I think there might be one last thing that makes Transmorphers important: It's a straight-to-video release. It never played in theaters. So it playing in theaters is a *heavy* insinuation that Maddie was correct and their world is fake.
I guess that was the plan, get unsuspecting older people or people (like me) who think they see the word TRANSFORMERS after glancing real quick and u come home with this shit.
I have fun imagining that surely somewhere in the world, some young kid rented this (accidentally or in good faith), just hoping to get some giant robot action... and was more than satisfied with it-- maybe even TOTALLY LOVED IT.
What's funny is that for April Fools day in 2007, one of the biggest transformers fan pages became Transmorphers World 2005. They even got tons of behind the scenes stuff, interviews, concept art, a full fake forum... The works. It was such a good April fools prank that I ended up actually kinda Liking this movie by extension.
I actually completely believe that somebody on the set of ISTTG who was transgender remembered that Transmorphers gave them gender feelings in it's big identity twist, and decided to sneak it in there as a "nobody will ever get this reference" Easter egg. I buy that 100%
These types of movies were the bane of my existence as a video store manager in the 2010s. So many people got free rentals thanks to being tricked by mockbusters that I started warning customers that if they see The Asylum logo, it's not what they wanted.
Nice work Bob, can't wait to see more ❤ Also as a trans person myself, the "heh heh 'TRANS'morphers" joke was exactly the one I made while watching I Saw the TV Glow. In between bawling my damn eyes out, obviously, that movie hurt to watch in the best way 😭
to me the use in TV Glow was saying something like Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman's arc in Umbrella Academy - a feeling that something isn't necessarily WRONG, but that doesn't make it 100% right. like a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces fit together but don't make the right picture
Leading in with a 7min digression about _I Saw the TV Glow_ was completely self-indulgent, but I am here for it! As a middle-aged transfem I still wish that I had homegirls to watch girlie things with…
Fun Fact: In 2020 they had a Top Gun mockbuster that came out before the film they were mocking because of the pandemic so they made a sequel to in when Top Gun: Maverick came out in 2022.
I was 10 when Transformers came out - remember going to Blockbuster with my Dad and being shocked they ALREADY HAD Transformers! It wasn't until 10 minutes into the movie that we realized it wasn't.
Man, this is why I'm subscribed to your lovely channel! Getting sincerely excited tot alk about an obscure movie most of the people haven't heard about and yet making it captivating for over half an hour :D. Keep up the great work!
_Armaggedon 2025_ is pretty much what I would had made if The Asylum took my name from a hat and said "hey you! make a mockbuster of _Ready Player One!"_ CGI models recycled from previous movies and people in Spirit Halloween costumes because "its a virtual world, nothing needs to be practical or make sense in the enviroment"... and Eric Roberts as the villain, the man should be in the Mount Rushmore of modern-day B-Movies
I really think one option is that Transmorphers is a prime example of something you saw as a kid that is either way better or way worse than you imagined. Sometimes both!
2 days ago I was asked by a coworker if I'd ever heard of The Asylum. I responded "Oh, I know The Asylum. I've seen Atlantic Rim. I've seen The Day The Earth Stopped. I've not only seen Transmorphers, I burned the disk in a fire on the night of the winter solstice under the light of a lunar eclipse."
I was about to say that MST3K did this one so it's actually pretty visible but that was actually Atlantic Rim, The Asylum's mockbuster of Pacific Rim. Kind of weird they *didn't* do Transmorphers, given how much more infamous it was when it came out.
And, IMO, Atlantic Rim was one of their worst eps of "modern MST3K," because it's hard to make fun of a movie that's trying that hard to be bad. So I can see why they didn't do Transmorphers (or a bunch of other Asylum films that were already quasi-parodies in their own right). You can only really riff something that takes itself at least a /little/ seriously!
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron wasn't much of a game but it had a moment in it where Optimus awakens Metroplex, a colossal city-block-sized Transformer who arises to a soaring orchestral note and declares "Metroplex heeds the call of the last Prime." It's a cool moment.
Perhaps the inclusion of Transmorphers is simply a reference to it being in an alternate universe, since in our universe it never got a theatrical release.
@@einootsporkit's like when a low budget movie has a car chase and they just drive the cars off to the side of the road at the end because they can't afford to damage the cars 😂
"...interchangeable concrete rooms..." made me recreate the Leo pointing meme as I recognised the card bunker from the first issue of White Dwarf I bought.
Bob, we need the deep dive about how Black Scorpion is a treatise ion the rising tensions between the ever-industrializing North and the antebellum South and how inescapable the conflict actually was. Do it, Bobbo!
Man, I hate how much I want to watch the Transmorphers War of the Beasts movie. Also loved the Dan Olson James Rolfe documentary, I've been happily binging Folding Ideas since I watched it.
Leigh Scott: "Let's be one of the first to have gay marriage in our movie!" (Maybe some unintentional allusions to gender/sexual identity?) Also Leigh Scott: *Rants in fashy ramblings on Twitter*
thankfully pretty much nobody follows him on Twitter, most of his posts get ZERO replies, I only saw like two people responding to his most recent posts.
