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Reviews
The Wizard of Gore (2007)
Strange, Surreal, Bloody, and Sometimes Clumsy Like The Original
I missed this when it came out in theaters, I happened to pick it up in a local store used for $2.00. Probably one of the better investments I have made recently.
Firstly Crispin Glover, perfect casting choice. I have followed his films since the 80's, and he never disappoints when portraying weird, misguided, misunderstood, or otherwise socially awkward and/or puzzling characters. Bravo. I was not convinced by the lead male character's pseudo William Burroughs persona. But hey, who can really impersonate the legend as well as Peter Weller did in Naked Lunch? I don't think anybody could.
Secondly, gore? Yes! The film has a plethora of gore, and the plentiful nude bodies of the Suicide Girls makes it totally worth watching.
Thirdly, completely disjointed continuity which adds to the element of surrealism, which I do admit, is achieved in a highly clumsy fashion at times. An homage to the original on purpose, or overzealous and pompous directing and editing? You decide. This film was better then most of the tripe that was released at the same time(2007), and has been released since. Not perfect by any means, but well worth my $2.00.
Carnosaur (1993)
Great Fun for Anyone Who Likes Dinosaurs and Indie Films on a Budget
This film may not have had the budget or the big name actors found in Jurassic Park, but I find myself watching this movie over and over unlike Jurassic Park. Sure the dinosaurs look like they are hand puppets, but for me that is the fun of it. The gore is also way above what is found in Jurassic Park, and that is probably a selling point for me as well.
The people in this film obviously worked hard at making it, even if they didn't receive the $20 million salaries. In fact the budget for the entire film was around $1.2 million, and in limited release grossed about $1.7 million, which is what Roger Corman was best at.
Chicken DNA plus Diane Ladd = dinosaurs hatching from chicken eggs, and women infected with virus that induces them to give live dino-birth. DARPA conspiracies and Clint Howard gets eaten by dinosaur, and a very silly looking T-Rex make this film one of the all time low budget greats.
Naked Lunch (1991)
Cronenberg on Borroughs' Time Before and in Tangiers
People who are active in the LGBT community generally dislike this film as it smooths over much of Burroughs homosexuality, and people looking for a literal translation of the novel Naked Lunch will also likely be disappointed. Cronenberg rather takes the approach of piecing together parts of Burroughs' life and novel Exterminator, and mixes it with the events surrounding Burroughs' shooting of his wife Joan, and his subsequent flight to Tangiers in Morocco, where in a drugged stupor, he wrote what would eventually become Naked Lunch.
Cronenberg does include heavy symbolism however, in true Cronenberg style, by incorporating pseudo-drug use(bug powder as substitute for heroin/morphine), and the talking rear-ends prevalent in the novel as a manifest consciousness of Burroughs' inner psychology as it becomes flesh(in the form of giant insects). The film becomes a dark, disturbing journey into the mind of a person trying to come to grips with his own personal demons, mainly the character's drug addiction, his homosexuality, and his evolution into a writer. It is almost as if the character's drug use exacerbates his homosexual tendencies, through the hallucinations he experiences while under the influence of the bug-powder, told through the voices of the talking insects, and his writing is his way of coming to terms with everything that has happened.
Other themes are also explored, like the paranoia between authors who believe that others are out to silence them, the nature of self-identity, and that part of a person which is sacrificed to the end which is our personal evolution as people.
All in all, one of Cronenberg's best, if not most misunderstood works. It is interesting to note that Burroughs himself worked with David long and hard to help develop this mind-boggling film, chronicled in the documentary Naked Making Lunch, included in the Criterion 2-disc set.
Eraserhead (1977)
Eerie Landscapes, Dreams of Desire, And Nightmares of Haunting Proportions
Eraserhead is the pinnacle of surrealist, subconscious film-making. That is not to say it is for everyone. On the surface, it is a narrative about a man trying to cope with the uncontrollable forces of his everyday life, but underneath it holds a meaning far more sinister and foreboding.
My take on this film is that the main character Henry, is haunted by an unknown, unseen demon, whose presence is indicated by fluctuations in electricity, and shifting of light sources. During a cold, uneasy dinner with his supposed girlfriend's family, Henry learns he is now the 'father' of an extremely premature, possibly inhuman child.
