You may have noticed the little Letterboxd logo on the right hand side. It's a bit like Facebook but way better because it's all based around films. I'm busy putting all of the old obscurendure review on there - albeit without the pretty screen shots and other extras - because there are some interesting ways that Letterboxd can sort films, for example, by their review scores.
Something else that I'll be doing is posting mini-reviews for some films that don't warrant a full review. There will also be any mainstream films on there that I've had a look at. So far I've done reviews of Star Trek, Cockneys vs Zombiesand The Kovak Boxthat you won't see in the pages of obscurendure. Plus, I've already posted a list of my ten all time favourite anime films for your delectation.
If you're not already a member of Letterboxd, it's well worth it. I've already got quite a few recommendations for films that look just like my - and maybe your - cup of tea. That's all for now, but I'll post on here (irregularly) to update you on any other mini-reviews I do. evlkeith
This is a nice Friday the 13th treat for you. It's the final film in the loose trilogy containing City of the Living Dead and The Beyond. It is a trilogy in the sense that they share similarly disjointed narratives, although The House by the Cemetery has the most conventional storyline of the three. Fulci actually spends a fair part of the film building tension after an initial gruesome death (Daniela Doria bites the dust yet again). Don't worry though. There are still a fair few of the usual protracted death scenes.
Lucy Boyle (the excellent Catriona MacColl who appears in all three films in the trilogy) and her husband Dr Norman Boyle (Paolo Malco - The New York Ripper) move into the titular house (idiots) so that Norm can look into some of one of his ex-colleagues disturbing findings. The fact that his ex-colleague committed suicide makes you wonder about the motives of Normie. Also, his shifty glances at the babysitter, (Ania Pieroni - Inferno) shown in trademark Fulci close-up, makes you ponder on his fidelity. Throw into the mix the way he constantly tries to give Lucy tablets and you have some major chin-strokery. Is he a crafty skullduggerer or the perfect husband and father? Oh, yeah, and Dr Freudstein lives in their cellar too.
Dr Freudstein!?! Who he? The name suggest someone who wants to bring their mother back to life by grave-robbing body parts, sewing them to his Mammy's body, patching her into the mains and then having a cheeky wriggle with her. Probably not that far from the truth either. Freudy (a silent Giovanni De Nava - The Beyond) is one of the scariest on-screen creations in any film. He is a zombie. He has a slightly insectoid face. And when you cut him, what can only be described as maggot enriched excrement oozes out of the wound. Put it this way: you wouldn't want him marrying your only daughter.
The gore is great, but what stops this film from getting a higher rating is that it feels as though the film is cut, even when I know it is definitely an uncut version. The drawn out death of the estate agent Laura Gittleson is enjoyably excessive but Fulci actually cut out some effects work that he wasn't happy with. Her face in one part of the scene is fairly normal looking, albeit covered in blood. In the very next shot we see that something nasty has happened to one side of her face. But we don't get to see what. Gutted. The other scene that feels cut is a death where someone has their face dragged down a set of stairs - I've never been convinced that this would kill, it looks more like it would cause a minor graze, soon sorted with Savlon - then at the bottom of the stairs you see a pool of blood forming around the recently deceased's head. I don't know whether anything was removed but it certainly feels like it. Gutted.
Quite a few people don't like a particular scene where Lucy walks in on the babysitter cleaning a load of blood off the floor... and doesn't comment on it. Business as usual in the Boyle house. I actually quite like it. Fair enough it makes no sense and I can't really justify its inclusion, but it feels right in the overall atmosphere of the film. A little quirk that the film would be poorer without.
Crikey, I've already written loads and I haven't even touched upon one important aspect of the film: Bob. And his voice. An infant voiced by an American adult. Terrible.
I am being picky. This is a great film. A classic, even. It is fairly tense and scary, and it has a fairly upsetting ending when you consider the implications. Highly recommended. (Also, the trailer is one of the top trailers ever. Just listen to the voiceover guy. I'll never be able to say 'The House by the Cemetery' in a normal way again.) 9/10 evlkeith
If you like this you could also try: Zombie Flesh Eaters, The Beyond, City of the Living Dead, Tenebrae, Suspiria.
Everything is going swimmingly, apart from the fact that a plane piloted by Frank Towns (James Stewart) and co-piloted by Lew Moran (Richard Attenborough) has hit a sand storm and both engines have stopped. The tension has been built up slowly to maximise the impact of the crash. But then we are treated to a bizarre Are You Being Served style credits sequence. The characters all get a beautiful mid-grimace freeze frame - just as they about to be smacked in the face by some hurtling loose luggage - accompanied by the actor's name. This completely kills any excitement but is pretty funny. Besides it's what happens after the crash that leaves them stranded in the desert, that is the source of the real drama.
In virtually all air crashes someone has to die and this is no exception. But lets take a closer look at a couple of people who bite the bullet. One of them is seen reading an adult specialist magazine in an earlier scene. The dirty little pervert has to die. As for the next villain, thoroughly deserving of his grizzly death, his crime was to play music of an ethnic nature. Good job Doccortex doesn't fly too often.
