Memorabilia November 2012- A Fan's Journey.

Memorabilia November 2012:-A fans journey.

Hi guys. It’s been a while since I wrote anything for Jonnys cult films but during this time I had an opportunity to go to the November Memorabilia show at the NEC in Birmingham. I don’t get to go to events like these very often partly because where we live in middle England there are very few shows like this and partly because it’s so bloody expensive! However, the line up is quite good this time and work in the run up to Christmas has been hard so I deserve a day out with the family. We live an hour or so from the venue and we want to get there nice and early before the crowds pick up so it’s an early start, much to my teenage daughters dismay. Were it not for the promise of finding Twilight goodies at the show I doubt she would have got out of bed!(Hold on Gav.....Molly Likes Twilight??? What you teaching her??? Only kidding sir, carry on, Jonny,ha!!)

After emptying my account at the cash point we head West with the sounds of ELO coming from the stereo. Fortunately the drive over is uneventful at least until we leave the motorway. Suddenly we hit deadlock and the traffic leading up to the exhibition centre is virtually at a standstill. At one point a nerdy looking fellow with a Spiderman rucksack walks past the car window, I think it’s pretty clear where he is headed! After ten minutes or so of hardly moving I’m beginning to wonder if this day out is a total bust. My wife Gaynor points out that the other drivers in the cars around us don’t look like collectors at all, most are well turned out older couples or car loads of fashion conscious young women. Where are all the Transformer shirts or fancy dress costumes? In the distance a sign tells us that there are several events on today. A show for dog pampering and the countries largest Christmas gift ideas market! We might just be alright after all. With the car parked up we begin our long hike over to the expo. I’m starting to feel a bit nervous as I always do on days like this. What if one of the actors I really want to see has cancelled last minute, what if they turn out to be an asshole?! To make matters worse the family decide that they all need to go to the toilet. I’m like a child at the entrance to a toy shop eagerly waiting to go inside. Finally we are through the cordons with our hands stamped and it’s like Mecca. There are hundreds of stalls offering all kinds of vintage toys, collectibles and film & TV memorabilia. My daughter is already looking for Twilight stuff but I have my sights over yonder at the Star Wars cast tables.

First up is actor Paul Blake who played Greedo in Episode IV: A new hope. It looks as though he has just finished setting up his table and we are in fact his first customers of the day. He is very professional and friendly and is happy to pose for photos with myself and my young son. Time does not seem to be much an issue for him and he is patient with my son’s slightly irrelevant toddler patter. I ask him the question that he is probably going to be asked a hundred times or more over the weekend and he replies correctly with ‘’Han shot first’’. Straight from the horse’s mouth people, you read it here first! Paul signs my 15th anniversary one –sheet poster with the caption ‘shoot first!’ We part company and I cross his palm with silver for his trouble.

Star rating 4/5 £20 was a bit expensive but meeting Greedo was a great experience.

Next up on the agenda is the legendary Bobba Fett played by veteran British actor Jeremy Bulloch. There is a very brief wait to meet Jeremy but it is nothing considering his status in the Star Wars community. Earlier last year the family were present at the annual Star Wars weekends event at Disney world in Florida. Jeremy was a special guest but we couldn’t even get near to him. I emailed him after the show had finished and he sent us a signed photo. This time around we have his full attention and we have a few minutes to chat. He jokes with Fred about flying over Birmingham in his Slave 1 spaceship who hangs on his every word. I mention the email from June and he says he remembers me but I think he’s just being polite. The Star Wars poster gains another signature and we leave £15 lighter.I roll up the poster and put it back in a tube for safe keeping.

Star rating 4.5/5 A true Thespian with scarf to match! My son was in heaven.

Stunt man Roy Scamell is still absent from his post so I head straight for Ken Foree. He is one of the actors from one of my all time favourite films, Dawn of the dead. I met Ken at the same show in 2006 where he was promoting Devil’s rejects. I was a little under whelmed at the time because there was nothing special about the experience. He signed my Rejects poster without any kind of dedication and the whole meet was over in a moment. This time around Ken is in high spirits and I am even smiling at what he has to say to the fans in front of us. I have reserved my rare 1970’s Spanish Dawn poster just for this occasion and gently remove it from the container. Ken is impressed with my poster and offers advice on keeping it preserved. I get the impression he is a little apprehensive about signing it but is happy to add a quote to. What really makes the day is Ken agreeing to call my good friend Jonny T, who is blissfully unaware that he is about to get a phone call from one of his idols! I can’t hear Jonny but Ken’s side of the conversation involves him asking Jonny why he isn’t at the show and getting him to give Ken a mention on the blog. He hands back the phone to me and I have a rather excited Mr T swearing like a sailor at me!(Sorry for effin and Jeffin but thanks Gav!!!,Jonny.) Interestingly, Jonny was in the middle of a blog feature entitled ‘What makes a zombie’ which references Dawn of the dead. I get an additional signed photo for Jonny’s collection and reluctantly part company with one of the nicest people I have met.