While Henry tries to make the best of the situation, by marrying the girl, and bringing her and his 'child' home to live with him, he cannot escape from the clutches of this demon, which continues its reign of terror over Henry and his family. Mary, his wife, unable to sleep due to the crying baby, packs her bags and heads for home, but not before being seemingly raped by an unseen force at the foot of Henry's bed.
The 'child' is clearly not human, and it manipulates Henry through the same type of malevolence that his true father, the demon, does, instantly feigning serious illness, and cackling maniacally at Henry's failures. Henry dreams of salvation through his savior, the woman in the radiator, but cannot escape the demons that hold sway over his life, represented by large sperm-like creatures that surface both in life and his dreams.
In the end, Henry tries to kill his demon, the 'child', but only sets in motion his own demise. But his savior comes to him at the last minute, to assure him that In Heaven, Everything is Fine, or so he hopes....
Africa addio (1966)
Watch The Italian Language Director's Cut From Blue Underground
This film is an uneasy time capsule. While the early narration clearly bemoans the end of Colonialism in Africa, the 135 minutes of footage that follows clearly justifies the stance of the filmmakers on that point. Basically it says that the handover comes too soon, before Africans are truly ready to rule themselves effectively.
This film chronicles the handover of power in several former Colonies, chiefly Tanzania and Kenya, but also a few others. It contains authentic footage of Uhuru rallies, the trials and aftermaths of the Mau-Mau revolutionary movement, and the countless slaughter of both animals and humans alike. In particular, the revolution in Zanzibar under John Okello, and the resulting massacre of some 5000 Arab men, women, and children is clearly exposed, with scenes of mass shootings, mass graves, truckloads of bodies, and beaches littered with corpses as far as the camera can see.
Filmed to shock? Maybe, but then again this really happened on the Dark Continent. The film is not without humor however, in particular one scene where an aspiring African politician makes his case to a bunch of tribal people with his bullhorn mounted to the back of a donkey, while a herd of goats knocks over his microphone into the mud. But images like this fade quickly when the viewer watches miles and miles of animal bones and carcasses littering the landscape, hunters killing elephants with the aid of helicopter terrorism, and Belgian paratroopers who execute people on camera in an effort to save a group of missionaries.
All in all this is a very important film for anyone interested in how the current state of affairs in Africa got their beginnings. Blame is squarely placed on both the colonial powers, and the new African rulers for failure to effect a proper transfer of power. This version of the film is available in both the Mondo Cane box set, and the far cheaper(in price) two-disc Shocumentary Extreme collection from Blue Underground.
Sweet Movie (1974)
Experimental, Daring, Real, and Even Dangerous.... Outstanding!
I must say that this film is nothing like what I expected. It seems to be a film-play commentary on the subjects of sexual boundaries and Marxism.
The importance of virginity, the bizarre nature of water sports, and a naked starlet covered in liquid chocolate. Captain Anna Planeta makes her way through the canals of Amsterdam on her ship Survival, a quasi-communist, sugar soaked den of debauchery and murder. She picks up the hitchhiking Potempkin, and declares him her sexual proletariat.
Meanwhile Miss World 1984 after being traumatized by golden phallus is karate-chopped by a large black man, packed into a suitcase and shipped to Paris, where she engages in public sex, ends up traumatized as a result, and is shipped off to a Therapie-Commune for compassionate care while she recovers. Here we find a group of people who seek therapy in all sorts of overt sexual, natal, and scatological situations. There is actually a pooping contest! Meanwhile Captain Anna Planeta has managed to entice some 10 year old boys onto Survival, and in a ribbon-suit that would make Sam Lowry of Brazil envious, she proceeds to seduce the children! Very dangerous film-making, even by todays standards. According to the actress who played the seductress, the scene was enough to cause a scandal in her home country of Poland, getting her banned for 7 years.
Intersperse all this with actual footage of the exhumations of the mass graves of the Soviet Katyn Massacre, and there you have it in a nutshell.
The term Art House shocker has never had a more appropriate film behind it, and I have seen a lot of them. Not for everyone, but certainly for the avid Art-cinema fan.
De Sade 70 (1970)
My First Franco Film, and Likely My Favorite
I bought this DVD a few years ago when my appetite for old obscure films was in full swing, and I was spending entire paychecks on DVDs. I bought this not knowing at all what to expect, and was pleasantly surprised all around.
Eugenie is the story about the defiling and corruption of an innocent girl, by a step-brother/step-sister love-couple who are members of a sadistic cult, a cult which has the goals of re-enacting the works of De Sade using the flesh of young female virgins. The whole film has an air of dreamy, drugged hallucination, and Franco was on top of his game when he made this.
