metalhead/stoner bums who are concerned more with partying than anything else pretty much. Dean's character does develop testicular cancer though and one of the main characters die, so the film has some serious tones but the film handles them with such hilarity that you won't even notice the seriousness that much. This movie is full of wonderful quotable lines like "I recommend you try another sport...like knitting!" or "Turn up the good button turn down the suck button! I think you broke the knob off!" Just as Walter and the Dude have bowling as a pass-time, Terry and Dean have beer and fighting. I didn't stop to count but I wouldn't be surprised if over a hundred beers were consumed by the duo on-screen. The film tends to speak to people in their 20s who might be in or just out of college and who are failing to cope with the hardships of maturity and the real world after school. I found the movie endlessly entertaining and I highly recommend it and hope it catches on here in the states. I also watched the sequel which was made ten years after and is more of the same but with far more serious overtones and more well polished production value. I give the first one a 5/5 and the second a 3.5/5. You can view the trailer below:
The place for recommendations and reviews of classic films, be they well known or little known, usually of the horror or cult classic variety.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Fubar (2000) and Fubar II (2010)
If you enjoyed Wayne's World (1992), This is Spinal Tap (1984), Strange Brew (1983), Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2008) or The Big Lebowski (1998), then boy have I got a movie for you. This is a Canadian cult classic about two metal head hicks from Alberta who are just as entertaining and deserving of a fan following as Wayne or Garth, Bob or Doug McKenzie, or Walter and The Dude. The film is shot mockumentary style just like Spinal Tap, so the people in the film are all actors and the characters are all fictional but they feel just like real people and the movie is very realistic (for the most part). There is no real plot except for the development of the characters. Terry and Dean the main characters are two
metalhead/stoner bums who are concerned more with partying than anything else pretty much. Dean's character does develop testicular cancer though and one of the main characters die, so the film has some serious tones but the film handles them with such hilarity that you won't even notice the seriousness that much. This movie is full of wonderful quotable lines like "I recommend you try another sport...like knitting!" or "Turn up the good button turn down the suck button! I think you broke the knob off!" Just as Walter and the Dude have bowling as a pass-time, Terry and Dean have beer and fighting. I didn't stop to count but I wouldn't be surprised if over a hundred beers were consumed by the duo on-screen. The film tends to speak to people in their 20s who might be in or just out of college and who are failing to cope with the hardships of maturity and the real world after school. I found the movie endlessly entertaining and I highly recommend it and hope it catches on here in the states. I also watched the sequel which was made ten years after and is more of the same but with far more serious overtones and more well polished production value. I give the first one a 5/5 and the second a 3.5/5. You can view the trailer below:
metalhead/stoner bums who are concerned more with partying than anything else pretty much. Dean's character does develop testicular cancer though and one of the main characters die, so the film has some serious tones but the film handles them with such hilarity that you won't even notice the seriousness that much. This movie is full of wonderful quotable lines like "I recommend you try another sport...like knitting!" or "Turn up the good button turn down the suck button! I think you broke the knob off!" Just as Walter and the Dude have bowling as a pass-time, Terry and Dean have beer and fighting. I didn't stop to count but I wouldn't be surprised if over a hundred beers were consumed by the duo on-screen. The film tends to speak to people in their 20s who might be in or just out of college and who are failing to cope with the hardships of maturity and the real world after school. I found the movie endlessly entertaining and I highly recommend it and hope it catches on here in the states. I also watched the sequel which was made ten years after and is more of the same but with far more serious overtones and more well polished production value. I give the first one a 5/5 and the second a 3.5/5. You can view the trailer below:
Labels:
anvil,
anvil: the story of anvil,
canada,
canadian movies,
Cult Classics,
fubar,
fubar 2,
fubar II,
mockumentaries,
mockumentary,
spinal tap,
stoner movies,
strange brew,
the big lebowski,
wayne's world
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Fright Night Part II (1988)
The VHS release of the film came in a coffin shaped box and is now a collectors item, the DVD went out of print very shortly after it was first released (plus the DVD is a horrible fuzzy Pan-and-Scan transfer) so it's hard to find, and it is still not yet known if the film will be released on Blu-Ray, although if amazon is correct you can buy a copy on Blu-Ray for $400. I enjoyed the film despite its flaws and not being as good as the first, I give it a 4/5. You can view the trailer below:
