The Complete @JonnyABomb on @DailyGrindhouse.

Daily Grindhouse would be pretty much my favorite website even if I weren’t writing for them, but since I am, here’s a collection of all my work so far.  It’s some of my very best stuff. Enjoy!

                                                 

Make Daily Grindhouse your daily destination for genre movie news, reviews, and interviews — there’s a ton of truly great content over there, beyond just the parts with my name on ‘em.

And follow me on Twitter for updates!: @jonnyabomb

31 FLAVORS OF HORROR!: ROAD GAMES (1981).

Now THIS is how you do homage. When I talked about 1986′s LINK, I mentioned how Australian director Richard Franklin was a devoted acolyte of the work of Alfred Hitchcock. You wouldn’t know it from watching LINK, but you’d absolutely know it from watching 1981′s ROAD GAMES.

ROAD GAMES, sometimes known under the more claustrophobic title ROADGAMES, stars Stacy Keach as Pat Quid, an American trucker making his way through the dry plains of Southern Australia in order to deliver a freezer full of frozen meat. His only companion is a dingo, which Quid has named Boswell, who rides shotgun. (Attention, English majors…) This is the first clue that Quid is an unconventional guy. It’s not exactly legal in this time and place to be riding with a dingo, no matter how docile and domesticated Boswell seems to be. Also, Quid is a bigtime chatterbox. He barrages poor Boswell with constant conversation, which for us viewers is a pleasure, since these monologues are delivered in the plummy stentorian register of Stacy Keach. Keach has come up with names for all the fellow travellers who he spots recurring along the highways, including Benny Balls, Fred Frugal, Captain Careful, Sneezy Rider, and, most ominously, Smith Or Jones.

Smith Or Jones is the driver of the dingy olive-green van that Quid spots driving suspiciously at the same time he’s hearing radio reports of a deranged killer at large. It’s a long time before Quid himself gets a look at Smith Or Jones, but right from the outset we the audience know that Quid’s not crazy, due to the eerie early scene where a young woman is strangled in a motel room with a mean-looking length of wire. For better or worse, and probably the latter, we know, we’re going to see that guy again. It’s when Quid picks up a young hitch-hiker (Jamie Lee Curtis, just a year fresh off THE FOG and three off HALLOWEEN) who he nicknames “Hitch” that the trail really starts getting warm.

Quid calls this young lady “Hitch” A) because it’s what he calls hitch-hikers and he likes nicknames for everyone, but to the film fanatics in the audience it’s a clear nod from Franklin and his writer, Everett De Roche, to the master filmmaker who made a movie much like this one in spirit. (And it’s no accident that Quid’s first name, “Pat,” was the also name of Alfred Hitchcock’s daughter. Nice little gender-reversal on the shout-out, there.) If you’ve seen 1954′s REAR WINDOW, there can be no doubt which Hitchcock movie Franklin and De Roche have taken as inspiration. REAR WINDOW is also a film about a hero stuck in an enclosed space, who catches wind of a crime and is deemed crazy by the authorities, leaving him to take matters into his own hands. Both movies make effective use of diagetic music, which means that you sometimes see the source of the music on screen — Stacy Keach plays the harmonica throughout ROAD GAMES, and at times his playing blends in with the score (which is a very good one, by Brian May of THE ROAD WARRIOR fame). Both movies have fun with nicknaming. And both movies are very romantic, despite all the bleakness and the overcast of murder. ROAD GAMES is romantic not just in the nicely-played relationship between Quid and Hitch, but also in the romance of the open road, of that dream some of us have of gassing up a truck and driving down highway as far as the eye can see — it’s a bonus if you’ve got a dog and a pretty girl riding shotgun.

I suppose it’s a minor stretch to classify ROAD GAMES as a horror film — it’s more of a suspense thriller than anything else, although Smith Or Jones is a truly spooky presence in his few fleeting appearances throughout the film. I feel justified grouping ROAD GAMES into horror because of its prime status in the genre of “Oz-ploitation” and because of its interesting proximity to HALLOWEEN. Richard Franklin was reportedly friendly with John Carpenter (I’m still looking for more information on this but it seems they studied at USC at the same time), and Franklin cast Jamie Lee Curtis in ROAD GAMES after meeting her on the set of THE FOG. And of course, the same year Jamie Lee Curtis appeared in ROAD GAMES she would soon appear in HALLOWEEN 2.

Much is said about John Carpenter’s affinity for the work of Howard Hawks, but less is said about how much Carpenter’s sensibilities also reflect a love for Hitchcock. (One clue is how HALLOWEEN‘s Dr. Loomis is named after a character in Hitchcock’s PSYCHO.) While Carpenter was subtly — and stylistically — paying homage to Hitchcock in HALLOWEEN, Richard Franklin would go on to do so directly with the sequel to PSYCHO, 1983′s PSYCHO 2, which I’ve not seen personally but if you’re interested to read more on it, you should read this review by the great Vern.

All of which is to say that if you loved John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN, and who doesn’t?, you will most definitely love Richard Franklin’s ROAD GAMES.

Ride with me on Twitter: @jonnyabomb

31 FLAVORS OF HORROR!: RAW MEAT (1972).

Studying a film genre, the way I’m attempting to do with horror with this feature, often means digging through surface layers and uncovering more and more bizarre history as you go along.  RAW MEAT is both an example of, and a metaphor for, that experience. 

RAW MEAT is a horror film made and released in the UK in 1972 under the title DEATH LINE.  For reasons I’ve not yet been able to track down, RAW MEAT is the title that was given to the movie for its United States release, a title by which it seems to be better known today.  It is the first film of Gary Sherman, the American-born filmmaker who nine years later made 1981′s DEAD & BURIED.  I was aware of DEAD & BURIED before I started this feature, but learned of RAW MEAT‘s existence only recently.  This is what I mean by the movie being a living example of the experience of genre-spelunking.

The poster for RAW MEAT tells you what we’re dealing with: Cannibals in the London underground.  But that wasn’t a common movie subject in 1972, and certainly not in the UK where things were more genteel.  The Hammer films could get pretty bloody for their time, but I don’t remember many willing to deal with the increasingly-relevant cinematic topic of inbred cannibals.  This movie arrived a year before THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, a decade before C.H.U.D., two decades before CREEP.  I can pretty much guarantee that John Landis saw RAW MEAT at some point before shooting the spooky underground scenes in AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON.  Its focus on the sleazier aspects of British nightlife also predated Landis’ movie, which, as we all remember, notoriously staged pivotal scenes in a porno theater.

