I found this picture of 1980s icon David Hasselhoff in a 2005 Australian Pepsi advertisement and I couldn’t resist sharing it.

Because who can resist the Hoff?  I know I can’t.

This Valentine’s Day, I am celebrating with my two favorite guys RollerReggie and RollerBoy.

On the agenda for the evening?  Heart-shaped cookies, pizza (one half eggplant & goat cheese and one half sausage & mushrooms), champagne (or razzleberry juice in RollerBoy’s case), and a viewing of the 1981 John Carpenter film Escape from New York.

Because nothing says “I love you” like a Kurt Russell sci-fi flick.

Earlier today we saw the movie Coraline in 3-D (highly recommended, by the way) and then went out for Vietnamese Pho soup so it has been quite an exciting day for our little family.

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I hope you are enjoying the day.

On a recent blustery night, we gathered in the family room for an evening of horror and mayhem.  On the agenda were two creature features: Snowbeast (1977) and The Thing (1982).

Snowbeast is an obscure made-for-TV-movie that takes place in a Colorado ski resort.  I put the movie on our Netflix queue after stumbling across reviews that rate it as one of the cheesiest horror movies from the seventies.  And the movie didn’t disappoint.  In a plot that was clearly inspired by Jaws, skiers begin disappearing from the resort shortly before the annual winter festival.  Naturally the resort decides to go on ahead and hold the festival, and mayhem ensues.

One memorable scene takes place after a member of the ski patrol meets a gruesome fate at the hands of our adorable abominable snowman.  The ski resort holds a small funeral for him up on the ski slopes, complete with a six-gun salute (a six-gun salute for the ski patrol?).

One of the Snowbeast’s trademarks is that the viewer never gets to see a clear view of the monster.  The movie makes extensive use of the “Beast Cam,” in which the viewer supposedly watches scenes unfold from the beast’s perspective, but shots of the actual beast are few and far between.   At the end of the movie after the beast is taken down by a ski pole, the camera pans towards the beast and then abruptly ends before the viewer gets a chance to finally see a clear view of the beast.  Denied!

Unlike Snowbeast, The Thing does not skimp on beast footage.  Also set in a snowy climate, The Thing takes place at a research facility in Antarctica.  The researchers have the misfortune to encounter an insidious alien force that has the power to transform into human form.  Paranoia sets in as the researchers must determine who is still human and who is not.

The Thing includes a number of scenes portraying the alien as it transforms from animal to alien to human form.  Renowned for its special effects, the movie still holds up today in its unnerving depiction of creepy half-human monsters.  The special effects were so good, in fact, that I actually had a hard time watching the movie - I found the movie to be just too gorey for my tastes (and this coming from a woman who is obsessed with Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead.  I know, go figure).

Although it’s difficult to choose between the two movies, I think if I had to pick one I would go with Snowbeast just because I happen to really like badly acted B grade horror movies.

Which movie would you choose?

I was sad to learn that Ricardo Montalbán, who starred in films such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan as well as the television show Fantasy Island, passed away yesterday.  He was also well known for a series of commercials from the 1970s for the Chrysler Cordoba, such as this one.

Farewell, Ricardo, you will be missed.

Alien Quadrilogy
Drool, drool, drool. The Alien Quadrilogy tops my Christmas wish list this year. The boxed set includes 9 discs, including the original Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), and Alien: Resurrection (1997), along with loads of extra features.

Barry Manilow’s The Greatest Songs of the Eighties
Since I have a blog on seventies and eighties pop culture, I have determined that it is my duty to own this album. I am especially keen to hear Barry’s version of Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up.

Darth Vader Bobblehead
I think I could use one of these bad boys on my desk at work.  You know, to remind myself of the badass that I really am.  There are a lot of other fun Star Wars-themed chotchkies out there, including a Darth Vader Toaster, a Yoda Luggage Tag, and for you real Star Wars geeks there is the all-new three-volume Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

A-Team Lunchbox
I don’t know what I would ever do with this vintage 1983 A-Team lunch box since I don’t pack a lunch any more. Maybe I could start carrying it around at work like a pseudo-brief case. Except I’m pretty sure my laptop won’t fit in there. Hmm… I’m sure I’ll think of some use for this lunch box to justify my unholy desire to own one.

