DUEL
DUEL-United States-Made for TV-1971
Dennis Weaver as David Mann
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Screenplay by Richard Matheson and based on his short story.
Is Steven Spielberg’s 1971 made-for-TV thriller “Duel” the prototype for his 1976 summer blockbuster “Jaws“? It would be easy to argue that that would indeed be the case. Both are adapted from another medium; “Duel” from Richard Matheson’s short story and “Jaws” from Peter Benchley‘s best-selling novel. Both feature a roller coaster ride of a plot and a silent predator that strikes without warning. In “Duel”, the hapless protagonist is David Mann (Dennis Weaver from “McCloud“) and he is terrorized by a mysterious 18 wheeler hell-bent on his demise. “Jaws” features a great white shark roughly the size of an 18-wheeler that terrorizes the community of Amity, hell-bent on devouring every last swimmer who steps foot in its ocean. Finally, both films feature men who must take desperate action to live another day.
It’s been over 40 years since “Duel” first had TV viewers clutching their armchairs and holding off on their bathroom breaks. Since then Steven Spielberg has directed a long list of some the world’s greatest movies. Some, like “Jaws” and “Jurassic Park” are great simply because they provide a departure for us from our everyday worries and woes. Films like “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan“ show that while Spielberg may have the heart of a kid, he is still able to make films about subjects that are all too adult in theme.
“Duel” falls in the former category of Spielberg’s filmography. It’s a thriller of a film that doesn’t require a lot of thought on the part of the audience. It’s fast-paced fun and full blown terror colliding at 90 miles per hour down a dusty desert highway. Better yet, it’s the type of movie that makes us remember what movies are all about in the first place and that is escape.
TRIVIA
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Like this:
GAMERA:GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE
GAMERA:GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE-Japan-1995
Directed by Shûseke Kaneko
Dialogue by Matt Greenfield
Written by Kazunori Itô
Starring
Akira Onodera
BLOOD LIGHT PRESENTS REAL MONSTERS OF GENIUS
Real Monsters of Genius
Today we salute you, Mr. Giant flying Japanese turtle.
He’s a turtle, not a tortoise!!
You’re the go-to guy when it comes to getting rid of those pesky cannibalistic birds known as the Gyaos.
It’s a giant flying big bird cannibal holocaust crunch and munch!!
Not only can you fly like an eagle, you can shoot mighty flames out of your mouth that look like big giant gas balls.
Ooooooooowwwwww, the big turtle’s got gas so you better stand back!!
But above all that, you managed to form a psychic bond with a really hot teenage girl.
She’s Steven Seagal‘s daughter, but she doesn’t have her daddy’s looks oh thank you, Lord!!
So lift up your flipper, roar that roar you roar so well and take a big Japanese monster flying turtle bow.
You saved us all, you big guy!!
And grab yourself an ice cold BLOOD LIGHT.
You deserve it, big fella!!
All joking aside I’m sure you’re probably asking why I would bother reviewing a Japanese giant monster film. The best answer I can give you is a deceptively simple one; I review it because it’s fun. After reviewing films like “Deadgirl” and “Antichrist” I began to feel down. Neither one of those films could be described as ‘touch me feel me’ films. In fact, they can be downright depressing if you let them. So I knew that I needed a change. That’s where Gamera comes into play. Sometimes you need to review a film that has no hidden social message, no famous big name actors and that makes you feel like a complete and total kid again. Sure, Gamera is a giant flying turtle. Sure, he can fly and shoot giant fireballs and form psychic bonds with teenage girls played by Steven Seagal’s daughter. What’s the big fucking deal about that? I wouldn’t have it any other way.
TRIVIA
The gayos creature was performed by a female actress so that it would convey more ‘feminine’ like behavior. Apparently this was the first time a kaiju was ever performed by a woman.
The film’s Japanese poster is a nearly identical recreation of the Japanese poster of the first film in which Gamera fought Gyaos, Daikaijû kûchûsen: Gamera tai Gyaosu.
