BANG BANG BABY -- Movie Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 11/4/15

It's nice to see a low-budget project in which talent and ambition combine to create something impressive.  With BANG BANG BABY (2014), first-time writer and director Jeffrey St. Jules and company have done just that, and it couldn't have been easy to create a candy-coated 60s musical that takes place inside a surreal, sci-fi/horror nightmare.

Our heroine, Stepphy (Jane Levy, EVIL DEAD remake), wonders at one point if she is indeed living in a nightmare, but before that she's a bright, starry-eyed young girl who wants to win a talent contest and become a singing star--preferably, one who sings duets with her heartthrob, rock-and-roll dreamboat Bobby Shore (Justin Chatwin, Tom Cruise's son in WAR OF THE WORLDS).

Stepphy wins an audition in New York, but her widowed, alcoholic dad, George (Peter Stormare, FARGO, ARMAGEDDON) won't let her go because he's sick and lonely, and knows enough about the music business to be extremely pessimistic about her chances.  She's crushed until fate steps in--while out walking one night, Stepphy meets Bobby Shore and his manager, Helmut, whose car has broken down, and invites them back to her house. 

Stepphy and Bobby fall in love.  Bobby cooks up a plan to open up a casino and performance theater in town, so that he and Stepphy can sing together and she won't have to leave George on his own.  Everything seems to be heading toward a storybook perfect, happily-ever-after ending.  

That's the candy-coated part, and up till now BANG BANG BABY seems spun from the same cotton candy machine that John Waters' HAIRSPRAY swirled out of.  Sweet-voiced Jane Levy not only sings like a bird but is wonderfully chipper as Stepphy, while Justin Chatwin does a peppermint-smooth take on the dulcet-voiced, pompadored early-60s rock-and-roll idol.

The film's whimsical art design is like a series of colorful comic book panels, cartoony and artificial, although the perpetually subdued lighting seems to hint at something dark below the surface. 

Indeed, the sci-fi/horror elements have been lurking in the shadows all along, ever since Stepphy's creepy admirer Fabian (David Reale, CHLOE, ONE WEEK) took advantage of her drunken state one night while parked next to the toxic chemical plant that he runs, which, incidentally, is leaking clouds of mutation-inducing gas that will eventually infect the entire town in grotesque ways. (Stepphy herself, it turns out, has been "infected" in more ways than one.)
 
What transpires after that is a dazzling synthesis of clashing sensibilities in which the breezy smalltown musical finds itself veering straight through ERASERHEAD territory, complete with a bleak, joyless marriage and a horrifically strange baby. 

The script flits nimbly between surreal comedy and utter tragedy--there's even a mass suicide when the infected townspeople can't bear what they're turning into any longer--while always maintaining just the right balance to give the film a pleasing fantasy ambience to the very end. 

Even the relatively small budget works to give things more of an unreal feeling.  At night we sense the darkened soundstage, as when Stepphy and Bobby serenade each other in her astro-turfed backyard, and in daytime scenes we notice a fake background scrolling past like something out of "The Flintstones."  The inherent fantasy of the musical form allows the director to lure us into a feverish dream world which will continuously turn bizarre and nightmarish.

But what really makes BANG BANG BABY work, aside from the truly compelling story and quirky visual appeal, are the great songs and music, especially Jane Levy's exquisite opening number and the catchy title tune.  These "Hit Parade"-type songs alternate with rock opera to carry the plot through a world that is wonderfully weird, yet somehow down to earth enough for us to relate to it. 


Official Trailer

BANG BANG BABY -- Movie Review by Porfle

Blade Runner (1982): Original "Happy Ending" Without Voiceover (video)

 

Those of us who first saw "Blade Runner" via the "International Cut" recall the end scene with Deckard and Rachel riding off into the sunset to a reprise of Vangelis' beautiful love theme.

While fond of this idyllic ending, I still found it to be marred by that version's clumsy, pedestrian attempt at a film noir voiceover which insisted on telling us what we were seeing ("Gaff had been there...and let her live").

Here, in all its splendor, is that scene without the needless voiceover.

 

Video by Porfle Popnecker. I neither own nor claim any rights to this material. Just having some fun with it. Thanks for watching!

 

 

 

Blade Runner (1982): Original "Happy Ending" Without Voiceover (video)

GHOST IN THE SHELL -- Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD Review by Porfle

Originally posted in 2017

 

Futuristic sci-fi thrillers such as 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, BLADE RUNNER, and the more recent THE FIFTH ELEMENT used to amaze and astound us with their eye-popping visuals and stunning practical effects. Nowadays, such fare is so overloaded with CGI-generated artificial wonders jam-packed into every frame that we tend to get numbed by it all. 