I'm pretty certain the only reason for the lesbian couple was because "chicks kissing = hot" was a big thing in the 2000s. I suppose it's better than nothing but his tweets say it all about how sincere it actually was.
I used to work at Walmart when this came out, and I used to grab them and throw them into the big DVD bin when I walked by them. If I saved one confused grand-parent it was worth it.
I'll never forget coming home drunk from a party in college and watching The Asylum's Titanic II with my roommate. We riffed on it to the end and laughed at all the atrocious dialogue. One of the best experiences I've ever had and no Asylum movie has been able to replicate that ever since.
I had no idea the movie playing in I Saw the TV Glow was real. Thought they just mocked up some intentionally horrible looking CGI to make fun of blockbusters
I suppose we have to watch "I Saw the TV Glow" to find out... which sucks for me because the nearest cinema theater to me is three towns away, and I don't think they show indie films there very often
I've watched it and don't know. It must be a reference to a Lynch property I either haven't seen or don't know well enough to catch the reference. Anyone know an instance of two guys just sort of hanging around in the dark in a bizarre fashion in a Lynch movie?
Around the @9:00 mark: "Will anyone make that connection?" Well, you did, didn't you? Also note that during that same era, you're forgetting that Trans-rights and the movement for Transpersons really hadn't really kicked into gear (let alone high gear) yet, so the idea of them running "Transmorphers" as a bad joke to emphasize how Transpersons were viewed and treated as during that time frame... it's an uber-meta contextual joke meant to point out how Transpersons were viewed at that exact time in the modern culture. It's a smartly hidden dumb-yet-high intelligence meta-textual joke. You forget after years of Marvel turning "Easter Egg" into "Count how many references you see on the screen", this is a LEGIT "Easter Egg" for the first time in a LONG time. Like that first time you saw the Xenomorph's skull in "Predator 2". Or when you'd notice "The Classic" Delta 88 in a Sam Raimi movie BEFORE the internet existed. (I know you're aiming for a younger demographic, but a lot of your current viewers are your age, so *WE REMEMEBER*.)
Wow. The acting in this movie is somehow so much worse than the special effects and the sets. This is what it would look like if *I* tried to act in a movie. Bob - if it's at all possible, see if you can get an interview with Jane Schoenbrun to discuss Transmorphers and why it was included, but also 80s pop culture in general as it seems she has a lot of love for and knowledge about it. I would absolutely LOVE hearing the two of you discuss these topics.
Is it bad that as a Trans girl all I can think whenever I hear the plot of 'I see the TV Glow' is 'I would 100% watch a movie about lesbians trapped in the wrong body in an AU going back and kicking ass? Especially with the gender dysphoria Boy to girl thing'? Like I'm not saying it would have been good but that kid me would have watched it alot without getting why.
I feel like theres a huge missing piece of the cultural zeitgeist of just like, magical girl anime or transformation based superhero but part of the gimmick is that the protagonist is trans and transforming as affirming for them. Trans magical girl in particular feels like it should have been done already but theres nothing that I can find. Though admittedly I have not looked very hard.
@@ASpaceOstrich Closest thing I can think of is 'Zsazsa Zaturnnah', which is a Filipino trans magical girl comic book character with a live action comedy/action/musical movie, which is rather fun though rooted in Filipino culture.
"Still better than _Revenge of the Fallen._ " You sure about that? I mean yeah, RotF is a complete trainwreck of non sequiturs just throwing shit at the walls that pisses all over everything and everyone involved with it, but I doubt anyone could call it tedious.
@@jasonblalock4429 Fair. I definitely feel that can be said of the later three Bayformers, which are just plain old bog-standard bad, whereas RotF is so unapologetically bad that I at least get some catharsis out of it.
same here, Bob saying this is better then ROTF and two of the Terminator sequels makes me think he wrote this script while he was high or drunk or something.
Warren Mitchell?? The main character is called Warren Mitchell? To this Brit of a certain age that’s hilarious. To the younger and non Brit folks - Warren Mitchell is the actor who plays Alf Garnett. The character from a British sitcom called “til death is do part” and later “in sickness and in health” who Archie Bunker and “All in the family” is based on. Google him and share the mental picture I have of that old geezer in a West Ham United football scarf fighting CG transforming robots.
I like the idea of the robots not having pilots as a metaphor for trans people not being "man/woman trapped in a woman/man's body" but just "being women/men" but that is so far out there.
@@benjamindover4337 shit I'd watch a hyena movie. Esp since they hang out in packs so you could do a velociraptors in JP thing. Maybe go prehistoric and pull out some giant cursorial felids or borophagine dogs. But I'm not giving mockbusters any of my money or attention on principle
Side note after seeing clips of Cocaine Bear I'm convinced it was the worst marketed movie of all time. A campy, gory, absurd horror comedy marketed as almost a family film-- the director was doing daytime talk shows.
@@rayortiz313 see cocaine-themed family movies is one of those genres you just don't see any more like comedy blockbusters and talking live action pets/babies
Asylum made a couple of Thor movies (he's very much in the public domain so he's fair game 😂), including one that rips off Dark World AND Jupiter Ascending in one! And as an apologist for both of those movies, and a Thor fan, I was so tempted to buy it at the time just out of curiosity. Probably didn't miss much.
