Don't Breathe (2016)
Don't Breathe is another entry into the R rated horror genre, one that seems to be on an upswing, at least financially speaking. Made for only 10 million dollars, and having already grossed over 66 million, this movie is definitely a financial success. If you add in the international box office, it has made about 90 million. Definitely a nice haul for a new R rated horror film, which is good for those of us that like our horror a bit more bloody, dirty or boob filled.
For the few of you that haven't seen the trailer or heard, this movie is about 3 young people in a rough town who decide to rob a blind guy of his money. They figure it would be really easy since he's blind, so they bust in and try to rob him. Needless to say, he may be blind but he is not disabled, so he decides to terrorize them.
Let me get this out right now. I WANTED to like this film, I really did. But there are a few key things in this film that almost guaranteed that I wouldn't. First, we have the three young people who are basically robbing a blind guy. This does not make you sympathize with them in any way, no matter what their back stories are, or their reasons for wanting a blind guy's money. Second, we have the blind guy, who is not exactly a sympathetic character for reasons I will not disclose, since it has to do with some of the deeper plot points and twists. Third, we have the three thieves who, while battling the blind guy, do not use any brains or intelligence at all when trying to figure out how to get out of there. As someone who grew up on Helen Keller jokes, we all know there are multiple ways to fuck with a blind person, the most simple being to rearrange the furniture. Blind people expect things to be in the same place at all times. Move a chair, throw some shit down on the floor. There were so many options that were not taken advantage of it was shocking.
You see, many of the classic horror films have you rooting for both the bad guy AND the good guy(s), like in some of the Nightmare On Elm Street series. While you like Freddy, you also root for the teens fighting him. You also get teens who are smart, able, and have their wits about them. They make plans, try things out, come up with new ones when the old ones don't work. In Don't Breathe the blind guy is not very likable, and the kids are not very bright. Not much to root for in that bunch.
Even if you do get behind one of them, for whatever reason, they never really prove their worth by making smart decisions during the movie. They just keep doing the same stupid shit over and over, without any forethought at all. It makes you feel like they deserve everything they get.
Now, it is not like this film has nothing going for it, in fact, it has multiple positive points. It is shot really well, even in the scenes where it is dark and hard to tell what exactly is going on. They give you the illusion of it being pitch black without making you struggle to see things. This is a huge issue in many other movies, one they avoided completely here. Overall the cinematography is top notch, and I was impressed with it.
The actors were fine, my issues were mostly with the writers and how they wrote the motivations of the characters. But everyone played their parts well, there was no stand out terrible actor ruining this movie. I read that a bunch of them had worked on the Evil Dead remake, so I guess that helped.
There were some surprises in the movie, some plot twists which were interesting, and at times amusing. I was thankful they didn't spoil any of them in the trailers I had seen, so they were actually a surprise to me.
All in all this was a movie I wanted to like, but ended up feeling unsatisfied as I left the theater, never a good feeling when seeing a horror movie. Needless to say, many people did enjoy this movie, for one reason or another, so I might be in the minority in my view.
By the way, I saw this at one of the Dolby Atmos theaters, and boy was I impressed! It was so much better than the 4DX experience I suffered through a few months back. I really want to see other films in this theater, to see if it holds up over multiple films.
6 out of 10 stars.
Location : AMC Empire 25 , theater 8, NYC
Date and time : Wednesday, August 31st, 2016 at 8 PM
Format : DCP in Dolby Atmos
Audience : about 40 people
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
The Screwfly Solution - Masters Of Horror (2006 episode)
The Screwfly Solution - Masters Of Horror
Joe Dante is mostly known for directing the mega hit Gremlins, but he has also directed many other films of note. Recently BAM (The Brooklyn Academy Of Music) did a retrospective of his films :
Joe Dante at the Movies
and TV work, plus offered to show some films that Joe Dante was a fan of, or that influenced him. There were multiple double features, and some pretty great stuff was shown. He even showed up for some screenings, did a Q&A after a showing of his work print of Gremlins, and introduced a couple of screenings as well. I got to meet him and chat with him, and he is not only a great guy, but very down to earth, personable, and very aware. Talking with him felt like talking with any of my other movie obsessed friends, except that he has been amazingly successful, unlike the rest of us!
Normally I would not review an episode of a TV show here, but since this was shown in his retrospective and I did bother to go to a theater to watch it (since it was free and I had already seen the last movie), I felt it appropriate to do a quick review on each of the 2 episodes they showed. The Screwfly Solution was the 7th episode of season 2 of the Showtime anthology horror series called Masters Of Horror. Each one hour episode would bring in another horror director to create a standalone episode. This episode revolved around the spread of attacks on women by men, at first seeming to be some weird religious thing, then possibly a virus.
Once again art is being imitated by life as disease after disease is being spread, like SARS or Zika, threatening many humans in the world. Will one disease just affect men and make them kill women one day? Who know, but let's hope not.
This episode was not as good as the last one, but was still enjoyable, especially since it had both Elliott Gould and Jason Priestly in it. I am a fan of Elliott Gould in general, and of course I have some residual love for Jason Priestly due to my love of Beverly Hills 90210 from back in the day. For me, seeing these episodes on the big screen, rather than on my computer or TV at home makes a huge difference, as I like to be in a dark room with no distractions, and that just cannot happen at home.
7 out of 10 stars.