GHOST IN THE SHELL (2017)--a live-action adaptation of the original manga by way of the excellent 1995 animated version--starts out that way, cluttered with too many whiz-bang visuals that don't always seem to exist in the real world, with the ever-present advertising motif of BLADE RUNNER taken to new extremes and a sort of architectural imagination gone mad.

As the film progresses, however, we settle in and adapt to this frenetic, plastic vision of the future, mainly because the theme of the story is technology gone too far--people becoming willing cyborgs for vanity and convenience and all connected body and mind to a central core--and the main characters are meant to feel alienated by it as well. 

Our heroine, Major Mira Killian (Scarlett Johansson) of the anti-terrorist group Section 9, is especially attuned to such feelings, being that she is the first successful fusion of a human brain with an entirely robotic body (i.e., a "ghost in the shell") and thus constantly conflicted as to how much of her humanity remains and what percent of her is pure machine connected to the company mainframe. 

Her inner conflict is heightened when her group's newest nemesis is a cyber-criminal named Kuze who can hack into any system including all cyborgs--meaning just about everybody to one degree or another--and service robots. 

His goal is revenge, which he wreaks to the extreme in some explosive action setpieces.  But exactly why remains a mystery until Mira and her team manage to fight their way right into his sinister clutches and discover the truth behind not only Kuze but their own organization.

Scarlett Johansson strikes the right balance between robotic demeanor and inner conflict, which she underplays until it's time to delve headlong into her action scenes.  These lack the angular inventiveness and quirky choreography of, say, THE MATRIX, but are still packed with satisfying excitement in their own way, replete with gunplay and hand-to-hand combat with sci-fi elements such as invisibility and advanced weaponry. 

"Beat" Takeshi Kitano (BATTLE ROYALE, VIOLENT COP) lends his considerable presence as Mira's boss, Aramaki, as does Juliette Binoche--who will always be Catherine Earnshaw of 1992's WUTHERING HEIGHTS to me--as Dr. Ouelet, the head scientist who created Mira and regards her as a daughter.  Pilou Asbæk is also good as Mira's partner Batou, a gruff, bearlike agent who's just a regular guy beneath it all. 

Mira's quest to find herself, to uncover suppressed memories of her former life and get to the truth of why and how she was created, eventually takes GHOST IN THE SHELL to a place that's both powerful and tragic, lending emotional depth to its final chaotic showdown between good and evil (traits which will shift their meaning considerably before it's over). 

The 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD set from Paramount is in 1080p high definition (DVD is widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs) with Dolby 5.1 stereo and subtitles in multiple languages.  The DVD contains the feature film only.  The Blu-ray disc contains the feature plus three bonus behind-the-scenes featurettes.

Visually and emotionally compelling, the live-action GHOST IN THE SHELL never quite reaches the sublime beauty of its animated predecessor but tries its damndest to do so.  In this, it succeeds in being a lively, thought-provoking, and often dazzling entry in the dystopian-future sci-fi genre which fans won't want to miss.


Street Date:      July 7, 2017 (Digital HD) July 25, 2017 (4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD) 
U.S. Rating:    PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence, suggestive content and some disturbing images
Canadian Rating: PG, not recommended for young children, violence


Read our original coverage

GHOST IN THE SHELL -- Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD Review by Porfle

HARDWARE -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

 Originally posted on 10/14/09

 

The last time I watched HARDWARE (1990) was almost twenty years ago, and it was a washed-out, edited, pan-and-scan VHS version that, not surprisingly, didn't make much of an impression on me. Now, this hard-to-find gem has been lovingly restored and can be appreciated for the thrilling, visually-stimulating cyberpunk classic that it is. 

 Director Richard Stanley's sci-fi thriller has an incredibly simple story with gobs of dystopian goodness layered onto it. In a scorched world where civilization is in shambles and limited nuclear warfare has spread destruction and radiation over the land, a beautiful young artist named Jill (Stacey Travis) ekes out a living making junk-sculptures in her spacious apartment. 

Her on-again, off-again boyfriend Mo (Dylan McDermott), an ex-military scavenger with a mechanical hand, runs across the scattered pieces of a strange robotic device and brings them to Jill for use in her artwork. But when this prototype MARK 13 war-droid reassembles itself and goes on the attack, Jill and Mo and everyone else within killing distance are in for a really rough night. 

 Looking much more opulent that its budget (less than one and a half million dollars) would suggest, HARDWARE's harsh world is very well-realized and convincing. Some location shooting in Morocco bookends the film with some great desert exteriors, while the interiors are a triumph of production design. Jill's apartment in particular is endlessly interesting to look at and the retro-modern computer gadgetry that can be found everywhere has a clunky, jury-rigged quality. 

