Vultural

The Pact - 2012 - 6/10

After ma dies, wild child daughter returns to her sister’s home and the funeral.
Straight away, she realizes something inside the house is skewed.
Odd creaks, blacker than black dark regions, silent blurs.
Plot steps up, however, as the younger sister (Caity Lotz) starts investigating mom’s secret past.
Along the way, she get some help from the local sheriff (Casper Van Dien).
Movie notched poor ratings, fair reviews, which I tallied to gorehounds mad at low gore, and no T n A.
Probably a good “date” horror or thriller film. Chick horror, is that a subcategory?

Forever And A Day - 1943 - 6/10

American businessman is tasked with selling long held London property.
He meets the prospective buyer during a nightly Luftwaffe bomb run.
While waiting, the potential buyer tells him the history of the home, as well as bygone inhabitants.
From the old crust who founded it in 1804 during the Napoleonic Wars to the present Blitz occupants.
Defenders of the realm, scoundrels, lovers, souls trapped by Fate.

Almost the entire “British colony” of 1940’s Hollywood participated in this forgotten chestnut.
Meant as a morale booster for the home front, as well as a vehicle to stir the Yanks.
This might have been a good film to watch with my father who was also a film buff.
I recognized 20 of the 80 stars involved, I imagine he would have caught far more.

Power, Albert - Azerbaijan Tales

Three novellas, set in Azerbaijan during Soviet control.
“Matinee In Baku” luncheons with a forgotten film star, waiting in a word-of-mouth popular cafe. In walks an older man, scruffy, yet charged with a probing intensity. He soon rakes the slumbering embers of memory. Secrets from the actress’s past; also secrets of her own mother, an even more legendary actress.
Buried business, ugly business. One wants suppressed, another wants excavated.
“The Pit-Crypts Of Kish” carries ripples of the first story. A minor character from “Matinee” is part of an archeological dig at Qabala, along with three men, and a party apparatchik.
Faith and history run parallel, if unevenly.
The ending felt not so much unresolved as unfinished, with several shingles of narrative tacked on in a concluding act. I was dissatisfied.
“The Sanatorium At Chakhirshirincelo” makes for a murky finale, yet compelling and fulfilling.
The director of the institute wonders if he can release an inmate, accused of murder, back to her hometown. To help him decide, another apparatchik arrives.
Different voices, conflicting agendas, diverse recollections, all muddy the waters. Not one unreliable narrator, but a handful, force the reader to grope in darkness.
Power has a sure hand throughout, sitting us inside the director’s office, then drawing us deeper and deeper, down and down, into a labyrinth of underground passages, heavy with ancestral memory.
As a bonus, there is also a poem, of which I will not elaborate. This feels like a window, cracked open by the author, providing, ever so slightly, a glimpse of the muse.

The Big Heat - 1988 - 6/10
AKA - Seng Fat Dak Ging // 城巿特警

From the opening drill through the hand to the final fireball, this film is balls to the wall.
Two cops initiate the rookie into unrestrained gunfights, foot chases through hectic freeway lanes, and squaring off against the high powered, well heeled, businessman / mobster.
The narrative is tucked into the furious proceedings. The death of an ex-partner and suspected smuggling.
Violent mayhem includes decapitation, dismemberment, shootings, stabbings, carvings.
There is also the criminal undercurrent, frequently alluded to, that the 1997 Takeover is coming, and time to profit is now, right now!
A lesser known Hong Kong film starring Waise Lee and Philip Kwok, and an early directing hit by Johnnie To.

Hollywood Boulevard - 1976 - 5/10

Midwest girl journeys to Los Angeles to become a movie star.
Predictably, she winds up at an exploitation outfit, beginning as a stunt driver, then getting lines.
Broad comedy pokes fun at dozens of B-movie clichés.
Rubber suited monsters, machine gun slaughters, car chases, topless girls, pretentious directors …
More laughs than yawns, though chase sequences extend too long.

The Phantom - 1943 - 6/10

Classic Columbia serial, perhaps their best. Tom Tyler stars as the Ghost Who Walks.
Here, the Phantom helps a jungle expedition search for the lost city of Zolos.
Opposition includes evil saboteurs, zealous tribal leader, treasure hunters.
Fairly decent cliffs include lion, alligator, tiger, gorilla. Luckily the Phantom has a great dog, Devil.
Tyler excellent in title role. Athletic and muscular. Perhaps the template Bionic Bob had in mind for Strikes!
Credits only list two, but also starring Frank Shannon (Dr Zarkov from Flash Gordon) and the ever wily, Kenneth MacDonald who was a stellar villain.