Location : BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) , theater 2, Brooklyn, NYC
Date and time : Thursday, August 23rd, 2016 at 9:30 PM
Format : DCP
Audience : 17 people (3 people left between episodes)
Joe Dante is mostly known for directing the mega hit Gremlins, but he has also directed many other films of note. Recently BAM (The Brooklyn Academy Of Music) did a retrospective of his films :
Joe Dante at the Movies
and TV work, plus offered to show some films that Joe Dante was a fan of, or that influenced him. There were multiple double features, and some pretty great stuff was shown. He even showed up for some screenings, did a Q&A after a showing of his work print of Gremlins, and introduced a couple of screenings as well. I got to meet him and chat with him, and he is not only a great guy, but very down to earth, personable, and very aware. Talking with him felt like talking with any of my other movie obsessed friends, except that he has been amazingly successful, unlike the rest of us!
Normally I would not review an episode of a TV show here, but since this was shown in his retrospective and I did bother to go to a theater to watch it (since it was free and I had already seen the last movie), I felt it appropriate to do a quick review on each of the 2 episodes they showed. The Screwfly Solution was the 7th episode of season 2 of the Showtime anthology horror series called Masters Of Horror. Each one hour episode would bring in another horror director to create a standalone episode. This episode revolved around the spread of attacks on women by men, at first seeming to be some weird religious thing, then possibly a virus.
Once again art is being imitated by life as disease after disease is being spread, like SARS or Zika, threatening many humans in the world. Will one disease just affect men and make them kill women one day? Who know, but let's hope not.
This episode was not as good as the last one, but was still enjoyable, especially since it had both Elliott Gould and Jason Priestly in it. I am a fan of Elliott Gould in general, and of course I have some residual love for Jason Priestly due to my love of Beverly Hills 90210 from back in the day. For me, seeing these episodes on the big screen, rather than on my computer or TV at home makes a huge difference, as I like to be in a dark room with no distractions, and that just cannot happen at home.
7 out of 10 stars.
Location : BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) , theater 2, Brooklyn, NYC
Date and time : Thursday, August 23rd, 2016 at 9:30 PM
Format : DCP
Audience : 17 people (3 people left between episodes)
Monday, September 5, 2016
Homecoming - Masters Of Horror episode (2005) review
Homecoming - Masters Of Horror episode (2005)
Joe Dante is mostly known for directing the mega hit Gremlins, but he has also directed many other films of note. Recently BAM (The Brooklyn Academy Of Music) did a retrospective of his films :
Joe Dante at the Movies
and TV work, plus offered to show some films that Joe Dante was a fan of, or that influenced him. There were multiple double features, and some pretty great stuff was shown. He even showed up for some screenings, did a Q&A after a showing of his work print of Gremlins, and introduced a couple of screenings as well. I got to meet him and chat with him, and he is not only a great guy, but very down to earth, personable, and very aware. Talking with him felt like talking with any of my other movie obsessed friends, except that he has been amazingly successful, unlike the rest of us!
Normally I would not review an episode of a TV show here, but since this was shown in his retrospective and I did bother to go to a theater to watch it (since it was free and I had already seen the last movie), I felt it appropriate to do a quick review on each of the 2 episodes they showed. Homecoming was the 6th episode in Masters Of Horror, a Showtime horror anthology show that would bring in a horror director to produce a one hour episode. This one in particular dealt with zombies and politics, and although that may seem a bit odd, many zombie movies have political and social issues being dealt with in a zombie crisis.
The basic plot is that it is an election year (just like now!) and the George Bush type candidate has a new problem on his hands. Soldiers have come back from the dead, and they want to vote. It seems that something that a speech writer said on a talk show set this premise in motion, and the speech writer and an Ann Coulter type try and figure out how to deal with this.
Watching this during an election year where Trump is running made the politics of this episode even more funny, and timely. In fact, the whole thing was ridiculous in that way when the real world seems to mirror what writers wrote 10 years before.
While this would not be up there in my must see horror or even zombie things, it was an entertaining hour which amused me in the way that Joe Dante tends to do. I preferred this one over the other episode he directed, which I will review next.
7 out of 10 stars.
Location : BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) , theater 2, Brooklyn, NYC
Date and time : Thursday, August 23rd, 2016 at 9:30 PM
Format : DCP
Audience : 20 people
Joe Dante is mostly known for directing the mega hit Gremlins, but he has also directed many other films of note. Recently BAM (The Brooklyn Academy Of Music) did a retrospective of his films :
Joe Dante at the Movies
and TV work, plus offered to show some films that Joe Dante was a fan of, or that influenced him. There were multiple double features, and some pretty great stuff was shown. He even showed up for some screenings, did a Q&A after a showing of his work print of Gremlins, and introduced a couple of screenings as well. I got to meet him and chat with him, and he is not only a great guy, but very down to earth, personable, and very aware. Talking with him felt like talking with any of my other movie obsessed friends, except that he has been amazingly successful, unlike the rest of us!
Normally I would not review an episode of a TV show here, but since this was shown in his retrospective and I did bother to go to a theater to watch it (since it was free and I had already seen the last movie), I felt it appropriate to do a quick review on each of the 2 episodes they showed. Homecoming was the 6th episode in Masters Of Horror, a Showtime horror anthology show that would bring in a horror director to produce a one hour episode. This one in particular dealt with zombies and politics, and although that may seem a bit odd, many zombie movies have political and social issues being dealt with in a zombie crisis.
