If it does not involve pro-wrestling, this is Russ Stevens's effort to create the one stop blog for movies that are cut to the ideal run-time, 90 minutes. This blog may feature films that may range from 71 minutes to 1 hour 40 minutes, but 101 minutes and up are too long. An hour and a half can justify cutting a film into two chapters and a book into three. Hobbits and Katniss have too many ending, consider this an effort to stop that.
I do not know why I was complaining about my lack of video gaming this past year after having seven honorable movies
I saw which are not going to make this list. My video game purchases
are rarely made at full price ("Cyberpunk 2077" this year, "Pokemon
Shield" in 2019, "Smash Bros. Ultimate" in 2018, "The Legend of Zelda:
Breath of the Wild" in 2017, "WWE 2K16" in 2016, aside from Target "Buy 2
get 1 half off" deals, I am saving quite a bit on games. Maybe my retro
purchases make up for the new game savings.). It just despairs me
that I have lost another passion. Thanks 2020.
After
this train wreck of a year in terms of the cinema, there is a bit of a
fear that we are not going to receive much for content. Is NinetyForChill.com going to suffer do to that? It may just revert to the B-Movie archive that I may have intended it to be. If that happens, will anyone be interested in becoming a guest for "Ninety for Chill: The Pod" (Drop me russthebus07@gmail.com an email if you are interested.)?
If
we want to think about more pressing matters, is this list going to
suffer from me inadvertantly rushing through it when it comes to making the December
31 deadline? By me mentioning seven movies
that I wish I would be able to include in the list, it seems
appropriate to throw three more fun flicks in before we get to the top
10. What can I say? I love a challenge, or I am just innately make things
more challenging.
How can I podcast. How can I handle two resolutions? Do I write off the daily something Buffalo meal?
And
with that said, I may as well address recent championship title changes
in pro wrestling. "Bad Taste" is in the title of this blog post, and
that is the general consensus of what people think the fans of that
industry have. My personal taste says we fans should lean into that
more, but when I suggest the Katie Vick was a fun angle, that opinion
maybe disqualified.
As
a horror and occasional raunchy comedy fan, I respect when the creators
take something further than what the audience considers far enough. If
Triple H did not toss the brains at the end of the funeral parlor
segment, my thoughts about the angle would be that it was in poor taste.
Once that poor taste has been taken to the bad realm, the imagination
of the audience has been destroyed. To gain that kind of control is
something I admire.
Three-on-one handicap match against the champion versus a dog collar
blood bath: Cody's title victory is the superior than Zayn's.
A
blood bath serves as a perfect transition into how I finally got around
to Peter Jackson's debut directorial effort, "Bad Taste". The prior
night, I revisited the failed lesbian take on the already pretentious
"Dead Poets Society", Canada's "Lost and Delirious". It ended up being a
downer of a film on top of that, so I needed something to cleanse my
pallet. "Young Adult" is still a disc that I need to open, but as a
depressed writer, I did not think the feature was right to bounce back
from patriarchal bullshit (The only valid thing about "Lost and
Delirious outside a Graham Greene supporting role is that it took place
in the current day, so making it about accepting teenage lesbians at an up tight boarding school a good premise.).
As
I looked through my unwatched DVD's and Blu-rays, "Young Adult" was the
only film under 97 minutes. Anything purchased on iTunes was either
foreign or experimental, so I did not know if I had the attention span
for those. So I turned to Amazon Prime's offerings, and "Bad Taste" beat
out "Night of the Demons" as my choice to add to my 90-minute movie
data base.
The
Astro Investigation and Defense Service (a joke that may have been
ahead of its time) is investigating the town of Kaihoro, New Zealand.
There seems to be no locals present, just a group of men in identical
blue work shirts and jeans. Barry and Derek are the advance team.
Barry
is quick to capture one of these men while Derek is being tracked by an
axe-wielding simpleton who he destroys with his magnum. Based on the
reaction the two have received upon arrival, Barry is certain these are
not friendly aliens with glowing fingers but extra terrestrials who
intend to end humanity. It is a good thing their action-loving team
members Frank and Ozzy (Is this a Muppet joke?) are en route to this town.
With
all this ruckus, a gang of these aliens mount a counter attack which
results in Barry taking a fall that leaves him with a compound fracture
of the skull. The team writes him off, but the persistence of Barry
allows him to figure out ways to keep his brain matter in his cranium,
but perhaps at the cost of his sanity. Unfortunately, our heroes cannot
leave because a charity collector, Giles, had arrived before Frank and
Ozzy could block the roads into town.
Giles
is soon captured, so the boys are set on rescuing him. As they
infiltrate the alien base, they discover what has happened to the town
folk. The aliens represent Crum's Country Delights and they have decided
that human beings will be the dish that will make them competitive in
the intergalactic fast food market once again. Kaihoro maybe lost, but
there is no way the AIDS team is going to let Lord Crum and his cronies
introduce this new menu item to space car hops.
"Bad
Taste" is a very cheap slash-stick comedy which is very amateur in
nature, but successfully shows there is a great director behind it.
Peter Jackson shot this film over four years on weekends and the New
Zealand film board took notice of his dedication. The result is a great
exercise in practical gore effects while being more amusing and easier
for the squeamish to stand than the similar efforts of Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead".
This
film was a passion project of Jackson who knew this feature just had to
get made. He was going to give audiences a bad film though, so his
clever direction allows us to forgive the features shortcomings. It is
more than apparent that Jackson lacked the means to produce high art,
but his short cuts allow the audience to be in on the joke that these cheats
are.
Until
the finale, the action starts as being a little too sloppy for its own
good. It starts to feel long, but the once a chainsaw-wielding
psychopath is introduced, it finds its groove and becomes a ball until the gory
climax that was repeated in "Dead Alive" and was missing from all of his
features after (I may need to rewatch "The Frighteners" and "Heavenly
Creatures" to confirm the lack of rebirth sequences.). Darn PG-13 and
its limitations.
Excellent
gore, a John Carpenter styled soundtrack, and the sheer absurdness of
"Bad Taste" make this feature a classic. The film becomes more polished
as it moves along (probably because of the New Zealand government
funding), so it feels like you are learning about film makings alongside
the great auteur Peter Jackson. It also leaves you missing the gory
beauty that he was producing, but would you trade it for "The Lord of
the Rings Trilogy? With the sheer amount of false endings in "Return of
the King", perhaps.