Wow, I defend both too. Dark World is very watchable and after Endgame and Loki, feels more important to me. And Ascending isn't good but it's the bold originality people want but ignore. Do you know the name of the Thor knockoffs? Could be a fun guilty pleasure watch.
They're called "Almighty Thor" and there's been a few in the franchise apparently. The Dark World/Jupiter Ascending knock off was called Dark Universe. SUBTLE 😂@@jordansweet8054
They're a whole franchise! It's called "Almighty Thor" and the Jupiter Ascending knock off is called "Dark Universe" which is... Hilarious in hind sight @@jordansweet8054
before TEMU and WISH were shorthand for "knock-off version of a thing" I used to call cheap looking things Transmorpher ass looking ________ (insert thing I was mocking.
movie producers of today fighting each other over who have a better inclusion, and a Bad Movie just clamantly put a gay couple in a positive way and not only in a "Sexy girls kissing"
yeah i've seen a lof of DTV films with surprinsgly good representation. Sometimes you just gotta know where to look, the obscure 2003 horror film Hallow's End actually had a really touching lesbian couple in it much to my surprise.
I only have one thing to say... What the absolute f*ck?! This is like when I found out I have an ancestor that was a diplomat. I didn't think there would be something interesting, but it did in fact turn out to be interesting.
It's going to be, like, two minutes establishing "Yeah, it's as bad as everyone says" and then a 20 minute dissection of how feckless risk-adverse studio execs bring shame to the industry.
I remember the double feature my friend held at his place where he paired Iron Sky (already a low budget film) with its Asylum version (Nazis at the Center of the Earth IIRC). That was a riot.
Fun fact Carnosaur actually came out in theaters before Jurassic Park did due to a quick shooting schedule, same with Missing in Action coming out before Rambo First Blood Part 2.
@@jonathaneilbeck2263 Funny story about that: Dianne Ladd originally told Corman no...and "hell no!" at that. Then he sent her over a check. She never said how much but she did say no woman alive would EVER turn that amount down.
Ok but imagine a shitty b-list movie being what snaps the main character out of their brain washing/prison dimension/infinite sleep. Would be hilarious
As a trans woman I am extremely confident that they did use "trans"morphers in part because it’s a movie about "trans"gender people. Trans people (at least trans people in the English speaking world who are active on the internet which I think Jane Schonbrun is) by and large love those sorts of “haha they said trans” of jokes (me included)
Just so you know, Bob, we trans folk make stupid jokes about the prefix "trans" being used in other words all the dang time, so that absolutely was probably part of the decision to use the movie - as a dumb "trans" pun.
I was initially confused about the ISTTG thing, but as it went on it definitely made a lot more sense. I can only imagine they picked up on all that as crazy as it sounds? so I get it.
Reminder that A Princess of Mars (yes, they used the original John Carter title that Disney wouldn't) and Asylum's Sherlock Holmes are at least worth watching for the interesting choices they made.
It's probably not asylum but someone is still making mockbusters. There's at least one fake dune movie on Amazon prime that nearly tricked my parents into paying for it
Waaaaaait wait wait wait now wait just a fucking second- the movie playing in that scen of I Saw the TV Glow was TRANSMORPHERS?? That’s why that was so weirdly familiar??? Christ.
Y'know, the base premise of Transmorphers, (Earth is invaded by Transforming Robot Aliens and Humanity must mount a resistance) would have solid potential, if done correctly. could see that as a concept, only humanity reverse-engineer the transforming robot tech to build transforming Mechs to fight back. So basically Transformers vs Robotech.
haven't heard the name Transmorphers in YEARS😆 i remember that whole phase of the mockbusters via their DVD covers at Walmart and kind of wised up due to how weird and off they looked.
I am thinking you could spliced some go around with President Rosalin, Admiral Adama and Colonel Ty in there. More of the movie then the little girl having her stuff animals getting gangland style on each other
Thank you for doing this review. A part of me has always wanted to see Transmorphers, but I also know that Asylum's mockbusters are rarely worth the time.
You know, I can't really speak to anything Transmorphers, since I haven't seen it, or to I Saw the TV Glow and how deep its metaphors go, but I CAN say that when it comes to "mockbusters", the one my family experienced personally was "The Jungle King", released the same time The Lion King hit the scene and was super popular. Seriously, my younger sister was obsessed with The Jungle King, we practically rented it every week.
Wow... you never cease to amaze, Bob. Excellent vid and the right take on the schlock meisters at The Asylum and that particularly steaming POS, specifically. David Rimawi, David Michael Latt and Paul Bales still crank them out every now and then... and I'll still think of their movies, especially the mockbusters as "turn off your brain" fodder ripe for Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffing .
Damn I really the read the tittle as Transformers multiple times before clicking on it thinking you were going super meta by having the first episode of your new show be about recontextualizing one of your earliest reviews that helped build your audience. What I got instead was a completely different but equally fun ride through this bad knockoff and why it might have been referenced in a much better indie movie
33:19 Wow, that's some LOW-effort cat-fighting. Not worth the effort. IMO, these Asylum Mockbusters (and god bless 'em, they honestly believe they put in genuine effort) are best watched with MST3K-style riffing. They even did that was another blatant rip-off, ATLANTIC RIM. I did NOT make that up!