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Event Horizon (1997)
Event Horizon is essentially a haunted house movie in outer
space. The spaceship is creepy, full of creepy noises, ghosts/hallucinations,
and other blinking lights and other standard fare in haunted house movies. A
lot of people either love or hate this movie, it was panned by most critics but
it has a strong fan following. The film is set in the future and is about an innovative
spaceship that went through a black hole and disappeared, only to reappear
years later with its crew missing. A team of astronauts are sent to figure out
what happened to the crew and salvage what they can from the ship, the ship's
creator (Sam Neill's character) is
among the salvage team. The new crew starts
experiencing strange things on board the ship and they come to a dark conclusion
on where the ship might have gone on its initial trip through the black hole
(hell). The acting is what ties this movie together, both Sam Neill (Jurassic
Park) and Laurence Fishburne (pre-Matrix) give wonderful performances, but the supporting cast although full of relatively unknown faces is also great featuring: Joely
Richardson (Natasha Richardson's sister, and Vanessa Redgrave's daughter), Sean
Pertwee (Equilibrium, and Dog Soldiers), and Jason Isaacs (The Patriot and
Lucius Malfoy from the Harry Potter series). As the film progresses it gets
progressively gory (they had to cut back in order to get an R rating). I
absolutely love haunted house movies though and pretty much any twist on them,
so this was interesting and enjoyable even if a tad too gory for my liking
at times. The pacing was wonderful, the film had a natural progression leading up to its climax at the very end of the film. The ending was similar to that of
Carrie (1976), or Dressed to Kill (1980), or The Fury (1978). The CG is
impressive by 1997 standards, but a bit dated by today's standards. It is also
notable that the film has a similar feel to the first Alien (1979) film. I give
it a 4.25/5; The film is featured in Rue Morgue Magazine's 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need to See. The film is also available to stream on Netflix.
You can view the trailer below:
Deathdream (1972) aka Dead of Night
I've
seen a lot of movies lately that have been based around the famous horror short
story by English author W.W. Jacobs, The Monkey's Paw. In The Monkey's Paw a
mother wishes that her recently deceased son would come back to life, but when
he does he's not the same way she wished he was. The Monkey's Paw is a "be
careful what you wish for" story, and so is Deathdream. Deathdream is
about a family whose son goes to fight in Vietnam and gets killed, and the
mother in her deep grief and denial about her son's death, somehow manages to
bring him back home from the dead. Upon the son's arrival back home the family is
immediately aware that something is different with Andy and he is completely
different from how he was before the war, he becomes increasingly violent and
he seems more dead than alive. The film is also a less than subtle look at the
issue of how war changes people and a look at the baggage they bring home with
them (primarily PTSD). The film covers troubled relationships the soldiers had
with family and friends upon coming home, but also their romantic relationships
and how difficult that could be, and the film also symbolically looks at soldiers
and the drug addictions they would come home with (primarily Morphine because
of its use as a pain medication), even though the main character needs blood to survive instead of actual drugs.
The movie is a good "be careful what you wish for" story, as well as
a unique zombie and vampire story. This was one of director Bob Clark(Black Christmas, Porky's, and A Christmas Story)'s first films, and for famous horror movie make-up artist and actor Tom Savini (original Dawn of the Dead, Friday the 13th, Creepshow, The Burning, Martin, and Knightriders)'s first film. I love Bob Clark and his style and cinematography that he brings to each of his films, and that style is still present even this early on in his career, and the special effects are of course great (of course because they're by Savini) as well. The acting is great too by the whole cast which includes John Marley (The Godfather)as the father and Oscar nominated actress Lynn Carlin (nominated for Faces[1969] in which she also starred with Marley) as the mother. Deathdream is marvelously creepy and lots of fun because of it and it's message, be it metaphorical or not is much like the message of another film I reviewed recently (The Walking Dead[1936]), which is "let the dead stay dead." That message of course can also be reinterpreted to apply more directly to one's life as "let the past stay in the past." I loved the film and I give it a 5/5. The film is mentioned in Rue Morgue Magazine's 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need to See. You can view the trailer below:
