Reviews – The Indie Film Cafe Movie Reviews!

Episode 174: Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987)

October 29, 2025 The MooCow

Hey everyone… Jonathan Moody back again to discuss another movie and maybe one that is not as awesome as my last one. One that is a bit more troubled. I am talking about the 1987 Andy Sidaris film, “Hard Ticket to Hawaii”. And man this one doesn’t disappoint in the badness department, lol! We did this new episode through zoom with Paul Presenza, myself, and special guest Lacy Lou who I hope in Season 9 we can bring her back! She was such a fun person to chat with! Even though this is not her type of movie haha!

So like I said this is an Andy Sidaris movie and if you have seen one Andy Sidaris movie you pretty much have seen them all, they are basically the same formulaic film. Unlike Savage Beach which we reviewed in Season 5 with Cayt Feinics, this one is a whole lot worse! That one was pretty mid for a Sidaris film whereas Hard Ticket To Hawaii is so over the top and outrageous it really becomes so much worse!

Hardened, professional government agents…yeah

Here’s the plot by IMDB:

In Hawaii, an undercover DEA Agent and her civilian friend stumble upon a drug trafficking operation, and have to enlist the help of their colleagues/friends to go after the vicious drug kingpin.

Yep, that’s pretty much the plot in a nutshell. What they forgot to mention are the millions and millions of boobs you see in the film. So many boobs its not even funny. After a while you’re kind of immune to the boobs: and poor Lacy had to watch it all. We didn’t do that to be mean, but I knew of all my friends she could handle it.

The cast was made up of Sidaris regulars including: Dona Spier (Doin’ Time, Dragnet), Hope Marie Carlton (Blood Match, Nightmare on Elm Street 4), Cynthia Brimhall (High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story, Every Breath), Ronn Moss (The Bold and the beautiful, Bolt), and a few others. The cast pretty much did the same as they usually do in most of the Sidaris films. Even Andy himself shows up as Whitey the TV Director. The acting wasn’t the highest grade acting but hey I don’t think we expected anything extraordinary.

Ummm, I don’t think that’s the way you’re supposed to use a Walkman…

The funny thing is this is one of those times we actually did a movie another review page had covered. Red Letter Media had done this film before but we had decided we also needed to do it. It was just too bad not to pass up. If you listen to the podcast there are certain scenes from the film that cracked us up to no end. We were laughing just discussing it, which I think was great! I don’t know if that was Andy’s hope for the movie but certainly was our highest expectation. You can’t call this movie not entertaining. And I actually do also recommend that Red Letter Media episode. I hope Rifftrax or someone like this covered it too.

It’s sad that movies like this – low independent action movies with explosions – don’t exist as much. Or if the explosion are there, it’s definitely CGI these days, which sucks. Andy, who is no longer with us, would probably be sad that there aren’t films like this being made these days. I would love to see someone try to do this again. Even though the Stink Score was pretty high for this one it wasn’t nearly as bad as some of the other action flicks we’ve seen. Some of those are not nearly as entertaining. But this one was more put together.

NOW I see why this moovie was made!! :=8O

Well speaking of the Stinkometer score we are down to that point right now, and I’m kind of shocked to be honest. Savage Beach got a 14.5 but this one got a stink score of 26. That’s over 10 more stink points. I gave it a 9. Paul gave it a 9.5. And Lacy being the sweetheart that she is gave it a 7.5., which is a Stinky Average of 8.7! A 26 on the Ladder of Stink that puts it up there with Miami Connection, Disaster Wars, and The Wild World of Batwoman! Actually Hard Ticket To Hawaii suits that perfectly.

All in all though not too bad of an episode, a fun one if you love schlock indie action flicks. And if you do you will probably get a load of fun for this one. However, once again there is a lot of nudity in the movie – if that’s something you really don’t want to see I totally get it. But then again if you watch any Sidaris film you’ll pretty much see the same thing, minus not as many snakes. But a lot of Hawaii! And on that note I’m going to let the Moo Cow take it away and tell you guys how you may be able to find all of the stuff for this film. And I’ll be back after his next two movies he discusses. Take it away, Moo Cow…

Moo everyone – and let’s just mention that this cow had a massive 80’s crush on Cynthia Brimhall… ;=8)

