Vultural

Haunted Palace - 1949 - 5/10

Shaw Desmond presents a handful of reenacted hauntings.
A remorseful priest, waiting 200 years for forgiveness.
The evening arrival of spirits to a long past gathering.
Interspersed with a ballerina, gracing the proceedings with interludes.
Hauntings, not horror, catching sight of lingering presences.
Note Desmond’s circular bookcase in the background.

Alien Vs. Predator Requiem - 2007 - 5/10

Pity the unloved child.
Unexpected followup to 2004’s AvP boasts more carnage with a barely coherent story.
Hard upon that film, the Predator crew is overwhelmed by a new chestburster, and the ship crashes in woodsy USA.
The Xenomorph survives and scampers away, laying fresh eggs.
A Predator fixer races to the area to clean the mess, remove evidence and liquidate all Xenomorphs.
What else? Law enforcement, overage teenagers, compositions that are far too dark.
Not as good as the previous effort (which received mixed reviews), this has decent scenes, absurd logic.
B-flick. Hopefully, the studio will resist the creators lobbying for another film.

Various (Editor: Holmes, Carly) - Uncertainties Volume VII

Late 2024 found the latest installment of this dependable series in my mailbox. Carly Holmes, no stranger to fans of Weird Lit, at the helm. Assorted riches, as always, so I will just breeze through a handful.

“Pond Scum” finds two brothers, battered from personal setbacks and Life in general, in Italy, traipsing lonely country. They no longer have much in common, except weakness for alcohol. And a thirst for trouble, diversion. My sympathy does not extend toward aggressive drunks.

After his wife dies from the slow rot of cancer, Graeme needed solitude, isolation to grieve in peace. He takes a room in a remote village near the beach. His landlady is cheap, sexually pushy, yet sly enough to loosen trousers. Oh, yes, the beach. Something strange there. A distant figure, one with the “Sad Face” unsettles Graeme. Then there are those queer black stones. He knows he ought to depart, he really ought to.

Grief of another cloth in “A Suit Of Darkest Blue” finds Joan on a seemingly endless cruise, trying to escape, to forget. With her, however, is the ghost, perhaps ghosts, as grief wars with anger. On the decks, on shore leave, she “sees” because she cannot, she will not, let go.

Do you have a parent or sibling or any loved one who is a hoarder? If so, best advice – die first. Otherwise, you might have to endure the joy of tidying their house. Are you claustrophobic? Does your asthma flare when the very air itself is squeezed out by mountains of junk? “Little Nothings” will be for you. Should I mention the bugs?

The writer, tapping dry on inspiration, spinning clichéd plots aloud. One may be forgiven suspecting he is more hack than scribe. One tired notion after another “Ends Abruptly”. That’s the trick, though, correct? The satisfying conclusion. And oh, how fitting this one lands.

The Charge Of The Light Brigade - 1936 - 6/10

High powered adventure loosely based on historic fact, the Tennyson poem, and nonstop creative license.
The English vie for influence in the Khyber region. While the Vickers brothers vie for the love of Miss Campbell.
The India backstory is lengthy, mixing romance, intrigue and betrayals.
This seems straight out of Kipling.

Nonetheless, the scene inexorably shifts to the Crimean War and the Balaclava Heights.
The finale is thrilling and horrifying. Flynn blamed director Curtiz; the culprit was likely Breezy Eason.

Here In America - 2024 - 7/10

“When the government goes into the business of destroying trust, it goes into the business of destroying itself.”
Arthur Miller
A series of meetings, mostly in 1952, between Arthur Miller and Elia Kazan.
The HUAC meetings are underway, and the men may be targets.
Kazan was a member of the US Communist Party, Miller attended a few meetings.
Neither did anything overtly wrong, but the Committee is more interested in those who held influence.
Also who else belonged. Who were the other traitors? Names. What were their names?
Heady play about witch hunts and persecution, a cycle that resurrects over and over.
Miller would fashion his experience into “The Crucible”. Kazan … is what he is.
He is left to ponder Miller’s phrase about the gap between what’s right and what seems best for you.