a unique zombie and vampire story. This was one of director Bob Clark(Black Christmas, Porky's, and A Christmas Story)'s first films, and for famous horror movie make-up artist and actor Tom Savini (original Dawn of the Dead, Friday the 13th, Creepshow, The Burning, Martin, and Knightriders)'s first film. I love Bob Clark and his style and cinematography that he brings to each of his films, and that style is still present even this early on in his career, and the special effects are of course great (of course because they're by Savini) as well. The acting is great too by the whole cast which includes John Marley (The Godfather)as the father and Oscar nominated actress Lynn Carlin (nominated for Faces[1969] in which she also starred with Marley) as the mother. Deathdream is marvelously creepy and lots of fun because of it and it's message, be it metaphorical or not is much like the message of another film I reviewed recently (The Walking Dead[1936]), which is "let the dead stay dead." That message of course can also be reinterpreted to apply more directly to one's life as "let the past stay in the past." I loved the film and I give it a 5/5. The film is mentioned in Rue Morgue Magazine's 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need to See. You can view the trailer below:
Labels:
bob clark,
cult movies,
dead of night,
deathdream,
horror movies,
rue morgue,
the godfather,
the monkey's paw,
tom savini,
underrated movies,
vampires,
vietnam,
vietnam war movies,
zombie movies,
zombies
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)
I finally decided to see this one, after years of hearing
about it. For those who don't know this film has claimed the title of
"worst film ever made" for the last 50+ years. While I personally
don't think this is the worst film ever made (or that I've ever seen) it is
pretty dang bad. This is the film that would make Ed Wood a star (albeit
ironically). Ed Wood made a number of horrible B films throughout the 50s but
this is his most famous/infamous. Less than 20 years after his death he would
be immortalized in a critically acclaimed film made by Tim Burton, but during
his lifetime Ed Wood would never see such positive acceptance of his work. Plan
9 is about aliens that come to earth and plan on taking over the world by
raising the dead (don't worry if that doesn't make sense, Ed Wood never makes
sense). The film has so many errors that it, Ed Wood, and his other films have
all become ironically inspirational, people see his films and think "If
somebody can make a piece of crap like that there's hope for me in the film business!" There are continuity
errors up the wazoo, wooden acting, horrible sets and lighting (most notably in
the airplane scenes) and Cadillac hubcaps on wires posing as flying saucers.
The film has one of the biggest cult followings of all time for any film though.
The entire genre of "so bad they're good" movies was basically
created because of this film, it is still enjoyable to watch and laugh at
because of how amazingly bad it is. There are a few things that should be
mentioned about the film for those who don't know anything about it: 1). this
was Bela Lugosi (the legendary horror actor most famous for playing Dracula
[1931])'s last film. Lugosi was one of Wood's heroes growing up and he managed
to meet and form a unique friendship with the man, and give him the last few
roles of his career. Lugosi died only managed to film about 15 minutes of
footage (or less) before he died leaving Wood to find a replacement for him for
the rest of the film. His replacement ended up being a
dead ringer for
Lugosi... from the eyes up that is, Wood forced the replacement to walk around
the set covering his face with his cape (like classic Dracula) so only his eyes
nose and above were exposed. 2). Vampira, a 1950s horror TV host who would
introduce B horror movies late at night, (the original Elvira, also think
SvenGhouli) makes her most famous film appearance in this film. In my opinion
the best scenes of the movie are when Vampira and Tor Johnson ( a 400 pound
Swedish professional wrestler with very limited acting ability) are walking
through the graveyard together. Both Johnson and Vampira are unusual characters
in personality and lifestyle and they are even more unusual in their
appearance, seeming practically otherworldly (Vampira pretty much invented the
"vamp" look for women, and she had an unusually small waist). 3).
Lastly Ed Wood was a master at collecting and using stock footage. Basically
anything you see of unusually high quality compared to the rest of the movie is
stock footage, which as I mentioned before could
stand out like a sore thumb, but in other incidents he was extremely creative with it and you wouldn't
necessarily know it was stock footage. The worst part of the film however is
the last quarter or third of the movie, when the plot just kind of goes out the
window, and the dialogue becomes so verbose and lengthy that it's incredibly
hard to understand what is going on, and thus it drags and people (like myself
and a friend) can tend to dose off at that point. Obviously I have to give the
film a very low rating for quality ( I won't even mention how low) but as for
pure enjoyment and campy entertainment value, I give it a 3.75/5. The movie is
enormously influential, and if you enjoyed it I recommend The Lost Skeleton of
Cadavra, it's a 2001 film that spoofs 1950s B movies like Plan 9, and it is
available to stream on Netflix. You can view the trailer below:
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