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Reviews
Redacted (2007)
Redact itself
OK, it's easy for me to say I was against the war in Iraq and I do not support the occupation. I am, however, a full supporter of the troops and I thank them for their everyday service to our country.
Alright, on to the review. De Palma has, in my opinion, never been and never will be taken seriously as a "film" director. And if you don't believe, watch "Scarface". Yes, yes, we all quote the film's trademark lines, but could you call it a "serious" film? No! If anything, it's rather silly and over-the-top. However, it's easy to say that De Palma likes to tug at heart strings and make the viewer think for himself. However, I didn't after watching this movie. If anything, I was insulted and felt like somebody had slapped an hour and a half in my face. If anything, he likes to manipulate the viewer into thinking.
Before watching the film, I suggest the viewer finds out and rents (or just watches) De Palma's Vietnam flick, "Casualties of War". It's very much the same story as this, except it is set during Vietnam and the actors (Sean Penn, Michael J. Fox, etc.) are much better and find themselves in depth with their characters. The ones in this film, are not. De Palma is not original. He took the same story as "Casualties" and set it in Iraq, brushed up the characters and added some 21st century innovations to the mix (i.e. camcorders, YouTube videos, security cameras) Other than that, the characters are the same and the story is identical.
We are supposedly given a first hand account of a true story that happened in Iraq in mid 2006, where Army soldiers raped and murdered a 14-year old Iraqi girl and her family. We are shown from different perspectives of multiple documentaries, news footage and hand-held shot camcorders the events leading up and the aftermath. However, it just makes the film disoriented. I assume very little script was written, because the actors "improvise" their dialogue into making it look like "yeah, this is how actual soldiers communicate and correspond." I felt like I was watching a high school stage production of a improv showcase. The actors, if anything, are camera shy and they aren't believable. De Palma obviously doesn't know, and has never known, how REAL soldiers act and talk. One of the soldiers, named "Rush", is practically over 300 lbs, yet is a Specialist. Either the Army is cutting back on their weight requirements and health, or this was a poor casting choice. Another soldier was a bad stereotype of a racist southerner who proudly displays the confederate flag and calls Iraqis "Sand N*****s", yet he sounds like he's from California. This isn't Iraq...it's a Vietnam film, disguised as Iraq. Again, see "Casualties" I just couldn't follow the story well enough, because none of the characters are believable, nor likable, and that includes the supposed "good" soldier who's guilt eats him inside. Maybe it was the acting, maybe it was just because the script (or lack there of) was unmotivated. It's purely Anti-War, but it comes out looking more Anti-American and it makes the last anti-American film about Iraq, "Valley of the Wolves: Iraq" look like "Black Hawk Down". "Wolves", despite being somewhat hysterical with portraying Americans in a bad light, was somewhat entertaining in the sense that it was fictional and it never claims to be based on a true event, much like this one does. The final monologue given by the "good" soldier is laughable at best and so scripted it hurt to watch. Worse about it, the film ends in a disturbing montage that shows "actual" photos of victims from the war (although, one photo is clearly taken from one of the scenes in the movie) with the last shot supposedly a painting or something that shows the raped girl's burnt body.
I was angry after watching this and the funny thing about is that I have fairly liberal views, along with some conservative. Had I seen this at the film festival where I premiered, I would have booed it and thrown my box of milk duds at the screen (yes, they are delicious). Shame on you, De Palma, for trying to make think we don't everything about the war. What about you?
Surf Nazis Must Die (1987)
Surf Nazis must....find a plot
OK, OK, first of all, I love Troma. Lloyd Kaufman is a brilliant man, creating a company that is entirely based around camp horror with humor, most of them with talented actors (or untalented ones, just for old time's sake) and distributed them out to filmfans. You can tell a film is a Troma film if it includes the following: 1) B-movie actors (although, they do have SOME well known celebs in their films 2) Over-the-top gore and violence, not disturbing, more nasty and disgusting, but for humorous purposes.
3) Kinky sex scenes, filled with soft-corn porn, Lesbian interaction, outrageous sex-jokes 4) Virtually no plot. But a hilarious title for the film.
