Cosplay Fetish Battle Drones | |
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Directed by | Gregg Golding |
Written by | Gregg Golding |
Produced by | Gregg Golding Diana Chow Edward Rhodes |
Starring | Samuel Vasquez Leland Mapp Gregg Golding Carly Jean Liza Moore Mathias Parr Dapwell |
Edited by | Gregg Golding |
Production company | Collage Fossil Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 75 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Cosplay Fetish Battle Drones (formerly titled Struggled Reagans [1] ) is an American science fiction comedy film that was the first feature film by director and screenwriter Gregg Golding. The movie had its world premiere on December 11, 2013, at Another Hole In The Head International Genre Film Festival, [2] and is a surrealistic parody of Japanese tokusatsu series such as Power Rangers and Kamen Rider . [3]
Six teenagers suffer from a series of emotional traumas, which coalesce to create a tumor in the collective unconscious. They are then summoned to the home of one of the teenagers (Evie, played by Carly Jean, and based on the character of the same name from the television sitcom Out of This World ) where her alien father, (based on the character Troy, also from Out of This World, and portrayed by hip hop artist Dapwell) gives them powers based on their respective traumas. The teenagers, now known as the Struggled Reagans, search for the tumor in an effort to destroy it. Their efforts are opposed by the Hindu god Garuda, who uses the energy from the tumor to create a number of monsters to oppose them. [4]
The film's plot and characters reference and parody various aspects of popular culture, including most significantly the Japanese tokusatsu genre, and also is laden with philosophical and surrealistic elements. [3]
The film premiered (under its original title of Struggled Reagans) on December 11, 2013 at San Francisco's Another Hole In The Head International Genre Film Festival. [6] It has also screened at the Sci-Fi London 2014 film festival. [3]
"After YouTube took trailers of the movie down for infringement, the group fought back (with some help from the EFF) and now the trailer is back on YouTube because parody is fair use." [9]
Sight & Sound commented: "Drawing from a disparate mélange of sources (1980s sit-coms, Hindu mythology, television’s tokusatsu genre), tweaking the film’s backgrounds with cheap digital psychedelic effects and accumulating free-associative ideas with disorienting speed, Struggled Reagans is horny, lysergic and postmodern, reconfiguring its Power Rangers-style ensemble heroics as both priapic trash and transcendental parable. The performances are broad, the sound mix is terrible, the onscreen actions are downright offensive – but this is also outsider auteurism at its most audacious". [3]
An extremely negative review at HorrorNews.net criticised the plot, the acting and the overall production, after admitting that the first scene was enjoyable: "Within the first 15 minutes there are some pretty crazy sex scenes (and I mean crazy) that revolve around one of the main characters, Evie. Evie comes across as one pretty messed up chick, but then again who wouldn’t be when your father lives in a rainbow lamp and watches you masturbate?"; Rebecca Brown, the reviewer, however, concluded that, if it wasn't for that opening, she would have rated the film 0 out of 10. [10]
Pam Jahm, of Electric Sheep, a website dedicated to "deviant" film, had a similar appraisal and wrote, "If I described Struggled Reagans as a punk-trash porno tongue-in-cheek underground take on the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993-present) then no matter how much I may explain how wretched a film-watching experience it is, (...) For about half its running time Struggled Reagans is amusing or quirky enough to justify its existence, with the filmmakers channelling the style of early John Waters or Troma films reasonably well, but it is a struggle to persevere with the 85-minute runtime and the story would have been better received if delivered in shorter instalments like its TV forebear." [11]
The film was also described as "hilariously bizarro" and a "naughty parody of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers". [9] and "(m)ore a piece of performance art than an actual film, (a) psychedelic video freak out" [8]
Power Rangers is an entertainment and merchandising franchise built around a live-action superhero television series, based on the Japanese tokusatsu franchise Super Sentai. Produced first by Saban Entertainment, second by BVS Entertainment, later by Saban Brands, and today by SCG Power Rangers LLC and its parent company, Hasbro, the Power Rangers television series takes much of its footage from the Super Sentai television series, produced by Toei Company. The first Power Rangers entry, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, debuted on August 28, 1993, and helped launch the Fox Kids programming block of the 1990s, during which it catapulted into popular culture along with a line of action figures and other toys by Bandai. By 2001, the media franchise had generated over $6 billion in toy sales.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (MMPR) is an American superhero television series that premiered on August 28, 1993, on the Fox Kids programming block. It is the first entry of the Power Rangers franchise, and became a 1990s pop culture phenomenon along with a large line of toys, action figures, and other merchandise. The show adapted stock footage from the Japanese TV series Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger (1992–1993), which was the 16th installment of Toei's Super Sentai franchise. The second and third seasons of the show drew elements and stock footage from Gosei Sentai Dairanger and Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, respectively, though the Zyuranger costumes were still used for the lead cast in these two seasons. Only the mecha and the Kiba Ranger costume from Dairanger were featured in the second season while only the Kakuranger mecha was featured in the third season, though the Kakuranger costumes were later used for the mini-series Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers. The series was produced by MMPR Productions and distributed by Saban Entertainment, while the show's merchandise was produced and distributed by Bandai Entertainment.
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Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers is a Power Rangers mini-series set immediately after the end of the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. As with the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, this mini-series adapted footage and costumes from the eighteenth Super Sentai series, Ninja Sentai Kakuranger.
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Tokusatsu is a Japanese term for live-action films or television programs that make heavy use of practical special effects. Credited to special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, tokusatsu mainly refers to science fiction, war, fantasy, or horror media featuring such technology but is also occasionally dubbed a genre itself. Its contemporary use originated in the Japanese mass media around 1958 to explain special effects in an easy-to-understand manner and was popularized during the "first monster boom" (1966-1968). Prior to the monster boom, it was known in Japan as Tokushu gijutsu or shortened Tokugi.
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The Leather Archives & Museum (LA&M) is a community archives, library, and museum located in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Founded by Chuck Renslow and Tony DeBlase in 1991, its mission is "making leather, kink, BDSM, and fetish accessible through research, preservation, education and community engagement." Renslow and DeBlase founded the museum in response to the AIDS crisis, during which the leather and fetish communities' history and belongings were frequently lost or intentionally suppressed and discarded.
Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger is a Japanese tokusatsu television series and the sixteenth installment in the long-running Super Sentai metaseries of superhero programs. Produced by Toei and Bandai, it aired on TV Asahi from February 21, 1992 to February 12, 1993, with a total of 50 episodes replacing Chōjin Sentai Jetman and was replaced by Gosei Sentai Dairanger. It was the first Sentai series to have a regular Sixth Ranger, and the first to introduce the concept of sentient, living mecha, a theme that has been used frequently in the franchise ever since. It was also the first Sentai series to be adapted into an installment of the American Power Rangers series. Footage from all 50 episodes was extensively used for the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The core Zyuranger costumes were used in all three seasons of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and were used as the original Power Rangers costumes while the Dragon Ranger costume was adapted into the Green Ranger's costume and was used throughout Season 1 and in early Season 2. The title Toei gives this series for international distribution is Galaxy Rangers.
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