The basic plot is that it is an election year (just like now!) and the George Bush type candidate has a new problem on his hands. Soldiers have come back from the dead, and they want to vote. It seems that something that a speech writer said on a talk show set this premise in motion, and the speech writer and an Ann Coulter type try and figure out how to deal with this.
Watching this during an election year where Trump is running made the politics of this episode even more funny, and timely. In fact, the whole thing was ridiculous in that way when the real world seems to mirror what writers wrote 10 years before.
While this would not be up there in my must see horror or even zombie things, it was an entertaining hour which amused me in the way that Joe Dante tends to do. I preferred this one over the other episode he directed, which I will review next.
7 out of 10 stars.
Location : BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) , theater 2, Brooklyn, NYC
Date and time : Thursday, August 23rd, 2016 at 9:30 PM
Format : DCP
Audience : 20 people
Saturday, September 3, 2016
His Kind Of Woman (1951) movie review
His Kind Of Woman (1951)
Joe Dante is mostly known for directing the mega hit Gremlins, but he has also directed many other films of note. Recently BAM (The Brooklyn Academy Of Music) did a retrospective of his films :
Joe Dante at the Movies
and TV work, plus offered to show some films that Joe Dante was a fan of, or that influenced him. There were multiple double features, and some pretty great stuff was shown. He even showed up for some screenings, did a Q&A after a showing of his work print of Gremlins, and introduced a couple of screenings as well. I got to meet him and chat with him, and he is not only a great guy, but very down to earth, personable, and very aware. Talking with him felt like talking with any of my other movie obsessed friends, except that he has been amazingly successful, unlike the rest of us!
This night's double feature was sort of a triple feature. First up was His Kind Of Woman, followed by two episodes of Masters Of Horror, both directed by Joe Dante. His Kind Of Woman is a slightly bizarre film. It has a great cast, with Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Jim Backus, Raymond Burr, and to top it off, Vincent Price! Here Vincent Price plays a rare non horror character, instead, playing a egomaniac actor who is in love with himself.
The plot, which is more than a bit convoluted, has to do with a mob guy who has fled to Italy and is not allowed back in the US. He concocts a scheme to get back into the US, and that's where Robert Mitchum's character comes in. Robert Mitchum is offered money to go to a resort in Mexico, and hang around for a while. He is told he won't be able to come back for a year or so, but he gets $50,000 in return for this. He takes the offer as he is broke, and on the way he meets a woman, played by Jane Russell. When they get to the resort, he meets Jim Backus, a rich real estate guy who is also a gambler. There is also Vincent Price, an actor who Jane Russell is trying to get back together with, even though he is still married. All the while Robert Mitchum doesn't REALLY know what's going on, but he keeps trying to find out anyways.
Now, this is where I will stop with the plot, except to mention there are like 5 more sub plots, and the whole thing is a bit of a mess. To be honest, the whole film is a mess, in so many ways. While Mia Farrow's father John Farrow is listed as the director, after he finished shooting the film and went home, Howard Hughes, the millionaire producer of the film, decided to bring in Richard Fleischer to shoot a couple extra scenes, and supposedly he re-shot much of the film.
So while the movie starts off like many typical noir films, it slowly turns into a noir comedy of sorts, partially intentionally, due to Vincent Price taking over the film by the end, and partially by mistake, with scenes that run way too long, or are just ridiculous. And while all this nonsense and silliness was going on, I was oddly enough loving the results! At 2 hours long, this one IS a bit too long, and shaving off 15-30 minutes would have made a much tighter and more enjoyable movie, but the is one where the sum of the parts equals more than it should.
All in all I really enjoyed this uneven mess, and suggest anyone who enjoys entertaining train wrecks to try and catch this movie when it plays.
8 out of 10 stars.
Location : BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) , theater 2, Brooklyn, NYC
Date and time : Thursday, August 23rd, 2016 at 7 PM
Format : 16mm
Audience : about 40 people
Joe Dante is mostly known for directing the mega hit Gremlins, but he has also directed many other films of note. Recently BAM (The Brooklyn Academy Of Music) did a retrospective of his films :
Joe Dante at the Movies
and TV work, plus offered to show some films that Joe Dante was a fan of, or that influenced him. There were multiple double features, and some pretty great stuff was shown. He even showed up for some screenings, did a Q&A after a showing of his work print of Gremlins, and introduced a couple of screenings as well. I got to meet him and chat with him, and he is not only a great guy, but very down to earth, personable, and very aware. Talking with him felt like talking with any of my other movie obsessed friends, except that he has been amazingly successful, unlike the rest of us!
This night's double feature was sort of a triple feature. First up was His Kind Of Woman, followed by two episodes of Masters Of Horror, both directed by Joe Dante. His Kind Of Woman is a slightly bizarre film. It has a great cast, with Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Jim Backus, Raymond Burr, and to top it off, Vincent Price! Here Vincent Price plays a rare non horror character, instead, playing a egomaniac actor who is in love with himself.