When I heard about "Surf Nazis Must Die", I probably jumped three feet in the air for joy. I mean, what else do you want? Surfing, Nazis, a angry Black woman, TROMA?!? It should be the PERFECT Troma film! Unfortunately, this particular film makes you wonder why Kaufman didn't kick director Peter George in the teeth after seeing the final cut of the film. In the end, the only thing the film succeeds in being a good Troma movie is the title...thats it.
Well, where do we start? There's virtually no plot. I know, I know, I wasn't expecting "On the Waterfront", but come on...even "The Toxic Revenger" had somewhat of a plot, and if not, over the top violence...this had nothing. The story set somewhere in the future (at least the 80's/early 90's version of the future, where tie-dye shirts are still in style apparently), where an Earthquake has destroyed most of the California coast line (ummm...ooook). Out of the chaos, surfing gangs begin a war to stake claim over the beach. One of the most ruthless gangs is....OK, is that obvious? The surf Nazis. The Nazis are really just a bunch of scraggly lookin' white supremacists who wear tethered clothing with poorly drawn swastikas written on them. Adolf is the leader...hmm, clever. He looks like he's about 40 years old, but hangs out with high school kids. The others are Eva, Sneg, Gangdala and Hook, and none of them have any back story (althought for some odd reason, they try to portray Sneg as being some dumb, naive teenager with a mother who is worried about him, in some pointless subplot). Adolf tries to unite all the gangs on the beach so they can rule the coastline (a plot line ripped off of the far-more superior film, "The Warriors"), but none of them want to be under the command of the Nazis, so one by one, they turn on them and are killed...end of that story. Now, there's a young man named Leroy with his tough-as-nails mother who live near the beach. Leroy, being black, is attacked by the Nazis and killed. This leads Leroy's Momma to escape from her retirement home and seek revenge against the murderers.
I basically told you the entire flick. It's that basic and small. You probably get more out of watching the trailer for the film than watching the actual film. The violence is surprisingly toned down, with virtually no gore, which makes it look like a film made over the weekend at a budget of $75 dollars. The fight scenes are poorly choreographed, looking like they improvised it at the set. The acting...eh, it's alright. One thing I noticed is that they tried to make this film look more serious than campy...which is the kiss of death, being that the film is called....SURF Nazis MUST DIE!!! Oh, thats another thing...it's called "SURF Nazis MUST DIE", but in the film, only three of them are actually killed (out of a gang of about 7, not including the youth punks). Scenes were long and boring, with very little pay off. The surfing scenes were nice, though. Obviously, it was footage of professionals surfing in Hawaii (California does NOT have that nice of waves) and most of the film was shot in my home town of Huntington Beach.
It you wanna watch a good Troma movie, watch "Tromeo & Juliet" or "Cannibal! The Musical!" instead. Leave this one to wipe-out, and hang to dry.
Idi i smotri (1985)
Come and See, and I saw....
A common practice nowadays in cinema, both internationally and locally, is the method of surrealism. The ultra hype active and somewhat dizzy views of what would be a normal situation (or in most causes, a situation that has been unfortunate) has almost become staple for many Hollywood directors who want people to see a picture differently than how they should see it. Filmmakers like Terrance Malick and Tony Scott, who use fast paced editing and dramatic monologues in the middle of their films which at times seem unnecessary. But Surrealism is a sort of message, subtle sometimes, other times rather blunt, that speaks of an image that is quite obvious at time. Probably the best example of this is Elem Klimov's film.
