Shogun Assassin (1980)

“He whips out his sword and relieves his victims of their heads!” [1]. This declaration may actually piss some people off, but this is a totally must see bad ass blood splattering samurai action masterpiece. So for the uninformed viewers, why would this statement piss people off? Well this movie is actually the first two films of the Lone Wolf and Cub film series; it was condensed, re-edited, dubbed into English, and re-scored for American release. So there are some purists that really dislike this version and feel that it bastardizes the series. The fact remains that this version was most Americans first introduction into this series and the world of crazy samurai spraying blood movies.

The rights to the original Lone Wolf movies were purchased by David Weisman from Toho Studios for $50,000 and then it was released in America by Roger Corman’s studio New World Pictures.  The pictures were based on a comic book called Lone Wolf and Cub written by Kazuo Koike, who also created Lady Snowblood, Crying Freeman, and one based on Hanzo the Razor. This movie is about a rouge samurai that wanders around Japan with his son in a baby cart, looking for work and defending himself from his many enemies. The main character is played by Tomisaburo Wakayama, a veteran actor to the samurai film genre and brother to producer Shintaro Katsu. Katsu is best known for playing Zatoichi, the blind swordsman, in 26 movies and a television series.

This is simply a totally bad ass movie. The American edit is super fast paced and filled with a ton of bloody action, featuring eleven fight scenes, tons of spraying blood, and splitting heads. All of the fight scenes are memorable and Lone Wolf always has some type of tricks available on his baby cart. The narration by the child and the new score are perfect for a dubbed film and are a good fit for the time period in which it was released, the synthesized score is very reminiscent of the sound from John Carpenter films and the Phantasm horror series.

The movie was highly influential on many filmmakers, most notably Quentin Tarantino and John Carpenter. Tarantino has incorporated the super violent spraying blood into the Kill Bill films and many of his other ones. This motion picture is the one that the bride’s daughter watches when she goes to bed in the second Kill Bill film. Carpenter used some similar imagery from this film in Big Trouble in Little China, mainly the three guys wearing the straw hats. If you like action and violence, then this is essential viewing. There are also six films from the original Lone Wolf and Cub series, along with a television series and the comic that they were based upon. All of them are worth checking out.

Works Cited

[1]	"IMDB," IMDB, 17 3 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081506/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. [Accessed 17 3 2016].

 

 

 

Straight to Hell (1987)

“A story of blood, money, guns, coffee, and sexual tension” [1]. A surreal spaghetti western spoof directed by Alex Cox (Repo Man) that was meant to be a modern adaptation of the Italian spaghetti western Django, Kill (1967). A trio of hitmen and a pregnant woman end up stranded in a strange desert town and encounter even stranger groups of people that have an addiction to coffee.

The main reason that the film has a cult status is because of the cast, consisting largely of Alex Cox regulars, some directors, and various members of punk rock bands. The cast includes Sy Richardson, Joe Strummer (lead singer of The Clash), Dick Rude, Courtney Love, Dennis Hopper, director Jim Jarmusch, Elvis Costello, and members of The Pogues, Amazulu, and The Circle Jerks. There wasn’t even supposed to be a movie, all of these musicians in this were supposed to do a concert tour in Nicaragua that was going to be filmed [2]. So they quickly decided to make a motion picture in Spain, with the script being written in a few days and the shoot taking only four weeks [2].

It received mostly negative reviews when it initially came and made some lists of the worst films of that year [1]. Director Alex Cox had built a pretty strong reputation as an up and coming independent director, with Repo Man and Sid and Nancy. This movie and his next film Walker pretty much destroyed that image and hurt his career, despite that he has continued to make movies but they fall somewhat under the radar. He actually turned down directing Three Amigos to make Straight to Hell.

This is viewed as a precursor to the Tarantino violence infused criminal worlds of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, with the Norwood character being very similar to Samuel L. Jackson’s character in Pulp Fiction. The over the top gore and violence depicted in this represents both the future crime films that would come around in the 1990’s and the earlier bloody spaghetti westerns from the 1960’s and 1970’s.

It received an updated director’s cut version in 2010, titled Straight to Hell Returns. The new version has been digitally restored; it was color corrected, has better audio, and has five minutes of new footage added to it, along with the addition of digitally added blood to the violent sequences [3].

There really is no middle ground on this film, you’ll either love it or totally hate it.

Works Cited

[1]	"IMDB," IMDB, 24 3 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094048/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. [Accessed 24 3 2016].
[2]	"latimes," latimes, 14 4 2016. [Online]. Available: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/15/entertainment/la-et-alex-cox-20101115. [Accessed 14 4 2016].
[3]	"dvdtalk," dvdtalk, 14 4 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/46591/straight-to-hell-returns/. [Accessed 14 4 2016].

 

 

 

Cruising (1980)

“Al Pacino is Cruising for a killer” [1]. New York City police detective Steve Burns goes undercover in order to catch a serial killer that is targeting gay men, mostly in an area consisting of gay S&M and leather bars in what is known as the Meatpacking District.

