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A few reviews . . (film or TV) — Page 69

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The VVitch - 2016 - 7/10

Tried to avoid reviews and hype swirling around this one.
17th century colonials are ejected from the fortified plantation for unclear reasons.
One gathers the family head is a malcontent and religious troublemaker.
The family relocate to the edge of the forest and go it alone.
Hard luck trails them like blight.
Austere film, desaturated colors, slow pace, dialogue lifted from very old journals and court proceedings.
These are souls adrift and their backstory is barely hinted at.
The family departed England for a reason, were subsequently ejected from the colony for likely the same.
Brilliantly conceived and executed arthouse horror, but this mood piece will not be to all tastes.

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Quatermass And The Pit - 1967 - 7/10
AKA - Five Millions Years To Earth

Excavation crews, working deep under the Hobb’s End Underground station, start finding skulls.
Archaeologists quickly arrive, soon discover a huge metallic object.
Military bomb experts realize it is not metal, while other members dig up the dark history of Hob’s Lane.
Extremely intelligent script, based on the legendary BBC serial from the late 50’s.
Creative mix of Horror, SciFi, ancestral memory, superstition.
One of Hammer’s best.

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The Fall Of The House Of Usher

Short - 2004 - USA

Narrator goes to visit old friend, “Roger” Usher, then helps entomb recently deceased sister.
Truncated version is a mix of black n white sketches, animation and claymation.
The house resembles a condemned doll house, minimally furnished.
Piano score is spare and moody.
Curio, worth a look, though might be regarded as akin to a student project.


Zanik Domu Usheru - 1982 - Poland

Experimental Polish short in high contrast black and white.
Unseen narrator (Polish) tours the ruined Usher manor.
Creative stop motion photography indicates spreading decay or genuine weirdness.
No actors. Rather, furniture moves on their own, Madeline’s coffin slides to its end.
Point of view shifts from time to time, though my chief problem was reading subs instead of paying full attention to the hypnotic camera work.
Not overly surreal nor indecipherable as others have mentioned.


La Chute de la Maison Usher - 1928 - France

Full length, French retelling that tends to over linger and hold scenes too long.
Visuals are often quite arresting, and much of the camera work seems hand held
The spacious maison Usher is remarkable. albeit exceedingly drafty.
Music ranges from out of place Renaissance to discordant piano.
I enjoyed a lot of this, but the stagnant pace had me checking the time.


Short - 1928 - USA

Short, from near the end of the Silent era, highly Expressionistic.
Multiple exposures, distorted angles, brooding shadows, prism effects.
No intertitle cards, film creators assume viewer is familiar with Poe’s story.
Madeline’s clothes are elegant Art Deco attire.
This has been recently remastered and has a brief, spoken introduction.
Likely to rewatch this version again.

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Killing Small Animals - 2020 - 6/10

Wordless short from Sweden designed to appall and quietly succeeds.
PETA supporters, peruse the title, please.
A wife, going about her daily routine, still finds time for unsettling diversion.
Imagine, from smaller to larger.
Disturbing and well done.
Again, animal lovers, beware.

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Rigor Mortis - 2013 - 7/10
AKA - 殭 屍

How did this nifty Hong Kong gem fly under my radar?
Actor whose career is on the skids checks into a ramshackle high rise.
Suspends the noose, kicks the stool away, only to get rescued.
Building is a way-station or limbo or purgatory or simply a dump. Take your pick.
Marketed as Horror, this is way too artsy and moody for cheap thrill seekers.
Suffice to say the building conceals souls that will not rest.
Dead - undead - unhappy dead - humans with a death wish.
Dazzling, inspired visuals. Plenty of “wow, look at that” moments.
Like Del Toro’s Crimson Peak (which I did not care for overall) this drips style.
Moody first half, spells and conflict punctuate the second half.

