AMERICAN ROMANCE -- Movie Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 10/20/16

 

It isn't every day that I can describe a bloody, violent serial-killer movie as a "feelgood flick", but I just got through watching AMERICAN ROMANCE (2016) and darned if that isn't just what it is. 

Okay, it isn't THE SOUND OF MUSIC, but it isn't THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE or HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER either.  It isn't even NATURAL BORN KILLERS (despite the clear similarities) because it lacks both that film's sardonic pessimism and indulgence in cinematic artifice. 

After one of those cool SE7EN-style main titles sequences that gives the movie a lot to live up to, we meet troubled ex-sheriff Ricky Stern (Barlow Jacobs, GREAT WORLD OF SOUND, THE MASTER, THAT EVENING SUN), who's sort of a shut-in due to something bad that happened to him during a case which was known as "The Diorama Killings" since the victims were always arranged in such a way as to preach a message against sin (another similarity to SE7EN). 

When a writer (Elana Krausz) comes by to interview him about it, his tortured recollections set off a series of flashbacks that carry us back to the story of young newlyweds Jeff Madison (Nolan Gerard Funk, DEADGIRL, BEREAVEMENT) and his wife Krissy (Daveigh Chase, SPIRITED AWAY, THE RING, DONNIE DARKO), who have just had a flat tire in the middle of rural nowhere.

They walk to the nearest house, where a weird, jittery old man named Emery (John Savage, THE DEER HUNTER, DOOR INTO SILENCE) is in the process of putting a gun in his mouth.  He grudgingly calls a tow truck, but during their wait (in which Emery's behavior becomes increasingly odd), Krissy happens to look through the bathroom window and sees a naked dead body in the bathtub, splattered with blood. 

Have they stumbled into the very lair of "The Diorama Killer"?  Or is there more here than meets the eye?  What seems at first to be a fairly straightforward story will just get more and more deliriously strange as the viewer is kept off-balance the whole time.

Trouble is, this is one of those movies where the more I tell you about it, the less you'll be able to experience it the way I did.  Even the trailer reveals just a little too much even though it does try not to spill ALL the beans. 

Anyway, the less said about things like Emery's paraplegic wife Brenda (Diane Farr, ABOUT CHERRY) who is bound and gagged in her wheelchair, or horny tow-truck driver Hank (Mark Boone Junior, SE7EN, MEMENTO, BATMAN BEGINS), or anything else that happens when all the stabbing and shooting and screaming starts, the better.

I can say that the performances are top-notch, with John Savage being his usual weird, creepy self--he's always been an expert at seeming not quite right in the head.  Daveigh Chase (who was the voice of "Chihiro" in the Disney dub of Miyazaki's SPIRITED AWAY) is a sexy backwoods delight as she does her best Juliette Lewis, while Funk reminds me of a young Nick Chinlund.  Both invest their roles with just the right touch of humor. 

Mei Melançon (X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, LOADED) appears as an investigator helping Sheriff Stern, while familiar face James Duval (INDEPENDENCE DAY, VENICE UNDERGROUND, THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND) shows up in a mostly non-speaking role as the body in the bathtub.

Director Zackary Adler (THE RISE OF THE KRAYS, CASUAL ENCOUNTERS) has crafted a bloody thriller that's a pleasure to look at, with a story good enough to avoid having to rely on mere shock value and violence for its own sake. 

And maybe I'm just weird, but, like I said, AMERICAN ROMANCE left me feeling lighthearted and uplifted when it was over.  It's the bloodiest feelgood flick of the year! 


Amazon Video
iTunes
Trailer

AMERICAN ROMANCE -- Movie Review by Porfle

GIRL HAPPY (1965) -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 3/29/21

 

Currently rewatching: GIRL HAPPY (1965). One of my two favorite "bad Elvis" movies along with the immortal "Tickle Me." 

 

I used to think "Tickle Me" was the worst, but upon reappraisal I find it positively charming compared to this oozing mass of unmitigated stupid. 

 

"Girl Happy" contains a whole album's worth of Elvis' worst songs. No wonder he'd lost interest in making movies with a script this dumb and songs such as "The Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce" and "Do The Clam" for him to warble with absolutely no enthusiasm whatsoever. 

 

 

 

His character, "Rusty Wells", heads an awful rock and roll combo consisting of guys like Gary Crosby and Joby Baker, who entertain the easily-pleased patrons of a club owned by mob-connected Harold J. Stone.

 

When the boss' daughter, played by Shelley Fabares, decides to run off to Fort Lauderdale for Spring Break, Daddy sends Elvis and his boys down there to keep an eye on her with the warning that failure will result in serious consequences for them.

 

Needless to say, daughter Valerie hooks up with a fast Italian lothario who wants to do more than hold hands, and while trying to keep her pure Elvis falls in love with her himself which seriously cramps his style with erstwhile romantic interest Mary Ann Mobley.

