Death Proof

Fundamentally different, absolutely. Still pretty good, hell yeah!

If the director himself considers this his worst movie, Quentin I just gotta tell you I don't see it. It's a remarkedly different beast compared to the all guns blazing Planet Terror with a much smaller scale plot involving two seperate groups of girls being stalked by a murderous stuntman appropriately named, Stuntman Mike, and it's funny cause that simple plot alone are two different beasts. The first is film grained up, jump cuts, has a very 70s vibe despite it taking place in modern day and is my favorite of the two segments. Which is no slight against the second with a quartet of ladies with two being everyday gals and the other two being fairly badass thrillseekers who run across Stuntman Mike and outperform him with some impressive stunts, it's shot in both pristine black & white alongside color, with modern filmmaking techniques, and some stellar stunts. Kurt Russell steals the show, being effectively creepy like so under my skin freak me the fuck out kinda creepy, but it's Kurt and he's got so much charisma and likeability it's interesting to watch despite not knowing much about Stuntman Mike. Standouts in our lady groups is Vanessa Ferlito from the firste troupe, I don't know if it was the accent or the no nonsense attitude or just her absurdly pretty face but I gravitated toward her so easily, and while everyone rightly lauds and praises Zoë Bell for her wit and insane physical performance Rosario Dawson was my gal in this and I thought she was groovy and props for her on getting the final blow. The production was spot on, again a very low budget effort but works insanely well on how they used the budget, they saved their big bucks for the big shit with some gross effects, a showstopping crash, and a car chase that will stick in your mind for some time. I will say I do wish we could have focused on one group or even did a mixed bag between the two casts, but it all works out and doesn't really hurt the film provided you don't mind almost a 2 hour runtime with a fair bit of dialogue and slow burns before the lid pops. I was still invested throughout and honestly wouldn't mind owning the whole Grindhouse experience! It's a long forgotten niche of cinema but definitely has it's fans and while I can safely say I'm more of a casual observer I still respect and enjoy the distinct style and filmmaking choices even if they aren't all for me. For one brief moment in 2007 you could go to a theater for a double bill with fake trailers and advertisements for an experience that can't be replicated and that I am strongly jealous of, considering I was 12 at the time and a fledgling movie fan who had no concept of grindhouse cinema. But I'm extremely happy to have finally seen both these movies that I've heard about for more than a decade. I give this 3 stars, 7.5/10, and we're jumping back to the 1960s next week.

Planet Terror

I have rarely seen movies more nuts than this.

A spiritual throwback to 70s grindhouse cinema coupled with modern production, Planet Terror is nothing short of a trip! I don't even rightly know how to describe it, cause it's absolutely hilarious, absurdly ridiculous, so gory and nastay, and surprisingly endearing! It's a zombie movie no doubt but it takes every convention of that genre and just turns it on it's head, with a group of survivors including a stripper named Cherry, a badass named Wray, a sherrif named Hague, and a doctor by the name of Dakota fending off utterly grody and disgusting zombies while also getting roped into some black ops shit, the movie is all over the damn place. But not in a disjointed or bad aspect, it all somehow works perfectly due to the tone and direction by Robert Rodriguez and I am so happy to see another of his movies! We are checking out the second part Death Proof next and I'm dumbstruck how that could potentially usurp this movie. I don't know what it is but this was one of the most entertaining movies I've seen this year and I adore it! The cast alone is reason to watch this movie! We got Rose McGowan who is fucking acting her heart out in this movie and her wit, outspoken demeanor, and frankly awesome finale catapults her to the higher echelons of lady badasses in my book. Michael Biehn, friggin' Josh Brolin, Fergie Ferg how the hell did they get Stacy into this I'll never know, Michael Parks, Tom Savini, Bruce Willis, like this is a fairly insane cast for essentially a low budget exploitation film. Granted you see every penny on screen from the extensive prosthetics, the explosions, the sets, it really does look like a grindhouse movie if it had a couple million to throw at the screen and some extremely talented people. It just hit all the right buttons for me and I know for a bleedin' fact this won't garner the same level of appreciation from everyone, but as a lover and admirer of cinema in all it's variant forms, as someone who respects the shit out of the horror genre, as a big fan of both Rodriguez and Tarantino, this is a standout movie and I'm beyond happy to see it! A sterling 4 stars, 9/10 from me, apologies for being a day late in writing this we got a little work schedule change going on so Death Proof will be up on Friday so stay tuned.

