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FEATURED THREADS for 5-18-22

 
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Bud Brewster
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013
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Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Tue May 17, 2022 5:27 pm    Post subject: FEATURED THREADS for 5-18-22 Reply with quote



If you're not a member of All Sci-Fi, registration is easy. Just use the registration password, which is —

gort

Attention members! If you've forgotten your password, just email me at brucecook1@yahoo.com.
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What's on tap today? Very Happy

~ A spirited debate about the controversial cult film about mutated crab grass . . .

~ A movie about a universe-wide disaster which is undone . . . and causes brand new problems. We all love the Golden Age Classics, but some of the modern movies aren't just CGI and action. The good ones give us quite a lot to think about — for those of us who like to think.

~ And finally, a story by me that's a prequel to The Wishbone Express!. (Folks, if you don't know what that is, shame on you. Sad)




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Attack of the Killer Crabgrass (1958)

Posted by Gord Green

It's true that many people confuse ATTACK OF THE KILLER CRABGRASS with LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, while in truth there is very little that is similar.



ATKCG was filmed in 1958 The Little Shop of Horrors is a 1960 American horror comedy film directed by Roger Corman. If anything, the latter is a ripoff of the former!

LSOH was written by Charles B. Griffith. The film is a farce about an inadequate florist's assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human blood. The film's concept is thought to be based on "Green Thoughts," a 1932 story by John Collier about a man-eating plant.

Dennis McDougal suggests that Griffith may have been influenced by Arthur C. Clarke's sci-fi short story from 1956, "The Reluctant Orchid" (which was in turn inspired by the 1905 H. G. Wells story "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid").

If anything ATKCG was influenced by Jules Verne's 1854 novel "Impetum Ex Posuere Ultricies Crabgrass" also known as "ATTAQUE DU CRABE KILLER", one of his lesser known works and only published in a "Penny (Franc) Dreadful" of the time. A well read copy of which was found in Phil Tuckers underwear drawer after his death by his third wife.

However most Cinema Scholars worth their salt agrees that the basic plot of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS was directly influenced by Phil Tucker's ATTACK OF THE KILLER CRABGRASS! The only difference was the plot, the characters, and the location.



Produced under the title "The Passionate People Eater", LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS employs an original style of humor, combining black comedy with farce and incorporating Jewish humor and elements of spoof. ATTACK had very little humor at all, none of it Jewish, and Iit was a dark, grim tale of mutated non-Kosher vegetation!

The Little Shop of Horrors was shot on a budget of $28,000 (about $240,000 in 2020), with interiors being shot in two days utilizing sets that had been left standing from A Bucket of Blood. ATKCG on the other hand had a budget of $173.42 and was shot at Phil's house in a single day.

The proposed sequel GODZILLA VERSUS THE KILLER CRABGRASS is presently in turnaround in Hollywood. However it does look like the other project, KING KONG VERSUS THE KILLER CRABGRASS is about to be greenlit by FauxArt Studio Inc and soon to be in production. Filming to be in Nigeria with financing by some Prince or other.

If you see a similarity there between the two films...you're very much mistaken!

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Avengers: End Game (2019)

I rewatched this movie recently and suddenly had a disturbing thought. So I Googled the question, "Would bringing back all the people in Endgame cause global starvation?"

Turns out, it would . . . and a whole lot more, too. Read this.

Avengers: Endgame’s Ending Has Some Disturbing Implications

The problems stem from that five-year period between the lethal Thanos "snap" and the return of the vanished people. If the story hadn't included that long half-decade, some (but not all) of the problems described in the article would have been avoided.

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Why Risk It? ~ by Bruce Cook



Mr. Lawrence Ghinda, president of Ghinda Enterprises, was not too pleased with what the telecom directory had to say about Why Rick It? Incorporated. The screen on Mr. Ghinda’s hugh desk displayed the name of the company and a contact number . . . but no address. He’d heard it was a small operation, but not that small. Mr. Ghinda drummed his fingers on the desk for a moment while he silently wrestled with indecision.

It was a short struggle; it didn’t take him long to realize he didn’t really have a choice. He was desperate.

His fingers stopped drumming and he stabbed the icon on the screen that would initiate the call. His impatience turned every tiny delay in an ordeal. After a few seconds passed, the screen displayed the words; PAGING.

My God!, thought Ghinda, the business didn’t even have a corporate office with a staff to answer phone calls! Ghinda was seconds away from hangin up!

Suddenly the screen lit up with the image of a man in a pressure suit, sitting at a control consol. The man’s face was clearly visible through the face plate, but he didn’t look at Ghinda as he continued to do frantic things at the consol. He started talking rapidly before Ghinda could even open this mouth.

“No time to explain! Can you record this conversation, starting right now!”

Ghinda’s startled expression including a gapping mouth, wide eyes, and no reply for several seconds, but then he managed a speak. “Uh . . . yes!”

“Good! Turn it on and record what I’m transmitting. It’s a matter of life and death!”