 

The script, surprisingly co-written by Harvey Bullock of "The Andy Griffith Show" fame and directed by Boris "The Omega Man" Sagal, can hardly muster up a single decent joke or sight gag, which leaves the cast working overtime to come off as more than just a bunch of stiffs. 

 

 

 

Watching them struggle to be funny is, in fact, way more entertaining than the script itself. They're joined in this futile endeavor by such stalwarts as Jackie Coogan, John Fiedler, Olan Soule, and the ever-delightful Nita Talbot as a brassy stripper.

 

Even a grown-up Jimmy Hawkins, who played Gail Davis' little brother Tagg in the 50s western series "Annie Oakley", is on hand to join the rest of the cast in having the life sucked out of them by this stupefying cinematic experience. 

 

As bad as it is, however, Elvis at his worst is pure entertainment for bad movie fanatics such as myself, which is why "Girl Happy" is one of my favorite "bad Elvis" movies and why I just bought the DVD when I could've spent the same money on something infinitely better. 

 

After all, it wouldn't have featured anyone performing "Do The Clam", would it?

 

 

GIRL HAPPY (1965) -- Movie Review by Porfle

ELVIS: THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW--THE CLASSIC PERFORMANCES -- DVD review by porfle

Originally posted on 8/6/09

 

Of all the various stages that Elvis Presley went through during his staggering career as a worldwide cultural phenomenon, the one I still prefer most is the fresh-faced supernova that we see in ELVIS: THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW--THE CLASSIC PERFORMANCES. Intense idolatry and fame are still new to this young, vibrant, almost naive Elvis, and we can see him having fun with the experience before it sours and begins to isolate him from the rest of humanity.

"The Ed Sullivan Show", for those who have never seen it, was a live hour-long variety show that ran seemingly forever and was hosted by a stiff, dour-looking guy known mainly as a renowned entertainment journalist. Ed brought to his vast television audience a wide array of acts that ranged from ballet to Broadway, from Shakespeare to Shecky Greene, and finally, unwillingly, began to encompass the burgeoning world of rock and roll. Ed was hesitant to feature this strange new hip-waggling rocker on his show, but when an appearance by Elvis on Steve Allen's show garnered astronomical ratings, Ed figured it was time to get some of those millions of rabid teen fans tuning in to his own show before the fad had faded. 

 

This DVD is a record of Elvis' three major appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show." The September 9, 1956 episode is minus Ed Sullivan himself, who had been injured in a head-on collision and would rely on a series of guest hosts until his return several weeks later. After being introduced to the screaming audience by a not-ready-for-primetime Charles Laughton, Elvis makes his way onto the stage and humbly thanks everyone for what he calls "probably the greatest honor I've ever had in my life" before launching into "Don't Be Cruel." The other songs he performs on this show are "Love Me Tender", "Ready Teddy", and "Hound Dog." After that last number Charles Laughton asks the audience in classic old-fogey style, "Well, what did somebody say, uh...music hath charms to soothe the savage breast?" 

 

The young Elvis proves to be a fun-loving cutup who rarely takes himself seriously. He loves to make faces during songs to provoke laughter and screams from the audience. Referring to "Love Me Tender" as his "latest RCA Victor escape...uh, release", Elvis doesn't even spare this solemn, sappy tune his constant clowning. Later, he holds up a finger and says with mock seriousness, "Friends, as a great philosopher once said..." before launching into "Hound Dog" with as much awareness as anyone else that it's a supremely silly song. 

 

On the October 28, 1956 show, a vibrant Elvis greets the returning Ed Sullivan by laughing his way through "Don't Be Cruel" and then having to slog through "Love Me Tender" again like a kid being forced to eat his spinach. He still manages to have fun with it, though--the playfulness of his mood that night just couldn't be contained. Surrounded by his ever-present backup vocalists the Jordanaires, he then croons the turgid ballad "Love Me" while relishing its doo-wop mawkishness for all it's worth. 

 

Strapping on his guitar, Elvis offers an elaborately solemn introduction to his final song of the night:

"Ladies and gentlemen, uh, could I have your attention, please. I'd like to tell you that we're gonna do a...sad song for you. This song is one of the saddest songs we've ever heard. It really tells a story, friends. Beautiful lyrics. It goes something like this..." 

 

The song, of course, is "Hound Dog", and Elvis finally cuts loose and becomes the hip-shaking rock and roller that we all envision him to be. Rarely does an entertainer seem to be having this much fun (much of it at his own expense) as he shares in the joyful mood of the audience. 

 

Not only that, but old-fashioned Ed himself, once reticent to book Elvis on his show, clearly loves the guy. At one point he even drops his usual stern countenance and jokes, "I can't figure this thing out, you know he just does this [shakes his hips] and everybody yells!" Elvis humbly ends his appearance by telling the audience, "Until we meet ya again, may God bless ya as He's blessed me. Thank ya very much." 

