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Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
Great Low Intensity Disturbing Film
Some of the reviewers of this film who aren't shocked by it, and think it is dull, have been blatantly bludgeoned across the frontal lobes by today's slasher and shocker flicks.
Its low intensity comes across as boring to those who who want to see blood shoot out 3 feet and chainsaws take off heads and limbs and people chained to the floor in torture houses. Well. scr*w them.
This is a really, really good film by a good director and the breakout of Michael Rooker. Also shot in Chicago, my favorite town. Fire King Gas For Less, Sun Motel, most of the old landmarks are gone. But GMV 407 the license plate of Henry's car, lives on in the lyrics of Jag Panzer's 1994 song "GMV 407" from the Dissident Alliance LP:
Tried to pass you by couldn't do a lie From the inner mind a dead passer by Take ya from the back out like a light Can you taste the kill she's screaming in the night
Gonna get you real licking up your thigh B*tch is gonna do or she'll tell a lie Bathe in your blood naked in your sin Don't you know she dies cause she's f*cking all the men
Bast*rd wants to cry raped as a child Bast*rd wants to die psycho driven wild Bast*rd sends a chill cry to your heaven Bast*rd wants to kill GMV 407
Had to steal your life soul is gone forever Doesn't really matter so f*cking clever Feeling really good slip it to the dead B*tch is gonna die she's covered in red
Bast*rd wants to die raped as a child Bast*rd wants to cry psycho driven wild Bast*rd sends a chill cry to your heaven Bast*rd wants to kill GMV 407
G M V 407 G M V 407 G M V 407 G M V 407
Bast*rd wants to die raped as a child Bast*rd wants to cry psycho driven wild Bast*rd sends a chill cry to your heaven Bast*rd wants to kill quarter to 11
Bast*rd wants to die raped as a child Bast*rd wants to cry psycho driven wild Bast*rd sends a chill cry to your heaven Bast*rd wants to kill it's all GMV 407
Apocalypto (2006)
What a piece of garbage
Mel Gibson has shown his incompetence again. The Mayan Empire (actually a bunch of city states much like Greece), during the Classic Period (300-900 A.D.) was considered by many to be the peak of all of the Mexican cultures. Astronomy, language, religion, culture achieved their highest potential during this time, and had declined by 900 AD and disappeared entirely by 1200 AD. The achievements of the post-Classic period, 900-1521 A.D., were a far cry from the CLassic Period; the cities were in decay and the people scattered; nothing of the city life portrayed in the movie existed in 1519, when Cortes first entered the Yucatan peninsula. By the time of Cortes' first landing on San Juan de Ulúa island near the future city of Veracruz in 1518 (no other Spaniards had landed in Mexico other than a couple of shipwrecks in 1511 or so), the Mayan city states (no where near Veracruz, where Cortes landed) had long since disappeared. And the area around Veracruz was under Aztec control, not Mayan.
The temple of Kulkulcan in Chichen Itza; which was in it's height from 800-1200 A.D. somewhat resembles the temple in the movie, but the sacrifices portrayed in the movie were more characteristic of the Aztec Empire (Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City). Though Mexican influence (earlier Teotehuican and Mixtec, and later Aztec) was felt in Chichen Itza in the Classic and Post Classic Period, it is unlikely that sacrifice on the Aztec scale ever occurred on the Yucatan peninsula.
THis is misleading, and at it's worst, racist. If you are looking for an action movie, look no further. But if you are looking for an accurate examination of the Mayan civilization, keep looking.
To the Christian zealots who say "This is a film about the horrors of the Mesoamerican world and how the arrival of Europeans and the Christian faith that motivated them ultimately put an end to that paganistic hell on earth.", I say that the Spaniards and the Catholic church are responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths by starvation, disease and slavery. The Church enslaved millions of American natives to dig out gold and silver to send back to the Church. They destroyed literature and religion and science in the name of Catholicism. They decimated the New Worlds and destroyed civilizations greater than anything Europe has ever produced, in the name of the Christian faith. You people underline what it is that most people understand about zealots: they lie in the name of their cause. Any sacrifice by others is worth the good they reap in the name of their faith. They are hypocrites.
Fantastic Four (2005)
Not too bad at all
After hearing all the fanboys knock this one, I was prepared to really be disappointed with this movie. After all, there have been a couple of other attempts to get a FF movie out. And most of the comic movies (excuse me...graphic novels) have been pretty average.
However, I thought this movie held up pretty well. The graphics were pretty good, the acting was adequate, and the script was great. I was not disappointed, go see this movie.
Note to all the 'true to the source' idiots out there...to be true to the source, you'd have to realize that these are just comics and the source is pen and ink, not real people. I thought Jessica Alba was great as Sue Storm! If she is not Aryan enough for some, too bad, you boys can go back to your closet, iron your sheets, and wait for the next rally. Why does her background have to match your expectations? I mean for hundreds of years, Jesus Christ was portrayed as white? And who complained? Who knew? Anyway this movie is definitely worth the matinée price I paid, and even for those of you who like to pay full price, it would be worth full admission.
Willie Dynamite (1974)
Should have won Best Costume Oscar!
After watching 100 or more blaxploitation movies in the last 10 years or so, my wife and I fell in love with this movie. You love blaxploitation for the cheesy acting, the characters, the cars, the ghetto heroes. But for this one, it's the costumes. Sure, it's got pimps, hos, bad cops, drugs and prostitution, even a ex-hooker with a heart of gold. With costume changes nearly every scene; leather, fur, satin and those hats!, this one should have taken an Oscar!
If we can find the DVD, this one goes in the permanent collection.
Mary and David
Kiss of Death (1947)
Excellent noir thriller
I am surprised this movie is not in the top 250 noir masterpieces. However, it doesn't have 200 votes, which it needs to qualify.
Richard Widmark is one of my favorite and one of least favorite actors. Or his characters are, at least. They are either strong and sympathetic or they are despicable. Either way, they are usually compelling. Tommy Udo plays one of the nastiest criminals on the screen ever. Tommy is a giggling, evil sociopathic killer. He is mesmerising in this movie.
Victor Mature puts in a fine performance, but he is definitely upstaged here.
See this movie, vote for this movie. It is one of the best film noirs ever.
Wong Fei-Hung (1991)
Jet Li historical kung-fu vehicle
The nice thing about this movie is the attempt to place it in a historical place in time: southern China, 1800's. Not only does it show the western foreign influence (as a British ancestry, US citizen, I must be one of them foreign devils) prevalent in China at the time, it shows how it influenced Chinese people to act against their best interests. Chinese, acting as agents to foreign interests, convincing other Chinese to pay for their own passage to America and other parts west, to work as laborers, for example. A totally one-sided Chinese governor biased toward the foreigners, for another.
This movie is a very good kung-fu movie and a very good Jet Li movie. It, however, fails to develop the characters to anything other than shallow, one-dimensional caricatures. Wong Fei-hung is always wise and always wins his fights, the Chinese governor is always unfair, the Americans and British are always malicious (and usually stupid), Porky is always fat, So always stutters, etc.
Also, there are some incongruities introduced by bad editing (and the translations don't always help). Too many jumps into scenes where I couldn't tell why or what was happening. Maybe it was my copy, but I have the most recent version on DVD.
The movie was both more and less than I expected. So much better than many of the kung-fu/Chinese historical movies that I have seen over the last 20 years, so much less than many historical vehicles I have sween over the same period.
However critical I seem, I still rated it a 9/10.