Showing posts with label cult classics. Show all posts

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Road House (1989) Shout Select Review

Link to my review

http://www.spoilerfreemoviesleuth.com/2016/09/Road-House-Review.html

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

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].

Saturday, September 3, 2016

God Told Me To (1976)

“IT WILL GIVE YOU NIGHTMARES FOREVER” [1]. New York police detective Peter Nicholas (Tony LoBianco) is investigating a series of killings in New with the only consistency between them is that they all say that the reason they did it was because “god told me to.”

This was essentially a precursor to the X-files series, with many of the same elements that appear in the show-alien abductions, religion, the cop that believes and won’t let go of a case, the superiors who don’t believe him, powerful elements, and unexpected and bizarre twists.

Written and directed by Larry Cohen, who is known for several other cult films including Bone, Black Caesar, Hell Up in Harlem, It’s Alive, and The Stuff. Cohen has been able to create a rich and complex world consisting of vivid characters, realistic dialogue and situations, a weird story, all in vibrant New York City locations. Cohen typically looks at social situations and dilemma’s affecting the characters, similar to the way that Alfred Hitchcock did [2]. The film borrows from Hitchcock in many ways, using motifs and recreating some scenes but using them in an unfamiliar way in order to explore new and unfamiliar territory [2].

All of the actors are great and very believable, even ones with very minor parts which is not typical for most low budget movies. LoBianco stands out in his lead performance. He has had a long career and is still an active actor, but this has to be one of his best performances. He also appeared in The French Connection, and the cult film The Honeymoon Killers. There are many great and interesting shots with rapid editing. The score is incredibly done and is reminiscent of old Hitchcock films, most notably Psycho. Bernard Hermann was supposed to score the film; he had done most of Hitchcock’s films, but died before completion of the film. Frank Cordell completed the score with some help from the notes that Hermann had left behind.

Andy Kaufman makes his first appearance in this film as the cop that goes on a shooting rampage at the parade. Kaufman is a comedian mostly known for his appearances on the early seasons of Saturday Night Live, and as Latka on the television show Taxi. TimeOut conducted a poll with various horror experts in the horror genre to vote for the top horror films; this included notable authors of the genre, directors, actors, and critics [3]. This film ended up being ranked 94^th on that list [3].

The film is notable for its early Kaufman appearance, excellent New York location, and unusual X-file like story. If you like the X-Files, or the horror genre, then you may enjoy this.

Works Cited

[1]	"IMDB," IMDB, 24 2 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075930/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. [Accessed 24 2 2016].
[2]	T. Williams, Larry Cohen: The Radical Allegories of an Independent Filmmaker, rev. ed., Jefferson: McFarland & Company, inv, 2014.
[3]	"Timeout," Timeout, 14 4 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.timeout.com/london/film/best-horror-films. [Accessed 14 4 2016].

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Complete Santo Film Poster Collection

This is the complete movie poster collection of the iconic Mexican Luchadore and film star Santo, beginning in 1961 through 1982.

Santo contra cerebro del mal (1961)