Monday, August 31, 2020

The New Mutants (2020)


Directed by: Josh Boone

Notable cast: Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, Alice Braga, Charlie Heaton

 

The New Mutants is one of those movies that people thought was cursed. Not in the sense of Poltergeist, but in the “finished but maybe never released” sense. The House Of 1000 Corpses, John Dies At The End, Roger Forman’s Fantastic Four kind of way. Two of those three came out eventually, and as of this week, it’s three out of four. A troubled production, reshoots far after principal photography, and the Disney buyout of Fox were all major factors at play here. None of this has any particular ultimate bearing on the quality of the movie. But any reviewer would be remiss not to mention it. That combined with the roller coaster flying off the rails feeling that is the year 2020 makes this movie a wild release. A theatrical only release when some major markets still aren’t allowing open theaters? (Full disclosure, I live in one such market, and saw this film at a drive-in). But how does it stack up as an adaptation of a beloved series, and more simply as a movie?

 

Saturday, August 29, 2020

Black Rainbow (1989)


Director: Mike Hodges

Notable Cast: Rosanna Arquette, Jason Robards, Tom Hulce, Mark Joy, Ron Rosenthal

 

“We steal if we touch tomorrow. It’s God’s.”

 

Quite frankly, when Arrow Video announced that they would be releasing a new Blu Ray release of Black Rainbow, I had very little expectations. Arrow has recently been tipping their hat in the direction of the slightly supernatural dramatic thriller, in particular, their release of Apprentice to Murder works as a perfect double feature with this one, and it’s something of a lost genre that deserves a bit more attention. Black Rainbow is a film that ably slides through the various elements of genre, delivering on just enough dramatic heft, thematic commentary, character study elements, and an assassination plot to be a thoroughly enjoyable film with just enough layers to mark its audience. It’s never a film that defines itself as the most stylish or most intense, but it’s subtlety in its depths and strength in its small moments make it an overlooked diamond film from the late 80s.

 

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Zombie for Sale (2020)


Director: Lee Min-jae

Notable Cast: Jung Jae-young, Kim Nam-gil, Uhm Ji-won, Lee Soo-kyung, Jung Ga-ram, Park In-hwan, Shin Jung-geun, Oh Eui-shik, Goo Bon-woong

Also Known As: The Odd Family: Zombie for Sale

 

Now that South Korea has solidified themselves as a place that delivers some fantastic zombie films, including the recently released Peninsula which is raking in some serious dough at the foreign box office, it only makes sense that a western distribution company would grab a zombie comedy (zom com) to capitalize on the boom. The subject for this review is Zombie for Sale and the distribution company in question would be Arrow Video. Now, as a preface to this review, I should mention that I am not the biggest fan of comedies, nor am I the biggest fan of zombie films. Thus, a zom com is not the kind of cinematic experience that I necessarily look forward to. Just go look at my review for Yummy from a couple of months ago. Yet, as soon as Zombie for Sale started marching through its familial caricatures, silly set up, and eventual eruption into zombie chaos, the film revealed itself as fully engaged with its material and charm oozing out of most sequences.

 

Through the charming execution of its broadly painted concept, Zombie for Sale is able to navigate so many of the usual tropes and pitfalls of the genre-bending style. The film is firmly rooted in its comedy first, a tactic that allows the story and narrative, about a questionably shady family who stumble onto a zombie wandering around their small town, to establish its characters and quirky setting. While the initial zombie appears immediately in the narrative and plot, the manner that he stumbles around, being chased by a dog for a large portion of the opening sequences, or haphazardly trying to kill people with little success, is fully played for comedic bits. The tactic works though since the cast and crew seem fully dedicated to selling the tensely humorous relationships for the family and the little world that they live in. Highlights of this portion of the film, prior to their discovery and attempts to capitalize on their newfound zombie and his powers, is all through their banter and interaction. Right down to how the film has one character explain zombies to his father by having him watch clips from another South Korean zombie flick, Train to Busan.




The horror of the film rarely rears its head until the final act, when the full out zombie apocalypse starts to spread, and even then the film is more focused on the dramatic impact of the family trying to survive and find a way out than it does on the horror set-pieces. There are some entertaining moments to the rising action of the film, but horror fans will probably not find a ton to love as the film focuses on its other genres. When it is aiming for horror and tension, it’s mostly the zombie basics of being swarmed and the potential of being devoured. Due to its strong direction, some great cinematography, and entertaining performances, Zombie for Sale gets away with far more than it should have in these regards. It's notable though that the comedy comes first, second, third, and the horror comes fourth. It's not inherently a terrible choice, particularly since the comedy and performances carry so much weight, but it's something to be aware of for people walking into this film for the first time. 