(Written during that long run on question about if there's any other significant link between Transmorphers and TV Glow) Listen, I didn't see TV Glow, but I'm pretty sure there's a pair of lesbian characters in it and one of them seemingly dies by getting blowed up by the Transmorphers but then near the climax she shows up inexplicably and when people obviously asked what happened she just says "I wouldn't miss this for the world as if that explains how she walked away from a leveled building. I assume something exactly like that happens in I saw the Tv Glow.
The twist doesn't make a lick of sense in-universe (why would he even have an ex if he's just been a robot the whole time? Did the scientist design him to be able to fuck and what was his motivation for doing so? Was it just a ploy to provide cover for the adult man with no connections with the remainder of the group who just showed up one day? If that was the case, why would the ex and her wife make such a big deal of how quickly they got married when he was frozen?) they did a reasonable job of foreshadowing it with the whole "he's more like them than he's like us" rhetoric and the prejudiced attitudes of the rest of the crew towards him. It's like the first draft of an interesting idea that ought to have been given more time to develop and would certainly have benefited from improved direction and casting people who were professional actors.
I think there might be one last thing that makes Transmorphers important: It's a straight-to-video release. It never played in theaters. So it playing in theaters is a *heavy* insinuation that Maddie was correct and their world is fake.
Oh, nice.
I worked at blockbuster when this came out. I can't tell you how many angry older folks thought they were renting transformers.
My therapist ended up renting Snakes on a Train instead of Snakes on a Plane, she still enjoyed it though.
Can confirm
I guess that was the plan, get unsuspecting older people or people (like me) who think they see the word TRANSFORMERS after glancing real quick and u come home with this shit.
I have fun imagining that surely somewhere in the world, some young kid rented this (accidentally or in good faith), just hoping to get some giant robot action... and was more than satisfied with it-- maybe even TOTALLY LOVED IT.
What's funny is that for April Fools day in 2007, one of the biggest transformers fan pages became Transmorphers World 2005. They even got tons of behind the scenes stuff, interviews, concept art, a full fake forum... The works. It was such a good April fools prank that I ended up actually kinda Liking this movie by extension.
I actually completely believe that somebody on the set of ISTTG who was transgender remembered that Transmorphers gave them gender feelings in it's big identity twist, and decided to sneak it in there as a "nobody will ever get this reference" Easter egg. I buy that 100%
Bob: does a video essay on premier indie darling only out of necessity to set up a video essay for TRANSMORFERS
That's Bob for you
That’s our Bob.
Bobs gotta Bob.
I told you that story to tell you this one!
You had the absolute most PERFECT opportunity for a 'Spaceballs' Mega Maid joke and you missed it, Bob.
These types of movies were the bane of my existence as a video store manager in the 2010s. So many people got free rentals thanks to being tricked by mockbusters that I started warning customers that if they see The Asylum logo, it's not what they wanted.
Nice work Bob, can't wait to see more ❤
Also as a trans person myself, the "heh heh 'TRANS'morphers" joke was exactly the one I made while watching I Saw the TV Glow. In between bawling my damn eyes out, obviously, that movie hurt to watch in the best way 😭
to me the use in TV Glow was saying something like Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman's arc in Umbrella Academy - a feeling that something isn't necessarily WRONG, but that doesn't make it 100% right. like a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces fit together but don't make the right picture
Fuckin 10/10 with this series my guy. If Schlocktober didn’t exist this would easily be my favorite series you do.
“Changemorphers: Less than you’d expect.”
“Xtacles: More than you bargained for!”
@@voltijuice8576 I understood that reference!
Leading in with a 7min digression about _I Saw the TV Glow_ was completely self-indulgent, but I am here for it!
As a middle-aged transfem I still wish that I had homegirls to watch girlie things with…
Fun Fact: In 2020 they had a Top Gun mockbuster that came out before the film they were mocking because of the pandemic so they made a sequel to in when Top Gun: Maverick came out in 2022.
I was 10 when Transformers came out - remember going to Blockbuster with my Dad and being shocked they ALREADY HAD Transformers! It wasn't until 10 minutes into the movie that we realized it wasn't.
Man, this is why I'm subscribed to your lovely channel! Getting sincerely excited tot alk about an obscure movie most of the people haven't heard about and yet making it captivating for over half an hour :D. Keep up the great work!
You know this show is doing its job right when I see the title and thumbnail and think to myself: "oh yeah, this movie does exist"
Or in my case: “…This movie exists!?”
Ahh the "mockbuster". When you want to officially make a bootleg version of something.
I mean if you're trapped in a dimension meant to break you down by sheer mundanity then Transmorphers would certainly be in that dimension's theatre.