While much of the film's color scheme is red, black, and rust, the lighting within the apartment is as rich and varied as in Dario Argento's SUSPIRIA or the color comics in an old Warren horror magazine. 

Refreshingly free of digital technology (there's even an old-fashioned glass matte in one shot), the effects for HARDWARE prove how entertaining and satisfying it is to see real things really happening in front of the camera. Imaginative editing and camera angles give us just enough of an idea of the MARK 13's movements and general appearance while maintaining its mystery. Stunts, fire gags, and other assorted mayhem keep the excitement level high, especially with Stacey Travis doing most of the physical stuff herself. 

 

 

 Old-school gore effects are on the menu as well, most of which are seen here for the first time in the restored edition. This includes a nifty bisection as one character is cut clean in half by an errant safety door. Another hapless victim, Jill's lecherous peeping-tom neighbor Lincoln (William Hootkins), has a face-to-face encounter with the MARK 13 in which he literally goes to pieces. Hootkins, whose long list of memorable characters includes Porkins in STAR WARS and slimeball cop Eckhardt in Tim Burton's BATMAN, almost steals the show as the bloated pervert who drools over Jill through a telescope and later forces himself into her apartment. His jaunty rendition of "The Wibbly-Wobbly Song" is a delightful lead-up to his horrible demise. 

As mentioned above, much of HARDWARE's look seems inspired by Dario Argento and other Italian directors (SUSPIRIA in particular comes to mind during several scenes), while Stanley himself mentions such influences as ROBOCOP, TERMINATOR, THE EVIL DEAD, SOYLENT GREEN, WESTWORLD, and TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE II. His camera is beautifully mobile and the barebones story is merely an excuse to indulge in loads of colorful stylistic fun. 

Stanley really seems to enjoy shooting the expressive Travis in imaginative ways as she brings all the intensity and physicality she can muster to her role (her two nude scenes are filmed with particular flair). Hardly an indestructible super-heroine, Jill runs the gamut of panic, terror, and despair while suffering as much physical abuse as DIE HARD's John McLane, until finally she gets mad enough to fight back with everything she's got. 

 Dylan McDermott's "Mo" (short for "Moses", we discover) is a stalwart but believable flawed hero. John Lynch is very good as his friend "Shades", a space shuttle maintenance worker who secretly carries a torch for Jill and must come to her aid even though he's just dropped a tab of some really intense acid. Iggy Pop can be heard as radio D.J. "Angry Bob" while Motorhead's Lemmy appears briefly as a motorboat taxi driver. The rest of the cast is well-chosen right down to the smallest roles. 

The evocative original score by Italian-film veteran Simon Boswell (PHENOMENA, DEMONS 2), which sounds alternately prog, New Age, and metal, is augmented by some great songs by Iggy Pop, Ministry, Motorhead, and especially Public Image, Ltd.'s "The Order of Death" ("This is what you want, this is what you get"). Rossini's "Stabat Mater" accompanies a particularly psychedelic death-by-injection sequence. 

 

 

Severin Films has done a really nice job with this 2-disc DVD. In 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 surround sound, the picture and sound quality are very good. Director Stanley does an informative commentary track with the nudging of interviewer Norman Hill. "No Flesh Shall Be Spared" is a lengthy documentary with all-new cast and crew interviews which covers the history of the film in detail, including why it's been so criminally neglected over the years. Stanley also discusses the aborted HARDWARE 2 in an eight-minute segment. "Incidents in an Expanding Universe" is a 43-minute early Super 8mm version of HARDWARE which, while boring, is interesting to take a run through. The same goes for two more of Stanley's shorts, "Rites of Passage" and 2006's "The Sea of Perdition." Deleted and extended scenes round out the second disc. 

Alternately suspenseful, horrific, tragic, satirical, noirish, and downright funny (Jill inadvertently morphs into a bat-wielding martial arts character in one scene), HARDWARE is a real treasure for sci-fi and action fans which has finally been unearthed and restored to full power. It's high time for this exhilarating cinematic joyride to take its rightful place among the genuine gonzo classics of the genre.

 

HARDWARE -- DVD Review by Porfle

WHEN THE WIND BLOWS -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 4/24/20

 

Did you ever wonder what it would look like if THREADS had a cartoon-animated subplot? Or if the creators of "Wallace & Gromit" had placed their beloved characters in the middle of a nuclear holocaust?

Children's author Raymond Briggs conceived such an idea in a graphic novel which a group of filmmakers including director Jimmy T. Murakami (HEAVY METAL, BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS) brought to the screen, thus giving us the entrancingly compelling cinematic oddity entitled WHEN THE WIND BLOWS (Severin Kids, 1986).