Everything seems to fit together with this film better than other Franco films of the same era. It's best counterpart would be Venus in Furs, my other candidate for favorite Franco film. The soundtrack and scenery from 1970 now serve as a time capsule, excellently crafted and executed, along with copious amounts of full frontal female nudity, a trait still in it's infancy at the time.
If you like films from the early days of the Ratings system, and like Franco-style exploitation films, than this is the perfect treat for you.
Parents (1989)
Unnerving Pastiche of American Culture and Childhood Alienation
Parents, as with most true films, is open to a wide variety of interpretation. What rings most clear throughout this film is the message that American culture, particularly the 1950's anti-Communist, suburban exodus and urban industrialization, is the catalyst to the disintegration of the American family. And what is seen through the eyes of a child is more often a stark reality, as opposed to a sugar-coated fantasy.
Now serve up the dark treats of Parents, a suburban horror story told completely from the point of view of the film's 12yr old protagonist, Michael Lemle. Michael is a withdrawn, detached child, while extremely close to his mother, very distant and differentiated from his father. The central context which drives Michael's dislike of his father, is Michael's suspicion that the nightly family dinner is derived from sources that were not bought from the neighborhood grocer, and that his father, is trying to force his unsavory ways upon him.
Meanwhile Michael's somber family life is juxtaposed against what is almost portrayed as a child-like amorous fascination by Sheila Zelner, a 12 year old girl who is also isolated and withdrawn from reality, and like Michael new in the town and in their class. It is only in these scenes do we ever hear Michael talk openly and freely, and smile, a symbol of the happiness and trust that children can usually only find with each other.
As the story progresses, two plots seemingly swirl around one another, until they coalesce into the films disturbing finale. These plots are Michael's continued attempts to see where his father gets the family meat, and a concerned social worker's attempts to befriend and dig out the truth of Michael's tortured existence. Michael's dissection of the social worker's psyche is a pivotal scene, and one of the most brilliantly conceived exchanges in the history of film.
While not perfect, Parents is completely unique, and you will be hard pressed to find another film like it. Not for the average 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' fan. Recommended for the indie fan.
La bestia in calore (1977)
One of My Favorite 70's Nazisploitation Fliks
While obviously flawed in the film making department(budget, script, continuity), one has to wonder just how the idea of this gem came to be, and where the hell they found actors who were willing to perform this type of trash! The story follows 2 plots which eventually converge on each other - The first, is the story of the sadistic female Nazi Dr. who has created a sexually aberrant mutant human, and unleashes his drugged sexual fury on female prisoners. She uses her discovery as a way to climb the chain of Nazi command, while enjoying the torturing of several prisoners, either by throwing them to her beast, or doing the job herself!
The second plot follows a group of resistors trying to free Northern Italy from the clutches of the 3rd Reich. Ultimately their adventures lead them to the Nazi Dr. woman, who is running the garrison controlling the area. They rout the baddies, and give the good Dr. a taste of her own sadistic ambitions.
This film is fun if you are open minded, not easily offended, and enjoy strange cult films unlikely to be made today. It is worth noting that there is no reference to Jewish imprisonment anywhere in this film, which is odd for a Nazisploitation flick. The budget was so low, that in one scene where a German bomber is destroying the town, it is clearly a model on string being whipped around in front of the camera with a blue screen in the background! Classic! Ed wood himself would be proud.
300 (2006)
Historical Accuracies of Frank Miller's 300
Of course this is a Hollywood drama based off of a dramatic graphic novel, so certainly all artists involved took liberties with the historic premise of the story of the 300 Spartans. So critics who thirst for precise historical accuracy, or mock over current political themes can continue to pine and trash this film. Do not listen to them.
However much of this film is bathed in accuracy. The Spartan Agoge(a'go-gee), or military training of all boys over 7 years old. The discarding of offspring found to be puny, weak, misshapen, or sickly. The wrangling between Spartan Kings and the Ephors and the politicians. The elevated status of women within Spartan society. These are accurate portrayals of Spartan culture of the time. The set design is wonderful, reflecting an Ancient soldier society.