_Armaggedon 2025_ is pretty much what I would had made if The Asylum took my name from a hat and said "hey you! make a mockbuster of _Ready Player One!"_ CGI models recycled from previous movies and people in Spirit Halloween costumes because "its a virtual world, nothing needs to be practical or make sense in the enviroment"... and Eric Roberts as the villain, the man should be in the Mount Rushmore of modern-day B-Movies
I love how Eric Roberts is equally at home in The Dark Knight and Armageddon 2025, and several hundred other movies in between.
I really think one option is that Transmorphers is a prime example of something you saw as a kid that is either way better or way worse than you imagined.
Sometimes both!
2 days ago I was asked by a coworker if I'd ever heard of The Asylum. I responded "Oh, I know The Asylum. I've seen Atlantic Rim. I've seen The Day The Earth Stopped. I've not only seen Transmorphers, I burned the disk in a fire on the night of the winter solstice under the light of a lunar eclipse."
So which Eldritch abomination did that conjure? because that sounds like it’d be the result, lol
Why did you do that?
@@mabusestestamentfor the sheer unadulterated joy of it, naturally
@@douglaswolfen7820
Why would you destroy dvd’s of movies you like, though?
@@mabusestestamentAlternative components for a Polymorph spell.
I was about to say that MST3K did this one so it's actually pretty visible but that was actually Atlantic Rim, The Asylum's mockbuster of Pacific Rim. Kind of weird they *didn't* do Transmorphers, given how much more infamous it was when it came out.
And, IMO, Atlantic Rim was one of their worst eps of "modern MST3K," because it's hard to make fun of a movie that's trying that hard to be bad. So I can see why they didn't do Transmorphers (or a bunch of other Asylum films that were already quasi-parodies in their own right). You can only really riff something that takes itself at least a /little/ seriously!
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron wasn't much of a game but it had a moment in it where Optimus awakens Metroplex, a colossal city-block-sized Transformer who arises to a soaring orchestral note and declares "Metroplex heeds the call of the last Prime." It's a cool moment.
Perhaps the inclusion of Transmorphers is simply a reference to it being in an alternate universe, since in our universe it never got a theatrical release.
That is such a half-hearted catfight, omfg 🤣
RIGHT
The fight choreography was very much done with "we don't have money for medical treatment if anyone gets hurt" as the guiding principle.
"Grunt!" "Oof!" "Grrrrrrr!"
@@thor30013 More like "We don't have money for stunt doubles, period" tbh
@@einootsporkit's like when a low budget movie has a car chase and they just drive the cars off to the side of the road at the end because they can't afford to damage the cars 😂
I had a friend who bought this movie at our corner store thinking it was transformers it was so fucking funny
"...interchangeable concrete rooms..." made me recreate the Leo pointing meme as I recognised the card bunker from the first issue of White Dwarf I bought.
Bob, we need the deep dive about how Black Scorpion is a treatise ion the rising tensions between the ever-industrializing North and the antebellum South and how inescapable the conflict actually was.
Do it, Bobbo!
Man, I hate how much I want to watch the Transmorphers War of the Beasts movie. Also loved the Dan Olson James Rolfe documentary, I've been happily binging Folding Ideas since I watched it.
Personally I was kinda "eh" on it, don't get why people are orgasming over it so much. I think modern AVGN is still damn good.
Leigh Scott: "Let's be one of the first to have gay marriage in our movie!" (Maybe some unintentional allusions to gender/sexual identity?)
Also Leigh Scott: *Rants in fashy ramblings on Twitter*
Shades of Terese Nielsen
thankfully pretty much nobody follows him on Twitter, most of his posts get ZERO replies, I only saw like two people responding to his most recent posts.
I'm pretty certain the only reason for the lesbian couple was because "chicks kissing = hot" was a big thing in the 2000s. I suppose it's better than nothing but his tweets say it all about how sincere it actually was.
@@ginaweaver4119 unless he's one of those Log Cabin Republicans.
I sincerely hope we get a Big Picture about, "The Adventures of Pete & Pete".
I remember watching Filmbrain do a review of this around 08 or 09, glad to see Bob brinding this up to more peoples attention
Had to come back to this after finally watching I Saw the TV Glow. Exceptional film. Really gets under your skin
Ah man, I remember when Film Brain reviewed this
Same
Alright. I’m looking that up.
Was about to question if anyone else remembered that. From fifteen years ago.
That dude was way too lame to have an intro song that went that hard
Was one of his first reviews, wasn’t it?
I used to work at Walmart when this came out, and I used to grab them and throw them into the big DVD bin when I walked by them. If I saved one confused grand-parent it was worth it.
I'll never forget coming home drunk from a party in college and watching The Asylum's Titanic II with my roommate. We riffed on it to the end and laughed at all the atrocious dialogue. One of the best experiences I've ever had and no Asylum movie has been able to replicate that ever since.
If you had Titanic at one end of a scale, and The Legend Goes On at the other, II would probably be in the middle of it.
This vid made me watch I saw the TV glow.
Haunting.
Thank you bob.
I had no idea the movie playing in I Saw the TV Glow was real. Thought they just mocked up some intentionally horrible looking CGI to make fun of blockbusters
Them who? Bulk and Skull, Jay and silent Bob, Penn and Teller?
