The Manson
Family (2003)
Jim Van Bebber will kick your ass with this film. Not only
was I totally engrossed in the characters and story but the way it was shot was
so convincing that I was totally sold on the fact that I was watching a
documentary even though I know that I wasn't. Furthermore, Van Bebber goes
balls out with the violence when appropriate as well as the sex without being
exploitative. In fact, I found this to be one of the most honest 
true
crime docudramas I have ever seen because of the fact that everything is shown
with unflinching detail therefore stripping away any hope of glamorizing the
killers or the killings. Believe me, when you have witnessed what happened
at Cielo drive or at the LaBianca house, you will have a much different
impression of the family than what you went in with. A few years back, I
read a number of books on Manson and watched a number of documentaries as I was
fascinated with the story. After watching this film, I have to give credit
to Van Bebber for capturing the story, the characters, and the folklore so
vividly and bringing this to life as the definitive film on a subject that
continues to make people talk. The cast all kicked ass and were very brave
as many of they were naked for a good portion of the film and they had to
reenact some of the most vicious onscreen murders I have ever been a witness
to. I do not think that I have ever been as horrified with the brutality
of a murder sequence in a film as I was in the Cielo drive sequence of this
film. The way that the family members (especially Tex) stab their victims
has never been captured in the way it has been in this movie. I am
completely floored with what Van Bebber has come up with and have to say that he is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors. I can only hope that
it doesn't take 16 years to come out with the next film. Someone give this
man a budget. Highly recommended for anyone with even a passing interest
in Manson and my choice for the best film of the year.
The
Challenge (1982)
Aside from the Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee stuff, my favorite two
martial arts movies were Revenge Of The Ninja and The Challenge.
I don't know what the appeal of this movie was but I watched it many times when
I was in my formative years of 10-12. Maybe it was the fact that this
abrasive American with a bad bowl cut seemed cool to me or maybe it was the fact
that there was both a samurai decapitation and head splitting and I was allowed
to watch it (these virgin eyes would not see the Lone Wolf And Cub movies
until years later). Whatever the reason, The Challenge is still
mindless fun today as Scott Glenn plays the boxing Beatle who is hired to
deliver a sword safely to Japan. Upon arrival, he abruptly becomes
involved in a war between two brothers and their desire for the family
sword. Glenn teams up with the good brother (Toshiro Mifune) who teaches
him the ways of the samurai and together they protect the sword and eventually
storm the evil brother's compound in one of the better action sequences of the
martial arts films of the early 80's. We are treated to the requisite
'training' montage, a scene where Glenn is buried to his neck in sand (a la Creepshow)
for five days to prove himself to Mifune, a few chases, some crazy retro
architecture courtesy of the Kyoto International Convention Centre featured in
the climax, and a weird-food eating scene that preceded Indiana Jones And The
Temple Of Doom by two years.. This was directed by John Frankenheimer
and co-written by John Sayles. This also marked the first film work for
Steven Seagal who served as the martial arts coordinator.
Deathwatch
(2002)
I found this British horror film to be remarkably similar to
another recent British horror film called The Bunker. Both involved
an army platoon lost in a war zone, stumbling across a refuge, encountering some
sort of evil, and turning on each other. While The Bunker took
advantage of a creepy indoor setting of underground corridors in an abandoned
bunker, Deathwatch pretty much places the action outside utilizing a maze
of outdoor trenches as the main location. Although I found Deathwatch
to be a better film overall, I felt like they both took a great idea and didn't
end up going the way I had hoped. Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) stars
as Charlie Shakespeare, a young private who is scared shitless in the warzone
and who has not become as jaded as the other men in his platoon. This
stock yet interesting group of characters includes Laurence Fox (The Hole)
as the captain, Hugo Speer as the level headed one, Dean Lennox Kelly as a hyper
Scot, Hugh O'Conor as a bible quoter, and Andy Serkis (Gollum from the Lord
Of The Rings movies) as the psychotic brute. The group stumbles across
a trench that is occupied by three German soldiers so they quickly take the
trench and hold it in hopes that they will be reinforced quickly. Weird
things begin to happen and it is soon apparent that the previous occupants of
the trench have all been killed and nobody wants to be in the area. The
main problem with this is that the marketing of this film makes it seem like it
is going to be a monster/zombie movie. Although there are some hints of
creatures in the film, the villains are the brains of our protagonists as they succumb
to the evil forces and begin to take each other out. If you are going to
watch a either this or The Bunker, I would absolutely recommend this one
as the location kicks ass over the underground tunnels with it's constant rain
and filth but if you are looking for zombies, neither of these is where you want
to be.