RAW MEAT opens with an officious-looking gentleman in a trenchcoat checking out the dirty magazines in a sex shop, then getting shot down by a hooker in the underground train station.  The opening credits music by Wil Malone and Jeremy Rose is awesomely sleazy and porny and quite frankly, promises a little bit more than the movie provides.  Things scale back and slow down a little.  But not so much for this high-society fellow on safari, whose name is Manfred — he is attacked and left lying on the steps below.  A disgustingly-in-love young couple, Alex (David Ladd) and Patricia (Sharon Gurney), walk past the body — he dismisses the man as a bum sleeping it off, but she has more of a conscience.  After a debate that goes on a little too long, Patricia persuades Alex to find a cop — sorry, a bobby — and go to check on the poor sod.  But when they get there, the body is gone.

Enter Inspector Calhoun and his assistant Rogers, who are tasked with cracking the case.  Rogers is played by Norman Rossington, a British character actor who appeared in films such as THE LONGEST DAY, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, and A HARD DAY’S NIGHT.  Calhoun is played by Donald Pleasence, who is no strange face to readers of this site.  But if you’ve only seen Donald Pleasence in movies like THE GREAT ESCAPE, HALLOWEEN, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, PRINCE OF DARKNESS, and even PHENOMENA, you’ve seen a far more reserved and authoritative version.  This is a Donald Pleasence a tad closer to the late scenes of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, the buggin’-out “A-numbah-one!” version.  Calhoun is a sardonic and somewhat belligerent style of policeman.  There’s a single scene where the great Christopher Lee makes a cameo as an MI-5 agent who butts heads with Calhoun over jurisdiction, and that scene seems to exist only to show that Calhoun is an anti-authority kind of guy (and to serve as under-mentioned manna to horror fans).  Pleasence is the guy who keeps the movie alive anytime we’re above ground, since Alex and Patricia are a bit of a drag.  (She won’t see THE FRENCH CONNECTION because “it’s too violent.”)

Our recap has gone off the rails and neglected poor Manfred.  Well, he’s indeed been abducted by carnivorous underground morons — one in particular.  The monosyllabic killer, who is so hairy it’s hard to tell where the fur ends and the tattered clothing begins, is referred to as “The Man” in the credits and is the next-to-last of his kind.  He’s keeping the female of the species alive — she’s ailing – in a horrific room full of dead and decaying bodies and body parts.  Manfred is alive but catatonic from a blow to the head.  In a series of disturbing scenes, The Man’s process becomes clear, including one still-graphic moment where he slices open Manfred’s neck so that the Woman can drink. 

Eventually, Alex and Patricia get separated by hijinks involving closing subway doors, and The Man grabs Patricia and absconds with her to his underground charnel house.  Alex has to convince the cops to join up with him and head down there to find his girlfriend before she gets eaten up, or worse.  The abduction and rescue scenes all the way to the climax are very PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, owing to the old Universal tradition while remaining very freewheeling and atmospheric in that uniquely 1970s way.  The film ends on a weird, unique tag that I won’t ruin here.

RAW MEAT is a film that isn’t too well-known but seems to have had profound influence in key places.  It’s one of the first killer-cannibal movies that I can name, kicking off a genre that has been lurking within the horror ranks ever since.  The brief routine where The Man bites off a rat’s head predates all manners of rodent-biting incidents in heavy metal history.  Members of the crew went on to big things as well:

Make-up artist Peter Frampton went on to record Frampton Comes Alive!, and of course we all know about Propmaster Tony Teiger:

However, the work of director Gary Sherman would seem to deserve reconsideration.  RAW MEAT is a rough, imperfect movie, but a powerful and still-effective horror debut.  I’m not sure why it took him over a decade to get to his next movie, DEAD & BURIED, or why that movie didn’t lead to a bigger career (I’m reading that the unfortunate experience of POLTERGEIST III may have been a factor), but between those two movies alone, he surely deserves more credit in the books of cult horror.

One last thing:  RAW MEAT was co-produced by Paul Maslansky, who has since produced every fucking single POLICE ACADEMY movie to date.  You tell me what’s scarier.

P.S.  You can watch RAW MEAT in its entirety on YouTube, though maybe not for long.

 

Take a long shower and then come meet up with me on Twitter:  @jonnyabomb

 

All Of My Movie Writing So Far, Collected In One Place.

This collection has been much-requested and a long time coming.  To get at the reviews, just click on the movie poster of your choice.  And be sure to bookmark this page, because it’s bound to get updated frequently!

                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

For constant news about updates, follow me on Twitter:  @jonnyabomb

My Top 50 Movies Of All Time (At This Exact Moment In Time.)

And we’re back!  Ready for round two.  Inspired again by my friend-in-movies at Rupert Pupkin Speaks, I’m re-presenting and reshuffling my top fifty movies of all time.  “Reshuffling” sounds a little more extreme than what I’ve done here — most of the titles remain the same, and the order isn’t much different.  But there’s a fair amount of new blood, and I’ve updated the links to any movies I’ve written about at length (those are bolded in red.) 

This list is absolutely subject to change, so keep watching this space, but while you’re at it, don’t forget to keep watching the skies.

1. THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY (1966).

2. GHOSTBUSTERS (1984).

3. DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978).

4.  ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968).

5.  UNFORGIVEN (1992).

6.  KING KONG (1933).

7.  PREDATOR (1987).

8.  MANHUNTER (1986).

9.  BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (1986).

10.  MOTHER, JUGS & SPEED (1976).

11.  John Carpenter’s THE THING (1982).

12.  HEAT (1995).

13.  FREAKS (1932).

14. JAWS (1975).

15.  Berry Gordy’s THE LAST DRAGON (1985).

16.  THE WILD BUNCH (1969).

17.  SHAFT (1971).

18.  BEVERLY HILLS COP (1984).

19.  THE BIG GUNDOWN (1966).

20.  SEA OF LOVE (1989).

21. RAISING ARIZONA (1987).

22.  EVIL DEAD 2 (1987).

23.  OUT OF SIGHT (1998).

24.  THE INSIDER (1999).

25.  ALLIGATOR (1980).

26.  COLLATERAL (2004).

27.  THE GREAT SILENCE (1968).

28.  AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981).

29.  MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (1946).

30.  CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954).

31. PRIME CUT (1972).

32. WATERMELON MAN (1970).

33.  GROSSE POINTE BLANK (1997).

34.  25th HOUR (2002).