I suppose we have to watch "I Saw the TV Glow" to find out... which sucks for me because the nearest cinema theater to me is three towns away, and I don't think they show indie films there very often
I've watched it and don't know. It must be a reference to a Lynch property I either haven't seen or don't know well enough to catch the reference. Anyone know an instance of two guys just sort of hanging around in the dark in a bizarre fashion in a Lynch movie?
Sigfreid and Roy
I had to Google it, but 'Pete and Pete' from The Adventures of Pete and Pete, apparently. I don't know the show, so that means nothing to me 🤷🏻♀️
@@brightthembo Oh, I remember Pete and Pete. Deep cut.
I miss Really That Good 😢
Same here...
Try Cinema Wins?
Well shit, this film beat Power Rangers RPM to the "badass hero against the machines is secretly one of them" twist by like 2 years!
And loses to Terminator 2, by, what, 15?
@@DigeeTheGenie It is, you are not supposed to know Arnold is a good guy for the first few scenes.
Never thought I'd see an episode about THIS movie.
Though now I kinda want to see Bob take the piss out of Avengers Grimm and Sinister Squad.
Around the @9:00 mark: "Will anyone make that connection?"
Well, you did, didn't you? Also note that during that same era, you're forgetting that Trans-rights and the movement for Transpersons really hadn't really kicked into gear (let alone high gear) yet, so the idea of them running "Transmorphers" as a bad joke to emphasize how Transpersons were viewed and treated as during that time frame... it's an uber-meta contextual joke meant to point out how Transpersons were viewed at that exact time in the modern culture. It's a smartly hidden dumb-yet-high intelligence meta-textual joke.
You forget after years of Marvel turning "Easter Egg" into "Count how many references you see on the screen", this is a LEGIT "Easter Egg" for the first time in a LONG time. Like that first time you saw the Xenomorph's skull in "Predator 2". Or when you'd notice "The Classic" Delta 88 in a Sam Raimi movie BEFORE the internet existed. (I know you're aiming for a younger demographic, but a lot of your current viewers are your age, so *WE REMEMEBER*.)
Wow. The acting in this movie is somehow so much worse than the special effects and the sets. This is what it would look like if *I* tried to act in a movie.
Bob - if it's at all possible, see if you can get an interview with Jane Schoenbrun to discuss Transmorphers and why it was included, but also 80s pop culture in general as it seems she has a lot of love for and knowledge about it. I would absolutely LOVE hearing the two of you discuss these topics.
Is it bad that as a Trans girl all I can think whenever I hear the plot of 'I see the TV Glow' is 'I would 100% watch a movie about lesbians trapped in the wrong body in an AU going back and kicking ass? Especially with the gender dysphoria Boy to girl thing'?
Like I'm not saying it would have been good but that kid me would have watched it alot without getting why.
I feel like theres a huge missing piece of the cultural zeitgeist of just like, magical girl anime or transformation based superhero but part of the gimmick is that the protagonist is trans and transforming as affirming for them. Trans magical girl in particular feels like it should have been done already but theres nothing that I can find. Though admittedly I have not looked very hard.
@@ASpaceOstrich Closest thing I can think of is 'Zsazsa Zaturnnah', which is a Filipino trans magical girl comic book character with a live action comedy/action/musical movie, which is rather fun though rooted in Filipino culture.
"Still better than _Revenge of the Fallen._ "
You sure about that? I mean yeah, RotF is a complete trainwreck of non sequiturs just throwing shit at the walls that pisses all over everything and everyone involved with it, but I doubt anyone could call it tedious.
It’s tedious.
Bad Michael Bay movies get *very* tedious. It just turns into headache-inducing sensory overload.
@@jasonblalock4429 Fair. I definitely feel that can be said of the later three Bayformers, which are just plain old bog-standard bad, whereas RotF is so unapologetically bad that I at least get some catharsis out of it.
same here, Bob saying this is better then ROTF and two of the Terminator sequels makes me think he wrote this script while he was high or drunk or something.
@@mabusestestament nah
Warren Mitchell?? The main character is called Warren Mitchell? To this Brit of a certain age that’s hilarious.
To the younger and non Brit folks - Warren Mitchell is the actor who plays Alf Garnett. The character from a British sitcom called “til death is do part” and later “in sickness and in health” who Archie Bunker and “All in the family” is based on.
Google him and share the mental picture I have of that old geezer in a West Ham United football scarf fighting CG transforming robots.
I like the idea of the robots not having pilots as a metaphor for trans people not being "man/woman trapped in a woman/man's body" but just "being women/men" but that is so far out there.
"That's Commander Doll-to you!" 😂
Transmorpher: Robots that are guys
Unfortunately people do still fall for these - few moments sadder in my life than having my movie buds tell me we should watch 'Cocaine Shark'
Ketamine Monkey was a bit slow paced. I preferred PCP Hyena, which was fkin' wild.
@@benjamindover4337 shit I'd watch a hyena movie. Esp since they hang out in packs so you could do a velociraptors in JP thing. Maybe go prehistoric and pull out some giant cursorial felids or borophagine dogs. But I'm not giving mockbusters any of my money or attention on principle
@@benjamindover4337 just looked up and realized you were joking... never been so relieved to look so stupid
Side note after seeing clips of Cocaine Bear I'm convinced it was the worst marketed movie of all time. A campy, gory, absurd horror comedy marketed as almost a family film-- the director was doing daytime talk shows.