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INVITATION TO HELL
INVITATION TO HELL-United States-Made for TV-1984
Robert Urich as Matt Winslow
Joanna Cassidy as Patricia ‘Pat’ Winslow
Directed by Wes Craven
Written by Richard Rothstein
I am totally convinced that Susan Lucci has not sold her soul to the devil. Let’s review; why do people sell their soul to Old Scratch? Nine times out of ten it’s to be richer, stronger, sexier, or to possess an amazing talent. That part about possessing an amazing talent is the part that has me convinced. I mean let’s face it; if the woman had indeed sold her soul to the devil she would have acting talent coming out of her ass and that is just not the case. Take “Invitation to Hell”, for instance. Lucci plays Jessica Jones, the owner of a spa that’s actually the gateway to hell. She attempts to lure Robert Urich and his family into the club in order to possess their souls for all eternity just like she has with anyone else who’s joined. Sorry to use the word ‘possess’ so much, but we’re talking about a movie about the devil so deal with it. Anyway, when you break it down, what is acting but a form of lying? So you would think that an actress portraying the father (mother) of all lies would at least be a little bit convincing. WRONG!! I’ve seen porn actresses that emote better than Ms. Lucci. It’s like watching an oak tree carved to look like Keanu Reeves. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Robert Urich in the film and I have to say I miss the guy. He wasn’t the greatest actor in the world, but he was damn reliable. That’s more than I can say for Susan Lucci. No, I take that back; she is reliable. She’s reliably horrid.
NO TRIVIA
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Like this:
DEADGIRL
DEADGIRL-United States-2008
Noah Segan as JT
Candice Accola as Nikki
Jenny Spain as Deadgirl
Eric Podnar as Wheeler
Andrew DiPalma as Johnny
Michael Bowen as Clint (Image not from “Deadgirl”)
Directed by Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel
Written by Trent Haaga
File this one under F for ‘Fucked Up.’
When you first begin watching “Deadgirl” you think that it’s a representation of teenagers who have no parental supervision and the lengths that they will go to because of that. You would be right about that. Two boys, Rickie (Shiloh Fernandez-”Red Riding Hood”), and JT (Noah Segan-”Brick”) discover a woman chained to a gurney in the basement of an abandoned mental asylum. Ricky wants nothing to do with the whole situation; but JT wades in balls deep into depravity and not only abuses her sexually, but discovers that no matter what he does to her, be it breaking her neck, strangling her or even multiple gunshot wounds, she simple will not die. So, is “Deadgirl” a take on the unsupervised teens of today? Yes, I do believe that it is. But wait, there’s more fun for you boys and girls.
When I reviewed “Pontypool” I thought that it would be a long time before I saw another film that treated the zombie genre as more than just human beings blowing the heads off the undead and the living impaired plodding along begging for brains with vocal cords that have seen better days. I didn’t have to wait very long after all as “Deadgirl” is exactly that type of film. Like “Pontypool” it never mentions the word ‘zombie’ because it doesn’t have to. It treats the viewer like it has a brain and an intelligent one at that. There are also, of course, the obvious reasons why the film belongs in the zombie genre; but I’ll let you watch the film and figure it out for yourself.
As the ‘Deadgirl’, Jenny Spain impressed me. It’s not often that an actress can be naked onscreen the entire time, never utter a word and still make you feel for her and her situation. If the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave an Oscar for ‘Best Performance by an Actor/Actress playing dead’ she would win hands down.
As I said before you can file “Deadgirl” under F for ‘Fucked Up’ and that’s exactly what it is. You can also file it under D for ‘damn good.’