Mr. Ghinda hit a button on his keyboard, and his comm system started the recording. The man in the spacesuit pressed a button on this control panel, and the scene on Ghinda’s display switched to a smoke-filled room. Ghinda leaned closer to his display to study the room, which was about thirty feet square and partially filled with drum-shaped metal containers tied down with thick straps. The man in the pressure suit came floating into the scene like Peter Pan, maneuvering himself skillfully in the zero-gravity.

Ghinda’s eyes widened slowly as he realized what he was watching. It was the cargo hold of a spacecraft with an onboard fire!

Without realizing it, Ghinda gripped the arms of his chair while he watched the spacesuited man hastily release the straps that crisscrossed the stack of metal containers. Ghinda saw that the smoke was coming from the containers themselves, jetting out from dozens of tiny fissures. As the straps were thrown back one by one, the loose containers began to drift up from the deck.

The spacesuited man kicked himself over to the airlock door and then started winding the loose end of a tethered strap around his torso. The room was so filled with smoke that Ghinda could barely make out the dim figure.

Suddenly both of the airlock doors popped open and the smoke-filled air went screaming out into space, pulling the floating containers with it. The containers slammed against each other as they were pulled through the airlock, bouncing and tumbling, narrowly missing the man who clung to the strap. Ghinda’s view of the room cleared in seconds, and he could see the shiny containers through the open air lock, tumbling away from the ship. The man in the spacesuit closed the airlock doors and untangled himself from the strap. Then he pushed against the wall and floated out of sight.

Seconds later, Ghinda’s on-screen view changed to an exterior shot, a magnified image of the smoke-spewing containers as they drifted further away.

The man’s voice came over the audio. “Still there, buddy?”

“Yes, I’m here! Are you okay?” Ghinda was still gripping the armrests as he strained forward.

“Never better! Don’t stop the recording yet. Here comes the good part!”

A drop of nervous sweat ran down into Ghinda’s right eye as he watched the retreating containers. The exterior camera rotated to hold the dwindling objects in view, and the side of the ship appeared on screen as the spacecraft completed a maneuver that put the containers directly behind it.

The ship’s fusion drive spewed white-hot plasma towards the cluster of shrinking dots in the distance. Ghinda lost sight of the containers in the glowing glare of the drive flame.

After ten seconds there was a bright flash in the far distance that turned Ghinda’s telecom screen white for a moment. Then the light dimmed to a shrinking ball which turned red and faded out.

“We did it, pal!” said the voice from the view screen. The screen switched back to the man on the flight deck of the spaceship, seated at the control panel. “Did you get a good video of all that?”

Mr. Ghinda’s hands were trembling as he fumbled with the buttons on his keyboard. He played back the last few seconds of the shrinking fireball in space.

“Yes . . . yes, it looks okay.”

“Fantastic! I need a copy of that to use as evidence if I have to sue Pegasus Mining, Inc. They swore that stuff was well insulated and properly packed. No wonder their insurance company is suing them for fraudulent practices! What a bunch of crocked jackasses! I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually hoped the shipment to blow up my ship and save them the trouble of paying me to get rid of it at the dump on Jaranko’s moon. I’ll give them two choices; pay me the full penalty fee or face the consequences when I turn over that recording to the In-System Transport Authority so they can — “

The man stopped abruptly and gave Mr. Ghinda worried look. “Hey, wait a second. Who are you, anyway?”

“Oh . . . uh . . . I’m Lawrence Ghinda. I urgently need to charter your ship — “

“Whew! What a relief! For a second there I was afraid you were with Pegasus Mining. Brother, what a dolt I would have been for blabberin’ all that stuff!”

The man still wore his helmet while the air in his spacecraft was being replaced from the ship’s reserves, and through his faceplate Mr. Ghina could see the huge grin that lit up the man’s handsome face. Apparently this guy was as crazy as Ghinda had been told he was, but there was no denying that he seemed to be a very resourceful lunatic.

And Mr Lawrence Ghinda desperately need a resourceful lunatic.

“Well,” said the man in the spacesuit, “Shall we get down to business?” He cleared his throat and then spoke in a deep, mellow voice. “Hello, and thank you for calling Why Risk It? Incorporated. I’m Randolph Henson, the owner and president of the company. How can I be of service to you?”

Ghinda stared at the view screen and blinked a few times, startled by the sudden change in tone — in fact, by the whole bizarre situation! What he'd intended to be a straightforward telecom call had turned into a hair-raising experience. Ghinda took a deep breath, sat up straight, and tried to project an air of dignified authority. He cleared his throat, made himself swallow, then started speaking.

“Mr. Henson, I have a package that absolutely must be delivered to my daughter on the G Michelangelo, which is currently orbiting the Twin Jovian Planets to let its wealthy passengers do some sight seeing. But eventually it will leave the star system for Arcturus — “

“Whoa now, hold it right there, partner. By the time I could land, pick up the package, and lift off again — “

Ghinda interrupted quickly, leaning forward and loosing his dignified manner. “But you don’t have to come here to get the package! It’s already aboard a courier ship that I hired to deliver it to the Michelangelo. But the ship is disabled and adrift in space, awaiting rescue. It’s already sixty million miles out towards the Twin Jovian Planets. Mr. Henson, my daughter — “

“Ah heck, Larry, you can call me Randy.”
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~ Read the rest of this fine story by clicking on the like above.

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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