So, trailerage we has right HERE. Along with the ‘haunting’ theme song. You can watch it for free on Tubi. Udderwise go to Uncle Amazon to get your DVD, Blu Ray, and special Director’s Cut versions of the film. You can also get this and just about all of Andy Sidaris’s films at the Malibu Bay Films website – check it out! You can also find Hard Ticket in the re-sale market at Ebay. You can get the 1987 poster at Amazon too, and also Ebay! And man on man you definitely want THIS TEE SHIRT if you are a fan of this moovie! And of course, if you want your moorning cup of Joe with a lil Hard Target action, check out Tee Public! There are some fun reviews of the film at Addicted Coffee Writer, Geeky Hobbies, and RamboRalph, as well as the aforementioned Red Letter Media. Bulletproof Action sums up the 5 reasons why you should be watching this flick! And finally, Action Flick Chick.com shows some love too.

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Episode 173: Mad Cow (2010)

September 25, 2025 The MooCow

Holy COW! Its a Mad Cow!!! :=8O

Well, its the 2010 South African wackadoodle horror flick called Mad Cow, which is the latest episode on the Indie Film Cafe‘s season 7 in which Moody, the MooCow, and long-suffering Just Jenn had to sit through and chew the cud on – check it out and see if any cow pies got milked!
;=8)

Soooo, it appears that a mad scientist (is there any udder kind?) creates a half-man, half -cow creature, you know, as you do, which then goes on a kill-crazy rampage with a chainsaw in a hunting lodge in the South African bush. Welllll, creates an extra in a silly cow mascot suit with a chainsaw. Same thingy.
;=8)

So Troma, always the mark of quality low budget madness, brought this over to the US, and thank so much goodness for that because Mad Cow is just a wacky, silly romp that just has to make you smile watching a murderous kill-crazy cow wackin’ all the humans, even when the jokes are obvious and stilted – and ye gods, can Tanya van Graan (Charlize, the vegetarian waitress) get an sexier? She got the whole herd’s fuzzy ol’ tails a-waggin’ whenever she appeared on screen – and she got voted FHM’s Sexiest Woman in 2007 in South Africa! I mean, RIGHT??

Well, according to the IMDB, the moovie came about when:
“UK writer/director Michael Wright (Dark Side, Boulevard Noir) and South African producer/director Michael J. Rix (Tengers, The Game of My Life) struck the deal with producers Jason Rogan and Doug Marschke to make the one of a kind horror/comedy and bring it back to Cannes 2010 under the banner Funny How Films. ‘We loved the Mad Cow concept and knew we wanted to do this film. Mad cow is the perfect film for Cannes because, in addition to being wildly entertaining, it reminds us all that underneath the hilariously funny lies something perverted and deranged,’ said Rogan in an interview. The film was made in less than a year and had its world premiere at Cannes on May 17, 2010.”

Supposedly, Michael Wright, who also wrote the screenplay, cowposed the first draft in an actual barn, so as to reflect the point of view of a cow more accurately. Again, as you do. Well, if yer fan of Scary Movie, Naked Gun, Shaun of the Dead, or those kinds of over the top, none-too-subtle comedies, with a bit of ridiculous horror on the side, then this just might be yer slab of beef! Craig Brown plays Daisy the crazed cow creature, Angus Douglas plays Harry Balls (note: this is a hint on the kind of moovie we’re talkin’ about there…), and Greg Viljoen plays Vince Chopper – but if yer like the MooCow, all eyes are on lovely Tanya van Graan, at least when Daisy’s not on screen… ;=8)

I mean, do folks wear a lot of Mexican sombreros in South Africa??

Well the votes are in, and it looks like this flick isn’t too much of a cow flop! Just Jenn and Paul the MooCow gave out 6’s, while Moody was just not very amoosed by the whole thing, and went with an 8.5, giving Mad Cow a total Stink Score of 22.5, that’s a Stinky Average of 7.5! On the Ladder of Stink this moovie ranks with the likes of Crater Lake Monster, Won Ton Ton, MonsTURD, Attack of the Killer Chickens, and Cornman – all MooCow suggested moovies, by the way; what can I say, we has the touch… ;=8)

Check out the trailer HERE. You can watch if for freebies on Youtube and on Tubi. Its also streaming at Troma NOW, which we recommend to toss Uncle Lloyd a few bucks to keep the Troma flag flying! You can buy the DVD at WallyWorld Troma, and Amazon, at re-sale at EBAY and DVRs at MVD and Dread Pirate. There is no blu ray as of yet, but we can live in hope. Grab the digital poster at Cinematerial.com , IMPAwards, and SciFiMovies.com, where you can get both of them! Also there is the movie’s own website made by the producers where you can download production stills. Its not the moovie, but TeePublic has this adorable mad cow tee shirt that you just has to have! There are reviews of the film at Film Blitz, HorrorNews.com, and Horror Society.

