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Posted on 03.24.10 by David @ 4:25 pm
To coincide with its release of Ponyo on DVD and Blu-Ray (surprisingly, the first Miyazaki film to be released on Blu-Ray), Disney has re-released a selection of older Miyazaki films on DVD, some of which were starting to become a little difficult to pick up in their U.S. incarnations. The older films – Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988) and Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) – are all classics and capture Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli on the cusp of becoming a national institution. Between the somewhat rough Laputa and the polished Kiki, Miyazaki perfected his style, laying the groundwork for the tremendous aesthetic triumphs of Spirited Away and Ponyo. Similarly, many of Miyazaki’s signature obsessions and themes – man’s relation to nature, the use of adolescents and children as protagonists, Jules Verne-inspired steampunk technology, and above all, flying – emerged in these films (as well as their predecessor, Nausicaa. Fittingly, while Laputa and My Neighbor Totoro were not initially financial success stories, Kiki was a hit and both Laputa and My Neighbor Totoro have since achieved recognition both critical and popular, with My Neighbor Totoro have becoming perhaps Miyazaki’s signature film. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: Japan and People: Hayao Miyazaki and Production Company: Studio Ghibli and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews Comments: None |
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Posted on 02.26.10 by David @ 3:46 pm
Kadin Dusmani
At its heart, Kadin Dusmani is more giallo than slasher, though the famed “black gloves” of the giallo killer have been replaced by a series of Halloween fright masks. The killer targets women alphabetically by name and neighborhood, while Detective Kemal (Ekrem Bora) tries to sort through a large group of suspects and red herrings before his beloved, widowed sister-in-law, Oya, is targeted. The central mystery is well constructed, though the killer is pretty obvious from the start (if you follow the rule of superfluous characters). Moreover, aside from some gratuitous bellydancing and a bizarre (and quickly abandoned) subplot involving Oya’s sister, events move along snappily and with some style. However, my favorite aspect of the film was the soundtrack – the theme is jangly and discordant, incorporating what seemed to be a mix of synths and traditional instruments like pipes, drums and possibly even a zither. Overall, Kadin Dusmani is nice, sleazy little exploitation package. Filed under: Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Contributors: David and Genre: Giallo and Rating: Average ★★ and Movie Reviews: Spain and Movie Reviews: Turkey and DVD Reviews: Turkey and DVD Reviews: Spain and DVD Companies: Onar Films and DVD Companies: Palm Pictures and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews Comments: None |
Has there ever been a more apt name for a slasher film than Woman Despiser? Ironically, by the notoriously misogynistic standards of that much-maligned genre, Kadin Dusmani is relatively respectable. Which is not to say that the female cast isn’t in for some rough treatment, but rather that the filmmakers at least do not seem to share the same low opinion of womankind as their necrophiliac sex maniac killer. Sadly, that is something that can’t be said for many slashers, which pack their casts with harpies, whiners and loose women.|
Posted on 07.27.09 by David @ 9:27 am
AKA: Rampage; Turkish Rambo; Fearless Review By: David Austin  Korkusuz, perhaps better known unofficially as “Turkish Rambo,” is a classic example of the Turkish knock-off film. Back in the day, the Turks made a cottage industry of aping foreign films with wacky, low-budget adaptations using local talent, resulting in bizarro versions of Star Wars (The Man Who Saved the World), Superman (Superman Returns), and E.T. (Badi). Director Cetin Inanc was an old hand at this type of film, having previously directed The Man Who Saved the World, perhaps the most famous of the Turkish adaptations, and Turkish Rocky during the eighties. Of course, back in the sixties, Inanc proved he could do more with Iron Claw the Pirate (see review here), one of the more enjoyable masked hero films of Turkish cinema’s heyday. Here, Inanc transplants Rambo into a thinly fictionalized version of Turkey’s Kurdish conflict, and replace grimacing, monosyllabic muscle man Sylvester Stallone with grimacing, monosyllabic muscle man Serdar (using his own name for his character, possibly to avoid confusion by the actor). The plot is considerably more convoluted than it needed to be, but in its essentials involves Serdar’s undercover insertion into a mountain bandit base run by the entertainingly, old-fashioned villain Ziya (Huseyin Peyda, a dead ringer for Vincent Price in looks and spirit). Serdar gets in good with Ziya’s stupider brother and soon is helping the bandits with some sort of goofy plan that involves raiding a friendly bandit’s headquarters for no apparent reason. Aiding Serdar are Captain Omer (Swayze-esque Togrul Meteer) and a peasant girl who falls for our hero. Korkusuz is justly famous (or should I say infamous, for two stupefyingly silly and entertaining action scenes. The first is a one-on-one, hand-to-hand combat between Serdar and one of the lead bandits. It’s awesomely awkward in that uniquely Turkish style, where energy and can-do spirit trump choreography and skill. Filed under: Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Contributors: David and Rating: Average ★★ and Movie Reviews: Turkey and DVD Reviews: Turkey and DVD Companies: Dark Maze Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.15.09 by David @ 1:06 pm
