by MouthForWar » Tue Aug 03, 2010 8:28 pm
A whole bunch of stuff! I just got a Blu-Ray player with Netflix streaming on it... so you can imagine how little I've been outside lately... I really need to find a job... ANYWAY.
-Deathdream- Criminally overlooked post-Vietnam horror flick from Bob Clark (Black Christmas) about a guy who comes back from the military as the undead and alienates everyone around him. Awesome stuff. Would make a great double bill with Romero's Martin.
-God Told Me To- Crazy film by Larry Cohen about a cop tracking a spree of random murders that the perps claim were ordered to kill by god. Turns out they're all puppets for a Jesus-like alien messiah who is trying to get the main cop to f*ck a vagina in the side of his chest... yeah its nutty as hell, but so original and different. Cohen is underrated
-It's Alive- Another Larry Cohen film, this one a bit more well known. A killer mutant baby! Its actually played pretty straight and not a bad flick at all, although I found the middle to drag a bit. Haven't seen either sequel yet but I hear they are a lot campier.
-Before Sunrise- Gen-X romantic drama about two pretentious windbags who meet in Europe. Boring.
-Before Sunset- Sequel to Sunrise, and I actually REALLY dug this one since the characters are no longer smug, self important college kids..
-Galaxy of Terror- A really nifty Alien rip off from Roger Corman, with an all star cast and awesome set design and death scenes by James Cameron. A precursor to Aliens as Cameron shows a lot of the trademarks of his early films here.
-100 Feet- A pretty decent cheapy from a couple years ago starring Famke Janssen as a woman who killed her abusive husband and is now under house arrest with the ghost of her husband terrorizing her. Would have been a GREAT film, but its hampered by over-exposure of the ghost, awful CG effects at every turn, and a really over the top and out of place finale. Still worth a look.
-Fallen Angels- Wong Kar Wai's sequel to his fantastic romantic drama Chungking Express. Good, but not great. I'm a big fan of WKW but this is the weakest I've seen from him
-The Spirit of the Beehive- Awesome Spanish drama about a lonely little girl who sees the 1931 Frankenstein and becomes obsessed with finding the creature herself. An amazing portrait of what its like to be a lonely kid with a sh*tty family. A definite influence on Guillermo del Toro and it shows, even if its more drama and not much fantasy at all. Tons of nods to James Whale's film as well.
-Piranha- Just got the blu-ray for the Roger Corman produced, Joe Dante directed overlooked classic. A riff on Jaws made to capitalize on Jaws 2, made for only $600,000 and managed to be infinitely better than that film and the other Jaws sequels combined. Great cast, great characters, and surprisingly good and witty writing make this one hold up even today. I look forward to Aja's remake for a cheesy good time, but I doubt it'll have the clever satire or the great characterization of the original film.
And I still have yet to watch my Blu-Rays for Robocop, the Aviator, 2001, A Clockwork Orange, and Unforgiven.
Kaiju Transmissions Podcast-
If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It Podcast