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Episode 171: Dead and Rotting (2002)

July 29, 2025July 29, 2025 The MooCow

Hey everyone welcome to Season 7… It’s your buddy Jonathan Moody to kick things off! The first episode of the new season we did through Zoom. I think we were still having problems getting people to the studio. A problem we still have. In this episode we reviewed the film, “Dead & Rotting” a JR Bookwalter produced film from 2002. Jonathan was able to get Paul for every episode of this season – don’t count that exactly for Season 8. However, we did have one of the best guests we’ve ever had which was Spooky Madison. Since this NEW episode though she has been extremely busy and we are very fortunate we got her when we could.

What is “Dead & Rotting” about you may ask. Let’s see how IMDB describes it:
Three prankster buddies release the wrath of an aged witch, Abigail, when they unwittingly become accomplices to the murder of her son. Scheming in anger, the witch seduces the three friends and then uses the men’s own ill-born spawn to destroy them. Death and rot are left in the wake…
Okay that pretty much sums it up.

Yeah, I got careless with the raspberry jam, so sue me, who cares, I’m dead!

The film was written by David P Barton and Doug Snauffer, and directed by Barton. This is the only film that David directed but he’s done make up fx for movies such as Starship Troopers, The Usual Suspects, Apocalypto and Face/Off. Doug has written other films such as Witchouse 2: Blood Coven, The Vault, Fiendish Fables, and Shriekshow.

As for the cast… we have some really fun genre names in this cast including: Stephen O’Mahoney (Roswell, Murdercycle, Mega Scorpions), Tom Hoover (Polymorph, Chickboxer, Galaxy of Dinosaurs), Debbie Rochon (Slime City Massacre, Exhumed, Model Hunger), Trent Haaga (Terror Firmer, Killjoy 2, Dr. Horror’s Erotic House of Idiots), and Jeff Dylan Graham (Fell, Zombiegeddon, Home Sick). Plus many more actors in the cast. I enjoyed the acting overall.

“Wanna see my definition of ‘disarming’, keep on grabbing…”

Warning though: there is a scene involving the death of an animal, but it’s really what sets the stage for the rest of the movie. Without it most of what happens wouldn’t have happened. But for an animal lover like myself it was very sad. Maybe this goes to show people don’t mess with a witch’s pet cause they might be more than just their pet. That’s all I’ll say about that. I don’t really wanna spoil anything because it’s a movie I believe everyone should go out and watch online.

David P. Barton is not a bad filmmaker by any means and especially for his first film he did a pretty good job. I know there were a few complaints we had, and a lot of that usually has to do with the writing. In my opinion, you’re only as good as the script on the page. We’ve def seen worse but we have also def seen a lot better. If you know us our biggest problems are can we see it and can we hear it. If those two aspects are being questioned we start to go higher on the Stinkometer.

Speaking of which, here are the scores that we gave…

I gave it a 4 because I really did enjoy it. It’s a movie I put on from time to time just because I’m a fan of everyone involved in the production. And to me it’s one of those movies that I can put on and it will inspire me to want to go out and make something. Paul gave it a 5. He found the movie to be more meh. Not horrible but he def saw the potential in it to be better, especially with the group. And Spooky well she gave it the highest stink rating… 5.5. She thought it was a bit stinkier than we did but not nearly as bad as I think she was expecting – especially after I’ve shown her one that was sooooo bad. This one was at least more competent. The total Stink Score was 14.5, which is a Stinky Average of 4.8. Not too shabby for the first episode of Season 7. That puts it up with Ghost House, Savage Beach, and Fire City: End of Days. Which pretty much makes sense.

Well that’s it for this one. I’ll be the next one as well since it was another one of my picks.. Zombie Pirates! We’ll see how well that did. Next up though Paul will take you through how to find this flick… Take it away, MooCow!

