OK, It’s not actually Monday. I usually hang out with Harry on Tuesday’s but this week he only had Monday off. So I just flip flopped my days. I got it to you when I promised though.

This week you might notice a little less reviews than usual. I got a little burned out trying to cram a movie into every spare second I had. Be rest assured that won’t last for long…

(February 6)

——The Night Porter (1974)——

This is a film about an ex-SS officer who now works as a night porter in a fancy German hotel, who one day sees a former concentration camp survivor who just also happened to be a woman he both tortured and loved. While she is at first afraid to see him again they soon begin to rekindle their sadomasochistic relationship to where it was before the war ended. The night porter’s former comrades don’t take kindly to this and want him to eliminate and exterminate his past in order to move on. When he locks the two of them away in his apartment his former comrades stalk him in order to take him out.

While the film has a lot of interesting ideas up in the air, none of it really connected with me. The whole time I felt rather detached and was never too involved with the story. I’d pass on this one, although maybe when I see it again in the future I might think differently.

(MISS)

——The Brood (1979)——

David Cronenberg is one crazy SOB. The more I see of his work, the more I love. He manages to make horror/science fiction films that play more like serious dramas, only explode at points with grotesque, amazing feats of violence and gore. What’s great about them though is that unlike most horror films, the focus isn’t on the gore but on the ideas involve. The gore is just a means of expressing thoughts.

The Brood is about a controversial new form of psychotherapy called “Psychoplasmics” where the patient takes their pent-up emotions, angers and fears and externalizes them in order to get rid of them. The problem is that one woman’s anger towards her family are now physically killing them. The film starts off looking like your standard slasher flick but ends up being oh so much more.

While this isn’t the most interesting or exciting David Cronenberg film I’ve seen so far, it’s still leagues above most other things like it out there. The film manages to both horrify you (quite well, I might add) while making you think long after the film ends. There ain’t nothing wrong with that!

(SEE)

——Hotel Rwanda (2004)——

Obvious comparisons have been made between this film and Schindler’s List (1993). And when it come to a question of which movie is the better film, there really is no question at all. Schindler’s List is far superior. Still, that doesn’t mean at all that this movie still isn’t good. For the most part this is a quite riveting tale about something that happened not that long ago (and still seems to be happening in Africa) that we either don’t know about or chose not to know about. It’s been said countless times before that if George Bush wanted somewhere to invade and restore peace there are plenty of places to go, but no oil or anything else of wealth, so that’s why we are in Iraq.

Don Cheadle plays the manager of a five-star hotel who only wants to save his family when chaos erupts in Rowanda and the minority Tutsis are being slaughtered in the streets. He is very reluctant to help at first, but after he sees what is happening out there he uses all of his resources to save every person he can from the rampaging mobs.

This is a movie that really tugs at your heart and brings a tear to your eye, while at the same time making you very angry at a government that acts like it doesn’t give a shit about a few worthless Africans. In one of the great tragedies of world history the world just sat by and watched as millions of Tutsis were murdered for no other reason than that the Dutch created two separate races when it colonized the country. This movie doesn’t let go of you.

(SEE)

——An American Werewolf in London (1981)——

This is a great horror film by John Landis, better know as the director of Animal House. The tone, acting, writing, direction and special effects are all spot on. The story is about two American students hitchhiking through Europe who get attacked by a werewolf in the moors outside of London. One friend is killed, while the other just barely survives, landing himself in a London hospital. There he falls for his English nurse, all the while having nightmares about becoming a werewolf. His friend even comes to see him as a sort of ghost zombie, telling him that until the curse of the werewolf is lifted by killing the last member of its line, all the werewolves victims must wander the world rotting and undead.

What really works is the mixture of comedy and horror, neither of which feels like it overwhelms the other. The movie is quite funny, but at its heart still a horror film. And the scares work really well. What are most impressive about the movie though are the special effects. Without any help from digital effects, 25 years after the film came out and the scene where he first transforms into a werewolf is still incredibly impressive. It looks real. And because they didn’t use CGI I spent forever just trying to figure out how exactly they got it to look so real. If you haven’t seen this movie in a while check it out again, because this truly is impressive.

I was never really a werewolf guy before, but after seeing this movie I can definitely see the appeal. This is one of those great horror movies from horror’s golden age of the late 70’s, early 80’s.