 

 

The January 6, 1957 show begins with a medley of "Hound Dog", "Love Me Tender", and "Heartbreak Hotel", but something seems a little odd. That's because this is the famous show in which, due to complaints from more conservative viewers about The Pelvis' lewd bodily motions, Elvis is never seen from the waist down. 

 

The segue from "Hound Dog" into "Love Me Tender" couldn't be more extreme, and Elvis' goofy facial expression conveys his weariness of singing it. He breaks loose again with lively versions of "Don't Be Cruel", "Too Much", and "When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again" before ending with a heartfelt spiritual, "Peace in the Valley." Ed Sullivan, who has obviously had a ball during his experience with Elvis, doesn't let him get away without offering this endorsement of the controversial rocker: "I wanted to say to Elvis and the country, that this is a real decent, fine boy." 

 

The 1.33:1 full-screen image and Dolby Digital sound (5.1 surround and original 2.0 mono) are as good as the original kinescope elements permit. A wealth of interesting bonus material includes: 

 

--Why Ed Didn't Host Elvis' First Appearance

--Elvis and Ed: Intros and Promos

--Special Elvis Moments

--Caught on Celluloid: The First Moving Pictures of Elvis

--Jerry Schilling's Home Movies

--Remembering Ed and Elvis (interviews) 

 

Totally belying his image as an inarticulate yokel, the engaging performer that we see here is a shimmering entity brimming with intriguing paradoxes. Retaining a respectful humility that ingratiated him to the older crowd, he was also effortlessly cool, cocky, and irreverent just by being himself. He could be heart-on-his-sleeve sincere even as he mischievously poked fun at the superficial nature of his image, as playfully self-mocking and self-aware as anyone with such immense, intense popularity could be. Most of all, as ELVIS: THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW--THE CLASSIC PERFORMANCES reminds us, he was a beautiful, almost mystical creature who burned brightly long before he began to burn out. Buy it at Amazon.com:

 

Elvis Presley: The Ed Sullivan Shows: The Performances 

 

ELVIS: THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW--THE CLASSIC PERFORMANCES -- DVD review by porfle

EPIDEMIC -- DVD Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 9/16/18

 

The press release describes this film as "a tender, female-centric coming of age drama."  Fortunately, that's just someone having their little joke, because EPIDEMIC (2018) is actually pretty much what the title implies--a horror thriller about some nasty little bugs that get loose and make people violently ill before doing all sorts of horrible biological nightmare stuff to them.

Dana (Amanda K. Morales) is all tense because it's her 30th birthday and she's invited her estranged, alcoholic dad Rufus (Andrew Hunsicker) to the party.  She and husband Mike (Joe Walz) have also invited another couple, Troy (Marquis Valdez) and Mandi (Gina Destra), along with a nerdy loner to the festivities.  But Dad is so distraught over the impending reunion that he pulls into a parking lot on the way and gets drunk in his car.

Which is just as well, because Mandi, who earlier discovered a secret room in her basement containing a deadly, incredibly contagious virus (which she immediately uncontains), infects her fellow party-goers with the most vomitous, facial-disfiguring insta-plague of all time.  Everyone exposed to it monsters out and, either immediately or over time, goes slap drooling nuts.

While these rampagin' contagion flicks often strive for disaster movie proportions, EPIDEMIC keeps things focused pretty much on our main group of characters, especially Mandi and her tortured dad who yearns to make amends with her but can't overcome his life-destroying alcohol addiction.

Shelley Brietling enters the dramatic fray later on as Mandi's frantic stepmother Claudia, and between them and the rest of the cast, this movie is brimming with good performances.

I like co-writer (with Adam Romanchik) and director Stephen Michael Giglio's low-key approach, which allows him to make a modest but nifty-looking shocker within a very limited budget.  A smaller scale means both a much more intimate story (which pretty much evolves into classic tragedy) and the ability to concentrate on just a few really cool makeup effects.

Gorehounds may be disappointed, since this isn't a slasher/meatgrinder fest and there's more emphasis on story than sheer visceral horror.  But those disease victims in the advanced stages of infection sport a pleasing array of shocking visages while taking part in some nice jump scares and various creepy hallucinatory images along the way.

The DVD from Breaking Glass Pictures is in 1.78:1 widescreen with English stereo sound. No subtitles.  Bonus features consist of a director's commentary, trailers for this and other Breaking Glass releases, an interview with Andrew Hunsicker (Rufus), and some outtakes.

Short, terse, and effective, EPIDEMIC wastes little time drawing us into the slimy, nervewracking bio-horror while still managing to let us get to know and feel for the characters.  I was infected by its low-key charm and am still recovering from the after-effects. 

DVD/VOD RELEASE: September 4, 2018

EPIDEMIC -- DVD Review by Porfle

THE BELIEVERS -- DVD Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 6/7/2019

 

It seems like there were a lot of horror flicks about the Caribbean voodoo cult of Santeria for awhile there back in the late 1900s or so, and one of the main ones was definitely John Schlesinger's frantic potboiler THE BELIEVERS (Olive Films, 1987), which, for those in the mood for such bleak goings-on, delivers the goods and then some.