Unlike the frantically alarmist apocalypse thrillers to which we're accustomed, this tale of an elderly couple whose peaceful retirement is shattered by nuclear war is quietly, disarmingly genteel.

We first see them enjoying a typical day in their secluded cottage, chatting absently about tea and gardening and such, while news of impending war sparks Jim's interest and motivates him into a mildly industrious fervor of preparation that brings back nostalgic feelings of the Blitz.

Meanwhile, Hilda (whom Jim endearingly calls "Ducks") refuses to entertain the notion that anything could disturb their blissful daily routines, their ability to pop down to a shop for fresh food or other supplies, or their access to telly or radio plays. 

These are the sort of likable, roundly-drawn cartoon characters (they look a bit like cuddly plush dolls) we know from a thousand children's books and movies, characters whose only concerns should be gentle, placid ones such as, say, a naughty bunny rabbit helping himself to their carrot garden.

Here, however, their idyllic lives are disrupted when the harsh, cruel reality of the really-real world ruptures the curtain of their cartoon dimension and leaves it all a charred, smoking ruin with a dark cloud of radioactive fallout drifting through it.

Jim and Hilda are similar to the older couple in THREADS with their lean-to shelter in the livingroom providing sparse protection against the blast and their halfhearted efforts to stock food, water, and other necessities quickly proving inadequate. 

What makes them different is that they continue to behave just like endearing cartoon figures out of a children's story, with Jim remaining a font of quiet optimism--after all, they lived through something similar back when they fought the Jerries--and Hilda blessedly oblivious to the fact that she can't just tidy things up and wait for the milkman to come.

The restraint shown by the filmmakers in not giving in to the usual dramatic overkill makes the encroaching horrors Jim and Hilda inevitably face seem even more wrenching, with their continued devotion to each other through it all especially heartrending as their ordinary storybook lives crumble to dust.

Artwork and animation are expertly done, using a combination of various methods such as cel animation, a bit of CGI, what appears to be some miniature work on the interiors, and the occasional well-integrated live action footage. 

The musical score includes songs by David Bowie, Roger Waters, and others. Jim and Hilda are wonderfully voiced by venerable actors Sir John Mills and Dame Peggy Ashcroft.

The Blu-ray from Severin Films' "Severin Kids" label contains their usual ample menu, including a documentary about the director ("Jimmy Murakami: Non Alien"), a making-of featurette ("The Wind and the Bomb"), an audio commentary with first assistant editor Joe Fordham and film historian Nick Redman, an interview with children's author Raymond Briggs, an original public information film ("Protect and Serve"), isolated music and effects audio track, and trailers.

In its own remarkable way, WHEN THE WIND BLOWS is one of the darkest and most disheartening of the post-nuclear nightmare tales. It's like watching Wallace and Gromit slowly withering away from radiation poisoning, and, worst of all, Wallace finally realizing at the point of dying that there may never, ever be any more cheese.


Buy it from Severin Films

Special Features:

    Jimmy Murakami: Non Alien – Feature Length Documentary About the Film’s Director
    The Wind and The Bomb: The Making of WHEN THE WIND BLOWS
    Audio Commentary with First Assistant Editor Joe Fordham and Film Historian Nick Redman
    An Interview with Raymond Briggs
    Protect and Survive: Public Information Film Designed to be Broadcast When a Nuclear Attack Was Imminent
    Isolated Music and Effects Audio Track
    Trailers

WHEN THE WIND BLOWS -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

MOLLY -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 9/22/18

 

One thing zombie flicks and post-apocalyptic dystopia movies have in common is that, thanks to templates such as NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and MAD MAX, there's very little need for exposition. We're just suddenly there in these established worlds, and all that's required is to learn the specifics of the individual storyline being presented for us to follow.

This is true for the post-apocalyptic dystopia action-thriller MOLLY (Artsploitation Films, 2017), which comes to us by way of the Netherlands and brashly shoulders its way into the ranks of the best, or at least most brashly entertaining, films of that genre. 

An earlier trailer might've gone like this: "In a world...where society has been replaced by anarchy...and the innocent are injected with a drug that turns them into savage beasts pit-fighting to the death as gamblers cheer them on...one girl...with special powers and a fierce will to survive...fights to bring down an evil dictator while protecting an orphaned child she found alone in the wasteland...etc...etc..."

The girl with "special powers" (which I won't spoil here) is Molly (Julia Batelaan), who's like a cross between a myopic valley girl and Velma from "Scooby-Doo" (complete with glasses).  She looks like a normal teenaged nerd-girl all weighed down by a huge backpack and other gear, but circumstances have forced her to become a wandering warrior who must keep her guard up 24/7 against those who wish to either rob, kill, or capture her.