 

As with so many of Arrow’s releases, Zombie for Sale is a fairly stacked release in terms of features. The full list is below and for anyone interested in South Korean cinema, zombies, or comedies, then this release comes highly recommended. The most valuable feature I found was the fun video essay by Pierce Conran for his analysis on satire in South Korean cinema which adds a glorious layer to the film for multiple rewatches.

 

Ultimately, Zombie for Sale is a film utterly powered by charm and strong execution of its silliness and social commentary while using the zombie formula to explore its themes and ideas. There is very little true horror to the viewing experience which is something to note for fans looking for that perfectly balanced zom com, but it’s not a deal-breaker thanks to its strong sense of visual punch, entertaining set pieces, and relentlessly firing banter and jokes. Truthfully, while not a perfect film, Zombie for Sale is the best zombie comedy since Shaun of the Dead, just for the sheer energetic outpour of its style, tone, and delivery. It’s highly recommended.

 


ARROW VIDEO FEATURES: 

High-Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation

Original uncompressed Stereo and 5.1 DTS-HD MA options

Newly-translated English subtitles

Brand new audio commentary with filmmakers and critics Sam Ashurst and Dan Martin

Q&A with director Lee Min-jae from a 2019 screening at Asian Pop-Up Cinema in Chicago, moderated by film critic and author Darcy Paquet

Eat Together, Kill Together: The Family-in-Peril Comedy - brand new video essay by critic and producer Pierce Conran exploring Korea's unique social satires

Making-Of Featurette

Behind-the-Scenes footage

Original Trailer

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly-commissioned artwork by Mike Lee-Graham

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector's booklet featuring new writing by Josh Hurtado



Written By Matt Reifschneider

Thursday, August 20, 2020

Gamera: The Complete Collection (2020) [Gamera Vs Jiger, Gamera Vs Zigra, Gamera: Super Monster]

Growing up in a Godzilla household, there was always the mindset that Gamera was just a Big G knock off. The flying, fire eating turtle certainly came out in the wake of Godzilla stomping through the Japanese box office, but for much of the Western cult film fans Gamera was seen as a joke. Godzilla’s first film received a Criterion release, but Gamera’s first film was mostly known because of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Yet, just in my life time, there has been a resurgence in viewing Gamera as its own merits and as a series with its own themes and tropes. There was certainly help from the strength of the 90s reboot trilogy, but even the original run has had a revitalization worthy of revisiting.

 

To give even more power to this reclamation of everyone’s favorite jetpack kaiju, Arrow Video has amassed a massive new collection of all 12 of Gamera’s films. With the original run of 8 films, the 90s trilogy, and the final film – Gamera the Brave from 2006, this collection features them all. This series of reviews for the set will go briefly through each entry and then recap at the end thoughts and opinions on the set itself. Considering the amount of films included, this series of articles will definitely be as massive as Gamera, but will serve as a guide to all the films.

 

Relic (2020)

Directed by: Natalie Erika James

Notable cast: Emily Mortimer, Robyn Nevin, Bella Heathcote. Jeremy Stanford

 

I've said before, both briefly in writing and many times broadly in my life, that the reason I love horror as a genre more than any other is that it's the only genre that can tell any kind of story. This is for a few reasons, it and comedy share pacing concepts, and it shares drama's allegorical abilities. It shares action's spectacle and still brings a flavor uniquely its own. It's why the genre ranges from titles like Gingerdead Man to The Silence Of The Lambs. I have always felt, however, that it's greatest strength narratively (there are psychological benefits to enjoying horror as well, as it's a safe space to explore the darker emotions of life) is that of metaphor. By exploring the horror that's generally popular at any given time you can see what society at large was afraid of. Relic uses horror as a lens to explore some of the most fundamental fears that exist, and I think that feat alone makes it worth viewing.

 

Blood Machines (2020)

Directed by Seth Ickerman

Notable cast: Elisa Lasowski, Anders Heinrichsen, Christian Erickson, Joƫlle Berckmans

 

It would be both easy, and understandable, to want to call Blood Machines surreal, to say that's it's an experiment of style over substance. I don't even think you could call someone wrong for saying so, although I don't agree. For one, the plot is firmly rooted and consistent with its lore. Admittedly, it's exceptionally dense lore with no entry point, no exposition, only what you infer from itself and its predecessor (we'll touch on that momentarily), and what you osmose from official sources and a little bit online. In a way that would make it more in line with something like Primer, though not as pretentious or narratively satisfying. More emotionally so perhaps.