This is a fun vampire flick, but it shows the limitations of John
Carpenter. His direction seems stretched by the quest elements of the
tale and without one of his go to actors in the lead, it loses some of
the feeling his classics have. He was best in the mid 80’s leaning in to
his regulars. I wish he would be more insistent on doing that. Still, the
FUN is there and James Wood is great. On to Bon Jovi taking over the
franchise.
I
suppose I am stretching out the weekend technically. This was probably
watched on Wednesday, but I am in the midst of a 13-day stretch between
both jobs, so time is kind of lost on me. "John Carpenter's Vampires" is
almost an appropriate place to start as I am trying to use meal
replacement shakes for 50% of my meals (I skip breakfast, unless I wake
up before the alarm. Wendy's is killing it.). Sucking the blood out
of someone felt like a reasonable means of recovering from the lack of
sleep
that "Cyberpunk 2077" led to.
It
did not help when a coworker goes home because they were not feeling well. I
work for a big box store, so you know they have COVID-19 protocols for
their employees. If you passed the screening for the day, you got to work
your shift. The argument can be made that it is flu season so not
everything is corona virus. How you can suddenly change symptoms in two
hours is my counter to that?
Fuck food poisoning. That is why I skip breakfast. I need to make the proletariat look good.
When
my manager asked me to stay an extra hour (We could not get rid of the
customers till a half hour after the Semisonic moment.), it seemed like
the ill-feeling one was not a full-time employee. This means they did not
have any time to use to make up the lost wages. If your lungs
have not been overtaken by the pandemic, that really is the only reason to leave a job early. Use the sick time or lose the
sick time. I can understand that proposition.
But
on the flip side, at my bank job, we have one employee who uses the
time that has been allocated to them while the coworker who should get more than six
days of paternity leave cannot use his sick time to spend more time with
his child and the kid's worn out mom. Should I rant about the corporate
structure (Thank the gods that there is not really any right-leaning
charities in Champaign. I would be judged for not participating in
casual days for charity because of the not-for-profits that dominate the
rest of Downstate Illinois [Christian pregnancy support groups, United Way, etc.].), or management at this location for not
covering for the most senior banker here:?
If
wanting to drain the employee who left with two opening to closing
shifts is the only drama I have right now, things are pretty good. There
was some hesitation about reviewing two James Woods movies because of
the conservative moron he has become (I wanted to see the Democratic
Party be destroyed after the Clinton impeachment trial, but I was an 18
year-old Mortonite. With experience, I learned who the bad guys truly
are.), but everyone knows that the works of great directors should take
precedence over the whom the producer believes will put butts in seats. Maybe this
double-feature will let me get over my reservations and buy the Hades
from "Hercules" Funko Pop. You cannot have Zeus without the douche.
And
that reminds me, we need to bust our asses to get Tiny Lister into the
WWE Hall of Fame this year. We must influence WWE programming some how.
The WWE video arena must be conquered. Death to the McMahon family's
Videodrome. Long with the new flesh.
Videodrome (1983)
Max
Renn is one of the three partners who operated Channel 83 in Toronto.
Their goal is to provide viewers with something they cannot get from
traditional and regulated television stations. They must not be the only
content providers with that goal, so when exploitative foreign entertainment seems
to be too tame, Renn begins to search for programming that is down right
sleazy and horrific. Luckily for them, their satellite technician
Harlan is the master of television piracy and has discovered a show out
of Pittsburgh called "Videodrome", an arena for torture, exploitation
and murder.
Because
of the signal scrambling, Channel 83 cannot just go air it. This leads
Renn on a mission to find the people behind the show. With every clue he
obtains, he starts experiencing violent hallucinations. Most of these
involve his sadomasochistic girlfriend, Nikki, who has also made it her
mission to "star" on "Videodrome". As he absorbs more of the shows
content, the visions of his body becoming a means of distributing the
content are the most prevalent.
He
can neither make heads or tails of what is real or not. As far as he
can tell, someone is manipulating him into becoming an organic VCR who
will act on whatever tapes they insert into him. Is Renn a slave to
Videodrome or is he the evolutionary link between television and
humanity?
"Videodrome"
gives you an almost incomprehensible concept and demands that the viewer
sense of it. David Cronenberg is such a talented director that the
audience wants to put this puzzle together while the violent and
sexual themes suggest that they should be examining who they are.
The
casting of James Woods is perfect because of his cynical and
self-righteous demeanor many of his previous (and most of his latter)
works have had. His characters tend to think that he is smarter than
everyone, thus he can handle questionable material without being
influenced by it. If you want a person who seems amoral, Woods was the
go to. Renn starts out as the caricature of Woods and you become
enamored with his journey from being amoral to trying to find meaning in
a world that is falling apart.
Cronenberg
keeps the atmosphere ambiguous enough that it is even hard for the
audience to tell what is suppose to be real in this world and what is
only in the head of the lead. By the third act, everything that happens
has to be accepted as real if you hope to make any sense of it, but you
know in the back of the mind, it cannot be.
Geiger body horror is never
going to be a real thing. It is something that is so traumatizing, you
want to believe that it cannot be real. This is the feeling that makes
this film a classic.
If
there is any shortcoming, it could be an under-developed supporting
cast. Then again, if you add more characters to muddle Renn, the
visceral discomfort might be lost. The impact of the body horror would
be stretched so thin that the impact of it might be lost. Debbie Harry
as Nikki and Jack Creley as video guide Prof. Brian O'Blivion are great
avatars to ground Renn's journey without taking the focus away from
the insanity.
"Videodrome"
still makes viewers question the impact that visual content has on them
and consider what the limits should or should not be. It is an
expression of a dream that the audience has to be brave enough to
indulge. David Cronenberg is happy to take you by the hand and drag you
through it, and he rewards you for it. This definitely makes it one of
the top horror films of the 80's, and I would not be surprised if
Cronenberg dominates that list.
My prior vacation day, I felt I was clinging to my past. This most recent one(s), old is how I feel.
With
a three-day weekend, I think I got a lot accomplished. There is a new
tattoo. Peoria bars were fun with genuine interactions, and I made it to more of them than usual. I
paid my respect to Stacia Marie Hardin
and discovered a cool block of shops in Pekin. Who would not call
the last Co Op records in the Heart of Illinois being located by a
thrift shop and a used bookstore operated by TAPS No Kill Shelter
(featuring kittens and a polydactyl cats) a little slice of heaven in a
town whose mascot was once the Chink? To the town's credit, the appropriation of the dragon into their municipal logos is cool.
Since
I will end up at some point putting out an abridged version of this
post, let me fill up some space. Thanks Redbox for the reasonable
Blu-ray rental price and the inflated DVD rental fees. We as a society
need to rid ourselves of standard def. Screw those who hate change.