Martin Sheen (APOCALYPSE NOW, THE DEAD ZONE) is Cal Jamison, a police psychotherapist who tragically loses his wife in the film's shocking (pun intended) opening, leaving him to raise their son Chris (Harley Cross, THE FLY II) by himself.

When the city is struck by a series of ritual child murders so gruesome that even hardboiled cops like Lt. Sean McTaggart (Robert Loggia, INDEPENDENCE DAY, SCARFACE) are appalled, Cal is called in to help a cop (Jimmy Smits) whose undercover work on the case has driven him insane.

Cal is then drawn into a maelstrom of organized evil that threatens his own son, who may have been marked as the next ritual sacrifice victim.

Schlesinger (MIDNIGHT COWBOY, MARATHON MAN) starts things out slow and steady but keeps them gradually building until, before we know it, the film has kicked into high gear and everything we see is filled with a dark, pervasive feeling of dread. 

There's also an abundance of seriously creepy-crawly stuff at every turn, especially in connection with those horrific rituals whose victims keep popping up here and there. One victim's autopsy, for example, yields a number of live snakes, which I found quite sufficient for a shiver or two.

The film's approach here is a prime example of that hamhanded, wonderfully unsubtle horror style that had us glued to the screen back in the 80s--hokey as heck, but surprisingly effective in the long run. 

This is displayed not only in the director's aggressive style but also in the punchy script (co-written by Mark Frost of "Twin Peaks" fame), replete with whiplash-inducing plot twists, and some wonderfully unrestrained performances.

Sheen, knowing the material calls for an indelicate approach, emotes accordingly.  Two great character actors, Loggia and fellow SCARFACE alumnus Harris Yulin (as business tycoon Robert Calder, who may or may not be behind it all) add their considerable talents, while Helen Shaver does her best to add depth to the underwritten character of Jessica, Cal's new romantic interest. Richard Masur plays Cal's lawyer friend Marty.

The capable supporting cast also includes Malick Bowens as Palo, a frightening figure of great power within the Santeria cult. Bowens knows how to look scary when he wants to, and lends the film some of its most spine-chilling moments, especially when he crashes a posh fundraiser held by Calder and lapses into a furious trancelike state complete with all-white eyeballs. 

Naturally, as was the custom of the time (and still is in many cases), we get one of those annoying "gotcha!" endings that really get on my nerves. But I wouldn't expect it to end any other way, since, as James Whale once said, "it's all part of the ritual." Until then, THE BELIEVERS slowly but surely develops into a real barnburner of an edge-of-your-seat horror thriller.


Buy it from Olive Films

Rated : R
Video : 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio, Color
Runtime : 114 minutes
Year : 1987
Languages : English (with available captions)
Extras: Trailer

THE BELIEVERS -- DVD Review by Porfle

SHIN GODZILLA -- Movie Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 10/8/16

 

I never was a huge kaiju fan, but I always thought GODZILLA and other Japanese monster movies from Toho Studios were pretty cool when I was a kid.  I remember titles like KING KONG VS. GODZILLA, RODAN, and DESTROY ALL MONSTERS showing at my local theater when they were new and the place being packed with happy, excited kids (we really loved our monster movies back then!) I rarely missed these and other such films as MOTHRA and GAMMERA on television as well.

I did pretty much miss out on the middle period in Japanese monster movie history, namely the updated stuff from the 80s and beyond.  I had the misfortune of seeing the Roland Emmerich/Dean Devlin GODZILLA remake in 1998, the less said about which the better except that it was, in two words, horribly ill-conceived. 

With that in mind, I must say that I found Toho's latest 2016 remake, SHIN GODZILLA (or "Godzilla Resurgence"), to be a welcome throwback to those old-fashioned kaiju epics of my childhood which I recall most fondly.

 

For one thing, even though the giant green lizard is purely a modern-day CGI creation, he's designed to resemble the man-in-a-monster-suit Godzilla of old.  I find this both delightfully nostalgic and somehow just plain right.  He sounds the same too, and his appearance is usually heralded by the familiar strains of his original theme music. 

What I found intriguingly different this time around is that the beast is in a state of accelerated evolutionary flux.  When we first see him, he's a purely amphibious fish-eyed creature--sort of a cross between a turtle and a seahorse--whose intense body heat causes a steam cloud to erupt in Tokyo Harbor and inflict extreme tsunami-style damage on the coastline.  After it makes its way out of the water, it morphs into a being that can exist on land. 

After its initial rampage and a brief return to the sea for its final stage of evolution, the monster returns fully transformed (more or less) into the Godzilla we've always known and loved.  At this point the movie kicks into high gear with scenes of devastation that are absolutely breathtaking and, this time, completely convincing.  (No more cardboard buildings and flimsy pagodas with wind-up toy military vehicles skittering around, as endearing as they were.)