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To Kako (Evil) - 2005 - 6/10
AKA - Το Κακό

Zombies overrun Athens.
Filmed for what looks like $834.00, the movie compensates with energy, heart and restraint.
Yes, restraint. Early, when potential meals start running, the film goes split screen.
Awesome! And, to their credit, the creators only do this a few more times.
There are sequences shot from the zombies p.o.v. Again, only done a handful of times.
I have seen so many horror flicks that reuse trick photography until you say, “Enough already.”
Several good (funny) combat standoffs include the outdoor cafe, and hideout.
The audio commentary is another highlight.
3-4 of the creative crew discuss the cast, budget limitations, camera tricks, audience reception.
And what inspired them, including Ang Lee, Lelouch’s “A Man And A Woman” and Bergman’s “Persona”!!
Unarguably, the best Greek zombie film I have ever seen.

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Ebola Syndrome - 1996 - 7/10

Somewhere, this tasteless, trashy, over the top, gleefully perverse Hong Kong Cat 3 masterpiece is flying off the shelves.
Anthony Wong may be best known as the villain in Hard Boiled or Untold Story, but for sheer sleazy glory, this one is in a category all by itself.
Without giving too much away, after he rapes his boss’s wife, then kills her and his boss, lowly cook flees to Africa.
There is a massive outbreak of ebola, so he and a buyer drive to an infected village to buy dead cows cheap.
Blinded by lust, the cook jumps a corpse and catches the incurable.
Only, instead of dying, he becomes a carrier.
As soon as he realizes that, sharing time begins.
Hong Kong bad boy director, Herman Yau, made many films like this, but this exploitative jewel is the best.

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Tumbbad - 2018 - 7/10

“The world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.” Gandhi

Rainswept, rural India, 1912. Mother “tends” to an old man, hoping her services will result in money.
Her children are observant, especially the oldest son.
Mom’s activities involve risk, though reward seems incalculable.
And years later, the grown son climbs down, ever down, into the ugly pit of wealth.
Film does an exceptional job with atmosphere and settings.
The story weaves myth, human frailty, curiosity, avarice.
Indeed, once underway, greed is the core of this terrific horror film.
The less you know before watching, probably the better.

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Versus - 2000 - 7/10
AKA - ヴァーサス

Now you’re talking!!!
Third film by Ryûhei Kitamura placed him on the radar of Asian fanboys worldwide.
Samurai, yakuza, escaped convicts, bounty hunters, zombies, damsel in distress.
Swords, knives, handguns, machine guns, heavy weapons, plenty of fistfights.
In a nutshell, within ten minutes, protagonists arrive in an accursed forest, place where yakuza had dumped whack jobs for years.
The dead begin to revive, most clutching still-lethal handguns.
Kick ass actioner looks like a million bucks, and appears very low-budget.
Clinic for young filmmakers on how to film brilliance on a shoestring.

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Godzilla Vs Cthulhu - 2047 - 7/10

Cranky lizard with paint peeling breath confronts the tentacled lord of R’lyeh.
Somnambulant buildup of greedy developers trying to seize a small, impoverished seaside monastery.
(Ever notice developers are always greedy, always bullying poor folks?)
Valiantly, the Sisters Of Graceful Tides hold a music concert to raise funds.
Shonen Knife, screeching a cover version of Blue Öyster Cult’s “Godzilla,” icurs the wrath of Godzilla who always hated the chorus. Squawking and flaming, he crashes ashore.
Then, as terrified screams and howls somehow fuse into “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn,” you guessed it, dread Cthulhu heaves from the waves.
At this point, the Japanese fondness for hentai results in truly horrifying erotic grappling, which will not be elaborated upon further.
The pace hits overdrive and action roars nonstop. Yakuza hitmen arrive, as well as vegan mercenaries on Vespa scooters, nude nuns with knives, parachuting Russian bodybuilders, a squad of over-sexed female lifeguards, and an annoying old alcoholic woman in a squeaking wheelchair.
Red hot flames - roasted brains - blood oath claims - gangbang chains - putrid stains
In other words - absolute must see classic!