Facts of the Battle of Thermopylae are many. For the first time, Sparta aligned with other Greek city-states(Athens, Arcadia, Thespae), to form and initial defense against the Persian advance lead by Xerxes. The defense took place in a narrow crevasse just wide enough for a chariot or two to fit through, and the Greek phalanx dealt the Persians considerable losses in comparison to the Greek numbers, which at the beginning of the battle was roughly 5-6000 Greeks, and 500,000 Persian. The Greeks did rebuild the seaside wall, they were betrayed by a local resident of the area named Ephialtes, who did lead the Persians around the Greeks via a mountain goat path. Spartan King Leonidas, and his 300 Spartan soldiers then remaining, stood for the last stand against Xerxes. Their fight allowed the Greek states to complete the Olympic Games, an important Greek festival, and prepare to mount a defense against Xerxes, which ultimately paid off for Greece.
This film is a great modern restoration of these events, told in a way that will keep the average contemporary 18-35 year old movie goer entertained, enthralled, and hooked on the last stand of the Spartan 300. Definitely not for the very young, as it contains lots of graphic violence and nudity.
Factory Girl (2006)
A Great Flick, or a Terrible Flick, It Depends On What You Are Looking For
As a biopic of Edie Sedgwick, Factory Girl truly is a dramatized, fictionalized version of the events of this almost-starlet's life, easily dissected and criticised. But as a window into Warhol's world during the time when he was at his most revolutionary, this film is outstanding. You will never get closer to being in Warhol's life during the Silver Factory through a dramatic Hollywood production, like you do with this one, period(except for the 10 minute party scene in Oliver Stone's The Doors).
The plot may be a little shallow, but the truth is that these people the film is based on were also very shallow, and also real life to me, is plot-less. These people did not care about anyone but themselves, and they really were vampires who would suck you dry if you let them. Edie did just that, she let them, thinking it was her doorway to stardom.
People who make biopics, like Mr. Hickenlooper has done, have to deal with the Estate of the people they are filming about, in order to secure the rights to use the name/likeness. What most people do not understand, is that the contracts that are drawn up, often bar the director from portraying the central character in their true light. Oliver Stone dealt with this with the Courson Estate when he made The Doors. It is the Courson Estate whom is the owner of most of Jim's poetry and personal works, and they made sure their daughter Pam was not made to look defamed, or complicit in Jim's death in any way.
This is why you see criticisms leveled on Factory Girl like 'Edie never uses hard drugs herself in the film. She is always being poked by someone else's needle. That's BS, she did them herself in real life.' The truth is, Mr. Hickenlooper may have very well been contractually obliged to portray the drug use in this way, at the demands of the Sedgwick Estate. Furthermore you make a movie to sell tickets, meaning that Hollywood dramatizes stories to keep people in their seats. It doesn't always work out the way they expected.
All in all Factory Girl, for someone like me who loves the Warhol 60's and the stories that were crafted within, is a great 90-minute ride through a roller-coaster of a time which I, sadly, was not yet born to be a part of. I also want to personally thank Mr. Hickenlooper for leaving Valerie Solanis and the events surrounding her and Warhol, completely out of this picture. She does not deserve to be elevated to the level of Hollywood.
Jurassic Park III (2001)
The Most Logical Result When You Add Jurassic Park 1 and 2 Together
Is Jurassic Park 3. In short, Jurassic Park 1 was a masterpiece, perfectly executed, and likely never to be topped by any sequel. Jurassic Park 2 was an attempt to recreate the same dramatic awe and inspiration that was generated in audiences with the first Jurassic Park. It was poorly executed and easily topped by the following sequel, Jurassic Park 3.
Why is this? Because the logical step, after the studio had created a cinematic masterpiece about dinosaurs, should have been to get right down to the nitty-gritty about dinosaurs living in the 20th-21st centuries, which would be 'They Effing Eat People!' That is the big difference between JP 3 and the predecessors. It skips the whole dramatic, scientific tedium, and gets right into the larger-than-life Spinosaurus eating human flesh, dominating the T-Rex, and creating an atmosphere of chaos. This is what dinosaur movies should be like now that JP1 has taken care of all of the dramatic awe and wonder parts of this. Lets see the dinosaurs draw people into their habitat, and consume them! After 90 minutes I have had enough anyhow.
The makers are never going to get another Oscar for making dinosaur movies(most likely). So give the people what they want! My only regret is they continue to leave the violence in the pg-13 limbo. I want R-rated fountains of blood! Seriously though, this is a great popcorn movie with lots of action and thrills, which doesn't have a long meandering plot to drain you and your child's brains. This deserves a higher rating in my opinion.