 

In his third of three major appearances, Godzilla lets loose all of his radioactive fury with both heat breath and photon beams from his tail and dorsal fins that slice right through buildings and blow military craft out of the sky. 

There's one sequence in particular in which several skyscrapers surrounding Godzilla are detonated and brought down upon him all at once, resulting in a scene so utterly catastrophic yet realistically rendered that I found it strangely exhilarating.  If you have a sweet tooth for scenes of full-scale destruction, this movie should satisfy it and then some.

That said, SHIN GODZILLA resembles the Godzilla movies of old in another, less positive way--it's often incredibly boring.  Remember all those long, talky scenes they'd always put between the monster action to pad out the movie?  This one has those in abundance, and they're talkier than ever. 

Much of the talk consists of a lot of overwrought political and scientific chatter spouted by an endless succession of uninteresting and resolutely unmemorable characters.  The only two who make any sort of lasting impression are young Mr. Yaguchi (Hiroki Hasegawa), who assembles a crack team of geniuses to figure out how to neutralize the radioactive beast before it has to be nuked along with the rest of Tokyo, and Miss Patterson (Satomi Ishihara), a winsome, headstrong Japanese-American woman acting as liason for the American President.

But even these two characters are too busy yakking about boring stuff (Mr. Yaguchi seems particularly stiff-necked) to develop much interesting character interaction, and the rest of the old fogies do nothing but sit at long tables endlessly gnawing on all the political knots with an almost comical nationalistic fervor.

These scenes with all their rapid-fire exposition really are a calcified bore despite attempts by co-directors Hideaki Anno (EVANGELION) and Shinji Higuchi to make things interesting by keeping the camera moving a lot. 

The only time the non-Godzilla scenes liven up is when the monster's approach throws all of the earlier formality into utter chaos during the mad scramble to evacuate in time.  Some suspense is also generated late in the film with the impending decision whether or not to use nukes as the Americans (natch) and UN are urging the Japanese to do. 

But all of this is forgotten during the three major monster sequences in the film, the third of which begins with 15-20 minutes of the 120-minute running time left and features some of the film's most amazing SPFX including several explosive-laden commuter trains crashing into Godzilla, a missile attack involving jet planes and ground-based vehicles, and a nail-biting attempt by Yaguchi's team to defeat the beast via their own highly unorthodox scientific methods. 

After the dust has settled over Tokyo, SHIN GODZILLA emerges as both a modern update and a welcome throwback.  Just like the old Godzilla movies, it's boring as hell between the monster stuff.  But when Godzilla starts stomping his way through downtown Tokyo as millions of terrified civilians flee for their lives, with the added benefit of today's state-of-the-art effects making the massive devastation all the more perversely thrilling, it makes me feel like a little Monster Kid again.

Official website, ticket info, etc.

Our previous coverage of the film

Trailer

SHIN GODZILLA -- Movie Review by Porfle

HICKOK -- Movie Review by Porfle

  Originally posted on 6/26/17

 

HICKOK (Cinedigm, 2017) is one of a current breed of modestly produced, low-key, but solid westerns that are just as entertaining as anything if you set your expectations accordingly. 

I've grown quite fond of their simplicity, their often beautiful photography, their museum-quality Old West settings (things look brand new, but back then, for a while anyway, they were), and their earnest effort to give fans of the traditional western what the big studios rarely offer these days.  

What's more, this easy-to-take saga of "Wild Bill" Hickok's younger days as outlaw-turned-lawman delivers the goods in a most satisfying way whenever it's time to clear leather and start blasting.

 

Luke Hemsworth (THE ANOMALY, "Westworld") stars as the young Civil War veteran making his way through the post-war west, as valor on the battlefield translates into a knack for survival in peacetime.  This often necessitates straddling the line of the law and sometimes ending up on the wrong side of it.

Bill is cocky and arrogant but only kills when he has to, a quality that helps land him a job as marshall of a lawless town when the mayor (Kris Kristofferson, nowadays ably portraying wise old souls) sees the good in him. 

This doesn't stop Bill from extorting protection money from the quietly dangerous saloon owner Phil Poe (Trace Adkins), whose wife Mattie (Cameron Richardson, OPEN WATER 2: ADRIFT) turns out to be an old and way-too-close acquaintance.  (Which, unsurprisingly, will end up causing some very unfortunate complications.) 

 

While engaging enough on their own, HICKOK's plot development and dialogue are frequently punctuated by welcome bursts of lead-slinging action that are excitingly staged and pack just the right kind of wallop.

What triggers the main conflict here is Hickok's decision to install one of those highly unpopular bans on guns within city limits, driving customers away from Poe's saloon and hotel. 

Relations between the two deteriorate to the point where coldblooded killer John Wesley Hardin (Kaiwi Lyman-Mersereau, TRADED) is enlisted to eliminate the problem, resulting in one of the film's most surprising and suspenseful twists.