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Death Diner Disciples - 2047 - 6/10

“… The roadside diner, tattered remnant of the American Dream, now fading into twilight.
Not your ordinary diner, either, this is set 200 yards off State Route 101, accessible though an overgrown dirt track.
Behind the cafe, beyond the trees, lies the South Bay, breeding home for things best left unspoken.
Tonight, especially tonight, the unwary are drawn in.
A double date, two loud males who intend to plunder the innocence of their college dates.
Their giggling victims, wide eyed and smiling, are a murderous duo, having butchered a dozen in as many months.
Pastor Calvin, expelled by his flock for drunkenness, marches west, ever west.
Delia, fleeing a final police summons, backpacks into the woods, towards the darkening skies.
Finally, the lost traveler, Vincent Davies, architect, taking a shortcut … into Hell.
For tonight … is Samhain.”

So goes the opening narration for this el cheapo.
(To my mind, producers ought to have hired a Rod Serling voice impersonator.)
After the opening, black vehicles arrive and numerous robed individuals emerge.
Acolytes of, yeah, who would have predicted, Cthulhu.
Very busy narrative with 36 different plots. Don’t even try to keep up.
Acting is grade C, the script seems written by attention deficit disordered minds, and there are audio sync problems.
Not to mention insane logical errors.
Like, all of a sudden the diner has electrical power?
Or, the diner, nestled in an overgrown thicket, relocates to the shore line? How?
Terrible across the board.
I would rate this lower, but for the untimely ends of the film participants, and for urban legends regarding those who disrespect M. Cthulhu.

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Dokument: Unterwasser Festung R’lyeh - 2047 - 8/10
AKA - Document: Underwater Fortress R’lyeh

Tantalizing what-if footnote in World War II history.
Between October and December 1944, the HMS Helford, frigate in the South Pacific, discovered wreckage of a German submarine, U-603.
To this day, anything related to the incident remains classified by the Admiralty.
Such as, what was a British frigate doing in the South Pacific? Aside from its commander (Charles George Cuthbertson), nothing is known of HMS Helford.

Fortunately, recently unearthed materials near Wewelsburg Castle provide a glimpse into the German side of the mystery.
U-603, reported missing in February 1944, had been sent midway between New Zealand and the southern tip of South America.
Aside from crew and Kapitän Hans-Joachim Bertelsmann, there were two scientists, an anthropologist, an archaeologist, a linguist, and Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, reported to have been assassinated in 1942.
By 1944, the war was going badly for Germany, but this unit was following clues written by a reclusive Rhode Island scholar. Supposedly, there were undersea ruins and a force of unspeakable power at the coordinates 48°52.6′S 123°23.6′W.
In the vast nowhere of the South Pacific, the area was known as R’lyeh.

Apparently, U-603 found the ruins, titanic in scale. A yawning entrance, equally immense, appeared to descend.
According to the dive team, within the structures were compartments, inexplicably dry.
That, and there was “something.”

The final transmission from the u-boat indicated that Heydrich and specialists were going into the ruins, with the intent of subduing and controlling the “something” that had been found.
At that point, the documentary sidesteps into a trove of speculation, theories and nonsensical, Cassandra like warnings that become ludicrously far-fetched. And tiresome.
This is packed with newsreel footage, maps, vintage radio messages, superb drawings, a few reenactments, and a gallery of talking heads.
The first 3/4 of this is outstanding. The final twenty minutes were, frankly, preposterous.
I docked my score a point for that. That said, I added a point for the sheer incongruity in the producers choice of narrator: Robin Leach.
A sample of the prose, delivered in his over the top voice, “… deeper into the ghastly, gargantuan chapel of grotesqueries and grim menace …” or “… as a coruscating crescendo splashed flames into minds shattered by the crepuscular crypt poised over the chasm of …”
Pure lunacy, and a must-see documentary!