The 1985 Soviet Union cinema-masterpiece, "Come and See", originally titled "Idi i smotri" (which loosely translates in Russian for "Go and See") is a story that sends a message out rather vaguely. In fact, there's no message. Or is there? We are sent back in time to 1943 in the middle of the carnage of Eastern Europe during World War II. In the country of Byelorussia (modern day Belarus), a young boy named Florya wants to join the peasants of the town to fight against the Nazi horde. At the very beginning, he is a young and naive boy. He digs in abandon battlefields with his friend, searching for a rifle so he can fight. He finds a dirty old Simonov AVS-36 which is highly unlikely that it will ever fire again. He then joins up with the ranks in the prehistoric forests which represent a type of surrealistic surge of unending confusion and lost. As the peasants march onto the next town, they leave Florya behind, probably for his own good. Crying and in despair, he meets a young girl, Glasha. She paints of picture of a life beautiful is all aspects, with hell being so close by. She tells Florya that he is "blind and deaf, and cannot hear me". Not long after, the Germans invade and the forests are bombed. Floyra goes temporarily deaf when a bomb hits nearby, a high pitch whine that streams his hearing (a method used later in Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan"). They make it back to Florya town, only to find that nobody is there. Florya goes under a midst of shock and denial, as he races toward a nearby swamp thinking his mother and two sisters are there hiding; unbeknowanced to him, but to Glasha, a quick disturbing glance shows Florya's mother and sisters are dead and their naked bodies, along with several other villagers, are merely disposed behind his house. Florya begins to loose his sanity, while keeping some intact. He and Glasha go to another good of peasants, searching for food as the Germans exiled them to the forest. Florya joins up with more fighters, but one by one they are all taken down. He wanders aimlessly until he comes across a town with SS stormtroopers invading, raping and pillaging all of the villagers. It is there when the surreal image becomes distorted and twisted, as the invaders gleefully set fire to a church full of civilians and applaud at the majesty of the chaos. At that point, Florya grows up and becomes man, but more a shell of a man. His image of maturity and adulthood has been shattered at the horror of war and the atrocities that follow. In the final scene, unable to bear anymore chaos, he takes his rifle (which he never shoots in the entire film) and fires away at a picture of Adolf Hitler, which reverses time and all of the events of WWII, all the way back to a picture of a baby Hitler, which Florya cannot bear to shoot.
Without of a doubt, "Come and See" is a film than can be analyzed and studied for days, even weeks. The image of Glasha as a innocent and beautiful peasant girl shows purity and calmness to the tense situation, while Florya is a brass and immature symbol. Klimov uses such imagery to shake the viewer into submission. The Nazi atrocities scenes are by far, the most disturbing that the viewer cannot bear to watch in one sitting (I found them far more horrifying than the "liquadation" scene in "Schindler's List"), especially the aftermath, when the stormtroopers and officers are captured by the peasant; some of them plead that they were "following orders" (a subtle hint to the Nuremberg trials), others openly admit without flinching that they are here to "extermanate the Bolsehvik race". "Come and See" is horror, and not the type that you see in Wes Craven films; this is TRUE horror. The surrealistic vision of the nightmare is uninhabited and chaotic that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let you go. Every scene, more and more tension builds.
The acting in the film is flawless, to a point where none of it seems like acting. Everyone seems burnt out and disturbed. Aleksei Kravchenko does a marvelous job as Florya, where his uncanny skills of growing up in a manner of the way on screen is brilliant. The rest of the cast is Russian, so you won't see any big names in her, nor will you recognize. But without a doubt, it's deep film. You must watch "Come and See", even if you're a film buff, a war buff, or simply looking for a lesson in history. Go and see....
Black Bart (1975)
The reason why many movie tie-in pilots never air
To review this movie, I without any doubt would have to quote that memorable scene in Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" (1994) when Jules and Vincent are talking about Mia Wallace and what she does for a living. Jules tells Vincent that the "Only thing she did worthwhile was pilot". Vincent asks "What the hell is a pilot?" and Jules goes into a very well description of what a TV pilot is: "Well, the way they make shows is, they make one show. That show's called a 'pilot'. Then they show that show to the people who make shows, and on the strength of that one show they decide if they're going to make more shows. Some pilots get picked and become television programs. Some don't, become nothing. She starred in one of the ones that became nothing." Now to stretch on what Jules was talking about, there are BILLIONS of television shows/pilots that were never aired because they simply were not...well, good. Probably the most notorious pilot that comes to mind is "W*A*L*T*E*R", a spin-off to "M*A*S*H" with Gary "Radar" Burghoff as the lead. Hmmm, would somebody really want to be watching Radar for a half-hour trying to solve crimes? Hence, the show was never picked up. What many people don't know (or what they thought they knew) is that pilots are hardly ever shown on the air, for they are made strictly for the Television networks for them to decide. Some have made they're way past and got onto the air (The pilot for the animated series "American Dad" comes to mind, as the show's serial itself didn't begin until nearly four months later. However, there are times were we should all be glad pilots never make it to air, and this here is why.