Hard to tell where this was set. Expedition members all wear pith helmets, porters seem to be South American, natives appear South Pacific, then there’s a Mongol ruler.
Wholesome matinee fare, though many more killings than anticipated.

Note: Though helmed by SPCA poster child B Reeves Eason, animals seemed to fare OK in this series.

OT members should be aware Mr Frink helms the FE discord channel.
Those who have dealt with this person should know what to anticipate.

Regency House Party - 2004 - 6/10

Reality based mini-series puts six ladies and four gents into the Regency era.
Great house, attractive clothes (though uncomfortable), bottomless alcohol.
Reflecting the era, the goal is for successful engagements, engineered by chaperones who will be well compensated. Maneuverings, games, and emotional explosions fuel episodes.
There was a rush of these living-in-the-past role-play shows around the beginning of the millennium.
Bathing facilities were limited, chamber pots were the norm, shampoo had not been invented.
Nope, I am fine with my time period.
Enjoyable enough series, particularly for Janeites.

Endless Winter: A Very British Surf Movie - 2018 - 7/10

From Cornwall to Scotland. From belly boards of the 20’s to big waves of today.
Britain, cold weather, freezing waters, and ever present rain.
Surfing documentary, yet everything about this differs from the usual.
The look is overcast, mirroring the weather.
The music is a hybrid of 60’s surf instrumentals and English folk and metal.
Good natured, warm hearted film will appeal to surf historians, and viewers who want a break from professionals doing their thing for the circuit paycheck.

Daughter - 2014 - 6/10
AKA - Dukhtar

Ten year old Pakistani girl is offered in marriage to aged tribal leader.
Mother and daughter flee, with gunmen from both tribes in pursuit.
At stake - honor, which demands blood for atonement.
Themes of female, and child, rights conflict with entrenched male hierarchy.
When I pointed out arranged marriages involving children had been used in Asia and Europe for centuries, I received several frosty responses.
Himalaya Mountains provide exotic backdrop, and child in peril angle may prove gripping to many.
Nonetheless, this falls into the chase genre.

Death Walks At Midnight - 1972 - 6/10
AKA - La Morte Accarezza a Mezzanotte

Endure another stale party? Or leave, and pray the man trying to kill you isn’t nearby.
If only Valentina hadn’t taken that experimental drug (HSD).
Then had flashbacks, witnessing a brutal, disfiguring murder.
Whereupon her face and testimony are plastered in a tell-all scandal mag.
Ho hum, publicity is money and a girl has to eat.
Lively, often bewildering Giallo, has six plots and several oddball characters.
Drugs, assassins, looney bin, two-faced liars.
Actually, it all works, with a narrative both twisted and logical.
Bit over the top at times, naturally, this should hold ones interest.

Austenland - 2013 - 6/10

Rom com finds crazed Jane Austen Yank buying ticket to Regency theme park in England.
Hoping to meet “a gentleman of quality.”
One’s experience is based on ability to pay. She goes the budget level and gets ill-treated accordingly.
Funny, predictable, often cringe-worthy, satire of obsession and expectation.
Jane Seymour memorable as the merciless and mercenary proprietress.

Horror On Snape Island - 1972 - 5/10
AKA - Tower Of Evil

Two twentyish couples boat to remote island and get frisky.
What? Their flat was being fumigated?
Too late, they realize the isolated isle has another inhabitant.
Dismemberment and carnage.
But wait!! That’s just the intro!
Next, four anthropologists decide they need to explore. Likewise couples, only estranged and canoodling.
They know someone murdered previous visitors.
Rather than carry weapons, they carry supplies and wear 70’s fashions suitable for clubbing.
Hard to be sympathetic for foolish professors in this snoozer.

The Avengers: S02 - 1962 - 6/10

Interesting season, this, and under-appreciated by the Emma Peel contingent.
Stories range in quality and style, as producers rebooted the series after one season.
This model of Steed is more ruthless than in later years, prone to fistfights, gunplay and manipulation.
Predating Goldfinger, he even drives an Aston Martin DB5 in E09 “The Sell-Out.”
There are infrequent meetings with spy bosses, One-Ten or One-Twelve, and he works with three partners.
Dr Martin King only lasts three episodes.
Singer Venus Smith is in six, and she seems the road not taken.

