Vultural

El Mariachi - 1992 - 6/10

Case of mistaken identity.
A wandering musician and a gang who assume he is a murderous hitman.
The men pursue in droves, while the guitarist finds refuge, and romance, with an attractive female bar owner.
That’s the plot in a nutshell. The energy, however, is off the scale.
Despite an amateur cast, despite a budget of under $8000, this became a huge hit and made director Rodriguez a Hollywood player.
He would work with major stars, with multi-million dollar budgets.
None would ever have the heart and soul, the authenticity, of this, his first release.

The Reincarnation Of Isabel - 1973 - 5/10
AKA - Riti, Magie Nere e Segrete Orge nel Trecento…

Isabel, a witch burned, is resurrected (by reincarnations of those who killed her).
No reason why or how they summon Isabel is given.
From here, the story slips, careens in varying directions.
The narrative feels like fragments of dreams, stitched loosely together.
Style over substance, yet for style points this is gorgeous.
Attractive females, kaleidoscope colors, a seedy, decadent tone.
Note: Years ago, I bought the Redemption laserdisc.
I was thrown by countless characters and random plotting. I am still confused.

When I receive PMs asking for this or that edit, I always directed them towards Info.
Appears to be dinosaur dead now.
Any FE honchos know where - if -what?
Also a decent alternative where to point requests.
Before I bailed at Reddit, I noticed that database had tanked, as well.

Brotherhood Of Lizards - Lizardland

Martin Newell’s short lived duo with Nelson.

one tune =
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpEBwIs2O9o

Intimacy - 2001 - 6/10

Highly charged sexual relationship between bartender and aspiring actress.
Every Wednesday, she appears at his dilapidated flat for rolling on the cluttered floor.
Where did they initially meet? Unexplored.
He walked out on his family earlier. She still belongs, but is a chronic cheater.
A coproduction, this UK film looks and feels very French.
The sheer nudity and sex may put off a large audience, particularly Americans.
Arthouse fare of loneliness and obsession, disassociation and emotional longing.

Intimacy - 1966 - 5/10

Walter has been cooking the books with his company, plus he’s in hock to loan sharks.
If he can just swing the agency contract with the high and mighty Jim.
Walt tries bribery, alcohol, then sends a blonde hooker to Jim’s room.
The whole time, a hidden camera rolls, in case any frisky business occurs.
This ought to be sleazy entertainment, save this was filmed in two rooms.
Worse, this is a marathon talkfest.
Boring, despite attractive cast and voyeuristic come-on.

Excellent.
Will there be a threshold before one-post-wonders can request?
Likewise send a PM?
Thank you.

The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg - 1964 - 8/10
AKA - Les Parapluies de Cherbourg

Star-crossed Geneviève and 20-year-old Guy are desperately in love.
Intoxicating and heady as only the young experience it.
Her mother disapproves, however.
Fate intervenes in the form of Guy’s mandatory military service, and absence.
Poignant love story told entirely in music and song.
Sweeping set design, magnificent use of color.
Aching film, especially for those who had the great love.
Arthouse types, if you have not viewed yet, then you owe yourself.

Broadway Danny Rose - 1984 - 6/10

Who happens to be, if not inept, then he is simply unable to land quality talent.
Some are relics from vaudeville, others seem like circus sideshow, some charity cases.
His washed up singer, Lou, is enjoying a comeback, and cheating on his family with a hot blonde.
Who is also the girlfriend of a mobster.
Interesting Woody Allen movie mixes jokes with violence and betrayals.
Allen surely had long experience and deep memories of characters like these.
Exaggerated, sure, yet the bittersweet truth makes this part of his heady run of successes.
For the Mia Farrow faithful, this is one of her finest performances.