"Black Bart", a supposed tie-in with the Mel Brooks comedy classic, "Blazing Saddles", is a stale and bland "sitcom" with little heart and no soul. "Saddles" was a controversial comedy, nevertheless, with it's racist humor and vulgar comedy, which comes to mind "what idiot decided this would make a great television show FOR PRIME TIME TV?!?" I say "supposed", because none of the memorable characters from the movie, aside from Bart, on in this mess of a TV show. Mel Brooks wasn't even involved with the production of the serial and this was the first mistake in a long line (In a related story, I recently found out about an unaired TV pilot for a series based on the movie "Clerks." that Kevin Smith was no involved in....you see what happens?!?).
Set somewhere around the same time as the movie (or at all), the story circles around the only Black sheriff in the wild west, named appropriately 'Black' Bart, who is this time played by future Academy Award winner Louis Gossett Jr., obviously before his stint in "real" acting, whereas in this he is playing a "G-rated" Richard Pryor. Most of the other characters are carbon (if not, really bad) copies of the characters in the movie: Jim, The Waco Kid is replaced by a similar looking character named Reb Jordan, a former Confederate soldier who is quick with the gun. Lilian Von Schtupp is now Belle Buzzer, a more of a ripoff of the character being that she's a show dancer and a German with a Marlene Dietrich-type accent and personality. While that's pretty much the end in similarities, The lead "bad guy" in the story is Fern Malaga, played by Noble Willingham, who I assumed would've been Hedley Lamar if Warner Bros. secured the rights to the name (See trivia for "Blazing Saddles") and his son Curley...I dunno, Taggart I suppose? The story is a poor excuse for a sitcom, much less a pilot. Bart deals with the mayor's drunk son and he's out-of-control behavior which has caused the town to spin. Really, it's a story that tries to introduce all the characters in the "series" and doesn't focus on the variety and context that would make this an "alright" show. I can't really call it a sitcom (and even if I wanted to) and that's primarily the fact it was shot on the backlot at Warner Bros. Studios and later added a laugh track, so the show is set up almost exactly like "M*A*S*H" (complete with a bland and dull "laughing" that is identical to the series). The acting is so-so, but there's one part that always make me laugh, and that's when the actor playing Reb Jordan almost seems to forget his lines and tries really hard to remember them while trying to sputter out a piece of dialogue. HA! The script is rather dull and is attempts to make racism more humorous than it was in the movie (Surprisingly, they use the word "N***er" numerous amount of times through a 22-minute episode, rather touchy for it's time period and even for today) and it gets repetitive.
If you ever get your hands on this unseen piece of sssss...surly interesting novelty item, watch it just for the sake of the feeling for watching pilots (It's on the collector's edition of "Blazing Saddles", God knows why). There, yourself get a first hand chance for the reason why many movie tie-in pilots never air.
Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985)
The only thing "missing in action" is Chuck Norris' brain
Ah, the 80's. Reagan is in the white house, the USSR is collapsing, Madonna was on top (and catholic), Steve Guttenberg is considered to be a "good actor", and nobody would shut up with that stupid saying "where's the beef?". From the late 70's to the beginning of the 80's and so on, the American public was facing the difficult backlash of the Vietnam War and its effects it had on the country. We did have to face the fact that we LOST that war, and it would be the first war America didn't come out the winning opponent. Not only were tens of thousands of lives where lost for a unworthy cause, but many of the soldiers who fought were left behind to serve as POWs and branded either MIA or dead. Their country had forgotten them. Henceforth, a string of lame, action-packed movies where released, depicting the search and rescue of the POWs, most famously known where the movies "Rambo: First Blood, part II" and the Chuck Norris vehicle "Missing in Action". Yes, we were sending one-man armies back to Vietnam to rescue the troops from the communist, ten years after the war ended! Alone is the idea ludicrous and cheesed-beyond-portion, because you'd think by now the POWs and MIAs would be dead, or sold up river to slave colonies. "Missing in Action" is the most laughable of all the films, because it ceases to take itself seriously. So why make a sequel? No, it's a prequel, which doesn't explain why it has the number "2" on the title.