 

Monday, August 17, 2020

Bloodstone (1988)

 Director: Dwight H. Little

Notable Cast: Brett Stimely, Rajinikanth, Anna Nicholas, Charlie Brill, Jack Kehler, Christopher Neame

 

For those of you that grew up in the home video boom of the 1980s and early 1990s, there are going to be a handful of films that have a nostalgic power that trumps the actual quality of the film. For many, it’s films of their childhood or ones with strong memories attached to them. Sometimes it’s one moment, perhaps a man with a silly voice saying “The Bloodstone, please.” Perhaps that last example is more personal for me than a general one for the masses, but it’s the reason that Bloodstone always stuck with me. When the opportunity to revisit this childhood memory came about, thanks to a new Blu Ray release from Arrow Video, I was happy to leap into Bloodstone and see if it could live up to the fun feelings and brilliant cover artwork of my memories.

 

Memories can be tricky, huh?

 

Monday, August 3, 2020

Gamera: The Complete Collection (2020) [Gamera Vs Viras, Gamera Vs Guiron]

Growing up in a Godzilla household, there was always the mindset that Gamera was just a Big G knock off. The flying, fire eating turtle certainly came out in the wake of Godzilla stomping through the Japanese box office, but for much of the Western cult film fans Gamera was seen as a joke. Godzilla’s first film received a Criterion release, but Gamera’s first film was mostly known because of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Yet, just in my life time, there has been a resurgence in viewing Gamera as its own merits and as a series with its own themes and tropes. There was certainly help from the strength of the 90s reboot trilogy, but even the original run has had a revitalization worthy of revisiting.

 

To give even more power to this reclamation of everyone’s favorite jetpack kaiju, Arrow Video has amassed a massive new collection of all 12 of Gamera’s films. With the original run of 8 films, the 90s trilogy, and the final film – Gamera the Brave from 2006, this collection features them all. This series of reviews for the set will go briefly through each entry and then recap at the end thoughts and opinions on the set itself. Considering the amount of films included, this series of articles will definitely be as massive as Gamera, but will serve as a guide to all the films.

 

Saturday, August 1, 2020

The Wind (1986)

Director: Nico Masterokis

Notable Cast: Meg Foster, Wings Hauser, David McCallum, Robert Morley, Steve Railsback


Now, it may come as a surprise to no one – particularly those who have followed Blood Brothers for a while, but I am not one of Nico Masterokis’ biggest fans. The cult Greek director has his merits as an entertaining one, grasping onto whatever trend is currently popular and delivering his own brand of knock off, but for this reviewer that’s mostly what he delivers – knock offs. This isn’t necessarily such a bad trait, although I will never sing the praises of Island of Death as long as I live, and it can produce some interesting films. The Wind, for example, is one of those movies. A strange mixture of European thriller and American stalk and slash, this little horror flick delivers on a variety of moments. While the ultimate result is perhaps a bit too tame for either parts of its concoction, the mixture is intriguing enough that cult fans should certainly dig up this one. The Wind doesn’t blow nearly as hard as it might have.

 

Legacy of Lies (2020)

Director: Adrian Bol

Notable Cast: Scott Adkins, Honor Kneafsey, Andrea Vasiliou, Yuliia Sobol, Anna Butkevich, Martin McDougall

 

Well, say what you will about 2020, but it has not stopped the massive run of films that Scott Adkins is having in the last handful of years. With only a handful of misses in the run, Adkins continues to impress and his latest, Legacy of Lies. A multi-national film, although the Ukrainian and Easter European influence can most certainly be felt in the tone and use of its setting, there is a sense of seriousness and darker atmosphere that makes it a perfect counterbalance to Adkins’ other action highlight of the year, Debt Collectors. Legacy of Lies pulls heavily from the modern meets old school tonality that has become its own style in the 00s, but the combination of some sharp direction, great characters, and Adkins’ impactful screen presence makes it one of the highlights of a rather dismal year in action cinema.

 

An ex-MI6 agent, Martin (Adkisn) finds himself caught between American and Russian agents when an old case, one that left him and his daughter widowed comes back to life. With his daughter (Kneafsey) is kidnapped, he will have to team up with a shadow of his past (Sobol) to unravel the missing threads.