AKA: Gli amanti d’oltretomba; The Faceless Monster; Night of the Doomed Review By: David Austin  Nightmare Castle epitomizes the Italian gothic of the 1960s and, as such enjoys the advantages and suffers the disadvantages of its kind. Specifically, Nightmare Castle has gorgeous cinematography and rich, eerie atmosphere. The plot, on the other hand , is a mostly forgettable mish-mash of horror tropes and meandering plot points. Nevertheless, director Mario Caiano, cinematographer Enzo Barboni and set decorator Bruno Cesari (who later worked on Once Upon a Time in America and won an Oscar for The Last Emperor) do first class work. Beautiful period costumes and furnishings are all shot for maximum effect (with an emphasis on stylish, ground-level tracking shots). Viewers familiar with Italian cinema will look past the flaws and appreciate the lovely sights on display. In contrast to the finery on display, Nightmare Castle, like other Italian gothics of the early sixties, pushes the envelope in terms of graphic violence, adding grotesquerie to the otherwise dignified surroundings. Caiano does not shy away from the grue, setting his scenes of torture and depravity in the stately halls of a classical manor or in a pleasure garden. These two elements of Nightmare Castle’s appeal combine in an impressive finale that brings the somewhat drawn-out proceedings to a suitably pyrotechnic close. Filed under: Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Contributors: David and Movie Reviews: Italy and DVD Reviews: Italy and DVD Companies: Severin and People: Barbara Steel and People: Ennio Morricone Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 05.07.09 by David @ 9:29 pm
The Wrestler
Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: USA and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: USA and People: Mickey Rourke and People: Patrice Leconte and Movie Reviews: France and People: Darren Aronofsky and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and DVD Companies: Severin Comments: 1 Comment |
I have long said that the only good wrestling films come from outside the US. Between dramedies like The Foul King and freak-outs like Champions of Justice and The Calamari Wrestler, Japan, Korea and Mexico have put the US film industry to shame (the recent Nacho Libre did nothing to change my mind). With The Wrestler, though, there is finally some competition.|
Posted on 03.30.09 by David @ 11:15 am
I have updated my previous review of Nacho Vigalondo’s Timecrimes (see full review here) with a review of Magnolia’s new DVD release. The DVD details, of greatest interest for Magnolia’s welcome inclusion of Vigalondo’s brilliant, hilarious short 7:35 de la mañana may also be found below. I thought Timecrimes was one of the best films I saw last year (as reflected in our Top 10 of 2008 list) - for those of you who missed it in the theaters, now is your chance before the already-in-development remake gets underway.  Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews Comments: None |
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Posted on 03.23.09 by David @ 8:58 am
AKA: Låt den rätte komma in Review By: David Austin  I have been looking forward to this one for a while, ever since the buzz began to grow. A horror movie out of Sweden, particularly a good one, is not exactly an everyday event. Sweden’s international cinematic reputation has long rested on the twin legs of art cinema and exotica, but little else. Certainly, the Swedes are well known in the field of exploitation films, deriving from the country’s reputation (true or false) for sexual permissiveness and leggy blondes, with a long history ranging from the hybrid arthouse/sex “I Am Curious” series to Thriller: A Cruel Picture, but other genres have always come up short, especially next to the prolific Italians or even their Danish neighbors. Before watching Let the Right One In, I found myself shamefully unable to name even one other Swedish horror movie (not counting The Virgin Spring, which is not really horror). I am glad to say that Sweden has finally remedied this shameful situation, and in the best possible way. Let the Right One In, based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist (who adapted his own work for the screen) is the story of a lonely, picked-on, 12-year-old boy, Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) who befriends Eli (Lina Leandersson), the new girl in town, who just happens to be a murderous, bloodsucking vampire. It is an interesting approach to an over familiar subgenre. I find that children often make for interesting protagonists in horror films. Their reactions to the supernatural are less extreme and more accepting than their adult counterparts; their worldview has not yet cemented to the point where the supernatural is automatically a source of horror or a worldview-shaking philosophical cataclysm. As in Guillermo del Toro’s masterpieces, The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth, Oskar is capable of a different response than his parents and neighbors – it may not be the best response but it is infinitely more fascinating. Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Contributors: David and Rating: Good ★★★ and Movie Reviews: Sweden and DVD Companies: Magnolia and DVD Reviews: Sweden Comments: 3 Comments |
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Posted on 03.04.09 by David @ 9:54 am