There is a good chance they will further ruin the country in a week. Let
me have this.
This
left me with a dilemma. I had a movie to watch and I would not be back
from the bank until 6:15 pm. There was still dinner to make. So apologies
for rushing through about five minutes of this Ruby Rose feature. The
feeling of victory getting it back to an appropriate vending machine with 10 minutes to spare
warrants this action. And it at least gave me some good vibes from this
film.
The Doorman
Ali
Gorski has recently been honorably discharged from the Marines. She has
returned to New York City with a Silver Star and PTSD after she was the
sole survivor of a terrorist attack on the ambassador to Romania's
motorcade. This may make it difficult to find
employment, but fortunately, her Vietnam veteran uncle, Pat, has an in
for her at the high end apartment complex where he is serves as the
maintenance man. Unbeknownst to her, her late sister's family lives in
the building.
Her brother-in-law, Prof. John Stanton, is a pretentious Brit who holds
himself responsible for the past strife between his wife and Ali and
her subsequent leaving to join the
military to begin with.
The
building has been around since Prohibition, so it is currently
undergoing renovation. It is about to kick off in full force, but the
Stanton's have arranged to stay in over the Easter weekend before
waiting out the updates in London. As for the other residents, only the
nice elderly couple that have been living on the ground floor will be
staying through out it.
The
husband is a stroke survivor who does not like change (I wish I could
get the names of these characters, but it appears both these performers
chose to forgo being credited.). No one knows that this man has smuggled out
priceless painting from East Berlin who has hid them in their original
apartment that now belongs to the Stantons. No one except the other
doorman, Borz, and his true employer, Victor Dubois.
A
serendipitous mint sauce spill leads to Ali going to visit this couple
to see if they had any leftover sauce to borrow. This means Ali is not
present when her family has been taken by Dubois and his crew. Seeing
that the elder's apartment had been raided and the couple murdered, Ali
will use her particular set of skills to takedown these ruthless thieves
and save the only family she has left.
Oh
how the mighty have fallen. It is disappointing that "The Doorman" is
the first leading role that Ruby Rose has had on film since she broke
out with "Orange Is the New Black", but what makes this project even
worse is that it was directed by Ryuhei Kitamura. Kitamura is the
director who put one of my favorite goregasmic sequences on film in "The Midnight Meat Train" and helmed the innovative Yakuza zombie film "Versus". On the upside you get a chatty Jean Reno as a villain, but his French charms cannot polish the dialogue enough.
And recalling "Meat Train", are you telling me that there was not a spot for Vinnie Jones in this cast? "The Big Ugly"
was good, but definitely not something you would release at an AMC. He
is definitely an expense I think this film could have afforded. I am not
asking him to be the lead, but set this flick in London and make this
about an ex-sergeant in the royal army, you have a lot more talent in
terms of action to pull from. It would be better than Aksel Hennie
trying to impersonate Bill Burr from "The Mandalorian".
Could Rose not pull off an English accent? Her American is really solid.
The
premise of a female-lead "Die Hard" has legs, but since I immediately
went into how this project could have been saved, the misses make this
film seem like it was directed by an Imperial stormtrooper.
There
is only one scene with any amusing dialogue. The close quarter action
sequences are shot horribly. It does not help that our villains cannot
die with any believability in there death throws. Any kind of exterior
makes it seem like Tommy Wiseau was in Kitamura's ear. I am just hoping
this was
a rush job in terms of direction or something was lost in translation
from the script. Any action sequence outside the finale is choreographed
well enough, but it feels like your brain is squinting to catch that.
"The
Doorman" is a painful miss on many levels. After "John Wick: Chapter
2", I want to see Ruby Rose as the next action heroine (Angelina Jolie
and Charlize Theron may only have a decade left in terms of spryness.).
When you see Jean Reno on the poster, you expect a clever action flick.
It is one thing to not deliver on either of those, but when you fail to
present something watchable with those elements, that is damn near
criminal, especially from a director whose prime may only be a decade
ago.
It
was the start of a new month at the bank yesterday, so I had my hands
full with monthly tasks. Catching up on all the news websites did not
occur, but there really is not much news, so at least I am not too far
behind. The holding pattern and perhaps this unlikely democracy ends
tonight, so at least I do not need to worry about having the time to
fill with new content.
A negative result to the election would be a Catch 22 for this creative sole. If we
fall into a dictatorship, cutting myself off from media means more
writing. Of course, I can only talk about so many movies and so much
wrestling.
I
guess I am just in an existential conundrum. It is a chaotic time and I
start to think about all the consequences this election will have. This
leads me to worry about the worst and what should be done to resolve
it. There are hopes that someone wiser takes this decision away from us
Americans.
That
was suppose to be a transition to my review of the theatrical
adaptation of "Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons", but it looks like I
am just being Anakin Skywalker emo in the fields of Naboo, calling on
someone wise to rule. The depression must be real.
To
my credit, I am just asking for someone to end the corruption, not
necessarily rule. At least this "Deathstroke" feature has a protagonist
wise enough to know he cannot take power when he shakes up a government.
Too bad I am left with more dread from the "Teen Titans Go!"
interpretation of this character.
"Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons: The Movie"
Slade
Wilson is a loving family man. He has been happily married to his wife
Adeline and they have a son Joseph who is fascinated by the world of
legend from the books his father reads to him. Joseph sees his father as a
knight saving the world from the evils that exist. This perception
could not be further from the truth.
Wilson
is also the mercenary Deathstroke. He is the product of an army medical
testing to create a means to make their soldiers heal faster. The
military along with his wife thought these experiments failed, so this
allows Wilson
and his former MI6 handler, Wintergreen, sell this one man army's
services to the highest bidder. Whoever wins the auction best be aware
though, Deathstroke will provide them only if you are worthy enough.
The
Hive, a collective of amoral assassins, know they are not worthy of
Wilson's services, but they still want the best on their team. Led by
the Jackal, they decide that surely Wilson will trade his independence
for his sons life. They soon find out not to underestimate his abilities
as he leaves only one of his son's captors alive. Ironically, this
ordeal exposes his double life, so Adeline leaves him and decides to send Joseph, now
mute, to Swiss boarding school to protect him.
10
years later, Wilson receive a communication from the Hive Queen. It
turns out that the organization has rebuilt itself and has ambitions of
world domination. These ambitions again involve his son, whom they have
discovered has telekinetic and telepathic powers. The Queen claims, if
Deathstroke is a handgun, the newly christened Jericho is a nuclear
bomb. Both Wilsons will have to come together to not only save their
son, but the world.