Moo! We’re back for Season 7!
:=8D
Well, we gotst trailerage for Dead and Rotting right HERE. You can watch it for freeee on the Tube of You at Horror Central! It is also on Tubi, so go check it out there! Want the physical media – who doesn’t?? Well Uncle Amazon has a Special Edition DVD! And you can still get the regular dvd version there too. No Blu Ray as of yet, unforch. In the re-sale market you can find it on Ebay and also at The Beat Goes On.com. Wildside Press has a two-fer DVD with Stiches which looks like a keeper! That version is on Amazon too. Its also featured on the Advantage Collection 10 moovie cowllection dvd, as well as the Blood Soaked Cinema 12 moovie dvd, so check those out too! No merch that I cud find, but there are a number of reviews to check out, including Flipside Movie Emporium, Silver Emulsion.com, and the Full Moon Band Blogspot. A video review is on the Dollar Bin of Doom section of Miserable Hair People at Youtube, and the Robjoenfriendsshow.

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Episode 170: Sins of the Fleshapoids (1965)

May 30, 2025May 30, 2025 The MooCow

And finally the Indie Film Cafe kids have come to the end of Season 6, and we’re going out with a bang with the classic weird cult indie film from maverick moovie maker Mike Kuchar, yeah we’re talkin’ Sins of the Fleshapoids. WOW! This is certainly a…well, a moovie. So what exactly is a Fleshapoid, and why is dey so sinsful?? Well, stay tuned to the latest episode of Indie Film Cafe, wherein Moody, the MooCow, and long-suffering Just Jenn chop it up about this wild and weird mid-sixties udderground flick – check it out! :=8D

Absolutely no bees around my Queen B’s, please!

Its the weird, sexy robot revolution, 1960’s style, where humans in the very far future following a “Great War” are both lazy as hell and make extremely questionable fashion choices. They rely on their Fleshapoid andriod-robot thingies to do everything for them (ya know, kinda like white folks use brown folks today…), somewhere between slaves, servants, and/or tools – except they has feelings too, all of the feels, and when they get riled up, well, we’re not talkin’ Terminator terrors but there is a whole lot of weird helmet wearing goin’ on.

Behold! My futuristic Interpretive DAAAANCING!!!!

So, wherein Fleshapoid Xar, played by Bob Cowen (Attack of The The Eye Creatures, The Sky Socialist, The Devil’s Cleavage) – who is also the Narrator – revolts against his human handler to hook up with Melenka, a female Fleshapoid because, well, when a mommy fleshapoid and a daddy fleshapoid love each other very much….
Anycow, this does not sit well with Prince Gianbeno (George Kuchar, Mike’s director brother) and Princess Vivianna, played by Donna Kerness (The Naked and the Nude, Pussy on a Hot Tin Roof, Lust for Ecstasy, The Devil’s Cleavage), and things and stuff happen. Now, the Princess is a naughty little monkey because she has a secret lover named Ernie (and who doesn’t?) , forming a sort of weird mid century modern underground love triangle, but the Prince gets red hot about all this, so that Xar and Melenka have to kill them, and then have sexy robot naked time and produce a cute lil toy robot that wanders right the heck outta Melenka’s….ummm…Fleshapoid cave. The heck??? :=8o

Wow! If you like yer sci-fi sex romps to be cheap, weird, overly-stylistic, and with barely any nudity, but with robo-husbandry, then this strange little flick is right up your dark, scary alley. The visuals were at the same time dark and grainy and hard to make out, while also being vividly and jarringly super saturated with color; the moosic was interesting but also rather pompous and bombastic; the acting ranged from wooden to fairly cowvincing at times, and the direction just seemed a step up from yer typical Nick Zed cheap-o stinkfest at times, while at udder times there were some very interesting shot selections. There’s something here for everybody! Add in the fact that this moovie has a HUGE udderground following, to say nothing of a rather notorious campy reputation, this little gem of a moovie helps put the fartsy in artsy! And its under an hour long with no dialogue! :=8D

I must wear my Helmet of Fleshapoidery with pride, pride I say!

Well, the votes are in, folks, and Sins of the Fleshapoids comes in with a 6.5 from the MooCow, a 7.5 from Moody, and amazingly Just Jenn went with a 5! That gives this moovie a Stink Total of 19, which is a Stinky Average of 6.3. On the Ladder of Stink that score has it tied with Bigfoot Wars, which is quite interesting as it is the lowest scoring season ending moovie yet! You know that both Andy Warhol and John Waters loved this flick… ;=8)

Well, here is your weird trailer for a weird film. You can buy the DVD from Uncle Amazon right HERE. You can also order it from Re-Voir.com. You can also find it on the re-sale market at places like Ebay. You can check out a cheap, grainy version for free at the Internet Archive.com if you can’t buy yer own copy.