35.  COFFY (1973).

36. QUICK CHANGE (1990).

37.  MAGNOLIA (1999).

38.  HANNIE CAULDER (1971).

39. ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981).

40.  48 HRS. (1982).

41.  GOODFELLAS (1990).

42.  SHOGUN ASSASSIN (1980).

43.  PURPLE RAIN (1984).

44.  THE UNHOLY THREE (1925).

45.  TRUE GRIT (2010).

46.  THE PROFESSIONALS (1966).

47.  VIOLENT CITY aka THE FAMILY (1973).

48.  THE HIT (1984).

49.  EMPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE (1973).

50.  ATTACK THE BLOCK (2011).

50 1/2.  The five-minute skeleton swordfight in JASON & THE ARGONAUTS (1963).

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And that’s that…. for now.

For a little bit more all the time, find me on Twitter:  @jonnyabomb

My Top 50 Movies Of All Time (At This Exact Point In Time.)

I probably should be doing about 50 other things at this very moment, but I saw this great top-50 list today and was inspired it to immediately answer it.  I made my list very, very quickly, so in plenty of ways it’s the most honest form a list like this could ever arrive in.  While the numbering is fairly arbitrary (until the top five, where shit gets definite) and while the contents could easily change as soon as five minutes from now, this is still a fairly good representation of what a top fifty movies list from me should look like.  Anyway, let’s hit it.  Links where they fit.  I eagerly await any and all comments you might make!

50. Watermelon Man (1970).

49. Fletch (1985).

48. The Great Silence (1968).

47. Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954).

46. The Hit (1984).

45. Knightriders (1981).

44. The Night Of The Hunter (1955).

43. Of Unknown Origin (1983).

42. Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid (1973).

41. Prime Cut (1972).

40. Grosse Pointe Blank (1997).

39. Coffy (1973).

38. Trainspotting (1996).

37. In Bruges (2008).

36. Quick Change (1990).

35. Collateral (2004).

34. Out Of Sight (1998).

33. Halloween (1978).

32. Magnolia (1999).

31. Raising Arizona (1987).

30. Escape From New York (1981).

29. Shogun Assassin (1980).

28. Goodfellas (1990).

27. Purple Rain (1984).

26. True Grit (2010).

25. The Unholy Three (1925).

24. My Darling Clementine (1946).

23. The Insider (1999).

22. Alligator (1980).

21. Animal House (1978).

20. High Plains Drifter (1973).

19. Freaks (1932).

18. Beverly Hills Cop (1984).

17. An American Werewolf In London (1981).

 

16. Predator (1987).

 

15. Jaws (1975).

14. Shaft (1971).

13. Evil Dead 2 (1987).

 

12. The Wild Bunch (1969).

11. Manhunter (1986).

10. Mother, Jugs & Speed (1976).

9. Heat (1995).

8. King Kong (1933).

7. John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982).

6. Big Trouble In Little China (1986).

5. Unforgiven (1992).

4. Dawn Of The Dead (1978).

3. Ghostbusters (1984).

2. Once Upon A Time In The West (1968).

 

1. The Good The Bad & The Ugly (1966).

@jonnyabomb

My Top Ten Movies Of 2011.

There’s only one reason to post a list like this one at this preposterously late stage in the game, and that’s in the hopes that you might find something on my list which you haven’t seen yet and might like to be persuaded to try.

It’s never easy to distill an entire year’s worth of movies into a manageable list, but that’s not really the reason why I didn’t file one until now.  The real reason is that there are some significant movies I wasn’t able to see in time, and still haven’t been: most notably 50/50,  The Adventures Of Tintin, J.Edgar, A Separation, Shame, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, War Horse, and We Need To Talk About Kevin.  I see a lot of movies on a yearly basis, but even I can’t get to all of them.

Then there are all the prestigious movies you’ve been hearing plenty about lately, which I frankly am not too interested in going out of my way to see but probably could have done, just to be informed.  These include My Week With Marilyn, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Midnight In Paris, The Iron Lady, and The Help.   No offense intended (well, offense intended in a couple of those cases), but again, there’s only so much time in a life.

Last year I made a top twenty.  This year I decided to restrict myself to just ten.  Another reason for the delay.  A little narrowing was required.  If you want to hear what almost made it, we’ll be here all day.  So let’s not.  When selecting these ten, I gave myself one simple guideline:

Which movies am I most likely to revisit?

That immediately eliminated movies like Hugo, Mission Impossible: Ghost  Protocol, and Cave Of Forgotten Dreams, since a great part of what made those viewing experiences special to me was the way they used the 3-D and/or IMAX formats.

And it made things more honest, especially because I’ve already gone back to more than a few of my ten.  Some internet people strive to impress with their lists, but that’s not my style.  This really is the stuff I like the best, not the stuff I need anyone to think I like the best.

I did notice a trend of note here.  This is by far the most international list I have ever made.  Only four out of ten movies here were made in the U.S. of A., and two of those were made by foreign-born directors.  Does this mean that my personal tastes are getting more global?  Or does it mean that the cinema of my native land has been, generally speaking, somewhat lacking of late?  That part is a question maybe to ponder further.  In the meantime, seriously, I’ve dragged this out more than enough:

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My Top Ten Movies Of 2011.