"Deathstroke:
Knights and Dragons: The Movie" has some fun moments, but as a fan of
DC media, accepting a heroic take on "The Terminator" is difficult. This
feature is the final product of what was to be a 12-episode digital
series, and the inconsistency of the production make that more than
evident. It is not necessarily bad, but it is an unquestionable misfire.
Titmouse,
the studio I know best for "Metalocalypse" and "Superjail!" (Yes, "The
Venture Bros." too, but the "chirp" logo does not stand out as much as
it does with their 11-minute productions of pure insanity.) was behind
this production. It appears they were trying to capture a middle ground
visually between the more hand-drawn look of "The Venture Bros" and the
flash-based look of their more experimental shorts. It just does not end
up fitting well together. Like the the story.
This
project was originally intended to 12 30-minute episodes leads to a
lot of edits that result in pacing that goes from slow to panicked in a
breath. As a result, the plot becomes overly ambitious for the runtime.
You can either have an origin tale, or the end of the world. You cannot
have both.
Nothing
outside the script and animation is overly impressive. I like the
casting of go to black Englishman Colin Salmon as Wintergreen/Black
Alfred, but none of the actors really stand out. "The Shield" is a show I
might need to watch to appreciate Michael Chiklis as the lead. Until then, his
"Robot Chicken" appearances have landed better with me.
And
I could not get over this heroic light they place on Deathstroke. It is
inconsistent with everything I have seen. Granted, his origin tale is
foreign to me, but when you lose an eye to Damian Wayne in "Son of
Batman", it is difficult to be sold on you as noble. They try to balance
this hero persona with the graphic means of dispatching henchmen,
but when that is only 20-minutes of content, the rest of his actions
make him seem dull and incapable of harassing the Teen Titans.
Deathstroke
may deserve his own product, but like the Joker, he does not deserve a
redemption tale. Because of this, I wonder how "Deathstroke: Knights
& Demons" made it out of the development stages. If the production
was solid, it could have saved this feature from being weak, but it does
not change the fact that it was a bad idea to begin with.
It
is a bad time for this nation to be in a holding pattern. A part of me
wishes Donald Trump would do something dramatic, like when H.W. Bush
found a reason to bomb Iraq before 1992 ended. In other words, I finally
gave into buying a microphone to podcast with. If there is not any
drama, what is there to podcast about?
Is
that what I should put down in my Tinder, Bumble, Coffee Meet Bagel,
and OK Cupid profiles (Zoosk and Plenty of Fish have lost their
usefulness.)? Single chonk male looking for podcast cohost.
I
guess my first podcast could be an oral history of "Main Event of the
Dead" and the Fangoria-panned "Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies". Do not take my
noting of a negative review as a personal attack Mr. Knotts. My
bringing up the name of the most famous/infamous horror movie magazine
is being used as a transition to the following movie review, The
Fangoria co-production, "VFW", a more horrific and authentic story of old
soldiers kicking ass.
VFW (2019)
The
opioid epidemic has further evolved. A new drug called Hype has hit the
market, but with limited supplies, junkies know as hypers are quick to
becoming homicidal to get their score from whomever they can. This has
lead to such an influx in crime that the police have taken to sheltering
in place leaving the public to fend for themselves. Fortunately, if you
do not have much worth taking, the criminal element leaves you alone.
Thus, Fred and his Vietnam War buddies can kickback and relax at VFW
2494.
Well,
they could just chill out as the world burns, but a young woman with
$500,000 of hype barges is as she runs from a couple of machete-wielding
drug dealers. This assault results in Korean War vet Doug being critically
injured and Fred quickly responding with a shotgun barrage that leaves
one of the assailants minus a skull and the other retreating. It turns
out that the girl, Lizard, has stolen the drugs to ruin Boz, the kingpin
responsible for her sister's death.
If
that is not enough motivation for the hypers to attack the VFW, Boz's
brother is the thug who lost his head. This leaves our crew of 70
somethings and an Army Ranger who has just returned from the longest war
in a position where they cannot negotiate their way out of
it. Too bad for Boz that being under siege is where this crew feels most
comfortable. Fred's crew is quick to make the bar into a trap the
Vietcong would admire. When the opponents army is a bunched of crazed
junkies, placing a bet on the Veterans of Foreign Wars seems like a
sound one.
"VFW"
scratches itches for lots of genre fans. The gore hounds will be happy
with the effects. Grindhouse fans will love the aesthetic and style.
Action aficionados will love the legendary line up and the brutality
they express. It could have been a little more tongue-in-cheek for my
taste, but how ridiculous can a feature safely be?
My
favorites features in this grindhouse revival (outside of "Death
Proof") are the Soska Sisters' "Dead Hooker in a Trunk" and Jason
Eisener's "Hobo with a Shotgun". I am just a fan of the gimmicky nature.
You can still be visceral, but the audience knows the humor is always
present. "VFW" does not have the same, "This is a joke" nature so you
are applauding the ridiculous over the top violence. Some may say that
the audience is seeing humor from the craziness (Like when Edward
Norton's Narrator demolishes Jared Leto's Angelface in "Fight Club"),
but crazy is not
always funny. If you watch this film without focusing on finding humor
where it is not, "VFW" is a nice change of pace from the overtly
outlandish genre.
The
visual style fits perfectly with the grindhouse genre. It is grainy and
dirty. There are times where a little light could have helped the flick
out, but when you are paying six legendary performers (Stephen Lang, Fred
Williamson, William Sadler, Martin Kove, David Patrick Kelly, and George
Wendt), interior lights can be considered a budgetary luxury. My only issue with the
budget is they did not give John Ratzenberger a seat at the bar. Maybe
Pixar said no.
To
accompany the grime, you have a John Carpenteresque score. I may need
to rewatch this after stating that because outside of the action, there
is a lot of generic metal on the soundtrack. For the director, Joe
Begos, this is the best compliment I think I can offer. It felt so much
like "Prince of Darkness" or "Assault of Precint 13" that my brain going
to a synthesizer default means you have captured greatness with this
homage.
The
most important thing about "VFW" is that it looks like everyone is
having fun. There have definitely been better Sadler, Williamson, and
Kelly performances, but this is not high art. It is a payday and
probably a brief one at that. I find that it can be very charming for a film
to feel like they just went out and shot it and were then done with
it...
There
are a lot of features that try to gather a bunch of once beloved stars
together to make some bank solely based on nostalgia. About 50% of the
time, they decide to just give these actors a check but no screenplay.
