A crazy 70's sub Charlie's Angels, secret-agent mix, The Doll Squad is a colourful cheeseball with poor dialogue, acting, sets and plot. Lots of semi-naked "beauties" with heaving bosoms toting big machine guns, chopping and kicking their way through dozens of men. It tries, but never quite gets to any state of respectability, but is nevertheless good for a chuckle. There is a lot of blood and thunder and quite callous cruelty which surprised me a bit.
Pretty thin James Bond style plot - evil megalomaniac wants to take over the world then spills the beans in time for our heroes to save the day. Wonderfully dodgy special effects (the same explosion is repeatedly shown throughout the film, just coloured differently or flipped around.
The most convincing member of the cast is Tura Satana, mainly due to her martial arts expertise (have I just made that up?), so you get the deal here.
Thursday, 17 April 2008
Yum-yum
A hard to find Canadian production (I got it from eBay), Blood & Donuts is a small, character-driven horror-based film that was a refreshing change from the previous day's Horton debacle.
A vampire is woken from a 25 year sleep by a stray golf ball hit from a rooftop. He was sleeping to try and get away from the complexities of co-existing with the humans about him, but he seems to decide to give it another go. It is not really a vampire-flick, just an awkward outsider trying to fit in style job. From that point of view it is pretty good, with the vampire trying to resist his addiction (to blood, dummy) and using his powers (super-strength, big scary vampire face) to help his new-found friends. Fine performances from Currie and Clarkson as the romantic leads offset by a bizarre accents from his cabbie friend which takes you out of the moment every time he is in a scene. Sinister cameo from big Dave Cronenberg is great, the best of his I have seen.
Overall, a gentle (apart from the blood!), easy watch.
A vampire is woken from a 25 year sleep by a stray golf ball hit from a rooftop. He was sleeping to try and get away from the complexities of co-existing with the humans about him, but he seems to decide to give it another go. It is not really a vampire-flick, just an awkward outsider trying to fit in style job. From that point of view it is pretty good, with the vampire trying to resist his addiction (to blood, dummy) and using his powers (super-strength, big scary vampire face) to help his new-found friends. Fine performances from Currie and Clarkson as the romantic leads offset by a bizarre accents from his cabbie friend which takes you out of the moment every time he is in a scene. Sinister cameo from big Dave Cronenberg is great, the best of his I have seen.
Overall, a gentle (apart from the blood!), easy watch.
You what?
My daughter's birthday, so as a treat before the unleashing of the cake we had a trip to the flicks to see Horton hears a Who. Like father, like daughter, neither of us liked it much. It follows the book pretty much, but sticks in a load of back story and waffle that just seems to take away it's best points. The animation was OK, but bits of hyper-realism (the opening shot of water drops for instance) jarred with the Dr Seuss style characters. Some good jokes-monkeys as banana machine guns, the animé-style insert (but why was it there? Just thrown in for filler?). Jim Carey quickly grates with his usual gurning and OTT voice not even hidden by his being an elephant.
It was rated as U, but a couple of scenes had several children leaping into their parent's laps in fear.
Not an ideal start to a four year old's birthday, or any day for that matter.
It was rated as U, but a couple of scenes had several children leaping into their parent's laps in fear.
Not an ideal start to a four year old's birthday, or any day for that matter.
Wet, wet, wet
Not sure I got the point of this one, but it kept coming up in stuff I have read, so thought I would give it a try. The Witch who came from the sea is typical early 70's exploitation fayre. The story of the gradual disintegration of a young woman's mind brought on by abuse as a child. She desires young muscle-mens bodies, but then wants to chop off their privates. We've all been there eh? Just me then? OK.
She eventually (quite quickly actually) goes on a killing spree (or does she?), falls apart and has an assisted suicide. I wasn't sure that she actually did the acts of violence in the early parts of the film, but the later sections imply that she did. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention. She gets a pretty good mermaid tattoo on her belly (just like her abusive Dad's) that I am pretty sure my wife would approve of, especially given the amount of Miami Ink she has been watching recently.
A much-lauded central performance form Millie Perkins, I found it to be overblown and bland in equal measure (perhaps I really wasn't paying attention).
The movie was on the Video Nasty list over here in the UK, but who knows why? Bloody Thatcherism gone mad again, as there is no real on-screen gore. It is pretty sure what she is up to, but you never actually see the razor slicing into flesh.
To me it was neither exploitation nor art house, just a bit of a damp squib.
She eventually (quite quickly actually) goes on a killing spree (or does she?), falls apart and has an assisted suicide. I wasn't sure that she actually did the acts of violence in the early parts of the film, but the later sections imply that she did. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention. She gets a pretty good mermaid tattoo on her belly (just like her abusive Dad's) that I am pretty sure my wife would approve of, especially given the amount of Miami Ink she has been watching recently.
A much-lauded central performance form Millie Perkins, I found it to be overblown and bland in equal measure (perhaps I really wasn't paying attention).
The movie was on the Video Nasty list over here in the UK, but who knows why? Bloody Thatcherism gone mad again, as there is no real on-screen gore. It is pretty sure what she is up to, but you never actually see the razor slicing into flesh.
