Saturday August 2nd, 2008
The Midnight Meat Train (2008) ** - Ryuhei Kitamura's adaptation of Clive Barker's excellent short story has been getting the shaft by it's studio Lions Gate. 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 Bradley Cooper who has most recently been seen as a supporting player on Nip/Tuck. 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 Leslie Bibb, also another Nip/Tuck alumnus, is pretty much the same thing. A pretty face with limited acting ability who fails to register on screen. Vinnie Jones 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. Kitamura keeps his cinematic fireworks in check unlike his Japanese films such as the abominable Versus (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.
A.P.E. (1976) *1/2- Paul Leder director of such grindhouse classics as I Dismember Mama and My Friends Need Killing made this King Kong 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 "oh shit." 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 Growing Pains 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 Paul Leder 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.
Thursday August 7th, 2008
Wanted (2008) ** - 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 Timur Bemambetov who made the similarly over the top Nightwatch and Daywatch. 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 The Matrix 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 Fight Club 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 Babylon A.D. movie which I saw today and has a PG-13). Overall Wanted is ridiculous and actually pretty stupid at times. But I'll be damned if it isn't entertaining too. First time seeing this.
Friday Aug 8, 2008
Hate.com (2002)** -This America Undercover 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 William Pierce's book The Turner Diaries and how it has basiclaly helped indoctrinate many people into his hate group The National Alliance. The explore the theory that Timothy McVeigh 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.
Psycho Kickboxer: The Dark Angel (1997) ** - Perfectly servicable no budget actioneer and starring vehicle for one Curtis Bush 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 REAL grainy towards the end though) with a second film called Carnival of Blood. I had heard that Psycho Kickboxer 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 Roger Corman pumped out through the 90's. Curtis Bush 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 Steven Seagal 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.
Saturday August 9th 2008
Can I Do It Till I Need Glasses? (1977)* - 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 If You Don't Stop You Will Go Blind! 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 ONE 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 Robin Williams appears for all of two minutes but it was enough for this movie to get a rerelease when he hit it big on Mork & Mindy. 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.
Death Weekend (1975) **1/2 - Fairly tense Desperate Hours style riff with that nasty Last House on the Left type vibe going for it too. Don Stroud plays a leader of a group of ruffians who almost run Bredna Vaccaro and Chuck Shamata 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 William Fruet 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...
Showing posts with label DVD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DVD. Show all posts
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Last Movies for July 2008
Wed. July 16th, 2008
The Manipulator aka B.J. Lang Presents (1971)*** - 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. Mickey Rooney 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.
Friday July 18th 2008
Le Frissions Des Vampires aka The Shivers of the Vampire (1971) *** - If you are a newbie to the filmography of French erotic/horror filmmaker Jean Rollin 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. Nicole Nacelle 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 Sandra Julien 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 Acanthus 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 Harry Novak's Box Office International. that cut is actually longer because it has a ton more sex that was NOT 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.
Saturday July 19th 2008
The Dark Knight (2008)*** - 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 Heath Ledger died and people are jumping on the bandwagon posthumously. But he IS 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 Aaron Eckhart (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 Spiderman 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 Batman Begins. 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.
Lost Boys: The Tribe (2008) * - I'm not one of those people who thinks the original Lost Boys 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 "Cry Little Sister" 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 "Cry little sister" 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 Edger Frog played by Corey Feldman 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 ALMOST kiss then think better of it. Seriously. Angus Sutherland is cast as the main vampire because of the relation to Keifer Sutherland. 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 Ed Wood 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. Tom Savini 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 Jan Michael Vincent 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 Jean Rollin vampires any day of the week, please!
Monday July 21, 2008
The Incredible Hulk (2008)** - 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 Ang Lee's 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 Edward Norton 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.
Thursday July 24th, 2008
Tougher Than Leather (1988) *1/2 - Starring vehicle for the rap acts on Def Jam records (hell the entire staff of Def Jam records as it seems, as Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin has major roles too as well as some other flunky acts)that features RUN DMC playing themselves. The guys in the snappy hats get hooked up with some mob run record producer wannabe (played by Rick Rubin 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 The Terminator, Apocalypse Now and Scarface 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 Leone 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 RUN DMC. 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 Beastie Boys 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.
Friday July 25, 2008
The Deliberate Stranger (1986) *** - Well made two night TV movie of the week about the life of Ted Bundy that surprisingly gets most of it right. Mark Harmon 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.