"VFW" is not one of those features.
"VFW"
is aware that it is putting great and always competent actors in a
place where there charms can carry the ridiculous. This allows everyone
an in when it comes to watching this film. After they are in, be it
gore, nostalgia, or action, everyone will find something great and
should leave happy. You leave really wishing that blockbusters focused
on being instant classics instead of being risk-less cash grabs.
*Blog post started on December 10, 2020. "It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want To" review is from 2009.
"The Velocipastor" is a film so set on being a B-movie, you admire its
audacity to do so. It is a fun 70 minutes about a priest cursed by a
Chinese dinosaur "tooth" who, a long with Carol the pre-med, pre-law
hooker, takes on the challenge of Catholic drug-dealing ninjas.
"It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want To": The Catalyst for "Main Event of the Dead".
I
suppose some credit should go to Christopher R. Mihm's "It Came from
Another World" and of course the Drunken Zombie Deadly Double Features
where I saw these films. The point is, when you see a bunch of amusing
pictures that were made by a bunch of friends gathering together to make
a thing, regardless of how nonexistent a budget was, why would you not
think that you could do the same. Thus, I went from writing an indie
flick about blueprints for my in ring wrestling return to what I thought
would be an ode to the fledgling Peoria's wrestling scene.
This
idea was over at Richard's on Main St. (i.e. the middle aged). Too bad the Pekin kids and
Southside stoners never went out to the bars. Social media was also
something that was not a big draw for these types in the early 20-teens.
The Facebook traffic picked up, but the people you wanted to
immortalize would only respond to me if I was calling them out for being
racist assholes or self absorbed and ignorant wrestlers (To be fair,
you can accuse me of being self absorbed, but I have never gone out to
ruin anyone's life or make them feel less for that.).
Needless
to say, I do not think the word had ever gotten to them that there was a
chance to be covered in pasty makeup and Karo Syrup. More importantly,
their in ring skills were to be documented and viewed by lesser
film festivals and top level indie wrestling promotions. How can you say
no to promoting yourself?
That
sums up the Peoria wrestling scene. It is all about friends doing
favors for other friends. Who needs merit and effort when you just have
to score some boys some weed, make the high ones chuckle, or just kiss
ass to the biggest and most obnoxious marks? As long as you are not
looking for a pay day or show ambition to make a name for yourself, you
are in.
It
is coming up on 10 years of trying to live and die by this script. If
you want me to have a New Year's Resolution, I suppose I will get my
pilot script out for an idea that has been rattling in my brain the past
four years. Too bad I feel gratuitous nudity is needed. That idea
prevents YouTube from allowing me those producer and director
credits I have been craving.
If
you do not have a budget, bare skin can make up for those shortcomings.
Too bad I do not know how to add zombies into the pilot idea.It leaves me short of presenting a classic like:
"It's My Party and I'll If I Want To" (2007): The Review
Tom
Savini's hard nipples, a comic book opening with an eight-bit motif, a
budget that was seemingly solely spent on scary contact lenses, and an
Elvira costume-sporting, ginger karate expert with stunt tits are what
Scotchworthy Productions delivers with their Halloween-themed clusterfest,
"It's My Party and I'll Die If I Want To."
Sarah,
a switchblade-wielding over achiever is down because it seems that all
of her friends have forgotten her birthday. This is not the case because
they are planning a wicked party for her at the abandoned Burkitt
Manor. The mansion is infamous for the 15 murders that occurred there
over the past 70 years. Little do they know that after Uncle Tom
(Savini) turned the power on to the joint, evil has awoken.
"It's
My Party..." story eventually gets all jumbled and, aside from the
survivalism element, makes no sense once the action kicks in.
Fortunately, there is plenty of gore to make all of the violence
worthwhile.
Everything
that Tony Wash's film has is over the top which is essential for
an awesome B-Movie. Character generalizations, gratuitous nudity, and
attempts to be clever: This picture knows what is is and wants to excel
at.
Having
not seen "Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead", this maybe the best
no budget flick to have played Peoria (At least until "The Drunken
Zombie International Film Festival" brought us the Soska Sisters' debut
feature "Dead Hooker in a Trunk"). As long as you can deal with the low
body count, "It's My Party and I'll Die if I Want To" has something for
every fan of B-Movie horror. Rarely, do all the bloody pieces fit so
well.
All the ratty clothes that I do not want Mom to throw out have been washed. I have yet to open up the vape from my last NuEra
visit, but when you have a bit of liquidity to your finance, further
stockpiling seemed like a wise move. If only it was not next door to my
laundromat, the dispensary might be out of mind. Mooching water from my
places of work has been optimized. This all means that I am ready to
hibernate for the winter.
At
least I am more ready for winter than those Charmin Bears. Get a bidet.
You can use less with Charmin, but the fur must still require more bog
rolls than what I use. Then again, they might be stuck on the product
because of a perineal fixation, but bidet manages that better.
The
hibernation talk is because I am just feeling exhausted. It might
be the diabetes, but the sudden onset of this throws me off. After all
of the reestablishing a relationship with OSF, I think these symptoms
have suddenly become prevalent. Or it could just
be 2020.
2020
is perhaps the year that Trump's America deserved. Too bad they just
reject any kind of suggestion in the name of liberty. Since
we all know they are delusional, it is easy just to ignore them when
their deity will soon be forced off his pedestal. If you consider his
health and skin color, calling him a golden cow is not much of a
stretch. You figure his moronic followers are more aware of the Old
Testament than the new based on the values they display.
If
only they understood irony. If they did, we would not have to worry
about hate crimes before the term ends. I am little bit concerned for
the President Elect with a Friday the 13th coming up. Otherwise, a
weekend with great wrestling and a decent 90-minute flick, it is the
closest I have been to being carefree in a while.
When
a liberal elite's server was hacked, a text thread about a manor in
Vermont was leaked online. It suggests that these elite gather up
deplorable conservatives, take them to this manor, and hunt them for
sport to serve as an outlet for their frustration with them pushing the
racist, homophobic, and antiscience views of the 45th president. The
far right conspiracies' web presences have dubbed it Manorgate.
If
this is happening, the left does not have to worry about their safety,
so no one with any sense takes it seriously. For those who lack that, a
fresh dozen of likely QAnon followers have woken up in the woods in what
seems to be the middle of nowhere. In a clearing, they find a
crate filled with weapons. Once they have all grabbed their firearm of
choice, they soon realize they are the latest guests at the Manor. It is
a controlled environment, so there is likely no escape. Here's hoping
the stereotypes about militia fans are true because their lives depend on those pseudo military skills.