NO TRIVIA
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Like this:
DARK SHADOWS
Michella Pfeiffer as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard
Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Julia Hoffman
Eva Green as Angelique Bouchard
Jonny Lee Miller (r) as Roger Collins and Gulliver McGrath as David Collins
Chloe Grace-Moretz as Carolyn Stoddard
Bella Heathcote as Victoria Winters/Josette DuPres
Directed by Tim Burton
Story by John August and Seth Grahame-Smith
Screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith
Based on the television series created by Dan Curtis
I remember the original “Dark Shadows” a bit differently than everyone else. I was only four years old when the show made its debut in 1966; so I don’t recall watching the show very much, if at all. What my memory does retain about the show and the corpuscle craving Barnabas Collins came from within the pages of my sister’s 16 and Tiger Beat magazines. Don’t laugh; if it had pictures to look at I had my nose stuck in it. Then, as I learned to read I would learn all about the people whose photos I gazed upon in wide-eyed wonder. I discovered that “Dark Shadows” was a popular and scary TV show and that Barnabas Collins was one ‘hunky’ vampire. That is what I remember about the show.
So, it doesn’t bother me that Tim Burton’s big screen adaptation takes a more comedic approach to the story of the Collins family of Collinsport, Maine. The film chronicles the turning of Barnabas Collins from grieving lover to eternal bloodsucker at the hands of the jealous witch Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green in a scenery chewing performance). Resurrected in 1972, Barnabas struggles to adapt to the times as he attempts to restore the Collins name to prominence and resumes his love-hate relationship with the aforementioned Ms. Bouchard.
Johnny Depp does an impressive job as Barnabas Collins; and despite there being an all-star cast that includes Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter, this is Depp’s movie all the way. I have no problem with that. Depp has been a constant in Tim Burton’s films for the past 20 plus years and that’s not going to change anytime soon.
What I do have a problem with is Burton’s balance within the film. Burton’s movies have always been both two parts bright and sunny and one part dark and gloomy, or they’ve been the exact opposite. Sometimes the balance has been just right (Batman, Edward Scissorhands), other times it’s been disastrous (Mars Attacks). Unfortunately, Dark Shadows falls into the latter category. Remember, I said that the comedic approach Burton takes with film doesn’t bother me and I meant that. What does bother me is that I wish he’d remembered to throw in a little more of the “Dark” to go along with the “Shadows.”
TRIVIA
This is Tim Burton’s eighth film with Johnny Depp, his seventh film with Helena Bonham Carter, his fifth film with Christopher Lee, and his second film with Michelle Pfeiffer(Pfeffer had starred in Batman Returns twenty years previously).
Kathryn Leigh Scott reported at the Dark Shadows Festival in Brooklyn (August 19-21, 2011) that she, Lara Parker, David Selby and Jonathan Frid were treated “like royalty” when they arrived on set for their cameos during the first week of July 2011, and thatJohnny Depp walked up to Jonathan Frid and said, “None of this would be possible had it not been for you” referring to Frid’s original portrayal of the Barnabas Collins role and its impact on the success of the original series.
Christopher Lee stars with Jonny Lee Miller in this film; decades earlier, Lee had appeared with Miller’s grandfather Bernard Lee in the OO7 film The Man with the Golden Gun, which was based on a novel written by Lee’s cousin Ian Fleming.
This was Jonathan Frid’s last film.
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Like this:
CROPSEY
CROPSEY-United States-2009
Directed by Barbara Brancaccio and Joshua Zeman
Written by Joshua Zeman
When you think of the Boogeyman, what comes to mind for you? Is it a childhood image of a faceless being that sneaks into your bedroom at night and turns those clothes you threw in the corner into a living, breathing embodiment of evil? Maybe your boogeyman is Michael Myers with his unfinished Captain Kirk mask, his 1000 yard stare and that butcher knife. How about Freddy Krueger? Now there’s a boogeyman for you; a burned child molester with razor sharp knives for fingers.
For the families of Jennifer Schweiger, Holly Ann Hughes, Hank Gafforio, Tiahease Jackson and Alice Pereira the boogeyman may or may not be Andre Rand. When I say ‘may be’ I mean that there is enough circumstantial evidence to show that Rand is the abductor and possible killer of these children. When I say ‘may not be’ I mean that Rand isn’t about to open his mouth and proclaim his guilt. That’s where “Cropsey” comes in. “Cropsey” is a documentary about the crimes, the trial and the aftermath of the case against Andre Rand. Was Rand a child murderer? Was he a pawn in the game of a satanic cult that trafficked in children? “Cropsey” the documentary gives us the information but allows us to form our own opinions as to Rand and his alleged crimes. But I don’t see a documentary about a possible child abductor/child murderer; I see an opportunity to help the families of the victims to have closure. A detective is quoted as saying that when a child is murdered and their body is found that at least that family has a place to visit their body. However, when a child is kidnapped and they have no idea whether they are alive or dead the family will continue to believe that their child is alive until the evidence proves otherwise.