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#10

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The Tree Of Life (USA)

 

What It’s About:

 

An aging man (Sean Penn) reflects back on his imperfect but happy childhood.Why I Love It:  Speaking strictly in terms of the visual, was there a single more beautiful movie in all of 2011?  Yeah?  Could ya name one?  Possibly Hugo, but that was a city-based kind of beauty.  The Tree Of Life, as is so often the case with Terrence Malick’s movies, finds the beauty in the effortless, the pre-existing, the resolutely natural.  And then there were the people.  As good as Brad Pitt was in Moneyball, he’s that much better in this movie.  I’ve always liked the guy in movies but I’ve never seen this level of sophistication in any of his characters before.  He’s playing a complicated person with a lot of internalized feelings, and he’s playing the whole thing from the perspective of another character.  Playing a much more openly and directly positive character, Jessica Chastain is still equally effective.  The kids in the movie are just as excellent — Malick is so often credited (justly) with his capacity to create indelible images that it’s easy to overlook his tendency to elicit terrific performances from pros and neophytes alike.  The Tree Of Life is a thoughtful movie at a time when the culture at large (and even myself, as evidenced by the fact that I’m only ranking this at #10) are yearning for the easy answers.  It’s a movie that lingers in the mind, and I predict it will gain in esteem as time goes on.  Awards-season conversations fade away quickly, but some movies will travel far beyond.  Trust me:  This is the kind of thing I tend to be most right about.  (It also helps to know that all of Terrence Malick’s films have grown in esteem since their original release dates.)

 

Is It On Netflix Instant?:

No.

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  #9

 

Viva Riva! (Congo)

 

What It’s About:

 

In a community where gasoline is a precious commodity, a devil-may-care rogue thief (Patsha Bey Mukuna) rips off a gas shipment from some very bad men, then runs into trouble when he falls for a local gangster’s girlfriend (Manie Malone.)

 

Why I Love It:

 

Because it’s electric.  Before I get to what makes this film so thrilling on a cultural level, let me start out by promising that it’s a solid crime film no matter what part of the world it’s from.  The plot relies on familiar noir tropes – the femme fatale, the murderous nemesis, the doomed hero – but where the story lacks in originality, the film more than makes up for it in atmosphere and intensity.  This is a low-budget movie shot entirely practically in a real community using primarily local talent, which gives the movie an added urgency and veracity.  This isn’t some Road Warrior future where gangs battle over gasoline — this is really happening in the world right now.  Imagine that; imagine the gasoline we Americans so take for granted being the currency that believably powers criminal enterprise in crowded, poverty-stricken villages.  But there’s also a harsh beauty to this movie.  The nightlife in Kinshasa feels vivid and seeped in detail and danger, and the sexuality in this movie has a fierceness and forthrightness rarely seen in European cinema, let alone puritanical America.  If there were rankings based on 2011′s most assertive (and acrobatic) cunnilingus scenes, this movie would have that position licked.  But it’s not just honest sex that makes this film so intriguing.  Viva Riva! serves as the ignition of a nation’s film industry.  On the DVD, director Djo Tunda Wa Munga talks about how he specifically designed the film’s plot to be familiar and genre-based because there aren’t a whole lot of Congolese films out there, and he wanted this one to be as accessible as possible in order to gather the international appetite for more films from the Congo.  With Viva Riva!, we’re seeing an entire film industry start from the ground up, and that’s an exciting thing to watch.

 

Is It On Netflix Instant?:  Yes!

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#8

 

13 Assassins (Japan)

What It’s About:

 

Thirteen samurai assassins are sent to dispose of an insane dictator.  Here be political subtext.

 

Why I Love It:

 

Takashi Miike is one of Japan’s most prolific and provocative directors.  His movies careen from genre to genre, although he is most notorious for unflinching scenes of horrific scenes of torture and extreme violence that thrill his admirers (including Quentin Tarantino) and disturb the squares (or the reasonable).  I can’t claim to be an authority on Miike, but 13 Assassins is surely one of his most masterful orchestrations.   He’s working on a grand scale here, starting with a story that has some basis in history and was dramatized once before, in 1963.  The first three-fifths or so of 13 Assassins is a run-up to the rest — there are brief and terrible outbursts of cruelty that firmly establish the threat that the maniacal noble presents, and make it clear that he needs to be removed.  (Indeed, as an audience we crave it, this guy’s so awful.)  But these violent scenes barely prepare us from what is to come; the majority of the movie is a relatively subdued chamber drama compared to the absolute carnage of the final act, where the titular baker’s dozen engineer a small village to be one large deathtrap for a retinue of two hundred enemies.  It’s difficult to overstate the literal awesomeness of the final battle, even if I were to go into the gory, inventive details, nor the mastery with which Miike conducts it.  If you are a fan of action cinema you simply must see this movie or your opinion doesn’t count.  Does that sound like a mean thing to say?  It’s because this movie quite unsubtly provides a political philosophy that is very compelling: The enemy forces are commanded by an old ally of the leader of the band of thirteen.  The leader is loath to battle his friend, but the guy is just plain on the wrong side of the argument.  He may be a good man carrying out his sworn duty, but he’s acting on behalf of a power-mad rich-kid who rapes and kills on a whim.  In the end, it’s suggested, mercy can be shown to no enemy, even if decent men may stand on the wrong side.  Here in America, with so many backwards arguments still being raised by the party of the privileged and slowing down civil rights, this philosophy is not without implications.

 

Is It On Netflix Instant?: Yes!

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#7

The Last Circus (Spain)

What It’s About:

In 1970s Spain, two circus clowns (Carlos Areces and Antonio de la Torre) go to war over a beautiful acrobat (Carolina Bang).

Why I Love It:

