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The enduring “Rocky” fandom sure packs an expensive punch.

The rise of VHS auctions has included a whopping sale of $53,750 for the “Rocky” trilogy starring Sylvester Stallone. A February sale from Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas marked a return for videotapes. As Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary relive their video-store days with a VHS-centric podcast, and video production company and YouTube channel Red Letter Media raised over $80,000 for charity by selling a sealed “Nukie” tape, consumers are flocking to collectibles. And especially as content keeps getting yanked off streaming services.

“A man told us he found a sealed first release of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ at Goodwill,” Heritage specialist Jay Carlson, a collector who uses an Instagram account titled Rare and Sealed, told The New York Times. “He paid a quarter. That will probably go for $20,000.”

Carlson’s first auction in June 2022 profited more than half a million dollars.

Sias Odendaal and Michael Pakleppa's 1987 film "Nukie" is only remarkable for how undeniably terrible it is. Very clearly riding on the coattails of Steven Spielberg's "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "Nukie" follows the adventures of the titular space alien as it crash lands in the African savannah and befriends two young brothers named Tiko and Toki (Siphiwe Mlangeni and Sipho Mlangeni). Much of the film is devoted to reuniting Nukie with his alien compatriot Miko (both played by Anthony Morrison) who crash-landed in the United States, and who is being held in a high-security military facility. The two aliens can communicate telepathically, and they repeatedly scream each other's names, perhaps inspiring rowdier audience members to join in.

"Nukie" has appeared on lists of the worst movies ever made, and is a largely miserable experience. Steve Railsback from "The Stunt Man" and "Lifeforce" appears, as does Glynnis Johns from "Mary Poppins.

The YouTube channel Red Letter Media proved how much nostalgic cult classic VHS tapes are worth.

Rlm, comprised of Mike Stoklasa, Jay Bauman, and Rich Evans, set out to capitalize on their massive fan-sent “Nukie” VHS collection to benefit charity. With 1.46 million subscribers, a Patreon page, and frequent celebrity guests like Jack Quaid, Macaulay Culkin, and Patton Oswalt, the Rlm film review founders opted to use their platform for philanthropy. After almost a decade of collecting VHS copies, the trio of hosts finally watched the 1987 South African sci-fi movie “Nukie” — the infamously bad “E.T.” knockoff about an alien who sets out to rescue his brother from evil researchers — and sold their best copy for upwards of 80,000 on eBay.

Host Stoklasa explained that the idea came from a recent sealed VHS copy of “Back to the Future” selling for 75,000 at auction, and the YouTubers were curious about what “Nukie” would garner.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is resurrecting Stan Lee thanks to a new licensing deal — and fans are voicing their criticisms.

On May 19, Marvel announced a 20-year deal with Stan Lee Universe, a venture between Genius Brands International and Pow! Entertainment, to license the name and likeness of the late Marvel Comics editor-in-chief for use in future feature films and television productions, as well as Disney theme parks, “experiences,” and merchandise under a “broad deal” with his estate.

Lee died in November 2018 at age 95, and fans are calling for the memory of the beloved writer and editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics to be laid to rest.

Vulture critic Alison Willmore compared the deal to a “Weekend at Bernie’s” scheme, and Red Letter Media co-founder Jay Bauman slammed the deal, writing, “Stan Lee was exploited for the last few years of his life and now he can’t even rest in peace.

There’s something strange in the neighborhood — specifically, if you ask many fans of the 80s comedy classic “Ghostbusters,” the lack of humor in the new “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” trailer. Some are ripping the reboot’s relatively serious tone as “bizarre” while others are questioning why a film in which “that’s a big twinkie” is uttered is held in such high regard in the first place.

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” came back to haunt us Tuesday, dropping a new trailer featuring more insight into the movie’s plot, hints at some of its nostalgic cameos and an unexpectedly reverent attitude toward its silly, sarcastic source material. Because, as previously mentioned, the original “Ghostbusters” is generally perceived as a comedy — but the trailers for “Afterlife” have so far made this sequel seem more like a drama.