"The Hunt" was the satire I needed to cleanse my palette of the matriarchal suggestion of "The Second Civil War".
It finds the middle ground to judge both sides from and provides a
story where stuff actually happens instead of just trying to be clever
with dialogue. If there is a flaw, it is that the violence could have
been more grindhouse inspired for my taste.
The
humor comes from the absurdity of the situations and the characters. So
I think that calls for absurd violence instead of generally brief (yet
graphic) or implied brutality. Gore is absurd, thus appropriate.
Especially when the film's premise sparked immediate controversy and was
so volatile that the release date got pushed back due to the Dayton and
El Paso mass shootings. If you are going to even release such a
feature, you should go for broke.
Fortunately,
the story itself is solid and involving enough that you could have
almost gotten away with a near bloodless production. The beauty of the
feature is that the viewer cannot like anyone on either side except our
primary survivor who never mentions their politics in the picture. You
want everyone to get their comeuppance except the character with the
live and let live attitude outside the Manor and kill or be killed in
it. Everyone is going to die in a story like this, but it is rare that
you get to applaud every death.
Production
wise, there is not much to complain about. Director Craig Zobel has
some difficulty filming action in closed off environments, but this is a
hunt, so most of the kills are sudden and no one gets to fight back.
Because of this, any director could have taken on this project, but Zobel
was brave enough to do so.
Obviously,
the script is brilliant. It shows the world from a centrist light
and avoids telling the audience how to resolve the issues. Anyone with
an extreme viewpoint is a danger to the masses, so do not become one of
them is the moral. The liberal Hollywood trick to it is that the left in
this film has a point to make. Good satire still needs the viewer to pick a side.
That side characters could be flawed and awful, but their message is
still valid.
All
"The Second Civil War" did was just say identity politics are going to
ruin the nation. It did not dare say that there was away to avoid it.
Otherwise, it is a great cast delivering dialogue that can offer funny
premises, but nothing is done with them. "The Hunt" delivers on the
absurd nature of both sides with the moral of do not let you politics
make you a douche. "The Boys" has a similar message at the end of the
second season, but I got to be careful with my C-bombs.
"The
Hunt" provides the audience with a crazy premise and delivers on the
promise of a high moron kill count. Both sides can enjoy it and
reflect on who they really are as people, provided they have the
patience and stomach for the feature.
As
a straight satire, I had as much fun watching "The Hunt" as I did
"Doctor Strangelove". If a director of Kubrick's skill had directed
this, it would be a modern masterpiece. But we all like looking over Da
Vinci's sketches, so give this a view.
A common complaint about legendary Italian horror director Dario Argento
is that his directorial style being based around his visuals, instead
of his story. With La terza Madre, Dimension Extreme’s "Mother of Tears",
may have been his attempt to dispel this and surprisingly does not span
beyond the gore that is associated with the genre, thus may have taken
away the chance for its American distributor to claim some of their
films as art.
Witches from all over the world are flocking to Italy’s capitol. Crime
is rampant, mothers are murdering their children, and the only person
who might be able to stop the rise of the Mother of Tears is Sarah (Asia
Argento from XXX, Land of the Dead). She is the daughter of the white witch whose life ended during her battle with the Mother of Sighs (from Argento’s Suspiria). With latent powers inherited from her mother, no other person may be able to prevent the “Second Fall of Rome.”
Being filmed in English and not having the opportunities for the large
scale shots Argento is known for, fans of the director might be
disappointed in the conclusion to the "Three Mothers" trilogy. It
does not seem as prolific as his other films, and the story is very
linear. There is little mystery in the story, so the viewer does not
have to think.
Not being forced to think may or may not be a bad thing.On one hand, the images might be considered more disturbing because there does not seem to be a motive for them.On the other, if there is no motivation, do they have to be so frequent?Does the audience have to bare witness to vivid deaths of more than one child?Without reasoning behind them, it can be declared tasteless, and even a waste of characters.
Asia
Argento delivers a great performance as the European-raised American
lead, but with the accent, some might thing that it is what a Winona
Ryder performance would be like if delivered immediately after the
shoplifting incident.Otherwise, all of the other characters have nothing behind them.The
first male lead is set up to have the story be based around Sarah’s
experiences with him and his tragedy, but he is dropped from the film to
introduce three more characters that take on the mentoring role.
One of these mentors is portrayed by classic horror actor Udo Kier (Blade,Shadow of the Vampire,Andy Warhol’s Dracula).It was a horrible decision to cast him in this role because the final mentor is an elderly gentleman.In the end, the final male lead becomes a police detective who probably has less than ten lines in the film. No story should have so many disposable characters.
If one gets past the overly populated story,Mother of Tears may be the best filmed Gothic horror picture of the decade.No one can question Argento’s ability as a director, but the audience has to put up with a lot to witness it.Some might think it is to over the top and offensive, but if those who stick with it may leave happy.Not for the casual horror fan, or the Italian horror fan,Mother of Tears, may just be a picture that missed its mark.
The
film that is about to be reviewed is 1 hour and 46 minutes long. It is
being featured because it is the first sequel to one of the greatest
horror movies of all time, Dario Argento's "Suspiria" (Luca Guadagnino's 2018's re-imagining of this film is worthwhile as well). As I established in my blog, "Kickboxer: Retaliation" How to Warrant 110 Minutes and I, the Retarded Garland",
a sequel can deserve more time than its predecessor because we want the
previous world to be expanded. This is a far better example of the
concept than the "Kickboxer" franchise. With that said, I am still
shivering in anticipation for the conclusion to the latest Kurt Sloane
trilogy.
European directors
tend to want to capture everything on film. Many times, they shoot to
the point of boredom. Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows" is beautiful,
but it takes forever to get going. Nothing of notes happens in that
film's first half. It is like watching a Monet dry. We appreciate it,
but we want to load it on the truck now.
Italian
horror and its godfather Dario Argento (perhaps the most subtle of
the genre's directors) have similar tendencies. Argento is in love with his vision (He is
never afraid to tell critics and actors that.), but the stories he
offers to express it can be hit or miss. Fortunately, he would rather
show a gimp being eaten by rats than a child on a carnival ride playing
hooky. If only Truffaut would have had the child ground in the
centrifuge's gears.
"Inferno"
is the story of the youngest and cruelest of the three mothers, Mater
Tenebrarum (Mother of Darkness). Rose is a poet that lives in an old
building in New York whom, after reading the book "The Three Mothers",
suspects she is living in that witch's home. She puts it upon herself to
explore the building's basement where she finds an underwater ballroom
with a corpse floating around in it. This leaves her desperate for her
brother Mark to return from Rome to help unravel the mystery.