This movie has a scene where one circus clown hires a less-experienced clown to serve as his subordinate.  A clown job interview.  All I ever ask is that a movie show me something I’ve never seen before.  The Last Circus is an overt political and historical allegory, which will fascinate students of the power struggles in Spain throughout the past century, but for those of us with less sophisticated intellectual appetites, the film thrills on just as many cyllinders.  The central trio of performers are perfect in what must have been emotionally demanding roles:  The excellently-named Carolina Bang, as Natalia, “The Acrobat”, is both a pleasure to look at (something like a blond Katy Perry, only much better) and a genuinely impressive dramatic performer, anchoring the film by making its most human moments believable. Antonio de la Torre is both charismatic and terrifying as Sergio, “The Silly Clown”, a bully and an abuser, while Carlos Areces as Javier, “The Sad Clown”, a dead ringer for the comedian John Hodgman, centers and then upends the film as its protagonist turned villain turned tragic figure, a meek clown whose bullying at the hands of Sergio and rejection at the hands of Natalia ultimately turns him into a raving maniac.  Seriously, you have no idea how crazy this movie gets.  It’s like a Moulin Rouge! of violence; colorful, energetic, operatic, histrionic, beautiful, and horrible.  (If you have to, if it gets you to check this out, compare it to the Crank movies, only better and smarter in every way.)  Really, more than anything, The Last Circus reminds me of the mad opera of comic books.  Which makes sense, as filmmaker Alex de la Iglesia has worked as a comic book artist.  I’m not talking about the morose, costume-averse comic-book movies of the last few years.  I mean the deranged, carnival-sideshow feeling of the craziest comic books, which only really Tim Burton has tapped in his two Batman films (and arguably even Joel Schumacher did in his first Batman film.)  It’s that feeling of having a blast of a time as a viewer even as you’re watching the characters on screen living out their worst moments.  There’s a bizarre vicarious release to be had from witnessing such creative, bombastic madness, and as American comic-book action films have lately gotten more self-serious and eager to please everyone, we’ve moved away from that crazy energy.  It’s a shame, but it makes me ravenous to see whatever de la Iglesia comes up with next.

Is It On Netflix Instant?:  Yes!

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#6

 

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (USA)

 

What It’s About:

 

The life and rise to power of a tyrannical chimpanzee.

 

Why I Love It:

 

Did you read that synopsis?  It’s literally astounding.  No offense, but Twentieth Century Fox, as a studio, is responsible for some of the most ponderous and frankly misguided films of the past decade — there was no reason to expect they’d get this so right.  Honestly, they (by hiring and empowering writers Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver and director Rupert Wyatt) got this movie better than right.  I’m a big fan of the original Planet Of The Apes but I wouldn’t have had much interest in seeing it remade (as evidenced by the actual remake from 2001, a great example of what I was referring to earlier as “ponderous and misguided”).  This new movie is so much more interesting than a paint-by-numbers remake or a so-called re-envisioning.  It’s even more interesting than the movie I thought I wanted.  It’s the most realistic version we could ever expect to see of what would happen if a super-smart chimp decided he was mad as hell and didn’t want to take it anymore.  Having recently seen the astonishing, similarly-themed documentary Project Nim, I’m all the more enamored of Rise Of Planet Of The Apes.  It’s true speculative fiction, legitimate science-fiction, and truly affecting.  The humans in the story are by far the less interesting — I have plenty of affection for James Franco and Freida Pinto as performers, but they are strictly supporting characters to Caesar (in a phenomenal, ground-breaking performance by Andy Serkis).  Even John Lithgow plays it muted, no doubt being practiced in playing second fiddle to a man in an ape costume from his experience on Harry & The Hendersons.   Caesar is the star of the show, and one of the best characters of any movie in 2011.  I just can’t get over the fact that this is a huge-budgeted studio film which is essentially a character study of a chimpanzee.  That’s a minor miracle.  I mean, seriously folks: It’s the primate version of Scarface.  What on any planet would I not love about that?

Is It On Netflix Instant?:  No.

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 #5

 

Black Death (Germany/UK)

What It’s About:

A young monk (Eddie Redmayne) is recruited by a monomaniacal knight (Sean Bean) to go find and kill a rumored witch who is said to be able to raise the dead.

Why I Love It:

Because this is a terrific example of a cinematic rope-a-dope — you think it’s going to be one thing, and then it proves to be quite another.  I love it when a movie confounds my expectations that way, and I love it even better when the end result is this satisfying.  Black Death is by far the most underrated and under-seen film to appear in theaters all year.  It’s excellent all around – believable, wonderfully-acted, impeccably production-designed, and terrifically-written.  It does start out to seem like more of an epic and turns out to be far more modest, but I think that even works in its favor — the smaller scale makes it more intense and effective.  I’ve already written plenty about this overlooked gem, and I hope you get a chance to read that here, but even more than that, I’d be glad if you got the chance to please give the movie a look.  It’s worth your time.

Is It On Netflix Instant?:  Yes!

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 #4

Beginners (USA)

What It’s About:

A graphic designer (Ewan McGregor) beginning a new relationship copes with the legacy of his charismatic father (Christopher Plummer), who came out of the closet at the age of 75 before dying of cancer a few years later.

Why I Love It:

I’m attracted to movies (and people) that are honest and genuine.  Too many movies (and people) are either soulless or putting up a front to impress.  Beginners is one from the heart, an evident labor of love by its writer-director Mike Mills and his crew, and just as important, it’s a well-made movie.  The Christopher Plummer performance has gotten the most attention, and rightly, as it’s the engine that drives the movie, but that’s not all Beginners has to offer.  Look, you don’t have to dig too deep on this website to read me praising Christopher Plummer, but let’s not overlook Ewan McGregor’s inward performance as his much-less emotionally demonstrative son, Melanie Laurent as the lively woman who begins to draw him out, Goran Visnic as Plummer’s character’s dense but loving widow, and yes, Cosmo the dog in the best animal performance of the year.  And most of all, let’s not overlook Mike Mills’ storytelling achievement in creating one of the realest, most relatable movies of the past few years, let alone 2011:  I can’t exactly relate to the gay-dad story, but you’d better believe I understand McGregor’s character and his tentative attempts at a relationship with Melanie Laurent’s.  This is real life, this is real love — just a little more entertaining and uplifting.  My full-on piece on Beginners can be read here, but let me put it simply and directly:  You see that tagline on the poster?  “This is what love feels like.”  That’s not an inexact description of what this movie manages to achieve.

Is It On Netflix Instant?:  No.

