Road House (1989) Shout Select Review

Link to my review

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

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].

 

 

 

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

 

“L.A.'s deadliest street gang just declared war on the cops” [1]. A small group of cops and prisoners must band together and try and defend a police station from an attack by deadly gang. The films influences cross genres and include Forbidden Planet, Rio Bravo, The Birds, and Night of the Living Dead. The film was written, directed, scored, and edited by John Carpenter. He is arguably one of the great directors of the 1970’s and 1980’s, creating a ton of movies with cult followings including Dark Star, Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Prince of Darkness, and They Live. 

This was a very low budget film but it really stands out for the directing, editing, sound, and acting. There is a strong story and good dialogue, with the sort of western last stand theme going on. Carpenter said that the whole movie “came up very quickly. An investor from Philadelphia had some money and sad, ‘Let’s make a movie.’ And so, I said, ‘Let’s  go,’ and I wrote the script in eight days. I wanted to do a western, and it was the closest thing to it. Of course a lot of movies I made are westerns” [2]. This is the film that provided us with the “horrifying situations, compelling rhythms, and haunting set pieces” that have come to be associated with Carpenter and his films [2]. Before this film, his two others had more comedic elements in them.

The two main characters, Bishop and Wilson are great and mesh well together. Both actors are relatively unknown and didn’t go on to become big stars, but they are the right people for these roles and they end up being quite memorable. The score on all of Carpenter’s movies is good, and in here it adds that extra element of suspense that would be missing without it.

It initially received mixed reviews and didn’t do well at the box office, but has a very strong cult following. It was really limited to mostly festival viewing when it was released in 1976 through 1979, until Halloween came out and it finally got a New York Times review [2]. Had it been seen earlier by a larger audience, this film would’ve declared Carpenter to be competent and rising director.

 A remake was made in 2005 starring Ethan Hawke and Lawrence Fishburne, but is nowhere near as good as the original. If you’re a fan of the remake, the director, or action films, then you really need to watch this one. Personally, it is my favorite Carpenter film and I love them all.

Works Cited

[1]	"IMDB," IMDB, 22 2 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074156/?ref_=nv_sr_3. [Accessed 22 2 2016].
[2]	Cumbow, Order in the Universe: The Films of John Carpenter.

 

 

 

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].

 

 

 

Rolling Thunder (1977)

This is a motion picture that deals with the effects that war has on a person, here specifically it is focusing on the Vietnam War. William Devane and Tommy Lee Jones star as Vietnam vets that return home to Texas and have things happen to them that require doling out some personal vengeance. It was written by Taxi Driver writer Paul Schrader from an original story, and “this film is more explicit in its post-Vietnam malaise than” his earlier script [1]. There is some very serious subject matter covered here; including the alienation of war vets, PTSD, a violent America, violent revenge, and brotherhood and loyalty.

Devane and Jones are both excellent in their roles, with Devane most likely having the best performance of his career. His character goes through so much and he makes it all so believable. This was one of Jones first major film performances and he delivers, showing subtle pain at moments and making us believe how he feels for his friend played by Devane. The movie was directed by John Flynn, who was a somewhat underrated filmmaker who also directed Defiance, The Outfit, Best Seller, and Lock Up.

It is both powerful and disturbing and features many strong scenes, with some extremely violent moments. The overall final sequence is very intense and one to remember, bearing similarities to a western shoot out. The whole film feels like a modern western tale, it helps that it takes place in dusty Texas.

The shoot took place over 31 days in San Antonio, Texas. The producer told them to go all with certain scenes of violence. When they submitted it to be rated, they expected it to get cut. But instead, the MPAA gave it an R rating and “passed uncut one of the most violent movies in film history” [2]. The picture was owned by Fox and they “wanted to cut out all [of] the violence out, so they got American International Pictures to purchase it and they released it virtually untouched [2].

It didn’t do quite well at the box office because of the dark and violent nature of the story, but it got some positive reviews and became a cult favorite. Quentin Tarantino is a fan of the film, naming his distribution company after it and listing it in his top twenty five films [1]. It has been released on Blu-ray by Shout! Factory in the U.S.

This is a must see for fans of revenge dramas, modern western style tales, or fans of the cast and crew.

 

Works Cited

[1]	M. P. Nochimson, A Companion to Wong Kar-wai, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2009.
[2]	"wayback machine," wayback machine, 14 4 2016. [Online]. Available: https://web.archive.org/web/20150216145445/http://www.focorevistadecinema.com.br/FOCO2/chartrand-johneng.htm. [Accessed 4 4 2016].