Local big-wig Deacon (Joost Bolt) wields the aforementioned drug and runs the pit fights, turning captives into vicious drug-fueled maniacs called "supplicants" and staging death battles during which he cleans up on the gambling front (with bullets as the main currency).  With Molly having become something of a legend in those parts, he orders his warriors to hunt her down and capture her for his fighting pit.

It took a while for me to settle in and "get" this movie.  At first, it looks like it's just going to be another mildly entertaining genre offering at best, albeit one with an intriguing main character.  The fight choreography seems a bit off at times, and the story seems a bit lean.

Gradually, however, the imagination and skill behind this above-average effort began make themselves more and more apparent until, by the second half, I was getting swept up in what was fast becoming a dazzling feat of modestly-budgeted filmmaking.

As soon as Molly befriends the little orphan girl Bailey (Emma de Paauw), who is then kidnapped as bait to lure Molly into the clutches of Deacon and his band of rough boys, our heroine's rescue mission in the bad guys' rusted-metal offshore lair becomes a dizzying non-stop assault of blazing action and breathtaking filmmaking.

Earlier fight scenes had a choppily edited shaky-cam look to them in order to convey Molly's fear and disorientation during sudden surprise attacks that came out of nowhere.  But during the extended finale, which takes place on several levels of iron walkways in a harsh industrial setting, the direction and cinematography suddenly shift into sort of a cinematic overdrive that had me goggle-eyed with amazement.

Fights still lack finesse, but this gives them the dirty, messy, awkward feel of real life-or-death battle. And when this mass of sweaty humanity starts plunging into fierce conflict in close quarters, directors Colinda Bongers and Thijs Meuwese shoot it all in amazing long takes with disguised edits that give the illusion of one unbroken action scene lasting a good 20-30 minutes or so.

(Molly's set-to with Deacon's main assassin Kimmy, played by Annelies Appelhof, is a real highlight, as is her final showdown with the Deacon himself.)

It's especially impressive in that the filmmakers don't have quick edits and jerky camerawork to use as a visual crutch.  The sequence boasts beautiful photography and camera moves (no shaky-cam, lens flares, etc.) and precision choreography that must've required both exhaustive practice and multiple retakes.

This is, to be honest, some of the best action filmmaking I've ever seen.  I was constantly reminded of a previous fave, HARD REVENGE MILLY, which this actually surpasses in my estimation.  Which, for me, is no small thing.  The hallway fight scene from OLDBOY also comes to mind.

Through it all, the character of freckled, bespectacled Molly is enigmatic but likable, and human enough to panic when she loses her glasses during a fight.  Where the heck did she come from, we wonder, and how did she become this fabled bow-wielding warrior who defeats opponents twice her size and ferociousness, with nothing more than a sort of frantically puckish resolve to survive? (Plus those special powers, of course, but I won't go into that.)

The Blu-ray from Artsploitation Films is in 1.78:1 widescreen with English 5.1 surround sound and optional English subtitles.  Bonus features consist of a directors' commentary, a half-hour "making of" featurette, and a trailer. 

I had a great time watching MOLLY, especially since so many films of this genre have been both blatantly derivative and inescapably dull.  Okay, this movie is sorta blatantly derivative too--but dull it ain't.  Following the satisfying resolution, there's an epilogue which promises a possible sequel, and, for once, I'm actually looking forward to it.

Artsploitation.com

MOLLY -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

THREADS -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 2/4/18

 

One of the most rigidly uncompromising and dramatically brutal films you'll ever see, the BBC production THREADS (Severin Films, 1984) is the result of director Mick Jackson and writer Barry Hines' desire to present the effects of thermonuclear war on humanity in the most harshly realistic manner, both visually and thematically, as possible. 

It was beaten to the airwaves by the American Broadcasting Company's TV-movie THE DAY AFTER (directed by STAR TREK: THE WRATH OF KHAN's Nicholas Meyer), a film I like a lot but which, in comparison, only went about halfway in conveying the true horrors of an utterly ravaged post-nuclear society.

Now, of course, THREADS is rightly recognized as the true pinnacle of its kind, presenting, despite a budget of only half a million pounds and a shooting schedule of little over two weeks, what is with little doubt the most nightmarish, frightening, and ultimately disheartening film ever produced for television. 

Elements contributing to this include a cast of unknowns and a shooting style reminiscent of the British "kitchen sink" drama, showing everyday people going about their lives before and after the catastrophe which obliterates the very civilization upon which they depend for their survival.

Much early emphasis is placed upon simple comforts and joys of modern life, shot in extreme close-up inserts--a colander of fresh peas rinsed in clean water, a tin of cat food being opened, a handheld video game, a cold glass of milk, crocheting, etc.--things which we take for granted until they're all gone.