Lot 249 - 2023 - 7/10

Smith is a hard-nosed pragmatist, a scoffer.
Nevertheless, the medical student has witnessed the deaths and near deaths.
He knows the prime suspect, and his method employed.
Something not quite of this world, existence of which the authorities would never accept.
Classic holiday ghost story, this outing courtesy one Arthur Conan Doyle.
These Mark Gatiss films seem to move from strength to strength each season.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3352989

Juror #2 - 2024 - 7/10

During voir dire, those in the pool try to escape.
Our main protagonist, Justin, is selected despite having a pregnant wife who is a nest of worry.
The trial is a lowlife affair. Boyfriend accused of bludgeoning his girlfriend.
Plenty of tavern witnesses saw the fight, her defiant exit, him climbing into his vehicle.
Witnesses include Justin, who was not supposed to be anyway near alcohol.
And who, like a zillion other people, should never have checked his phone, while driving in a rainstorm.
Later, he reflects back, “It was a deer I hit, right? It couldn’t have been her!”
Excellent courtroom drama, with keen eye toward juror preconceptions.
Film makes a tense moral thriller – so long as you overlook plotholes.
(SPOILER > He could have dodged jury duty simply saying he was in the bar and saw the fight.)
Midway, my bride observed, “This is Georgia. Your drawl is heavier than anyone in this.”

The Reflecting Skin - 1990 - 7/10

The heartland, late 1940’s, young friends Seth, Kim and Eben idle away the summer.
They especially enjoy tormenting the English Rose transplant.
Seth’s mother is neurotic and unpredictable, harsh even.
His father reads a vampire pulp, which fires Seth’s imagination to the point he believes a neighbor is one.
Highly stylized film shot from the boy’s point of view.
His house and parents are browns and grays, rust and dust.
While the outside world is deeply saturated colors.
Darker concerns, not caught by the child, is his troubled brother, back from WWII.
And a long, black Cadillac.
A visual feast for the arthouse crowd. Casual crowd, you’ve been warned.

Demons - 1971 - 6/10
AKA - Shura

Ronin Gengobei has already squandered his money and heirlooms on a smiling geisha.
Friends and fellow samurai loan him 200 ryo so he can repay his debts and join them.
He is to be part of the 47 Ronin, except the geisha and her heartless friends see the money.
Slow tale, composed as if for a theatre, dark throughout.
A story of lies, multiple deceptions, destroyed honor, revenge.
Neither cheating nor vengeance bring release or satisfaction.
Classical Japanese cinema; may be excruciatingly slow for the impatient.

Downtown - 1975 - 5/10

Inept private detective Al Pereira peers through the trick, two-way mirror.
Two stunning hustlers, planning to blackmail a rich playboy, need a photographer.
They have already fooled our PI once already, landing him in jail, but he is ever gullible.
Jess Franco outing mixes Noir with comedy with erotica. Plot is OK for once.
Beautifully lensed in Beaulieu-sur-Mer in the French Riviera.
Chemistry between Franco and Lina Romay is electric, as their real life relationship ignites.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3352990

Joko Anwar’s Nightmares And Daydreams - 2024 - 7/10

Seven chapter anthology from Indonesia’s maestro of horror.
Installments are stand-alones. Some conclude, others end weirdly.
While Indonesia is largely Muslim, these are steeped in folklore and superstition.

Stories reflect values, castes, horrors.
Wealth, and lack of same, hold hands with death and betrayals.
One soul gets lost in the theater of his youth, another searches for a sister she never knew she had.

Even the righteous, trying to behave ethically, err. Consequences are swift.
These may be alien, but let Anwar’s mood envelope you.
The finale manages to go wildly over the top, and link preceding episodes.
Fans of this director, crash the gate.

Event Horizon Slashed Killer Horizon - Mollo

Grim overhaul of muddled SciFi / Horror. Mollo pulls this out of tech and into blackness, heightening the horror.

The avi image is a little soft and is undoubtedly superior on the (for me, unavailable) DVD version.

Video - 640p, MPEG-4. Well done throughout. Numerous alterations are unnoticed. The additional scenes were worked in nicely.

Audio - 2-channel, MP3 128kbps. Man, this is where the edit really shines. An outstanding soundscape Mollo has crafted. Do not overlook the extras! The “Evil Sounds” bonus is a clinic on layering audio channels. Aspiring editors would be well advised to study this.

Narrative - Coherence gets lost in this. Of course the film was always a jumble. Dr. Weir seems even odder from the get-go and his usefulness onboard is negligible. An asteroid (from Deep Impact) sweeps past in the beginning for no real reason, though it is in the alternative ending bonus. At the end, Capt Miller sends Lt. Starck to the command deck for intel, and she … it is not explained. This turns into a flat out horror film with many stray threads and unanswered questions. That is not a problem, a lot of mysteries have no solutions, but there seem to be an awful lot in this edit. The pacing also feels rushed, very much so past the midway point.

Enjoyment - Appreciate would be a better word. I recognize and admire much of what Mollo did here. It does feel like a horror film, which was his intention, though not a particularly intelligent one. He removed much of the stupid factor, which is commendable, yet many of the characters are reduced to sketches. I never cared about them, so I never cared what happened to them. Tough luck, kids.

