Bad Movie Day – Tarzan The Wonder Supercar Redlines An Ultraman. It’s The Funda.

Terry had Bad Movie Day at his place yesterday.  It was a blast as always.  Attending were Jason, Serena, Cindy, Michael, Barry, Terry, and myself.  Terry always has a theme for each Bad Movie Day and we soon found out the day’s theme was –Cars.

It started with Supercar, a 1960 Puppetoons production.  It was excruciatingly slow.  If not for the puppet monkey and our witty comments, I would not have survived that one. 

Next up, Ultraman!  Jason had brought his $5.00 Target purchase to contribute to the fun.  It was fun.  I’m a fan of kaiju from way back so this was right up my alley. The early Ultraman episodes are priceless fun.  Not super martial arts here.  Just two guys in rubber suits wrestling and throwing each other into miniature buildings.  The  monsters were fantastically cheesy.

Next on the list was Redline, a 2007 racing movie.  It is Need For Speed on film mostly.  Lots of fancy cars, scantily clad women, and bad dialogue.   It was fun and made not sense.  Perfect for Bad Movie Day.

Lastly came the traditional Bollywood offering.  Terry introduced us to Bollywood as a part of Bad Movie Day.  I am very appreciative.  The movies are well made for the most part and have great production values.  The actors are usually attractive and you usually get to see a lot of India and get an insight into their culture.  But that is too much analysis for Bad Movie Day.  The day’s offering kept the ‘cars’ theme going.  It was Tarzan The Wonder Car.  Just the name makes it worthy of BMD (Bad Movie Day).  It is the quaint story of a wronged automobile designer’s son and his sweety jaunting around India in Tarzan The Wonder Car, getting into  adventures.  At least that is what the Netflix says.  And the first half of the movie gives you that impression.  Raj and Priya rebuild Tarzan from the drowned remains of his father’s Tarzan.  It’s a very cool car.  Nothing at all like the first version of Tarzan, which looked like a VW Beetle.  This one is all purple and slick and sporty.  Like it was leftover from Redline.  All is well except Tarzan’s water pump doesn’t work and Raj can’t find a replacement because they don’t make them anymore.  So Raj prays.  Granny prays.  “Uncle” prays.  Something mystical happens that night to Tarzan.  Raj cranks it up!!  Hooray!  His father’s memory is honored.  They have a piece of him back.  Oh happy day – 95% happy.  Then Christine shows up.  As in Stephen King’s Christine renamed Tarzan.  We find out the ‘mystical’ thing was Raj’s father’s spirit inhabiting the car.  For REVENGE!!!  Raj’s father’s spirit uses the new Tarzan to murder the guys who stole his car design then murdered him.  All the while framing Raj for the murders.  Huh?  Maybe you didn’t think this through father of Raj.  But in the end it all works out and Raj and Priya are marriaged.

This one was fantastic if only for the bad translation in the subtitles.  Super hiliarious.  Notable phrases – ‘It’s the funda.’  We think this means ‘the fundamentals’  but are not sure.  The chief of police used this every time he spoke.  ‘It’s the latest news!’ used by the idiot son of one of the bad guys.  Kind of like ‘check this out’ I think.  Speaking of idiot sons, that seems to be a comedy theme in Bollywood.  There was two and a half in this movie.  The half one was the police chief’s assistant.  He looked like Jack Nicholson’s Joker without the makeup.

One thing I will say about Bollywood movies, the lead actors are usually handsome men or extremely attractive women.  The girl playing Priya was exquisite.  And while you won’t find any sex in Bollywood movies this one was very racy in spots.

Krrish was the first Bollywood that I saw.  It is very good but long.  If you have a chance give Bollywood a chance.  It’s a lot of fun.

Edit:  The funda = the formula