Saturday July 26th, 2008
Trapped Ashes (2007) *1/2 - Sean S. Cunningham produced and directed one segment of this still sitting on the shelf anthology horror film that is pretty pedestrian. Also on board is Joe Dante, Ken Russell and Monte Hellman. A group of very annoying Hollywood types go and a tour and end up in trapped in a variation of the Psycho 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 Ken Russell's 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 Stanley Kubrick 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 Monte Hellman'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. Ken Russell's 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 Creepshow 3, but then tapeworms in my stool are better than that one. First time seeing this.
Simon Says (2006) *1/2 - Yet another horror film that has been sitting on the shelf for a while. This one stars Crispin Glover 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 Harry and the Hendersons if you can believe it! First time seeing this.
Sunday July 27th
Cocaine Cowboys (2006) *** - 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 Iran Contra Affairs (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 Billy Corben's style is a big aggravating as he piles on the Adobe After Effects, hyper stylized editing and Jan Hammer 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.
Tuesday July 29th, 2008
Requiem For The Vampire (1971) *** - Once again took a look at this Jean Rollin vampire classic on the Encore DVD 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.
Thursday July 31st, 2008
Dr. Gore (1973) *** - Bad movie buffs take note, this is a real winner! On DVD from Something Weird video this used to be available years ago from Paragon Video with an introduction from Herschel Gordon Lewis. It seems that Lewis was friends with the director/writer/star Pat Patterson 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, but better. More perfect in every way! So him and his hunchback grunting assistant (horrifyingly named...Greg!) 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. Greg 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, AFTER 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 Bill Hicks. 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.
The Manipulator aka B.J. Lang Presents (1971)*** - 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. Mickey Rooney 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.
Friday July 18th 2008
Le Frissions Des Vampires aka The Shivers of the Vampire (1971) *** - If you are a newbie to the filmography of French erotic/horror filmmaker Jean Rollin 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. Nicole Nacelle 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 Sandra Julien 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 Acanthus 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 Harry Novak's Box Office International. that cut is actually longer because it has a ton more sex that was NOT 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.
Saturday July 19th 2008
The Dark Knight (2008)*** - 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 Heath Ledger died and people are jumping on the bandwagon posthumously. But he IS 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 Aaron Eckhart (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 Spiderman 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 Batman Begins. 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.
Lost Boys: The Tribe (2008) * - I'm not one of those people who thinks the original Lost Boys 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 "Cry Little Sister" 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 "Cry little sister" 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 Edger Frog played by Corey Feldman 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 ALMOST kiss then think better of it. Seriously. Angus Sutherland is cast as the main vampire because of the relation to Keifer Sutherland. 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 Ed Wood 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. Tom Savini 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 Jan Michael Vincent 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 Jean Rollin vampires any day of the week, please!
Monday July 21, 2008
The Incredible Hulk (2008)** - 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 Ang Lee's 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 Edward Norton 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.
Thursday July 24th, 2008
Tougher Than Leather (1988) *1/2 - Starring vehicle for the rap acts on Def Jam records (hell the entire staff of Def Jam records as it seems, as Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin has major roles too as well as some other flunky acts)that features RUN DMC playing themselves. The guys in the snappy hats get hooked up with some mob run record producer wannabe (played by Rick Rubin 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 The Terminator, Apocalypse Now and Scarface 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 Leone 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 RUN DMC. 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 Beastie Boys 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.
Friday July 25, 2008
The Deliberate Stranger (1986) *** - Well made two night TV movie of the week about the life of Ted Bundy that surprisingly gets most of it right. Mark Harmon 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.
Saturday July 26th, 2008
Trapped Ashes (2007) *1/2 - Sean S. Cunningham produced and directed one segment of this still sitting on the shelf anthology horror film that is pretty pedestrian. Also on board is Joe Dante, Ken Russell and Monte Hellman. A group of very annoying Hollywood types go and a tour and end up in trapped in a variation of the Psycho 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 Ken Russell's 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 Stanley Kubrick 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 Monte Hellman'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. Ken Russell's 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 Creepshow 3, but then tapeworms in my stool are better than that one. First time seeing this.
Simon Says (2006) *1/2 - Yet another horror film that has been sitting on the shelf for a while. This one stars Crispin Glover 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 Harry and the Hendersons if you can believe it! First time seeing this.