On one hand, the outro music, the last taste one gets from any film, was incongruous, intrusive and irritating.
On the other hand, the bonus features, redeemed quite a bit for me. Seeing how much Mollo had done, just with one brief scene, had me recognize and applaud the work he did with this. Adding those bonus features in a folder along with the feature .avi is genuinely considerate.

Good edit, worth viewing. Based on other reviews, tracking down the DVD is recommended.

Skyfallen - Last Survivor

Bombastic Bond outing marred by over reliance on explosions over logic and structure.
Movie also contains one of the weaker villains, a sad recurrence.
Last Survivor tackles this film with his usual surgical precision, with mostly excellent results.

Video - 720 X 480 MPG2. Brilliant, spotless work. I rewatched the theatrical version three days beforehand to better appreciate the work here. By and large, cuts were well chosen and few viewers will miss them. Side mirrors, straight razor, dragon, ice. Only when I rewatched the edit two days later, this time with audio commentary running, did I catch tiny imperfections pointed out by LS.

Audio - 2-channel AC3 192K. No subs. Robust sound, well synced to video. Changes in musical score played by unnoticed, though song alterations did not. LS explained his reasons for replacing Adele’s opener with the lesser known Within Temptation, voicing a rather 80’s sounding tune. It still struck me as a mistake. Most 007 openers are voiced by performer who reflect the zeitgeist of OUR age. Adele is certainly that. Now, WT’s closing version of “Skyfall” sounds just fine and actually provides a cheeky bookend.

Be sure to give this a second view, with Last Survivor’s running commentary. His comments are primarily Skyfall related, though not exclusively as he discusses other Bond vehicles, thoughts on CGI, scores, composers, as well as personal recollections.

Narrative - Ain’t wasting time here - Silva. In trying to create a “weirdly” memorable adversary, the creators wound up with a laughable personality. Silva already had an efficient, invisible, and highly profitable business running. So, he decides to imperil all of that? The long intro, yak-yak-yak, sexual innuendo, rat chat, sheer folly.

Last Survivor trimmed, shaved, swung an axe. Silva the ridiculous becomes Silva the sketch. Not really an improvement. Could be Silva is unsalvageable. He pales next to Le Chiffre, stumbles next to Scaramanga, falls by Largo, all villains who bested Bond. Blofeld remains on a level all his own. Silva comes across as a crybaby with mommy issues and a bad haircut.

Enjoyment - I like this edit, I like the theatrical version. Neither are my first choice for Bond, or Craig’s Bond.

Elizabeth Rex - 2004 - 7/10

Essex is to be executed for treason at dawn.
Ex-lover Elizabeth, monarch, spends the night awake.
Not with courtiers or politicians, but with other professional deceivers.
Actors and writers, in this case, William Shakespeare and members of the troupe.
Heady drama compares the privileges of love versus the obligation of rule.
Limitations of being a man, or a woman. Speaking one’s mind, or speaking too freely.
Experience akin to the fly in the room, observing. A remarkable show.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3352639

The Big Racket - 1976 - 6/10
AKA - Il Grande Racket

A quartet of enforcers shake down small businesses for protection money.
No pay, the stores are trashed, burned. Wives and daughters raped, murdered.
Cops hound them, but they hide behind the law. If police get tough, lawyers cry foul.
Extremely violent Euro-Crime, heavy on beatings, misogyny, and ballistics.
Lead villains are particularly well cast, their smirking arrogance, sadistic satisfaction.
As with so many of these, even with blood vengeance, the aftertaste is bitter.

Samurai Vendetta - 1959 - 7/10
AKA - Hakuōki // 薄桜記

Intersecting paths of two swordsmen from different / rival schools.
One is a ronin, with a slightly upward trajectory. The other still a samurai, yet Fate is unkind.
Mutual respect between the pair cause dissension in their clans, and later expulsion.
Classic chambara , steeped in honor, the samurai code, the breath of revenge.
Knowledge of the history of the 47 Ronin is essential.
Star-making roles for Raizo Ichikawa (Sleepy Eyes Of Death) and Shintaro Katsu (Zatoichi).
As with much Japanese cinema of this period, the composition throughout is peerless.

You Can Redo Your Life, But You Have To Die First - 2020 - 6/10

“You’re telling me, you invested that cube with bits and bobs and plutonium?”
“Yep.”
“And it’s a time displacemen – It’s a reset button?”
“Yep.”
SciFi short mixes toxic comedy with lengthy dialogue.
Enjoyment may hinge on your tolerance for British self-absorption, self-loathing humor.
Think Extras or Camping.