Unbeknownst to Rose, Mark is dealing the mystery that is Mater Lachrymarum (Mother of Tears)
the most beautiful and powerful of the mothers. After receiving the
letter from his sister, he seems to be stalked by that witch, and his
friend are becoming her latest victims.
Can
these modern siblings solve the mystery behind these grisly
occurrences, or are they going to be additional casualties to the
ancient sisters' evil ways?
"Inferno"
does not offer much when it comes to story. The tale establishes that
all the characters are seen as disposable, so we will wait around to see
who makes it out alive. Any other narrative shortcomings are conquered
by Argento's directorial style, and his efforts in creating beautiful and nightmarish
visuals are remarkable.
The
submerged ballroom (His homage to his once one of a kind classic
"Suspiria's" use of bright and limited primary colors) and effects inspired by
Mario Bava, justify filming the entire feature in Rome. This effort is as
valid as Jeff Bridges's performance being the only reason to see "Crazy
Heart". Talent can conquer almost any limitations.
If
there is a genuine reason to be disappointed, it is that it may not be
shocking enough when it is compared to other Italian horror legends like
Lucio Fulci. There are no victims who fight back, and little worthwhile gore.
It is artistic, but not disgusting.
This is an Italian film. We deserve at least an image that reminds us of "Zombi 2". It must be why "Mother of Tears" was so over the top. Argento was apologizing for the lack of nightmare future in that film's predecessors.
If
you are a fan of sheer directorial talent, Dario Argento's "Inferno"
is a prime example of what can be done with only a premise. Argento is a
demanding auteur who may have been a generation too old to serve as an
ideal music video director. If only he could have got into that realm of film making if only to
bury Russell Mulcahy in the sands that his feature find so necessary to
feature.
The
heat is now on. I think I have a notebook from 2010 with some movie
reviews for the nights where I get too drunk or too high to watch
something for content, but it is inevitable that I will run out of those
at some point. Time has caught up to my content. This is probably a
good thing, and then I recall having a half day on Wednesday for a
dental appointment.
Everyday
is a mid-80's Kenny Loggins song or an "Archer" joke. I thought I could
apply "The Heat Is On" but that was Glenn Frey. When you consider that
Loggins's last 80's soundtrack contribution was for "Caddyshack II",
perhaps my joke description of my life works.
Really,
the only content pressure is trying to make sure it takes up enough
space on the blog layout. Unless I am coming back from the weekend, how
much crazy shit can happen to me in the matter of a day (I start
promoting blogs on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday)? This indicates that I
should write next Monday's entry on Thursday. At least I have a dentist
appointment the previous night. Oral stuff make for great content.
As
for my weekend, my back is in shambles. It could be standing for 18
hours over the retailers Black Friday sales and moving large and awkward
boxes. It could be old age (I have had this injury since I was 16, so
more than have my life). It could be the evil of my subconscious wanting
to get some familiar sympathy from my immediate family that is dealing
with a COVID outbreak. No, I have not called my folks to plead for
advice on how to deal with it.
This
is probably nerve damage because it turns out that sitting directly on
the heating pad seemed to provide me with some relief. I tried to lay
down, but how would I have been able to distract myself with 2010's "The
Losers", a film that must have thought the moderate success of the
R-Rated, Jeffery Dean Morgan starring "Watchmen" could translate into
PG-13 gold. Since Morgan is known best for characters whose murders all
revolve around pregnancy, the result seems easy to predict.
The Losers (2010)
Colonel
Clay is the head of an elite special ops unit that takes on a mission
that is way too easy for their skill set. All they had to do was laser
tag a drug lord's Bolivian home so that it can be bombed by the air
force. It suddenly becomes complicated when they find 25 child drug
mules being dropped off at the hacienda, only eight minutes before the
air strike. An attempt to abort the mission is made, but instead of your
standard higher up responding, a man named Max tells them he knew about
the collateral damage in a gloating fashion.
The
team goes on and rescues all the kids before the contact. Clay also
kills the drug lord but before that, the villain warns him about Max and
his intentions. This warning reigns true after the team loads the kids
on to their extraction helicopter. A fighter jet shoots
the chopper down, killing all on board. Since it was suppose to be our
heroes, they determine it is best to throw their dog tags into the
wreckage knowing that they will be hunted down otherwise.
Three
months later, the team is losing hope that they can ever return to the
States. Clay's lieutenant, Rogue, believes that his leader's intention
to avenge the deaths and their expulsion is going to keep them where
they are. This means he is very skeptical when Clay introduces the team
to Aisha, a wanted woman who offers to bankroll a mission to bring Max
down. He can be skeptical, but when you have lost everything, you have
to take on any gamble. What do you have to lose?
When
you start a film with an assault that is reminiscent of the first
action sequence in "Predator" and then kill 25 kids, your feature needs
to reach for that R-Rating. Instead, "The Losers" is an effort to be an
edgy comic book feature through innuendo. Violence and morally flexible
heroes are what brought me to the feature, so it is sad to find a bad
special effects feature where the heroes will do no wrong.
The
direction shows the limitations of this project. Brutal violence is
only implied so that mom and pop can bring their kids to it. This does
not work because when you see the action that is going to be taken only
to pull away while the carnage is delivered, the cold and clever
characters are left toothless. If we are watching "The Losers" when "The
A-Team" is coming out two month later, we want a brutal version of that
concept. When you cast the most morally reprehensible superhero to date
as your lead, what else are we to expect?
The
script also fails to work with the runtime. At first, I was enjoying
the jump from action scene to action scene, but once the feature slows
down to try and force a chemistry-lacking romance and leave us with a
questionably motivated Idris Elba as Rogue, the pacing falls apart. This
led me to think that the challenges for the Losers needed to be more
complex, "Mission Impossible" like sequences as a reward for the phoned
in exposition. Instead, you get CGI explosions and toned down "Die Hard"
deaths.
Speaking
of phoned in, some of the actors are guilty of that. I may have to
rewatch "The Reaping" (I may, but I will not.) to see if this was the
first disappointing Idris Elba performance. When you see how his
character's story arc resolves, you can understand why. Zoe Saldana
seems to just push through the need to be interested in the more rugged
and older Morgan, but if the script will not be subtle with developing
chemistry, force is all you have.