The film was directed and co-written by William Friedkin, who is probably best known for directing The Exorcist, To Live and Die in L.A. and The French Connection. The film was based upon the book Cruising by Gerald Walker, as well as a series of killings and mysterious deaths in the New York City gay community [2]. It was also based on accounts from a real police officer that went undercover in the gay community and what he went through [2]. They filmed in actual gay bars in New York City and the screen extras were the frequenters of those bars, they got paid as extras but they were doing acts that they normally would perform [2]. It shows a society that hadn’t been seen on the screen before, full of leather, guys half naked wearing jock straps, kissing and other sexual acts, and a scene involving someone being anally fisted.

The film had modest success earning around $19 million but received a backlash from the gay community and critics gave “tepid receptions upon [its] release” [2]. It was a controversial film when it came out because it involved the gay community and because of all of the real sexual acts taking place on camera. Friedkin also had to cut 40 minutes of the film in order to get an R rating, he said in an interview that the “sexuality was actual. It was not simulated. I took the film back to the ratings board 50 times before they would give it an ‘R.’ I know because it cost us $50,000—a thousand dollars a day—to work with the consultant from the ratings board whom we’d worked with in the past when we were faced with other films that had to be resubmitted for a mainstream rating” [2].

Despite its controversy at the time, it has had a cult following and has been reexamined after a length of time and is considered a very good piece of filmmaking. Pacino’s performance is on par with similar characters that he played in Serpico and Sea of Love, but didn’t receive any recognition because of the controversial subject matter. Paul Sorvino and Karen Allen both give great performances in the time that they appear on screen. Allen is best known for appearing in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Sorvino is best known for appearing in Goodfellas. There are also small appearances from Ed O’Neil, James Remar and Powers Boothe.

Give this one a chance. It has a lot to offer. It captures an era and lifestyle that was real and it is an authentic view of it, from the point of view of both the gay community and the police. It deals with police procedural rules and the problems that hinder being able to open an investigation. It deals with police corruption and police brutality during questioning. It shows the psychological effects that happen to someone that has to go undercover and must conform to the new surroundings, isolated from what they once new. It also has a strong performance from Pacino, which is on par with his other great performances.

Works Cited

[1]	"IMDB," IMDB, 24 2 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080569/?ref_=nv_sr_1. [Accessed 24 2 2016].
[2]	"thehollywoodinterview," thehollywoodinterview, 24 2 2016. [Online]. Available: http://thehollywoodinterview.blogspot.com/2008/01/cruising-with-billy.html. [Accessed 24 2 2016].

 

 

 

Bad Timing (1980) Review

“A Terrifying Love Story” [1]. This a British produced thriller, neo-noir that involves a young American woman’s overdose in Vienna and the investigation by Inspector Netusil (Harvey Keitel) into whether it was a suicide attempt, or if there was some type of foul play from her older American lover professor Alex Lindon (Art Garfunkel).

The inspector completes the triangle of dark and seedy characters that are typical for a noir film; in this one he is trying to solve the investigation. Netusil and Lindon’s characters are mirror image reflections of each other; they have similar dress and mannerisms but are “on opposite sides of the mirror” [2]. The director said that for the Netusil, “his demon was leading him somewhere else. I don’t know where he’d go, but I know he was in a lot of pain in the end” [2].

While the basic premise of the movie is the investigation of what may end up being a murder, it is more about the main characters and their obsessions and perversions and their effects on themselves and the world around them. Each of the main actors gives good performances. There have been complaints about Garfunkel’s performance as being too wooden, but that may have been the intent because of his role as a professor in psychoanalytics. The direction and filmmaking is excellent from director Nicholas Roeg, who has become known for keeping the story out of chronological order. He is known for a series of movies that may be considered cult films, including Performance, Walkabout, Don’t Look Now, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Eureka, and Insignificance. The director has a reputation for taking non acting musicians and placing them in lead roles, like he did with David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth.

The motion picture was controversial because it received an X rating for its sexual sequences, and was even described by its UK distribution company as "a sick film made by sick people for sick people” [3]. Despite this controversy, or even partly because of it, this film has gained a cult following. There are also fans of the director and the cast involved, and those that believe it’s a great film that just had some bad timing. The DVD distribution company Criterion has felt this way, releasing a DVD version of the film in their Criterion Collection which is "dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions of the highest technical quality" [4]. The title of the film was used by musician Jim O’Rourke as the title for an album he released in 1997. He also used some of Roeg’s other films as album titles. The film was also an inspiration for the band The Glove’s album called Blue Sunshine in 1983, which was a side project of The Cure’s Robert Smith and Siouxsie & the Banshees’ Steve Severin.

So if you’re a fan of the director, the cast and crew, or character dramas then you may enjoy this.

Works Cited

[1]	"IMDB," IMDB, 22 2 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080408/?ref_=nv_sr_1. [Accessed 22 2 2016].
[2]	"Criterion," Criterion, 22 2 2016. [Online]. Available: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/385-bad-timing-the-men-who-didn-t-know-something. [Accessed 22 2 2016].
[3]	"theguardian," theguardian, 22 2 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/aug/15/artsfeatures.edinburghfilmfestival. [Accessed 22 2 2016].
[4]	"Criterion," Criterion, 22 2 2016. [Online]. Available: https://www.criterion.com/library. [Accessed 22 2 2016].