Newell, Martin - This Little Ziggy

“Music-biz success is comprised of five basic ingredients: right sound; right place; right time; right look and right age. The first four of these, you might have some influence upon, but talent often takes a long time to develop and the whole of that time, the clock is ticking away.” mn

The writer refers to these adventures as fiction, and I politely disagree. These essays are memoirs, recollections, perhaps tidied or distorted, jumbled or massaged. There is a ring of truth throughout. So, fiction? Not totally. (Note: I refer to my own essays as fables, but most are pretty accurate.)

Travel stories of a soldier’s son, across England, and also Singapore, back when travel was exotic.
Teenage kicks. The wrong crowd, drugs, acting out, drugs, baffling females, drugs. Police.

Followed by salvation. Joining a covers band, The Mighty Plod, Colchester’s finest.

This is the heart of an extremely entertaining read. Mistakes, pitfalls, perils for a struggling young band.
Newell possesses a droll sense of humor and a skeptical view of fame and the music business.

Hunt around, you might listen to their demo songs on a global video site.

Sult - 2018 - 6/10

Predator and prey flirt in wordless horror short.
Seduction, rejection, lingering malice.
Unnamed characters, means you will have to work out events on the fly.
Drinks always taste better when they’re free.

Ambush At Cimarron Pass - 1958 - 5/10

Army patrol, decimated after an Apache attack, meets a group of ex-Confederates.
Likewise, damaged by Apaches who stole the horses they came to trade.
The Civil War fresh in some, tempers flare, whereupon the Apaches steal ALL the horses.
Fort Waverley is a six day march, during which the group are under guerilla attacks.
Horse-oater is routine B-film. Watch and guess who the next corpse will be.
Early Eastwood credited part will lure many, although he swings from stiff to overbearing.

Coming Soon - 2008 - 5/10
AKA - Program Na Winyan Akat

The movie was about a woman who kidnaps and murders village children – before the villagers hang her.
Our protagonist, who films and bootlegs theatrical releases, wonders if this was based on real events.
He decides to investigate. Always a big mistake.
Scattered jump scares. Decent premise of film in a film, although that has been done before and better.
Comic relief – there’s just too much, and it spoils the atmosphere.
I appreciate that the director avoids the “dead wet girl” look.
This spirit is really creepy and blindly vengeful.

Dutch Girls - 1985 - 6/10

Scottish high school field hockey squad is off to the Netherlands for friendly matches.
Coach anticipates easy victories, glories, and a chance to revel in Van Gogh.
The lads? Alcohol, cigarettes and those easy Dutch girls.
Mixed comedy has a fair amount of Benny Hill to it.
Timothy Spall hilarious as the out of control Lyndon.
Colin Firth the awkward mate, bedazzled and tongue-tied.
(All of the players and girls are too old to be 17.)
Funniest scene when the coach loses his way in Amsterdam and leads the boys into the sex district.

Carrie Fisher: Wishful Drinking - 2010 - 7/10

Hilarious one man show from silver-spooned toddler to tabloid fodder.
Hollywood mating rituals, high earners and big spenders.
Drugs, depression, manic depressive, fame and infamy.
Fisher is funny throughout to a responsive and sympathetic audience.
Star Wars fans, OT enclave, at 42” the atrocious bagel haircut appears, as do stories.
Lucas is mentioned, no one else from the Trilogy. Perhaps she is a bit guarded there.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3359473

Girl On The Run - 1958 - 6/10

The canary sings her last number, unaware that in five minutes she will witness a murder.
Subsequently, become the target of a persistent hitman.
Them’s the breaks, blondie.
So, she dyes her hair, relocates, and starts singing under a new identity, in a new club.
Yet the hitman, a jive hustling, cool-as-hell Edd Byrnes, tracks her down.
Middling Noir would become the pilot for the popular series “77 Sunset Strip”.
Most of the elements are here: Efrem Zimbalest, Jazz music, shady officials, the trendy vibe.

Too bad Christian Bale is 50.