Frankenstein:
The True Story (1973)
This was a weird and long TV movie that was like a cross
between Kenneth Branagh's take on the story and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Although there was no singing, the plot and homosexual overtones were very much
the same and I half expected Leonard Whiting (Romeo And Juliet) to break
into song professing his love for the monster. Add to that the fact that
Michael Sarrazin (They Shoot Horses, Don't They) looked and acted like a
love slave for the first half of the film and I was in a world that I wasn't
expecting to be in. The sets and cinematography were great but the story
tired me out with it's three hour running time and long stretches between any
sort of action. We open with Dr. Frankenstein at his brother's funeral and
expressing his desire to bring the dead back to life. Enter Dr. Henry
Clerval, a local mad scientist who has come up with a method of
re-animation. Soon we have our new perfect man for Frankie to hang
with. It doesn't take long for the process to begin to reverse itself and
the hunk starts to get ugly. This was a good movie and would have been
great watching it on my TV at home but being held captive in a theatre for three
hours was a little tedious. Things picked up substantially when Jane
Seymour showed up and the rest of the film was more of what I was hoping for
with more of a traditional horror movie pace. Plenty of big names make
appearances including James Mason doing his best Fu Manchu impression, Agnes
Moorehead, Ralph Richardson, and John Gielgud.
Satan's
Little Helper (2004)
Jeff Lieberman is back! The cult movie director who has not
made a movie of note since 1987's Remote Control has come back with a
vengeance. Alexander Brickel stars as a boy named Douglas who is obsessed
with a video game called "Satan's Little Helper" and decides to dress
as the title character of the game for Halloween. While wandering around
the neighborhood, Douglas sees a man dressed as Satan decorating the outside of
a house with a macabre murder scene. Unbeknownst to our little guy, the
man really is Satan and the murdered prop really is a dead body. Soon,
innocent Douglas approaches Mr. Evil Incarnate and asks him if he can be his
helper
for the night and Satan agrees leading to an awesome black comedy horror
movie with plenty of action, gore and suspense to satisfy the horror fans and a
wicked performance from Joshua Annex in a dialogue-free role as the man from
down below. Lieberman has always brought us entertaining and somewhat
original films with the acid psychosis of Blue Sunshine to the killer
worms of Squirm to the backwood horrors of Just Before Dawn.
Satan's Little Helper is a fine addition to a great resume and I can only
hope that Lieberman is back for good. Amanda Plummer co-stars as Douglas'
mom and unknown gorgeous actress Katheryn Winnick plays the heroine/Douglas'
older sister. Mark my words, this is going to be a cult classic in the
years to come much like Lieberman's other films have achieved this status
already.
Shaft (1971)
Some movies are a document of the time in which they were
made. Shaft is one such document of early 70's New York that cannot
be replicated no matter how hard you try. Even though the set dec and
clothes clearly give away the time frame, this stuff can be recreated. The
thing that cannot be recreated in a film like this is the attitude. This
film has a feeling running through it that is as cool as the title character
with all of his jive talkin' and struttin' around. Richard Roundtree stars
as John Shaft, a private dick who likes mouthing off to everyone in sight, loves
the ladies, and is hired to find the kidnapped daughter of a local gangster
named Bumpy Jones (Moses Gunn). Shaft proceeds to investigate the
disappearance and gets between the criminal elements of both the black and
Italian organized crime groups. The plot is quite simple but is really
just an excuse for Shaft to be wandering around to different locations in New
York City and interacting with different people. The guy is fun to
watch, there are some decent yet short action sequences, and a funky, driving
score by Isaac Hayes paving the way. I used to only think of the score as
the well known theme but when you watch the grand plan pan out in the last act,
you we see how good the score is in how it builds a lot of suspense and makes
the film a lot more exciting. John Shaft is a man who is fiercely proud to
be black and who knows how to get the job done and look good doing
it.
The Back Lot
Murders (2001)
I have been wondering whatever happened to Corey Haim and lo and
behold, I found him playing a supporting role in this slasher flick. Corey
plays Tony, the guitarist of a band who are filming their new video on one of
the sets from Spielberg's The Lost World on the back lot of Universal
Studios. Also on set are the band's manager (Priscilla Barnes from Three's
Company), some bimbos, the president of the record label, his daughter (who
happens to be banging the singer), a gay director (Charles Fleischer from Demon
Knight), and his faithful dog named Pumpkin. People begin dying quite
quickly in this one starting with the token black/fat guy and a cute production
assistant (former softcore actress Loridawn Messuri). The Elvis-masked
killer eventually begins to pick off the band members though various locations
in Universal including the Psycho house, a western town, and a hospital
set. This was a fun idea for the movie and it was cool to see some of
these locations in action but it would have been even better had they
incorporated some of the highlights from the popular tram tour attraction that
we all know is there. Nevertheless, the notion of a serial killer running
rampant was fun and it reminded me a bit of the early Joe Dante classic Hollywood
Boulevard. In fact the relationship between Barnes and Fleischer in
this film made me think of Mary Woronov and Paul Bartel a couple of times.