Tron Ares

Personally I don't think you can call it Tron without showing Tron, but hey I'm a mark for this stuff!

Aside from that woeful misstep along with some heinous marketing on the red carpet the sequel I never eveeeerrrrrr thought would come around is finally here, so what does a mega nerd for the Tron series think of it? Well I think honestly this whole series has followed in the same vein as the original Star Wars trilogy, first movie groundbreaking in special effects with a basic story that admittedly took a cult status, second film improved on every single aspect and can easily be considered one of the best sequels ever made and a masterpiece that only ages like the finest venetian wine, and the third retreads some familiar ground while still putting new elements into it. If you saw the trailer it admittedly isn't as epic as a full scale invasion from the Grid into our world, but rather a discovery of personality for the titular program and a battle of attrition between Encom and Dillinger enterprises and while far from great is an overall solid movie! Now am I biased? Well duh, I was going on a tangent in my mind about the continuity of the Grid for Christ's sakes, I think I'm in too deep here! It's not airtight in terms of writing and some of the performances have jank to it, but the cinematography is very solid with still unique visuals that you can tell the director put thought into, coming off the heels of a juggernaut like Daft Punk's score for Legacy you would think Nine Inch Nails just couldn't compete but they do damn good work and I think it stands on par with that phenomenal soundtrack, the fanwank was to the brim and while I strongly appreciate it I can also see the modern trappings of it I mean this is a legacy sequel in every way Tron Legacy wasn't. Is that inherently bad? No, but they do lean hard on it which could be distracting for others. I know a lot of people hopped on the fence when Jared Leto was announced to star and I don't really know jack shit about him personally so all I can do is just give an opinion on the performance alone, it's a notch uneven but I levy that more towards the script than the actor with a more robotic program suddenly switching to a very opinionated and passionate individual, but I kinda love the idea of a program reading the mother of science fiction Mary Shelley's Frankenstein who also is a fan of Depeche Mode so hey take from it what you will. Greta Lee is a decent human lead and her story is anything but paper thin though I felt it just needed either more time to breathe or better instances, however I will give the movie points for showing and not telling much so overall it's a solid performance. Evan Peters doesn't exactly convey the gravitas of his Dillinger grandfather but room is always there for improvement especially with some heavy ass sequel baiting, so I'm willing to bide time and see if it goes anywhere. We get my man back, our Dude and savior Jeff Bridges and even though it's really just a single solitary scene my jaw dropped. I won't lie to you, the man is my idol and I aspire to be like His Dudeness, so to see force ghost Flynn was a high highpoint for me unequivocally! Also shout out to Jodie, you got the moves, you got the energy, and I still got a soft spot for villains. The look of the film is top notch, feeling like a logical evolution from Legacy and as a Dude myself of darker nature, seeing so much predominant red and black was such a fantastic sight with finely crafted costumes, sets, and visual effects. It wouldn't surprise me if it got some big time award nominations! And just as a little bonus let's lightning round some thoughts: Apparently any artificial lifeform gets all existential when in contact with rain so the memory of Roy Batty continues decades after Blade Runner, seeing several Grids and how each command issued by a user is a full blown scene is not only logical but really damn cool pushing the envelope for the Tron series surprisingly, we get some biiiig namedrops for heavy fans such as myself that makes my mind race with the possibilities should Disney be a buddy and continue on, and despite the lack of "Bio-digital jazz man." I'm fairly proud of myself I called a few quotes including the mid-credits teaser by the by! Overall it's a solid movie, to a 15 year fan I'm quite happy with it and I know it ain't gonna hit the same for everybody else but I'll look forward to adding this to the DVD shelf along with the other two movies. 3 stars, 7.5/10! End of line man.