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#3

 

The Guard (Ireland)

What It’s About:

An American FBI agent (Don Cheadle) teams up with an extremely unconventional local cop (Brendan Gleeson) to catch some drug traffickers who have come to a small Irish town.Why I Love It:  Well, I really love it.  I’ve already rewatched The Guard three times since I first saw it theatricallyin September.  Like Beginners, I knew right away that this movie would make this year-end list.  If nothing else, Brendan Gleeson as Gerry Boyle is the single best fucking character out of any movie in 2011.  Gerry Boyle is profane, funny, iconoclastic, bull-headed, clever, moronic, sly, sarcastic, perverse, horny, devoted, noble, and really fucking profane.  At one point during The Guard, Don Cheadle’s frustrated FBI agent Wendell Everett tells Boyle, who has just frustrated him for the fiftieth time in the first day of them knowing each other, “I can’t tell if you’re really motherfucking dumb, or really motherfucking smart.”  It’s a good question, so on-the-nose it’s repeated later in the movie.  It’s pretty much the central question driving the movie.  It’s a blast to watch Cheadle puzzle it out, and even more fun to watch Gleeson confound everyone he encounters.  We first meet Gerry Boyle as he’s patrolling the comatose Galway countryside, coming across the wreckage of a recently-totalled fast car containing dead club kids who just had their last all-night rager.  Boyle dutifully inspects the bodies, comes up with a tab of ecstasy, and with a shrug, pops the pill into his mouth.  He then moves onto a crime scene to investigate a dead body, this one no accident, which turns out to be the handiwork of a trio of drug traffickers, played by the world-class character actors Liam Cunningham and Mark Strong and the lesser-known but equally memorable David Wilmot.  This trio is an entertaining enough bunch on their own, as is every single supporting character in the movie really (my current favorite being Dominique McElligott as an embattled escort with a sense of humor), but they’re all ultimately playing the straight men to Gleeson’s Gerry Boyle.  I can’t say it the fuck enough:  This is one of the craftiest performances of the year, in the role of the year.  Everything about The Guard is good fun, but if you’re not keeping your eyes on this guy, you’re missing the fecking point, ye idjit.

Is It On Netflix Instant?:  No.

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 #2

Drive (USA)

What It’s About:

A stuntman who works nights as a getaway driver (Ryan Gosling) gets wrapped up in a robbery gone wrong.

Why I Love It:

I hinted around this point in my review, but let me just spell it out:  The main character in this movie prefers not to talk if he can help it.  He’s pretty good at what he does, yet fallible at major make-or-break moments.  He’s got his own sense of style.  He’s loyal to his friends, he’s good with kids, he’s got a soft touch with the ladies — well, some but not all.  He’s cool, but not as cool as he thinks (a toothpick? really?)  In other words:  It’s very possible that it would scare you to know how similar this character is to your humble narrator here.  For better or worse, like no other movie in 2011 I related to Drive from the center of my being.  The great thing about Drive is that you don’t have to be me to relate into this movie.  The movie is built to work that way for anyone.  In fact, I could just be projecting.  It’s a broad-strokes movie, only tangentially willing to delve into character.  The novel by James Sallis has extensive backstories for every character, but the movie only gives you a little.  It instead foregoes story for mood and atmosphere.  Like a song. Just like a song.  And the best pop songs are the universal ones.  If you can get into Drive‘s particular rhythms, it’s impossible not to go with them.  There are people who shit-talked Drive, sure.  They’re the same people who shit-talked The Tree Of Life.  They’re the same people who think The Artist is a realistic candidate for the title of 2011′s Best Picture.  They don’t actually understand art when they’re looking at it.  But while The Tree Of Life is fine art, built for history, Drive is pop art, built for the moment.  You can come back to it, as many times as you like, and for the temporary moment you’re watching it – like the greatest pop art – it can make you feel like the hero of your own movie.  Or, at least it can give you a glimpse into the mind into the kind of guy who does.

Is It On Netflix Instant?:  No.

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 #1

 

Click to read my original review!

 

Attack The Block (UK)

What It’s About:

A swarm of carnivorous aliens land near a tenement building ruled by a gang of juvenile delinquents.

Why I Love It:

Because when I walked out of the theater onto the city streets after the first time I saw Attack The Block, I was on a dizzy movie-high, and I’ve felt almost that good after each successive viewing.  Attack The Block is funny, scary, exciting, smart, and occasionally even touching.  It has its social context if you want to think about that kind of thing (and at some point you should), but first and foremost this movie has come to entertain you, and there was no movie I saw in 2011 that was better suited to that task.  I’ve been pondering myself, and talking over with some savvy friends, why Attack The Block didn’t catch on the way I hoped.  Maybe people like me, who got to see it early and tried to fan the flames of interest, overdid it, and set up expectations no movie could meet.  Maybe it was the British accents.  Maybe you were more amenable if you grew up on hip-hop culture.  Maybe you were more amenable if you had a working knowledge of British hip-hop culture.  Maybe American audiences are too attuned to the over-edited, under-developed style of cruddy American action movies.  Maybe Attack The Block was just too good.  Maybe it’s an instant cult movie, like Carpenter’s The Thing not appreciated in its own time but lying in wait for its eventual audience to find it.  Or maybe it’s the fact that the movie’s heroes are a bunch of black kids and a white woman.  That’s still a hard sell in America.  But there’s that social context I was alluding to before.  That’s no fun.  This movie is fun.  It’s stuffed with jokes and thrills.  For monster freaks like me, it has one of the most ingenious alien designs of any movie I’ve seen in the past decade.  It has a terrific score, energetic performances, an instantaneous movie star in lead actor John Boyega (already cast by Spike Lee in an upcoming project), a smarter script (by director Joe Cornish) than it’s likely to be credited for, a great sense of momentum, and the single best ending of any movie I saw in 2011.  There are plenty of sci-fi movies with hundreds of times more budget, but it doesn’t make them any better.  Attack The Block is a simple, direct, eminently effective entertainment machine.  Did I oversell it?  Probably.  But I just had that great a time.  Attack The Block was 2011′s best party.  Sorry some of you couldn’t make it.

Is It On Netflix Instant?:  No.  But it’s on steady rotation at my place.  Attack The Block Party, anyone?

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Find me on Twitter!: @jonnyabomb

31 FLAVORS OF HORROR #28: RED STATE (2011).

Red State is the new movie from writer-director Kevin Smith, he who made Clerks and Chasing Amy and many other low-budget comedies over the past decade and a half.  This movie is a major departure for Smith, as it’s a very politically conscious story, made and played like a horror movie.  Seeing as how Kevin Smith has given himself roles in his own movies since the beginning, and how he has made a lucrative side career with podcasts and public appearances where he talks at length about himself and his movies, and how he has been on a year-long nationwide tour talking about Red State and himself, it’s impossible to talk about a Kevin Smith movie without talking about Kevin Smith.  But I’ll do my damnedest.  Red State, the movie, deserves the attention.