(MUST SEE)

(February 7)

——Virgins from Hell (1987)——

OK, this is my first film from Indonesia. I didn’t even know they had a film industry over there. Well, they did, and they made lots of cheap exploitation flicks like this one. And boy is this one a doosy. Depending on your definition of “entertainment” this might not be your cup of tea, but for those who love movies that are so bad they are good are going to love the hell out of this movie.

An all female biker gang rob a casino and use the money to buy ammunition so that the leader can take revenge against the man who killed her parents and stole their house to use as a drug lab that has created a super aphrodisiac designed to turn the women of the world into sex slaves. Got all that so far? Well, actually, that’s pretty much the whole plot. The women break into the compound and give them a pretty good meeting until they fall into a trap and are taken captive. Thus begins the women in prison rape and torture portion of the film, which ends with some of the girls escaping and finally taking their revenge.

This description in no way lets you know how funny this movie is. Let me begin with the main bad guy, Tiger. You know his name is really Tiger because he has giant posters of Bangal tigers in his room, much like a prepubescent girl might. Tiger likes to dress like a Mexican rancher from an old Western, for some reason. He also prefers whipping girls with his bullwhip and making them dance to weird 80’s music instead of just sleeping with them.

Because (I’m guessing) no one was allowed to have real guns in the film because of the government, everyone instead has gigantic fake guns that would make G.I. Joe blush. I mean, these things are ENORMOUS. And hilarious. Also, the Indonesians seem to have mastered the art of dying hilariously. Every time one of the goons gets shot or stabbed he doubles over, overacting like the lives of his family depended on it. The music sounds like outtakes from Ben-Hur. This is some epic trash cinema, and if you are even remotely interested in such things you should pick this up.

(MUST SEE)

——Repo Man (1984)——

This is my second time watching this cult film and I’m starting to think that this is just one of those movies that gets better and better every time you watch it. If you haven’t already seen it, it’s kind of hard to express what this film really is about in words. Emilio Estevez is a slacker punk wandering aimlessly through life until Harry Dean Stanton cons him into repossessing a car for him. Like any good punk would do, after learning that he was conned Emilio tells Stanton to piss off. That is until he sees how much money he can make legally stealing cars.

Much of the fun of this movie is in the little touches. Every time someone goes into a convenience store it’s being robbed by some punks, and usually the other people there are oblivious as to what is going on. Because they couldn’t get the rights to use any brand names in the film, everything is labeled with generic labels like “Food” and “Beer”, giving the film an accidental satirical edge it might have lacked otherwise. There this is all of the outer space, UFO stuff. Yeah, you heard me right. One of the cars everyone is looking to repo might just be a UFO/Time machine. The ending of the film is absolutely trippy. This is a super fun ride everyone should see.

(MUST SEE)

(February 11)

——Match Point (2005)——

The new Woody Allen movie definitely deserves all of the hype that it has been getting lately. The move to England seems to have done him some good, both in refreshing his creative vision and in his originality. In fact if you didn’t already know that it was a Woody Allen movie you could probably get through the whole thing without figuring that out. Only little directorial touches let you in on the secret that British accents disguise.

The plot concerns a tennis pro who used to play with the big guns, but a few unlucky shots kept him from making it to the big time. He turns poor tennis instructor, quickly befriends one of his clients and begins a relationship with his sister. The sister takes to him immediately, but his eyes are focused squarely on his friend’s struggling actress fiancée, played by the always radiant Scarlett Johansson. There is nothing really wrong with the sister, but she is really just a means towards wealth and security for him. There’s no lust there. There is with Scarlett. And thus begins the dangerous love triangle that threatens to destroy everything he has worked for.

I’m not going to give away where all of this goes, because it is just too juicy to ruin for people. What I will comment on is Allen’s interesting theme of what is better: raw talent or luck? The film opens with a shot of a tennis ball hitting the net and flying straight upwards. Our protagonist tells us how the luck of the spin of the ball can determine the outcome of the game. If it lands on your opponent’s side, you win. But if it bounces back and lands on your side, you lose. Everything rides on how the ball bounces. The beginning theme works its way all throughout the film, but becomes startlingly and surprisingly literal at the film’s end. You should definitely check out this movie to see what I mean. It’s a shame it didn’t get awarded with more Oscar nominations.

(MUST SEE)