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Mary Beard’s Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit - 2016 - NA (not finished)

Comments about Paxman’s Britain’s Great War can be applied to this documentary in spades.
Ms Beard, a prestigious Cambridge don, is enthusiastic and infectious.
Again, though, she is in every single scene. Including bits where she is walking or driving.
She is also given to odd facial expressions, contortions, grimaces, which I found distracting.
I wanted to watch this. I wanted to like it.
Perhaps there is a clause in celebrity presenter contracts, that they must appear in 75% of the footage.
Overload for me. Bummer.

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Submarine - 2010 - 6/10

Quirky overload in this coming-of-age romantic comedy set in Wales.
Depressed, low key youth meets moody, rebellious girl.
His parents are oddballs, the neighbor is mullet wearing, New Age motivational speaker.
Mostly set in school, the few students showcased are weirdos.
Nicely acted by newcomers, though cutesy script felt like a sack of marshmallows.
Fans of eccentric overload will enjoy this more than I.

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Dark Doors - 1974 - 6/10
AKA - Emma, Puertas Oscuras

Early José Ramón Larraz psychological shocker.
Emma has been in an accident. Head injury.
After her release she appears less than stable. If she ever was.
In many regards, she is childlike, shy, quiet, yet possessing a fearful temper.
And does that ever play out, explosively, unexpectedly, throughout this film.
Audio commentary by Bryan Martinez by turns enlightening, repetitive.

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News From Home - 1976 - 6/10

Young Chantal Akerman moved from Belgium to New York in 1971.
Pre-Internet, she received steady correspondence from family, especially nagging Mother.
Later, once back in Europe, she decided to return to New York, film locations, and read her mother’s letters.
Not quite a documentary, and many viewers have found this terribly slow.
My wife, a native New Yorker, was increasingly mesmerized. At one point she even commented, “That’s the garment district.”
Aging New Yorkers may appreciate, and I suspect it was intriguing to Europeans in the 1970’s.
A better time capsule of New York from that period might be Kojak.
Even earlier, N.Y.P.D. aired in the 60‘s and shows an even grittier Gotham.

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Mr. Nice - 2010 - 6/10

Biopic of Welsh hash smuggler, Howard Marks.
Lightweight, by the numbers approach as young Marks goes to Oxford, discovers reefer.
Next thing, he’s collaborating with IRA patriots to smuggle Afghan hash. Money for lifestyle or guns.
Big deals in the US, swimming pool stylin’ in Mallorca.
Several funny anecdotal scenes, yet nowhere does this dig for substance.
Some of the cinematography intrigues as they have characters drive or walk in front of obvious rear projection of 60’s or 70’s exteriors.
Too long at two hours, and still too shallow.
Rhys Myers (as Howard) distracted by reminding me of Liam Gallagher.

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The Human Monster - 1939 - 6/10
AKA - The Dark Eyes Of London

Corpses keep floating in the river Thames.
Probably nothing unusual there, except these were well-heeled gentleman.
Curiously enough, most had been insured by Greenwich Insurance, run by Dr. Orloff.
Inspector Holt, paired with Chicago’s Lt. O’Reilly, keeps running across Orloff, playing by the smiling Bela Lugosi.
No prize if you guess who the criminal mastermind might be.
Police work dominates over chills, yet the atmosphere is good.
Especially sequences set in the Institute For The Destitute Blind.
Thriller based on Edgar Wallace novel would be remade as Dead Eyes Of London (1961), and Gorilla Gang (1968), with the 1961 Krimi being the best of the three.
Still, Bela is always watchable, and he is good in this.

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A Small Family Business - 2014 - 6/10

Theatre junkies, curtain up!
During the Covid lockdown, the National Theatre began limited airing of stage classics.
Jack McCracken retires from his job, ostensibly to take the helm of his father-in-law’s manufacturing business.
The company, once prosperous, now struggles. An insider is stealing.
As Jack digs, he uncovers fiddles, side deals, blatant appropriation, crimes petty and major.
Human rationalizing of “no one will notice a little bit missing” applies.
From my (admittedly cynical) viewpoint, the moral dilemmas are nether comic nor surprising.
This also is not the funniest Alan Ayckbourn play I have seen, though the actors try their best.