I don’t intend to rate “Cropsey”. Instead, let the drops of blood represent the missing children and the hope that their families will find closure one way or another.
Holly Ann Hughes-Missing since July 15, 1981. She was 7 years old at the time of her disappearance. Her body has not been recovered.
Hank Gafforio-Missing since June 9, 1984. 22 years old at the time of his disappearance, Hank had the mentality of a 15 year old. His body has not been recovered.
Tiahease Jackson-Missing since August 14, 1983. She was 10 years old at the time of her disappearance. Tiahease had a learning disability. Her body has never been recovered.
Alice Pereira-Missing since July 7, 1972. She was five years old at the time of her disappearance. Her body has never been recovered.
Jennifer Schweiger-Missing since July 9, 1987. Her body was found a month later. She had Down’s syndrome.
It is not for my benefit that I list these missing children. I didn’t come away from “Cropsey” as a critic; I came away as a concerned person who wants to help these families find closure. If you have any information regarding these children then please feel free to contact the numbers below. Thank you.
Richmond County District Attorney’s Office (718)-876-6300
Donna Cutugno, the Friends of Jennifer (718)-698-4053
*Note: The disappearances all occurred on Staten Island, New York
TRIVIA
Was awarded Hammer to Nail‘s Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at 2009′s Tribeca Film Festival.
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Like this:
DELIVERANCE
DELIVERANCE-United States-1972
Jon Voight as Ed
Burt Reynolds as Lewis
Ned Beatty as Bobby
Ronny Cox as Drew
Directed by John Boorman
Screenplay by James Dickey
Based on the novel by James Dickey
I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of how I was going to review this movie. It’s a classic, there’s no doubt about that. But every time I watch it I always find myself asking one question: deliverance from what or from whom? For Lewis (Burt Reynolds) the answer is clear. His deliverance is from the ordinary, the mundane life that comes with living in the big city. The chance to explore a part of nature, the Cahulawassee River, before it is dammed up and forever lost is something that he cannot deny himself. But what of the other three; what is their moment of deliverance? You can understand why I have trouble reviewing this film.
But then I realized that maybe that’s exactly what director John Boorman and writer James Dickey wanted of us, the viewer. They wanted us to wonder, to ponder, to think on something as simple as the title of this film and its meaning. That would merely serve to make the ride even more thrilling. Is the deliverance for the four a way of life far from the very mountain people that they encounter? I believe that each person who has ever watched this film has come away with a different perspective on it than the person before them. On the surface, Deliverance is a thriller about canoeing, hillbillies and backwoods murder. Dig deeper and it becomes so much more than that. Isn’t that the measuring stick against which all great films are placed?
TRIVIA
Billy Redden, the boy with the banjo liked Ronny Cox, and disliked Ned Beatty. When at the end of the dueling banjos scene, the script called for Billy to harden his expression towards Drew Ballinger, Cox’s character, he was unable to fake dislike for Cox. To solve the problem, they got Beatty to step towards Billy at the close of the shot. As Beatty approached, Billy hardened his expression and looked away – exactly as intended.
To minimize costs, the production wasn’t insured – and the actors did their own stunts. (For instance, Jon Voight actually climbed the cliff.)
“Dueling Banjos” was the first scene shot. The rest of the movie was almost entirely shot in sequence.
Ned Beatty’s first film.
“Dueling Banjos”, which won a Grammy for Best “Original” Song, is simply a bluegrass version of “Yankee Doodle”.