KEN FOREE'S IMDB PAGE

Star rating 5/5 What a great guy!

Whilst I was talking to Ken Fred spent most of the time pissing off a nearby stall holder by touching his display models. Understandably he wanted a souvenir for himself so we spent some time looking around the dealer tables for a bargain. Fred wanted something Predator or Alien related but his pocket money wouldn’t stretch that far. In the end he settled on some vintage Lego Star Wars mini figs. The real problem would be finding something Twilighty or Harry Potter for Molly. I am starting to think that neither are cool enough for Memorabilia! In the distance we see 80’s king of cheese David Hasselhoff signing for a seemingly endless queue. I love Knightrider but I don’t have anything with me to get signed and I already have a signed copy of his autobiography at home. There is a K.I.T.T car on display which has sadly seen better days and I am offered the chance to sit in a Back to the future styled Delorean and have my picture taken for £5. I politely decline on the grounds that I probably wouldn’t fit in the cockpit… They don’t call me big man for nothing! We walk around aimlessly for a while trying to find special fx man Peter Lamont. We can see numerous sci-fi stars and little known Doctor Who cast members from across the years. Gaynor spots the receptionist from Casualty, a popular hospital drama here in the UK. She would have liked a picture but isn’t prepared to pay for the privilege. Finally we find Oscar winning special fx guru Peter Lamont tucked away in a corner. His accolades include production design on at least fifteen of the twenty two Bond films and working on a string of James Cameron films including Aliens and Titanic, one of Molly’s top films! I have brought her 1997 quad poster for Peter to sign. Memorabilia is his first ever show and taking into account the fact that he is in his late eighties he is somewhat bemused by the whole affair. He happily autographs Molly’s well worn poster which will eventually be framed and have pride of place on her bedroom wall. I ask him what the role of a production manager is expecting him to say that he was responsible for historically matching the furniture and plates etc. He corrects me firmly and informs me that he and his crew built the entire ship in three months for which he won his Oscar.

Star rating 3.5/5 a little off on the day but this guy is a true cinematic legend!

Last on my checklist of stars is the elusive Roy Scammell. A stuntman who has worked with Kubrick and Ridley Scott! He plays the famous Xenomorph in the closing scenes when Ripley sucks the monster out of the air lock. He signs my Alien poster and offers Fred career advice on being a stuntman before hoisting him up onto his shoulder for a picture. I’m nowhere near as fit as him even though he is in his seventies!

Star rating 4/5 Roy has had a remarkable career in film & TV. He was great with Fred and it was nice to meet him.

With little more than small change left in my pocket we take a slow walk back through the exhibition centre and find Molly some Twilight badges. Fred has his picture taken with just about every memorable movie character from Predator to Marty McFly. It’s just regular people in costume but he loves it and some of the outfits are genuinely fantastic! I think I have succeeded in passing my love of cinema on to my children. All in all Memorabilia has been a fantastic day out. Provided that you can comfortably afford it a signing show can be a unique and rewarding experience. The next memorabilia show takes place around my birthday on March 16th and 17th so I should definitely be going!

A note from Jonny T.

Well Gav it seems that you and the family certainly had a great day out, and it's fantastic that the whole family loves that stuff, i Will definitely try and make it with you for one of the shows and a million thanks again for the Ken Foree call and picture and it most certainly is one of the most amazing experiences i have ever had!

Jonny T.

My Awesome Ken Foree Autograph many thanks to Gav!!



Fred with various characters!

Memories of - An American Werewolf in London

Hello Folks,

Jonny T here with a new feature I have decided to put up on the blog named "Memories of...", it basically will consist of many of my all-time favourite films with a few of my own personal thoughts and memories as well as any images and related videos I can find, so without further delay on to the first movie……..

Now I remember seeing this in a Sunday newspaper magazine just before the UK cinema release and recall the pictures of a guy getting his throat cut by Nazi zombies and another still of some guy who appeared to be screaming as his hand stretched in front of his face, Didn’t know at the time who they were or what it was really about apart from the obvious title and the fact that I needed to see it!