Sunday July 27th
Cocaine Cowboys (2006) *** - 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 Iran Contra Affairs (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 Billy Corben's style is a big aggravating as he piles on the Adobe After Effects, hyper stylized editing and Jan Hammer 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.
Tuesday July 29th, 2008
Requiem For The Vampire (1971) *** - Once again took a look at this Jean Rollin vampire classic on the Encore DVD 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.
Thursday July 31st, 2008
Dr. Gore (1973) *** - Bad movie buffs take note, this is a real winner! On DVD from Something Weird video this used to be available years ago from Paragon Video with an introduction from Herschel Gordon Lewis. It seems that Lewis was friends with the director/writer/star Pat Patterson 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, but better. More perfect in every way! So him and his hunchback grunting assistant (horrifyingly named...Greg!) 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. Greg 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, AFTER 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 Bill Hicks. 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.
Monday, June 30, 2008
More Movies for June
Monday June 23, 2008
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.
Tuesday June 24, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday June 26th, 2008
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.
Friday June 27 2008
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.
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.
Saturday June 27th 2008
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.
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.
Tuesday June 24, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday June 26th, 2008
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.
Friday June 27 2008
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.
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.
Saturday June 27th 2008
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.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Erotic Werewolf in London
Tuesday May 6th, 2008
An Erotic Werewolf in London (2008) **1/2 - 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.
An Erotic Werewolf in London (2008) **1/2 - 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.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Movies I'm watching in April 2008
Monday April 06, 2008
Delinquent School Girls (1974) *1/2 - REALLY 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.
Tuesday April 07. 2008
Man In White aka The Unforgiven Man With The Soul Of A Tiger (2003) *** - Somehow this Takashi Miike gangster movie missed the reference books and isn't mentioned in the biography AGITATOR by Tom Mes 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.
Wednesday April 09, 2008
Human Beasts (1980)** - One of Paul Naschy's 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.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Frontier(s) (2007) *** - Ultra-violent, mean spirited and ugly as hell are only a few ways to describe Xavier Gen's survival horror film that is getting some buzz in the horror community because it was booted out of last years 8 Films To Die For After Dark Horror Fest 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 Alexandre Aja have a similar feel for violence as this one did, but thankfully this doesn't have the twist to fuck it all up like HIGH TENSION 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.
Sunday April 13, 2008
I Don't Know Jack (2002) *** - Very warm yet sad documentary about the life of Jack Nance most remembered as the tall haired frekazoid lead in David Lynch's Eraserhead. 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 In Cold Blood and The Graduate 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 Dennis Hopper 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.
Fear And Loathing In Gonzvision (1978) **1/2 - British Television portrait of Hunter S Thompson 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 Raoul Duke 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.
Thursday April 17th, 2008
Loose Change The Final cut (2007) ***1/2 - 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.
Friday April 18, 2008
88 Minutes (2008) *1/2 - VERY standard thriller where Al Pacino 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 William Forsyth) 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. Debora Kara Unger is TOTALLY wasted in her role as the college dean, and Lelee Sobieski 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. Alicia Whitt 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.
Saturday April 19th 2008
Gang Wars (1976) * - 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 War Hawk Tanzania, 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 EYELIDS 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.
Sunday April 20, 2008
Street Kings (2008) **1/2 - 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.
Monday April 21st, 2008
The Lost (2005) ** - Adaptation of Jack Ketchum's 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.
Tuesday April 22, 2008
Fall From Grace (2008) *** - 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.
Rush To War (2007) *** - 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.
Wed April 23, 2008
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2004) *** - 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. Jennifer Carpenter who can now be seen on the Showtime original series Dexter as the lead character's spunky cop sister, plays the title roll of Emily Rose 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 Dario Argento back when he was at his peak. The scene when she runs screaming from her college classroom into the rain is so evocative of Suspiria that it HAS 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 Laura Linney. 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.
Thursday April 24, 2008
American Drug War, The Great White Hope (2006?) ***1/2 - 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 LESS 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
Friday April 25th 2008
Dark Chamber (2007) **1/2 - 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 Pop Cinema 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 Sleepaway Camp 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.
Wicked Little Things (2006) **1/2 - 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.
Saturday April 26 2008
Cloverfield (2008) *1/2 - 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 Kevin Smith's 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.
Diary Of The Dead (2008) *** - First off let me say FUCK THE WEINSTEINS 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 Grindhouse, 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 Cloverfield that I watched earlier today, this movie, also a "found footage" epic supposedly shot by characters within the film, succeeds with its premise. Diary of the Dead does two things right that Cloverfield 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 George Romero 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 REALLY 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 Night Of The Living Dead 1990. 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.