Another character refers to the aforementioned music in a slightly more racist way. In fact, he refers to most things in a slightly racist way. But it's only the one character who's a racist so it must just be part of his character, although he doesn't get any comeuppance or have a change of heart to complete a character arc. He's just a big racist. The film doesn't do itself any favours either by including a German plane designer, Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger), who is rather efficient at his job, to say the least. In its defence it was made in 1965. (Chorlton and the Wheelies was made in 1976 and is also pretty racist, so we'll give it a break.)
Let's get the last negative out of the way: Borgnine. Not the attractive Borg lady from Voyager but Ernest Borgnine (decide which is better using the handy photos below). Overacting is his speciality and his performance here is exemplary. But this isn't too much of a problem. (Watch the film to find out the reason why.)
Despite being fairly studio bound the heat of the desert and the danger of their predicament is all too apparent. One scene deals very intelligently with the obvious idea of walking back to civilisation. It's something that I'd probably think I'd give a go but this shows just how stupid the idea is. They come up with a craftier plan: make a new plane out of the wreckage and fly out of there. Not stupid at all. Regardless, they crack on and work through the night and kip in the day. Slightly better plan.
I doubt that it's much of a spoiler to say that they manage to build an aircraft. My big problem with it though is that the passengers don't have lovely seats to sit on, they have to hold on to a metal pole welded on to the top of the wing. Surely Health and Safety would have something to say about that. Couldn't they have made some kind of harness or at least a little seatbelt. (NB Alton Towers: Air would be a lot safer if it had a little seatbelt too, like Nemesis. Sort it out.)
Flight of the Phoenix is all about the drama between the three main characters. Stewart is great, as always, in the role of the not-so-heroic Frank Towns. He is such a flawed hero that he's almost not a hero at all. Yet you're with him every step of the way. Dorfmann is a right little show off and, as Towns points out, is always right. Hardy Kruger is spot on in this role, making every line believable. Richard Attenborough is stuck in the middle of these two. When all three of them come together at a major plot revelation it must be one of my favourite scenes in any film. It's drawn out for so long but all three actors sell it completely. Some of the expressions on Stewart and Attenborough's faces are priceless.
It's quite a long film but worth watching for a Spanish Doctor who looks a bit like Shatner. If that's not a recommendation, I don't know what is. 7/10 evlkeith
If you like this you could also try: Flight of the Phoenix (2004), Ice Cold in Alex, Anatomy of a Murder.
"Hiya you guys! It's me, Friendly Terry Wogan, coming at you live from Children in Need. And what a treat we've got lined up for you tonight."
"Sam Raimi had a big hit with his family favourites: The Evil Dead and its sequel Evil Dead 2, so he's decided to make yet another zany sequel just for us here at Children in Need! Cheers matey! Obviously he's had to tone it down very, very, very slightly so that we don't offend the Queen and all the little kiddies watching, but it's still chock full of Evil Dead goodness."
"We all love The Three Stooges here at Children in Need and so does Mr Raimi. He's hinted at his love for those gormless buffoons in the previous two film - although they were maybe a bit too rough for my liking - but here he's really gone for it and packed in loads of humourous Stooge inspired gags. Ho ho, how I laughed at the 'hand down the middle of the face/finger poke in the eyes' gag. It's amazing!"
"The Evil Dead was one of my top mates Mary Whitehouse's favourite films but she always had one little quibble with it: it looked a bit too grainy - and more importantly - a bit too dirty. Thankfully Mr Raimi has sorted all of that out and everything and everybody looks really shiny in this Children in Need exclusive version. Bruce Campbell's hair is particularly spick and span and well greased. The special make up effects have been given a good scrub too so there's no fear of catching any sort of unpleasant disease off the grimy screen."
"One crazy boss here at the BBC was a tad worried about us showing this, so we checked it out with evlkeith's mum. It got a big two thumbs up from her... apart from the ending. Oh dear, she didn't like the down ending and demanded that it have a nice happy ending. Mr Raimi couldn't have been more accommodating. He was straight back in the studio shooting an altogether more agreeable upbeat ending."
"Being a BBC production, Mr Raimi had to scale back his ambitions slightly. He would have obviously preferred to have used Ray Harryhausen style stop-motion animation on the skeletons but, hey-ho, he couldn't have done it all like that. So he had to make do with a bit of animation, plus puppets and blokes in skeleton suits."
"He has managed to get in a bit better acting talent though. Way better than those low budget friends of his. Bridget Fonda makes a cameo, and Jeremy Paxman, but Embeth Davidtz (Schindler's List) has a much larger role as Brucie's love interest. She's lush!"
"Coming up at 7 o'clock we've got the cast of Casualty and the BBC newsreaders dancing Gangnam Stylee in transparent PVC lederhosen, but now it's time to unveil Sam Raimi's Army of Darkness. Yo kids! You're gonna love it! Bitchin'!" NB The above may not be an accurate transcription of what Mr Wogan actually said on Children in Need. 4/10 (for the Director's Cut with the proper down ending.) evlkeith
If you like this you could also try: Darkman, My Name is Bruce.
