English Indie-Alternative 80s Flashback Under Neon: "Crash" by The Primitives (1988)

American Comedy Rock 80s Under Neon: "Hot Dog" by Martini Ranch (1988)

French Guadeloupean Jazz Under Neon: "Chimin Spirit" by Edmony Krater, Zepiss (1988)

Under Neon Movie Reviews: 'Dead Heat' (1988)

Movie: Dead Heat
Year: 1988
Rating: 5/10 Stars *****

Wow, pretty awful acting and the action scenes aren't even that good. Of course its a cheeseball 80s action era flick, so the acting is supposed to be bad and not serious at all. An evil pharmaceutical giant develops a means of temporarily bringing back the dead, who are then immune to injury, creating lots of problems for the local police department and crime stoppers.  Man's search for immortality, will it ever be attained? 

Under Neon Movie Reviews: 'Waxwork' (1988)

Movie: Waxwork

Year: 1988

Rating: 5/10 Stars *****

Wow, really was not scary at all, in fact quite goofy and un-serious if anything. A satanic waxworks show comes to town and lures unsuspecting teens into its various traps to continue its sadistic show before moving on to the next unsuspecting town. Wouldn't watch this again, and probably won't bother with the sequel as it really was b-movie level, and not in a good way. 

Under Neon Movie Reviews: 'Fright Night Part 2' (1988)

Movie: Fright Night Part 2
Year:1988
Rating: 6/10 Stars *****
Part 2 in my opinion is not nearly as good as part one was, but that is often how sequels tend to go. The story continues, a few years have past and Charlie is in college and finally over his vampire paranoia when Jerry Dandrige's sister (also a powerful vampire) comes to town seeking revenge for the murder of her brother. Again, the first was better, but this one is still a must see if you liked the first as they never made any more after this.

Under Neon Movie Reviews: 'Critters 2: The Main Course' (1988)

Movie: Critters 2: The Main Course
Year: 1988
Rating: 6/10 Stars ******

Wowsers! This one was entirely worse than the 1st, but so good in the 80s cheesy way. I must say, I especially enjoyed the super-critter at the end, such a standard formulaic device, and so quintessentially 80s. I thought this one was not so great, til I saw the 3rd one, so this one in retrospect is actually pretty good, and having the Playboy centerfold cameo in a tight leather outfit doesn't hurt either. Check this one out if you love cheesy 80s horror/sci-fi.

Under Neon Movie Reviews: 'Ghoulies II' (1988)

Movie: Ghoulies II
Year: 1988
Rating: 5/10 Stars *****

Ghoulies II was actually better than Ghoulies  in my opinion, although that isn't saying much. As far as horror movies go, its hardly a horror. The little nasties are back, and this time they are haunting a hell-themed carnival show. This sequel definitely had a bigger budget than the first, and the ghoulies are a bit of a bigger role, the main role in this one...and I just realised there was a 3 and 4 too! bloody oath... And check out the sick W.A.S.P. music video below, made for Ghoulies II!

Under Neon Movie Reviews: 'License to Drive' (1988)

Movie: License to Drive 
Year: 1980
Rating: 7/10 Stars *******

Here is a quality classic 80s flick for sure, and probably the 2nd best of the "Coreys" films in my opinion, following the legendary teen vamp flick "Lost Boys." Netflix just got this a month ago, and I didn't realize that Heather Graham was the girl in the movie. Its about teenagers and the age of getting a driver's license and finding the freedom to be able to drive to and fro. Don't expect much, but some good 80s fluff.

Sneaks' Movie Reviews: 'Killer Klowns from Outer Space' (1988)

Movie: Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988)

Director: Stephen Chiodo

Rating: 2.6/5 Stars **'

Wowsers! I forgot how awesome this movie was! And of course its on Netflix streaming, so of course I had to watch it. A true 80s horror-comedy classic, although its hardly a horror movie, and more of a campy-comedy that's just in time for Halloween, don't miss it! It even has its own killa-theme-song :-)

Brief Movie Review for 'They Live' (1988)

Movie: They Live (1988)
Director: John Carpenter
Rating: 4/5 Stars ****

Wow, this film was way better than I thought it would be all things considered. I thought it was a horror movie when I first saw the cover, but it is actually more of a sci-fi adventure with heaps of social commentary on modern society and economics. Interestingly enough it seems to me to be a metaphor for the whole struggle between working blue-collar class vs. elite ruling class to just live a good life. The best quote in the movie was 'The golden rule is...he who has the gold rules.' There are also hints of anti-consumerism placed in this film, which for its time (the Reagan era) was quite a brave film to be put out there. The acting is mediocre, but the film is worth watching, and everyone should see it at least once. Also, if you search for this movie on youtube.com you will find that the whole movie is available for viewing.

A Brief Movie Review: 'Watchers' (1988)

Movie: Watchers (1988)

Director: Jon Hess

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars ***'

This movie was actually a lot better than I thought it would be all things considered. A teenaged Corey Haim comes across a lost dog who turns out to be a grim reaper of sorts as the dog is telepathically linked to a genetic mutant killing machine made by the US military to replace soldiers. The only problem is that this franken-squatch has escaped the lab to terrorize a nearby town in search of the dog. Check this one out if your looking for some cheap and easy entertainment, its on netflix too.