Obviously I was way too young to go to the cinema and see it but remember many months after I had seen the original article walking past the local video shop on the Carlton road and seeing a poster for it just released by Embassy Video. Now on our street the only people that had a video player at that time was a local builder and his wife Jackie and Steve and who owned a brand new shiny top loader Betamax player, We had watched quite a few movies at their house so I in my teenage persuasive way managed to get Steve with his plastic laminated Video shop card to rent out An American Werewolf in London.

I remember it being a really sunny afternoon (Probably School holidays) and me and three mates getting to finally see it, To the slight annoyance of my mum who said that why would we want to stay indoors and watch a film when it was so nice out, sorry mum but it was AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON!! As soon as it had finished we watched it again, later that night I remember my dad going across the road with some beers to watch it with Steve, I recall asking him next day what he thought “Good film that” he said “Hope you covered your eyes when they got in the shower!” Of course I did dad. So from that day to this day it remains one of my all-time favourite horror movies, it has everything, Gore, scares, Laughs and of course nudity!!(Sorry dad)

So from the good old days of top loaders and Beta Max to my latest purchase of the film on Blu-Ray with a great documentary it is still a film i can stick on and watch anytime of the day, even on a sunny afternoon!(Sorry Mum)

Jonny T.

Various Great Posters!

Various Great Videos!

Original Trailer

Complete Transformation scene, still incredible to this day, who needs CGI?

The Making of the Werewolf with Rick Baker.

Rick Baker winning his Oscar Presented by Vincent Price!

A Haunting in Connecticut 2:Ghosts of Georgia Review by Jonny T.



Hello folks,
Jonny T here with my thoughts on A Haunting in Connecticut 2:Ghosts of Georgia.
Now first things first, A Haunting in Connecticut 2:Ghosts of Georgia has absolutely nothing to do with the first film whatsoever apart from the first part of the title, So if you haven't seen the first movie don't worry because there is no need to!
As with the first film this is inspired by true events and to be honest as with the first movie it's a pretty enjoyable if at times slightly far fetched but hey who cares, well i didn't as you know pretty much what to expect, a pretty good ghost story.
You may have or have not seen the first movie and as with this it is the same vane as basically an extended episode of the excellent TV show Paranormal Witness which if you have not seen i would recommend you do.
In Ghosts of Georgia we have a mother, Daughter and husband.Starting a new life and at lovely remote house out in the middle of creepy woods, of course! They then find out the history of the house as it used to be back in the days of slavery a station which was basically a salvation for fleeing slaves where The Station Master as the owner was known would care for, hide and help slaves to freedom, what a jolly nice man, or was he?
Also on the grounds of the new home lives the mothers sister in a trailer, who is also helping the mother to recover from her visions and help her off medication. We then see a scene where she panics as her daughter disappears in the woods the reapers saying she has been speaking to a man named Mr. Gordy who has told her not to say she has spoken to him which obviously causes alarm bell ringing, We then get to see various visions both from the mum and the young daughter who loves it seems to wander off into the woods at any given time, this leads to a scene in which her and her father find what seems to be an alter/shrine within the woods that says "God Bless the station master" Sat at he shrine is a very old black lady and her son who tells the daughter and father the story of the slave trade and events transpiring to the place where they now live.





From this point on the visions and happenings really kick off, with visions of an extremely creepy man in a hooded mask, which appears to be from flashbacks The Station Master who was also a Taxidermist who it appears upset the locals when they found out that he was helping slaves so they basically stuffed him and hung him in a quite gruesome and effective scene, much like the first film where the mortician cuts off eyelids (still makes me wince even now!).
So as you can tell as the story evolves we get more and more of the back story through various flashbacks and locals stories but things are far from what the first appear to be.Some of the flashback scenes and gore are very well done in sepia and strobe effect scares, for the budget it really is quite impressive.

So in summing up and without giving spoilers you can do a lot worse than Ghosts Of Georgia and i can see why the have used the Haunting in tag, and i personally would be more than happy to watch as many more as they decide to make which seems to be the trend again at the moment wherein using really life ghost stories to recreate full length movies such as the recently released and also a Paranormal witness episode The Possessed which was also very good.Just one thing though, as in Paranormal Witness the actual people in the cases are never that handsome or slim so i would love to see one of these movies where the actors give a true representation of the rather larger people involved to give it slightly more realism, the point i am making is the Dad in this film had a toned body/stubble and an endless supply of white vests and he only knew how to button his shirt up twice! But saying that it is worth a look,

6/10

Jonny T.(Not wearing a vest)

OFFICIAL TRAILER



Battle Of Warsaw - 4th March DVD Release

METRODOME DISTRIBUTION ANNOUNCES 4th MARCH 2012 HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASE FOR

BATTLE OF WARSAW Starring Borys Szyc, Natasza Urbanska and Daniel Olbrychski Poland's winning battle against Soviet Russia as seen through the eyes of two young protagonists, Ola and Jan. She is a Warsaw cabaret dancer, he a cavalry officer and poet who believes in socialist ideals. 

