tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50635784836435496222024-02-20T13:43:39.953-08:00Neon Madness & Andy CMusings and editorial rantings mostly to do with cult film, horror movies and the grindhouse movement of the 70's and 80's. Though there will be discussion of the Apocalypse Culture and current media/political spectrum.Andy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-91596169640001174942009-06-15T14:03:00.000-07:002009-06-15T15:09:31.590-07:00Aw man, that was a LOW BLOW!!!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.englishtreejapan.com/images/low_blow_cover.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 212px; height: 270px;" src="http://www.englishtreejapan.com/images/low_blow_cover.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">LOW BLOW (1986)</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">D. Frank Harris</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">BCI/ NAVARRO</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">1.85</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Part of the Maximum Action 10 pack (now out of print)</span><br /><br />Before reading the excellent one two punch books<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> GODS IN POLYESTER</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">GODS IN SPANDEX</span> I had never heard of <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Leo Fong</span>. I had maybe seen his name here and there, but never knew who he was. But after reading his recollections of making kung fu styled action films with pennies on the dollar I fond myself really fond of the guy and had to find some of his films. Then after checking out the movie movie<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> WILD RIDERS</span> in one of the<span style="font-weight: bold;"> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">BCI DRIVE IN CULT</span> CLASSICS</span> packs there was a trailer for LOW BLOW and I was completely sold. My girlfriend and I HAD to see this movie! We become more than a little bit obsessed with seeing our first <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Leo Fong</span> movie. I almost didn't get to as the <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">MAXIMUM ACTION</span> set that I found on Ebay never came and after a little research I found that it was out of print. I sent some emails to the company I ordered it from explaining that I<span style="font-style: italic;"> NEEDED</span> my <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">Leo Fong</span> fix! That I would not be a complete cult film fan until I got Leo Fong into my life! And they came through, in some dusty corner of the DVD warehouse, hiding under a million copies of <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">GIRLS GONE WILD THE CATHOLIC YEARS</span> was one last copy of <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">MAXIMUM ACTION</span> with not one but <span style="font-style: italic;">TWO</span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">Leo Fong</span> movies in the set. Joy was about to set in my peoples!!!<br /><br /><br />We were not disappointed at all. Within five minutes of the opening of <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">LOW BLOW</span> it had lived up to the what we had expected. The movie hits the ground running, not unlike the vastly inferior <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">LETHAL WEAPON 2</span> with the action already in progress. A thugs are robbing a coffee shop, roughing up the patrons and generally being loud pricks. The next building over is the office of tough guy Private Investigator <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Joe Wong</span> (played by our hero Leo Fong) who is aggravated by the noise and ruckus. He throws on his members only jacket and tells his pretty and perky secretary "<span style="font-style: italic;">I'm gonna go see what all the noise is about!</span>" Within two minutes those trouble makers are eating the floor with much foot being put to ass, and Mr. Wong has barely broke a sweat at all. But low and behold some nasty bastards are taking some old ladies purse outside, so they are gonna have to be taught a lesson too! But it is all in a day's work for Mr. Wong. Ass kicking is a way of life! He also has a comic relief car that only he can start by popping the hood and whacking it with a tire iron.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_goOTcYF7VN4/Se54TtT9SgI/AAAAAAAAA58/rS2GcjKf8ZA/s400/head3.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 230px;" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_goOTcYF7VN4/Se54TtT9SgI/AAAAAAAAA58/rS2GcjKf8ZA/s400/head3.JPG" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Leo Fong's</span> screen presence is a strange one at best, with his pinched up face that consistently looks like someone in the room has just farted, and stiff walk like he may flip out at any second. He's wound tighter than the rubber bands holding the roll of twenty's that was the budget of this flick. His line delivery, all ten of them, is fast, and to the point. Like lines are just a waste of time to get to some ass kicking. He might very well hop out of the screen and punch you at any moment.<br /><br />The plot finally kicks in when a blond California bimbo is being indoctrinated into some Johnstown styled cult run by a blind Cameron Mitchell and his African Princess named <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Karma</span> (played by respected black actress <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Akosua Busia</span>, who actually gives a great performance here). It is never really explained what the cult is actually doing, but it is all about love, enlightenment, and digging in the fields all damn day long. At one point it is revealed they are planting, wait for it, asparagus! Evil bastards!!! Seems the bimbo is the daughter of a rich industrialist played by <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Troy Donahue</span> and he wants his little girl back. After witnessing Mr. Wong whopping the ass of some Latino's who were trying to steal his hub caps he decides that Wong is the man for the job!<br /><br />But wait! After some shenanigans in the camp where Mr. Wong gets mildly roughed up (and Karma is clearly enjoying herself, because her nipples clearly get hard after every bit of torture she inflicts on Mr. Wong!) he decides he cannot do this alone. So he holds a tough man contest to find some teammates to help him infiltrate the compound and get the now drugged and wigged out babe to safety. So now it is <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">THE DIRTY DOZEN</span> street style!<br /><br />Weird thing about this movie is that it is almost family friendly in some ways. The violence (outside of one nasty head squishing) is mostly hand to hand combat kung fu stuff. The gun play is very toned down. There is no bad language or sex to speak of at all. Watching it you can't help but to feel like <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Leo Fong</span> was trying to appeal as wide a base as possible. And make no mistake, this is Leo Fong's show. He wrote, produced and starred in this bad boy. He raised the financing and made it happen.<br /><br />There's tons of weird moments to recommend here, like several of <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Karma'</span>s freak outs, the bad guy who gets thrown into a pile of cute puppies who proceed to lick his unconscious body, <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Leo Fong's</span> attempts at breakfast table comedy, the <span style="font-style: italic;">REALLY</span> out of place macho bonding casual racism that will make you uncomfortable, the muscle bound blond pit fighter chick, that head squishing i previously mentioned, or the incredible compilation worthy action scene were Fong chases four bad guys into their car. He gets so pissed he rips the cables out of the engine, beat the <span style="font-style: italic;">CAR</span> up, smashes all the windows out with a two by four and then buzz saws the top of the car itself off just to kick them all in the ass and send them on their way! Truly it is one of the most amazing scenes I have ever seen in an action film!<br /><br />So before<span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"> Seagal</span>, before <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Van Damme</span>, there was <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Leo Fong</span>! And he did it for the among of money those guys spent on hair stylists.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(255, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;">Leo Fong, APPROVED!!!</span><br /><br />Andy Copp<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/r3pZNXLK5vM&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/r3pZNXLK5vM&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Andy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-12695113602793054282008-08-14T13:01:00.000-07:002008-08-14T13:03:10.601-07:00Movies for AugustSaturday August 2nd, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Midnight Meat Train (2008) ** </span>-<span style="font-weight: bold;"> Ryuhei Kitamura's </span>adaptation of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Clive Barker's </span>excellent short story has been getting the shaft by it's studio <span style="font-weight: bold;">Lions Gate.</span> So much that it only opened on the contractually obliged 100 screens and with that, only at second run discount houses. Advance word of mouth on the film would have you believe it was a horror masterpiece. It falls well short of that mark but has moments of gory mayhem that are worth the price of admission. The story is about a young photographer who is slightly obsessed with finding the gritty "real" side of New York city through his lens. While trying to do so, he discovers a disconnected butcher stalking the late night subway trains who is brutally killing lone passengers like cattle. Soon the two will find their lives intertwining as we discover what purpose the murders on the trains serve. The short story this is based on is direct, compact and to the point. So the film had to take a lot of liberties to flesh it out. Pretty much the whole book is here (there are some slight changes to the ending) but the whole photographer bit is new to the film. All of that works fine. What doesn't work is that the script loses its footing in a couple of places, most notably in that the main character keeps having nightmares about the murders on the train, even before he has any knowledge of them. The pacing also flags at times, with a start/stop feel that bogs down when we are spending time with the photographer's domestic life. But then that could be more to do with the complete miscasting of the lead actor. The photographer is played by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bradley Cooper</span> who has most recently been seen as a supporting player on <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Nip/Tuck</span>. He's one of those pretty boy actors who, thanks to his expensive bridge work, looks like he is smirking all the time. Which works fine for his goofy TV roles, but when he is trying to be serious it doesn't work at all. He looks like he is laughing even when he is trying to perform pathos. His girlfriend <span style="font-weight: bold;">Leslie Bibb</span>, also another <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Nip/Tuck </span>alumnus, is pretty much the same thing. A pretty face with limited acting ability who fails to register on screen. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Vinnie Jones</span> plays the butcher and does fine considering he has one line in the whole film. What does work however are the extremely brutal kill scenes. Even though they are largely digital work, they are creatively handled, suddenly vicious and have some weight to them. So kudos for trying to play it seriously. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Kitamura</span> keeps his cinematic fireworks in check unlike his Japanese films such as the abominable <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Versus</span> (which everyone seems to love but me, I think its terrible) and thank the gods for that. If this had been over directed like his other work it would have been nigh unwatchable. As it stands now, it is somewhat enjoyable but hamstrung by weak performances and some lazy script wirting. First time seeing this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A.P.E. (1976) *1/2- Paul Leder </span>director of such grindhouse classics as <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">I Dismember Mama</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">My Friends Need Killing</span> made this <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">King Kong</span> rip off and is clearly out of his depth and seems to know it from the get go. There is no real story to get in the way of the goofiness as a ship carrying a giant ape appears at sea. A captain and his deck hand quietly share a smoke and explain that there is a giant ape on board and that he is sedated and should be asleep for several days. Then suddenly, a gigantic fake monkey hand bursts though the set. The ship mate in the most dead pan voice in the history of cinema says "<span style="font-style: italic;">oh shit.</span>" Cut to a toy boat breaking apart and a guy in a money suit rising from the water and then it is non-stop stupidity from there on out. The giant ape makes his way to the shores of Korea and starts stomping his way across country. Meanwhile an American actress played by the mom from <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Growing Pains</span> is busy making a film there that only seems to consist of rape scenes, who is being romanced by a reporter. It is only a matter of time before the monkey finds her and falls in love. Between those moments he interrupts a Kung Fu movie shoot, chases a bunch of kids at an amusement park, breaks lots of model buildings and pisses off some military guys who never leave the same room until the end of the movie. During one scene where the ape fights off military helicopters he flips them the bird showing just how seriously <span style="font-weight: bold;">Paul Leder</span> was taking the movie. He eventually does kidnap the babe but does nothing with her and the Army moves in for the big showdown. Thats the plot, nothing more deep than that. Monkey breaks shit. Army breaks monkey. Apparently at some point this must have been conceived as a 3-D movie as tons of stuff gets jammed into the camera, but I've not seen a print anywhere that actually looks to have been in 3-D. Ridiculous, sometimes fun, but more often than not, plodding and a little bit dull. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Thursday August 7th, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wanted (2008) ** </span>- Completely over the top action spectacle about an anxiety ridden office boy who discovers he is the son of a famous assassin who worked as part of a secret society of killers. It seems he is now marked to take his father's place and take out the dude who did pops in. Over-directed to the gills by Russian director <span style="font-weight: bold;">Timur Bemambetov</span> who made the similarly over the top <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Nightwatch</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Daywatch</span>. From the get go, this thing is filled with computer animation, sped up and slowed down footage, altered shots, anything else you can think of to take it out of reality. If you thought <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">The Matrix</span> went too far with this sort of thing this movie will drive you bonkers. But its tongue is firmly planted in cheek, but made bearable by the fact that no matter how far over the top it goes, the cast is playing it very straight. So it is a live action cartoon being played out seriously. The script is no great shakes, taking liberal heaps of <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Fight Club</span> in the first half before pumping up the action. But what I did like about it was the general viciousness of the movie. During a late in the movie train wreck sequence the good guys cause pretty much all the passengers to die without blinking an eye. No one seems to care or ever is it mentioned. There's bodies everywhere, but we're supposed too think its an okay thing to do to get the bad guy! There is also a shitload of interpersonal violence sprinkled throughout the movie as well. Lots of knife wounds and splashy bullet hits. It is surprisingly violent for a summertime action film (to see the opposite just look at the trailer for the Vin Diesel <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Babylon A.D.</span> movie which I saw today and has a PG-13). Overall <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Wanted</span> is ridiculous and actually pretty stupid at times. But I'll be damned if it isn't entertaining too. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Friday Aug 8, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hate.com (2002)** </span>-This <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">America Undercover</span> documentary for HBO about hate groups on the web is pretty informative, but the fact that it is so short (part of the America Undercover format) it doesn't delve nearly deep enough into the subject matter. Many of the movers and shakers of the various hate groups are interviewed but not enough to get under their skin. A lot of time is spent on the idea of the "Lone Wolf" which is basically how these groups get away with various violent crimes. A person will go out and kill in the name of say the Aryan Nations but since the hate groups are so splintered the groups basically say he was a lone wolf acting on his own accord and not on any kind of directive by the group. Also quite a bit of time is given to <span style="font-weight: bold;">William Pierce's</span> book <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">The Turner Diaries</span> and how it has basiclaly helped indoctrinate many people into his hate group <span style="font-weight: bold;">The National Alliance</span>. The explore the theory that <span style="font-weight: bold;">Timothy McVeigh</span> was inspired by the book to blow up the Oklahoma City building. But my conspiracy theory self doesn't believe that. First time seeing this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Psycho Kickboxer: The Dark Angel (1997) **</span> - Perfectly servicable no budget actioneer and starring vehicle for one <span style="font-weight: bold;">Curtis Bush</span> 5 time Kickboxing Champion. This thing has been kicking around in the $1 bins for years but Pop Cinema has put it out now on their Shock-O-Rama lable wih a fairly nice transfer (it gets <span style="font-style: italic;">REAL</span> grainy towards the end though) with a second film called <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Carnival of Blood</span>. I had heard that <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Psycho Kickboxer</span> was terrible over the years but it actually isn't at all. As far as these kinds of American chop socky flicks go its no worse than the dozens of Kung Fu movies that <span style="font-weight: bold;">Roger Corman</span> pumped out through the 90's. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Curtis Bush</span> plays the kickboxing son of a cop. But when Mob thugs kill his dad (with a shocking exploding head shotgun blast you may want to rewind) gang rape and kill his fiance and leave him for dead, its time for revenge. He's nursed back to health by a warehouse dwelling Black Army vet who was crippled by the same Mobster his dad was hunting. So the Black Crippled Guy helps train our hero in street smarts so he can take on the bad guys. Along the way he starts sneaking out into the streets in a ninja outfit and putting the whoop ass on criminals for the hell of it, thus being labled by the press "The Dark Angel". The acting ranges from okay (the pretty female tabloid reporter) the the atrocious (his fiance who gets raped) and everywhere in between. The martial arts aren't bad at all, but they are not shot very well and edited even less so. But what saves them is that there is lots and lots of bloody violence. Obviously they were <span style="font-weight: bold;">Steven Seagal</span> fans (and Seagal fans will appreciate that Curtis Bush runs even funnier than Seagal does, which is saying something!) because they emmulate his splatter filled fight scenes. Bush himself is fine during the fighting, but is pretty flat during scenes when he is trying to emote, but shit, thats not much different than a lot of other action stars. I really don't see why this didn't sell to cable or get a better release than it did. I think it just fell into piss poor rip off distribution. Hopefully this new DVD will change that. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Saturday August 9th 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Can I Do It Till I Need Glasses? (1977)* </span>- No this is not a documentary about my sexual self abuse practices as of late, but instead a late 70's sexy comedy sequel to the drive in hit <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">If You Don't Stop You Will Go Blind!</span> which played well in many bible belt cruise ins. This movie is a weird one,being a skit comedy film with each skit leading up to <span style="font-style: italic;">ONE</span> punch line. Not a series of small jokes leading to one big punch line, but huge sets ups, involving lavish costumes, sets, special effects, titles and music all for one lousy punchline. And they are usually ones you've heard. For example. Doorbell rings, inside a couple are arguing. The man opens the door to find a guy wearing a bag over his head, holding a gun but otherwise naked. The husband yells out "Take all our money, just don't hurt us!" The guy with the bag on his head says "I'm not a robber! I'm a rapist!" So the husband turns to his wife and says "Hey Honey its for you!" Badabump! And that was actually the shortest and funniest set up of the movie. The coup is that <span style="font-weight: bold;">Robin Williams</span> appears for all of two minutes but it was enough for this movie to get a rerelease when he hit it big on <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Mork & Mindy</span>. This new release from Code Red looks pretty good. The colors are a bit muted here and there most likely from being a print source, or maybe just it was filmed on the cheap that way. It sounds fine. As much as I love Code red, I didn't buy this one and I don't see me adding it to my collection either. First time seeing this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Death Weekend (1975) **1/2</span> - Fairly tense <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Desperate Hours</span> style riff with that nasty <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Last House on the Left</span> type vibe going for it too. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Don Stroud</span> plays a leader of a group of ruffians who almost run <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bredna Vaccaro</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Chuck Shamata </span>off the road. But it turns out she is a top notch speed driver and takes them for a run thus deflating their manhood and then takes them right into a creek bed. This explodes the boys macho rage setting the stage for them to hunt the couple down and take care of some business. But once at the house we realize that our male hero is not such a great guy either. He's possessive and proud of his money. He see's people as objects and has two way mirrors with cameras behind them so he can watch his female companions undress. Soon the gang show up and it is a battle of the wills as the slow burn starts with each man trying a bit of territorial pissing, until an escape attempt brings out the loaded shotgun and things get ugly fast. But surprisingly it turns out to be the woman who takes charge and brings the final battle to a boiling point. Director <span style="font-weight: bold;">William Fruet </span>does a good job with the material and should be commended for trying really hard to pour some social commentary in about class struggles as well as having some sympathy towards both sides of the coin. Unfortunately the movie lags pretty hard in the mid section, especially when they start trashing the house. It should be distressing but instead it just seems silly and overlong. The lack of any real likable characters hurts the movie as well. Its hard to get attached to Brenda Vacaro's cold fish character, and her love interest is just as prick. Stroud is a very scary bad guy and plays it well, you can't like him at all. There is one great moment when he is trying to rape Brenda Vacaro. The whole time she is struggling and fighting and yelling, while he continues to tell her to "fight more, it makes it more exciting". Then she just stops fighting him, goes limp and just looks at him with fear and disgust. She says nothing, but her look says everything. And he just stops dead cold like a deer in headlights. Like she just saw through who he really was. He tries to keep the facade up for a second saying "Why'd you stop?" But he realizes he can't rape her anymore. He can't get it up and do it. She just took his power away. Even after she slaps him again. He just roughs her up and pushes her out of the room. This scene is the movies crown jewel moment. The rest is serviceable. First time seeing this.I actually watched it over a week ago and forgot to blog about it though...Andy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-89244736616691689312008-08-12T13:14:00.000-07:002008-08-12T13:24:15.217-07:00Creeper, The Hambuger Pimp...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.cinemaeye.com/images/uploads/hamburgerpimp.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://www.cinemaeye.com/images/uploads/hamburgerpimp.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>"You better get on before you get jumped on! I'm so bad I kick my own ass twice a day!"<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kCc0TgUMK2E&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kCc0TgUMK2E&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Andy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-10021200214407203112008-08-06T17:39:00.000-07:002008-08-06T17:42:00.235-07:00Last Movies for July 2008Wed. July 16th, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Manipulator aka B.J. Lang Presents (1971)***</span> - This is one truly bizarre movie. Even from the early 70's when movies were weird, this had to stick out as an oddball piece of cinema. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mickey Rooney</span> stars as B.J. Lang an old Hollywood make up artist (he once did the make up for Marilyn Monroe he tells us) that has truly slipped a cog. He is now holed up in a warehouse, apparently on some back lot somewhere, living in a fantasy world where he is a director. He flits around, acting out scenes, giving directions, setting up shots, watching old films, pretending they are dailies, and rather bizarrely talks to the numerous mannequins imagining they are cast and crew. The whole first twenty odd minutes of the movie is just Rooney alone acting out his psychosis. Then out of nowhere he wheels out a wheelchair with a woman tied to it that he has had captive for some time. She is now to act in his fantasy as well. Then as if it couldn't get weirder he shows up in full female make up, telling stories about the good old days of Hollywood as he preps his new star. The rest of the movie is a chamber piece of these two character's battle of wills, complete with funky music, weird camera angles and non-nonsensical flashbacks. The movie is no masterpiece, but its so fucking weird, I couldn't help but to love its shaggy ass. Sad thing is that I saw a certain amount of myself in this movie. I could totally see myself in thirty years, insane locked in a warehouse pretending to be a filmmaker, living out some obtuse fantasy. Hell I could see it happening next week... First time seeing this.<br /><br />Friday July 18th 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Le Frissions Des Vampires aka The Shivers of the Vampire (1971) *** </span>- If you are a newbie to the filmography of French erotic/horror filmmaker <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jean Rollin</span> this is a pretty good place to start. All of his obsessions are in place here. world weary vampires, saphic love scenes, color blasted night scenes, climactic scenes on the beach Rollin grew up on, a spooky castle and naked people galore. It is also chock a block full of stunning images such as the main vampire woman emerging from a grand father clock at the stroke of midnight, her seduction of the main character framed by the bedside curtains, the blood of a dove trickling down into her coffin, sunlight hitting the writhing vampires on the beach and the nude vampire's assistant as just a speck in the frame surrounded by the foliage of the castle grounds. The story revolves around a newly wed couple who go to the bride's cousin's castle to visit on their honeymoon. she hasn't seen her cousin's since she was a child. what she doesn't know is that in the years between they had become world renowned vampire hunters and then were seduced into becoming vampires themselves. they know live in the castle under the spell of Isabelle a female vampire, with two human familiars who take care of all of them. That night Isabelle emerges from the clock and begins her seduction of the bride into their clan. As with most of Rollin's work this is more about poetry than plot, which it is thin on. If you go into it looking for a lot of story or logic you may be disappointed. But if you go into it looking for visual thrills, and poetic images that wills tick with you then you will be satisfied. The movies has problems the most difficult being the terrible miscasting of the Isabelle the vampire. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Nicole Nacelle</span> who plays her looks like a Height Ashbury reject on a methadone program. She hardly projects the statuesque beauty or power needed for the role of someone who can seduce anyone. Especially considering the beauty of the lead played by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Sandra Julien</span> as Isa the Bride who is very attractive. Another great plus in the movie, maybe its greatest achievement is the score. A psychedelic explosion of fuzz guitar that was improvised on the spot of a teenage band named <span style="font-weight: bold;">Acanthus</span> that only did one album, this soundtrack. Which is a pity because the music is simply amazing. there is nothing else quite like it anywhere. There was a soundtrack CD available years ago and luckily I snagged it. I watched this on the import Encore 2 disc PAL DVD which is simply stunning. The old Image DVD was superb, but this is amazing. Comes with a 42 page booklet too. The movie used to be available from Something weird on VHS under the title Thrill of the Vampires which was released by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Harry Novak's</span> Box Office International. that cut is actually longer because it has a ton more sex that was <span style="font-style: italic;">NOT </span>shot by Jean Rollin, but by Novak's crew that is edited in almost at random. So if you have that old tape its worth keeping as a curiosity item (and is currently out of print). I love Jean Rollin. He is a true original. Seen this plenty of times before.<br /><br />Saturday July 19th 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Dark Knight (2008)*** </span>- The big event movie of the year is the sequel to the rebooting of the Batman franchise and it is very good. Naturally a lot of the interest and popularity is due to the fact that<span style="font-weight: bold;"> Heath Ledger</span> died and people are jumping on the bandwagon posthumously. But he <span style="font-style: italic;">IS</span> terrific in the film as the Joker. But what this has overshadowed is that the movie hardly focuses on the Joker or Batman. This movie is really about the Harvey Dent character played by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Aaron Eckhart (</span>who is also very, very good). He is the focus of the film and the main character whose story arc carries the picture. The Joker, though important, is secondary to the plot in a lot of ways. I'm not going to bother with a plot synopsis because I'm sure most of you went to see this by now, and if you haven't will see it soon enough. While I liked it quite a bit, it certainly blows away most comic book movies such as the mechanical and rather tepid <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Spiderman</span> films, I couldn't help but feel like there was something missing this time. Maybe it was the huge hype surrounding it that lead to my slight disappointment. But more to the point I felt like this entry lost some of the darkness and personal demons that made the Batman character so interesting in <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Batman Begins</span>. This time it felt more like a highly orchestrated, albeit fascinating, chess game to get all the characters and motivations into place. There are some great political jabs at our current predicament about surveillance and one person wielding too much power and a lot of talk about who is a real hero. But the heart of darkness seemed to be more mechanical to me this time. And certainly less about Batman, which was a fault the original series of sequels had too by having too many characters at play. Still it is grand entertainment, well made, acted and very entertaining. So I really can't complain too much when a summer blockbuster has the edge to try as many things as this does. First time seeing this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Lost Boys: The Tribe (2008) *</span> - I'm not one of those people who thinks the original <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Lost Boys</span> is some sort of holier than tho classic. I liked it alright as a teenager, but as I got older really found it to be a pandering and pretty lame movie. Its flashy, loud and empty as hell with some downright stupid moments. But it did have a good soundtrack. Well, someone at Warner Brothers thought so too. In fact, they were so enamored with that "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Cry Little Sister</span>" song from the original that they wrote the entire sequel around the lyrics to it! And boy did they end up with a flaming turd of a movie. Calling this a piece of shit would be mean to shit everywhere. In this sequel a brother and sister whose parents have croaked go to a California beach town to live with their quirky Aunt. Seems the brother was once a famous surfer even though he looks to be all of 19 years old. He soon discovers that an old surfing legend lives in the town too. The guy immediately seduces his sister which doesn't sit well with him (because that will takeaway his own chances for layin pipe at home). In the movie its because he is just looking out for his "little sister" (He actually says "<span style="font-style: italic;">Cry little sister</span>" at one point) but there are more than a few occasions where it seems that big brother has other yearnings for his younger sibling. Naturally the surfer dude and his buddies are a clan of vampires trying to add her to the clan. And who can blame them since they only seem to have one gal in the clan (though a very hot one) and she exits the movie pretty early on. It seems like a Boys Only type club. So when big brother figures out what is up he enlists the help of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Edger Frog</span> played by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Corey Feldman</span> reprising his role from the original and frighteningly not looking much older. Maybe he's a vampire too. Everyone goes through the motions, it goes where you think it is going and ends pretty much exactly how you think it will end. Except the brother and sister don't sleep together. But they do <span style="font-style: italic;">ALMOST</span> kiss then think better of it. Seriously. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Angus Sutherland</span> is cast as the main vampire because of the relation to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Keifer Sutherland</span>. Lets just say that the acting genes stopped of Keifer in the family. This guy is beyond terrible, delivering his lines in a monotone that would have made <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ed Wood</span> demand retakes. Someome ona message board said he was doing a Leif Garret thing. But Leif has an excuse for actign that way, he's been stoned for the last thirty years! This douche is just a shitty actor.The rest of the acting it direct to video bad, but no worse than this kind of thing usually is. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tom Savini</span> makes an early appearance doing what he does best, flexing his chest muscles and glistening with sweat.Then is killed off too soon. Thus prooving the movie has no real style, something you could not say about the original, which was all style. Style in this movie is when they fill the background with lots of smoke. This is just lifeless and dull, almost challenging you to stick with it. The only thing that can be said for the movie is that they upped the gore content considerably to fit within the current zeitgeist of modern horror films. But even that seems out of place with the goofiness and tomfoolery on screen. Oh yeah, if you must, stick around during the credits to see the other Corey show up for a blink and you missed him walk on. Apparently he was so stoned for the shoot they had to pull a page out of the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jan Michael Vincent</span> book and shoot him in single propped up shots all by himself. Probably the funniest thing about the movie. First time seeing this and I don't see me ever sitting through it again. Give me <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jean Rollin</span> vampires any day of the week, please!<br /><br />Monday July 21, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Incredible Hulk (2008)** </span>- It's big, it's loud, it has a lot of the Hulk smashing stuff so I'm sure that audiences liked it a lot better than <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ang Lee's</span> underrated 2003 adaption. But at the end of the day this one is a lot of thunder, a little bit of heart and not a whole lot underneath. As a B-movie monster mash it is pretty fun, with good special effects and well done action scenes. You can't fault <span style="font-weight: bold;">Edward Norton</span> in the lead role as Bruce Banner. But as much as the film tries you never really get the feeling of isolation and loneliness that Banner is supposed to be feeling as he tries to hide from the world. Which is the real core of the story. That damn sad theme song wouldn't have become so iconic if it wasn't! Mainly because you know at any minute he's going to Hulk out and start tearing shit up. I do realize I'm going to be in the minority on this, but I liked Ang Lee's movie better for the attempts to put a cerebral cortex into the myths. Granted a lot of what he attempted didn't work. Even I bemoan the monster poodles. But at least it was not paint by the numbers filmmaking. That movie took chances. This one, while entertaining, never veers from the chosen path. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Thursday July 24th, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Tougher Than Leather (1988) *1/2</span> - Starring vehicle for the rap acts on <span style="font-weight: bold;">Def Jam records</span> (hell the entire staff of Def Jam records as it seems, as <span style="font-weight: bold;">Russell Simmons </span>and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Rick Rubin</span> has major roles too as well as some other flunky acts)that features <span style="font-weight: bold;">RUN DMC </span>playing themselves. The guys in the snappy hats get hooked up with some mob run record producer wannabe (played by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Rick Rubin </span>who also directed this atrocity and cannot act for shit). When he kills their semi retarded friend and roadie its all about them kicking ass until they get to the the man responsible. That's a fine and good set up for an exploitation piece. So what went wrong? When this came out I remember the boys doing interviews talking about how this was the most violent movie ever made. They actually compared it to <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">The Terminator</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Apocalypse Now</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Scarface</span> in terms of mayhem. Well, there is a body count of like four or five and they are all relatively bloodless shootings. A couple of people get their asses very unconvincingly kicked and that is about it. A lot os posturing and very little pay off. It is painfully clear that they all wanted to keep this project in house at Def Jam and that is the biggest mistake they made. Rubin may be a killer record producer, but he can't direct his way out of a paper bag. They would kick him off the crossing gaurd for his lack of directing skills. The movie is shot and edited worse than most backyard productions (though the opening <span style="font-weight: bold;">Leone</span> inspired sequence had be thinking there could be more promising stuff to come. I was wrong.) What does however work here is the presence of <span style="font-weight: bold;">RUN DMC</span>. They can't act for shit, but they wisely perform several times and it is a reminder of why they were one of the biggest Hip Hop acts of all time. When they are performing the movie actually comes alive and surmounts the shittiness around it. Also performing and acting are a very young <span style="font-weight: bold;">Beastie Boys</span> who are frankly embarrasing. It is kind of amazing to watch them and see just how far they have come. It is a big leap from drunken idiots on stage to trying to save Tibet. Hav seen this before but barely remembered any of it.<br /><br />Friday July 25, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Deliberate Stranger (1986) *** -</span> Well made two night TV movie of the week about the life of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ted Bundy</span> that surprisingly gets most of it right. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mark Harmon</span> more or less killed his career with his very good performance as the well known serial killer. The epic running time allows for the story to follow Ted's personal life including his dealings in political circles in Seattle, his love life (god his girlfriend is annoying) and naturally his murder spree. But it also follows the cops trying to crack the case in Washington and then in Utah. Ample time in given to all aspects which allows all the elements room to breathe and be fairly compelling. The biggest drawback of course, is that being a TV movie a lot of the serious nature of Bundy's crimes are glossed over such as the sexual aspects which are mentioned in a couple of throw away lines but that's it. We never really get the information that his killing spree was sexually motivated and that he raped all of his victims. Otherwise they stick close to the facts of the case including his two escapes from jail and to my shock the final murder of a twelve year old girl (though they don't show it at all, just tell us about it after the fact, which is fine really. What happened to her in real life is probably too horrible to put into a movie at all, much less TV). As it stands this is probably the definative movie on the Bundy case even without the gory details. The musical score is truly awful though. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Saturday July 26th, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Trapped Ashes (2007) *1/2</span> - <span style="font-weight: bold;">Sean S. Cunningham</span> produced and directed one segment of this still sitting on the shelf anthology horror film that is pretty pedestrian. Also on board is <span style="font-weight: bold;">Joe Dante</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ken Russell</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Monte Hellman</span>. A group of very annoying Hollywood types go and a tour and end up in trapped in a variation of the<span style="font-weight: bold;"> Psycho</span> house. For some reason they are forced to tell their worst personal horror stories as a way to somehow get out of their situation. Each of the following stories is a segment of the film. The first one is <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ken Russell's</span> about a vain young actress you gets breast implants that turn out to be little blood sucking monsters that attack people. The second story is about a woman who is being lured into hell in Japan by a ghost. The third and most interesting is directed by Monte Hellman and is about two friends in fifties Hollywood and the woman who comes between them and how she stays immortal. This one has some very distinct nods to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Stanley Kubrick</span> going on. The last story is about a little girl that while in utero her mother was also carrying a parasitic worm that become her brother. This is slickly produced but all the stories lack payoff so they can come around again at the end and try to have a "shock" finale' at the ending of the film. It doesn't work. It just makes each story seem truncated and frustrating. Mostly it is silly and not very shocking with some interesting ideas thrown away on poor scripts and weak acting. Only <span style="font-weight: bold;">Monte Hellman'</span>s segment really has any depth and almost would play better as not a horror piece at all. It is really a three character chamber drama with almost no horror and could work as its little existential drama. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ken Russell's</span> piece has some bizarre images but doesn't get under the skin of the matter where it could have had some interesting things to say. Over all it is better than say <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Creepshow 3</span>, but then tapeworms in my stool are better than that one. First time seeing this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Simon Says (2006) *1/2 </span>- Yet another horror film that has been sitting on the shelf for a while. This one stars <span style="font-weight: bold;">Crispin Glover</span> as twins, one mentally retarded, on not, both insane, stalking an unlikely group of partying kids in the woods. This tries to be a post modern slasher movie by presenting all the cliche's and then turning everything up a few notches, but it doesn't really work. Its fun to see Glover cut loose and goes way over the top, even for him. The gore is almost as over done as his performance as people are skewered and split in half under geysers of blood. But what the movie gets deadly wrong is that the people that are being hunted are so painfully dimwitted, stupid and repellent, that you can't care about them. They group of kids are the worst of Hollywood casting as they are just a list of "types" the musclehead, the pothead, the good girl, the slut and the pretty smart girl all thrown together to party for the weekend. All of them instantly unlikable. Nothing creative is done with the material. There is some interesting kills, but it goes nowhere you haven't seen before and the snarky tone becomes annoying after a while too. Directed by the dude who directed <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Harry and the Hendersons</span> if you can believe it! First time seeing this.<br /><br />Sunday July 27th<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cocaine Cowboys (2006) ***</span> - Absorbing if overly flashy documentary about the rise of cacaine trafficking through Miami starting in the late 70's and into the late 80's. The story ends just before the government takes up the cocaine trade and starts shipping in the white powder into the U.S. themselves in the very end of the 80's as part of the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Iran Contra Affairs</span> (which are not covered in this documentary). What is covered is how two low end business men, one a pilot, another just a basic street drug dealer managed to build a smuggling empire with the Colombians. Then the "narrative" switches gears to how one woman, known as the Godmother, managed to take over the trade and turn the streets of Miami into a slaughter ground with people being murdered left and right. The most fascinating interview in the film is with her right hand assassin who is in prison for life. While the subject and interviews are illuminating director <span style="font-weight: bold;">Billy Corben's</span> style is a big aggravating as he piles on the Adobe After Effects, hyper stylized editing and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jan Hammer</span> score to the point of annoyance often detracting from the subject matter. I'm sure the point was to simulate the hyper reality of the Cocaine subject matter, but more often than not it took away from the experience. Still it is a worthwhile documentary with a lot of information. Be warned the the abundance of crime scene photographs, many of then brutal and bloody, and some of them children, almost puts this in the mondo film camp. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Tuesday July 29th, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Requiem For The Vampire (1971) *** </span>- Once again took a look at this <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jean Rollin</span> vampire classic on the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Encore DVD </span>special edition set and it is a revelation.The picture is so vibrant and crisp it is like seeing it for the first time, as cliche as that sounds. The colors and detail literally jump off the screen. As good as the old Image disc of the movie was, and it was very good, this blows it out of the water completely. This movie was one of Rollin's narrative experiments. He has said he was asked to hand in a script in a matter of days or else loose a chance for financing. So he sat down and literally decided to tell himself a story as he wrote. No notes, no outline, not even a real idea. Just to let it unfold as he wrote over a period of a couple of days. What came out was a tale of two young women, on the run from a heist, from which they were dressed as clowns, who run afoul of a clan of vampires at a chateaus they hide out at. While the film is virtually plotless, it is one of Rollin's richest in images, starting with the two girls in full clown regalia racing away in a car shooting at cops. There is the moment when they wash the make up off in a stream, turning the water streaks of red and white. We never actually see them wash it off, just the water changing colors. Then there is the big vampire orgy that introduces the vampires. Bathed in red gels, lush music and vampire bats nestled in one woman's crotch, this is not stuff that is easily forgotten. This is a film that does not ask you to follow along , as much as it asks you allow it to unfold before you. Your patience for arthouse horror will tell if this is to your liking or not. Seen this several times before.<br /><br />Thursday July 31st, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dr. Gore (1973) ***</span> - Bad movie buffs take note, this is a real winner! On DVD from <span style="font-weight: bold;">Something Weird video</span> this used to be available years ago from Paragon Video with an introduction from <span style="font-weight: bold;">Herschel Gordon Lewis</span>. It seems that Lewis was friends with the <span style="font-style: italic;">director/writer/star</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Pat Patterson</span> who also helped Lewis with the effects in some of his later films. Here Patterson takes the full reigns to deliver a unique and grisly bad movie bouquet that should delight fans of this sort of thing. It seems our beloved doctor Branon has lost his wife to a car crash, but as we discover in the very first scene he intends to bring her back to life, <span style="font-style: italic;">but better</span>. <span style="font-style: italic;">More perfect in every way</span>! So him and his hunchback grunting assistant (horrifyingly named...<span style="font-weight: bold;">Greg!</span>) set about robbing graves to nab the right parts. But after covering a corpse in tin foil and trying to reanimate it goes wrong. They decide that the only route that makes sense is to hypnotize women and cut off the perfect parts they need. So you get Pat Patterson and his amazing colossal comb over making out with babes in bikinis and then luring them back to his lab in a trance. Never mind the fact that if he has the power to pretty much bed any hot babe around why would he need to create a living perfect women in the first place! So they start hacking up girls in effects scenes that are surprisingly effective for the time period and obvious lack of budget. One dismembered torso is actually rather frighteningly conveyed. Unneeded parts are done away with in the handy acid vat. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Greg </span>keeps his bottle of hooch in the freezer with the dismembered body parts and a bunny rabbit just hangs out on set for no reason at all. One shot has some delivery men bring a big box and you can see well over the tops of the set by at least three feet or more. Once the perfect woman is completed the movie sort of comes apart as it clearly is unfinished from this point out, starting from a montage where the Doctor is explaining how he has to teach the new woman everything from scratch about being alive. His voice over explains a whole bunch of stuff, then the montage shows us the same stuff he explained, <span style="font-style: italic;">AFTER</span> he has said it. He teaches her how to love but she takes to hit a little too well and when he catches her hugging on poor Greg, things get ugly fast. Towards the end there is the most blatant and shocking camera clap board ever left in a film in history further underscoring that this is unfinished. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the incredible music by one <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bill Hicks</span>. Not the acerbic and dearly departed comedian, but a cherubic, bearded lounge singer whose songs stop the movie dead at least twice. I dunno about you but I kinda miss the days of no budget movies when they were padded with lounge musical numbers meant to further the careers of musical nobodies. If you haven't gotten the point yet, this is AWESOME!!! First time seeing this.Andy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-50857458626900188822008-07-16T11:42:00.000-07:002008-07-16T11:59:30.729-07:00Movies for JUly 2008Movies for July 2008<br /><br />July 3rd 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Brave (1994) *** -</span> This long form music video for the album of the same name from <span style="font-weight: bold;">Marillion</span> is also mostly known for being directed by cult director <span style="font-weight: bold;">Richard Stanley</span>. While he pretty much disowns the the final product, I still think it is a powerful bit of work. The story deals with a young woman who is in an insane ward as we cycle through her mind to see what drove her to this point. Each segment follows with a different song from the album and we experience her life in very surreal vignettes. We see her molestation by her father, her become homeless, become a heroin addict, try to commit suicide, get arrested, kill her boyfriend and finally actually commit suicide by jumping off a bridge. The whole while she is stalked and seduced by a man in a white mask who is at times her tormentor, friend, lover and Savior. While the film is overlong and has moments where things are stretched a bit thin, and has narration that doesn't need to be there, there is also plenty imagery that stays with you. Haunting moments like when her and the man are making love on a trashed river bank in her mind, while she is trying to kill herself in a bathtub. Or the entire "shadow theater" sequence which is vintage Richard Stanley occult tinged dementia. Overall the music gels really well with the visuals to create a haunting portrait of someone on the edge, and them thrusting themselves off. Seen this many, many times.<br /><br />July 4th, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Poultrygeist (2008) **1/2 </span>- The <span style="font-weight: bold;">Troma</span> teams latest cinematrocity is getting surprisingly good reviews around the country and in many ways the film deserves it. This is Troma's slickest production to date; The production design is very good, the effects are outstanding and plentiful, there is nary a scene without dozens of extras keeping the production value high and plus it is a successful musical! But the sum of the parts are not as good as isolated moments, and maybe its just me, but the avalanche of shit and cum jokes have ran their course to a degree. there is only so much you can do with that and keep it creative, and Troma has been at the forefront of the bad taste movement for decades. They broke that hymen years ago and now its dry humping a corpse (almost literally as the opening of this movie would have it). that's not to say some of that isn't funny, but the path is so well worn that it is just on autopilot a lot of the time. What this movie does however get right is the various social skewering, whether it be America's fast food culture, or the liberal protest cause of the week the movie has a rather shark political wit that is well defined. the moment the protesters who have been protesting the evil coporate fast food chain all whip out Starbucks coffee is one of the more biting and funny scenes of the film. Most shockingly is the musical segments of the film which are really well done. The music is catchy, the choreography fun, and it integrates well into the movie. Unfortunately about half way through they just abandon the whole idea and it stops being a musical altogether, thus dropping one of the films best ideas. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the effects work again. This movie is loaded with make up effects to the point that it times it is jaw dropping. I wouldn't call them fantastic effects, they are supposed to be goofy, but the sheer amount of them is astounding. This has to be Troma's biggest budgeted and most complex movie to date. So in that regard it is certainly worth a salute. This is making rounds on the independent theater circuit so if it comes to your theater you should check it out just to support one of the last indie companies around. its a fun movie. Just flawed in some ways. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Saturday July 5th 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Onion Movie (2008) **1/2 -</span> I had heard nothing but bad things about this sketch comedy flick from the long running comedy newspaper but to my surprise it wasn't all that bad. some of the sketches were pointless and others ran too long. But there were a few gems in there like the little known racial stereotypes bit. The<span style="font-weight: bold;"> Steven Seagal</span> as the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Cockpuncher</span> gag is really funny and it is cool to see the former martial arts film champion poking fun at his image. Some of the gags seem out of date, probably because the movie has been sitting on a shelf for a few years but it is nowhere as bad as you've heard. first time seeing this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">This Divided State (2005) *** </span>- Pretty infuriating documentary about during the 2004 election <span style="font-weight: bold;">Michael Moore</span> was invited to the Utah valley stater College for a speaking engagement which sparked off a battle within the community to have him banned. The majority ruling class of conservatives in Utah rallied to have the college stop the engagement, with one man in particular having Republican students start petitions to have the student president and staff who okayed the engagement removed. When this appeared to not be working this same man, tried to buy off the college, then brought a lawsuit against them. He also rallied enough local support that over $200,000 was lost in funds to the college. All just to stop Michael Moore from speaking there. He spoke anyway but there was a good deal of fallout from it. A frustration bit of documentation of how the conservative right can wield their money and power to silence a person or even an institution from whom they disagree. Very scary stuff. first time seeing this.<br /><br />Sunday July 6, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wal-E (2008) **** -</span> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Pixar's</span> latest computer animated romp is so much more than the trailers make it look like. while it is completely suitable for kids, it is not really a children's film. It is one of the most biting satires of our consumer culture that has come down the block in many a moons, as well as one of the most compelling science fiction films in ages. Top it off with a love story that has more to say about humanity than any gushy romance film and you have a movie that I'm sure <span style="font-weight: bold;">Walt Disney</span> would have been proud to have had his name on. Wal-E is the last inhabitant on the planet Earth, save one single cockroach that is his companion. The planet was forced to be abandoned because it was overwhelmed by trash and waste. So humans colonized a space station and left robots to clean up the toxic mess on earth. Seven hundred years later Wall-E is still doing his job, stacking trash as high as skyscrapers, and occasionally collecting detritus that he finds interesting such as old VHS tapes. He's fascinated by how people interacted and in particular touched when they were in love. He is desperately lonely, isolated and lives a repetitively life where the finding of a piece of interesting junk is the best excitement he has. One day a spaceship lands and a sleek robot starts scanning the landscape. They eventually become friends as we discover the robot is female and send from the humans spacecraft. Through lots of adventure they both end up back on the space station where all the humans have become these monstrously obese things that float on telepads, watch TV and drink processed food all day long. They can no longer read and robots literally do everything for them. But the arrival of these two new robots along with the one living plant from earth they are carrying will signal a huge change for everyone. The movie is fun, with a light touch so little kids can easily watch it and enjoy it. But the heavy themes are plain as day in scenes such as when the human babies are shown in the day care watching corporate propaganda (funny how the irony of that being in a Disney movie is probably lost on the executives) or when the captain of the spaceship can't read the old directives because they're in an actual book. Throughout the production design on Earth is a corporation called Buy & Large that is clearly modeled after Walmart that has bought up everything and helped destroy the planet. On the spaceship this corporation 100% owns everything. But the movie never gets lost in its eco friendly messages. The characters are rich and textured and you really get drawn into the situation they present. In some ways it is almost like a teen love story as Wal-E is slightly obsessed with holding Eve's ( the female Robot) hand and keeps screwing things up in his quest to do so. It is his need to be touched and to touch someone else that drives the film. the animation in the movie is probably the best computer animation I have ever seen. the early scenes on earth are so textured that it doesn't even seem like animation. There is some live action snuck in there in a few places which makes it seem all the more convincing. All in all this is a classic bit of filmmking and I wish all kids movies could be this smart. Hell, I wish ALL movies could be this smart. First time seeing this.<br /><br />July 8th, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Night Train To Terror (1985) ** </span>- Really goofy hatchet job of an anthology that took three other somewhat unrelated movies (all were co-scripted by a chap named <span style="font-weight: bold;">Phillip Yordan</span>) and hacked them down to 20 to 30 minute segments and shoe-horned them into one nonsensical flick. The wrap around segment, from which the title is drawn involves a train on which a white bearded God and an old gangster looking Satan discuss various theological things. Elsewhere on the train a horrible 80's post-romantic pop band sings and dances their way into the pit of your stomach, while the black conductor wanders aimlessly among these neon clad atrocities. It seems the train will crash at dawn with God and Satan arguing over who will gain the souls of those who will die. To pass the time they reminisce about some past cases, which are the three stories of the movie. Or I should say the cut down versions of the other films. The first one is culled from an unfinished film called <span style="font-weight: bold;">Scream Your Head Off</span> featuring a slumming <span style="font-weight: bold;">John Phillip Law</span> as a dude being held at some experimental hospital after a car crash killed his wife. Seems this hospital is conducting experiments on women, so they hook him on drugs and have him go out and drug women to bring them back. Every woman is strapped down, stripped and worked on. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Richard Moll</span> from <span style="font-weight: bold;">Night Court</span> is on hand as a creepy orderly. This segment sets the stage for the rest as it makes not a lick of sense, jumps around all over and is filled with tons of nudity and gore. There is narration a plenty to attempt to fill in the gaps, but it just adds to the confusion. Apparently Scream Your Head Off is floating around as a bootleg. So if anyone has it, please Hook a brother up!<br /><br />Next up is the condensation of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Death Wish Club</span>, a movie about a guy who becomes obsessed with a porn performer. When he finds her it seems she is part of an exclusive club where they all take part in games of elaborate Russian Roulette where the stakes are someone's life. Each game is more complicated than the last and he and the girl try to get out of the club. But they keep getting forced back in and play. This one fares the best of the three segments, even though the first half of the movie is basically cut out thus you have no idea how the two main characters really get together. But the gist comes across and the creativity is still there. The original is a pretty cool little movie and this is too.<br /><br />Lastly we have <span style="font-weight: bold;">Cataclysm aka The Nightmare Never Ends</span>. This movie even in its long form is a complicated mess, that barely hangs together. Its still a fascinating little flick with some great ideas, hamstrung by a truly shitty lead performance by the main actress. This short version makes no sense at all, no matter how much narration they lay on it, but they wisely cut around her lousy acting as much as possible. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Richard Moll</span> is back again as a writer who writes a book called God is Dead which is basically a manifesto for atheists. Meanwhile an old man has discovered that the Anti-christ has been living down through the decades. he has pictures of him from Nazi Germany and current pictures where he has not aged a bit. It seems that Richard moll's wife, the crappy actress, is the chosen one to fight Satan. there is a great climax involving some REAL open heart surgery footage.<br />All three segments use new narration to try and make them work. the last two segments have new stop motion creature effects to try and boost the production value of each one. They're okay but not really needed. Overall this is fun, but really on the chintzy side. Though I'm sure if you were drunk off your ass in some grindhouse somewhere this was a real hoot. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Saturday July 11, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2008)***</span> - While the first <span style="font-weight: bold;">Hellboy</span> was a fun movie movie, I felt like it was struggling against the Hollywood grain to really become something spectacular. There were flashes of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Guillermo Del Toro's</span> brilliance in it. But I felt like Hollywood was holding him back. That isn't the case with this sequel. In fact this movie manages to capture the same kind of movie magic that many of us felt as kids when we first saw the original (unedited and un fucked with) <span style="font-weight: bold;">Star Wars</span> movies for the first time. There is a scene in Hellboy 2 when the gang enter a Troll marketplace that has that same sense of awe that we got thirty years ago when we followed Luke Skywalker into that wacky cantina for the first time. The story this time has has the last remaining siblings from an ancient race vying for the controlling pieces of a golden crown. This crown when put back together will enable the owner to control the fabled golden army, a thousand strong army of indestructible robots. These are relics of a time when beasts and man battled for control of the world but these robots swayed the battle and almost wiped out mankind until the king, feeling remorse and pity called a truce, allowing the human race to live. Now his son has vowed to wage war on humanity and take his rightful place as ruler. Hellboy investigates this after the prince has let loose a bunch of critters called tooth fairies into a crowded auction that was selling a piece of the crown. Though these things sound cute, and even look cute, their voracious appetite and relentless spirit are anything but. The scene where they attack our heroes is a showstopper. But only the beginning in a film full of them. But for all the flawless effects, terrific stuntwork and incredible production design, what sets this apart from other fantasy films is that Del Toro knows how to inject real pathos into his characters. Even the villains of the piece have shades to them and are not cut outs. There are moments when you understand them, and maybe even empathise with them. Hellboy's journey in the film is less about fighting monsters, than about finding out a very personal road to travel. For all the good, the movie is not perfect though. There are some major problems in the script, such as the whole twins connection between the villains that easily telegraphs the ending of the film. There are also several times when characters do things that make very little sense, except to move the plot along from A to B. But these things are not detrimental as they could have been. The movie is still magical and well worth your time. The audience we saw it with clapped at the end, which is something I've not experienced in a while. First time seeing this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Love Guru (2008) * -</span> I was forced to watch this. It looked like a piece of shit from the trailers, and the trailers didn't lie. You know how bad <span style="font-weight: bold;">Goldmember</span> was? Remember how staggeringly unfunny and painful? This is way worse. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mike Myers</span> has totally lost his barometer of what makes a joke work. So instead he makes a joke (usually one that isn't funny) laughs at it himself (as part of the character you see) and then goes on to fucking EXPLAIN the joke, either to the other characters or in some instances to the AUDIENCE! This doesn't just happen once, but over and over and over throughout the movie. Then there is the whole joke of having The Love Guru sing a pop culture song. He sings 9 to 5 for the opening credits. It's dumb and you hope that you've experienced the last of the singing. But then he pulls out one of the biggest pieces of shit songs in history with <span style="font-weight: bold;">More Than Words</span> from <span style="font-weight: bold;">Extreme</span>, and proceeds to sing the whole fucking song of that. But wait, at the end, he does <span style="font-weight: bold;">Steve Miller's The Joker</span>. Why? Because The Guru's character is named Maurice and that name is in the song. Sheesh! <span style="font-weight: bold;">Justin Timberlake</span> should have been funny in the movie. He tries really hard, but is saddled with such shit material that he just sinks with the ship. The whole joke being that he has a huge dick and a cheesy mustache. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Verne Troyer</span> really deserves better than this garbage too, and that's saying something considering he just leaked his own amateur sex video. There is actually a scene where Mike Meyers does the whole gag of "accidentally" calling him a shrimp and a midget. Oh how original. Next they'll have him running around with a bucket on him...oh wait they do that too. There is ONE good scene, thus explaining my one star rating. The plot, as it stands, deals with a hockey player whose wife has left him. He is explaining to the Guru about how much he misses her and how they would make love and fall asleep together and he would wake up a few hours later to his wife softly saying "damn". As in damn I'm glad I'm with you, or damn I love you. Its a tender moment, with real, gentle heart. It's like it wandered in from another movie. And naturally they fuck it up by later showing us how she said the exact same thing when seeing Timberlake's massive schlong. But take heed, there is justice in the world. This piece of crap tanked. Making a pittance of its cost back. But then that just might mean that Meyers will retreat and force another Austin Powers movie on us. I shudder to think. First and <span style="font-style: italic;">LAST</span> time I'll be watching this.<br /><br />Tuesday July 14th, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Tracey Fragments (2008) *** </span>- This Canadian Indie drama from acclaimed director <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bruce Macdonald</span> is hard to get into at first because of the visual style. The entire movie is told through visual fragments, represented by multiple screens that are always changing. This is split screen effects taken to the ultimate extreme. At any given time there will be anywhere from six to literally dozens of separate frames on screen with different images in them. This approach takes some getting used to, to say the least. But it isn't being used as simply digital editing masturbation. This does indeed represent the mindset of the main character and the viewpoint of the film. The movie stars current indie queen, the beautiful <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ellen Page</span> as the title character a "Normal fifteen year old who hates herself". We meet her sitting on a public bus, wrapped in a shower curtain (well we find out later its a shower curtain, it looks like a sheet) as she addresses us directly. We discover that her mentally handicapped little brother has gone missing under her supervision and she is out in the city looking for him. Her parents are the model for dysfunction and falling apart from the stress. Tracey tells us all kinds of personal things about herself, including intimate details of her first sexual encounter with her boyfriend, who she is seemingly obsessed with. See he's the new boy in school and one of those too cool for the room guys, that disaffected girls always fall for. We infer through the fragmented narrative that she was with him when she lost track of her brother in fact. Narratively the movie seems like it is going to be one of those dark journey into the night types of flicks where an "innocent" travels into the big city and encounters all kinds of scary things. There is a bit of that going on; She ends up in a strip bar, witnesses a huge fight, sees a high class pimp plying his trade with a young girl, and is almost raped at one point. But what the movie is really about is her grip on reality slipping as she layers on her own versions of fantasy to cope with things. We learn that many of the things she has told us early on in the film are fiction. Fiction that she is telling herself as she loses grip on her sanity. Throughout the movie there is this impending threat of a huge blizzard that is supposed to blanket the city. Characters constantly warn her to stay inside to protect herself from it. Its almost as if that oncoming blizzard is the complete white out of reality with her own version of "facts". The movie zips forward and back through time, supplants fantasy and reality at will and leaves the viewer to make up their own mind in many instances. It can be a frustrating experience at times, but it is held together my the galvanizing performance at the center from Ellen Page. She has proven without a doubt that she is the best young actress of her generation. While other actresses are busy trying to find ways to have music careers or become "celebrities" she is choosing to do challenging work like this. This girl can say more with her eyes than most teen actors can do in a whole season of TV acting. She holds you to the screen through these dangerous narrative forms and makes you care about what happens to her. Even when her character is making stupid and naive choices that will effect her life. As you have gathered this is not a feel good movie. People who are coming to this as fans of Page because of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Juno</span> are going to feel like they have been slapped around. It is the <span style="font-style: italic;">Anti</span>-<span style="font-weight: bold;">Juno</span> in a lot of ways. Thats not a bad thing. First time seeing this.Andy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-44501683490899593572008-06-30T15:34:00.001-07:002008-06-30T15:37:02.781-07:00More Movies for JuneMonday June 23, 2008<br />D'Wild Weng Weng (1982)*** - If you don't know who Weng Weng is then you really shouldn't be reading this blog. Weng Weng is a god among men, or at least he was when the little guy was alive. He was barely 3 feet of caged karate fury with a bowl haircut who would whoop an ass without breaking a sweat. The ladies loved him, he wore leisure suits, had rocket jet packs and tons of other gadgets. He was cool as ice before the motherfucker Vanilla hijacked the phrase. This killa from Manilla was the toast of the Philipino movie industry in the early 80's and made a crap load of movies all based around the fact that he stood no higher than your thigh. But he was a screen presence to be reckoned with as all of us who sumbled upon For Y'ur Height Only in the bargain bins way back in the 90's will attest. Weng Weng changed lives man. So that brings me to this adventure, one of his more obscure flicks or it was until this print started making the rounds. Here the weng stars as a secret service agent along with his friend Mr. Gordon who are sent to Santa Monica(!) because the Mayor has been ruthlessly murdered by a bandito named Mr. Sbastian (everyone is Mr. someone in this movie). From there the dynamic duo basically just keep kicking the asses of Sabastian's men until the incredible climax. Along the way they make friends with a dude with his tongue cut out (his annoying screaching will give you a headache), a couple of babes, and a pigmy midget Indian Chief (played by the dude who played Mr. Giant in For Y'ur Height Only). Sights you will see include Weng practicing his karate shirtless, him in his mariachi outfit saradading outside a babe's window, Weng thrown like an Olyumpic football into the second story of a bad guy's lair, Weng stuffed into the monk robes of Mr. Gordon and carried around like a fetus, and Weng strung up like a turkey to bake in the sun. But the keeper are two action scenes; one about 45 minutes in and then the climax. The middle scene is simply just Weng Weng strolling along and every time he sees a group of bad guys he whips out his gun and kills them dead. Cold blooded Charles Bronson style! He's done fuckin around! He kills at least two dozen people in a ten minute period! For the climax I swear Sylvester Stallone had to have seen this movie before he wrote the latest Rambo film because the similarities in the climaxes as odd to say the least. Both films have the heroes surround on all sides by the bad guys, and both films have the hero manning a huge machine gun and mowing down the invading armies. Both films then have a native people rush in and help by fighting along side, in this case the Pygmy Indians (where did they find so many midgets?). Oh shit I forgot to talk about all the ninja's in this thing! Mr. Sabastian employs not only traditional "Mexican" banditos but a small army of ninja's too! While this movie is undeniably entertinaing it lacks the loopy, goof-ass charm of The Impossible Kid and For Y'ur height Only where things were clearly not being taken totally seriously. Here director Eddie Nicart seems to be wanting to blend the cheapjack Fillipino action film to something akin to a Peckinpah movie. Plus the dubbing is far too serious unlike the uprourious For Y'ur height Only. But still, this is a worth while cult addition and for Weng Weng completists it is a must have. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Tuesday June 24, 2008<br />Dream No Evil (1972) **1/2 - Extremely low key and unusual horror drama was written about highly in the excellent and must have tome Nightmare USA: The Rise of the Exploitation Independents by Stephen Thrower. This movie is also the co-feature on the DVD set with Delinquent School Girls as part of the Psychotronica box set. The two films couldn't be more different and a worse double feature if you tried. Dream No Evil is really not even an exploitation movie at all, it is a quiet, slow moving treatise on loneliness and isolation driving one to madness. A little girl in an orphanage cries out for her daddy but is told, rather heartlessly, that her Daddy is dead. Cue years later and she is working with a preacher who has integrated her into his roadshow as a highfall artist to demonstrate how one can fall "straight to hell" from sins of the flesh! But she is still obsessed with finding her long lost father and has convinced herself that he is in the current town they are visiting. She finds him with the help of a sleazy pimp (who pimps obese old women to the elderly men in the old folks home) who doubles as the coroner. Seems her Father has died and is still on the morgue slab. Suddenly rises from the slab and kills the pimp and Father and Daughter are reunited. They move into a house that sometimes is a beautiful ranch home and sometimes a dilapidated, boarded up nightmare depending on where her mind is at. Then more people start dying. It doesn't take a genius to see what is going on in the movie, but it must of boggled the producer's mind at some point because there is this bogus narration that keeps popping up that just simply tells you that the lead gal is crazy, thus spoiling it for you. This happens about ten minutes into the movie and keeps coming back throughout and really hurts the poetic flow of the film. It clearly is not part of the original flick, or so it seems. But even without the narration it still isn't a big surprise when the climax arrives. To appreciate this movie you have to get into its bizarre groove of oddball characters, and weird situations. There aren't very many movies like Dream No Evil, its mostly melodrama, with a heavy dose of southern charm and slight psyechedelia, with a few drops of blood. Something like this would never be made now. The pace is too off, characters too weird and payoff too lopsided. While it is no great movie by a long shot, it is still to be appreciated for being different, and I do wish filmmakers would take these kinds of chances these days. The print is letterboxed and worn all to hell, clearly not remastered at all. And the one instance of nudity is censored! I have no idea if the old VHS is like that or not, and it looks like I've misplaced my old DVD-r of this for comparison. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Autopsy 1 & 2 ***1/2 - Excellent HBO Series about Forensic pathologists and how they are integral to solving crimes. The first show is all about the Coroner from the New York area and the various things he's done over the years including investigating the deaths in the Attica riots, a husband who strangled his wife and put her in the trunk of their care for 10 ten days and most horrifyingly a mother who killed nine of her babies before someone figured out she was doing this. The second show opens up to several different pathologists and includes stories of a lower torso found in the Mississippi river that was dismembered with a chainsaw, a little boy that was beaten to death and how the mother who gave him up for adoption as a baby discovered his case fourteen years after the fact and still managed to get his case tried and a conviction, and a corpse found in a carnival funhouse as part of the attraction! This is a great show but only for those with strong constitution as it is pretty graphic stuff. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Thursday June 26th, 2008<br />Exorcism (1975) *1/2 - Pretty weak Paul Naschy possession flick really suffers from coming out after The Exorcist. Apparently this was conceived prior to that hit, based on some real possession cases, but not okayed for production until the Warner's film was a huge success all over the world. Problem is that Friedkin's film clearly is an influence on this one to the point that it eclipses what ever nuances this may have. The story starts out very different with a college age girl at a witches sabbet. They are partying down, dancing naked, drinking blood and worshiping Satan as well as smoking drugs. On her way back from that shindig there is a car accident which causes her to be bedridden at her families estate. The local priest is called in (played by Naschy) because she is cursing the family and claiming she is"evil". Soon people are bing found dead with their heads twisted all the way around (sound familiar?). Before too long she's a mess; drooling, forming scars with nasty contact lenses and soon the priest has to do that old hocus pocus to run the devil out. The largest problem with this film is the pacing. It is languidly paced, taking its sweet ass time to get anywhere and when the climax finally arrives it is too short to really satisfy. Everything is overly familiar, though if it had really punched it home that could be forgiven. But instead it it relatively tame except for a lot of nudity during the couple of Satan worshiping scenes (which have great music by the way). The film is lensed quite well, and the acting is fine, but it just doesn't go anywhere, or do it in any kind of a hurry. Probably the weakest of the Naschy efforts I have seen so far. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Friday June 27 2008<br />Psychos In Love (1986) *** - A real rarity, a horror comedy that works. I remember watching this as a teenager and thinking it was hilarious. What a surprise to revisit it as an adult and find that it still holds up as a clever and sweet natured splatter comedy that is both witty and gross, never sacrificing either element. The leads played by Carmine Capobianco and the very cute Debi Thibeault are a pair of murderous psychopaths who kill people who annoy them, mainly folks who cross them over their hatred of grapes. They bond over their murderous behaviors and fall in love. Meanwhile a local plumber is also a killer, but he is doing it simply to satiate his cannibalistic urges. The movie is filled with tons of in jokes to other movies such as the Hitchcock inspired gag where a victim refuses to die and the couple's decision to stop killing and only watch splatter movies. Also the director choses to break the fourth wall from the very opening scene and unlike other more pretentious movies like say , Funny Games, this ends up becoming rather charming and never comes off as cloying or grating. The leads are incredibly likable and there are some great supporting players too such as the Chinese karate guy who hangs out at the strip club, or the senile priest who marries them. The movie isn't a ground-breaker or anything, but it is just a well made and fun flick that is really worth the time. Seen this before obviously.<br /><br />Frat House (1998) ** - Todd Phillips the director of the acclaimed documentary Hated about GG Allin made this HBO documentary about the pledging process and hazing rituals that plague college campuses all over the United States. The problem was that HBO discovered that Phillips faked a large portion of the footage and therefore shelved it. He still got his large payday and laughed his ass all the way to huge Hollywood directing gigs doing lame ass comedies. This doc starts off strong with Phillips and his partner Andrew Gurland finding a Frat run by a certified psycho who calls himself "blossom". This dude likes to do things for fun like beat up wooden skids with his bare hands. They get to watch a group of pledges start their ten week hazing, but after a few nights of relatively harmless stuff, Blossom and the boys get nervous about the cameras catching the truly horrible stuff they are about to do and run Phillips and his boys out of town. This stuff feels real and is probably the legit stuff they shot. Then Phillips and Gurland find an unnamed Frat at an unnamed school and decide to pledge themselves and run the gauntlet of torture, physical pain and humiliation. I'm pretty sure from this point on it is bullshit. These guys don't look like typical frat guys, though they do act like it. And frankly I don't believe Phillips would put himself through it without some sort of safety net. The stuff they show is grueling, but they never get under the skin of why anyone would WANT to do this. So its almost like a mondo movie in some ways. Its faked, its shock value, and its puddle deep. Don't get me wrong, it is compelling viewing, Phillips knows how to lead you in and keep your attention. But at the end you've not learned much of anything, unless you are shocked easily. The only thing I learned is that I'm glad I would never, ever want to be part of a Frat in the first place. Seen this before.<br /><br />Saturday June 27th 2008<br />The Brown Bunny (2003) ***1/2 - Vincent Gallo's second directorial effort was torn apart when it premiered at Cannes in a much longer apparently more self indulgent cut where Roger Ebert called it completely unwatchable. Gallo went in and cut it down to 93 minutes, yet still people refused to talk about the actual movie. Instead focusing on the climactic hard core blow job sequence performed between him and Cloe Sevigny. What audiences missed is the fact that this is a heart wrenching, challenging, and yes self indulgent, existential head first dive into the heart of darkness. The movie is one long trip into one man's pain and torture of loneliness and refusal to forgive himself for his past.What trips people up is that much of the first hour of the movie is languid, but beautifully photographed, sequences of Vincent Gallo's character driving across country. The scenes are clearly meant to put us directly in his shoes as he isolates himself further and further. Throughout the movie he makes attempts to reach out to the opposite sex, usually at first with ease. But as soon as it requires him to give, even an tiny bit, of himself he abandons the effort and returns to the isolation of the road. By the time he finally reaches a L.A. hotel room and is reunited with his lost love the torture of his past is almost unbearable. The scenes between Sevigny and Gallo and painful and fraught with honest emotions and pain. Once the infamous blow job happens it could be argued that it is shock value, but the fact there is important dialogue going on that relates to what is happening plays out that it is not so. The final reveal of the movie is a bit on the heavy handed side and maybe is more than this otherwise beautifully crafted tone poem needed. But it is undeniably affecting. It hits you like a ton of bricks weather it is needed or not. Anyone who has ever felt abandoned, alone, or ashamed should be able to relate to this movie in some way. But then few will have the patience it requires to tune in to its unique and offbeat rhythms. By the way, once the 93 minute cut was released Roger Ebert came around and gave it three stars. First time seeing this.Andy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-91042860717874318482008-06-23T15:19:00.000-07:002008-06-23T15:20:37.280-07:00Movies so far in JuneTues June 3rd 2008<br><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Devils (1971) **** </span>- Ken Russell's masterpiece based on the book The <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Devils of Loudon </span>by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Aldous Huxley</span> is a terrifying and thrilling piece of cinema that is still shocking today. Hence why it is still not on legit DVD and censored in all existing prints. The story of a priest, who cannot help himself to the pleasures of the flesh because as he puts it, he has a thirst to get to God quicker, finds himself forced into a position of defence as Loudon comes under attack from the crown. Meanwhile a nun that is infatuated with him is used being against him to topple his authority. This causes the entire convent to be accused of being possessed resulting in mass hysteria and a trial for witchcraft and heresy. The film is rife with imagery that is blasphemous and horrifying such as the purification of the nuns through enema's, the scene where the nun imagines the priest as Christ coming off the cross as she licks his wounds and fellates him as well as the only reinstated in the bootleg cuts, infamous "Rape of Christ" scene where the insane nuns pull a huge statue of Jesus down and literally fuck it. But the movie is about so much more than ballistic theatrics. It is about a man who finds God when he least expects to. About a time when corruption reigns supreme both in church and state and about when those two things intertwine to the point of pure strangulation. It is about how of love and sexuality should not excluded from loving the lord, and how those things can be perverted for political ends. Truly it is an amazing work for audiences that can take the risk.I have seen this many times before.<br><br>Saturday June 7th 2008<br><span style="font-weight: bold;">Werewolf In A Womans Prison (2007) **</span> - This shot on Hi Def video splatter/ Women in Prison/ Monster mash certainly tries very hard to please, and truthfully if drive-ins and grindhouses still existed to show exploitation movies this is the kind of thing they would show. So on that level it succeeds. A woman is bit by a werewolf while camping with her boyfriend in Mexico. Her boyfriend dies and she is imprisoned for his death in a brutal woman's prison where they use the prison's population for soft core porno. Soon she is seeing her dead boyfriend's ghost who warns her that under the ful moon she will change into the werewolf herself. After a prison yard dust up where she breaks arms and busts heads, she finds herself turning beastly and wrecking extremely bloody havoc. There is tons of boobs bared (some very impressive), gallons of blood and creative gore and a real attempt to throwback to the days of yore. The problem is that the acting is from acceptable to bad, the effects are only okay (with really poor digital work), and the story line lifts way too much from<span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"> An American Werewolf in London </span>for comfort. So it all just levels out as just an okay time waster at best. If your looking for gore and boobs this will fit your bill, but it could have easily gave us much more. First time seeing this. <br><br><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Sinful Dwarf (1973) **1/2 </span>- This is one grimy little movie! I guess this was supposed to be a sex movie but what it ends up being is a twisted, grotesque little peep into a perverse world that is so fucked up you almost have to appreciate it just for the sheer repellent factor. The story is about a dwarf named <span style="font-weight: bold;">Olaf </span>and his Mother (a former actress) who own a boarding house. But in the attic they keep a room full of chained naked women that are hooked on heroin that they pimp out to particularly disgusting men looking for a lay. When a down on their luck newly wed couple rent a room Olaf and Mommy set their sights on the new voluptuous gal to add spice to the midnight playpen. Olaf is played by a dwarf actor named <span style="font-weight: bold;">Torben</span> who apparently was a children's show host in Denmark. He's a frickin force of nature with his gravel voice, insane laugh and penchant for playing with toys. Whenever he is on screen the movie is locked in for the kill. You can't take your filthy eyes off of it. Mommy has a penchant for reliving her glory days by doing sad renditions of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Carmen Miranda</span> numbers complete with full on costumes and smeared liptick. These are some of the most frightening moments in the film and are sure to send chills up your spine. The whole movie is dark, brooding and looks like it was dipped in piss, right down to the set design and props. Nothing is clean in this movie and you will feel dirty for watching it. But for some reason I find that to be a reason to recommend it. Seen this before. BTW the DVD that is floating around from over seas is NOT remastered. Severin DVD is planning a new release. Check out this bit from You Tube about that upcoming release. Its hilarious!<br><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="never" allowNetworking="internal" height="344" width="425" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/-PQV57S7I-s&hl=en"><br /> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" /><br /> <param name="allowNetworking" value="internal" /><br /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-PQV57S7I-s&hl=en" /><br /></object><br><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wed June 11, 2008<br>Dream Deceivers:The Story behind The Judas Priest Trial (1992)***</span>- Very engrossing hour long documentary about the whole backmasking hootanany that almost took down the band Judas Priest in the mid 80's because a couple of Midwestern teens decided to blow their brains out. One of them lived after shotgunning off his face and claimed that it was the music of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Judas Priest</span> that led him to do it. His Christian conservative parents sued the band claiming that the song "Better By You, Better Than Me" contained subliminal messages and hidden phrases including the words "do it". This documentary includes a lot of interview footage with the band, <span style="font-weight: bold;">James Vance</span> the boy who blew his face off (now severely deformed) and his family. Much of the trial is shown as well. Many experts are brought in to analyze the music in which they find lots of little messages, many of which "could" be something. Yet it seems more likely the power of suggestion is at play. More important is the discourse of Vance himself who openly admits to doing drugs and seems intent on hanging his misery on the music instead of his home life. He's a sad figure who was clearly depressed and probably mentally ill. His abusive stepfather who admits to beating him in the documentary but lies about in the trial probably didn't help matters. All in all its clear that the band is totally innocent of any wrong doing and that the family is at fault but totally running from their demons. Ironically enough, a theme in much of Judas Priests music. First time seeing this. Watched it on Google video.<br><br>Thursday June 12, 2008<br><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sylvia (1976) **1/2</span> - Entertaining and goofy porno that is enlivened by surprisingly high production values and an energetic performance one time performer <span style="font-weight: bold;">Joanne Bell</span>. The movie is a take off on the popular (and recently remade) 70's mental illness drama <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">SYBIL</span> in which a woman who has multiple personality disorder from some sexual experience in her past starts fragmenting in her adult life. In this movie Sylvia acts out sexually and dons several personalities such as Mona who ravishes a vacuum cleaner salesman (played by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Marc "10 1/2" Stevens</span>) or a bullish lesbian. Frankly all her personalities seem the same though as they all shed their clothes, are aggressive, leer hysterically and perform analingus on the surprised dudes she is shagging. The most hilarious scene has her defrocking a pastor after terrorizing him with a giant crucifix she has torn off the wall. There is an impromtu exorcism scene too that is a riot. Directed by one <span style="font-weight: bold;">Peter Savage </span>aka <span style="font-weight: bold;">Armand Peters </span>who was a "made man" in the New York film scene and friends with the boxing legend <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jake LeMotta.</span> He basically helped write the book that <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Raging Bull</span> was based on. The movie is kookily directed with lots of off kilter cutaways and loving melodrama that makes it feel like you have tuned into a a hardcore soap opera from another planet. But it is impressively shot with slick camera work, nice music and decent production values making it a unique movie both for its genre and vintage. But the real reason to buy this disc is the outstanding, must listen, commentary from assistant director and genre legend <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bill Lustig</span> (director of <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Maniac</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Blue Underground</span> head honcho, like you needed to know that). He is a great story teller and filled with dozens from the era, not just of the hardcore industry. He's hilarious, but so informative making the track outstanding. This is seriously one of the best commentary tracks ever. His tales of dealing with <span style="font-weight: bold;">Joanne Bell, </span>(though his hatred of her is a bit much)<span style="font-weight: bold;">, </span>are enough for the price alone! A decent movie made a must for the commentary. First time seeing this. <br><br><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Zodiac Rapist (1971) *1/2</span> - Ultra no budget xxx that sought to capitalize on then hot news topic of the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Zodiac Killer</span>. Uh, yeah when I want to get hot and bothered the first thing I want to think of is the current serial killer on the loose! This has got to be one of the most wrong headed ideas for a porno ever. <span style="font-weight: bold;">John Holmes</span> stars as the title dude but don't take it too literally as the women he goes after are hardly what you would call victims. This is pure goofiness and while there is nonstop sex, no one is ever really "assaulted" as they see Holmes and his huge member and immediately want him to do his stuff. Only in the porno world... Immediately we know we are in no budget lunacy from the get go as we watch a girl planting flowers with no pants or underwear. In a tasteless close up we see that she has the hairiest, dirties butt in porno history. But John Holmes just happens to be hiding in the bushes and turned on by this nasty brown eye. He's Naked and masturbating. When she sticks the rake handle into her nether regions he decides he'd be better suited and they go to town. All the sound is post dubbed and doesn't match. I mean at all. Mouths are closed but moans are loud and furious. Later we meet <span style="font-weight: bold;">Sam Dobb</span>s the hero of the story, a clean cut, kinda chubby, perpetually naked detective on the case of the Zodiac Rapist. If only because the rapist keeps calling and pestering him. Dobbs is doing his secretary who is wearing this intensely scary nursing bra in which her nipples stick out of like horrifiying flesh torpedoes. Dobbs tells her in a dubbed over voice " I don't mind being sucked by you, but I hate being fucked by the Zodiac!" He's interrupted by an applicant for another secretary whom he proceeds to screw as a test to see if she could lure the Zodiac out of hiding. Later when she goes home the Zodiac climbs a tree to see her in her room and masturbates while in the tree. It's kind of impressive. He breaks into the house where her and another girl are sleeping on the bed together and announces "I'm the Zodiac Rapist" and a huge blast of guitar feedback shoots through the soundtrack as his theme. They both let him ravish them until Dobbs shows up. Holmes jumps off the balcony, doing his own impressive stunts. Later we see Holmes driving around looking for new victims and he is masturbating even while driving! Finally Dobbs gets help from a dominatrix Police woman who will help him catch the Zodiac but for some reason Dobbs has a real hard time getting it up for her (even though shes the cutest girl in the movie). This thing is nuts. Its terrible, the sex is unappealing for the most part (one girl's vagina looks like uncooked pot roast) but there is enough hilarity, especially the dubbed over dialogue to make it worth it at times. Holmes is clearly having a blast doing stunts and whacking off in public. This is way before the coke starting ravaging him. Too goofy to ignore. There is another Sam Dobbs adventure in this DVD package I have yet to watch. First time seeing this. <br><br>Sunday June 15th 2008<br><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) **1/2</span> - Decent enough Americanization of the Hong Kong fantasy/action films that characterized the Chinese output of the eighties. The plot is pure hokum and pretty disposable as an American kid finds a magic staff in a Chinese pawn shop and during a robbery by some young punks is whisked away into feudal China. There it turns out the staff belonged to the Monkey King, an always jovial, very hairy Kung Fu god who was turned to stone by an angry general 500 years before. Seems this kid is now the chosen sentry to take the staff back to the now concrete Monkey King so he can will be freed. But the General is still ruling since he is Immortal or magick or some shit, so it wont be an easy task. All of this information is related by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jackie Chan</span> during one long flashback and dialogue sequence by the way. The kid befriends <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jackie Chan </span>who basically reprises his famous <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Drunken Master</span> roll from the series he made famous. Along the way they pick up a vengeful and beautiful harp playing gal and a renegade monk played by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jet Li</span> (who also plays the Monkey King). The movie moves at a brisk pace and the fight choreography is outstanding as to be expected. The big money fight between <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jet Li</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jackie Chan </span>in the middle of the movie is a ten minute long show stopping affair that is worth the price of admission alone. If you came to see those two titans battle it out with all the famous styles of Kung Fu, you will be satisfied. The fights are shot and edited like a Hong Kong flick too, so there is a noticable lack of fast editing and too close for comfort camera work to try and hide anything. The action is the reason to see the movie. Though it is also curiously un-exciting at times (save the Li/Chan fight) mainly because the movie is clearly aimed at families you never get the feeling there is real danger. Though there is some surprising violence now and again (the good guys kill a couple of people) it still feels kind of like going through the motions. Things are not helped by the lead character played by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Michael Angaramo</span>. I don't know if it was his performance, or the writing of the character, but the kid is a zero watt bulb. He's such a wuss that you want him to get his ass kicked throughout most of the movie just to teach him to man up a little bit. In fact, even though the plot hinges on him, you wish he'd just disappear and let the other character's lead, as they are out doing him charisma wise in every single shot. Another interesting thing about the movie is the amount of references to classic Hong Kong cinema. Numerous <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bruce Lee</span> nods abound, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jackie Chan</span> doing the <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Drunken Master</span> routine, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Li</span> playing the Monkey King from famous <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Monkey</span> series, and there is a villainess who is clearly <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">The Bride With White Hair</span> (from part two though, after she became a man hating assassin). In fact they name check that movie just so you get it. The opening credits are a wonderful collage of poster images from classic Kung Fu movies. So over all its fun and diverting with one classic fight in the center. But it is the American elements (I.E. the kid, the flimsy script) that make it less than it could have been. First time seeing this.