To keep himself hyped for Zach Cregger's horror video game adaptation, CatBusRuss revisits a conversation with unofficial associate producer of "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast", Ally Higgins, to discuss the Paul W.S. Anderson "Resident Evil" adaptations and the "Underworld" vampire v. werewolf series of films. Both series were distributed by Sony's Screen Gems.

These two series were introduced to Ally during their four-relationship. The two broke up just before the pandemic, so this should be a stamp of approval about the podcaster since she purchased 20 sub 100-minute movies to be discussed on the show. Do the two still keep in touch after this episode?

Amongst movies Russ was open to discuss for early episode of the podcast were eighties HBO standbys, "Flashdance" and "Killer Klowns from Outer Space". Ally grew up loving these films. Who cannot find something to enjoy from KKfOS? As for Alex the whiny welder and entitled, untrained dancer, CatBus wishes more tragedy to befall her. Perhaps they should have killed the dog to make him surrender to saccharine conclusion.

Russ knows that it is not right to destroy one person's nostalgia without investigating his own. In 2001, he saw "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within". He definitely wanted to like it, but is it Final Fantasy without Chocobos? After concluding the "Resident Evil" animated features, ponderings of how good could the 2001 flick really look if the newer films look so good slipped into his brain. Their combined budgets could not be as high as the first CG, photorealistic movie. Did Russ's tepid support of the film wane upon a rewatch?

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CatBusRuss is excited about the third horror feature from acclaimed director Zach Cregger ("Weapons" and "Barbarian"), but is a bit skeptical about the subject matter. The former "Whitest Kid You Know" is taking on the cinematically divisive franchise of "Resident Evil".

To this point, none of the live-action adaptations of the Capcom video game series have been "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes (or nearly fresh with the least rotten being 39%, 21% from critical acclaim). Cregger has made it clear that his film will not be centered around any of the video games' protagonists. Russ was a fan of most of the Paul W.S. Anderson series (with the exception of the one that scored 39%), but was that more about his fandom for the director's "Mortal Kombat" and "Event Horizon"?

The Japanese CG-animated features stay in the continuity of the video games, and have a reasonable hit-to-miss ratio. Our host just watched the last two features in that franchise, "Resident Evil: Vendetta" and "Resident Evil: Death Island", to demonstrate that, especially in an age of successful gaming adaptions, being loyal to the source material is a wise decision.

CatBus did not get around to the feature in theaters since the COVID-19 restrictions were just getting lifted in 2021, but he felt "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City" was a fun feature. The actors may not have looked like their video game counterparts, but it knew that the story of the games was worth bringing to the big screens. It is really silly that this has been written off because it took just one liberty when compared to the original six Screen Gems flicks.

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Lets hope that video game writer Cory Lanham was impressed by the last minute panelist replacement CatBusRuss for this 40th anniversary panel of "The Transformers - The Movie". The Autobots and Decepticons were his first toy line of choice while his co-panelist favored Kenner's "Star Wars" line and Mattel's "Masters of the Universe". Optimus Prime's demise in this film was traumatic enough. Russ can be clumsy. Was salt poured in any wounds?

Indiana Comic Convention 2026 became the comic con where Russ may have come into his own as a panelist and promoter. The connections that he made with creators over the 15 months between ICC2025 and 2026 allowed his influence to no longer be limited by invitations to participate, but encouragement by the guests. So if a panel had a no show, the FanX group should consider themselves blessed that our podcast host was present.

The two do their best to make this more than a support group for those who were old enough for this film to tell that all heroes die (for capitalism). If anything, the stories shared by the audience about processing the violence of the feature provided instructions on how to introduce younger generations to the animated series. And when you have superb Soundwave and Starscream cosplayers in attendance, the atmosphere had to be fun.

To add to the fun of this podcast episode, CatBusRuss went out and saw another animated feature, the long delayed "Coyote vs. Acme". It was a fun nostalgic trip that left our host pondering why we cannot have the classic "Looney Tunes" style of cartoon back. Did we need live-action to make this film a winner? Wile E. could have done it on his own.