The plot, which is more than a bit convoluted, has to do with a mob guy who has fled to Italy and is not allowed back in the US. He concocts a scheme to get back into the US, and that's where Robert Mitchum's character comes in. Robert Mitchum is offered money to go to a resort in Mexico, and hang around for a while. He is told he won't be able to come back for a year or so, but he gets $50,000 in return for this. He takes the offer as he is broke, and on the way he meets a woman, played by Jane Russell. When they get to the resort, he meets Jim Backus, a rich real estate guy who is also a gambler. There is also Vincent Price, an actor who Jane Russell is trying to get back together with, even though he is still married. All the while Robert Mitchum doesn't REALLY know what's going on, but he keeps trying to find out anyways.
Now, this is where I will stop with the plot, except to mention there are like 5 more sub plots, and the whole thing is a bit of a mess. To be honest, the whole film is a mess, in so many ways. While Mia Farrow's father John Farrow is listed as the director, after he finished shooting the film and went home, Howard Hughes, the millionaire producer of the film, decided to bring in Richard Fleischer to shoot a couple extra scenes, and supposedly he re-shot much of the film.
So while the movie starts off like many typical noir films, it slowly turns into a noir comedy of sorts, partially intentionally, due to Vincent Price taking over the film by the end, and partially by mistake, with scenes that run way too long, or are just ridiculous. And while all this nonsense and silliness was going on, I was oddly enough loving the results! At 2 hours long, this one IS a bit too long, and shaving off 15-30 minutes would have made a much tighter and more enjoyable movie, but the is one where the sum of the parts equals more than it should.
All in all I really enjoyed this uneven mess, and suggest anyone who enjoys entertaining train wrecks to try and catch this movie when it plays.
8 out of 10 stars.
Location : BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) , theater 2, Brooklyn, NYC
Date and time : Thursday, August 23rd, 2016 at 7 PM
Format : 16mm
Audience : about 40 people
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Tourist Trap (1979) movie review
Tourist Trap (1979)
In late July and early August, The Metrograph in NYC has a series of movies called :
This Is PG?!
which documented a bunch of films that probably should have been rated R, but somehow ended up with a PG rating.
In 1979 David Schmoeller remade his college thesis film, and Tourist Trap was the result. In the vein of other films of the era, like Friday The 13th, Halloween, and many other stranded teen movies, this should have been a very popular film of the day. Due to some poor marketing, and the lack of an R rating, this film ended up doing well on cable and other outlets, but was not the kind of hit some of those other films were. The reason it was rated PG was the lack of boobs, or any nudity for that matter, and a lack of gore. Although scary, back then the MPAA would give you a PG rating without those two factors. And while nowadays studios prefer a PG-13 rating, back then they preferred an R as that's what people wanted.
The movie follows the same kind of plot of many of the movies of this era, flat tire, teens looking for their friend, one by one they go missing, etc etc. I don't have to go too much into the plot, as most of these are paper thin to a degree, and the enjoyment level is usually in the execution, pun intended. This film has the requisite scary things, in it, like mannequins, a creepy museum, a creepy house, special powers, masks, girls being abused, and plot twists. Plus lots of stupid decisions and amusing moments.
The movie stars Chuck Connors, best known for starring in the TV show The Rifleman, and many other western style shows and movies. He has acted in over 100 things, which is pretty damned impressive. It also stars Tanya Roberts, an actress who was one of the Charlie's Angels replacements, starred in Sheena: Queen Of The Jungle, and most famously for her role as Donna's mother on That 70's Show.
Now the director, he's interesting as well, as I have seen him speak a couple times now. Other than this cult classic, he also wrote and directed the original Puppetmaster, and one of my faves, Crawlspace with the always creepy Klaus Kinski. When I saw Crawlspace he showed up and did a Q&A and showed his short film, Please Kill Mr. Kinski, which is hysterical, and a must for any Klaus Kinski fan.
Now, there are a lot of great ridiculous horror movies of this era, and although this is a fun little one, this is not one of the classics, known or unknown. But it is well worth watching for both the very young and very hot Tanya Roberts, a creepy funny performance from Chuck Connors, and some very creepy mannequin scenes.
Those of us that went to this screening were lucky for two reasons. One, the director showed up and talked to us about the production, the effects, and all sorts of other things. He is an amusing guy, ad it is always fun when he shows up at a screening. Two, the print was his, and according to him he is retiring the print, as it is starting to show some wear and tear and he doesn't want to damage it anymore, which is sad, but is happening all over the world to many prints.
All in all we had a fun night watching this movie one last time.
7 out of 10 stars.
Location : The Metrograph, theater 1, NYC
Date and time : Saturday July 30th, 2016 at 7 PM
Format : 35mm
Audience : about 30 people
In late July and early August, The Metrograph in NYC has a series of movies called :
This Is PG?!
which documented a bunch of films that probably should have been rated R, but somehow ended up with a PG rating.
In 1979 David Schmoeller remade his college thesis film, and Tourist Trap was the result. In the vein of other films of the era, like Friday The 13th, Halloween, and many other stranded teen movies, this should have been a very popular film of the day. Due to some poor marketing, and the lack of an R rating, this film ended up doing well on cable and other outlets, but was not the kind of hit some of those other films were. The reason it was rated PG was the lack of boobs, or any nudity for that matter, and a lack of gore. Although scary, back then the MPAA would give you a PG rating without those two factors. And while nowadays studios prefer a PG-13 rating, back then they preferred an R as that's what people wanted.
The movie follows the same kind of plot of many of the movies of this era, flat tire, teens looking for their friend, one by one they go missing, etc etc. I don't have to go too much into the plot, as most of these are paper thin to a degree, and the enjoyment level is usually in the execution, pun intended. This film has the requisite scary things, in it, like mannequins, a creepy museum, a creepy house, special powers, masks, girls being abused, and plot twists. Plus lots of stupid decisions and amusing moments.