A Christmas Story Ultimate Collector’s Edition
A Christmas Story (1983) has been a holiday favorite at our house for as long as I can remember. Who can’t love a movie that includes a kid shooting his eye out with a BB gun, a kid who is triple-dog-dared to stick his tongue to a light pole, a pink bunny suit, and a leg lamp? The Ultimate Collector’s Edition comes with a 2-disc DVD set of the movie (including one disc of extra features), a collectible cookie tin with cookie cutters, a red apron, and a cookbook with recipes inspired from the movie.

The Year Without A Santa Claus Deluxe Edition
And speaking of holiday specials, my DVD collection wouldn’t be complete without The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974), my favorite Rankin-Bass movie.   Who doesn’t love the Heat Miser and the Snow Miser?  We have this on VHS but I seriously don’t remember how to hook up the VCR any more so it is high time we owned this on DVD.

Halloween has come and gone.  I’m sure that you have been waiting on the edge of your virtual seat for the answer to last week’s conundrum: what movie to watch on Halloween?  Halloween (the 1978 version) or the original Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)?

My sincerest apologies for making you wait for an entire week (I hope that you will forgive me as I was a little distracted).

So what movie did we end up watching on Halloween night, you ask? Drum roll please… and the winner is… Poltergeist!

“Poltergeist?!”  you say.  “That wasn’t even one of the options!”

Well, you have a good point there.  On Halloween night we were leaning towards watching the original Halloween, but unfortunately I could not find a copy the movie *anywhere*.  (Note to self:  next year, do not go to the video store looking for horror movies the day before Halloween).  I did manage to find a copy of Nightmare on Elm Street after calling *six* local video stores.  No kidding.  Ironically, we realized that Poltergeist was playing on TV and we ended up watching that on Halloween night because we hadn’t seen it before.

What a fantastic film!  Co-produced and co-written by Steven Spielberg, Poltergeist (1982) tells the story of strange phenomena that plague a family in a suburban California home.  When five-year-old Carol Anne (played by Heather O’Rourke) begins having conversations with static on the television, things start to get really bizarre.  Carol Anne is eventually sucked into another dimension by a malevolent poltergeist and her family turns to a group of parapsychologists to rescue her.  With the help of a medium (played with panache by Zelda Rubinstein), Carol Anne is eventually freed and the family flees for their lives.

I think I’ll have to watch the sequels, Poltergeist II and Poltergeist III.

Medium Tangina Barrons, Played by Zelda Rubinstein

It is the future. Machines are being programmed to turn against us. Someone must stop the madman who started it all.

And just who could that someone be?  Why Tom Selleck, of course.

In Runaway (1984), Tom Selleck plays Sgt. Jack R. Ramsay, a police officer who specializes in runaway robots.  In the future depicted in Runaway, robots are used in every aspect of human life from cooking spaghetti and answering the door to constructing skyscrapers.  And sometimes those helpful robots just go bad.  And when those robots go bad, Sgt. Ramsay is there to take them down with his laser gun and his awesomely eighties mustache.

Enter our villain, the malevolent Dr. Luther.  He masterminds a plot to transform harmless household robots into killing machines by controlling them with a modified computer chip.

Dr. Luther may not have an awesomely eighties mustache, but he does have heat-seeking smart bullets that can go around corners and an army of deadly spider-like robots that paralyze their victims with a lethal injection of acid.  And to complete his evil image, he is played by none other than Gene Simmons who absolutely steals the movie.

The RollerBlog conclusion: Although Runaway is fairly dated and occasionally downright laughable, it is worth watching if only to witness Gene Simmons in his role as the evil Dr. Luther.

Gene Simmons as Dr. Luther

We’ve had our new record player for a little over a month now, and I am smitten. Yes, the record player does technically belong to RollerReggie (it was his birthday present after all) but what can I say - records are fun.

I’m now on the hunt to find new seventies (and eighties) gems to add to our collection. So far I have hunted for records at Georgetown Records, Value Village, and the Goodwill.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot (1974)

Rainbow by Neil Diamond (1973)

Come on Over by Olivia Newton-John (1976)

It’s Impossible by Perry Como (1970)

Lynda Carter, better known for her role as Wonder Woman in the seventies television series, turned 57 yesterday.

Many Happy Returns!