Late Night With The Devil

Hohoholyyy shhhhit!

Boy you ain't gonna believe this! Guess who had a hand in production? IFC and Shudder. I don't plan this man, I don't! I swear! This is as common as dirt when it comes to this show, correlation is off the charts! Moving swiftly on to the actual review, I remember seeing the trailer for this not that long ago and I gotta admit it had my attention and it never left my mind on the list of future reviews and now that I've finally seen it, it was everything I expected it to be and yet so much more I didn't see coming. There's a good sized intro really getting you in the right mindframe for this movie, setting up the decade of the 70s, who Jack Delroy is and what his talk show is like, what he went through before the Halloween taping of a spirit medium, a skeptic, and a literal possessed girl and it's really friggin' good! I'm a sucker for period pieces and that extends to history less than a century ago, the costumes, set design, and overall vibe is perfectly situated in the 70s and couple that with the TV quality of that time and you almost could pass this off to a parent or grandparent as something real. In fact the movie almost does take this urban legend lens, it even plays on the frankly horrifying concept of the Mandela Effect at one point, and while we never leave the studio and see the effects of the broadcast we don't need to. Because we are the audience. Kinda meta man! But what an absolute joy, this treat it is, to see David in a leading man role! To see him from Joker thug in The Dark Knight to this is amazing and I'm quite proud of him, as he does deliver a subdued but nevertheless nuanced performance of a man trying to get on top while dealing with a lot of dark stuff in his past. The minute I laid eyes on Ingrid Torelli as the possessed girl Lilly I knew it was gonna be a cracking good performance and she did deliver, simultaneously being this bright bouncy girl and yet simultaneously unnerving and while we don't really see a lot of the demon itself I think the movie understands the quintessential lesson of less is more. It still leaves an impact, it still works in the atmosphere of the film. Ian Bliss as skeptical Carmichael whether you believe in the supernatural or not is a good character to boo and hiss at, he's such a pompous ass who can't fathom something unnatural happening and it's wild to think we essentially have one set, and five characters to bring this 90 minute movie to life and they do nail it! The production as stated is damn good, with a nice little ode to Brian De Palma when the screen splits, and the combination of on air color footage and black & white off air footage really reminded me of Oppenheimer. This undoubtedly has a cult following and I can strongly see why, the concept alone is worth the price of admission and this whole week was just the right remedy to get me hip deep in the Halloween season. But we got more to come, 4 stars, 8/10, and as always remember the owls are not what they seem.

In A Violent Nature

I have rarely seen a more appropriate title.

It is violent and there is nature, what more could you ask for? Funny to think it took this damn long since the slasher trend began in the late 70s to just have a film all from the perspective of the killer themselves, and I thought it worked beautifully. There's not much plot but that's because you're looking from the other side of the mirror, with this undead brick shithouse of a man rising from his grave to retrieve a stolen locket from your typical group of teenagers. But aside from the base premise itself, there's just no other horror movie even slightly like it. In fact I found it to be extremely calming at times, almost constantly surrounded by the sights and sounds of nature interspersed with some gnarly ass kills, it was surprisingly up my alley. It takes it's sweet time and if you got a short attention span you better lock the hell in or give up now, for a movie just a bit over 90 minutes it ain't rushing! There's a lot of long takes and sitting shots, liberal use of wide shots that stick around for a bit, it just has this laid back feel to it which is an odd ass word to describe a slaher film! Hell there's not even a soundtrack, there's three songs all diegetic to the movie that the characters are listening to, beyond that just take in the sounds of nature. I really digged the shit out of this movie and because of the way it was produced and directed, when it came to the kills I was curious and impressed at how they pulled it off, some are more edited but others I'm just wondering if they hacked one of the actors stone dead forever. That's movie magic right there! Again, very simple premise, not a lot of cast, extensive natural locations, it was even made by the same companies as Good Boy with both IFC and Shudder having a hand in it all. That is a coincidence, but as one trained in the Force I know that true coincidences are rare. It's not a modern masterpiece but a very good film it is and I'm kinda curious to look into the sequel at a later period in time. 4 stars from me, 8/10, we got one more for the week so stay tuned.