The movie stars Chuck Connors, best known for starring in the TV show The Rifleman, and many other western style shows and movies. He has acted in over 100 things, which is pretty damned impressive. It also stars Tanya Roberts, an actress who was one of the Charlie's Angels replacements, starred in Sheena: Queen Of The Jungle, and most famously for her role as Donna's mother on That 70's Show.
Now the director, he's interesting as well, as I have seen him speak a couple times now. Other than this cult classic, he also wrote and directed the original Puppetmaster, and one of my faves, Crawlspace with the always creepy Klaus Kinski. When I saw Crawlspace he showed up and did a Q&A and showed his short film, Please Kill Mr. Kinski, which is hysterical, and a must for any Klaus Kinski fan.
Now, there are a lot of great ridiculous horror movies of this era, and although this is a fun little one, this is not one of the classics, known or unknown. But it is well worth watching for both the very young and very hot Tanya Roberts, a creepy funny performance from Chuck Connors, and some very creepy mannequin scenes.
Those of us that went to this screening were lucky for two reasons. One, the director showed up and talked to us about the production, the effects, and all sorts of other things. He is an amusing guy, ad it is always fun when he shows up at a screening. Two, the print was his, and according to him he is retiring the print, as it is starting to show some wear and tear and he doesn't want to damage it anymore, which is sad, but is happening all over the world to many prints.
All in all we had a fun night watching this movie one last time.
7 out of 10 stars.
Location : The Metrograph, theater 1, NYC
Date and time : Saturday July 30th, 2016 at 7 PM
Format : 35mm
Audience : about 30 people
Thursday, August 25, 2016
The Fool Killer (1965) movie review
The Fool Killer (1965)
Joe Dante is mostly known for directing the mega hit Gremlins, but he has also directed many other films of note. Recently BAM (The Brooklyn Academy Of Music) did a retrospective of his films :
Joe Dante at the Movies
and TV work, plus offered to show some films that Joe Dante was a fan of, or that influenced him. There were multiple double features, and some pretty great stuff was shown. He even showed up for some screenings, did a Q&A after a showing of his work print of Gremlins, and introduced a couple of screenings as well. I got to meet him and chat with him, and he is not only a great guy, but very down to earth, personable, and very aware. Talking with him felt like talking with any of my other movie obsessed friends, except that he has been amazingly successful, unlike the rest of us!
This double feature shown did not include a film that Dante directed, but instead starred a couple of famous actors, Vincent Price and Anthony Perkins in lesser known roles. This entry, The Fool Killer, was the highlight of the non Joe Dante films.
Personally I knew nothing about this film, the director, the story, the child actor, nor anything about the production at all. I must say that I am shocked how little known his film is, and even more shocked hot little has been written about it! I searched online to see if I could find articles on it, and so far there is little of any note. Granted, I did not scour the web, but most movies you can find info almost immediately. Even on IMDb, the message boards have only 3 entries.
I found one review online that mentioned this movie is like Huck Finn meets Norman Bates, and that is not really such a bad description. The plot isn't very intricate, but it is very realistic in its characters and the way it is handled. The basic story revolves around the child, George, who is 12. He has lost his parents, and was taken in by another couple, who basically use him as a farmhand. Since the movie is set in 1903, this would be the norm during this time period. He keeps making mistakes, like leaving something in the road which gets run over by the carriage, or kicking over a pail of milk, so he decides to run away. He hops a freight car and gets away, and when the train stops to take on some water, he goes to pee. Foolishly, he leaves his bag on the train, and it takes off without him. He wanders for miles, until he comes across a dirty little shack. Here he meets his first new friend, Dirty Jim. Dirty Jim explains he is dirty because his wife died and she drove him crazy keeping the place clean, so now he doesn't clean. The boy decides to stay a while, since he has nowhere to go, no shoes, and no way to get food. At some point he decides to do some cleaning, and this does not sit right with Dirty Jim. One night, Dirty Jim tells George all about the Fool Killer, a very large man who wanders around looking for fools to cut in half with his chopper. This obviously scares the boy, who worries he's a fool for all the things he has done wrong.
At some point George gets sick, ends up being taken in by another family, gets his first kiss, and runs away again. He next meets Milo, played by Anthony Perkins. Milo seems to be a bit unstable, and has amnesia from the civil war. That's about all the plot I am willing to give you, the rest if very worth spending your time on.
This movie is not just great due to the story, which is actually really good, and comes from a Helen Eustis novel from 1954. From the start the first thing I noticed that was different was the soundtrack. It doesn't sound like all the other soundtracks from that day, nor does it stick to one sound throughout. There are orchestral spots, guitar spots that sound very modern, and other music scattered throughout. I need to listen to this movie again, at the very least just to hear the soundtrack.
Another thing that was wonderful about the movie was the innovative editing and camera work. One scene in particular of someone rolling around on the ground is filmed like they were holding the camera themselves, which reminded me of the Smashing Pumpkins video for their song 1979. I really wonder if something like that had ever been filmed in a Hollywood style movie before. There are also odd edits and dissolves used that definitely were not the norm in most movies. There are also some very nice well done shots from far away, taking in the landscape in scenes where most directors would have focused on close ups. All in all the style of this film was pretty amazing, and I need to watch it again soon.
