Random Film of the Week: THE DARK

Posted on January 17, 2014 by geelw

John “Bud” Cardos’ one hundred and ten percent wretched sci-fi horror flick The Dark is one of the best reasons for better movie theater security guards and well-caffeinated ticket booth clerks. I paid to see this R-rated waste of time when I was 15 and it was four bucks I still want back. This is one of those “so bad it’s worse” “cult” films that boggles the mind as to not only how it got made, but how it got into theaters. And this is coming from someone who loves crappy movies to death.

Allegedly, Tobe Hooper was in on this mess as the initial director before being replaced by Cardos, but I’d gather he split or was canned because whatever script was presented to him scared him off. Or he was merely killing time before *not* directing Poltergeist a few years later (*ziiiing!*). This won’t be a long and loving look back at this dopey flick, so don’t get too comfortable. In every way possible, this film reeks of people showing up to work just to collect whatever paycheck was promised them (and probably some drugs as well), and that’s a shame…

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Random Film of the Week: Body Parts

Posted on January 17, 2014 by geelw

While flawed, Eric Red’s 1991 horror film Body Parts works for about two-thirds of its running time until it goes to pieces and collapses into a heap. It’s a variation on The Hands of Orlac and other potentially possessed parts flicks that makes for a fairly freakish time thanks to Jeff Fahey’s committed performance, Red’s mostly solid direction and an outstanding score by Loek Dikker that drives the film right from the main title sequence.

Like Oliver Stone’s even more flawed horror flick THE HAND, there’s some good stuff in here, some bad stuff and some flat out crazy stuff. But Red’s film is a lot more compelling and even more interesting on the visual side of things up until the aforementioned belly flop into silly quasi-Frankenstein’s monster/evil scientist with a bizarre agenda territory…

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Random Film of the Week: History Is Made At Night

Posted on January 15, 2014 by geelw

(Thanks, jolaysius!)

Up until I saw all of Frank Borzage’s wonderful History Is Made At Night, the only part I’d seen was a hilarious clip that had me laughing a wee bit too hard because I’d taken it way out of context (it’s not hard to do, people). That “Cleo” gag is used again in the film, but by that time you’re probably going to be caught up in the blend of comedy and melodrama on display that adds a slight dip into disaster movie territory and tosses in a suicide for good measure. Borzage’s film isn’t your run of the mill funny flick at all and that’s exactly what makes it worth tracking down.

The plot is a bit loopy for sure, but the cast makes it work as things move from silly to serious and back again. If you’ve yet to see it, you can walk in on this film at a few different points and think you’re watching two or three different movies. It’s got some screwball elements for sure, but it’s also deeply romantic and suddenly serious as it ping-pongs about the emotional spectrum. Then again, real life is just like that at many times (which is why I like this oldie so much)…
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Random Film of the Week: The Black Hole

Posted on January 14, 2014 by geelw

(Thanks, MovieTrailerGrave!)

I saw The Black Hole on the first day it was released and was pretty darn disappointed because I felt Disney blew an opportunity to make a more cerebral sci-fi film along the lines of a Forbidden Planet or a 2001: A Space Odyssey in favor of what was more or less a hobbled remake of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea with dashes of Star Wars, Moby Dick, and a few other bits borrowed from other classic and not so classic books and movies. It’s clearly NOT a “family film” despite the sci-fi/western shoot ’em up moments and two stupid trash can robots with big cartoon eyes that can’t be ignored as to how stupid they look mixed in with the more serious elements.

Thanks to the film not knowing which way to go tonally (and sorry, those robots never mesh with the dark mood and doom-filled dialog), what you have is an often grand looking, intentionally gloom-draped but sloppy sci-fi pastiche that’s too scary for the little kids those dopey robots were made for and too full of decent ideas better executed decades earlier to be a “great” movie. Not counting the awful “science” on display (it gets a pass from me because no one should go to a sci-fi flick expecting actual science!) I’d call it “adequate” at best. That said, there’s a niggling buzz in the back of my head that’s never left even after repeated re-viewings as recent as a few months ago. Then again, I was 17 when I first saw this and thanks to a tired ticket seller and a few early showings had already been exposed to Ridley Scott’s still brilliant ALIEN two years earlier, so my wider-eyed and more innocent eight-year old self was long buried by that point…

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Random Film of the Week: Sharky’s Machine

Posted on January 13, 2014 by geelw

Okay, I’ll admit it. I saw Sharky’s Machine with a few friends back in 1981 just so we could see a massive train-wreck in action. Of course, we were all surprised that the Burt Reynolds-directed film was not only quite good and well made, but actually a lot darker in tone than expected. There are also plenty of scenery-chewing funny bits in here as well, but none of them come at Burt’s expense and very few come from him (another surprise!).

Those bits of comic relief come primarily from the supporting cast made up of some of those “Where do I know HIM from?” actors (Bernie Casey, Brian Keith, John Fielder and Charles Durning among others) while Burt underplays Sharky as a moody and determined cop out to make the best of his earlier demotion who discovers love, death and dismemberment in a few strange places. Only two of those things actually happen TO him during the film, but I’ll keep you in suspense here (for the most part) just because I want you to check this one out at some point…

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Random Film of the Week: Legends of the Fall

Posted on January 9, 2014 by geelw

I may be a hopeless romantic (okay, okay … only sometimes!) but even I’m not a sucker for the big budget blockbuster romance film. Still, I sit through a few when I have the time to kill or get trapped and its the only damn thing to look at that won’t get me in trouble. Edward Zwick’s great-looking Legends of the Fall made me laugh out loud many times when I first saw it on a long airplane flight and it still makes me laugh today.