The movie starts with three horny teenage boys, so desperate to get laid that they answer a fateful ad online, which promises sex with an older woman (Melissa Leo from The Fighter) but ends up being a trap set by a religious fundamentalist group who believe it’s their God-given duty to punish sinners.  The church’s leader is a man named Abin Cooper (Michael Parks from Kill Bill and Death Proof), a real nasty piece of work who coos eloquent symphonies of hate to his flock and commands murders even as he calmly sings hymns from over a piano.   Cooper gives sermons while sinners like ‘homosexuals’ and ‘perverts’ are strapped to a cross and killed by his parishioners.  The movie takes a left turn when a complex chain of events, involving the escape of two of the teens, Cooper’s attempted blackmail of a closeted gay local sheriff (the always-great Stephen Root), and the shooting of a local deputy (Matt Jones, so awesome as Badger from Breaking Bad) results in a tense stand-off with the FBI.  John Goodman plays the federal agent dispatched to the scene, and he and Parks are the two charismatic centerpieces stabilizing a movie which is obviously pulled in several different directions with all the ideas present.

If I had no idea that Kevin Smith made this movie, I would tell you honestly that I think Red State is a fascinating misfire.  Knowing that Kevin Smith made it, though, the movie is a revelation.  It’s neither as great as its champions would tell you nor as bad as its detractors are no doubt lining up to claim.  Quentin Tarantino is quoted on the poster as loving Red State, but I think that has more to do with his love for Michael Parks as an actor — whatever else you want to call it, Red State is a great showcase for an underrated actor.  But it’s also true that it’s in the scenes dominated by Abin Cooper that Smith gets in his own way as a writer — even Kevin Smith would have to agree that he’s a person who loves to hear himself talk, and it shows in his writing.  Kevin Smith loves to hear his characters speak words he wrote for them, and when it comes to Michael Parks delivering monologues, Smith is downright intoxicated.  This is admittedly compelling for the viewer, but it also saps the tension established by the surrounding scenes.  There’s a scene where Abin Cooper and his people are gearing up to kill their crucified “sinner” while the three boys watch terrified, and I honestly tensed up, but then Cooper starts talking for what feels like at least five minutes of running time, and I palpably felt the tension ebb.  You just can’t have that in a movie.  Kevin Smith serves as his own editor on his movies; I’m not sure that’s advisable.

Red State has a couple disturbing and shocking kills in it, but it’s not much of a horror movie.  It leaps too readily away from the more traditionally horrific set-up, where the boys are imprisoned by bloodthirsty fanatics, to the more real-world scenario of John Goodman and his men preparing to storm the compound.  And once those two worlds collide, the movie cuts back and forth between them too rapidly to ever regain any kind of consistent tone.  Part of the hyperactivity of the film can be blamed on its look — for years, critics have been riding Smith for his reluctance to move the camera; unfortunately, on this movie he finally responded by adopting that shaky-cam look so overused by film and television.  Really, Smith shouldn’t bear the sole blame for the dull look of his previous films or the choppy look of this one — his long-time cinematographer, Dave Klein, hasn’t shown too much of a learning curve himself.  Still, both of them have to be commended for finally shaking things up.  Red State looks different than any previous Kevin Smith/Dave Klein joint, and I’m glad to see it.  As a one-time fan of Kevin Smith’s movies, the honesty and the frequent wit, I was genuinely excited to see him change things up, even this late in the game.

One thing that makes Red State worth talking about, if not entirely effective, is that it is about something real and terrible.  Red State takes direct aim on Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church, the hateful group out of Kansas who picket military funerals with signs that say “God Hates Fags.”  No matter how you look at it, these are some of the worst people on the planet, although I’ve recently read some articles suggesting that Phelps and his people are opportunists and fame-seekers more than true believers (which at least explains their stupid and inconsistent message).  Either they really believe these insanely horrible things, or, if the rumblings are true, they pull these stunts at funerals just to provoke the bereaved into throwing punches, at which point they can begin to profit from the lawsuits.   I’m not sure which would be worse.  Part of me loves that Kevin Smith went after these horrible people, but part of me is annoyed that he gave them the attention they are so very clearly seeking.

It seems as if the conflicted feeling is something intentional, as the stand-off between FBI and evil congregation quickly becomes a gun-battle lasting half the movie, where the bodies pile up on both sides.  Red State has at least two moments which recall the ending of Romero’s Night Of The Living Dead, moments which make an audience feel much more ambiguous about the fate of Cooper/Phelps’s people than we probably want to.  I’m not sure yet how I feel about that, or how I’m supposed to feel.  Is it that hate is awful, even when we hate the hateful?  Are we to resist yearning to see people like Fred Phelps destroyed, lest we destroy a part of ourselves in the process?  I’m honestly not sure.  Personally, I’ve always been satisfied with my own reaction to the Fred Phelpses of the world — I turn my back and plug my ears.  If they want my attention, they’ll never have it.  (It’s why I kind of love the very last scene of the movie — I feel like my voice was represented.)

Kevin Smith, however, still has my attention — for better or for worse.  I don’t think Red State is as effective as it could have been, since it veers wildly between tones and has just a bit too much going on for a movie of its brief length.  But I’d much rather see a thought-provoking movie that doesn’t quite work than a thoughtless movie that follows all “the rules.”  If I didn’t know Kevin Smith made Red State, I’d still be willing to see that filmmaker’s follow-up.  Knowing it’s the work of Kevin Smith, I say “better late than never”.  Of course, he’s very loudly claimed that Red State is his second-to-last movie, having repeatedly threatened retirement after his next one.  I’ll believe that when I see it.  Jay-Z retired too, and that guy’s everywhere now.  Kevin Smith is everywhere now too, but as long as he’s swinging for the fences by making ambitious, energized movies like Red State, I can tolerate it.

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31 FLAVORS OF HORROR #18: RE-ANIMATOR (1985).

Eventually, the Lovecraft thing had to be addressed in this column.  I just spent a lot of space on a movie which references The Necronomicon, a Lovecraft invention.  Horror luminaries such as John Carpenter, Joe Lansdale, Stephen King, Guillermo Del Toro, and Mike Mignola (all of whom I happen to admire tremendously) all name Lovecraft as a significant influence.  Basically, H.P. Lovecraft is one of the most widely-read and profoundly influential writers of short stories and novels in the horror genre.