Good Boy

I think this is the most riled up I'll be all month.

What an interesting movie man, this is truly independent and yet has caused some waves. I mean the simple premise of a ghost story from an animal's perspective is interesting and honestly got me more on the edge of my seat than the vast majority of horror movies, it's not probably that much of a secret humans vastly favor animals than other humans so it's ridiculously easy to get invested. Even me as a cat person through and through, he a good boi! You a good boi! Can I pet that dawg? Indy is a star and I want you to acknowledge it, look at him with his little bowtie on the red carpet! Who is gonna hate on this movie? Not I. It's shot pretty friggin' good honestly, with plenty of atmosphere and touches of that exquisite fall atmosphere I love, with ample senses of dread and foreboding no doubt bolstered by our lead. Even little touches like we don't really see a lot of the human's faces, it plays a lot with shadow very akin to Hereditary, it even gets artsy for a hot second, it's a well directed film! And considering the cast is like three people and a dog, it doesn't have to go far to be effective. Shit when I looked up the movie and saw a runtime of one hour and twelve minutes I was kinda gobsmacked, last damn movie I reviewed that short was when we did Island Of Lost Souls not that long ago, so it really doesn't lolligag about. Sometimes you just don't need much to be good, short ass runtime, small cast, relatively low amount of locations, make not only an effective horror film but a damn fine example of modern independent filmmaking hitting it pretty big. No definitive word on budget but raking in over 2,000,000 buckaroos and plenty of positive word of mouth ain't too shabby! A succesful experiment and we're just getting started for the month. 3 stars, 7.5/10, and next time we'll follow another interesting perspective film that I can't say I've heard of before.

In Retrospect: Nosferatu (2024)

Happy October!

Shit this movie's still really good! It was high time to see it again less than a year since entering the cinema on a cold Christmas night and I can safely say it has improved on repeat viewing. When a movie can make my jaw utterly drop 2 minutes in there's something special about it. I could get lost in the snowy night of this movie for a long time, my God what a visual masterpiece in my opinion. It really takes what was present with the Herzog version and it's nature filled landscapes and only elevates it, the sets, the costuming, the cinematography, it's all a little too damn good. Still just as friggin' horrifying as the last time, it was easy to get creeped right the frak out and it is effective horror even if being only somewhat visceral. Needless to say the performances even stand on stronger ground the second viewing, if anybody got just flat out snubbed for major awards it's Lily! My God woman you had such a great script to work with and your performance will not he easily forgotten for decades to come. Bill the impact you have left on this world and those freaky romantics even more so cannot be understated, an effectively unsettling and gruesome potrayal of the most famous (and best in my opinion) vampire cinema has ever known. I gotta admit it was fun to see Nicholas so recently after Superman and really does show he can play such a wide arrange of parts pitch perfectly. Willem, my guy, my main man, I'll never tire of seeing you in movies regardless of part and I'm thrilled you were a part of this production! Just...it really hammers the point home how finely crafted and handled this entire project was, there are few movies I laud so highly of being such expertly made and flawlessly interlinked from all aspects, to writing to music to worldbuilding. It shouldn't be this good but it just is! The appeal is still strong, the horror is just as rich, the apparent horniness I still don't greatly see albeit it has it's moments, even the drama felt so much stronger and present, if you haven't watched it since I can safely recommend another viewing. Hell even in broad daylight this movie still got under my skin, that's something I can so rarely say it's like seeing Bigfoot and Nessie on the same day kind of rare. A blood soaked shining example of modern day horror, and that trend will definitely continue next week as I catch up on other modern horror films that have cropped up on my radar. 4 stars, 9/10 still, I can't wait to share this whole month with you.