Canadian films definitely seem to have picked up over the last few years with this one being one of the best. This was written by and directed by Don McKellar ("Highway 61") who also stars as Patrick Wheeler, one of the main characters in this ensemble cast that is experiencing the last night on earth. The world is to end at midnight and we are shown how the final six hours are spent by a number of people including a woman (Sandra Oh) trying to get home to her husband, a man (Callum Keith Rennie) trying to have as much sex in as many ways as possible, and a gas company employee (David Cronenberg) who feels he needs to call everyone on the customer list and thank them for their years of service with the gas company. All of the cast are phenomenal with Rennie in his best role since the amazing "Hard Core Logo" and Cronenberg again proving that he can pull it off in front of the camera and not just as a director. You can also see Sarah Polley and Genevieve Bujold ("Coma") in smaller roles. McKellar proves himself as an above average writer/director who understands how to craft a plot and its characters with elements of comedy, irony, and sadness. The tension building up to the final moments is also expertly crafted like a pro and it is great to see such an accomplished Canadian actor do his country proud by making a film that is in my opinion one of the better films of the 90's.
I was disappointed as a kid and I am disappointed as an adult. What promises to be a fun little action movie from director Hal Needham turns out to be a dud. Perhaps he thought that the stunts could take the place of the story but if that is your intention, the stunt sequences need to be exciting, interesting, and frequent. What we have here is an incoherent plot speckled with three lame action scenes that look like explosions and flying cars looped for five minutes. There are some neat ideas like a timer at the bottom of a scene when a four-minute mission is in progress and the colored smoke from the motorbikes is cool but this is not nearly enough to carry a movie like this. I remember when I was young and this flick was obviously riding on the coattails of "The Road Warrior" but unfortunately this was made for the younger set and did not come through on the thrills that a film like this needs. Barry Bostwick ("Rocky Horror Picture Show") stars as Hunter, the leader of Megaforce which seems to me like a small army that protects someone from threats in I think a post-apocalyptic world. The threat involved in this film is in the guise of popular bad guy at the time Henry Silva ("Sharkey's Machine"). Megaforce invades the enemies camp and there are lots of explosions and then Silva's troops plan against Megaforce amidst more explosions and then there is a really bad effects sequence involving a motorcycle and then it is over. There is also the requisite love interest in the form of Persis Khambatta ("Star Trek: The Motion Picture") and the best friend in form of Michael Beck ("The Warriors"). So all in all, this is not a very good film but there are a few classic lines with the best being "You love 'em in blue and you love 'em in red but most of all you love them in blue." Too bad the movie wasn't as good as that line.
Don't let the fact that this flick is set in the 50's scare you off as this is a fine little dark comedy about sexual angst and desire for freedom. Jeremy Davies ("Spanking The Monkey") stars as Sonny Burns, a young man from Indianapolis who returns home from the army to find he wants more that the 'perfect' life that his folks have mapped out for him. He soon hooks up with a fellow soldier who is also from his home town and they strike up a friendship that helps Sonny see that there is more to life that getting married and having a boring job so that you can have kids, grow old, and die. Sonny and his new friend Gunner find out what it is like to live through girls, road trips, art, and conversation. Speaking of girls, there are a number of great ones in supporting roles namely Amy Locane ("Cry Baby") as Sonny's sort-of girlfriend, Rachel Weisz as Gunner's girlfriend, and Rose McGowan as a temptress who provides the ultimate insult to our hero Sonny. We are treated to constant stream of great dialogue and interesting direction that provide for different film experience than you would expect judging by the box and the performances by all of the cast members were totally on the mark. I loved Jeremy Davies in "Spanking The Monkey" and this was a similar performance of the uncertainty and awkward curiosity of his character in that film. I recommend this to all fans of independent film and something a little different than your average mainstream youth comedy. There are some great scenes in this one with one of the most memorable involving a stuffed toy, sex magazines, and an overweight ex-con who found God. If this sounds intriguing to you, definitely check out this film. This is also further evidence (in addition to "Chasing Amy") that Ben Affleck is a very capable actor when he wants to be.
I am not at all a "Star Trek" fan but I was told that this was an interesting viewing experience nonetheless. This could not be truer as I watched this fascinating (and sometimes creepy) look at how far some fans will go in their obsession over a subject. There are many harmless people in this who are just really into the various forms of the "Star Trek" universe and there are many very weird people ranging from those who believe that they are part of the "Star Trek" world to your run of the mill stalkers who could make any celebrity install more security in their homes. There is the amusing dentist who invites patients to join him in a "Star Trek" environment and the detail oriented teenager who needs to get laid. The part that really made me frightened was a man who creates all sorts of machines based on "Star Trek" and then drives around in them. I am actually not saying a lot of what I want to because some of the people frightened me enough to not want to write anything that they may take offense to. Maybe they will hunt me down and "phase" me or something. Anyways, this is definitely something that is well worth checking out for a look into this well-known subculture. It is narrated by Denise (Tasha Yar) Crosby and has interviews with all the main players in the "Star Trek" universe including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Deforest Kelley, Kate Mulgrew, Michael Dorn and many more. I still don't know the difference between a 'Trekkie' and a 'Trekker' though.