It
is a pity that the script resulted in these lackluster performances
because Chris Evans finds the perfect medium between Captain America and
Ransom from "Knives Out" in terms of snarkiness while Columbus Short
and Oscar Jaenada round off the comedic elements of the team well. Jason
Patric and Holt McCallany also have a great villain relationship and
are both going for broke knowing that the audience will want to see
that.
"The
Losers" has some fun performances but cannot overcome the
production having no clue about how to sell this idea. It promises to cram
in a lot of darker comic book elements into a 97-minute package, but
believing the potential audience would be cut in half, backs down on
everything it proposes. After "The Boys" and that year's "Kick Ass" bad
boys are allowed to do bad things. But with this failure, "The Losers"
is just a lost opportunity to give us a grounded "Deadpool" tale.
I
think we will get into the post's movie review rather quickly (Spoiler: So I thought.). Yes,
Trump is starting to accept reality, but it has only been a day since I
knocked out my review for the tragic misuse of the North American
treasure, Keanu Reeves, in "Siberia".
If there is a video game titled with the same pronunciation of your
movie title (As I verified that on Wikipedia, I found out that "Cyberia"
was also the title of a UK-based industrial act called Cubanate. At
least one positive came out of that $0.55 rental.), we are not expecting
romance to trump the diamond smuggling drama.
It
is actually appropriate that I finally opened my first Netflix DVD of
the billing cycle, "Slither", because I just got word today of a
COVID-19 outbreak at my parents' house. At least Mom (Negative while older sister and Dad are positive.) will appreciate
that this feature is from the guy who brought Rocket and Groot to the
big screen.
The
more I think about, the more spooked I get. Dad has beaten cancer thrice,
survived a heart attack before those scares, and successfully held off
the diabetic diagnosis for nearly 70 years (about twice as long as I
did). He even won a trivia night at The Fox Pub when a
kidney stone decided to it needed to be passed during the game. If anyone can beat the disease it is him, but I worry that
writing about it is just going to jinx him.
And
when I take into account when his father died, the patriarchy fell
apart. Grandpa went, the truth about his prejudices came out, and then
the subsequent families started feuding. The last couple of years have
left me pondering some of his (or Mom's expressed through him) biases,
but I cannot help but wonder if the four children and wife will be
warring. Regardless of my differences with my folks and younger siblings
(I shared a room with my brother from his birth until the little sister
went to ISU. My first roommate upon moving out was my little sister.),
we have always gotten a long. If I look back at my mom and her family
when my great grandparents passed, it just seems like everything can (will) go
to hell with a loss in a family (A bitter sibling of Mom's came back to our life upon their mom's death.).
If
I would have gotten the news about yesterday, "Slither" would have been
the ideal, ironic distraction. But, it is Tuesday. "AEW Dark" just cannot
muster a card up to take the edge off and you know my unwatched movies
are all a little too far on the dark side to relax to. Did I enjoy "Slither"
enough to purchase it on iTunes (It was $4.99 and yes, it was purchased)?
Slither (2006)
Wheelsy,
South Carolina is so busy getting ready for deer hunting season, no one
notices a meteorite that crashes in the nearby woods. If there is any
noticeable drama, it is the gossip about the relationship between the
prettiest biology teacher at the high school, Starla, and her wealthy,
older husband, Grant. Sheriff and codependent childhood friend of
Starla, Bill suspects and accepts that it is a marriage of convenience,
and trusts she made the best decision while he still longs for her.
Unfortunately,
if there was any flame, it is waning. Feeling rejected, Grant decides
to go out to a bar and flirts with Brenda, a fellow classmate of Starla.
They drunkenly end up in the woods. He thinks better of pursuing an
affair, and had the perfect way out of the situation. The two have
stumbled upon the meteorite, and Grant chooses to investigate the slime
that is trailing away from it. In an inebriated state, Grant ends up to
close to the larva like organism and is stung. After regaining
consciousness, he has only one thing on his mind. Meat.
Beyond
Grant's carnivorous obsession, everything seems normal and perhaps
better in terms of his marriage. That is until his cravings lead to him
skipping out on the Deer Cheer Dance, a celebration to kickoff hunting
season. It turns out he skipped out to kidnap and impregnate Brenda with
his parasite. When Starla finds him at home after the dance, he is
starting to mutate into something alien as well.
Bill
is investigating the disappearance of Brenda while Starla is trying to
figure out what Grant is hiding. After Grant catches Starla snooping
around, he seems intent on killing her, but Bill and his fellow deputies
arrive on the scene. Grant transforms into something that is halfway
between squid and man and escapes. Three days pass, and there are a lot
of dead live stock and pets littering Wheelsy. The impatient mayor and
Bill gather a posse to hunt down Grant, but it turns out Grant was
laying a trap for them.
When
they locate an alive but beyond bloated Brenda, she explodes into thousands of
slugs. These slugs enter their victims through the mouth and allow Grant
to control them. The town is quickly infected, and wanting to reconcile
with his wife, Starla is kidnapped. It is up to Bill and Kylie, a high
schooler who seems to have success fighting these slugs off to save the
day. Here is hoping a grenade compensated from some passing fishermen
will be enough to end this nightmare.
"Slither"
is a close to perfect horror comedy for adults. It features the body
horror you typically see in David Cronenberg features while always being
aware that you may just need to laugh in the face of the ridiculous, no
matter how horrific it maybe. In a way, this feature is "Gremlins"
without the constraint of a PG rating. The story has a lot of elements
that are laid out wonderfully, leading to a roller coaster scream of
joy.
With
having so much rising action, the audience may get annoyed that there
is not gore through out, but the audience is treated to great
performances from Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, and Michael Rooker
that give you the expectation that when it hits the fan, it must be
spectacular. The only annoying thing about any of the acting is that
with the exception of Rooker, the southern accents are not to authentic (What is one to expect from a mostly Canadian cast?).
But it is a comedy and James Gunn knows that the audience is coming in
feeling smarter than his characters, so this serves to let the audience
know they are all in on the joke.
Regardless
of the jokes, the gore effects and rejection of the boundaries of good
taste allows the audience to still be shocked and horrified. The humor
allows any audience to stick with it to the end, but the graphic
violence makes sure that horror fans are quite appreciated. The finale
is a bit overly drawn out, but if you are horror aficionado you will
just admire everything Gunn is playing homage to, including his Troma
roots.
If
you are trying to introduce someone to horror who swears they have a
sturdy their stomach is, "Slither" is the perfect flick. The humor will
keep any audience involved while shocking non-genre and amusing the gore
hounds. It is almost sad that this cannot cause the damage that
"Gremlins" did to 80s' kids. I got over that trauma after 30 years.