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And While We Were Here - 2012 - 6/10

Troubled couple go to Naples. He to play viola for concerts, she to work on WWII book.
Gorgeous settings of isle of Ischia, offset by serious tale of a husband and wife who no longer communicate.
She meets a 19 year old, still very boyish, though reckless and full of life.
“Chick flick” which will resonate more with female viewers.
The plot meanders around as the young wife (Kate Bosworth - quite good in this) broods much of the time, then starts thinking and rethinking, all the time listening to recordings of her grandmother, recalling her youth.

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Dark Star: H. R. Giger’s World - 2014 - 7/10
AKA - Dark Star: HR Giger’s Welt

Less a traditional bio journey than a study of a working artist in the twilight of his time.
A photographer trails a frail Giger in the last year of his life (he died, age 74, soon after filming concluded).
We see his support staff, assistants, current wife, ex-wives, agent, curator.
Another character is his maze like home, crammed, literally crammed with packed bookcases, paintings, memorabilia, including human skulls.
There is his museum, as well as a bar which must be seen to be believed.
Documentary excels if you want to see the artist and his obsessions with birth-sexuality-death.
As for the man himself, the individual underneath, not as much.

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Lost Love - 1978 - 6/10
AKA - Genshiryoku Sensô // 映画「原子力戦争

Under the looming nuclear plant, two youths are found dead on the beach.
Police label it a suicide pact and close the case.
A reporter is unconvinced, noting the male was an engineer at the nuclear facility.
The other skeptic is the dead man’s wife of barely six months.
Then into the village arrives the white suited Tokyo pimp.

The suicide girl, she was his! She was a good earner. He is losing money!
He is the wild card, bull in the china shop, upsetting police, local families, those with agendas.
Actually, he is a joy to watch, shameless, concerned only with his lost revenue.
Prescient story predates Chernobyl by six years, Fukushima by thirty.
A persistent music theme resembles a dissonant “Somewhere” by Bernstein, which itself borrowed from Beethoven’s Piano Concerto #5.

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A Married Woman - 1964 - 6/10
AKA - Une Femme Mariée

Charlotte, twenty something, has an affair with Robert, stage actor.
He presses her to divorce her husband and marry him.
Husband Pierre is older, affluent, and is a busy private pilot, often away.
While fetching, Charlotte comes across as kittenish, a bit of a coquette.
She does not work, she has a maid, her days are empty.
Indeed, she strikes one as vapid, superficial, adrift.
Writer director Godard puts her in situations of analyzing her body, face, against advertising images.
I imagine this was “modern” and perhaps pre-feminist in depictions of Charlotte’s pressures and choices.

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Sumo Vixens - 1996 - 5/10

One of the questionable delights of the Kei Mizutani box set.
Minor yakuza gang, the Domino agency, covets land owned by ailing auntie of closed Women’s Sumo group.
His men cannot handle the wrestlers so he hires ruthless female squad.
Film climaxes with major female sumo tournament.
Silly comedy, forced to farcical stupidity.
Technical note - The video transfer on the DVD is terrible.
On the other hand, these are “topless” female sumo wrestlers, and all very thin.
Puritans beware, copious nudity abounds.

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Murder In Maussane - 2017 - 6/10
AKA - Crime Dans Les Alpilles (Crime in the Alpilles)

While taking early morning photos of Roman ruins, Caroline is shot dead through the eye.
Soon on the scene are the local inspector and lead prosecutor, dressed apparently for casual cocktails.

Rather than investigate local marksmen, they interrogate relatives, neighbors, passersby.
Those who answer, “I don’t know” they toss in jail.
The whole time, our leads act like immature adolescents, and have the chemistry of used socks.
Sadly, this is no parody, but merely a poorly written French mystery which fails to take advantage of gorgeous Provence mountain scenery.