Saturday Double Feature: Riddick (2013) and…

Saturday on the blog means Saturday Double Feature, right? Remember, the basic idea here is to take a movie that is out in theaters now, and pair it up with another movie from the 1980s or before. Sometimes the connection will be obvious, and sometimes it’ll be a little less so, but that’s part of the fun.

Okay, so one of the last of the Big Summer Movies to open this year, was Riddick, Vin Diesel‘s follow-up to Pitch Black. (Yeah, I know, there was another movie in between there, but the creators of this one seem content to ignore it, so I will too.)

So what have we got here? A post apocalyptic world, a protagonist who travels around with a specially enhanced dog, and a whole lot of the action takes place underground. Hmmm… well, it might be a slightly Riddickulous stretch, but how about we pair it up with another film with those same plot elements?

Yeah, that’s a very very young Don Johnson in the lead in 1975’s A Boy and His Dog, which was based on a story – actually, there are a number of stories – centered on Vic (the Boy) and Blood (his Dog) ) by Harlan Ellison

I know, from the trailer you may be wondering where the “underground” part comes in. Well, that’s just one of the surprises that this film has in store.

Again, one of the things that surprised me when I was talking about this movie with some friends was how few of them had actually seen or even heard of it. I know it’s pretty obscure, and certainly not the kind of thing that is going to get a lot of play on TV, but it’s definitely memorable if you have seen it, and has a certain cult cache that I had thought would make it more well-known than it apparently is. Well, fortunately for them – and you – the whole movie (albeit in a slightly edited version) is available on YouTube, so I’ve embedded it below.

So there you go. And how about you? Any other ideas for pairing films with Riddick? if so, let me know below. And also let me know of any other upcoming movies you’d like to see “double featured”. Consider it, if you will, your chance to challenge me to come up with an interesting pair.

Until next time, Happy Viewing!