Everyday life itself is depicted through two families--one lower class, the other well-to-do--joined together by the love of a son, Jimmy Kemp (Reece Dinsdale), for a daughter, Ruth Beckett (Karen Meagher), engaged to be married due to her unexpected pregnancy. Their playful romance and optimistic plans for a simple but happy life together are darkened by an impending world-crisis situation growing increasingly troubling as constantly portrayed on TV and radio news. 

With the situation reaching a flashpoint, we see how local government and civil defense measures would be activated in the event of a nuclear attack.  Nobody really knows what they're doing and it all seems rather ineffectual, as will soon be proven out.  Meanwhile, the expected run on supermarkets and inevitable price gouging heighten the sense that the threads of civilization are in the first stages of unraveling at the seams.

As THREADS begins to weigh more heavily on the viewer, a dispassionate narrator delivers exposition concerning inexorable world events and the effects impending nuclear war will have on resources, infrastructure, utilities, and basic human needs. 

Even the teletype sound effect that accompanies the on-screen text becomes more and more unsettling. Before long, the film has established a sense of foreboding that increases with every new scene of panic and desperation as people grasp in vain for ways to avoid or escape what is coming.  The pleasures of everyday life we've been shown earlier are slipping away, replaced by fear and despair.

That's when the bombs hit and THREADS dials it all the way up to eleven with an almost fiendish resolve.  Despite the lack of expensive and elaborate special effects, the nuclear devastation is shown in  extremely graphic terms as director Jackson creates harrowing images that haunt and terrify.  What follows comes as close to depicting the unimaginable as any film has ever achieved.
   
The rest of THREADS details the eventual breakdown and disintegration of every aspect of civilized society and a return to the Dark Ages (or worse) with millions of unburied dead, radiation sickness and other deadly diseases sweeping the dwindling populace, rampant starvation, and the oncoming effects of the darkening deep-freeze of nuclear winter. 

We follow what's left of our main characters as they struggle, and mostly fail, to survive on an almost purely animal level.  The story pulls no punches whatsoever and, considering the filmmakers' limited resources, is masterfully realized in harshly effective visual terms and a narrative that's utterly riveting until the final, heartbreaking image sends THREADS off on a haunting and unforgettable note.

The Blu-ray disc from Severin Films is in the original full-screen with 1080p HD resolution (in other words, it looks a lot better than the copy I taped off the TV in the 80s) and English mono sound with subtitles.  A stocked bonus menu consists of director's commentary, a recent interview with actress Karen Meagher ("Ruth"), interviews with the film's director of photography and production designer, an interview with film historian Stephen Thrower, and the US and re-release trailers.

I first saw THREADS in the mid-80s when it was picked up by Ted Turner for broadcast on his TBS Superstation. Both as an unremittingly grim cautionary tale and a powerful documentary-style drama/horror film, it has lost absolutely none of its power. 

THREADS -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

APOCALYPSIS -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 4/4/18

 

Stunningly directed and photographed--that's the first thing I noticed about writer-director Eric Leiser's fourth feature film, the near-future dystopian thriller APOCALYPSIS (2018), so it's the first thing I wanted to mention.

This story of a woman named Evelyn Rose (Maria Bruun), a Christian whose deep pondering of the Book of Revelations fills her mind with bizarre visions of frightening portent, and a man named Michael Banderwack (Chris O'Leary), a radical "hacktivist" bent on saving the world from itself even as the NSA use all their electronic surveillance might against him, is one endlessly intriguing and often beautiful work of cinematic art.

Visually, it reminds me of an updated version of 1982's cult sci-fi classic LIQUID SKY, both starring striking-looking female protagonists having disturbingly transformative experiences amidst a production designer's most fervid bursts of imagination.  It's as though David Lynch and Ridley Scott fell asleep in a candy store and collaborated on the same psychedelic dream.

That aside, the story is instantly compelling despite being the third installment in a trilogy (the other films being IMAGINATION and GLITCH IN THE GRID). Evelyn works for a rare book seller while constantly experiencing mindblowing visions inspired by the pages of Revelations and rendered in wonderfully odd stop-motion animated vignettes by director Leiser.

Meanwhile, Michael stays one frantic step away from the NSA (tinfoil bedsheets and all) while doing his outlaw radio show and planning acts of uncivil disobedience against the increasingly oppressive Big Brother state. 

This quest draws Evelyn and Michael together since both refuse to be "chipped" with an electronic "Mark of the Beast" under their skin and, in their own different ways, are willing to sacrifice their own lives for the collective good.

The fact that Michael is an atheist only makes their relationship more interesting.  Evelyn, an albino, looks almost as translucent as her guileless soul, and the two of them compliment each other. 