Miss Smith is a light jazz singer (think Beverly Kenney) engaged by Steed from time to time.
Light duty work. Take photos, eavesdrop. She reminds one of a Doctor Who companion.
Steed casually puts her in dangerous situations, never telling her what is ongoing.
These episodes are more playful, and while I have a fondness for Venus, her character is hardly suitable.
Besides, she pales in comparison with the third character, badass Cathy Gale.

Cathy Gale is an anthropologist, martial arts expert, artistic and culturally astute.
She is fearless, shrewd, capable, even deadly at times. One can see why many intimidated males dislike her.
Gale would have made a great Bond.

Audio miking varies from episode, one was particularly difficult to understand.
Shooting was on videotape so the image was soft.
Camerawork is often clumsy. In E23, “Conspiracy Of Silence,” the camera visibly bumps into furniture, though the players take that in stride, as they do offscreen crashes and noises.

In A Foreign Town - 2018 - 7/10

Meds and dream therapy. Tools of the analyst, asking questions.
Why does Mr. Hatcher try to kill himself?
What did he see? Still see?
When his father took him to the carnival, as a child, what happened?

Inspired Ligottian short boasts unsettling photography and baffling sound mix.
Nothing wasted in this venture into the strange.
Those in the cult of Ligotti, check this one.

As of 2021, this is available on video sites, YT and V.
V boasts superior resolution. If you need subs (unlikely) I retimed and uploaded.
https://subscene.com/subtitles/in-a-foreign-town

Hunky Dory - 2011 - 6/10

Minnie Driver as high school drama teacher in 1976 Wales.
Hounding her class to put on the big, end of year, musical show.
Part Glee, part Busby Berkeley “let’s put on a show!”
Scattershot view of pupils, though it does not suffer from the tokenism that plagues other shows.
Interesting mix of tunes, all circa 1976, preponderance of ELO and Bowie (ref title).
Not too schmaltzy, could sit through this without feeling restless.

The Devil’s Mask - 1946 - 5/10

Headless, oh no! Don’t you hate it when that happens?
Another entry in the “I Love A Mystery” franchise finds private eyes Jack and Doc caught between feudin’ females, mother and daughter.
A shrunken head is seized at Customs, shipped to the local museum for analysis.
The head could be related to a missing husband / father.
Characters, plot lines, and clues bounce all over this like a rabbit convention.
Light hearted, if deadly, mystery should be OK for fans of creaky thrillers.

Montparnasse Bienvenüe - 2017 - 6/10
AKA - Jeune Femme

Within moments, one can see why her photographer boyfriend locks Paula out of his apartment.
Paula has anger issues, a persecution complex, delusions.
Nonetheless, she was with him for ten years, and it seems he has replaced her with a younger model.
Yes, model and muse, only now she is 31.
Paula trudges through Paris with her cat, trying to find work, crash with whomever, hock possessions, impersonate.
Charm and likeability are not in her skill sets.
Great looking Parisian streets, although the narrative flits as swiftly as Paula’s moods.

The Borderlands - 2013 - 5/10

Horror yarn using the found footage template.
Pair of church techs arrive at tiny parish to substantiate claims of paranormal activity.
They set up recording gear, motion capture triggers, etc … Investigating priest soon arrives.
Most claims are scams, trying to lure media, spike attendance in the pews.
First half sluggish, with unsympathetic characters (one being a prime twat).
Accelerates hard at the end.
All handheld. Expect out of focus, jerky pans, dimly lit.
As a “documentary” I never bought that angle for a minute.

Witching And Bitching - 2013 - 6/10
AKA - Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi

A quick conference between the cross and the soldier during a frenzied robbery.
Afterward, the escape plan goes to hell, and improvising – well, improvising is overrated, yes?
Knowing satire of relationships, custody, inadequacy. Ooh, and witches.
That improvised route takes the holdup team into a coven, holding a sabbat.
Frantic horror / comedy is off the chain! Sexy, funny, and frightening.
Staccato dialogue, outrageous situations. Pay attention and hang tight.

Destination Wedding - 2018 - 7/10

Something about weddings encourage the cynics to emerge.
Perhaps it is viewing a relative and wondering, ‘Who on God’s earth would marry that one?’
Here, two world weary, soured souls, endure an event neither want to attend, and skew the proceedings.
Banter and observations, endless barbs and family skeletons.
Ryder and Reeves have a warm, if biting, chemistry.
This has the look and feel of an Allen comedy, one of the good ones, except it is not by the Woodster.
Might be improved if the final 20 seconds were trimmed.
For those who have given up on RomComs, given up on love.

