Porklips Now is a short, low budget parody film, made in 1980 by the American director Ernie Fosselius [1] , based on the 1979 motion picture Apocalypse Now . [2]
It chronicles the journey of Dullard (played by William "Billy" Gray, most famous as "Bud" in the Father Knows Best TV series), a gardener and handyman, sent to Chinatown by two butchers to meet a business rival, Fred "Madman" Mertz, and "take care of business". The film cleverly and humorously incorporates references to signature elements of the film on which it is based, albeit in a somewhat conspicuously low-budget manner.
Echoing a widely held if erroneous belief about Apocalypse Now, the film features several alternate endings. [3]
The film was included on the compilation VHS release Hardware Wars, and Other Film Farces from Warner Home Video and is currently available on VHS and DVD from Pyramid Direct Films.
In 2009, Apprehensive Films released Porklips Now onto DVD. [4]
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the leading figures of the New Hollywood film movement and is widely considered one of the greatest directors of all time. Coppola is the recipient of five Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Palmes d'Or, and a BAFTA Award.
Heaven's Gate is a 1980 American epic Western film written and directed by Michael Cimino, starring Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Dourif, Isabelle Huppert, Jeff Bridges, and Joseph Cotten, and loosely based on the Johnson County War. It revolves around a dispute between land barons and European immigrants of modest means in Wyoming in the 1890s.
Troma Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company founded by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz in 1974. The company produces low-budget independent films, or "B movies", primarily of the horror comedy genre, all geared exclusively to mature audiences. Many of them play on 1950s horror with elements of farce, parody, gore, and splatter.
Airwolf is an American action military drama television series. It centers on a high-technology attack helicopter, code-named Airwolf, and its crew. They undertake various exotic missions, many involving espionage, with a Cold War theme. It was created by Donald P. Bellisario and was produced over four seasons, running from January 22, 1984, until August 7, 1987.
Gallipoli is a 1981 Australian war drama film directed by Peter Weir and produced by Patricia Lovell and Robert Stigwood, starring Mel Gibson and Mark Lee. The film revolves around several young men from Western Australia who enlist in the Australian Army during World War I. They are sent to the Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire, where they take part in the Gallipoli campaign. During the course of the film, the young men slowly lose their innocence about the purpose of war. The climax of the film occurs on the Anzac battlefield at Gallipoli, depicting the futile attack at the Battle of the Nek on 7 August 1915. It modifies events for dramatic purpose and contains a number of significant historical inaccuracies.
UHF is a 1989 American comedy film starring "Weird Al" Yankovic, David Bowe, Fran Drescher, Victoria Jackson, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Richards, Stanley Brock, Gedde Watanabe, Billy Barty, Anthony Geary, Emo Philips and Trinidad Silva in his final film role; as Silva died before filming wrapped, the film is dedicated to his memory. Directed by Jay Levey, Yankovic's manager, who also co-wrote the screenplay with him, the film was originally released by Orion Pictures and became owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after their takeover in 1997. Yankovic and Levey struggled to find a production company to finance the film, but eventually secured Orion's support after agreeing to a $5 million budget. Principal photography took place around Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The Fleischer Superman cartoons are a series of seventeen animated superhero short films released in Technicolor by Paramount Pictures and based upon the comic book character Superman, making them his first animated appearance.
Michael Reid was an English comedian, actor, author and occasional television presenter. He played the role of Frank Butcher in the soap opera EastEnders and hosted the children's game show Runaround. He was known for his gravelly voice and strong London accent.
The following is a complete list of the 220 Our Gang short films produced by Hal Roach Studios and/or Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer between 1922 and 1944, numbered by order of release along with production order.
Redneck Zombies is a 1987 American horror comedy Z movie, directed by Pericles Lewnes and released by Troma Entertainment.
Hardware Wars is a 1978 American short science fiction parody film in the form of a teaser trailer for a fictitious science fiction film that parodies Star Wars. The 13-minute film, which was released almost 18 months after Star Wars, mainly consisted of inside jokes and visual puns that heavily depended upon audience familiarity with the original. The theme song is Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries".
Maniac is a 1980 American psychological slasher film directed by William Lustig and written by C. A. Rosenberg and Joe Spinell. It stars Spinell as Frank Zito, an Italian-American serial killer residing in New York City who murders and scalps young women.
Laserblast is a 1978 American independent science fiction film directed by Michael Rae and produced by Charles Band, widely known for producing B movies. Starring Kim Milford, Cheryl Smith and Gianni Russo, featuring Keenan Wynn and Roddy McDowall, and marking the screen debut of Eddie Deezen, the plot follows an unhappy teenage loner who discovers an alien laser cannon and goes on a murderous rampage, seeking revenge against those who he feels have wronged him.
Alien Dead is an American horror film directed by Fred Olen Ray. Ray co-wrote the script with Martin Nicholas. The film involves a meteor hitting a houseboat, which causes the people on board to become zombies who eat alligators and eventually people.
Carl Ernst Fosselius, better known as Ernie Fosselius, is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his satirical spoofs of popular films, including the Star Wars parody Hardware Wars.
Damnation Alley is a 1977 American post-apocalyptic film directed by Jack Smight, loosely based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Roger Zelazny. The original music score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, and the cinematography was by Harry Stradling Jr. Poorly received with critics and audience, it has since achieved a cult following.
Amando de Ossorio was one of the foremost Spanish horror film directors during the European horror film surge in the 1970s, known especially for his "Blind Dead" tetralogy.
Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker is a 1981 American exploitation horror film directed by William Asher, and starring Susan Tyrrell, Jimmy McNichol, Julia Duffy, and Bo Svenson. Framed as a contemporary Oedipus tale, the plot focuses on a teenager who, raised by his neurotic aunt, finds himself at the center of a murder investigation after she stabs a man to death in their house. The boy's sexually repressed aunt secretly harbors incestuous feelings for him, while a detective investigating the crime irrationally believes the murder to be a result of a homosexual love triangle.
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius, and Michael Herr, is loosely inspired by the 1899 novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, with the setting changed from late 19th-century Congo to the Vietnam War. The film follows a river journey from South Vietnam into Cambodia undertaken by Captain Willard, who is on a secret mission to assassinate Colonel Kurtz, a renegade Special Forces officer who is accused of murder and presumed insane. The ensemble cast also features Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, and Harrison Ford.
Sean Cain is an American film director, editor, producer and writer.