I am always harping about how crappy 90's monster movies are but I must say that this is a really crappy monster movie from the 70's. Obviously following a "Jaws" type formula, "Tentacles" revolves around a giant octopus terrorizing a seaside town. If you actually got to see the silly monster, it may have been a little scary but all that we are treated to is really bad close up's of a really bad fake octopus terrorizing really bad actors all the while competing with the really badly mixed really bad soundtrack. This was unfortunately not a bad in a fun way movie either but it was a bad in a boring way movie. I also hate to say it but included in the really bad actors category are Henry Fonda, Shelley Winters, and John Huston. Even more frightening is that compared to these three, Bo Hopkins deserves an Oscar for his role as a scientist of killer whales who becomes involved in the plot to get rid of the giant hunk of foam. This was an American-Italian co-production that truly sucked and I advise people to stay away from. I would rather have stared at the poster for 90 minutes. What the hell happened at the end anyways??
This was a totally interesting, funny, and disturbing look and the residents and history of a small town in New York state called Levittown. This is a town that was built after World War II as a housing development mainly for war vets. The houses were basically assigned in alphabetical order in various themed communities and all of the houses are the same. This has resulted in both a strong sense of community as well as producing many an odd person. The funny thing is that many of these odd people could probably be found in a lot of small towns if a person were to take the time and shoot enough footage. Nevertheless, "Wonderland" shows all kinds of people from a lonely man with a pet bird and a plate collection, to a comic book creator whose main character was inspired by the movie "Freaks", to a woman who may or may not be living in a haunted house, to a barbeque chef who can touch his nose with his tongue, to a group of verbally aggressive bingo players, to fading rock star Eddie Money. All in all, I was captivated throughout by the people and their stories and I was sad when the movie was over.
To get away from all the seriousness that has been surrounding us as of late, I decided to rent this innocent 70's classic showing a high school student and his quest for his stolen Corvette. It was nice to see a character whose only worries are finding a really cool car and falling in love with a feisty female. Mark Hamill stars as Kenny, a high school car fanatic who builds the ultimate ride with his classmates only to have it stolen. He begins a quest to find the hot rod which soon brings him to Las Vegas and introduces him to a host of characters and girl named Vanessa (Annie Potts) who has a really cool van. Together they track down the car and face the challenges that come with this involving auto theft rings, car chases, and easy money. No, the script is not the greatest but the movie delivers on what you came for... light laughs and a good time. Looks closely for some famous faces including Brion James ("Blade Runner") as the driver in the car wash, Dick Miller ("A Bucket of Blood") as a mysterious stranger at a hot dog stand, and Danny Bonaduce ("The Partridge Family") as a high school acquaintance. Director Matthew Robbins went on to make "Dragonslayer".
I have not reviewed a low budget movie like this in a while and I was pleasantly impressed by this one. You have to watch these movies with a different mindset and look for the good ideas they contain and go from there. There have been a few times in low budget horror movies I have seen where the idea is either really weak or really complicated and this in turn makes the whole experience become a chore. This was not the case here and I enjoyed the stories in this film and they were fairly original and entertaining. I cannot say the same about the wraparound story showing how our lead character, Dennis Frye, gets involved in the different segments. As this is an anthology, the wraparound is basically only a way of tying three short films together so this did not concern me too much but I did not think it measured up to the quality of the three segments. The first story entitled "Hit and Run" has Dennis running over a little girl and then being terrorized by her dolls. It had creepy whispering and Bill Cassinelli managed to hold it together with a cast of inanimate objects. The second story, "I Ain't Got No Body", has Dennis pathetically trying to score with a really bitchy girl and has him resort to traveling the astral plane with unfortunate results. The final story entitled "The Death Of..." shows Dennis as a frustrated screenwriter who is constantly rejected and who has a run in with Edgar Allan Poe. Technically, the film was competently shot and the aforementioned decent screenplay certainly helped. I found some of the acting a little below average but the screenplay managed to make up for this. Overall, a good effort from director Michael A. Hoffman and I am interested in what he does next. The associate producer is Tim Ritter who made "Truth Or Dare" and "Wicked Games".
Robert Forster kicks butt in this revenge/crime/prison drama from director William Lustig. Lustig is known for going a little over the top in his films like "Maniac" and "Maniac Cop" and he certainly does not shy away from brutality in this one. Forster stars as Eddie Marino, a family man whose life is torn away from him when his wife is assaulted and his child is murdered by a vicious street gang after an altercation at a gas station. The leader of the gang is caught but the legal system lets him run free. At the courthouse, this decision angers Eddie and he gets very angry and attacks the judge. Ironically, Eddie is the one who ends up in prison and after serving his time he is out for revenge. This was right up my alley and I have seen it a few times. I love urban crime films and I love the grittiness that this one contained. I also loved the performances and the presence of not only the great Robert Forster but also Fred Williamson ("Black Caesar"), Joe Spinell ("Maniac"), Carol Lynley ("The Poseidon Adventure"), and Woody Strode ("Spartacus"). This was supposedly Lustig's homage to the great Italian crime genre of the 70's and it certainly lives up to it's purpose.
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