Inside Llewyn Davis - 2013 - 5/10

Glorified indie film, overhyped because it hailed from the Coen Brothers.
Early 60’s, third rate folkie specializes in depressing downers.
Career going nowhere, he bums from everyone, antagonizes colleagues.
Worse, he’s getting old.
The Coens made a spectacular error early on.
They put a pet - a family cat - in uncertain jeopardy, and left that plot point dangling.
Throughout of the film, I heard whispers around me:
“What about the cat?” “Where’s the cat?” “That cat better be OK.”
People were so distracted they lost focus, and took everyone around them out of the film.
That, and characters kept referring to Grossman, whom anyone who knows a lick about folkie or 60’s music assumes to be Albert Grossman, legendary manager. Wrong. So that pissed off music know-it-alls.
Misfire for me. Doesn’t happen often with the Coens.

Prometheus: Special Edition - Agent9

I enjoyed the theatrical release of this film. Critics or fanboys who bellyached, I shrugged at.
What did they expect? Scott has always been a loose director, permitting plot gaps and unanswered questions. I have no doubt that in time, Prometheus will be regarded as a SciFi classic.
What Agent 9 preformed was an outstanding overhaul.
He threw the yoke of structure onto the film and straightened the narrative. Taut, focused.
Everything he added, I enjoyed. Everything tossed … well … (SPOILER) … I missed the opening Engineer sequence. Mainly because it was so visually arresting. To be honest, however, while cool looking it seemed disconnected from what followed. More parable than plot point. I warmed to the Weyland speech. (END SPOILER)
Other trims were fine, especially the two button heads who, as screened, seemed little more than comic Jar Jars.
I cannot stress how amazing the visual work was. Agent9’s color correction work should inspire new editors.

Early demos had two channel stereo. Agent9 listened to feedback and V2 is 5.1. Well done, and subtitles!
This was one helluva an edit, and I looked forward to A9 repairing Prometheus 2….
….Only that never happened. Agent9 either lost passion for the hobby, or tired of the scuffles, or something else.
By and large, fanediting is a thankless endeavor. Many beg to view, few say thank you. That’s life.
As far as Prometheus 2, such a colossal fail.

Subs = Most of the subs for Agent 9’s edit are machine translated VobSubs. I fixed most timing errors and corrected OCR mangled words. Again, this srt is for Agent 9’s edit. (This srt will work with the 2:07:21 mp4)
https://subscene.com/subtitles/prometheus-special-edition/english/2558041

Trailer -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEGJFGIPQ7c

Pearl Harbor: Strength and Honor Edition - ADigitalMan

Cracking good film!
The original, I hated.
Never fear, this sucker cranks.
As noted in other reviews, the love story is completely excised; the focus is on roaring action.
Visual editing is terrific, and is complemented by a thundering audio mix.
Narrative is on the shallow end, but that was to be expected when there were so many top name actors involved.
The nurses storyline suffered most. They ended up being little more than eye candy with a handful of lines.
Not a complaint, just an observation.
This is an older edit, but one of the better ones. Top job by ADM.

Fury Road (per Mad Max) - Amadi

Overview - An audacious, ballsy effort, removing one of the singular characters from a feature.
Mad Max, without Max. This cannot work. It has “fail” all over it.

Video - 1920 X 800 mov (which my system could not read, so I converted to mp4). Transitions and cuts are cleverly done. Damnit, I kept looking for Max (note, while glimpsed, he is unimportant). There are probably too many fade-to-blacks for my liking, but the editor disguises this with an ongoing audio mix that stitches scenes.

Audio - 1536 kbps LPCM 2-Channel stereo. No subs. Stereo, really? Yes, subs and stereo are my usual nitpicks, especially for high performance flicks. Eh, deal with it, loser. The sound is high octane, with no jarring flaws.

Narrative - None of the Max films are penetrating character observations, nor packed with plot nuances. A full bore action ride, one expects incoherence now and then, compensated with throat stopping stunts. There are a lot of cuts throughout, but this holds together for me. The original film is one I have watched numerous times, however. Someone viewing this cold may be puzzled by motivations.

Enjoyment - I enjoyed this. I appreciated it. I cannot believe how well Amadi pulled this off. While not an edit I would watch repeatedly (it just feels incomplete to me), the editing is a master class. In fact, I envision this editor readily finding work as a Hollywood axe-man. Whenever a star becomes a troublesome prima donna, the studio could hire Amadi the Eraser.