The director of this movie, Servando González, has only directed 13 things, and most look like they were in Spanish, as he is Mexican. At least one thing did play in the US, according to the 1969 NY Times review, a movie called Yanco. I am of course wondering if anything else he directed was amazing as well.
Oddly enough, the 1969 NY Times review by Vincent Canby, panned the movie pointing out everything I loved about it and saying it made the movie suck. Even more odd is the fact that Vincent Canby, a very famous movie critic, had just started being the chief critic at the NY Times in 1969, when he wrote his review. You can read it here :
Vincent Canby's 1969 review of The Fool Killer
As a critic he was known for hating a lot of critically acclaimed movies, so it is not a huge surprise he did not like this, but I cannot imagine a serious critic who would hate this movie, but not everyone agrees! I must say though that this film was a complete surprise to me, due to my lack of even hearing about it before this.
The actors in this were pretty damned good too. Anthony Perkins plays a slightly off character, which seemed to be the role he was haunted with for many movies after Psycho. This movie came 5 years after Psycho, and he was still playing these kind of roles, and did until the end of his career. But he did it so well! The child in the movie was the child of actor Eddie Albert, best known to me for the TV show Green Acres, but he was actually in tons of stuff. The smaller roles were filled by people I have never heard of, but they all did a fine job.
One last point I want to make about certain scenes, shots and underlying themes in The Fool Killer. I will wholeheartedly admit that knowing that Anthony Perkins was gay could somehow alter my view of the movie, BUT, there seemed to be some serious homosexual undertones floating around throughout the movie. Even if we discount the naked swimming scene between the boy and Anthony Perkins, since most people did swim nude back then, there are numerous other scenes that point to the possibility that there were some veiled references. One scene that particularly stood out was when the boy was on his knees in front of a preacher, screaming mercy while at crotch level.
Anyways, all in all this film was great, I have no real negative points to discuss, other than the lack of info online about this movie, and the production of it. I NEED to see some of this director's other work, to see if this one was a fluke or if he is an unknown genius. I thank Joe Dante for bringing this special film to my attention, otherwise I would probably never heard about it.
8 out of 10 stars (may be upped to a 9 upon future viewings).
Location : BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) , theater 2, Brooklyn, NYC
Date and time : Wednesday, August 22nd, 2016 at 10:15 PM
Format : 16mm
Audience : about 50 people, I know a few of my friends there enjoyed it
Joe Dante is mostly known for directing the mega hit Gremlins, but he has also directed many other films of note. Recently BAM (The Brooklyn Academy Of Music) did a retrospective of his films :
Joe Dante at the Movies
and TV work, plus offered to show some films that Joe Dante was a fan of, or that influenced him. There were multiple double features, and some pretty great stuff was shown. He even showed up for some screenings, did a Q&A after a showing of his work print of Gremlins, and introduced a couple of screenings as well. I got to meet him and chat with him, and he is not only a great guy, but very down to earth, personable, and very aware. Talking with him felt like talking with any of my other movie obsessed friends, except that he has been amazingly successful, unlike the rest of us!
This double feature shown did not include a film that Dante directed, but instead starred a couple of famous actors, Vincent Price and Anthony Perkins in lesser known roles. This entry, The Fool Killer, was the highlight of the non Joe Dante films.
Personally I knew nothing about this film, the director, the story, the child actor, nor anything about the production at all. I must say that I am shocked how little known his film is, and even more shocked hot little has been written about it! I searched online to see if I could find articles on it, and so far there is little of any note. Granted, I did not scour the web, but most movies you can find info almost immediately. Even on IMDb, the message boards have only 3 entries.
I found one review online that mentioned this movie is like Huck Finn meets Norman Bates, and that is not really such a bad description. The plot isn't very intricate, but it is very realistic in its characters and the way it is handled. The basic story revolves around the child, George, who is 12. He has lost his parents, and was taken in by another couple, who basically use him as a farmhand. Since the movie is set in 1903, this would be the norm during this time period. He keeps making mistakes, like leaving something in the road which gets run over by the carriage, or kicking over a pail of milk, so he decides to run away. He hops a freight car and gets away, and when the train stops to take on some water, he goes to pee. Foolishly, he leaves his bag on the train, and it takes off without him. He wanders for miles, until he comes across a dirty little shack. Here he meets his first new friend, Dirty Jim. Dirty Jim explains he is dirty because his wife died and she drove him crazy keeping the place clean, so now he doesn't clean. The boy decides to stay a while, since he has nowhere to go, no shoes, and no way to get food. At some point he decides to do some cleaning, and this does not sit right with Dirty Jim. One night, Dirty Jim tells George all about the Fool Killer, a very large man who wanders around looking for fools to cut in half with his chopper. This obviously scares the boy, who worries he's a fool for all the things he has done wrong.
At some point George gets sick, ends up being taken in by another family, gets his first kiss, and runs away again. He next meets Milo, played by Anthony Perkins. Milo seems to be a bit unstable, and has amnesia from the civil war. That's about all the plot I am willing to give you, the rest if very worth spending your time on.
This movie is not just great due to the story, which is actually really good, and comes from a Helen Eustis novel from 1954. From the start the first thing I noticed that was different was the soundtrack. It doesn't sound like all the other soundtracks from that day, nor does it stick to one sound throughout. There are orchestral spots, guitar spots that sound very modern, and other music scattered throughout. I need to listen to this movie again, at the very least just to hear the soundtrack.