DVD Release date / March 4th 2013Certificate TBC / 115 Minutes



Thale - 25th March DVD Release.

METRODOME DISTRIBUTION ANNOUNCES 25th MARCH 2012 HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASE FOR



THALE Starring Silje Reinamo, Erlend Nervold and Jon Sigve Skard Thale" is based on a mythical character in Nordic folklore called the "huldra". According to the myth a huldra is a beautiful creature with female attributes living deep in the woods. It is said that it seduces men that work in the woods by humming a beautiful song, and they never return to their village. Two crime scene cleaners discover a mythical tailed, female creature in a concealed cellar. She never utters a word, unable to tell her story, but the pieces of the puzzle soon come together; she’s been held captive for decades for reasons soon to surface.



 DVD Release date / March 25th 2013Certificate TBC / TBC Minutes

V/H/S is out now! So everyone is invited to one final event!



“The scariest, rawest horror movie of the year” (Rolling Stone) has finally arrived! The celebrated portmanteau horror ‘V/H/S’ is out today on DVD, Blu-ray and download through Momentum Pictures, so make sure you and your readers do not miss out on this genuinely terrifying and exhilarating "Surefire candidate for cult status” (4*, Little White Lies).

Having already opened ‘Cellar Rentals’ courtesy of Momentum Pictures where a rapturous London crowd were transported back to the heady days of searching through racks upon racks of VHS tapes in order to find that perfect Saturday night scare (see what happened here: http://youtu.be/gSgMb_oSEFs),

 we decided that one night in the capital (after a lot of sorrow from people outside London who couldn't come) just wasn't enough, so we are bringing it to you…

To welcome the arrival of a truly “Phenomenal piece of work" (5*, Dread Central), we are reopening the doors to ‘Cellar Rentals’ on Friday 1st February for four hours from 2pm to 6pm via Twitter, where a hosted nostalgia-thon will allow us all to chat about videos of yesteryear, the arrival of V/H/S on DVD and Blu-ray and download plus… the final chance EVER to win a copy of V/H/S on VHS in the UK. We'll be using the #InsertVHS4Fear hashtag from @fetchpublicity so make sure you are there to join in on the antics. Do not miss out! We'll have a link to a store filled with cool retro clips, trailers and more to digest and send you back down memory lane one final time.

Here is a list of the hot topics we'll be discussing and getting all excited over on Friday:

2.00pm Classic VHS Action Movies

2.30pm Teen Horrors

3.00pm Fantasy Classics

3.30pm VHS Comedies

4.00pm Banned and Confiscated Movies

4.30pm Sci Fi Rentals

5.00pm A John Hughes tribute

5.15pm Horror Franchises - The Sequels

Please note the above times are GMT!

Django Unchained Action Figures Banned!!

Hello Folks,

Jonny T here, Now as you may or may not know i love my movie action figures, mainly horror it has to be said so even if i had seen these figures i probably would have not brought them but i wish i had as i recently saw the Broomhilda one sell for over $2000, The reason behind this is that the company that makes them have withdrawn them all and they have been withdrawn by Ebay as they go against their selling policies, so it seems that certain groups haven taken offence to the sale of these dolls and indeed Quentin Tarantino's interpretation of the slave trade, is it right is it wrong?





Now i can certainly see the arguments for both sides but find it extremely hypocritical of sites such as Ebay when you can still by if you so wish Adolf Hitler dolls and Masks and Bin Laden dolls and Masks because of course those items wouldn't be offensive to any race or religion right??? So why not go all the way and ban all the Django unchained merchandise? Posters, T-shirts etc. Plus doing this puts it top of many news stories and promotes the movie even more, Tarantino has yet to comment on the sale of the toys and good on him for not being drawn into the argument, but like i say i do sympathise with both sides. And if me or you did see one cheap you would be more than tempted to buy it i'm sure, but then again would that make us bad people? Crazy world and i am sure the debate will rage on and on and on..........

Jonny T. 

Links to news stories relating the action Figures:-

BBC Newsbeat

Great Article from The Gaurdian UK.



To Buy or not to Buy?



Related News story.