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CORY LANHAM: WRITER, NARRATIVE DESIGNER, AND OXFORD COMMA ENTHUSIAST, can be reached at http://cory-lanham-d4t5.squarespace.com/contact-form

CatBusRuss presents the 1986 RAD Movies or BAD Movies as a TEDTalk to Missouri Comic Con 2026.

The punch and pie helped draw in a fair-sized crowd of dedicated movie nuts who were very patient and involved with Russ's conversation about 1986 movies that may have been green lit to either counter program another studio's release or just capitalize on what was going to be hot. In a time before the dominance of home video, movie studios were doing their best to beat each other to the punch when it came to a film premise. Our host is not interested in who landed the first strike, but who had the knock out blow.

"Top Gun" may have made the most money in 1986, but is the story about an arrogant pilot going to dogfight college truly better than a high schooler and Louis Gossett Jr. stealing fighter jets for a rescue mission? Eddie Murphy may have saved the world from Chinese black magic, but was he cooler than Kurt Russell?

Along with these conversations, CatBus does go on some tangents about how Joe Pantoliano could have probably made all of these movies better, how he missed on a 1996 version of this panel that he would call "HOT Movies or NOT Movies", and his classic belief that movies should kill more dogs. The latter argument is probably why "Mars Attacks" is superior to "Independence Day".

To gain a better understanding of 1986 knock off cinema, Russ finally got around to Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2". His first feature with the Cannon Group, "Lifeforce" is one our host constantly recommends. Does the return of the Sawyer Family live up to naked space vampires?

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It has been a rough month for CatBusRuss. His new warehouse job is expecting 11-hour days starting at 6 pm, and with every other weekend being mandatory Saturdays, he considers himself lucky to have the strength to check out the last day of Fan Expo Chicago. Then the convention organizers kicked him between the legs.

Was it a worthwhile trip? Yes. Our podcast host got to hang out with ThePoeticCritic, gave out of all his "I Dig Crazy Flicks" promotional buttons and pins, and got to ask "The Horror Master" John Carpenter a question at the "Halloween" panel. Unfortunately, if you did not give Fan Expo all your money up front, they could care less about how your experience was. They basically decided that one-day visitors are losers.

Russ had been to three conventions last year hoping to get an autograph from Keith David, and the legend had to cancel all three appearances. Life happens, the podcaster understands that. Unfortunately to Fan Expo, life only happens to celebrities. If you cannot make it to all three days of their attempts to take all your money, you do not matter. The fault for not getting his signature this time solely rests on Russ.

Sorry you were not in a position to buy a fan experience in advance. It is your fault for not calling in sick to work. And you call yourself a "fan". A fan will bend over backwards to accommodate Epic Conventions' income like Russ did at the 2022 Fan Expo Chicago.

And fans should only want to bow down to celebrities. If they go to panels facilitated by other fans, where is the money for us to make?

It kind of makes CatBus wish the convention would have concluded like the end of Takashi Miike's "Dead or Alive". Russ will be on "Collateral Cinema" for their annual Miike episode. To give you a preview of what is to come over there, our host got a really incisive rewatch in and does his best to provide us with a limited review of this brilliant feature.

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CatBusRuss once again presented a TEDTalk about what might be the greatest year in action movies, 1985. Sylvester Stallone had "Rambo: First Blood - Part II", Arnold Schwarzenegger had "Commando", and the Cannon Group threw everything at them. But as this panel evolves, could Sho Kosugi, Taimak, or perhaps Julius "Sho'nuff" Carry walk out as the king of violence?

It was a smaller audience, but they were more than happy to participate in determining the champion. By the end of his time, Russ got to sell his ideas to a crowd of aspiring cosplayers. They were a crowd that appreciated 1985 cinema in general, and offered up new contenders to the action hero title. That is, if you think Marty McFly, Andrew Clark, and John Bender were action stars.

Our host continues to research this year in action cinema, and this led him to find the second attempt to make Jackie Chan a movie star in America. "The Protector" is essentially "Rush Hour 2". Instead of Chris Tucker accompanying Chan to bring justice to Hong Kong, it was a pre-prime Danny Aiello as comic relief. How does this work out with the most serious Jackie of the 1980s? How serious can it be when you have a showdown between Chan and Big John Studd?

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