lurple.com

Am I the only one amazed at the rate at which the Sci-Fi Channel pumps these things out? It seems to be the place to go after your career has died if you've ever done anything vaguely related to science fiction, fantasy or at least been in a bad movie.

• Director: Ramesh Sippy
• Writer: Javed Akhtar, Salim Khan
• Year: 1975
• IMDB / Flixster / Amazon

Sholay is a famous "curry" western, India's answer to the spaghetti westerns of Italy. A rousing combination of action, romance, drama, comedy, music, and revenge, Sholay is a western that is epic in the best sense, and it deserves to stand alongside other classics in the genre.

That's right!  Lurple will be at TIFF '08.  Not for the entire thing, but at least for the last couple of days to catch a couple of spiffy films. The entire schedule was finally announced today and I've been looking forward to this for a while!

• Original Name: Rodjen kao ratnik
• Director: Guido Zurli
• Writers: Dragomir Stojanovic, Svetlana Stojanovic
• Year: 1994
• IMDB / Gidra on VHS
  

An awkwardly endearing brawling action picture from Serbia, Gidra stars Dragomir Stojanovic, better known as Gidra. Unwilling to let things like acting get in his way, the little man carries the picture with amazing athleticism and boundless enthusiasm. Unwilling to back down from any challenge, he was born to be a warrior!

At Lurple.com we like our revenge movies and we're always interested in indie flicks on the subject.  We've been keeping an eye on One Long Day; it was filmed on a miniscule budget and it looks like a lot of fun.  How could we not be interested in a film made by a mailman-turned-director about a man avenging the death of his dog Fluffy?

Be sure to check out the trailer below!

• Original Title: Zouhou qiang
• Director: Wah-Chuen Lam
• Writer: Wah-Chuen Lam
• Year: 2002
• IMDB / Flixster
  

Extremely dark and unconventional, Runaway Pistol is a Hong Kong movie that takes an unflinching look at the life of one gun—from the gun's point of view.

Narrated by a world-weary pistol that would rather be involved in working with anchovies than shooting people, Runaway Pistol sounds like a bizarre comedy. It isn't. As the gun changes hands through a series of thefts, sales, and murders, it becomes involved in situations that definitely earn the film a CAT III rating.

• Director: Efren C. Piñon
• Writer: Joe Mari Avellana
• Year: 1974
• IMDB / Amazon

Yep. Satan actually shows up, and when he does, he's dressed like a horned disco dancer with a trident and a tail! Meanwhile, an evil minion called the 'Prince of magic' hangs out with a gang (dressed like waiters) and uses his satanic powers to spin heads and bully a village of nice Christians who whip themselves bloody for Jesus.

• Director: Babbar Subhash
• Writer: Dr. Rahi Masoom Reza, Balraj Deepak Vij
• Year: 1983
• IMDB / Flixster / Amazon

If there's one thing Bollywood does better than any other movie-making industry, it's excess. Colors, music, dancing, clothes, sets, melodrama—they love to take things to the next level. Sometimes they take it to such an extreme that a western sense of style or good taste just can't be applied. Western sensibilities are as likely to fit within some Bollywood movies as moon ponies and unicorns are likely to be found frolicking in Dick Cheney's back yard. Things that could never work in a western film sometimes work in Bollywood.

Disco was already all about excess and poor taste, so when Bollywood does disco you'd better be prepared for a double-barreled blast of dance inferno madness.

We recently declared that Charles E. Cullen was the worst director ever, and that his movie Killer Klowns from Kansas on Krack was quite possibly the worst movie ever made. I knew that writing this would send some terrible films my way but I had no idea just how quickly they would arrive.

I've been discussing Nollywood (the Nigerian film industry) with the other folks over at Cinema Suicide for a little while now. If you're not familiar with Nollywood and want to know more check out Bryan's latest article on the subject. It's apparently not uncommon for teams in Nollywood to put out a movie in a couple of days and some Nollywood directors have managed to make 80-100 movies in the last 15 years. Just yesterday someone provided us with an online store that not only sells some of these fine movies, it also provides online trailers for many of them.

• Director: Tommy Wirkola
• Writer: Stig Frode Henriksen, Tommy Wirkola
• Year: 2007
• IMDB / DVDHuset

A Norwegian parody of Kill Bill that also spoofs numerous other films including Deliverance, Titanic, and Star Wars. Kill Buljo is as low-brow as it is low-budget. Prepare for silly action and raunchy jokes; someone will get chopped in half, cows will be molested, and Jompa Tormann will.... Kill Buljo!