The film was directed by Jason Reitman, son of Ivan Reitman, who directed the original 1984 flick starring Bill Murray,...

The long-anticipated trailer for the so-called Snyder cut of “Justice League” premiered on Sunday morning and with it came one of the most talked-about moments: an original conversation between Jared Leto’s Joker and Ben Affleck’s Batman, where Joker says: “We live in a society [long pause] where honor is a distant memory.”

If you spend any meaningful amount of time on the internet, you’ll know that particular line has been a meme for years — starting in the early 90’s with “Seinfeld” and carrying over to the message boards/Reddit. At a certain point a few years ago, it became associated with the Joker, as people would tweet or share it with a photo of the character — despite the fact that the character has never actually said the line out loud.

Until now.

We can’t help but assume that this bit is some kind of troll from director Zack Snyder...

With it winning the Golden Globe for Best Picture last night, Boyhood is easily the frontrunner for Best Picture at the Oscars. There is almost unanimous praise heaped on to this film. I am no different. It will be making my top ten of the year, in a fairly high position. However, people need to calm down about the movie. Boyhood, despite what some critics will tell you, is not the second coming. Well, the folks over at Red Letter Media (Mike Stoklasa, Jay Bauman, and Rich Evans, to be specific) were not the biggest fans of the film. So, on episode 76 of their show "Half in the Bag", which was the episode that followed their review of Boyhood, took the time for a pretty great response to people who loved it. Obviously, I disagree with their opinion of the film, but that does not mean their opinion is invalid.

If you flashback to the early 00’s, there was still a sense of excitement and anticipation at the announcement of Ridley Scott working on a new project. This was a visionary director who’s expansive, ambitious and heart capturing visual eye had given the world of cinema such wonders as Alien and Blade Runner, masterpieces of the science-fiction genre. No longer; one must return to 2000, and the swords and sandals epic Gladiator, to find a great. During a long decade of quantity over quality, he cannot quite find that old spark and sees the excitement turn to pessimistic low expectations. 2009 offers a comeback; after years of talk, experimentation and musing, Scott’s longstanding desire to return to the world of his name-making colossus Alien has come to fruition.

Fox sanctions a project with Scott in the director’s chair and Jon Spaihts on board to write the screenplay. Rumors are rife about the film,...

In a very short time, filmmaker Ron Purtee is becoming quite the expert on creating no-budget shorts. His first effort, Becoming Undead, garnered a lot of attention from Internet audiences and led to Purtee’s next project - The Social Media Massacre, which the filmmaker hopes will some day become a trilogy of films.

Dread Central recently caught up with Purtee to find out what some of his favorite independent genre flicks are.

1. Raymond Did It (Written/Directed by Travis Legge)

I had the pleasure of seeing this on the big screen, and it did not disappoint. It's a huge throwback to films like Prom Night and Halloween. And the kills? Well, the kills are some of the most inventive things I've ever seen. Made me not want to do my laundry for a week. My family was less than happy.

2. Frozen (Written/Directed by Adam Green)

What can I...

Red Letter Media's Mike Stoklasa finishes evisceration of 'Star Wars,' creates 'Half in the Bag' to skewer movies on more regular basis.

By Shawn Adler

Mike Stoklassa

Photo: Logan Jacobs

His video eviscerations of the "Star Wars" prequels were among last year's most anticipated, widely viewed online videos, garnering millions of views, inspiring new discussions of copyright in the digital age, and making celebrity fans ranging from Simon Pegg to Roger Ebert. But now that Mike Stoklasa, aka Mr. Plinkett, has finished carving up George Lucas — his "Revenge of Nadine: Episode III Review Epilogue" dropped Thursday (March 10) — the Milwaukee based writer/director turned millennial critic is breaking out the entire cutlery set for his next target.

And this time, nobody will be safe, Stoklasa laughed in an interview with MTV News.

Titled "Half in the Bag," Stoklasa and friend Jay Bauman have launched a new online review program...