Hemsworth plays the lead role lightly at first--his "Wild Bill" has a mischievous streak and isn't nearly as full of himself as many western heroes tend to be--yet his character gains increasing gravitas as the story progresses.  Physically, he's just right as someone who can take care of himself in a situation requiring fists and/or guns as well as wits.

 

His softer side is demonstrated during a heartfelt scene in which he relates a tall tale of his own derring-do for Mattie's son after he's been shot in the leg, while the Doc (the venerable Bruce Dern adding his considerable presence to the proceedings) digs the bullet out.  Scenes such as this contribute to Hickok's evolution into a serious, thoughtful man with a sincere desire to set things right.

As his nemesis Poe, Trace Adkins (TRADED, STAGECOACH: THE TEXAS JACK STORY, DEEPWATER HORIZON) once again proves an imposing presence well-suited for this sort of robust, old-fashioned western.  Tall, brawny, and possessing a voice like the lower registers of a pipe organ, Adkins ably conveys his character's dark, slowburn anger that will eventually erupt into violence.

Playing fast and loose with the facts--but in the most fun ways--HICKOK harkens back to a time when westerns were populated by actors who actually looked like, and often were, the kind of real men they were portraying.  And when it's time for them to stop talking and start shooting, you can almost smell the gunsmoke.


Opens Theatrically July 7 in Top Markets Including Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas
Also Available On Demand & Digital HD

Read our original coverage

Watch the Trailer:

HICKOK -- Movie Review by Porfle

ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932) -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

 

Originally posted on 4/10/21

 

Currently rewatching: ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932). One of the most grotesque and truly horrifying films of the Golden Age of Horror. 

 

Paramount set out to match Universal after that studio's previous year's successes with "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" by adapting another classic novel, H.G. Wells' "The Island of Dr. Moreau", and ended up creating a film so dark and so shocking that it has lost little if any of its power. 

 

Erle C. Kenton ("House of Frankenstein", "House of Dracula") proves once more that he was hardly just a hack director by making this a lavishly decadent, often nightmarish viewing experience.

 

 

 

Edward Parker (Richard Arlen) survives a shipwreck only to end up on the uncharted island of mad scientist Dr. Moreau (Charles Laughton at his best) who, through his techniques of accelerated evolution, transforms animals into tortured, pathetic animal/human hybrids.

 

These creatures are terrifying thanks to convincing performances (not the least of which being Bela Lugosi as a wolf man who acts as the keeper of the law taught to them by their cruel master Moreau (thou shalt not run on all fours, thou shalt not eat meat, thou shalt not spill blood, etc.) and a makeup department that had a field day creating a host of some of the screen's most frightening visages.

 

Things get even weirder when Moreau decides to test just how much of a woman his Panther Woman (the exotic Kathleen Burke) really is by introducing her to Arlen in a scene that practically oozes with pheromones. 

 

 

 

The film crackles with menace as the jungle surrounding Moreau's house is always crawling with the most wretched of creatures who are constantly on the verge of fully reverting to savagery and descending upon the island's human inhabitants.

 

When this finally occurs during the exciting finale, Moreau finds himself in danger of discovering why his "House of Pain" (the manimals' name for his laboratory) is a place of such terror and dread.

 

Leila Hyams and Paul Hurst also appear as Parker's bride-to-be and a captain who brings her to the island in search of her love. Arlen's a likable hero and Kathleen Burke both fascinating and heartbreaking in her character's yearning to be loved as a human female.

 

 

 

Laughton, of course, feasts upon the jungle scenery as a brazenly warped narcissist who revels in his own perversions and awaits the day he can return to shock the daylights out of those who have doubted and exiled him. 

 

As such, he shares a trait or two with ISLAND OF LOST SOULS itself, a film that shocks and horrifies its audience with giddy and almost human delight.

 

 

(NOTE: Thanks to Mark French for the heads up.) 

 

ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932) -- Movie Review by Porfle

STAGECOACH (1986) -- DVD Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 6/16/2016

 

First things first: John Ford's 1939 production of STAGECOACH is a timeless classic that will likely never be surpassed, and any remake pales in comparison.

That said, I'd also like to add that the 1986 made-for-TV version of STAGECOACH (Olive Films, Blu-ray and DVD) is, despite my initial misgivings and skepticism, a terrific albeit modest Western in its own right.

The story of a disparate group of people traveling by stage through dangerous Apache country is basically the same, but done differently enough to reward our interest.  Not only are the individual stories of these characters engaging, but the ever-present threat of attack by Geronimo and his warriors builds up to an exciting action sequence in the film's latter half that pays off really well, leading then to the climactic shootout in Lordsburg.

One source of skepticism on my part was the overt stunt casting.  Country-western singers abound, especially those of the "outlaw" variety--Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny and June Carter Cash, and Waylon Jennings play major roles, while Billy Swan, David Allan Coe, and Jesse Colter can also be seen here and there.  What's surprising is that they're all such naturally good actors.  I mean, really good.