Brief Book Review for 'Creating Money' (1988) (book by Author's Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer)

Book = Creating Money: Attracting Abundance (1988)

Authors = Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer

5/5 Stars ***** 

Ok, so I just finished reading this book, titled Creating Money by authors Sanaya Roman and Duance Packer for the 6th time!! I read somewhere that advertising company research over the years has revealed that if you are exposed to a commercial or an idea/set of ideas 5-6 times or more that the ideas and their underlying assumptions/suggestions start to absorb subconsciously in the viewer/reader. That is exactly why I have read this book for the 6th time (all in the last 2 years), as it really contains so many new beliefs about money and abundance and how all that works in life that I now choose to have as my own thoughts and beliefs. I am also writing this review in the hopes of inspiring at least a few of you to at least check the book out and thus have a real opportunity to change some things, as well as to shake loose some of the more unhappy rigid structures/patterns in your live's. Now, don't get me wrong here, this book isn't going to guarantee you will get rich or anything so common like that. What this book might do, and has done for me, is help you begin to think of money and material abundance as well as spiritual abundance in new ways that can help you to evolve out of your old life-long patterns/habits surrounding money and everyday living (particularly those that you would deep down love to change). So there is my sales-pitch if you can call it that, but I must say that this book is really just a beginning, as there is a lot of work to be done to re-program your own deep-seated beliefs and stubborn patterns, and it requires that you actually be open to new ideas and new possibilities instead of thinking that you already know it all. For me, it has been a long process, but I have started to see small changes here and there, and in real life, and in my own experience that is how it seems to work, small forward steps here and there that add up to larger changes over a period of time. So, with all of that said, I highly recommend this book to all of you who are open to expanding your reality and to opening up to new ideas. I believe that William Shakespeare said it best: "There are more things in heaven and earth...Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." -Hamlet Act 1, scene 5, 159–167

Click here to check out Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer's website for more information about them and their works.

#30 of VJ Samsonite's Top 100 80's Dance Hits Countdown: 'Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car' by Billy Ocean (1988)

Welcome back once again to the Top 100 80's Dance Hits Countdown (by VJ Samsonite). Today we are presenting #30, and the song is  Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car by British singer/performer Billy Ocean. Billy Ocean was born in Fyzabad, Trinidad in January of 1950, and moved with his family to Romford, Essex, England with his family at the age of 8. Now most of you will definitely remember this song from the late 1980's, and I specifically have a memory of drinking fruit punch Kool-Aid at a friends house and watching Billy Ocean's music video for this song on MTV, ahh..the memories. This song was a #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the Australian Charts, and the Hot R&B Songs chart. It would peak at #3 on the UK charts. One other interesting fact about this song that I had totally forgotten is that it was featured on the soundtrack of the 1988 teen adventure movie License to Drive, which featured 80's-duo Corey Haim and Corey Feldman, who were still basking in the success of the previous year's 1987 cult classic The Lost Boys. In fact, I think I even have a License to Drive keychain, and have no idea how I would ended up with it, but I figure I must have acquired it in a Disneyland trip that year, you know, when they were still doing Star Tours and Michael Jackson's 3D Captain EO...those were the days. In fact I wonder if I could even find a copy of License to Drive today, I bet it would be difficult to locate one. Well, enough reminiscing for now...stay tuned for #29! Apparently the original video is good, but YouTube has disabled embedding so this one will have to do.

#64 of VJ Samsonite's Top 100 80's Dance Hits Countdown: "Chains of Love" (1988) by Erasure

And #64 is....Chains of Love, by English synth-pop duo Erasure. Erasure consists of songwriter and keyboardist Vince Clarke and vocalist Andy Bell, and formed originally back in 1985. Vince Clarke was one of the founding members of another well-known synth-band from the 80's by the name of Depeche Mode, and he was the writer of their first three singles, including their breakthrough top ten hit Just Can't Get Enough. Clarke left Depeche Mode in 1981 and started up with another successful group called Yazoo (aka Yaz in the USA), after two hit albums with Yazoo Clarke produced a top four hit in the UK called Never Never. He then went on to form Erasure with Andy Bell, which went on to produce 34 Top 40 Hits in the UK between the years of 1985-2007, and they have sold somewhere around 25 million albums in that time. Clarke and Bell have been labeled as "the definitive synthpop superstars," according to their wikipedia page. Chains of Love was the 4th track on their May 1988 release album The Innocents. Chains of Love was Erasure's 6th consecutive Top 20 Hit on the UK Singles Chart, and it became their first mainstream breakthrough on the USA Billboard Hot 100 Charts at #12, and to this day remains their highest charting pop hit in the United States. Check out their wikipedia page for more info, and break those chains!

#74 of VJ Samsonite's Top 100 80's Dance Hits Countdown!

Now we are getting down to it, we've past the first 25 of the countdown, and now on down to the final 74! Speaking of, number 74 is...Say This to Me, by Canadian new wave band NEO a4. What's that you say...never heard of the song or the band??? Don't feel alone, because you aren't. I first discovered  NEO a4 whilst watching Friday the 13th part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. The version of the song I am including on the list is actually the 12" version too, so take note of that. NEO a4 came out of Edmonton, Alberta Canada in 1981 and the members were Ric Johnston, John Tidswell, Joel Anderson. Later, Doug Radford. They lasted as a group until 1989 when they disbanded. If you look on Itunes you will find those albums and this song. I have rated this song on the countdown as I have found them to be a very good and very unrecognized band, with a similar sound to Duran Duran, or the Thompson Twins, some kind of hybrid of groups, and I highly recommend checking out their self-titled album on Itunes, which is the only place I have been able to find it. Youtube has one of their songs, but not this one, and no one else seems to have it available either so their is no video for this, sorry folks, you'll have to go here to listen to it. In fact this may be the only song on the whole Top 100 Countdown that will be unavailable to watch on youtube, but I suppose there had to be at least one. Enjoy!

The Hard Way
If It Was You
Desire/Instr.