I laugh more now because I believe the airplane cut was a tiny bit shorter than the theatrical version, but back on that trip, I laughed louder because I’d fallen asleep during the screening and woke up a few hours later only to find the film replaying again almost exactly from the same spot as if it were waiting for me like a long lost love. Burning up the screen with more testosterone and scenery chewing from about everyone in the cast, this is one of those films that may have led to a few breakups among couples where one dragged the other to see this expensive pot-boiled turkey and the aftermath was about as wild as the fast-motion/freeze frame bear fight that pops up near the ending.

Yeah, you read that correctly. Read on for more… Continue reading →

Random Film of the Week: Across 110th Street

Posted on January 9, 2014 by geelw

No, it’s NOT “Blaxploitation Week” here at DAF because believe it or else, Across 110th Street isn’t really an exploitation film at all. Sure it’s got sudden (but VERY expected) bursts of violence, plenty of (way too brightly colored) blood spilled, swearing out the wazoo, hard drug usage, funky fashions and Afros all wrapped in very palpable sense of dread that lurks around from the moment the film gets underway until its inevitable conclusion. Oh, and that urban gangster theme, stereotypical I-tal-i-an mobsters getting needlessly brutal, an equally racist white cop (Anthony Quinn) and the fresh to the precinct black detective (Yaphet Kotto) who has to work with him on his first major case may all make you THINK you know what you’re getting into.

But then a funny thing happens after the title credits roll… the film surprises you with a surprisingly well shot and tense crime action/thriller with a deliberately relentless tone that escalates as things spiral out of control. Stealing drug money from the mob is a bad idea in any dramatic film, but this film lets you watch the doomed men pull off their dirty deed successfully while letting you see all too clearly that they’re not going far with their ill-gotten gains… Continue reading →

Random Film of the Week: HIT MAN

Posted on January 8, 2014 by geelw

While watching 1972’s HIT MAN on TCM last week and in between bouts of nearly falling off the couch laughing a few times at the unintentional comedy gold, it hit me that I’d see this film’s story elsewhere. Granted, you get what you pay for with most “blaxploitation” flicks in the form of a reworking of older (and often, superior) films, but there was something here under all the massive afros, copious nudity and violence that seemed pretty familiar.

That something happened to be Get Carter, the classic 1971 British gangster film from director Mike Hodges that was an early showcase for Michael Caine as well as a pretty darn great and mature killer of a movie. A year later, director George Armitage pretty much piled on the T&A, beefing up the sexy time and violence to racier American levels of shameless acceptability and the cast here does a pretty awesome job at making this one of those absolutely memorable (but yes, gloriously bad on so many levels) “B” flicks that’s going to have your head shaking and spinning simultaneously… Continue reading →

Random Film of the Week(end), Too: THE HAND

Posted on January 4, 2014 by geelw

For the record, I hated THE HAND when I first saw it and don’t like it much more today. Not because it’s not scary at all (its one or two jump scare moments and the nutty ending work for me), and not because Michael Caine isn’t “givin’ it ‘is awl” (heh) as a strip cartoonist who loses his drawing hand in a freak accident, gets a prosthetic replacement and soon has a bit of a psychological breakdown afterwards that involves a few dips into murder. Nope, Caine is fine and creepy here as Jon Lansdale and in fact, the other actors do a mostly fine job with Stone’s script (based on the Marc Brandel novel “The Lizard’s Tail”).

My big beef with the movie is how very, very little of Barry Smith’s outstanding comic art (created specifically for the film, mind you) is seen once the main credits have finished rolling. It’s a shame because the films isn’t quite the horror film it needs to be despite trying very hard to bridge the gap between low budget indie and major studio first effort (it was Stone’s first time behind the camera on a feature film). Granted, this isn’t supposed to be a Smith biopic or anything like that and I eventually saw a chunk of the art in an interview Smith did around when the film was released or so (and it’s some beautiful work). But for all the story’s emphasis on Lansdale’s Mandro character being so important (hell, no hand, bro means NO Mandro!), we never see that much of the artwork up close or find out much about Mandro other than the art looks like Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian when Smith’s art really matured near the end of his run on the book… Continue reading →

Random Film of the Week: Beyond The Poseidon Adventure

Posted on January 1, 2014 by geelw

Oh, why do I do this to myself? Well, because someone had this flick handy, read my review of the original and offered it up for review, that’s why. That and I’m issuing a shot across the bow to anyone thinking this rusty old clunker will be a good movie because of the list of stars (some of the fading and fallen variety). Anyway, thanks in part to the massive success of blockbusters such as Jaws, Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Alien (among others) to by 1979, the star-studded disaster epic was pretty much dead in the water. However, Hollywood kept them coming for a little bit longer despite poor critical and audience reception.

Sadly, when original ideas started drying up, sequels to older crowd pleasers because one escape route that seemed to fail spectacularly despite stunt casting efforts galore. The great 1970 film Airport devolved into three miserable “look at the law of diminishing returns in action” sequels before crash-landing and for some reason, producer/director Irwin Allen decided to hold out for seven years to make a follow up to his smash hit The Poseidon Adventure. Well, he did get the seriously star-packed and seriously goofy disaster flicks The Towering Inferno and Earthquake made plus some TV projects in the interim, so he was a busy man. However, in the case of Poseidon’s second go, the result is pretty awful as a sequel, so seeing Beyond The Poseidon Adventure only comes recommended if you can mentally separate the two films and pretend this follow-up flick is a bad dream had by one of the survivors of the first movie… Continue reading →