Call Me Tonight - 1986 - 5/10
AKA - Kōru Mī Tunaito //トゥナイト

Ryo has a bit of a problem.
Anytime he gets “aroused” he turns into a destructive monster.
Teeth, claws, bloodlust.
So, does Ryo contact a doctor? Priest? Scientist?
Nope, he phones the local escort service.
Soon, he and his date are trailed by street toughs.
Watered down hentai, poor anime that simply resembles manga panels.
As a parody of the genre, however, not bad.

Corelli, Marie - Wormwood

Gaston, young, successful, with an honorable future, is smitten with Pauline, still in her teens. She is perhaps too young, inexperienced in Life, games, mores, love. Nevertheless, she agrees to a betrothal because, well, because she does not know any better. Know that there is a difference between Mr. Right, and Mr. Right Now.
Until she comes across the real deal. Real love, the force that flutters the heart.
Gaston, reeling, quaffs absinthe, whereupon his fate and damnation are sealed.

A swooning novel of decay, dissolution, and the net of ruination cast wide, dragging others into despair.
Corelli’s tale is sordid, yet not cynical. Bordering on melodrama and preachiness throughout, without the unintentional camp of similar cautionary parables such as Reefer Madness.

If one were to draw parallels with modern decadence, modern addictions, those are evident.
Or one could speculate that species human has evolved less than an inch since our time in the trees, in the caves.

Inequality For All - 2013 - 7/10

Robert Reich addresses the college auditorium, as well as a room filled with blue collar.
Trying to explain where the middle class went, how everyone is financially broke.
And how the very few, the 1% at the top have so much wealth, that they can buy or tilt elections.
Reich is thoughtful, reasonable, trying to explain in simple language.
The worrying thought is that wealth disparity is even greater today than it was in 2013.
Solutions require political will, which is impossible for politicians without backbones.
Of course, we, the electorate, keep reinstating failures again and again.

Ollie, William - Into Hell

The squad returns home from the war. No parades, no cheers, no jobs.
An economy that is buckling, a town that is dying.
And a future, well, the future ain’t never was what it was cracked up to be.
Jokingly, they float the pipedream of a bank heist.
Which turns out to be a botched, horrid nightmare.
A bloody, shooting chase.
Terrific novella fusing the blood in the desert sands with chaos in the back alleys.
The pace is harried, a real page turner. Highly enjoyable – if – you don’t have a problem with slow deaths, with ugly kills.

Midnight Clear - 2017 - 6/10

Dad loves Christmas. He also exhibits simmering anger this year.
Add a wee bit of instability, and Dad frightens his wife and children.
Family traditions ain’t always what they’re cracked up to be.
Short film, stick for the twist.
Holiday fare for Grinch and Krampus celebrants.

Lucy Worsley’s Christmas Carol Odyssey - 2019 - 6/10

Always sigh inducing when a presenter puts their own name first and foremost.
Historian Lucy Worsley sweeps the songs from pagan into Medieval into the Great War.
Admittedly, the earlier Wassail songs seem more fun, their stories not over-told.
Plenty of carols in this, also a fair bit of fill to pad the time length.
Good as atmosphere, purring in the background while revels are ongoing.
For the more adventurous, check out The Unthanks: A Very English Winter (2012).

Close Your Eyes - 2023 - 6/10
AKA - Cerrar los Ojos

While working on “The Farewell Gaze”, the movie that was never finished, the lead actor simply disappeared.
Decades later, a popular “missing persons” show hires to old director to try and find the actor.
After all, there was never a corpse found. Conspiracy theorists have flourished.
The quest into forgotten paths pulls him and the viewer along.

Film is beautifully lensed, quietly acted, and the bookends are magical.
(One wishes the abandoned “Farewell Gaze” was available.)
There is leisurely paced, and there is plodding. This is agonizingly slow.
Sluggish, and overlong. The narrative is not that rich, nor are the characters.
Arthouse cinema – know thyself.

Siren X - 2008 - 4/10
AKA - Yôjo Densetsu Seirên X: Mashô no Yûwaku

The video crew heads out to a remote lake to shoot a “mini-skirt adventure”.
A polite way to V-porn. While refusing onscreen stuffing, the lead female aspires to a honorable career.
Fortunately for the menfolk, they have landed themselves near the neighborhood water demon.
A succubus, who even has her own minimally furnished, stately manor.
Yes, the men are soon bounced till they drop.
Noisy proceedings resemble coked-up, frantic gophers.
Enjoyment may depend on one’s dating circuits.