To me it was neither exploitation nor art house, just a bit of a damp squib.
I didn't ask you to come here...
On the recommendation of the Horror Etc podcast I "obtained" the 1944 movie The Uninvited starring Ray Miland. It was alleged to be an atmospheric ghost story. To be fair to it, 1944 was a long time ago, but I always try to take that into account when viewing older films. There is not much point in comparing stuff like this to say, Ring, although to be honest it probably would have had a similar effect on audiences of the time.
A typical (of the time) "stagey" piece, with formal acting, but the atmospheric black and white cinematography, and pretty good ghost special effects negate the stiffness to a good degree. The story is twisty-turny, but nothing that I have not seen many times in later (and some earlier) films. To some degree the epilogue spoils the tense finish, but nicey-nice endings were all the rage. Perhaps life was much simpler then.
Worth a watch, but only if you can forgive its period formalities.
A typical (of the time) "stagey" piece, with formal acting, but the atmospheric black and white cinematography, and pretty good ghost special effects negate the stiffness to a good degree. The story is twisty-turny, but nothing that I have not seen many times in later (and some earlier) films. To some degree the epilogue spoils the tense finish, but nicey-nice endings were all the rage. Perhaps life was much simpler then.
Worth a watch, but only if you can forgive its period formalities.
Thursday, 3 April 2008
I'm a Yankee Doodle Gangster
Finally got round to watching the marathon crime drama that is "American Gangster" by the hot/cold Ridley Scott. The start had me confused a bit as the time period was difficult (for me) to pin-down, due to the fashions I guess. It soon got into it's stride and fairly cracked along considering it has a 2h45m running time.
A pretty standard straight cop fighting corruption/crime boss building an empire story, except it is based on truth. Well sort of truth (according to Wikipedia). OK, very little truth and a load of made up bollocks by the sound of it.
Still, as a movie it was gripping, stylish (to be expected from Rid) and had my buttocks clenched with the tension in the final act.
The epilogue (always reminds me of "Streets of San Francisco" when I see that word) seemed a bit tacked on and took me out of the story a bit.
Still, well worth a watch.
7/10
A pretty standard straight cop fighting corruption/crime boss building an empire story, except it is based on truth. Well sort of truth (according to Wikipedia). OK, very little truth and a load of made up bollocks by the sound of it.
Still, as a movie it was gripping, stylish (to be expected from Rid) and had my buttocks clenched with the tension in the final act.
The epilogue (always reminds me of "Streets of San Francisco" when I see that word) seemed a bit tacked on and took me out of the story a bit.
Still, well worth a watch.
7/10
Wednesday, 2 April 2008
What a swell party
And a great host! Oooh, bad pun. But up to my usual standard.
I recently watched "The Host" ("Gwoemul" in Korea) with my eight month old son. Well he slept through most of it actually. If only he knew what he had missed.
The film starts with the creation of a toxic soup which allows a mutant fish/amphibian type thing to develop. It then moves to a scenario that seems to appear in many Korean/Asian films - a typical family set-up. Well perhaps not typical as they seem to live in a kiosk in the banks of the Han river in Seoul. But they seem happy enough.
The happiness is soon shattered when the greatly-increased-in-size animal appears and begins to chomp through the customers. It all goes pear-shaped from there on in, with dolops of Korean slapstick, pathos, anti-establishment sentiment and death. I cried, but then I always do. Cuddling sonny-boy for the duration didn't help like.
The CGI creature is pretty good considering the budget and the fact I am still not convinced by much of the use that CGI has been put to.
I'm pretty sure there is a great political sub-text in the film, but not being up on the history of South Korea I couldn't tell you what it is. They don't seem too keen on the Yanks much anyhow.
I didn't find it scary as such, but there were good periods of tension. It was pretty funny, with the aforementioned slapstick adding the (seemingly necessary in nearly all Japanese/Korean films I have seen) light relief.
Best thing I have seen for a while, 8/10
I recently watched "The Host" ("Gwoemul" in Korea) with my eight month old son. Well he slept through most of it actually. If only he knew what he had missed.
The film starts with the creation of a toxic soup which allows a mutant fish/amphibian type thing to develop. It then moves to a scenario that seems to appear in many Korean/Asian films - a typical family set-up. Well perhaps not typical as they seem to live in a kiosk in the banks of the Han river in Seoul. But they seem happy enough.
The happiness is soon shattered when the greatly-increased-in-size animal appears and begins to chomp through the customers. It all goes pear-shaped from there on in, with dolops of Korean slapstick, pathos, anti-establishment sentiment and death. I cried, but then I always do. Cuddling sonny-boy for the duration didn't help like.
The CGI creature is pretty good considering the budget and the fact I am still not convinced by much of the use that CGI has been put to.
I'm pretty sure there is a great political sub-text in the film, but not being up on the history of South Korea I couldn't tell you what it is. They don't seem too keen on the Yanks much anyhow.
I didn't find it scary as such, but there were good periods of tension. It was pretty funny, with the aforementioned slapstick adding the (seemingly necessary in nearly all Japanese/Korean films I have seen) light relief.
Best thing I have seen for a while, 8/10
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