A taciturn Kristofferson stands in for John Wayne as the Ringo Kid, a wrongly-convicted prison escapee on his way to Lordsburg to confront the men who murdered his brother. Johnny Cash is Marshal Curly Wilcox, out to capture both men. 

Jennings is gentleman gambler Hatfield, gruff but smooth, who assumes a protective role regarding the pregnant wife (Mary Crosby as Mrs. Mallory) of a cavalry officer stationed near Lordsburg.  Each is not only fully convincing in his role, but, in fact, outstanding.

One interesting difference from the original film is that the character of Doc Josiah Boone, played in 1939 by Thomas Mitchell, has been replaced by none other than Doc Holliday himself.  Willie Nelson fits comfortably into the role, with nary a hint of "novelty" value in his casting.  This inclusion of Holliday as one of the passengers is inspired.

Elsewhere in the cast, "Dukes of Hazzard" co-star John Schneider actually manages to look grizzled as coach driver Buck.  Tony Franciosa (TENEBRE, A FACE IN THE CROWD) does his nervous act as Gatewood, the embezzing banker on the lam, and celebrated oddball Anthony Newley puts in a brief but marvelous appearance as tipsy whiskey salesman Trevor Peacock. 

As fallen woman Dallas who will eventually warm up to Ringo, Elizabeth Ashley puts her broad acting skills to good use.  Merritt Butrick (STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN) and Western legend Lash La Rue are also on hand.

While dazzled by such an eclectic yet effective cast, I also found the screenplay by James Lee Barrett (who also wrote the screenplays for THE GREEN BERETS, SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, and THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD) to be consistenty engaging from start to finish, with plenty of sharp dialogue.

Production values are above-average for a TV movie.  In fact, I often felt as though I was watching a feature film despite the occasional fadeout for a commercial. Direction is capably handled by old pro Ted Post, who also helmed such memorable films as MAGNUM FORCE, HANG 'EM HIGH, BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES, and THE BABY.

The DVD from Olive Films is in the original 1.33:1 full screen with stereo sound.  Subtitles are in English.  No extras.   

If one lowers expectations just enough to accept a remake of a John Ford classic on its own terms, then this version of STAGECOACH should easily rise to meet them.  As an avid Western fan, it's the kind of Western I love to make an acquaintance with and then get to know better with each repeat viewing.

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Release date: June 21, 2016

STAGECOACH (1986) -- DVD Review by Porfle

THE SACKETTS -- movie review by porfle

Originally posted on 11/26/09
 

 

There were other made-for-TV Westerns before it, but THE SACKETTS (1979) is the first big multi-part cowboy epic that I can think of. It came out a full ten years before the LONESOME DOVE series and, though it isn't nearly as good, it does lay the groundwork for this type of sweeping TV Western.

The story follows the adventures of the three Sackett brothers, Tell, Orrin, and Tyrell. Tell (Sam Elliott) is the loner of the bunch, and we're introduced to him as he is forced to flee his mining job after gunning down a crooked card dealer (James Gammon) who happens to be one of the dreaded Bigelow brothers.

Knowing that the other Bigelows will be after him for revenge, Tell disappears into the mountains, where he stumbles onto a rich vein of gold and starts his own one-man mining operation. When he totes a large bagful of the shiny stuff into the aptly-named town of Purgatorie to trade for cash, it doesn't take long for some of the less scrupulous denizens to try and surgically remove him from his new-found riches.

Meanwhile, his brothers Orrin (Tom Selleck) and Tyrell (Jeff Osterhage) have left their Tennessee homeplace to avoid a bloody feud between the Sacketts and another clan, and are headed West with a cattle drive. When they reach Abilene, Orrin falls for the golden-haired daughter of an ambitious politician named Pritts (John Vernon), who aims to drive all the Mexicans out of Sante Fe.

Tyrell, of course, falls in love with a lovely Mexican lass (Ana Alicia) whose father, Don Luis (Gilbert Roland), is the main stumbling block in Pritts' plans. When they all get together in Santa Fe, the situation soon turns deadly and guns start a-blazin'.

The script is a combination of two Louis L'Amour novels, "Sackett" and "The Daybreakers", and it isn't a very smooth blend, crosscutting between the two barely-related stories the way you might switch channels back-and-forth between two movies that are on at the same time.

The stories overlap only twice--once near the end of the first segment when the three Sacketts run into each other in Purgatorie, and again for the big finale as the Bigelow brothers finally catch up to Tell and he's reunited with Orrin and Tyrell to fight them off.

This awkward overlapping of the two stories bothered me the first time I watched THE SACKETTS, along with some jarring hand-held camerawork (no Steadicam here), an endlessly irritating and inept musical score by Jerrold Immel, and a strange performance by Mercedes McCambridge that makes Ma Sackett look like she's either perpetually tipsy or tetched in the head.