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Episode 168: Survival (2006)

April 30, 2025April 30, 2025 The MooCow

Jonathan Moody here back again. This time talking about a movie I was almost in. But I’m getting ahead of myself and will talk about that in a bit before then I wanna mention this was MY last episode of Season 6 and even though this season was a bit chaotic and crazy it was fun to try and pick a movie that no one had either seen or even heard about. So of course I like to torture poor Paul and even poor Joe Turek for some of these final episodes of the season. Joe has been a staple of our show since Season 2. We especially love having him come toward the end when things get a bit worse.

Speaking of worse… the movie we reviewed was called, “Survival”. I remember when they were in pre-production for it. This was back in the MySpace days when I was working at a very famous theme park at the time. The filmmaker Joe Francis (Not the Girls Gone Wild guy) had a MySpace Page for it with updates on what was going on with it. I had been friends with Joe since back in the day of being on the View Askew Web board. He even started his podcast and that helped launch my first podcast, “The Independent Corner” on Blog Talk Radio. Joe was the guy that got me in to B movies by telling me about the book, “Make Your Own Damn Movie” by Lloyd Kaufman. And that really helped get me in to the indie film-making spirit.

Joe one day asked me to be in Survival. He said he wrote a character for me to play as the host of this party that was happening. I originally said sure. Then I couldn’t get the time off from the amusement park job plus I really didn’t want to drive down and do it. This was before acting became more of something I really enjoy doing. Executive Producer Coleman Lannum took my part and he didn’t just play my character he played the character with my name… Jon Moody in it.

I’m not going to lie and say this was a great movie because I know the people: there were a lot of flaws. A lot of which are discussed in the movie and stuff I didn’t even think about when I first watched it. I use to have the movie on a disc that Joe himself sent to me which I was over at a friend’s house showing it to him and it somehow got lost. So this new copy is actually the real deal that you can buy on Amazon. I don’t think the movie will ever come on Blu Ray but I wouldn’t mind buying it if it did.

Ok, I’m not really sure what’s going on, but if you drink this hooch it will get better…

The film had a great cast in it like Vanelle, James Furey, Matt McClure, Ian C. King, Don Prentiss, and Including Filmmaker/Actor Adam Minarovich (we did his film Ankle Biters and have Wiseguys VS Zombies on the list for upcoming B Movies to review) makes a brief cameo in the party scene. Adam and Producer Kevin Woods had worked together for a few films; Kevin Woods was the producer of the film and co writer. He helped Joe with as much as he could. The director of photography was Joe Hamann.

I remember hearing that things were very chaotic on set and you can kind of tell with how nonsensical some of the choices they made for it were. The special effects were done by Ricky Lee Leonard who I had become friends with after this movie got made. He’s a really good special fx guy. If anything you could say some of the FX were the best parts but some of it still looked ridiculous. I just think that Joe had bigger plans thang what his budget may have allowed. But I applaud him for going out and making a movie and getting it done. Joe also has a film he did called, “The Texas Frightmare Massacre” but that one is even harder to find. If anyone has a copy of it please email it to us.

Yeah, here we are, just suvivaling. Pretty much. Yep…

Okay well the scores are in and here they are… I gave it a 9. Paul and Joe both gave it an 8.5 bringing the stink score to be a 26. That’s pretty stinky but could have been hell of a lot worse. That ties it up on the ladder of stink with Disaster Wars and Miami Connection. Not a bad triple feature if you ask me!

Anyway, that’s about it. Sorry it took so long but Paul has two more to do and we are done with Season 6 mooooving on to Season 7. Thank you all for the patience and Season 6 has been a roller coaster. We can’t wait to catch you guys up! Until next one take it away Moo Cow…

Well, this flick is so obscure and crappy that there is no trailer for it, but I did find a section of some of the moost boring mooments, cowplete with a pesky Russian overtalker right HERE. You can see the whole thing for free, if you really want to, on the Tube of You. I believe that is from Producer Kevin Woods channel. You can get the DVD pretty cheap at Amazon, but there is no blu ray of this that I know of. And that is pretty mooch that, folks, no schwag, no tee shirts, no posters, pretty much zippo – the only udder thing the MooCow cud find was a review of the film on Inside Movies Galore, so you can check that out.