Roger Corman's New World studio (though, the "Pope of Pop Cinema" was not involved in making this flick) for two weekends. Utilizing Corman's tactic of using sets, props, and costumes for multiple projects at once, Olen Ray used three of his shooting days to film a large part of Star Slammer, and the other day to film scenes for an entirely different movie on the same set. All he needed to complete Star Slammer was someone who could finance the last part of the film; enter Jack H. Harris (producer of the 1958 and 1988 The Blob). With new financing, they shot the rest of the film using sets built in an abandon grocery store while employing money saving tactics like using Olen Ray's seven year old son Christopher in multiple roles. But for a quickly shot, T&A movie with a tiny budget (around $175,00), it's still a good looking film thanks to a director who takes even his schlockiest projects seriously, and who hires people who do the same. 

In the credits of Star Slammer, there was promise of the return of Taura in a future film which was never made, but even though this sleazy film is pretty great: I think better that this is a stand alone film.