From the Archives #1

(First posted on The OCE on 8/12/02.)

I found this quote in a review over at Teleport City, a neat site with lots of lengthy reviews of cheezeball movies nobody's ever heard of (like the Swedish action film War Dogs, the review from whence this came). It's a great bit of writing. I can relate to the concept it offers.

"The good thing about this hobby is that no matter how deep you get into it, you're really never going to do more than scratch the surface. Just when you are patting yourself on the back for having see the Filipino musical version of Batman, you find out about the Turkish rip-off of Star Trek. And just when you find that, someone comes along and mentions Bruce Lee Versus Gay Power to you. It's like playing Space Invaders. No matter how long you play, no matter how good you are, there's always more waves of space invaders to face. You'll never finish the game, because there is no finish to it. The game is in the playing; not in the completion. So, too, is the eternal quest for obscure films and endless journey into the darkest corners of the world's video vaults. You start feeling all bad-ass because you've developed a keen knowledge of Italian Road Warrior rip-off films from the 1980s, and then you meet someone who is going, 'What? You aren't familiar with Filipino midget spy films? You plebe!' While it's frustrating, it's also nice to know that we're never going to run out of this stuff no matter how much we watch."

Amen, brother.