Buffalo Creek Revisited - 1984 - 6/10

Ten years after the dam break that destroyed a dozen hill communities.
Restitution? Mega-trailer parks, communities jumbled.
Trailer parks considered concentration camps, one nicknamed Gestapo.
An uptick in alcoholism, domestic violence, crime, despair.
Folks returned to their own land?
No, land was owned by coal companies, lumber mills, oil empires.
Highway Dept. seized the rest for a proposed expansion.

Fatcats enriching themselves exploiting the state’s mineral resources.
Government agencies make promises – without keeping promises.
I could go on and on and on. Fifty years on, this still bothers me. Hell.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3359472

Cropsey - 2009 - 6/10

“Documentary” about the stalker of Staten Island, who might be nothing more than an urban myth.
Children did actually go missing, and an individual arrested.
Noted. Yet, if the myth extended earlier, what or who were the origins?
Archival materials, interviews, theories, all stretched thin.
Insufficient factual meat, his feels like a padded, high school term paper.
Disappointing, more so for my bride, a native New Yorker who vaguely recalled the mania.

Whates, Ian - The Smallest Of Things

Claire witnesses a murder. Worse, she emitted a noise, alerting the killers to her presence.
Now they are in pursuit. Claire turns to friend Chris, freelance trouble shooter.
The ensuing chase skitters across London – various Londons.
Transitioning alternation realities, different timescapes.
A novelette, brief on character development and lacking atmosphere.
Busyness and the stray gizmo now and then.
Agents on the hunt are straight out of “Dark City”.
A page turner, although the conclusion is abrupt. This feels like a pitch for a series of novels.
Cover art is superb, indicating “various” London realities.

King Of Alcatraz - 1938 - 6/10

The king escapes, coppers in pursuit.
He slips onboard an “adventure cruise” headed for Panama.
Likewise on the steamer are his gang, who soon enough take control of the vessel.
Gangster potboiler barely runs an hour and has menace and murders.
Lloyd Nolan and Robert Preston bicker over nurse Gail Patrick (Perry Mason fame).
Best is J. Carroll Nash, usually a character type, this time lethal and desperate as the boss.
Barely remembered gangster flick, a must for Morse Code fanatics.

Murder On The Inca Trail - 2024 - 6/10
AKA - Mord auf dem Inka-Pfad

Ah, to be young, in love, travel the world.
Since they are in love, the married couple shun guided expeditions, and are attacked.
Ursula dies of her injuries, husband Jona tells elaborate, slippery stories.
Aside from the Andes scenery, Jona is a key, if maddening reason to watch.
He is extraordinarily elusive, lying, denying, forgetting, a bold-faced deceiver.
Based on a true murder, I did wonder if Munich actually spent for those police airfares.
By the end, I thought of how different European laws (France - Germany) differ from States.

Broom Kid said:

I’ll replace this post with the deets and the “you can download now, please don’t just beg for links, it makes everyone sad, DM me instead”

Good luck with that.

Green Snake - 1993 - 6/10
AKA - Ching Se // 青蛇

Two female snakes adopt human form to mix with villagers.
One has her eye on a shy scholar and longs for romance and more.
The other, younger, seeks ordinary pleasures of song, dance, food, joy.
Threatening them is a rigid, over-zealous monk.
He ignores precepts that one can reincarnate into higher existences.
His dogmatic stance is one obstacle, the younger snake sister’s jealously is another.
Dizzying, often confusing Tsui Hark fantasy, makes the most of fog and open sets.
Plot is based on a Chinese folktale, with shortcuts. Repeat viewing helps.

The Snapper - 1993 - 6/10

Sharon, after a night of drinking and debauchery. Soon realizes a snapper (baby) is coming.
Her family is supportive and ashamed, antagonistic and repentant.
Broad Irish comedy will resonate with some, less with others.
Might depend on the sort / size of family you grew up in or live with.
I wanted to enjoy this, eager to laugh, but this was very hit and miss for me.
Next to me, the girls laughed and laughed.
Colm Meaney towers as the father in full charge in this.