Another thing that was wonderful about the movie was the innovative editing and camera work. One scene in particular of someone rolling around on the ground is filmed like they were holding the camera themselves, which reminded me of the Smashing Pumpkins video for their song 1979. I really wonder if something like that had ever been filmed in a Hollywood style movie before. There are also odd edits and dissolves used that definitely were not the norm in most movies. There are also some very nice well done shots from far away, taking in the landscape in scenes where most directors would have focused on close ups. All in all the style of this film was pretty amazing, and I need to watch it again soon.
The director of this movie, Servando González, has only directed 13 things, and most look like they were in Spanish, as he is Mexican. At least one thing did play in the US, according to the 1969 NY Times review, a movie called Yanco. I am of course wondering if anything else he directed was amazing as well.
Oddly enough, the 1969 NY Times review by Vincent Canby, panned the movie pointing out everything I loved about it and saying it made the movie suck. Even more odd is the fact that Vincent Canby, a very famous movie critic, had just started being the chief critic at the NY Times in 1969, when he wrote his review. You can read it here :
Vincent Canby's 1969 review of The Fool Killer
As a critic he was known for hating a lot of critically acclaimed movies, so it is not a huge surprise he did not like this, but I cannot imagine a serious critic who would hate this movie, but not everyone agrees! I must say though that this film was a complete surprise to me, due to my lack of even hearing about it before this.
The actors in this were pretty damned good too. Anthony Perkins plays a slightly off character, which seemed to be the role he was haunted with for many movies after Psycho. This movie came 5 years after Psycho, and he was still playing these kind of roles, and did until the end of his career. But he did it so well! The child in the movie was the child of actor Eddie Albert, best known to me for the TV show Green Acres, but he was actually in tons of stuff. The smaller roles were filled by people I have never heard of, but they all did a fine job.
One last point I want to make about certain scenes, shots and underlying themes in The Fool Killer. I will wholeheartedly admit that knowing that Anthony Perkins was gay could somehow alter my view of the movie, BUT, there seemed to be some serious homosexual undertones floating around throughout the movie. Even if we discount the naked swimming scene between the boy and Anthony Perkins, since most people did swim nude back then, there are numerous other scenes that point to the possibility that there were some veiled references. One scene that particularly stood out was when the boy was on his knees in front of a preacher, screaming mercy while at crotch level.
Anyways, all in all this film was great, I have no real negative points to discuss, other than the lack of info online about this movie, and the production of it. I NEED to see some of this director's other work, to see if this one was a fluke or if he is an unknown genius. I thank Joe Dante for bringing this special film to my attention, otherwise I would probably never heard about it.
8 out of 10 stars (may be upped to a 9 upon future viewings).
Location : BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) , theater 2, Brooklyn, NYC
Date and time : Wednesday, August 22nd, 2016 at 10:15 PM
Format : 16mm
Audience : about 50 people, I know a few of my friends there enjoyed it
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Confessions Of An Opium Eater (1962) movie review
Confessions Of An Opium Eater (1962)
Joe Dante is mostly known for directing the mega hit Gremlins, but he has also directed many other films of note. Recently BAM (The Brooklyn Academy Of Music) did a retrospective of his films :
Joe Dante at the Movies
and TV work, plus offered to show some films that Joe Dante was a fan of, or that influenced him. There were multiple double features, and some pretty great stuff was shown. He even showed up for some screenings, did a Q&A after a showing of his work print of Gremlins, and introduced a couple of screenings as well. I got to meet him and chat with him, and he is not only a great guy, but very down to earth, personable, and very aware. Talking with him felt like talking with any of my other movie obsessed friends, except that he has been amazingly successful, unlike the rest of us!
This double feature shown did not include a film that Dante directed, but instead included two lesser known works with famous actors, one with Vincent Price and the other with Anthony Perkins. Confessions Of An Opium Eater is based on a famous book by Thomas De Quincey. It revolves around a slave girl auction in San Francisco's Chinatown around 1902. Vincent Price has been called in to help stop the auction, he is supposed to be the Arnold Schwarzenegger type, the one who is good at his job so he will clean up the mess. The truth of the matter is he ends up much more like Kurt Russell in Big Trouble In Little China. In fact in some ways this movie seems like the precursor to Big Trouble, and I am guessing that John Carpenter saw this when young and this one influenced Big Trouble.
The film starts off with the unloading of some slave girls in California. First off, if you're going to be transporting slaves, you should at least have a system in place to do so! This was the most haphazard slave transport I have ever seen. The girls were running back and forth, trying to get away, there weren't enough ship crew to handle them, and the transfer from ship to ship was comical at best. When the girls are finally brought to land, it does not go much better. Chinese come to kidnap them, and a fight ensues where the girls try to get away again.
Cut to Vincent Price arriving in Chinatown, where gang wars are about to start due to some issues with the slave trade. He wanders into Chinatown looking for his contact, only to find out his contact has been killed. He meets someone mourning his death, who happens to be pro slave trade, so Vincent Price is definitely confused. He breaks into another building and finds a runaway slave, and vows to help her. They escape, only to be caught in the sewers and Vincent Price receives his first of many blows to the head which render him unconscious no matter how lightly he seems to be hit.