What a completely dull title. It's so dull, it wouldn't even show the reflection of Liberace's teeth. The original title of Children Who Chase Lost Voices is a lot better. They should have stuck with that.
This is Makoto Shinkai's love letter to Hayao Miyazaki. Well, it's a bit more than a love letter actually. It's a sidle up to him on the settee, drape an arm round his shoulders and give him a cheeky kiss on the lips kind of affair. The general idea of a mysterious hidden land, populated with strange guardians will be familiar to any of Miyazaki's fans. The designs also feel strangely familiar too. See what you think of the story:
Asuna is a young girl who, due to circumstances, has been forced to develop a lot of independence. She uses a mysterious crystal radio device to try to find a signal. One day she does. She hears some strange music and her interest is piqued. She gets attacked by a huge creature on a bridge and is subsequently saved by a young fellow called Shun. He tells her that he is from Agartha, a hidden land. Amazingly enough, Asuna wants to find Agartha, and so sets off on a journey.
Journey to Agartha deals with such issues as love, death and the aforementioned independence and as such it is fairly adult in tone although it looks as though it's aimed at a younger market. The look is definitely more childlike than either of Shinkai's previous works, The Place Promised in Our Early Days and 5 Centimeters Per Second. Despite dealing with more adult themes, I found it quite dull. It took me a fair few watchings to get through it because I kept nodding off. Now this could be due to tiredness but I think it's more that not very much happens in the film. Looking back on it a couple of days after I've seen it I can't really remember many memorable moments.
The story has the feeling of having been adapted from a book that isn't really that suitable for being adapted. On investigation, it turns out that it's an original story written by Shinkai himself. The action scenes are beautifully shot but way too short. And seeing as though it spends a lot of time dealing with the death of loved ones it is a surprisingly unemotional experience (apart from one unexpected incident, which I won't spoil). Oblivion Islandalso deals with loss, albeit in a shallower form, but it is a lot more fun and entertaining than this.
Despite this my overall feeling about the film is how gorgeous it looks. You could randomly freeze frame it with eyes closed and you'd be rewarded with a stunning image. There are so many lovingly drawn details (again something that makes it feel like a book adaptation). Disney have moved on to 3D animation but this shows the evolution of 2D animation and how great it can look.
One example, and one of the few memorable moments, is a scene toward the end involving God. Being anime, and being based in a hidden world, God doesn't float in on a white cloud and have lovely white hair and a fluffy beard. In fact, this God is more of a Transformer. Cool. It's one of the only times when the story and the images gel together perfectly.
It's a film that I'd like to watch again (and probably fall asleep to again) as it's not an unpleasant experience. My review score may actually increase with repeat viewings. But if Shinkai really wants to snuggle up with Miyazaki he's going to have to lift his story writing to bring it up to par with his beautiful visuals. 6/10 evlkeith
"The Japanese Shaun of the Dead" exclaims the DVD cover. Yes, it includes zombies. Yes, it includes two friends. And yes, it is pretty funny. But it's closer to Bottom vs Zombies. Except the kicks and punches have been replaced by grappling.
Fujio and Mitsuo are two colleagues/buddies who work in a fire extinguisher factory. In their breaks they practise Jujitsu and dream of becoming champions (that's where the endless scenes of grappling come in, which amused me no end). After an unfortunate incident they are forced to visit a toxic waste dump called "Black Fuji" which dominates the skyline of Tokyo. As usual zombies appear and everything kicks off. Fujio and Mitsuo hit the road in a Max and Paddy style van and their adventure begins.
As usual for Japanese films, (well at least the ones I watch) it's not long before the inevitable peeping paedo appears who looks up the skirt of a seemingly dead school girl. The humour does improve but if you're not into violent slapstick (or slow moving grappling) then steer clear. One of the final shots of Mitsuo running after Fujio on a bike is so cheaply done (it is a low budget production with low budget effects, but these add to its charm), but it made me chuckle for a fair while. There is also the inherent humour factor of a man with a huge afro being buddies with a Max Wall lookalike.
Tokyo Zombie is a film of two halves. The first is fun in a stupid random way but then at the halfway point it jumps forward five years in time. I thought at first that this could be its downfall but it delves into The Running Man (that's the film, not the dance) style game show antics, except with more Japanese pensioners. It also gets to show a slightly more emotional side. Don't get me wrong, it's not a sequel to The Notebook but it was enough to endear itself to me.
I can't say that I've been that enamoured by many of the newer zombie films that have been doing the rounds. This is one of the better examples. The film-makers have played to their low budget strengths and gone for stupid slapstick humour (with added grappling) plus you even get a little section of anime thrown in for free. It works for me. 6/10 evlkeith (If you'd like a Tokyo Zombie/Lego treat visit The Ukulele Blog for some great photos.)