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Like this:
PONTYPOOL
Stephen McHattie as Grant Mazzy
Lisa Houle as Sydney Briar
Georgina Reilly as Laurel-Ann Drummond
Directed by Bruce McDonald
Written by Tony Burgess and based on his novel
Words are a powerful thing. Did you ever take a simple word and repeat it over and over to yourself? A word as simple as ‘what’ or ‘who’ can become completely foreign to you if repeated enough times. “Pontypool” is a twist of zombie film in which the zombie apocalypse begins not with a virus, not with a comet passing over the earth; but instead it begins when the words we hear each and every day affect us in such a way that we are driven to unspeakable acts.
Stephen McHattie is Grant Mazzy, a radio DJ in the cold little town of Pontypool. Mazzy is the morning DJ, the guy that wakes you up long before that hot cup of coffee or that cold shower. In a film that echoes the October 30, 1938 radio broadcast of the “War of the Worlds“, Mazzy is our Orson Welles as he reports on the strange goings on in the town of Pontypool. The word ‘zombie’ is never used at any time in the film. It doesn’t have to be. As Mazzy speaks to eyewitnesses over the phone it is made all too clear that it’s the end of the world as we know it and that those fuckers in REM were wrong. Nobody feels fine because ‘fine’ may very well be the word that turns them into monsters.
This is as ingenious a horror film as you’re likely to see. There’s not a lot of gore, which may turn hardcore zombie fans off a bit. That doesn’t matter; what matters is that Pontypool is a new way of telling an old story. This is proof that words are so powerful that they can kill you.
If I hear the word ‘cunt’ one more fucking time…
TRIVIA
Bruce McDonald, the director of the film, has said that the victims of the virus are called “conversationalists,” as opposed to “zombies”. In describing the stages of the virus, McDonald said: “There are three stages to this virus. The first stage is you might begin to repeat a word. Something gets stuck. And usually it’s words that are terms of endearment, like sweetheart or honey. The second stage is your language becomes scrambled and you can’t express yourself properly. The third stage is that you become so distraught at your condition that the only way out of the situation you feel, as an infected person, is to try and chew your way through the mouth of another person”.
Actress Georgina Reilly had a problem with her character’s having to “babble” and was concerned about what the words would mean to her character.
Tony Burgess, the film’s writer and the author of the novel on which the film is based – “Pontypool Changes Everything” – makes a brief cameo in the film as the male singer of Lawrence and the Arabians. His character is credited as “Tony (Lawrence)”. (In fact, at the end of the scene where the singers have performed for the bemused Grant Mazzy, Mazzy himself actually refers to Burgess’ character as “Tony Burgess.”)
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Like this:
ANTICHRIST
ANTICHRIST-Denmark/Germany/France/Sweden/Italy/Poland-2009
Willem Dafoe as He
Charlotte Gainsbourg as She
Written and Directed by Lars von Trier
I like to think that I’m a smart person. I like to think that, but sometimes what I think and the way I feel are two different things. Take the film “Antichrist”, for instance. I like to think that the film is about the stages of grief that a person or persons goes through after experiencing the sudden death of a loved one. The couple in this film remains nameless and is only referred to in the credits as He and She. Their names are not important. What’s important is their grief and how they come to terms with it. Then again, maybe I’m just blowing smoke out of my ass.
Lars Von Trier’s “Antichrist” is one of the most visually striking and thematically confusing films I’ve ever watched and I’m not ashamed to admit that I have no idea what this film is about. At first I think that it’s about the stages of grief; but when I get comfortable with that notion the film shifts and I find myself watching a cross between Man vs. Wild, the Salem Witch Trials and a misogynistic rant. Then the film again shifts and becomes the most bizarre murder movie I’ve ever seen. Looking back at what I just wrote I sound like a madman who can’t form a coherent thought or sentence. There’s a lot of smoke coming out of my ass, but there’s no fire.
Instead of trying to figure the film out, maybe I should just give my opinion of it. It’s fucked up. There’s my opinion of it. It’s a fucked up mess of a movie that is both riveting and repulsive and beautiful and pornographic. It is a drama and a horror film and it rolls all of that up into one neat little fucked up masterpiece of a package. The biggest compliment I can give this film is that after it was over all I could think was “What the fuck just happened?”