There were a number of film references, a few decent kills including a 'columbian
necktie', most of the girls showed their boobs,
and I found that a lot of the comedy worked quite well (especially when
Fleischer made any reference to his dog). Barnes makes for an great
psycho seeming a lot of the time like a manic or depressive Faye Dunaway
depending on the scene. One thing I want to know about rock and roll
horror movies though is why does the band always suck? Some of the worst
music I have ever heard in my life is by the 'rock stars' in horror
movies. Why can't they ever be good instead of always sounding like a bad
80's rock band no matter what decade the movie was shot?
Shark Attack
(1999)
I used to think that Casper Van Dien got a bad rap. When I
saw Starship Troopers, I thought he was pretty good as Johnny Rico but
after seeing his performance in Shark Attack, I am starting to wonder if
maybe the critics are right and the guy really can't act. He sure sucked
in this movie but then again, so did the rest of the cast. Ernie Hudson
was also god awful as a rich black man who had a smarmy, faux British accent
that sounded absolutely ridiculous. Also on hand are Robert's Mitchum
grandson Bentley (from the controversial Data Plato lesbian movie Different
Strokes) as a know it all scientist, and Jenny McShane as Casper's love
interest. One thing that was noticeably not on hand was a shark and a
human in the same shot. We had lots of stock footage of sharks swimming
around but not very much action. What I could gather from the plot was
something about scientists using sharks as an additive in cancer medicine.
It turns out that evil Ernie Hudson was not interested in the good of mankind
but, like most bad guys, was out for himself. A friend of Casper's was
killed as a cover up of Ernie's operation so naturally Casper must come to
Africa to investigate. What follows is a boring love story between Casper
and the dead friend's sister and some low budget cliched exchanges with Ernie
and his henchmen. The movie was totally boring and totally devoid any
threat from the sharks (Casper seemed to be able to jump in the water and punch
out the shark whenever one happened to pose a threat). The sharks were
more like confused extras. This was a clear case of a misleading
title and me being suckered.
The Final
Executioner (1984)
Part revenge film, part post-nuke, and part chase this film was
like a cross between Escape 2000, Logan's Run, and The Karate Kid.
The world has been decimated by war and there are now two classes: the wealthy
and the contaminated. The people who have not been contaminated by nuclear
residue have resorted to hunting the less fortunate humans for sport in a
game called 'The Hunt'. At the beginning of the film, we meet Alan
(William Mang), a man who seemed to come from the wealthy class but has been
released into the wasteland as a human target. He is joined by a female
and they struggle to survive while being trailed by a group of barbaric rich
folk who take the Hunt quite seriously making side bets on who will have the
most kills. Soon the woman is raped and killed and Alan is left for
dead. He is rescued by a kindly ex-cop named Sam (Woody Strode) who nurses
him back to health and trains him to survive and fight in ways that reminded me
of Mr. Miyagi but not really. Alan is eventually ready and mounts a final
one-man assault on the people who tried to kill him including a leather-clad
motorcycle dude named Erasmus (Harrison Muller Jr. from The Violent Breed),
a guy who reminds me of David Hess, a couple of women who take their tops off
(including Margit Evelyn Newton from Hell Of The Living Dead), a young
man doing his first bit of killing (Karl Zinny from Demons), and a few
others. Overall, this was nothing special but it was decent enough.
I don't forsee this seeing a DVD release anytime soon but it is worth the $2.00
you will probably pay if you find it in a used bin and are into low budget
Italian action movies. This was directed by Romolo Guerrieri who is the
uncle of Keoma director Enzo Castellari.
Bamboo House
Of Dolls (1974)
I was not aware of this Shaw Brothers entry into the women in
prison genre until I stumbled across a DVD release of it in Chinatown.
This is now one of my favorites of the genre with all the standard ingredients
of this kind of movie including the lesbian warden, a catfight in mud, a
communal shower scene, and the inevitable escape attempts. The things that
made this stand out, however, are the fact that there are some fight scenes that
involve a lot of hand to hand combat as well as the fact that the 
film
turns into a treasure hunt adventure film after some of the inmates
escape. This film takes place in China under Japanese and opens with some
nurses being taken hostage when the Japanese soldiers raid a hospital.
Among the nurses we have an extremely hot blonde (Danish actress Birte Tove who
enjoys a standout scene where she is chased in her panties by a horny officer
wielding a samurai sword), a redhead, and a brunette. They are taken to a
prison camp where they must endure humiliation and torture at the hands of their
captors. Eventually, the girls team up with some Chinese inmates and they
make a couple of escape attempts with the help of a spy disguised as a
cook. Once they escape, the survivors are on a quest for some stolen gold
in the surrounding hills. In addition to the heaps of nudity in the first
half of the film, the second half balanced out the film by changing it from a
70's exploitation film to a cross-country adventure featuring spies, betrayal,
traitors, and large fight sequences mixing kung-fu, knife play, and blazing
guns. I really dug this movie and highly recommend it to fans of the genre
or for Shaw Brothers fans. If you ever wondered what it would be like if
Roger Corman and Run Run Shaw joined forces, this would be the likely
result. Look for kung-fu staple Lo Lieh (Five Fingers Of Death) as
one of the guards.
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