But further viewings have helped me to get over the various minus points and begin to appreciate all the good things about this movie. Despite its somewhat rough-hewn quality, THE SACKETTS is an engaging Western with lots of authentic atmosphere, good characters, and a terrific cast.

For starters, there's Sam Elliott and Tom Selleck, who I think are the two best Western actors of the past twenty or thirty years (with the exception of Clint Eastwood, of course), and Jeff Osterhage, a lesser-known actor who does a fine job here. Glenn Ford plays Tom Sunday, the ramrod of the cattle drive who later joins Orrin and Tyrell in their own cattle venture and eventually ends up as their enemy, and his intense, masterful performance (watch his face twitch in those close-ups!) is a joy to behold.

This can also be said for the great Ben Johnson as Cap Roundtree, who becomes Tell's gold-mining partner. Paul Koslo is a hoot as the blowhard would-be gunslinger Kid Newton. The Bigelow brothers are played by Jack Elam, Slim Pickens, Gene Evans, and James Gammon, and also appearing in the cast are the likes of L.Q. Jones, Ruth Roman, Pat Buttram, Shug Fisher, and Buck Taylor, in addition to the aforementioned John Vernon and Gilbert Roland. (Louis L'Amour himself does the opening narration.) If you're like me and you love great character actors as much as A-list stars, this is the kind of "all-star" cast that will put a smile on your face.

I can't give THE SACKETTS a super high score due to its various deficiencies, and the fact that it's not the polished effort that later TV Westerns like LONESOME DOVE would be, but it has enough going for it to get a solid three-and-a-half out of five spurs. The final shoot-out alone is worth waiting for--it's almost as much fun as the bullet-riddled free-for-all that ended OPEN RANGE. And that cast--awesome. There's one scene which features Sam Elliott, Tom Selleck, Glenn Ford, and Ben Johnson sitting around a campfire, and I thought "Damn...I wish I was sitting around that campfire, too."

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THE SACKETTS -- movie review by porfle

THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (1977) -- DVD Review by Porfle

 Originally posted on 8/27/2017

 

I like it when a movie I was totally unimpressed with on first viewing turns out to be much better upon later reappraisal.  If that second viewing comes forty years later, all the better.

I saw THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (Olive Films) when it was released in 1977 and found it rather pedestrian and even sub-par.  Now it seems almost classic in stature somehow--the adaptation seems good although I've not read the original H.G. Wells novel in several decades, the performances, production values, and makeup are fine, and the direction by Don Taylor, a prolific TV director whose screen credits include RIDE THE WILD SURF, EVERYTHING'S DUCKY, and ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES, is nowhere near as artless as I first believed.  (The lighting in the interiors is exquisite.)

In fact, Taylor establishes a strong mood from the first moments shipwrecked sailor Braddock (Michael York) finds himself on the secluded island of Dr. Moreau (Burt Lancaster).  Moreau's compound, including a plantation house that seemed to have been dropped right in the middle of the jungle, is like an oasis of strained civility surrounded by a beast-filled jungle that could be a manifestation of his own dark id.

Braddock becomes enchanted by the beautiful Maria (Barbara Carrera), an exotic woman Moreau's gruff foreman Montgomery (Nigel Davenport) describes as belonging to the doctor although she shows a marked interest in young Braddock.  But it's the doctor's strange experiments that Braddock soon comes to dread--a twisted perversion of scientific endeavor involving the artificial evolution of wild animals into horrific animal/human hybrids, or "humanimals."

These creatures are what place the film into classic "monster movie" territory, a menagerie of fascinating beasts courtesy of 70s makeup masters John Chambers and Tom Burman.  They include the great Richard Basehart as "The Lawgiver", who keeps Moreau's strict commandments against killing or eating flesh but becomes confused when he sees Moreau himself break them, which leads to the film's fiery animal vs. humans revolt.

Lancaster plays Moreau with quiet authority, sans the usual villainy, resulting in an interestingly conflicted character. York gets to emote to his heart's content and is especially good when Moreau makes him the unwilling subject in an experiment on human-to-animal regression.  Nigel Davenport is fine as the gruff foreman who may be on Braddock's side, as is Barbara Carrera in a role seemingly tailor-made for her.  

The DVD from Olive Films is in 1.85:1 widescreen with mono sound and optional English subtitles.  Extras include a commentary by paranormal author Jeff Belanger and horror host Dr. Dreck, a trailer, and an essay by Gorman Beauchamp entitled "The Island of Dr. Moreau as Theological Grotesque."  (This can also be found in the disc's illustrated booklet.)

I can't compare this with the Charles Laughton original since I haven't seen it for many years, but on its own, 1977's THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU is a terrific monster flick that mixes interesting philosophical ideas with some perversely delightful elements of the grotesque.



Buy it at Olive Films

THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (1977) -- DVD Review by Porfle