<br><br><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Machine Girl (2008) ** </span>- Completely over the top Japanese splatter/Yakuza/comedy tries so hard to be hip that it almost hurts. While the movie at times is fun, and there is more than a few arresting images and moments, ultimately this has more in common with a video game than an actual movie. The plot is fairly simple, too simple actually. A college age girl's brother is killed by other similar age thugs, one of whom is part of a Yakuza/Ninja family. For reasons never explained, she has a lot of martial arts training and goes after these thugs and the Yakuza family. In the process she is caught, tortured and has her arm chopped off. She manages to escape and is taken in by the mechanic family of the other boy that was also killed. they create a gatlin gun replacement arm for her and she (as well as the mother of the boy) go and a killing spree of revenge. She also replaces her hand with a chainsaw at one point too just in case you weren't getting the <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Army Of Darkness</span> reference. The movie is extremely over the top, with gallons of blood spilled in great geysers, even beyond the typical Japanese arterial spray found in the <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Baby Cart</span> films. The gore in this movie has more in common with the early films of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Peter Jackson</span> than anything else. But while the gore is going over the top, the film itself tries to play everything completely straight, no matter how super-ludicrous it gets. Which <span style="font-style: italic;">SHOULD</span> work, but most of the time doesn't. It takes a director with a special flare to pull this off. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Takashi Miike</span> has done it over and over such as in <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Ichi The Killer</span> or <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Fudoh</span> both of which this movie seems to want to be like (minus the sexuality, this movie is totally absent of sexuality). Yet director <span style="font-weight: bold;">Noburo Iguchi</span> doesn't seem to rise to the challenge. Instead the film feels forced and flat, only coming to life during the outrageous gore scenes and not even all of those work, hampered by some poor effects and situations that are so extreme you are taken out of the movie. In the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Peter Jackson</span> movies you were dealing with the supernatural so you could go overboard and make it work, here you are still sort of playing in the real world to an extent. So when a guy is having nails driving into his face over and over and doesn't die. You sort of are jsut left wondering why its happening. But what do I know? It is already becoming a huge cult hit and everyone seems to love it. I just felt like it was missing the mark and recycling stuff that other filmmakers have done better. First time seeing this.<br><br>Sunday June 22, 2008<br><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sole Survivor (1983) *** </span>- Solid, atmospheric and fairly scary flick that has recently been released on DVD from <span style="font-weight: bold;">Code Red</span> is a little diamond in the rough waiting to be rediscovered. The plot is fairly similar to the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Final Destination</span> movies, so much so that the director of this movie tried to initiate legal proceedings at one point. A young woman mysteriously survives a plane crash only to start having creepy people following her everywhere. A washed up actress dreamed about her situation before it happened and is trying to warn her about the impending doom that is oncoming. Seems that these figures are something much more deadly. The plot devices here aren't that hard to figure out and owe a pretty big debt to <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Carnival of Souls </span>(no she is not already dead though). But what makes this movie sing is that it takes it time to build up realistic characters and a real sense of dread. Beautiful camera work and a slow, careful direction really crawls under your skin so when the well timed scares happen they are immensely effective. There is a bit of jumble in the midsection where the movie tries to through in some exploitation elements to try and appease the grindhouse crowds (<span style="font-weight: bold;">Brinke Stevens</span> makes an appearance and takes off her shirt for no good reason at all), but the film gets on track pretty quickly for a rousing climax. Though I found the epilogue to be a bit unsatisfying. But otherwise this is highly recommended. First time seeing this. <br>Andy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-66794879852246384362008-06-03T15:19:00.001-07:002008-06-03T15:20:00.644-07:00Time Warner starts Bandwidth Cap on subscribershttp://news. yahoo. com/s/nf/20080603/bs_nf/60098<br /><br />Read that news story. Yep the war has begun. Now the major conglomerate that you are already paying is now telling you how much you can use the internet. If this is allowed the consequences will not be pretty folks.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Speak up and tell TIME WARNER that if they institute this new plan that you will switch to another provider. It is a simple as that. you will not have your internet usage capped and controlled. They need to be told NOW before this is put in place everywhere that their business will suffer if they do it.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Here is the page of Contact info for TIME WARNER. Start hitting them with emails and phone calls NOW.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />http://www. timewarner. com/corp/contacts_support. html<br /><br />And please REPOST THIS AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE<br /><br />Before we all are paying out the ass because we've been capped out of our usage of the net and only the most rich and elite can afford to use it.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Here are Phone Numbers you can call at Time Warner to tell them of your displeasure and intent to go to another company if they are going with this plan.<br /><br /><br /><br />Contact Info:<br />Time Warner Cable Corporate Communications<br />Mark Harrad<br />(203) 328-0613<br /><br />Maureen Huff<br />(203) 328-4807<br /><br />Time Warner Cable Investor Relations<br />Tom Robey<br />(203) 351-2015Andy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-15945445778046961882008-06-03T14:09:00.001-07:002008-06-03T14:09:39.693-07:00My NIN Video GHOSTS ProjectThese are my videos for the NIN GHOSTS project. The first video in a trilogy I call Spirits at the Dark River. This Segment is the the first track on GHOSTS I.<br><br>All the footage comes from an abandoned experimental film I shot well over a year and a half ago. Now it is essentially the same movie, but with a NIN soundtrack...<br><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="never" allowNetworking="internal" height="355" width="425" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/wCYRjdG83eA&hl=en"><br /> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" /><br /> <param name="allowNetworking" value="internal" /><br /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wCYRjdG83eA&hl=en" /><br /></object><br><br>Part 2 and 3 will come soon<br><br>Andy<br><br><br><br>Spirits At The Dark River Pt 2 - Ghosts III - 23<br><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="never" allowNetworking="internal" height="355" width="425" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/TnLD_sOL45Q&hl=en"><br /> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" /><br /> <param name="allowNetworking" value="internal" /><br /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TnLD_sOL45Q&hl=en" /><br /></object><br><br>Spirits at the Dark River Pt 3 The Final Chapter - Ghosts IV - 34<br><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="never" allowNetworking="internal" height="355" width="425" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/MmX-mDWLeaQ&hl=en"><br /> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" /><br /> <param name="allowNetworking" value="internal" /><br /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MmX-mDWLeaQ&hl=en" /><br /></object><br><br><br>Please spread the word <br><br>Thanks<br>AndyAndy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-15897320861680314652008-06-03T14:00:00.001-07:002008-06-03T14:00:50.987-07:00Last Movies Watched in MayThe Strangers (2007) *** - This new release has been sitting on a shelf for almost a year. probably because they weren't sure how audiences were going to react to this grim suspense yarn. Stripped down to almost a bare minimum this is film making at utter basics, but what it does with those basic tools is pretty effective. Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman play a couple who have come back to their home after a wedding reception. Seems that he has proposed to her and she has not accepted the proposal for reasons of her own, even though she clearly cares about him. their home is somewhat isolated a bit aways from the city or any neighbors. at 4:00 the get a knock at the door from a woman asking for for someone who does not live there. This woman seems disoriented but leaves. The man leaves the house to go for a drive because he is still emotionally distraught by the evening's turn of events and while he is gone the house is besieged by three people in masked who are trying to break in (on in a very creepy cloth sack mask clearly gets in but just stands around in the background in one very chilling scene). From here it is a cat and mouse of the highest order as this couple fight for their lives against these faceless, nameless killers. The killers never talk or really communicate except to write an occasional message on the windows. Otherwise their only emotions are violence and menace. We never see their actual faces, only the masks so they almost become supernatural, though they clearly are not. They movie is cleverly shot allowing the killers and their startling masks to arrive from shadows or doorways at opportune moments. Not for "jump" type scares, but for the type of scares that really count. That get under your skin and really creep you out. these scenes create a really strong frisson that stays with you well after the credits roll and were the images that featured so heavily in the trailer and posters. The performances in the film are surprisingly strong, as Speedman has been frankly terrible in the only other film s I've seen him in. But here he is actually terrific as the emotionally truncated boyfriend. he never becomes a stone faced hardass or superhero. he keeps his character very real and on several occasions adds some great little touches of humanity that other actors probably would have not wanted to do. Liv Tyler is a better actress than people give her credit for, though there is a few times were she resorts to just covering her mouth in horror, she still handles her self well. When this all comes to a head she is excellent. In fact the climactic scene, which I will not give away here is a tour de force in the acting dept for the both of them, and is also a real shocker.<br /><br />The movie makes a couple of missteps along the way. There are a couple of scenes that are highly predictable as well as a moment or two when a character does something that you question the logic of their actions. But the biggest draw back is the final minute and a half of the movie. Once again I wont say what it is, but the movie is clearly over, it even fades out, and then it fades back up to a scene we've already seen (in fact the opening of the movie) but with a new twist extra moment. The scene doesn't work, and I'd be shocked to find out that it wasn't demanded by the studio or a test audience. But those things aside The Strangers is a winner. first time seeing this.<br /><br />Shadow: Dead Riot (2006) ** - Pretty goofy, love letter to exploitation movies misses the mark more than it hits thanks to a script that is all over the place. Filled with in jokes and references with characters names after Jean Rollin, Jess Franco and Dyann Thorne you know their heart is in the right place. But the accumulative effect is way less than sum of the parts. Shadow is a hulking serial killer in a Maximum security prison in the 80's. He has sharpened teeth and has carved ancient unexplained symbols into his flesh. When he is put to death some kind of wacky mumbo jumbo happens and a riot ensues. A whole lot of prisoners are shotgunned and buried in the yard and the executioner steals a vile of Shadow's souped blood. Twenty years later it is now a experimental prison for women and a black gal named Solitaire is new on the block. A jaw dropping shower scene later and she is in a knock down drag out fight in the locker room over Erin Brown (who exits the movie way too early in my opinion). Solitaire ends up in Solitary confinement where she has visions of Shadow and his eminent return to life. Meanwhile the quack prison doctor is shooting people up with Shadows evil blood in some experiments to create immortality or some shit. But this just gives Solitaire Story of Ricky like super human strength. Which she will need when Shadow comes back from the dead with his army of zombies (which include Bill Hinzman, the bald fat one from Zombie and I think I saw Joey Smack from DUCK! the Carbine High Massacre in there too). There's also a totally retarded subplot about a pregnant inmates mutant baby that starts jumping around chewing people up. this is one of those movies where they just threw everything against the wall to see if it would stick. Kung fu fights? Check. Zombies? Check. HUGE breasted showers scenes? Check. Large amounts of splatter? Check. Nods to the blaxsploitation era? Check. All the Women in Prison cliche's? Check. Hell even the Media Blaster's DVD gets in on the fun vibe by making it a "grindhouse" experience by adding scratches and dust to the print and fucking up the sound from time to time. So this thing should be a lot more fun than it is. the problem is that so much is going on that it never hangs together. Its just isolated moments of mayhem, some fun, some really retarded. it doesn't help that the cast is all over the place and all trying to go over the top. Tony Todd is trying his best with the Shadow role but at times he feels like he's in a different movie. And his final demise doesn't make a damn bit of sense. My other favorite Seduction Cinema girl Ruby Larocca is in this too in a small part. Pretty goofy but I guess you could do a lot worse. First time seeing this.Andy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-86470837599884579652008-05-29T11:04:00.000-07:002008-05-29T11:05:10.576-07:00My Neon Madness Podcast Episode #2<embed src="http://www.switchpod.com/player.swf" FlashVars="MyFile=http://www.switchpod.com/users/neonmadness/NMpainkillerep2.mp3&MyPodcast=NMpainkillerep2.mp3&MySong=Neon Madness Painkiller Podcast Episode 2" MyName="http://www.switchpod.com/users/neonmadness/NMpainkillerep2.mp3" MyPodcast="NMpainkillerep2.mp3" MySong="Neon Madness Painkiller Podcast Episode 2" quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="290" height="80" name="mp3play" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>Andy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-42151638109010327002008-05-27T13:47:00.000-07:002008-05-27T13:50:23.781-07:00More Movies in MayTuesday May 20th, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Metropolis (1926/86) **** </span>- I watched the 1986 re-scored version of this <span style="font-weight: bold;">Fritz Lang</span> classic that at that time caused quite a stir in the film world. This version was then the longest existing cut of the film, but then hot composer <span style="font-weight: bold;">Georgio Moroder</span> decided to score the film himself (as well as do the subtitled and inter titles too) and use modern musical acts such as <span style="font-weight: bold;">Adam Ant, Loverboy, Billy Squire, Pat Benetar, Bonnie Tyler</span> and others to augment the film. Basically it was considered a bastardization of a classic and important piece of cinema being turned into MTV. The film also was tinted and had some colorized special effects added as well. So basically it had something to piss off every film purist going. But I watched this version often as a kid (though I had seen the original, though much, much shorter version, before too) and loved it. Watching it now as an adult I can see how this was an ill advised thing to do, but some of it still works pretty well, the the things that don't work still don't diminish the power of what is a simply incredible film. For the few who have no experienced this masterwork, the film takes place in the distant future of 2026 where the world is dependent upon machines to run. the rich elite who live high on the hog are never even aware of the scores of working class that live below the city working 10 to 12 hour days running this huge lumbering machines, pushing their bodies past the point of human endurance. But the some of the richest man in the city sees a woman from below and is smitten. He follows her down and sees the unholy conditions of the workers and is horrified. he trades identities with one worker, thus working his shift to experience how the common lives. It almost does him in. He soon realizes that the woman, Maria, is trying to rally the workers to a better life, though through peaceful means. Meanwhile, a mad scientist has built a female robot to replace his lost love. Our hero's Father demands that the Robot be given the likeness of Maria to keep the workers in line. Instead it causes a revolt that almost destroys the city. The movie was a technical marvel in 1926 and most of that still is amazing now. The architecture, set design and general look of the movie has been influential to just about everything you can think of. Our very pop culture is deeply rooted in images from Metropolis. Everything from <span style="font-weight: bold;">Star Wars </span>to Music videos, TV Commercials and modern buildings have been influenced by this film. But for all the technical marvels on display it is an amazingly warm and heartfelt movie about how emotions have to mediate lives to make decisions. How the dreams of those on high cannot exploit those who can make it happen from below. The film is about how heartache can drive you to madness, and how the lust for a beautiful woman can drive men to insanity. And finally it is about people overcoming prejudice and class structure to come together to make change. In the 1986 cut that I watched tonight Moroder's score is surprisingly sparse and grinding, clearly inspired by the architecture of the movie and the British industrial musical scene of the late 70's early 80's. But the pop music used has a few moments of magic as well such as when the Evil Maria is preaching to the workers while <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bonnie Tyler's "Here She Comes"</span> plays or her seductive dances scene to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Freddy Mercury's "Love Kills"</span> that literally sets the men in her audience fighting and killing each other of committing suicide. I'm not sure if the songs were written and recorded for this new cut of the film, but the lyrics of several including those mentioned as well as the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Pat Benetar, Billy Squier</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Loverboy</span> tunes all make me think they were. All in all Metropolis is a classic in any version (there is a DVD from KINO that is the longest version available that I have not seen but need to) and if you call yourself a film fan, you need to see it. Simple as that. This version is an interesting experiment that has some value, but not the end all be all version of the film. Seen this before.<br /><br />Thursday May 22, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Prisoners of the Lost Universe (1983) ** </span>- This fun and fairly decent Sci-Fi actioneer from the director of the cable favorite <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Hawk The Slayer</span> is one of those I have fond memories of from my child hood. I remember it premiering on Showtime and hanging out at my friend Smitty's house and watching it with his crazy ass family. We all got a kick out of it, and I watched it multiple times on cable after that. The movie star's the original<span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"> Battlestar Galactica'</span>s <span style="font-weight: bold;">Richard Hatch</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Kay Lenz</span> as a couple of mis matched people who by pretty contrived circumstances get sucked into another dimension along with a crazy scientist. The other world looks pretty much like some national part outside of a few funky plants and some dorky yet amusing dime store monsters running around (the pygmies with light up eyes are great, and the zombies that you can see their blue jeans under their robes are another highlight). Kay Lenz gets kidnapped by the evil meanie play by a scenery chewing <span style="font-weight: bold;">John Motherfuckin Saxon</span> who intends to keep her as his bride because there are no blonds in this world! Along the Way Richard Hatch picks up some supporting players to help him out including a gentle giant, an annoying dwarf (who was in <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Hawk The Slayer</span> playing the exact same character) and a guy painted blue, but in the movie everyone says he is green, who is super smart and looks like <span style="font-weight: bold;">Nicholas Schrek's</span> long lost alien brother. they have some surprisingly bloody fights with along the way until we find out that the scientist has been working with Saxon making guns and nitro for him to save his own skin, leading to an explosive finale. Basically this is <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Flash Gordon</span> on a shoestring budget. If you can get into that idea there is plenty of fun to be had. Its cheesy as all get out, and moves at a herky jerky pace in places, and the effects are bad at times. But it is fun all the same. Richard Hatch makes for a fine hero, and Saxon is the villain you love to boo and hiss at. There is some off screen S+M too. All in a PG rated flick! this premiered on Showtime, but played theatrically in the rest of the world and was probably huge in someplace like Malaysia were they love goofball low rent shit like this! Seen this before.<br /><br />Saturday May 24th 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Run & Kill aka Woo Sue (1993) ***</span> - This incredibly vicious category III Hong Kong roughie is a near classic among the genre. Only hampered by some black comedy near the end and a sense of <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Terminator</span> like false endings. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Fatty Cheung</span> is a slob who's day keeps getting worse and worse. He loses his job only to come home to find his sexy wife cheating on him. So he goes out on the town and gets shitfaced drunk. While drunk he spends the last of his money paying a gal and some low life hustler to have his wife killed. But he's so drunk he has no idea what he is doing and really doesn't want this to happen. Naturally they do ahead and do it and once its done want the other $800,000 he drunkenly promised. Instead of paying up he tries to get some local street gangs to help him out causing a small scale riot in a porn theater (a great action scene) that ends with him, the girl who organized the whole thing and the guy who set up the kill all being taken hostage by those who want the money higher up. They are done playing games you see. What they don't realize is the dude who set up the initial kill has a psycho killer brother, played by Hong Kong favorite <span style="font-weight: bold;">Simon Yam</span>, who has tracked them down. But once he gets there his brother has pretty much bled to death. Yam promises Fatty that if his brother dies he will take it out on Fatty's remaining Family. Well, his brother dies and the remandier of the film is Yams horrifying revenge on Fatty and his family. And boy does it ever get ugly. This movie goes where most movies fear to tread in the last reel. ***SPOILERS AHEAD*** Once Yam has Fatty's Mom and daughter hostage he goes about killing them. He pushes Mom (who is an old lady) out a window. But the most horrifying moment is when he burns Fatty's six year old daughter alive. even worse her charred, blackened corpse plays a major role in the rest of the movie! I remember showing this movie to my college sweetheart who was a very gentile gal. I have no idea what I was thinking (or how she stood watching it!). This new DVD is a German release and looks amazing. Totally cleaned up and uncut this is miles above that abortion Hong Kong release from a few years back that was just a port of the horrid VHS. This has new subs (still a few mistakes in the English translation though) and a great picture. As a bonus is another Hong Kong Category III flick also Starring <span style="font-weight: bold;">Simon Yam</span> called Intruder which is a pretty cool movie too if memory serves me. This is a non region disc, but I'm pretty sure it is a PAL, so make sure your player can play it. I got mine from Tony at www.xploitedcinema.com the BEST place to get this kind of thing. seen this before.