"MIA2: The beginning" takes place before the first film, which has Norris' character, Col. Braddock, still a captive in post-war Vietnam. Along with around 4 to 5 other Americans, they endure harsh treatment from the camp's CO, Col. Yin, played by Soon-Tek Oh. They make it seem so hard to leave the camp, with dense jungles, booby traps, and a bridge with two guards carrying a flamethrower, but why don't they just walk out? Morales, I guess. Braddock protests the harsh treatment by saying Yin is not following the Geneva convention, but Yin assures that none of them are POWs because in order to be a POW, there has to be war and the war ended years ago...a pretty lazy loop hole if you ask me. Yin tells them that if they sign a contract that rejects the American government and admits to war crimes, the troops will be set free. Naturally, one of the does it; a sneaky backstabber played by Steven Williams, who for some reason still hangs around the camp? In the midst of Norris' cornball acting and Soon-Tek Oh's "more evil than evil" portrayal, a French (?) opium dealer flies his helicopter into the camp to conduct business with Yin. The Americans then decide to take control of the camp and escape in the helicopter. *yawn* MIA2 is a boring, lackluster of a film, even for an action film. Norris is practically sleeping his way through this role, even when his character is painted up to look like he has Malaria...which he doesn't, but another American GI does. The film is over zealous for it's action moments. There's just not enough things going on to really catch anyone's attention. The location where they shot is a little "too" dense of jungle to be Vietnam: yes, Vietnam has dense jungles, but not THAT dense! It looks more like the Hawaiian island of Kauai, which is probably where they shot it. The acting is beyond atrocious, and lets remind you, this IS a B-movie. The casting director went for the obvious approach to any Vietnam film in the 80's, and cast Japanese actors instead of VIETNAMESE or SOUTHEAST ASIANS. Soon-Tek Oh IS Japanese, let me remind you. So it comes off more like WWII POW film rather than Vietnam. And a French business man? Where the hell did that come from? Not to mention, he comes flying in on a American-made Huey helicopter. I dunno about you, but you just can't go out and buy a Huey at your local Army Surplus store. And apparently, English is the official language of Vietnam, because not one person speaks Vietnamese in the film. It would be a scene featuring only Yin and another foot soldier, and they're speaking English! Huh??? It just isn't that worthy of a film, and it was followed up by ANOTHER sequel. Lord, when will it end?! 'Nuff said.
Major Effects (1979)
A look back at prime Disney marketing ploys
If you happen to stay up late night on the Disney Channel, around 2 or 3 am, you might catch this little special airring every once in a while. It's a bizzare, strange, yet informative look at old school film making trough the magic of special effects...or at least that's what the intent is of it.
The special was made to tie in with the release of the Disney sci-fi bomb, "The Black Hole", so the show is hosted by Joseph Bottoms from the movie. Bottoms starts off as an old man who wishes to be young again (sort of a "Damn Yankees" thing) So he askes the god of special efx (or something in that matter) to make him strong and young. Hence, he becomes Major Effects, a super hero that describes special effects from movies. The rest of the show is a look at now dated methods of photography and filmaking (including stop-motion animation) which are now dominated by computers and CGI. Again, it's merely to plug the movie, "Black Hole", so many clips are shown from it, as if to say that Disney was expecting it to be the next "Star Wars". The show gets slightly weirder and weirder, when suddenly "wizards" of special FXs start showing up (one of them looks like a giant gopher) and Bottoms describes Stop-motion through a song. Yeech!
If this comes on late night, chances are there isn't anything better on any other channels, so just call it a night. Then again, its always nice to see prime Disney and it's use of cheap marketing ploys...or at least ones that Walt would approve of.