AKA: Dung che sai duk redux; The Heretic East and the Venomous West Review By: David Austin [Confession time: I’ve never seen the original version of Ashes of Time – I gave up following a failed attempt years ago to watch a DVD of it that easily ranks among the most appallingly discs ever created. Consequently, I cannot speak to the differences between the two versions.] Ashes of Time is an almost purely sensual experience. The film is about colors, and light, and the eyes, faces and skin of some of the most beautiful (and most talented) actors and actresses that Hong Kong has to offer. The soul of the film lies neither in its plot or its dialogue, but rather in the deep textured oranges and blues and greens with which Wong and famed cinematographer Chris Doyle lens the deserts of western China. Wong constantly cuts away from the story to focus on the landscape, making it as essential a character as any of the protagonists. Surprisingly few films truly capture the physical majesty of China. I once took an 18 hour train ride through China and was stunned by the immensity and variety of the landscapes outside the cramped urban centers. Wong and Doyle capture this feeling of vastness. This is not to suggest that the human players are short-changed. Wong pays as much attention to how he shoots the cast as he does to the backdrop. Consider the artistry of a lengthy shot of Brigitte Lin standing before a slowly rotating birdcage, the shadows flickering across her face. We are clearly in the hands of the same sensualist who years later would helm In the Mood for Love, with its restrained fetishizing of smoke and rain and gorgeous cheongsam dresses. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Hong Kong and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: Hong Kong and Rating: Good ★★★ and People: Wong Kar-wai and People: Brigitte Lin and People: Maggie Cheung and People: Tony Leung Chiu-wai and People: Tony Leung Ka-Fai and People: Leslie Cheung Comments: None |
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Posted on 12.16.08 by Charlie @ 11:11 am
The Sky Crawlers  Mamoru Oshii, the animé heavyweight behind the classic film Ghost in the Shell has a new film, The Sky Crawlers, based on a novel by Hiroshi Mori. A startling mix of impressive 3D graphics and low-fi 2D animation, the film just premiered in New York City this past Friday courtesy of New York-Tokyo, the Film Society at Lincoln Center, Sony Pictures, Stage 6 Films and Production IG. Mamoru Oshii recorded a brief introduction for the film’s NY premiere, in which he talked about a phenomenon around the world and, he claimed, particularly in Japan, in which youngsters decide “not to grow up” and continue to act like children right into their adulthood. The idea of child-like adults plays a central role in The Sky Crawlers, which takes place in a futuristic sci-fi society in which genetic research gone awry has resulted in children who don’t age, but only if they so choose not to — they can also choose to grow up normally. But if they do choose to remain children, they become “kildren” (presumably derived from “killer children”) and simply live on forever physically as children (teenagers really), holding jobs and living like adults in other respects. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and Movie Reviews: USA and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: USA and Contributors: Charlie and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews Comments: None |
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Posted on 12.01.08 by David @ 10:37 am
AKA: Los Cronocrimenes Review By: David Austin [Timecrimes opens in limited release in the United States on December 12, 2008] A man, Hector (Karra Elejalde), relaxes on the lawn of his wooded property. Through binoculars, he sees a girl undressing in the forest. He goes to look for her and is attacked by another man. Seeking refuge in a nearby laboratory, he is sent back in time several hours. Now in his own near past, he encounters the girl, but she is not in the forest where he saw her before. If she does not go to the woods, how will he end up looking for her and go back in time, ending up in his present position. What should he do? What must he do? In this manner, director Nacho Vigalondo has crafted a unique horrific cinematic vision. Timecrimes has no villain, no intentional wrongdoing, just a growing sense of dread as the characters become enmeshed in the remorseless gears of their predicament. In that sense it reminded me of David Cronenberg’s remake of The Fly – the horror is in the inevitability of the bad end, not simply in the “monster.” It is this that makes Timecrimes, as with The Fly before it, a tragedy as much as a horror or a science-fiction film. Filed under: Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Rating: Good ★★★ and Movie Reviews: Spain and DVD Reviews: Spain Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 11.06.08 by David @ 2:53 pm
[We previously reviewed Takashi Miike’s Sukiyaki Western Django as part of our NYAFF 2008 coverage here - that festival review is reprinted in this article prior to the DVD details. Click here for all posts relating to Takashi Miike] Sukiyaki Western Django
Like Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, in whose footsteps it all but explicitly follows (Tarantino even makes a cameo appearance), Sukiyaki Western Django is the bastard child of its predecessors, primarily Yojimbo, A Fistful of Dollars, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, and Django. While, unlike Kill Bill, Sukiyaki Western Django isn’t quite able to transcend those influences and become something truly great, what it does accomplish is more than enough to make it a fascinatingly weird little film and an interesting aside from Miike. Certainly the noodle western has been done before, more literally in Eastern-Westerns like Plains Wanderer and more symbolically in Juzo Itami’s effervescent Tampopo, but Miike’s take is as wild and cracked as the man’s filmography would promise. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: Japan and People: Takashi Miike Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 10.20.08 by David @ 9:23 am