TRIVIA
Eva Green was considered for the leading lady but rejected because her contract was too complex.
The story is divided into four chapters, “Grief”, “Pain (Chaos Reigns)”, “Despair (Gynocide)” and “The Three Beggars”, in addition to a prologue and an epilogue, all displayed over abstract designs by Danish artist Per Kirkeby.
The title was the first thing that was written for the film.
The aria being sung during the Prologue is called Lascia ch’io pianga from Handel’s opera ‘Rodelinda’. The libretto translates from the Italian as: Let me weep my cruel fate, and I sigh for liberty. May sorrow break these chains of my sufferings, for pity’s sake.
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Like this:
MIMIC: The Director’s Cut
MIMIC: The Director’s Cut-United States-1997
Mira Sorvino as Dr. Susan Tyler
Jeremy Northam as Dr. Peter Mann
Josh Brolin as Josh
F. Murray Abraham as Dr. Gates
Charles S. Dutton as Leonard
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
Screenplay by Matthew Robbins and Guillermo del Toro
Screen Story by Matthew Robbins and Guillermo del Toro
Based on the short story by Donald A. Wollheim
It’s taken me a long time to watch “Mimic” again since its release in 1997. I went with a friend of mine and her mother and all I could think about during the entire film was how muddled of a mess the film was in general. Well, that and how the butter on my popcorn smelled like piss. Anyway, my point is that a better title for “Mimic” would have been “Mess”. There seemed to be no discernible plot line and the film as a whole seemed as if too many people had their hand in the cookie jar. It turns out that I was right; it seems that although the film was directed by Guillermo del Toro (“The Devil’s Backbone”), it appeared that he was constantly being undermined by the film’s producer Bob Weinstein. So much so that del Toro has refused to work with the Weinstein’s ever since then. As for “Mimic” it remained a “Mess” until the director’s cut was released. That’s where I come in.
“Mimic” is about a husband and wife team of scientists (Mira Sorvino and Jeremy Northam) who create a super bug to help wipe out the cockroach population in the city of Manhattan. The roaches carry a disease that threatens to wipe out the population of our children. Anyway, the bugs are supposed to do their job and then die out within a hundred and eighty days. Cut to three years later and we’ve got a whole new set of problems. The bugs that were supposed to die after 3 months have survived and have learned to mimic their predators. Now, go back and re-read that last sentence. Did you read it? Good. So, what is the biggest enemy of the common cockroach? I’ll give you a hint: it wears shoes. Yep, it’s man that they are mimicking. So now it’s up to the scientists to figure a way to get rid of this entomological threat before it leaves Manhattan and spreads itself out across the globe. For those of you who have never seen “Mimic” I can tell you that the end of the film involves a really big can of raid and the dance team from STOMP! I’m just kidding.
I guess my biggest question is why would you even want to try to tell Guillermo del Toro how to make a movie, much less a horror film? That’s like telling Michelangelo how to paint. del Toro has always been known for taking his audiences into dark worlds filled with dangerous creatures. “Mimic” is no exception as del Toro makes underground Manhattan his own personal labyrinth. The same film that I found myself detesting in 1997 is now a film that, despite a few minor flaws, is now a film that I would list as a favorite. All it took for that to happen was for everyone to stay out of the maestro’s way.
TRIVIA
Director Guillermo del Toro disowned the film after constant clashes with Bob Weinstein, who would frequently visit the set and make unreasonable demands about what should be shot, deviating away from the script. Since then del Toro has never worked with the Weinsteins.
The scene where Mira Sorvino and Jeremy Northam walk in the hall with all the sick kids lying in their beds was actually directed by Ole Bornedal, one of the producers on the film.
The escalator in Delancey Street subway station is shown as dismantled for maintenance because the scene was filmed on a Toronto subway station platform that was closed in 1966, so its escalator was removed.
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