Despite occasional lapses in this symbiotic pairing, as when Michael suspects Evelyn of being an NSA mole, they will ultimately be united in a final, potentially futile struggle against the coming New World Order.

O'Leary's Banderwack is funny and fun to watch, a character we can admire despite being something of a flake. As Evelyn, a woman steadfast in her faith and pure at heart, Bruun is compelling throughout. 

Angels are sent to watch over her--even disbeliever Michael gets a visit from one after he goes "off the grid" and is advised that Evelyn needs his help.  And for once, a character's religious faith is neither mocked nor treated as a freaky quirk.

Storywise, we're deposited into this already-in-progress trilogy just at the right point to be able to pick things up as though it were a stand-alone film. The intrigue between underground political dissidents and voyeuristic Big Brother agents hot to bring them in for "processing" is enough to keep things interesting, and then there's the likability of the lead characters as their experiences allow the best of themselves to come through.

My main and perhaps only disappointment is the abrupt ending, which makes this seem like the penultimate entry in a trilogy rather than a concluding one. But that aside, APOCALYPSIS is like a visually sumptuous cinematic art gallery with a plot.  Both my eyes and my mind found it dazzling. 


Tech Specs
Runtime: 90min
Format:1:78 HD
Sound: Dolby Sr.
Country: USA
Language, Captions: English
Website: www.IndicanPictures.com
Genre: Sci-Fi
Extras: Making-of featurette, Indican trailers

Watch the Trailer

APOCALYPSIS -- DVD Review by Porfle

CANNIBAL CORPSE KILLERS -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 7/25/20

 

CANNIBAL CORPSE KILLERS (Indican Pictures, 2018) enters the undead arena with a dash of "Mad Max", a pinch of Rob Zombie, some spaghetti (western) sauce, and a flashback intro in which a cousin of Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" book appears and cooks up a passel of the same brand of hell-spawn zombies to terrorize a poor little desert community (and, we assume, the rest of the world).

Into this apocalyptic wasteland comes a ragtag group of misfits who look like they just stumbled out of "The Devil's Rejects" and have cool names like Pike (Dennis Haggard), Ruby (Theresa Holly), cranky old hermit Slim (Chris Shumway), Scar (Katherine Norland), and group leader Boots (Nate Philo). These are the good guys, since they're only interested in survival. (Okay, Pike has a much loftier aim in mind, but that's for later.)

Fortunately for us, this survival includes lots of zombie killing that's bloody, gory, gutsy, grotty, and very action-oriented. The zombies in question are horrifically aggressive, again more in line with Raimi's "hellish speed-freak" model than the simple, shambling reanimated corpses of yore.

The makeups are consistently good, as are such production elements as locations (I kept wondering where they found all these trashed neighborhoods and other decayed desert architecture), costumes, props, and cars.

On the minus side, most of the cast indulge in relentless overacting of the "scream obscenities really loud" and "make spaghetti western faces" varieties, while director Joaquin Montalvan (LEGEND OF THE HILLBILLY BUTCHER) has a loose, freeform style that's sporadically effective.

As with many low-budget flicks these days, there's a heavy reliance on sweeping drone camera shots which take good advantage of the desert surroundings.

As the main characters slowly make their way to a tiny desert burg called Jawbone (first in Slim's van, then on foot), flashbacks from each person's past reveal the reasons why they've ended up as messed up as they are.

(For example, "Scar" had to shoot her own zombie son in the head as he was administering her namesake facial wound.) These brief episodes flesh out the characters and give the story some of its best scenes.

Meanwhile, the Magistrate (Ron Jason), a psycho hick who discovered the book and acts as a go-between for Ava, vile princess of evil (Charlotte Bjornbak) and her slack-jawed minions, waits in an abandoned church as the evil forces prepare to do battle with our heroic good guys.

The final clash on the dusty main drag of Jawbone is more of the clunky fight choreography and nerve-wracking sound effects we've experienced throughout the film, enhanced by more of those nicely-rendered gore effects and cool-looking zombie makeup.

The bonus menu consists of a making-of featurette, an interview with the sound designer, and extended/deleted scenes.

Alternately entertaining and irritating, CANNIBAL CORPSE KILLERS practically grabs us by the lapels and screams "I'm a cool cult film, dammit!" It's one of those doggedly earnest low-budget indy flicks that works overtime to prove how cool it is in every shot.

 
Buy it at Indican Pictures

TECH SPECS

Runtime: 100 minutes
Format: 1:78 HD
Sound: Dolby Sr.
Country: USA

CANNIBAL CORPSE KILLERS -- DVD Review by Porfle

BATTLE ROYALE II: REQUIEM -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

 Originally posted on 4/26/21

 

Are you one of the many people who, over the years, have liked or even loved the classic 2000 dystopian action thriller BATTLE ROYALE? Well, for better or worse, there's a sequel.  