AKA: Porno Jidaigeki: Bohachi bushido Review By: David Austin  Bohachi Bushido is proof that, while Teruo Ishii might not always have brought the most disciplined and sophisticated visual sense to the table, when focused he was capable of some gorgeous work. Indeed, with Bohachi Bushido, Ishii shows he could be a match for the formal rigor of his colleague Norifumi Suzuki, usually by far the greater visual stylist as demonstrated in films like School of the Holy Beast and Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom. Those familiar only with The Executioner series, where Ishii killed time by having Sonny Chiba pick his nose and put it in people’s drinks, will be shocked to learn that Bohachi Bushido comes from the same director. Ishii’s works have always been stagy, but here his direction tips over the line into full-blown theatrical. Characters scheme and declaim their lines as if in a Kabuki drama. Even his images of the classic Yoshiwara red light district of Edo (pre-Meiji restoration Tokyo) are drawn as if from an old ukiyoe print, with crowded horizontal planes filled with bars, theaters, and pleasure-seekers. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: Japan and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: Japan and Contributors: David and Rating: Average ★★ and DVD Companies: Discotek and People: Teruo Ishii and Studios: Toei and People: Tetsuro Tamba Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 09.18.08 by David @ 11:03 am
Last House on the Beach
The plot involves three bank robbers – a psycho (Flavio Andreini), a runt (Stefano Cedrati) and a pretty boy (Ray Lovelock) – who hole up at a beachside villa, taking a nun and her five young charges hostage. While there, they entertain themselves with a little rape and murder, and generally torment their captives. There That about sums it up. The girls are pretty but vacuous (and lack the common sense to avoid lounging around in revealing nighties). Florinda Bolkan only gets to show off two emotions as the nun – fear and anger. Similarly, Stefano Cedrati does little but leer and groan. Flavio Andreini is more effective as the most overtly psychotic thug. With his blocky features (Andreini resembles a younger, thinner Oliver Reed) covered with pancake makeup and lipstick, he at least is memorable. Of course, nothing says creepy like a man in lipstick and facepaint, as Heath Ledger and Dean Stockwell proved in The Dark Knight and Blue Velvet respectively. Maybe it is some kind of instinctive fear of transvestite clowns? Filed under: Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Contributors: David and Movie Reviews: Italy and DVD Reviews: Italy and Movie Reviews: Spain and DVD Reviews: Spain and Movie Reviews: France and Movie Reviews: Capsule Reviews and DVD Companies: Severin Comments: None |
Last House on the Beach is one in a long line of Last House on the Left knockoffs (which in turn derived from Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring) depicting the mistreatment of young women at the hands of vicious criminal kidnappers followed by violent revenge. On the positive side, Last House on the Beach is a competent piece of work and less of a grueling endurance test than its immediate inspiration – on the negative side, a couple of slow-motion sexual assaults still make it pretty hard to sit through. This is not what I would consider a “fun” exploitation film.|
Posted on 06.27.08 by Charlie @ 4:52 pm
 AKA: Der Freie Wille Review By: Charlie Prince I’m delighted to report that as of this week The Free Will is finally out on DVD here in the United States. I was blown away when I saw this film play at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. Of the 550 or so movies I saw that year, it was my favorite. While not an easy film to watch, it is undeniably powerful, with incredible acting and an unlikely love story thrown in the mix. I wrote a review of the film from the 2006 Tribeca Fest which you can read here if you’re so inclined. The film is best known for having won the prestigious Silver Bear the Berlin Film Festival and a best actor award at Tribeca. Filed under: General and DVD Reviews and Contributors: Charlie and DVD Reviews: Germany Comments: None |
Posted on 05.18.08 by Charlie @ 12:04 pm
 The Guatemalan Handshake Rating: 3 out of 4 stars (good) Think of The Guatemalan Handshake as a love letter to memories of growing up in small town, USA. The film, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Slamdance Film Festival, has only just been made available on DVD from Benten Films (more on the label later). The Guatemalan Handshake is loosely centered around Will Oldham’s character, Donald Turnupseed — or rather his disappearance, and as fair warning, it is not structured around a traditional narrative structure of any kind. Rather, it is a collection of moments that come together like a collage to paint a loving picture of small town life, warts and all. For those with the patience for atypical narratives, this one’s a real treat. Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and Movie Reviews: USA and DVD Reviews and DVD Reviews: USA and Contributors: Charlie and Rating: Good ★★★ and DVD Companies: Benten Films Comments: None |
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