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">BoardingHouse (1982) ***</span> - Totally retarded and fun eighties horror/splatter (supposedly comedy but I'm not convinced it is intentional) that has been rescued by the new (sort of) company <span style="font-weight: bold;">Code Red</span>. There is simply no other movie quite like this one. I've been a fan for a number of years since I bought the VHS at a going out of business sale at <span style="font-weight: bold;">Castle Video</span> in West Dayton (Man do I miss that place!), but I'm glad to see people buying into it's bizarre ass charms. the story barely makes any sense; A house that had some sort of incest driven murders occur sixteen years earlier is bought by a dude who only wears pastel colors and leopard print bikini briefs. He decides he will make it a boarding house only open to hot chicks and himself. Somehow the ploy works and a gaggle of babes immediately move in. so when he isn't working on his telekinesis by making shit fly around the room, he's getting group run downs (did I mention he is played by the writer/director <span style="font-weight: bold;">John Wintergate</span>?) and banging all the babes. He teaches one of the babes to control her mental powers and make shit move with her mind too. she torments the other girls out of jealously with her new powers instead. Meanwhile some unseen person or force is making bad things happen, like spontaneous bleedings, knives hurling out of cu bards or babes fall on ice picks. There's a pretty juicy disembowelment early on and all the girls get nekkid at some point, or at least down to skimpy lingerie. The director's wife, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Kalasu</span> plays the main babe with the new mental powers who also happens to be the lead singer of a band called <span style="font-weight: bold;">33 1/3</span>. Naturally they sing a song. Add to all this more bad fashions, jacuzzi seductions, more of the dude in his briefs, the funniest love scene ever, a cop with a giant afro, eyeballs in the tapioca pudding, the drunk who finds the eyeballs and talks to them, and the climax of mind against demon and you go one of the weirdest, stooooopidest movies ever. Its fucking great! I also failed to mention that it is shot in <span style="font-style: italic;">"horror-vision"</span> which means that they shot it on video tape. which now is no big deal, but in 1982 that was a new and exciting (and cheap) way to make a movie. And they managed to get the thing released into theaters too! This was the second film to entirely be shot on video and released theatrically (The first being Frank Zappa's <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">200 Motels</span>). The new DVD from <span style="font-weight: bold;">Code Red </span>looks as good as something like this can. The color still shifts around and there is an occasional glitch of static, but it is a huge improvement over the old <span style="font-weight: bold;">Paragon</span> tapes. They also did a really nice job on fixing up the soundtrack with some cool separations. I haven't listened to the commentary track, but I looked at the on camera interview with the director and his wife and i have to say this is the most shittily shot extra I have ever seen on a DVD. Its like they just grabbed a crackhead off the street to run the camera. People are cut half out of the frame, the thing zooms in and out, they are not professionally miked, the camera jiggles and shakes. I seriously hope they didn't pay the guy for his work. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Wintergate</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Kalasu</span> look oddly the same 25 years later. Their daughter appears on screen as they plug the script for a <span style="font-weight: bold;">BoardingHouse 2</span>. I'm not sure the world is ready... Seen this before.<br /><br />Monday May 26, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Reality Bleed Through (2008) ***</span> - Extremely ambitious, thoughtful and well done experimental low budget horror film that has more on its mind that a dozen movie in its peer group combined. Trying to encapsulate the plot of this is a difficult thing since there is so much going on, but I'll try. Ethan is pretty much trapped in his house. It seems since the war broke out the outside world has descended into chaos. The sun has grown hot to the point that exposure will melt your skin, a religious cult has taken over that are addicted to hallucinogenic pills that make them see God. Worst of all the Government, to fund the war, called in everyone's debt at once. So if you owed a mortgage, car payment or student loan it was time to pay up. If you couldn't you had two choices. The military or forced experimental research as a lab rat. Ethan took the lab rat route which has left him where he is at now. trapped in his house having hallucinations, with a constant stream of self dialogue in his head. He watches the static on TV because he remembers that he is supposed too, but cannot remember why. Meanwhile in the outside world a soldier and his two buddies come home to find the soldier's wife fucking his best friend. A murder later the wife and the friends are on the run. Also on the run is a woman and her plague stricken brother. None of the houses have running water due to some inexplicable government shutdown (something the soldier was trying to help fix when he came home). They meet one of the religious fanatics along the way and they all end up at Ethan's house to escape the rising sun. Soon soon everything will rise to a crescendo of bloodshed and violence and a lot of talk of the existence and importance of god. Now that is the linear plot. What this movie is REALLY concerned about is the various dialogues about god, the need for god, how people create god, recreate god, deal with their gods in a time of crisis etc. This is a full on theological deconstruction of the various viewpoints on existence and the need for something greater than ourselves. the salvation complex if you will. Heady themes for a shot on video project that largely takes place in one house. But you know what? Write/Director <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jimmy Creamer</span> pulls it off. The movie is a non-linear assault on the senses that never really stops long enough to allow you to notice things like the low budget or at times weak acting. Instead focusing on the strong editing, and terrific digital effects (yes I did just say what I said, terrific digital effects, used wisely for once) that add dimension and surrealism to the project. All of this has an accumulative effect to pull you into the nightmare at hand. By the time you get to the last reel (where it helps if you know a little <span style="font-weight: bold;">Aleister Crowley </span>to keep up) it has become a tripped out nightmare with some truly startling imagery. But all this would be visual masturbation if they movie was not engaging or going someplace interesting. But it does. far too many low budgeters are playing it safe by making zombie comedies, or slasher movies, or those awful jizm and barf filled freakshows. This movie actually goes someplace you have not seen before. A true treat for the eyes and mind. And a breath of fresh air for the no budget arena. Is it flawless? Not a chance. There is some ropey acting along the way (though some very good too), and the make up effects aren't so hot. There are also a couple of camera set ups that are clunky. But all of this is small change when looking at the bigger picture which is that <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Reality Bleed Through </span>is an original and bold piece of Indy filmmaking. A must see! first time seeing this. http://www.myspace.com/draconianfilmsAndy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-30852952643207455982008-05-20T14:32:00.000-07:002008-05-20T14:36:25.690-07:00If you want my body<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/11/images/051118_cadaver.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/11/images/051118_cadaver.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />So I went to see the BODIES Exhibition today. This is the art/medical exhibit where actual human cadavers have been plasticized and flayed open to reveal to various organs, muscles, circulatory systems, nerves, etc. The process was developed by a German Anatomist/artist named <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vZW4ud2lraXBlZGlhLm9yZy93aWtpL0d1bnRoZXJfdm9uX0hhZ2Vucw==" title="Gunther von Hagens">Gunther von Hagens</a> (who receives absolutely no credit at this exhibit I saw today, but more on that in a moment). They dry out the corpses in Acetone to remove all the water from the body then pump silicone into the various parts they want to "plasticize". then they use a type of solvent to eat away the parts they do not want to be seen; So say they only want the circulatory system to be visible; they plasticize that, then dissolve the muscles, organs, flesh and bones away leaving a perfectly human shaped form of veins and arteries in its place which are then put on display. Mostly they specimens in display were corpses with the muscles peeled and stretched so you could see how they worked in tandem with each other or other body parts. Each room focused on a different system of the body such as reproductive or digestive. It was all endlessly fascinating and educational. And while I'm sure some people found it disturbing or gross I found it all quite interesting and even beautiful in some cases. the only time I was grossed out was at a couple of the diseased pieces on display. The opened kidney literally filled with stones about did me in. I thought kidney stones only got to be the size of sand, or tiny pebbles, but this poor guy had dozens in there that were the size of small rocks. In fact they were small rocks as big as dimes or pennies. I felt faint looking at those because I've had kidney stones (very small ones) and those hurt like a bitch, I can't imagine what the pain this poor son of a bitch went through. There were some nasty cancer tumors too. I freaked out a poor teenage girl that was standing within ear shot when we were looking at the halved cross section of the male anatomy too. I was explaining to my friend Rick how male porn stars have their penises enlarged by cutting the actual meat of the penis away from the bone inside and showing him where it happens. This girl was disgusted and very freaked out! she'll probably never be able to watch porn again! Another interesting thing for me was how so much of the it looked accurate to the special effects I've been involved with. I've been working off and on this week assisting on effects for the film <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">TRUE NATURE</span> and the effects there have been using silicone. So these bodies and the effects looks eerily similar. I also have my own secret recipe that I use to make intestines (which I did not have time for to make this week for the movie unfortunately) and they looked exactly like the ones in the human bodies on display. That was a nice thing to see.<br /><br />There has been some controversy around this display. Naturally a few religious groups have been pissed off about it saying that it denigrates the human form to have it on display like this, and that it isn't educational but an art display. Some have gone as far as to call it pornographic. All I know is that I learned a lot looking at all the bodies and didn't feel like it was violating anything. there is also a rumor that the actual bodies were Chinese prisoners of war given without question for the exhibit and there for without consent. this rumor actually dates back to when this process was invented by <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vZW4ud2lraXBlZGlhLm9yZy93aWtpL0d1bnRoZXJfdm9uX0hhZ2Vucw==" title="Gunther von Hagens">Gunther von Hagens</a> and the right wing and fundamentalists were attacking him for doing this. But he <span style="font-style: italic;">ONLY</span> used people that had willed their bodies to be used for this purpose and left written consent. the rumor has persisted it seems. But after reading the Wikipedia page on this topic it seems the controversy runs a bit deeper in that here in the United States a number of off shoot art displays using the Plasticization process, including the <span style="font-weight: bold;">BODIES EXHIBIT</span>, do not have the same sort of cataloging system that say a medical school has to adhere to. A medical school has to account for where they got their specimens, how they got them and weather or not those specimens were willed to be used as donor corpses. Seems that these new Exhibition situations are not being regulated in the same way and are not being forced to follow the same protocol and that is causing a tremendous amount of strife and concern about were the bodies are coming from. As well as causing medical schools concern about a possible shortage of bodies for their schools as well. So knowing that gives one pause about the whole prisoner of war thing. And with that in mind I did notice that most of the bodies were clearly Asian.<br /><br />The other thing that strikes me is that this Exhibit though truly amazing and awe inspiring, lacked the artistic merit of <a href="http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vZW4ud2lraXBlZGlhLm9yZy93aWtpL0d1bnRoZXJfdm9uX0hhZ2Vucw==" title="Gunther von Hagens">Gunther von Hagens</a> work. His <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">BODY WORLDS</span> show, that I've only seen pictures of, and the brief moments of in the film <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">CASINO ROYALE</span> is the same sort of thing, but taken to the next level because he approaches it from not only a scholarly way, but with an artist eye as well. And his pieces are indeend incredible works of art. So where in the exhibit today tried to be artistic (the man who had his skeleton outside his empty body for example was impressive) <span style="font-weight: bold;">von Hagen'</span>s look out of this world. One day I hope to see his work in person.<br /><br />But even with all the controversy, and potential knock off of a brilliant artist, I am very glad I spent the money to go. It is not every day you get to see the inner workings of the human body, literally inches from your face.Andy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-50138219823316280702008-05-20T14:15:00.000-07:002008-05-20T14:29:57.934-07:00More movies to groove upon..Sat May 10, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">[REC] (2007) *** - Jaume Balaguero</span> who directed the fantastic film <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Nameless</span> enters the now very popular "hand held camera" horror sub genre that was made popular with <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Blair Witch Project</span> and more recently <span style="font-weight: bold;">Cloverfield.</span> Except he has made a film that easily trumps both of those turkeys in sheer scariness and effectiveness. The story follows a young TV show host and her cameraman as they do a reality show on a fire-station in Spain. They go with the fireman out on a call to an apartment building where there were noises and yelling from an old ladies apartment. <span style="font-weight: bold;">***SPOILERS AHEAD***</span> As the firemen and a couple of policemen enter the apartment they find an old lady covered in blood who promptly attacks the cop and bites his neck. They manage to get the cop out of there and back down to the lobby where the inhabitants of the building have all been told to gather by the police previously only to find that the doors have been locked from the outside. The authorities on the outside are telling them that they have to stay in there until help arrives. The reporter and her camera man race to an upstairs window to find that the building is now being encased in plastic. They are being quarantined as there is something loose in the building causing people to get sick go nuts... What makes this work is the sheer adrenaline it achieves. Once it takes off there is not a moment to catch your breath. This is a short movie, barely 75 minutes and it never lets up. Sure it is derivative of other films from <span style="font-weight: bold;">28 Days Later</span> to Romero's <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Crazies</span>, but it moves with such force that you really don't have time to feel it. The images on display are actually scary for one too. The last ten minutes of this movie are incredibly frightening with a figure we couldn't figure out if it was CGI or just a really fucked up actor, but either way it was scary as hell. This suffers from the same problem many of this "Hand held" movies do, which is that it is unrealistic for the characters to continue filming once the main horrors get so intense. Survival instinct would dictate to drop the fucking camera because your life depends on it. This movie makes some effort to address that, but at times it still is problematic. It also has the lead actress saying fuck too much which makes you wonder if they let her ad lib a certain amount of dialogue. But small complaints aside this is powerful and scary stuff and highly recommended. As per usual this Spanish language movie is being remade by Hollywood under the title <span style="font-weight: bold;">Quarantine</span> and I guarantee they will not be able to top the climax. First time seeing this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Walking Tall Part 2 (1975) **1/2 </span>- This sequel is kind of like the first film but cleaned up. It takes up right where the first movie left off with <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bufford Pusser</span> recuperating in a secret hospital from his gunshot wounds from the first film. Pusser is played this time by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bo Svenson</span> and it takes some getting used to , to see someone else playing the roll besides <span style="font-weight: bold;">Joe Don Baker.</span> Svenson takes a very different approach to the Character playing him as a gentle giant. A sensitive man carrying a big stick. It is a solid performance, just a very different one from the first film. Once Pusser is out of the hospital he goes right back to work as the sheriff and the old enemies put a bounty on his head. First a race car driver tries to run him off the road after messing with his tires. Then several other guys try to blow up his car, and then they tamper with his brakes and fuck up his steering column which end up getting his Black Deputy killed. Here in lies the problem with this movie; the first film was a fireball of viciousness that kept upping the stakes of the movie went along. Here that violence is replaced with car chases and small time situations in which our hero outsmarts the bad guys. Now according to Svenson in an interview this is more true to Pusser's life, and the opening credit crawl shows a police report and claims this is the true story with only a few names changed. But compared to the first film it leaves a little to be desired. This is well acted and certainly has a lot of natural Tennessee flavor, but it lacks the raw edge that made the first film great. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Angel Tomkins</span> is along for the ride as a con woman who tries to woo Pusser into a situation where he will be killed and shows her amazing melons along the way as well as her world class gams, so thats a plus, and Brooke Mills as bad guy girl <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ruby Ann</span> almost steals the show towards the end too. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Sunday May 11, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">I Know Who Killed Me (2007) **</span> - Average thriller enlivened by some gory set pieces and a surprisingly okay performance by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Linsay Lohan</span> in the lead role. A big to do was made about her taking on this dark "torture porn" movie where she plays a stripper but she never really drops her clothes. But boy does she look the part of a haggered hard living girl of the streets. Even when she is playing the good girl next door in the first part of the movie she still looks like a few miles of rough road. This girl is like a poster for what hard living will do to you. She's what like 21 or 22 and looks like she's my age! The plot is about a high school senior who is abducted by a serial killer and tortured. He saws off her fingers and more. Then she is mysteriously found on the side of the road, except when she comes too she claims she is not the same girl, but a hard bitten stripper. The movie takes some odd turns that requires, of all things, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Art Bell</span> to come on and give a speech to explain things to make it make sense. It almost pulls it off except it really confuses things in the last reel with the reveal of the killer and his motives and how they find him. The director made the low budget film <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Lost</span> which I complained was too over directed and flashy for its own good. This is more of the same in that department. An okay time waster. First time seeing this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Three Trials (2006) **</span> - Extremely well shot and pretty to look at but emotionally empty S+M fantasy that seems to be in love with the imagery, but also the degradation on display as well. The plot follows a young nun who has narcalepsy who witnesses a sexual transgression between the grotesquely obese Father superior and the head nun. For her sin of seeing this she is sent on a mysterious quest of three trials. She is whisked away in a car while blind folded, taken to an abandoned factory (that on screen we are told is another church) stripped down (oddly enough she is wearing a fishnet body stocking with the crotch and boobs cut out under her gown!) put on a leash and forced to crawl through the halls while lightly whipped. She is put into a confessional on her hands and knees and while confessing fucked from one of her captors, but her narcalypsy forces her to pass out... The movie travels through surreal vignette after vignette with small tissue connecting them, all of it being a way to get the very attractive leading lady into some sort of fetishistic situation. Most of them S+M based. There's an obligatory lesbian/mutual masturbation scene and a scene where she is sewn into fox pelts and then fucks a were-monster for all the furries freaks out there. The monster turns into a man and becomes her slave master forcing her into degrading situation after another, each on worse and worse with her wanting him more and more. I began to wonder if this is supposed to be some journey for the main character or just a way to put her through these paces for the director's fantasies to be played out on screen. Either way it all rings really hollow as we never emotionally connect to her or any other character at all. It is all window dressing to the situations on screen. Everything looks fantastic, but it never rises about that to become more. The whose who of the L.A. art scene are all over the place in this movie if you watch for them, mostly in a dinner sequence. But I spotted my friend the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Reverend Tommy Gunn</span> during a piercing at the club scene. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Sunday May 18th 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">I Was A teenage Strangler (1998) ** -</span> Super trashy, ultra disgusting shot on video gunk that is important to smut fans because it is the debut of <span style="font-weight: bold;"> Misty Mundea </span>(billed here as <span style="font-weight: bold;">Lil' Erin DeWright</span>!). But in truth she is barely in the movie until the last ten minutes or so and then she plays the typical last victim to the slasher movie conventions. So celebrity skin fans will be disappointed. The real star is her sister <span style="font-weight: bold;">Chelsea </span>(here billed as <span style="font-weight: bold;">Daisey DeWright</span>) who does things on screen I'm sure you've not seen before, or at least very, very rarely. The loose as a goose's ass plot revolves around a goofball who is having a party even though he knows no one in town. But everyone agrees to come because he is rich and lives in a nice house. He has a brother who is horribly burned on his face and has a rage problem that leads him to choke people. You can pretty much see where this is going. But in the interim there is as much bad taste thrown in as possible with a dude hypnotized into eating the shit out of Daisey's ass (huge mushy turds with peanuts in it) as she commands "Eat my turds, don't waste any of my precious turds!". (In the supplement it is explained the poo is made from brownie mix, so everyone can relax. It is gross though). There is a really nasty rape scene where the rapist has an awful unwiped butt (this time that looks real) and it climaxes with a real blow job after the poor girl has been punched and is spitting out blood. Real nice guys... Naturally this girl ends up pregnant and has to have an abortion, so Daisey (who I was unclear is her mother or lesbian lover?) performs a coat hanger job, were they jam a real hanger into this poor girls real vagina. They used gummi worms for the fetus, which I wont even go into what they do with that... The rest of the movie is just one strangling scene or lesbian grope fest (one that is actually kinda hot) after another. But the amazing thing is that all of this madness actually hangs together and builds to little bit of a plot by the end. This was a HUGE step up for director <span style="font-weight: bold;">William Hellfire</span> and his crew after the abysmal <span style="font-weight: bold;">Caress of the Vampire 2</span> as this is actually fairly well put together. Though I'm thinking that it has been re-edited and scored for this DVD release as it seems very professionally done. This is still Shot On Video schlock but as far as that stuff goes this pushes the envelope a lot further than most and strives to have more going on. There is a lot of reference happening to seventies roughies and grindhouse movies and at times it almost gets that feel going. Not terrible if your in the mood for this kind of ultra bad taste, gross out, super-offensive trash. All else probably should avoid this like the plague. The DVD has trailers for a crapload of other <span style="font-weight: bold;">Factory 2000</span> (Bill Hellfire's early "company") movies many of which look even more extreme. But those are the only extras. First time seeing this.Andy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-85581477500018822422008-05-08T13:29:00.000-07:002008-05-08T13:34:17.382-07:00Erotic Werewolf in LondonTuesday May 6th, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">An Erotic Werewolf in London (2008) **1/2</span> - When rating a seduction cinema flick you basically have to take into consideration if it does what the movie sets out to do, which is deliver lots of hot girls making out with each other with a little horror thrown into the mix for good measure. This one succeeds on that level in spades. Seduction cinema poster girl Misty Mundea actually shot this several years ago and it has been sitting on a shelf awaiting editing, which turned out to be good for the company since she isn't doing the soft core flicks anymore. But she isn't really the star of this one. Euro-beauty Anouska plays the werewolf of the title, a woman who becomes a beast upon orgasm. Right from the beginning we start with Misty getting down with my favorite Seduction Cinema girl Ruby La Rocca (who looks amazingly gorgeous here, not that she doesn't all the time, but damn!). They get busy, then Anouska comes in and gets busy with Misty as Ruby stomps off in a huff. this leaves our lyncanthrope there to bite misty thus turning her into a werewolf too. Then Anouska jets back to London and does and interview with a tabloid reporter explaining what it is like to be a werewolf in modern times. Eventually she allows the reporter to let her watch her seduce and bite a neighboring woman (played a by a very attractive model, who keeps staring off screen for direction). Our reporter goes to America to find the girl that was bitten there and warn her friends and does just that but it all ends with a downbeat and sudden ending. Basically in between all the plot I just described is wall to wall sex, all of which is a bit more graphic than the usual Seduction Cinema fodder. There are crotch shots, loads of masturbation and the sex seems a lot more enthusiastic than some of the other films. And no more than a few minutes go by before another scene comes along. All the repertory players are her including Darian Cain and Julian Welles too, but for my money the best scenes belong to Ruby. But thats just me talking. On the down side, the werewolf make up is cheesy as all get out, the editors got way too happy with the filter effects (too many scenes with weird visual effects that didn't need them) and the climax shouldn't have been the end of the movie, but the beginning of what could have been the actual climax (as in what happens to Anouska?). But overall its better than most stuff from the S.C. label and definitely one of William Hellfire's stronger efforts. Worth a look for fans. There is a really cool interview with Ruby as an extra were she looks back on her career in these films. She comes off super cool and it made me have an even bigger crush on her. She's awesome! First time seeing this.Andy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-26876417841628124612008-05-05T15:08:00.000-07:002008-05-05T15:10:03.524-07:00What the Space program has wrought...<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5ldG1zYtzBk&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5ldG1zYtzBk&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>Andy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-24608076305745270252008-05-05T10:27:00.000-07:002008-05-05T10:29:00.913-07:00Movies so far in MayFriday May 2nd 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">In Search of the Great Beast:666 (2006) ** </span>- This British documentary really should have been better. I mean how can you take a rich subject like the life of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Aleister Crowley </span>and make it dull? But these filmmakers managed to do just that. it is not that the material or information imparted isn't interesting; it is. But it is the <span style="font-style: italic;">way</span> the material is explored that sinks this ship. the entire movie is done through either narration or re-enactment with actors that simply sit in character and tell the stories as if remembering them. Interspersed is CGI photographs of Crowley from various stages of his life as well as places he may have lived. There is the occasional dramatic recreation of certain things like his initiation into the Golden Dawn or his fateful final mountain climbing expedition that left several people dead. But even those are clumsily handled at best. A great documentary (or even better docu-drama) about Crowley needs to be made. There is a wealth of interesting stories to be separated from fact and fiction. But this movie's snail's pace and poor presentation keeps it from being that great film. In fact it challenges you to stick with it. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Saturday May 3rd, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Iron Man (2008) ***</span> - Very successful start off to the 2008 summer blockbuster season is a rare super-hero movie that works. This movie walks the fine line between keeping the edge on the material while still trying to deliver what the audience expects which is huge effects, some laughs, and lots of action. The movie succeeds for the most part. This of course is mostly the origin story dealing with Tony Stark a manufacturer mogul who happens to be an electronics genius. His company mostly sells newly designed weapons to the military. While in Afghanistan showing off a new breed of missiles he is captured by a group of terrorists (that the movie is very careful to give a fictional name to as to not invoke the specter of real life combat). They want him to build proto-types of these new missile's for them. Instead he builds an armored, robotic endo-skeleton and uses it to escape. But while he is there he comes to realize that the very arms he is selling are falling into the hands of the terrorists the US are supposed to be fighting. So once back in the US he goes about re-creating the suit and fighting the world's evil his way. Much of the success of the film lies in the casting of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Robert Downy Jr.</span> who is terrific in the lead role. He brings a charm and soul to the character that is endearing, even when he is being a prick (something I'm sure many would have said about Downey in real life for many years when he was an addict). But his change of heart that is at the film's center both figuratively and literally are sold completely with his performance. I've heard some grumbling that there is not enough action in the mid section of the film, and it truthfully could have used maybe one more scene of Iron Man going after the Terrorists to really make it sing, instead we get multiple scenes of Stark testing the suit which are reminiscent of the movie <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">The Rocketeer </span>on a few occasions. The movie hits a snag int he final third as it goes into well worn territory with the reveal of the villain (its who you think it is all along) and the big showdown which is effects heavy but still feels like you've seen it before. Though I give the filmmakers credit for working in the female lead into the climax in such a major way and <span style="font-style: italic;">NOT</span> as just someone to save. The picture is very much a PG-13 with nor blood or gore but still some surprisingly strong war violence for a picture that is clearly being marketed to kids. Oh yeah, the use of music in the movie was pretty solid too. First time seeing this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Inside (2008) *** </span>- I expected this French horror movie to be something else entirely than what it turned out the be. I was expecting maybe a gorier more intelligent take on something like the old British shocker <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">I Don't want To be Born</span>, or something like that. Instead I got a very intense, extremely gory and violent maternally themed slasher film. That's not a bad thing mind you, just not what I expected. A young pregnant woman survives a car crash in the opening of the film, but her husband does not. the first image we see is a baby in utero that suddenly smashes its face against something hard, with blood smattering out into the amniotic fluid as it is stunned into silence. This is who we experience the car crash, from the baby's point of view. We will return into the womb many times throughout the movie to get the baby's point of view again. As we get into the film we realize that Sarah, the pregnant woman is going to have induced labor on Christmas day. She is at home Christmas even when a woman begins stalking her. the woman finds her way in while she is sleeping and starts to cut open her womb and so begins the fight for survival. Sarah manges to get into the bathroom where she will stay for a large portion of the movie as people wander into the home and meet this mysterious woman and the bodies start to pile up. This movie is brutal as hell. Blood flows in great gouts, spraying the walls, splattering people's faces, dropping out of wound by the gallons. The violence is painful, ugly and messy with no apology. If the site of a pregnant woman being abused is shocking to the you then this movie is not the one to see as Sarah takes a lot of abuse. In fact more than a person probably could take in real life. Especially a nine months pregnant woman. The movie starts to strain credibility in that department. it also has the old horror movie cliche.. of a person should leave, and could leave, but instead goes into a room and waits, which only serves to further the action but tries logic a bit too much. Then there's the business of a character springing back to life to beat the snot out of everyone for no good reason at all only except to supply some shock and violence. This scene effectively derails the movie long enough to make you almost lose track of the following scenes which is effectively the climax. The movie does an effective job of keeping suspenseful, but it is primarily about the violence and action which it delivers abundantly. There must be something going on with France as with this film and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Frontier(s)</span> both of which are insanely brutal and touch on French politics. This is a good horror film, but not a great one. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Sunday May 4th 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Jesus camp (2007) ***</span> - Frightening documentary about a Christian fundamentalist camp where kids are sent to learn how to be good little soldiers for Christ. Hey there's nothing wrong with having convictions in your faith and passing it down to your children. But when you start teaching then seperationist beliefs, that they are better than others, because they have been saved, and basically twisting religion and politics into a heady stew. Then brainwashing the children with it to basically be foot soldiers for the new millennium then there is indeed something wrong. This movie doesn't even pretend to be unbiased as it uses an Christian, yet liberal, radio host as a Greek chorus who keeps checking in to remind us of the realities of what the Christian right are really doing to the country. More upsetting is the actual footage of the kids at the camp practically having nervous breakdowns as they are preached at about being hypocrites and liars, about how Harry Potter should be killed, and the various <span style="font-weight: bold;">Carrot Top</span>-esque styles of props used to remind them to always <span style="font-style: italic;">fear</span> God because he <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">LOVES YOU</span>. The most horrifying moment comes when the teachers/preachers drag out a human sized cut out of <span style="font-weight: bold;">George Bush Jr.</span> and have the kids gather round him and pray for the president to keep adding the right Republicans to congress so things like abortion can be abolished. Most of these kids are not old enough to really even understand what an abortion even is. One little boy comes up to admit his sins and admits he has trouble always believing in God and what the bible says. Throughout the rest of the film you can see him practically tearing himself apart emotionally. He is probably seven years old at best. You can just see personality disorders, drugs and probably suicide in his future. Its horrible and sad and really, really scary. I haven't even mentioned the hag like woman presiding over the camp who clearly is doing this for the glory it gives her. Anyone who ever spent time in a church (and I did for years until my teens) will remember that <span style="font-style: italic;">one </span>lady who talked louder, prayed louder and <span style="font-weight: bold;">SANG LOUDER </span>than anyone else to prove she was God's chosen one. Well, put that bitch in charge of brow beating children for Christ and leading the soldier brigade for the second coming and you get this scary ass woman. This is a well made film, but I doubt I could sit through it again. First time seeing this.Andy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5063578483643549622.post-50518031955140625332008-04-24T14:50:00.000-07:002008-04-28T11:50:31.028-07:00Movies I'm watching in April 2008Monday April 06, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Delinquent School Girls (1974) *1/2 </span>- <span style="font-style: italic;">REALLY</span> trashy low down exploitation number is so sleazy that you will be amazed at what you are watching at times. Unfortunately it is also so stupid and unremittingly misogynistic that its hard to have a good time with too. Three convicts escape from the local asylum and end up heading towards the local school for troubled girls where by chance all of them have double D breasts (okay I liked that part). The criminals are the mastermind who also does impersonations(!) the black thug (who constantly has his shirt off to show off his physique) who only wants to get laid to an alarming degree, and a screaming homosexual played by the gay guy from the AIRPLANE movies. For the first 45 minutes the movie is just one scene after another of the girls exercising without their bras (their idea of showing women's lib. Seriously!) or lounging in their underwear or in a very creepy scene being dosed a roofie by a old coot (one girl says "my god he's really old, he must be at least fifty!") and then groped. Any reason to get their hooters on display. Then at the midpoint there is an home invasion scene where the Black thug rapes Buck Flower's sexually frustrated (big breasted) wife that goes on forever and the tone of the movie changes from leering to kinda ugly. Its bad enough that it has that horrid 70's rape theme where the women get raped and then end up loving it going on (literally here, in one scene two girls are getting raped by the trio, the camera cuts away, then comes back and they are having a party with wine and food and laughing!) but the music during the rapes is comedy music! The actresses are acting like its serious, fighting and crying and playing like its atrocious while this calliope funhouse music is playing! yeuch! Later the Roofie teacher has the same girl hypnotized and tries to shove a gardener snake up the girls snatch... There is some so bad its good moments too like when the black guy is getting beat up by one of the students when they find him raiding the kitchen and he is still eating his sandwhich on the ground. Or the worlds lamest karate instructor who knows absolutely NO karate at all and can't even subdue the fumbling gay guy. But overall this one leaves kind feeling sleazy and not in too good a way. Seen part of this before but not the whole thing.<br /><br />Tuesday April 07. 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Man In White aka The Unforgiven Man With The Soul Of A Tiger (2003) *** </span>- Somehow this <span style="font-weight: bold;">Takashi Miike</span> gangster movie missed the reference books and isn't mentioned in the biography <span style="font-weight: bold;">AGITATOR </span>by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tom Mes </span>which makes me think it is later than 2003. Anyway it is a very straight forward movie, especially for Miike. When a Yakuza godfather is killed in an elevator on his way to a wedding his bodyguard survives and goes on the warpath to find who did it. this young man was taken in by the godfather off of the streets when he was a child because his psychotic brother had killed his real Father and his mother had hung herself. so he starts killing his way through the ranks of the Tokyo gangster scene until he gets the information he needs which leads to a full on yakuza war brewing. The first thing you notice is that this is shot digitally and hand held which can be distracting until you get used to it and in some of the night shots it is hard to tell what is going on at times. But it does lend an immediacy to the proceedings too. But at the end of the day this is just a solid yakuza picture, with good action, some blood and a lot of posturing. there really is very little in the movie that would tip you off that this is a Miike movie. There is only one strange little scene and the abrupt (and unsatisfying) ending that smell of his directorial style. Otherwise this is solid but not spectacular stuff. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Wednesday April 09, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Human Beasts (1980)** </span>- One of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Paul Naschy's</span> directorial efforts is also one of his weaker entries. This film also finds Naschy in a rather pessimistic mood as no one in the film (except one character) is worth redeeming. Naschy plays a thief and criminal who betrays his partner and woman who loves him on a diamond heist. The Japanese syndicate her and her brother work for hunt him down but Nachy kills all of them except her in the process. But he ends up left for dead in the mountains and is found by a kindly old doctor and his two beautiful daughters who have a pig farm. they nurse him back to health while his old flame is still hunting for him, now wanting revenge for the murder of her brother. The the movie suddenly shifts to a weird giallo with people being bumped off at the villa and one guy in a very vicious scene being fed to the pigs. The climax is not a huge surprise. the biggest problem with this movie is that once it gets to the cottage the movie slows down to a snails pace and just drags along trying to be a Gothic horror/giallo with a sexy side. But it is just so slow that you find yourself drifting away from it. Naschy's character spends like a half hour or more of the film in a bed nearly unconscious which doesn't help matters much. there's some good shocks along the way, it starts off good and ends with a bang but that mid section is a real problem. But the cynicism of the movie is appealing. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Saturday, April 12, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Frontier(s) (2007) *** -</span> Ultra-violent, mean spirited and ugly as hell are only a few ways to describe <span style="font-weight: bold;">Xavier Gen's</span> survival horror film that is getting some buzz in the horror community because it was booted out of last years <span style="font-weight: bold;">8 Films To Die For After Dark Horror Fest</span> when it got the NC-17 rating. For once maybe that rating was the correct one as this isn't some goofy shit like Hostel, of twisty/turny splatter fantasy like Saw. This is some depraved hardcore shit. The way I like it! We meet a small group of twenty-something's in France have used the cover of a political revolution and rioting to commit a robbery (that we never actually see) with the lead girl being pregnant and her brother dead from a gunshot wound. They remaining four flee into the country side to a small set of hotels that happens to be run by a inbred, cannibalistic family of Neo Nazi's descendant from the Third Reich. Their plan is to eat these kids and us the female as a fresh blood breeder since their own bloodline has become so polluted from the inbreeding. When they find out she is already pregnant they are delighted because the can have their first healthy child in the family in many generations. From here on out it is just balls to the wall brutality and splatter dolled out with a viciousness that seems to only come from France these days. the films of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Alexandre Aja</span> have a similar feel for violence as this one did, but thankfully this doesn't have the twist to fuck it all up like <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">HIGH TENSION</span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"> </span>did. It is not perfect. There is a whole side plot about the cast off children of the family that is not fully developed or done much with and a couple of the main characters are rather annoying. But these are small complaints in a bigger picture which is that this is one of the best most serious horror films in years. Too bad its rating, which it deserves due to its rough content, kept it out of theaters. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Sunday April 13, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">I Don't Know Jack (2002) *** </span>- Very warm yet sad documentary about the life of Jack Nance most remembered as the tall haired frekazoid lead in <span style="font-weight: bold;">David Lynch's <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Eraserhead.</span></span><span style="text-decoration: underline;"> </span>This movie covers basically from his early years as a stage actor and struggling actor in Hollywood (He came down to the other choice for both <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">In Cold Blood</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">The Graduate</span> both movies that would have redefined his career). We cover his time doing Eraserhead and the other Lynch films. But mostly we cover his life as a raging alcoholic and how it crumbled the relationships around him. We also cover how of all people<span style="font-weight: bold;"> Dennis Hopper</span> helped him get sober. then there is the sad business of his second wife's suicide and his tragic and probably avoidable own death from a beating outside a donut shop. this is a very simple documentary that just lets people tell their stories about jack and it is all the better for it. First time seeing this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fear And Loathing In Gonzvision (1978) **1/2</span> - British Television portrait of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Hunter S Thompson </span>and his Artist friend as the traverse the distance between his home and Las Vegas and then to Las Angeles to discuss a film that ultimately never got made. throughout Hunter complains that people only want to see his fictional alter ego <span style="font-weight: bold;">Raoul Duke</span> the drugged up, out of control monstrosity that causes so many problems. Yet he tends to become that character whether he likes it or not. Stoned all the time, having to smoke a joint to come down enough to do an interview, snorting coke enough to come back up. Shooting guns all the time, out running cops on the highway and being found in his hotel room paranoid beyond belief with his face painted white babbling ont he phone to the producers of the very show he is in. The show finally ends with him designing a giant two thumbed metal fist that will shoot his ashes into the sky after he dies and then be a several story monument to his life. I have no idea if they built that when he died but in this show he claimed it would be in his will. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Thursday April 17th, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Loose Change The Final cut (2007) ***1/2 </span>- This extended recut of the searing and controversial documentary about the government involvement in the 9/11 atrocities is a much more evenhanded document than the previous editions. gone now is the accusatory tone, replaced with much more on camera testimony from eye witnesses, mostly culled from news reports. Things are much more convincing when he have bloody survivors that have just been dragged out of Building 7 saying they just experienced an explosion in the lobby. The same with the twin towers. It is interesting were as in the second edition much was laid out as fact, such as a plane couldn't have hit the pentagon due to factors X,Y & Z, where as now, the film is careful to state its claims differently, laying out its evidence then simply asking you the viewer to make your own conclusion, but stressing that you should ask more questions. It seems that a LOT has been learned from the guerrilla style of filmmaking of the earlier cuts to the much more polished and professional style here. It works well and I think this may sway more people. But then again there are those who simply refuse to even take this idea into consideration because they see it as conspiracy theory idiocy and no amount of research, fact checking, or questions will change their mind. I'd rather hear out the ideas and look into it myself and see what validity is there. And there are a lot of questions on this issue. Questions I was asking well before encountering Loose Change. First time seeing this cut.<br /><br />Friday April 18, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">88 Minutes (2008) *1/2</span> - VERY standard thriller where <span style="font-weight: bold;">Al Pacino</span> plays a college proffesor (who gets all the young chicks) who also helps put away serial killers. Seems his big high profile case is up for parole and there is a copycat killer causing people to believe he may be totally innocent. Then our hero starts getting calls telling him he has 88 Minutes to live, which it just so happens is the exact same among of time it took another killer to dismember Pacino's baby sister. This is all standard stuff, re hearings abound, a car bomb explodes, his buddy the cop (played by the always welcome <span style="font-weight: bold;">William Forsyth</span>) almost doesn't believe him and tries to take him in, hell there is even a very mild lesbian scene and some hip hop music. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Debora Kara Unger</span> is TOTALLY wasted in her role as the college dean, and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Lelee Sobieski</span> ends up having the worst time with her ultimately silly role. She's horribly miscast and doesn't show her cleavage which is her beast reasons for being hired.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> Alicia Whitt</span> is on bored as the February December love interest and she is cute as ever but not given much to do either. But I'm always glad to see her anyway. this movie is rated R for reasons that are very unclear, as it could play on broadcast TV without cuts and probably will someday soon. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Saturday April 19th 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Gang Wars (1976) * </span>- Okay I have a great love for shit movies. anyone who reads these blogs (you masochists you!) know that I can find a saving grace in just about any piece-o-shit (and can find a political slant where there is none too!). But this motherfucker tested even my well worn cinematic meddle. This is one of those movies that you just can't help but wonder what anyone was thinking. the plot, and surprisingly there is one, is about two martial artists, one big afroed black dude played by the hilariously monikered <span style="font-weight: bold;">War Hawk Tanzania</span>, and his bug eyed, coke-fiend Latino buddy go to Hong Kong for some training. While there the Latino dude finds an amulet left thousands of years ago by some monks (yes this is starting to sound a little like that Brady Bunch episode with Vincent Price!). Taking the amulet lets loose an evil spirit that possesses people turning them into the most hilarious zombies in movie history. they literally paint white eyes on the actors <span style="font-style: italic;">EYELIDS</span> and have them wander around with their eyes closed! Then its back to New York where the Latino dude is burned in a coke deal by a Chinese gang and the gang war of the title is kicked off. there are several martial arts fights that make the ones in Rudy Ray Moore movies look like Bruce Lee and the zombie attacks all take place in the subway tunnells under New York. Without Lights. At all. In complete darkness. As in you can't see shit. Interesting enough one of the guys attacked by the zombies is I Drink Your Blood director David Durston and Brother Theodor shows up as a street preacher. I think I've done a disservice in describing this movie because I've not made it sound as thuddingly dull as it is. This is sloooooowwww moving with grade school acting and nothing much else to recommend it. this isn't even so bad its good except for the one goofy looking zombie. it would be a challenge for MST3K to take this one on. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Sunday April 20, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Street Kings (2008) **1/2 </span>- This is basically an episode of the Shield with Keanu Reeves in the lead role. Reeves plays a hard bitten, alcoholic cop who has a penchant for killing his suspects. His old partner is apparently talking to the FBI about his behavior. One day when Reeves has followed his old partner to beat the shit out of him for ratting on him two thugs corner them in a store and execute the partner gangland style leaving Reeves holding the bag and so begins the investigation into why it happened, who was dirty etc. Forrest Whittiker is the superior officer and friend. This scores points for being a brutal and uncompromising street level crime movie (the opening shoot out is a stunner) but it looses a lot of ground for what turns into a very obvious storyline that has been done a dozen times before. this ends up going exactly where you think it is going and becomes way too predictable for its own good. too bad because the first half is really good. The second half is entertaining, but unfortunately you've seen it before. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Monday April 21st, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Lost (2005) ** </span>- Adaptation of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jack Ketchum's</span> book (which I have not read) has a few good things going for it but ultimately hangstrings itself with too self aware direction and cinematography that is consistently distracting (at least to me). Ray Pye is a sociopath loosely based on Charles Starkweather, who in the first scene of the movie kills two girls camping (played by genre favorites Erin Brown, who has yet another full frontal nude scene, and Ruby LaRocca) just for kicks. The scene is brutal and uncomprimising and sets a galvonizing tone for the rest of the picture to live up to. At times it does, when the movie is at its quietest allowing the actors to explore the characters it works. But too often the movie falls into cinematic conventions of changing filmstocks, bizarro editing and ironic music choices to get across the action which actually successfully derails a lot of what was working fine without it. the actors are all committed enough that the movie didn't need the theatrics to pull it along. The climax is suitably brutal and ugly but unfortunately our lead psycho goes too far over the top flailing his arms around and squawking quips to make damn sure you know he is a psychopath. Once again the less is more approach the acting had been taking earlier worked better. So all in all it is a missed opportunity with some good stuff in it but a lot that hampers it along the way. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Tuesday April 22, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fall From Grace (2008) *** </span>- Solid and frightening documentary about everyone's favorite hellfire and brimstone hate spewing preacher, Reverend Fred Phelps, the bigoted fucktard who has been in the news lately because he has taken to picketing the funerals of dead soldiers returning from Iraq. But as this fascinating document shows this dirtball and his psychotic inbred brood have been pushing their hate speech on the people of Topeka Kansas for the last decade and a half or more. This documentary has unlimited access to Fred Phelps the man and his huge family all of whom gladly open up to the cameras spewing how much they as well as GOD hate "fags", how AIDS is a gift from the lord to cleanse the word of "fags" and degenerates etc. The most disturbing footage comes from impromptu interviews with the children of Phelps family, scatly four years old and screaming about how horrible "fags" are and how God should kill them. Thankfully the director gets the other side of the debate too, most interestingly a biblical scholar who delves into the controversial Leviticus passage that most homophobic Christians (including Phelps and his brood) latch onto and how it relates to the times it was written. He addresses how that verse is preached heavily be some churches while most of the other Leviticus verses are simply ignored because they would make life inconvenient for modern people. He also explains that the homosexuality in biblical times was actually talking about pederasty and not the committed gender relationships of current times. Its a lot of mental meat to chew on. There are also other lawyers, politicians, and preachers all of whom disagree with Phelps that speak their minds. Most enlightening is two of Phelps children that got away from the flock that explain, by phone, how he was an abusive Father with rage problems who used God as a way to torment, terrify and subjugate his family and followers. Then there is the whole issue of the picketing the Funerals of the soldiers which is so convoluted, twisted and makes so little sense except in the twisted, deranged mind s of the Phelps that it is astonishing. In the words of his own son who got away "Fred Phelps is running a cult. And all it would take is for him to say that God wants for them to kill someone and it will happen." This is true terror folks. First time seeing this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Rush To War (2007) *** </span>- Engrossing, intricate documentary that traces how America's own decisions regarding foreign policy, have made us the Bad guys of the world, thus setting the stage for 9/11. And how that led the way to open the flood gates for the current administration to put the current war machine into motion. Much of the information here is available in other more non-partisan documentaries. BUt what makes this one good is that it is less partisan (though it still paints the current administration in a bad light, but it is probably impossible to tell the truth and paint them any other way). Most damning is the 1997 GOP vision statement that outlines how to get America to become the dominant world power, that states boldly that the plan is wholly unethical and un-American and thus would require a catastrophe along the lines of another Pear Harbor styled incident. The documentary stops short of saying the US caused 9/11 but the do say they exploited it for all it was worth in the following 18 months to get into Iraq and start dominating that country and its oil supply. The film also covers America's authorized use of torture and the outing of an FBI informant by Scooter Libby because her husband pointed out a bold face lie about the WMD speech our President made to get us into Iraq. This documentary was made before Scooter Libby was pardoned by the President himself for the blatant criminal offense. This documentary basically spreads out the war crimes against the Geneva Convention, the UN and the world that our current Administration is guilty of and lets you the viewer decide what to make of them. Its is truly heartbreaking that America has done nothing. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Wed April 23, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2004) *** </span>- Very solid drama/horror film loosely based on a true story of a priest on trial for criminal negligence because the young woman he was caring for, and providing an exorcism for, died under his watch. The film is primarily a courtroom drama, which pissed off a lot of viewers when this hit theaters because it was sold as a straight horror film upon release. when two thirds of the movie take place in a courtroom or jail cell that almost can be considered false advertising! But the other third is flashbacks to the actual possession and those scenes are winners. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jennifer Carpenter</span> who can now be seen on the Showtime original series <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Dexter </span>as the lead character's spunky cop sister, plays the title roll of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Emily Rose</span> and does a tremendous job. She is not only a charmer, but she turns in one of the most physically demanding performances in recent memory selling the possession almost entirely through her own body language and physicality. She's truly amazing in this. The cinematography and effects work in the flashback scenes are also top notch strongly evoking <span style="font-weight: bold;">Dario Argento </span>back when he was at his peak. The scene when she runs screaming from her college classroom into the rain is so evocative of <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Suspiria</span> that it <span style="font-style: italic;">HAS</span> to be a conscious homage. But unlike other films, the scene is NOT a rip off, it just evokes the same nightmare quality that the Argento film did. That is high praise indeed. The movie falters in the wrap up as everything wraps up a little too tidily for comfort, especially considering the fate of our main character the Lawyer played by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Laura Linney</span>. Her law firms reaction is simply not believable at all. But it is this final act that keeps the movie from reaching greatness, otherwise this is a fine film, well worth visiting. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Thursday April 24, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">American Drug War, The Great White Hope (2006?) ***1/2 </span>- Excellent documentary exploring how America's war on drugs is a complete sham designed to perpetuate a cycle that keeps the poor people down, locked up and doing drugs, while the government is able to allocate billions of dollars to fight this so called war and fill their pockets with tons of money. The film covers in detail how crack was developed, put onto the streets, how the cocaine that it was made from came directly from US government so the could fund the Iran/Contra conflict. It covers how prisons have become privatized and big business so if more people are imprisoned the make more money and that funnels back to the business and the government. It covers how pot is considered a class one drug on par with heroin, cocaine and crystal meth and how people are locked up with nearly life long sentences for simple pot possession, It explores the issue of Medical Marijuana and how the government continues to prosecute sick people as criminals for possession because they are simply just another body in a money making system. they go to Amsterdam to see how their forward thinking drug laws have affected their culture and see that they have <span style="font-style: italic;">LESS</span> drug abuse and addiction than the United States. This is an eye opening and stunning documentary that goes from the streets talking to the gangs who sell the dope all the way to the current administrations Drug Czar who is hopelessly clueless about how real people interact with drugs on a daily basis. This even covers prescription drug addiction. I have no idea if this movie is available legit. I got it through "other" means... so find it by any way you can. It is a necessary document for our times. first time seeing it<br /><br />Friday April 25th 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dark Chamber (2007) **1/2 </span>- Pretty well made and very well meaning low budget suspense/ horror flick takes the high road by having no gore or nudity or any other exploitable elements (which makes you wonder why <span style="font-weight: bold;">Pop Cinema</span> released it at all?), and largely succeeds. it does this through an interesting story and earnest characterizations and a very wise decision to play the entire thing straight faced. The story is about a college aged dude who moves back to a small down to life with his police detective father against the wishes of his seemingly crazy mom. The town he moves to has a group of Satanists called The Black Circle running around killing people and his Father is working the case. Our hero briefly befriends a creepy red haired chick who hangs around with one of the tenants his Father leases the other apartments of their house too. But soon she shows up dead on their lawn and our hero is attacked by members of the cult. He is not killed though and comes to believe that someone that lives in the sublet apartments is the killer so he and his college buds wire the apartments with mini spy cameras and start recording their every move trying to suss out who might be guilty. The movie then takes a sharp turn into a voyeuristic landscape as we watch the lives of these various people including Felissa Rose from <span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">Sleepaway Camp</span> as a "massage therapist" (read prostitute in this film's world) and her mentally handicapped firebug sister, a man with cancer and a taste for whores, and a young married couple with abuse problems. Naturally all of them are involved in some way, but not the obvious. The movie is surprisingly well mounted for a shot on video production with excellent editing and shooting, and the script is literate and well done for the most part. But in the final third it starts to fall apart as a major character literally leaves a place during a fade out and is replaced with a different character in the same location just so he can be killed. Then the final twist is pretty obvious and protracted, taking away from the rest of the film. And truthfully the movie could have used a little more "bite" to it as the pay off, is a little weak at the end. But for the most part it is still a well done and worth recommending flick. First time seeing this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Wicked Little Things (2006) **1/2</span> - Good but not great little zombie yarn has a nice concept at the center. A group of children that were labor for the coal mines in the early 20th century are killed when the mine is blasted. Cue the current day when a single mom and her two daughters are moving into the broken down old house they have inherited on the property that is now haunted by the zombies/ghosts of those same kids who are hunting down the bloodlines of the families that killed them in the first place. There is some great atmosphere in the movie with wonderful sweeping shots of fog enshrouded woods with gangs of the zombie kids wandering about. There is also a couple of really sweet gore scenes that deliver the goods too. But the movies just drags in spots and the teenage daughter is such an annoying little bitch for most of the movie that you want to slap the snot out of her nose. Plus the woman they cast as the Mom only looks to be about eight years older than the teen daughter! some of it hits upon old cliche's too with the crazy old man who knows what is going on and the greedy landowner who gets his comeuppance (though i always enjoy that cliche'!) but over all the good outweighs the bad and the zombie kids are creepy enough. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Saturday April 26 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cloverfield (2008) *1/2</span> - Impressive effects and some beautiful images of destruction can't save the fact that this is some of the biggest crap in a while. the first twenty minutes of this movie are seriously painful to watch. As you spend "quality time" with the main characters of the film, all upwardly mobile apparently well off Manhattanites, having a going away party for their friend, you quickly begin to root for the as yet to be seen monster to come and fucking eat all of them. Especially the annoying knob running the camera for this "found" footage epic. A bigger whiny asshole I cannot recall in a movie except for maybe one of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Kevin Smith's</span> flicks (which I hate for this very reason). All the main characters are either just flat and uninteresting, idiots or just assholes. So when the monster finally attacks its like finally getting to be excused from a long plane ride with people you don't want to be with. The movie picks up from there with some impressive action scenes, that are more impressive considering our post 9/11 attitudes. Images of New York being torn apart with buildings collapsed and clouds of dust filling the streets are terrifying because they are still fresh in the psyche of America and this movie taps that brilliantly. too bad you can't care about the characters caught in the madness. Plus the whole conceit of the movie being captured on camera by one of the characters starts somewhat believable but after a certain point credibility gets tossed out the window as any normal human being would not still be shooting. Not to mention things like batteries running low or running out of tapes. then there is the scene of the monster eating a major character near the end but leaving the others that lapses past logic too. I will give it credit for the downbeat (for anyone who actually liked the characters anyway) ending. It says something about todays climate to end a movie that way. there's rumors of a sequel dealing with the situation from the Military fighting the monster's point of view. I think that would be a more interesting movie. First time seeing this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Diary Of The Dead (2008) ***</span> - First off let me say <span style="font-style: italic;">FUCK THE WEINSTEINS</span> for making me have to see this on a tv screen instead of in the theaters where I took a day off of work to see it originally. I understand they were gunshy after the tanking of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Grindhouse</span>, but this was guaranteed at least a little bit of money if properly released. But to do a limited release and try and do a half-assed regional platform release in this day and age is preposterous. So this never played Ohio at all I don't think. At least nowhere near me. I would have gladly gave it my money. Unlike <span style="font-weight: bold;">Cloverfield</span> that I watched earlier today, this movie, also a "found footage" epic supposedly shot by characters within the film, succeeds with its premise. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Diary of the Dead</span> does two things right that <span style="font-weight: bold;">Cloverfield</span> gets deadly wrong. Diary has a group of main characters that aren't screaming asswipes, and two, it goes out of its way to keep the running camera aspect realistic and explained throughout the movie. Things like editing, music, running low on batteries, are all addressed and dealt with. So little nagging questions are snagged and released before they derail the movie. The movie takes the living dead premise back to square one as the dead are just now coming back to life. What we are watching is a documentary shot by a group of film students who banded together and went on the run trying to get home from school when the crisis hit. Along the way they have been shooting everything on camera and editing it quick and uploading it to the internet as well as downloading the occasional footage from elsewhere in the world to add into the project. the film says up front that what we are seeing is the finished piece with some music added for effect and edited. So that takes care of those problems right there. Director <span style="font-weight: bold;">George Romero</span> this time tackles the issues of media saturation and manipulation as his message. it gets heavy handed at times with characters often just outright voicing the messages instead of letting us glean them for ourselves, but at least the themes are there. this movie seems to have Romero fans split down the middle, people seem to either love it or hate it calling it it a piece of shit or a return to form. I think it is neither, but a solid zombie film that looks at it from a different perspective. It is never really as scary as it should be and has a few instances of <span style="font-style: italic;">REALLY </span>out of place humor, especially considering how serious it is for the most part. And the ending is someplace Romero has already been with the Remake of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Night Of The Living Dead 1990</span>. But even with all that aside, its is a rock solid movie. Not as good as the other Dead films. But still good all the same. I just wish I could have seen it in a theater like I was supposed to have. First time seeing this.<br /><br />Sunday April 27, 2008<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Vantage Point (2008) ***</span>- Really nice throwback to the political thrillers of the late seventies with a modern twist in that it takes a look at the action from the point of view of at least a half dozen or more various characters. Literally rewinding to show how each of them experienced the main incident. this allows us to get more information from each person's viewpoint until the final reel when it all comes together as a whole. The plot details the president of the United States visiting a peace conference in Spain as he goes to speak at a huge public forum he is shot by a sniper. As his aids and the secret service scatter to find the shooter several bombs go off in the square killing dozens of people. The film shows you how this went down from the news crews perspective, the main Presidential guard<span style="font-weight: bold;"> (Dennis Quaid)</span>, A bystander in the crowd with a video camera (<span style="font-weight: bold;">Forest Whitaker</span>), The President Himself (<span style="font-weight: bold;">William Hurt</span>) and finally the terrorists themselves. The plot is deceptively simple but has many interesting twists and turns but the constantly turning viewpoints keep you interested as it unfolds like a jigsaw puzzle. what marks this as a successful thriller though is that if you pulled the movie apart and re-edited it as a linear experience would it hold up a s good thriller? I think there is enough going on that it would. the only flaw is a clichéd and overly sentimental climax that stretches believability past the breaking point. Otherwise this is a fine thriller for grown ups. First time seeing this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The proposition (2005) ***</span> - Writer <span style="font-weight: bold;">Nick Cave </span>and Australian director <span style="font-weight: bold;">John Hillcoat</span> team up once again after their searing, violent and excellent prison drama<span style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;"> Ghosts of the Civil Dead</span> for this equally searing western. At times, violent, yet at other times poetic and beautiful this takes both these men's unique outlook into a well worn genre and makes it seem fresh. the film stars <span style="font-weight: bold;">Guy Pearce</span> as Charley Burns an outlaw in a family of outlaws. the local sheriff (<span style="font-weight: bold;">Ray Winstone</span>) has caught him and his younger brother Mikey and cuts a deal. he is going to hang Mikey on Christmas day unless Charley goes and finds their oldest brother Sean and kills him. then they will both be set free. Seems that Sean raped and killed a pregnant woman that was friends with the sheriff's wife (<span style="font-weight: bold;">Emily Watson</span>) (and maybe all three of the brother's were involved). And so the stage is set for brotherly betrayal amongst killers and outlaws in the Australian outback. Fantastic performances ground a very good script with incredible cinematography and lashings or brutal violence, with a very bizarre score by Nick Cave himself. this is not quite like any other western you can name. The movie is a bit slow in spots and Pearce's character survives a bit of violence that is a bit unrealistic to live through at one point, but overall this is a tremendous piece of work. First time seeing this.<br /><br />More to come...Andy Chttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17799134653910688356noreply@blogger.com0