The original BATTLE ROYALE begins at the dawn of the 21st century in a Japan whose society is falling apart.  With thousands of students boycotting school and youth violence and unemployment at an all-time high, the fascist government "bigwigs" pass the BR (Battle Royale) Act in hopes of curbing juvenile delinquency.  

Thus, a graduating ninth-grade class is chosen at random once a year, taken to a deserted island, and forced to fight each other to the death until there's only one survivor.  If more than one person is alive at the end of three days, they all die via their nifty exploding necklaces.  

 

After enjoying the first film so much, I was filled with keen anticipation for its follow-up, a feeling that BATTLE ROYALE II: REQUIEM (2003) didn't quite live up to.  It may not be the worst sequel to a good movie that I've ever seen--MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME and EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC are more worthy contenders for that title--but my socks were in little danger of getting knocked off while watching it.

It's three years after the end of the first story, with Shuya (Tatsuya Fujiwara), the main student character from the first movie, now a notorious terrorist waging war on the world's adult population from his island bunker. 

We meet a new BR class who will be the first to go into battle under new rules--storm Shuya's island, engage him and his followers in combat, and kill him (with extreme prejudice) within 72 hours.

 

This time the participants are paired up boy-girl, and if one dies or wanders more than fifty meters away from the other, both collars explode.  All of this is explained to our group of cowering students by a new and much more hostile teacher, Takeuchi Riki, who hams it up with such unbridled ferocity that you wouldn't be surprised if he started hammering nails with his eyeballs.

Instead of the free-for-all competition for survival we got in the first movie, this one starts out as a fun, but somewhat average war flick made interesting mainly because it's a bunch of terrified ninth graders doing the fighting.  

The island siege is filmed like a junior version of the Omaha Beach sequence from SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, only with sloppier editing and lots more Shaky-Cam.  It plays a little like something you might see on the SyFy Channel, but with a bigger budget and extra helpings of entertaining violence generously slathered on top. 

 

(One thing that had me wondering, though--why, if the government wants these kids to take out Shuya, do they continue to make things hard for them with the boy-girl collar thing and by continuing the red-zone policy from the first movie?)

Eventually, of course, we meet Shuya, who now sports a bleached-blonde mullet, has evolved into a brooding, full-of-himself bore with messianic delusions, and seems to be mired in a perpetual state of resentful adolescence.  

Apparently, we're meant to sympathize with Shuya in his amorphous battle against "the adults" which he fights by blowing up several skyscrapers (two of which bear a distinct resemblance to the World Trade Center) as the film waxes poetic about how noble and romantic terrorism can be if committed by a cool guy like Shuya.  

This, along with some annoying, holier-than-thou anti-American sentiments thrown in for good measure, constitutes the sort of blobby, self-important political hogwash that bogs the movie down for much of its running time. 

 

Even when the government sends in its crack commando forces to eradicate the terrorists once and for all (which had me wondering why they didn't just do this in the first place), the furious battle action is diluted by gobs of maudlin sentiment, mawkish dialogue, and some unintentionally funny dramatic touches that may have you either wincing in pain or rolling on the floor laughing.

Every time one of the "good guy" characters gets mortally wounded, all the intense fighting around them comes to a dead stop so they can perform a dramatic dying speech while Shuya reacts with renewed grief and outrage.  

Even at this point we still get the same death count intertitles but by now the "battle royale" concept has been so thoroughly diluted that they only serve to remind us how the movie we wanted to watch in the first place never actually happened.

 

In addition to the wildly overacting Takeuchi Riki, Shûgo Oshinari also lays it on pretty thick as the the leader of the student warriors, Taku.  Ai Maeda does a nice job as Shiori, daughter of hostile teacher Kitano (Beat Tageshi) from the first film, who volunteers for the BR in order to come to terms with what she believes was her father's murder.  

Tageshi returns briefly in a touching flashback that shows his character in a more sympathetic light.  The rest of the performances cover a pretty wide range from good to not so good, with Sonny Chiba doing a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo.

While it certainly has its share of bloody, shoot-em-up action and a couple of good dramatic moments here and there, BATTLE ROYALE II: REQUEIM ultimately comes across as an ill-conceived, wrongheaded, and sometimes just plain silly affair that qualifies more as a guilty pleasure than the follow-up to a classic.  In its attempts to be an emotionally powerful and thematically grandiose dystopian epic, it teeters precipitously on the verge of embarrassing itself.

BATTLE ROYALE II: REQUIEM -- Movie Review by Porfle