@@rayortiz313 see cocaine-themed family movies is one of those genres you just don't see any more like comedy blockbusters and talking live action pets/babies
Asylum made a couple of Thor movies (he's very much in the public domain so he's fair game 😂), including one that rips off Dark World AND Jupiter Ascending in one! And as an apologist for both of those movies, and a Thor fan, I was so tempted to buy it at the time just out of curiosity. Probably didn't miss much.
Wow, I defend both too. Dark World is very watchable and after Endgame and Loki, feels more important to me. And Ascending isn't good but it's the bold originality people want but ignore. Do you know the name of the Thor knockoffs? Could be a fun guilty pleasure watch.
They're called "Almighty Thor" and there's been a few in the franchise apparently. The Dark World/Jupiter Ascending knock off was called Dark Universe. SUBTLE 😂@@jordansweet8054
They're a whole franchise! It's called "Almighty Thor" and the Jupiter Ascending knock off is called "Dark Universe" which is... Hilarious in hind sight @@jordansweet8054
before TEMU and WISH were shorthand for "knock-off version of a thing" I used to call cheap looking things Transmorpher ass looking ________ (insert thing I was mocking.
I remember seeing Atlantic Rim on MST3K
oh Bob, PLEASE do Black Scorpion. It deserves to be remembered/rediscovered.
movie producers of today fighting each other over who have a better inclusion, and a Bad Movie just clamantly put a gay couple in a positive way and not only in a "Sexy girls kissing"
yeah i've seen a lof of DTV films with surprinsgly good representation. Sometimes you just gotta know where to look, the obscure 2003 horror film Hallow's End actually had a really touching lesbian couple in it much to my surprise.
I only have one thing to say...
What the absolute f*ck?! This is like when I found out I have an ancestor that was a diplomat. I didn't think there would be something interesting, but it did in fact turn out to be interesting.
BOR. DER. LANDS. BORDERLANDS.
One word: patience.
It's going to be, like, two minutes establishing "Yeah, it's as bad as everyone says" and then a 20 minute dissection of how feckless risk-adverse studio execs bring shame to the industry.
I remember the double feature my friend held at his place where he paired Iron Sky (already a low budget film) with its Asylum version (Nazis at the Center of the Earth IIRC). That was a riot.
Give Transmorphers its due - it's not often you see someone going in with the elbow in what is, ostensibly, hot chicks fighting runtime padding.
Fun fact Carnosaur actually came out in theaters before Jurassic Park did due to a quick shooting schedule, same with Missing in Action coming out before Rambo First Blood Part 2.
Also Carnosaur stars Diane Ladd, mother of Laura Dern.
@@jonathaneilbeck2263 also the Jurassic Park film apparently did take inspiration from the Carnosaur novel.
And is another film we have the late Roger Corman to thank for.
@@jonathaneilbeck2263 Funny story about that: Dianne Ladd originally told Corman no...and "hell no!" at that. Then he sent her over a check. She never said how much but she did say no woman alive would EVER turn that amount down.
Ok but imagine a shitty b-list movie being what snaps the main character out of their brain washing/prison dimension/infinite sleep. Would be hilarious
As a trans woman I am extremely confident that they did use "trans"morphers in part because it’s a movie about "trans"gender people. Trans people (at least trans people in the English speaking world who are active on the internet which I think Jane Schonbrun is) by and large love those sorts of “haha they said trans” of jokes (me included)
You know it shows how good real actors are when you see bad actors that cant make the simplest line work
No, no, you did not just make me want to watch TRANS FCKN MORPHORS! Dmn you movie Bob! DAMN YOOOOUUUUU!!!
Just so you know, Bob, we trans folk make stupid jokes about the prefix "trans" being used in other words all the dang time, so that absolutely was probably part of the decision to use the movie - as a dumb "trans" pun.
As long as the syfy channel exists mockbusters will never truly go away.
Heh... it's a Lion, it's huge
I was initially confused about the ISTTG thing, but as it went on it definitely made a lot more sense. I can only imagine they picked up on all that as crazy as it sounds? so I get it.
Reminder that A Princess of Mars (yes, they used the original John Carter title that Disney wouldn't) and Asylum's Sherlock Holmes are at least worth watching for the interesting choices they made.
I actually enjoyed Princess more then John Carter, what a nothingburger of a movie that was.
Great episode!
I'm shocked you didn't go for an MST3K clip for Mitchell-
"Mitchell!"
It's probably not asylum but someone is still making mockbusters. There's at least one fake dune movie on Amazon prime that nearly tricked my parents into paying for it
So like... Black Scorpion next? Black Scorpion? Black Scorpion! Yes please!
I love this series but can't help thinking they should have been called 'Really that Real'
Please tell me I'm not the only one getting flashes of that one episode of the Community where they try to make a movie.
22:01 OMG, they didn't just rip-off INDEPENDENCE DAY's plot, they ripped off Jeff Goldblum's exposition delivery!