Sunday April 27, 2008
Vantage Point (2008) ***- 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 (Dennis Quaid), A bystander in the crowd with a video camera (Forest Whitaker), The President Himself (William Hurt) 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.
The proposition (2005) *** - Writer Nick Cave and Australian director John Hillcoat team up once again after their searing, violent and excellent prison drama Ghosts of the Civil Dead 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 Guy Pearce as Charley Burns an outlaw in a family of outlaws. the local sheriff (Ray Winstone) 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 (Emily Watson) (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.
More to come...
Delinquent School Girls (1974) *1/2 - REALLY 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.
Tuesday April 07. 2008
Man In White aka The Unforgiven Man With The Soul Of A Tiger (2003) *** - Somehow this Takashi Miike gangster movie missed the reference books and isn't mentioned in the biography AGITATOR by Tom Mes 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.
Wednesday April 09, 2008
Human Beasts (1980)** - One of Paul Naschy's 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.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Frontier(s) (2007) *** - Ultra-violent, mean spirited and ugly as hell are only a few ways to describe Xavier Gen's survival horror film that is getting some buzz in the horror community because it was booted out of last years 8 Films To Die For After Dark Horror Fest 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 Alexandre Aja have a similar feel for violence as this one did, but thankfully this doesn't have the twist to fuck it all up like HIGH TENSION 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.
Sunday April 13, 2008
I Don't Know Jack (2002) *** - Very warm yet sad documentary about the life of Jack Nance most remembered as the tall haired frekazoid lead in David Lynch's Eraserhead. 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 In Cold Blood and The Graduate 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 Dennis Hopper 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.
Fear And Loathing In Gonzvision (1978) **1/2 - British Television portrait of Hunter S Thompson 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 Raoul Duke 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.
Thursday April 17th, 2008
Loose Change The Final cut (2007) ***1/2 - 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.
Friday April 18, 2008
88 Minutes (2008) *1/2 - VERY standard thriller where Al Pacino 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 William Forsyth) 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. Debora Kara Unger is TOTALLY wasted in her role as the college dean, and Lelee Sobieski 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. Alicia Whitt 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.
Saturday April 19th 2008
Gang Wars (1976) * - 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 War Hawk Tanzania, 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 EYELIDS 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.
Sunday April 20, 2008
Street Kings (2008) **1/2 - 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.
Monday April 21st, 2008
The Lost (2005) ** - Adaptation of Jack Ketchum's 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.
Tuesday April 22, 2008
Fall From Grace (2008) *** - 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.
Rush To War (2007) *** - 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.
Wed April 23, 2008
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2004) *** - 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. Jennifer Carpenter who can now be seen on the Showtime original series Dexter as the lead character's spunky cop sister, plays the title roll of Emily Rose 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 Dario Argento back when he was at his peak. The scene when she runs screaming from her college classroom into the rain is so evocative of Suspiria that it HAS 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 Laura Linney. 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.
Thursday April 24, 2008
American Drug War, The Great White Hope (2006?) ***1/2 - 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 LESS 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
Friday April 25th 2008
Dark Chamber (2007) **1/2 - 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 Pop Cinema 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 Sleepaway Camp 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.
Wicked Little Things (2006) **1/2 - 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.
Saturday April 26 2008
Cloverfield (2008) *1/2 - 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 Kevin Smith's 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.
Diary Of The Dead (2008) *** - First off let me say FUCK THE WEINSTEINS 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 Grindhouse, 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 Cloverfield that I watched earlier today, this movie, also a "found footage" epic supposedly shot by characters within the film, succeeds with its premise. Diary of the Dead does two things right that Cloverfield 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 George Romero 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 REALLY 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 Night Of The Living Dead 1990. 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.
Sunday April 27, 2008
Vantage Point (2008) ***- 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 (Dennis Quaid), A bystander in the crowd with a video camera (Forest Whitaker), The President Himself (William Hurt) 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.
The proposition (2005) *** - Writer Nick Cave and Australian director John Hillcoat team up once again after their searing, violent and excellent prison drama Ghosts of the Civil Dead 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 Guy Pearce as Charley Burns an outlaw in a family of outlaws. the local sheriff (Ray Winstone) 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 (Emily Watson) (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.
More to come...
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