He is eventually saved by an Asian midget, and with the help of the midget, gets into the room where the slaves are being held. Now, this is all in the first part of the film. It carries on from here, and without giving away too much, he gets captured a few more times, gets saved a few more times, he gets high as a kite on opium, blows some shit up, etc etc etc. There is even some twerking during the auction, loads of proverbs uttered back and forth, an opium nightmare sequence, a port opium chase scene, and one more midget. Although it is only about 90 minutes long, it feels longer and packs a lot in the 90 minutes.
Let's go over the good stuff. This movie has some really fun, wacky scenes. The film looks good for much of it, though the print I saw was very old. The nightmare sequence is a lot of fun, and the post nightmare bit is insane and weird. The sets are great, with trap doors, hidden rooms, and all the trappings of a Chinatown thriller.
The bad stuff isn't so bad that it makes the movie unwatchable, in fact, some of the bad stuff is why this one is so good. The acting is either not great, or just badly directed. Vincent Price is an inept hero, to say the least, though you have to wonder if it was intentional or not, though I think not. The script, at least the first have, seemed to be written by just using one proverb after another, like opening a whole box of fortune cookies one after the other.
All in all I found this thoroughly enjoyable, faults and all. You do not see films like this anymore, possibly for some good reasons, but I am glad this one still exists!
8 out of 10.
Location : BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) , theater 2, Brooklyn, NYC
Date and time : Wednesday, August 22nd, 2016 at 8:30 PM
Format : 16mm, faded and pretty worn, but still very watchable.
Audience : about 60 people, I know a bunch of people there that enjoyed it
Joe Dante is mostly known for directing the mega hit Gremlins, but he has also directed many other films of note. Recently BAM (The Brooklyn Academy Of Music) did a retrospective of his films :
Joe Dante at the Movies
and TV work, plus offered to show some films that Joe Dante was a fan of, or that influenced him. There were multiple double features, and some pretty great stuff was shown. He even showed up for some screenings, did a Q&A after a showing of his work print of Gremlins, and introduced a couple of screenings as well. I got to meet him and chat with him, and he is not only a great guy, but very down to earth, personable, and very aware. Talking with him felt like talking with any of my other movie obsessed friends, except that he has been amazingly successful, unlike the rest of us!
This double feature shown did not include a film that Dante directed, but instead included two lesser known works with famous actors, one with Vincent Price and the other with Anthony Perkins. Confessions Of An Opium Eater is based on a famous book by Thomas De Quincey. It revolves around a slave girl auction in San Francisco's Chinatown around 1902. Vincent Price has been called in to help stop the auction, he is supposed to be the Arnold Schwarzenegger type, the one who is good at his job so he will clean up the mess. The truth of the matter is he ends up much more like Kurt Russell in Big Trouble In Little China. In fact in some ways this movie seems like the precursor to Big Trouble, and I am guessing that John Carpenter saw this when young and this one influenced Big Trouble.
The film starts off with the unloading of some slave girls in California. First off, if you're going to be transporting slaves, you should at least have a system in place to do so! This was the most haphazard slave transport I have ever seen. The girls were running back and forth, trying to get away, there weren't enough ship crew to handle them, and the transfer from ship to ship was comical at best. When the girls are finally brought to land, it does not go much better. Chinese come to kidnap them, and a fight ensues where the girls try to get away again.
Cut to Vincent Price arriving in Chinatown, where gang wars are about to start due to some issues with the slave trade. He wanders into Chinatown looking for his contact, only to find out his contact has been killed. He meets someone mourning his death, who happens to be pro slave trade, so Vincent Price is definitely confused. He breaks into another building and finds a runaway slave, and vows to help her. They escape, only to be caught in the sewers and Vincent Price receives his first of many blows to the head which render him unconscious no matter how lightly he seems to be hit.
He is eventually saved by an Asian midget, and with the help of the midget, gets into the room where the slaves are being held. Now, this is all in the first part of the film. It carries on from here, and without giving away too much, he gets captured a few more times, gets saved a few more times, he gets high as a kite on opium, blows some shit up, etc etc etc. There is even some twerking during the auction, loads of proverbs uttered back and forth, an opium nightmare sequence, a port opium chase scene, and one more midget. Although it is only about 90 minutes long, it feels longer and packs a lot in the 90 minutes.
Let's go over the good stuff. This movie has some really fun, wacky scenes. The film looks good for much of it, though the print I saw was very old. The nightmare sequence is a lot of fun, and the post nightmare bit is insane and weird. The sets are great, with trap doors, hidden rooms, and all the trappings of a Chinatown thriller.
The bad stuff isn't so bad that it makes the movie unwatchable, in fact, some of the bad stuff is why this one is so good. The acting is either not great, or just badly directed. Vincent Price is an inept hero, to say the least, though you have to wonder if it was intentional or not, though I think not. The script, at least the first have, seemed to be written by just using one proverb after another, like opening a whole box of fortune cookies one after the other.
All in all I found this thoroughly enjoyable, faults and all. You do not see films like this anymore, possibly for some good reasons, but I am glad this one still exists!
8 out of 10.
Location : BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) , theater 2, Brooklyn, NYC
Date and time : Wednesday, August 22nd, 2016 at 8:30 PM
Format : 16mm, faded and pretty worn, but still very watchable.
Audience : about 60 people, I know a bunch of people there that enjoyed it
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