LOL the scientist guy doing a painfully-obvious and painfully-bad Jeff Goldblum impression
I've already copyrighted Iron Dan and the Revengers in case you were wondering.
Waaaaaait wait wait wait now wait just a fucking second- the movie playing in that scen of I Saw the TV Glow was TRANSMORPHERS??
That’s why that was so weirdly familiar??? Christ.
Was curious about “them” and looked at the cast list. Ha! It’s them!
I love this channel. I love this series. But this movie is so bad I couldn't even finish watching you talk about. I am sorry! Keep up the good work!
So did the ex know he's a robot?
This can be the key definition of synchronicity BUT the movie clips have to be purposefully chosen
Y'know, the base premise of Transmorphers, (Earth is invaded by Transforming Robot Aliens and Humanity must mount a resistance) would have solid potential, if done correctly. could see that as a concept, only humanity reverse-engineer the transforming robot tech to build transforming Mechs to fight back. So basically Transformers vs Robotech.
haven't heard the name Transmorphers in YEARS😆
i remember that whole phase of the mockbusters via their DVD covers at Walmart and kind of wised up due to how weird and off they looked.
I love this genre. It's just one budget pip from having fight noises just being somebody go "dsh dsh dsh!" into a mic.
I am thinking you could spliced some go around with President Rosalin, Admiral Adama and Colonel Ty in there. More of the movie then the little girl having her stuff animals getting gangland style on each other
Still the only movie I've ever seen that has nudity in the trailer, but not in the actual movie...
Thank you for doing this review. A part of me has always wanted to see Transmorphers, but I also know that Asylum's mockbusters are rarely worth the time.
I think most are decently fun, James Role liked the War of the World ones.
You know, I can't really speak to anything Transmorphers, since I haven't seen it, or to I Saw the TV Glow and how deep its metaphors go, but I CAN say that when it comes to "mockbusters", the one my family experienced personally was "The Jungle King", released the same time The Lion King hit the scene and was super popular. Seriously, my younger sister was obsessed with The Jungle King, we practically rented it every week.
That might be one case where the rip-off is better, seriously fuck those awful Disney Live-action remakes.
@@jadedheartsz I should clarify that this was back in the 90's and "The Jungle King" was animated, just like the movie it was ripping off.
@@Rubberman202 ah OK, is that one of those Dingo Picture movies?
@@jadedheartsz Don't know, actually.
Wow... you never cease to amaze, Bob. Excellent vid and the right take on the schlock meisters at The Asylum and that particularly steaming POS, specifically. David Rimawi, David Michael Latt and Paul Bales still crank them out every now and then... and I'll still think of their movies, especially the mockbusters as "turn off your brain" fodder ripe for Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffing .
Damn I really the read the tittle as Transformers multiple times before clicking on it thinking you were going super meta by having the first episode of your new show be about recontextualizing one of your earliest reviews that helped build your audience.
What I got instead was a completely different but equally fun ride through this bad knockoff and why it might have been referenced in a much better indie movie
I've never seen 'black scorpion', but for some reason the clips of it made me nostalgic 😂
33:19 Wow, that's some LOW-effort cat-fighting. Not worth the effort.
IMO, these Asylum Mockbusters (and god bless 'em, they honestly believe they put in genuine effort) are best watched with MST3K-style riffing. They even did that was another blatant rip-off, ATLANTIC RIM. I did NOT make that up!
I've never even heard of Black Scorpion but I absolutely want to find and watch all of it
both movies are pretty fun, rented them from Family Video back in the day, never saw the TV show though.
Love the dollar general Brent Spiner in this not a hack job.
(Written during that long run on question about if there's any other significant link between Transmorphers and TV Glow)
Listen, I didn't see TV Glow, but I'm pretty sure there's a pair of lesbian characters in it and one of them seemingly dies by getting blowed up by the Transmorphers but then near the climax she shows up inexplicably and when people obviously asked what happened she just says "I wouldn't miss this for the world as if that explains how she walked away from a leveled building. I assume something exactly like that happens in I saw the Tv Glow.
Funny: Z-bots was a line of collectible minifigure by Galoob from the 90s, and Zybots was a line of transforming robots by REMCO from the 80s...
I also remember an unrelated Z-Bots in an episode of Bonkers set in Japan.
I saw this on dvd a few times years ago but never seen it. Lol.
Saw the Black Scorpion tv show, didn't know of the movies.
The "new record" to get to the point was great.
The twist doesn't make a lick of sense in-universe (why would he even have an ex if he's just been a robot the whole time? Did the scientist design him to be able to fuck and what was his motivation for doing so? Was it just a ploy to provide cover for the adult man with no connections with the remainder of the group who just showed up one day? If that was the case, why would the ex and her wife make such a big deal of how quickly they got married when he was frozen?) they did a reasonable job of foreshadowing it with the whole "he's more like them than he's like us" rhetoric and the prejudiced attitudes of the rest of the crew towards him.
It's like the first draft of an interesting idea that ought to have been given more time to develop and would certainly have benefited from improved direction and casting people who were professional actors.