Dirty little secret:  I’m not a fan. Couldn’t care less, in fact.

Blast me if you want, Lovecraft defenders, but yes, it is all about the anti-Semitism charges.  It seems to be a point of debate, but Lovecraft was reportedly a major anti-Semite — actually, the only debate seems to be how much of one he was.  In my experience?  With that stuff, where there’s smoke there’s fire.  And once I smell that particular smoke, I’m not willing to put my hand on the doorknob.  For me, it has to do with the way my Bukowski phase ended the day I saw that documentary where he hits a woman on camera:  No matter how great an artist you may be, when you commit certain sins, the door of my mind is closed to you.

Plus, Lovecraft had a weird thing for tentacles.  What’s that little leitmotif all about?

That’s no slight intended on any of the wonderful artists, writers, and filmmakers who continue to name Lovecraft as an influence — it’s only to say that I’d much rather enjoy their own work than be willing to go back and explore that influence.  Which brings us to 1985′s Re-Animator.

I love Re-Animator!

Stuart Gordon’s movie is based on a Lovecraft story called “Herbert West—Re-Animator”.  I haven’t read the original story, but somehow I doubt it could be this much fun.  Re-Animator is bright, colorful, poppy, pulpy, and phenomenally gory.  Fans of Evil Dead 2 who haven’t seen this movie yet should definitely catch up — I did, and I’m very happy about having done.

Re-Animator opens in a lab in Switzerland, where Dr. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) has been serving as apprentice to a Dr. Hans Gruber — apparently, Alan Rickman’s character in Die Hard was using the name of a Swiss scientist all that time! Anyway, Dr. Hans Gruber isn’t feeling too well when we meet him.  He’s pitching about in a mindless fit, turning purple.  When other people run in to check on the commotion, they get treated to the appetizing sight of the doctor’s eyes exploding, right before he collapses in a heap.  That’s when we get our first indication of what Herbert West is up to:  He insists he didn’t kill him, but “I gave him life!”

The story then returns to America, where Dr. Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) is a promising young doctor who is involved with the pretty daughter (Barbara Crampton) of the university’s dean Halsey (Robert Samson).  Herbert West shows up for work, really half on a revenge mission against the faculty member, Dr. Hill (David Gale), a spooky dead-ringer for Senator John Kerry whom West accuses of having lifted ideas from Hans Gruber — the scientist, not the international terrorist.  I’m aware that I’m making this summary needlessly complicated.

Basically, West rents a room from Dan, and sets up his strange experiments in the basement.  This immediately causes friction with Dan’s girlfriend Megan, who doesn’t like or trust him, rightfully so, any more than West can stand her (much less rightfully.)  The script, by Stuart Gordon with William Norris and Dennis Paoli, moves impressively quickly, advancing the situation where most other movies would drag this segment out needlessly.  Dan and Megan find out what West is up to when they discover their cat, Rufus, in West’s refrigerator.  West half-heartedly insists that Rufus died in there, he meant to tell them, but Dan later finds out the truth, that West killed the cat so that he could bring it back to life, in a truly amazing scene:

Dan wakes in the night to the most hideous yowls.  He looks through the darkened house for West, and getting no response, finally busts down the basement door, only to find West struggling desperately with the re-animated corpse of Rufus the cat.  I’ve seen a lot of things in movies, but I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen two men fighting a zombie cat before.  What’s even more awesome is the way the fight is ultimately resolved.  I had to watch it three times, and I laughed loudly all three times.  It’s of a piece with the tremendous tonal achievement of Gordon’s movie — it’s creepy and weird, but just as much hilarious and unpredictable.

 

_______________________________

I’m going to quit the plot recapping there, since half the fun of the movie is in the surprises and shocks, but you get the general picture:  People start getting turned into zombies.  West is mono-maniacally determined to pursue this discovery, and Megan is horrified, and Dan, as West’s colleague and Megan’s lover, is pulled in both directions.  I may have tipped a bit of plot when I told you how much Dr. Hill resembles John Kerry, since you can see a disembodied John Kerry head up on that poster above, but even with that fore-knowledge you can have no conception of how far things go from there.  It’s crazy, a total EC Comics blast.

What I loved most about Re-Animator, along with the up-for-anything performances of all of the lead actors, is Stuart Gordon’s direction.  Working with cinematographer Mac Ahlberg, Gordon achieves an amazingly energetic and colorful look for a movie that can’t have had much money to work with.  It’s such a nerdy film-geek thing to say, but I loved the framing of this movie.  The shots are composed like comic book panels.  It suits the tone, which is simultaneously sincere and hysterical.  Re-Animator is literally mad about movies, in the Mad Magazine sense that is, right down to the score, which swipes directly, brazenly, and frequently from Bernard Hermann’s score for Hitchcock’s Psycho.  But it’s not a parody, exactly, and it’s not just an homage either — it’s played totally straight in many aspects.  Megan’s pain is acted out realistically by the underrated Barbara Crampton, as is Dan’s total confusion and Herbert’s mania.  The performances are believable and frequently likable, even as the pitch of the movie’s events get whipped up into a frenzy.

The legacy of Re-Animator is surprisingly fertile.  There were two sequels, Bride Of Re-Animator and Beyond Re-Animator, both made with Jeffrey Combs but without Stuart Gordon, and other sequels have been rumored, along with a musical adaptation (!). It’s regularly cited as one of the great cult horror movies of the past few decades, and actually enjoys a much better critical appreciation than most cult horror movies do.  Jeffrey Combs made such a great impression with this break-through role that he is regarded by many horror fans in the same stratosphere as the greats like Bruce Campbell.  I wasn’t as familiar with his work, since he’s spent a lot of time in the Star Trek franchise and I don’t follow that, and I wasn’t familiar with this movie due to the aforementioned Lovecraft association, but Jeffrey Combs and Re-Animator deserve every single member of their prodigious cult following, if not more.  It’s a tremendously fun movie, and now I’m tempted to check out the sequels and related objects from the Gordon and Combs filmographies.

I remind you: Zombie Cat.

http://twitter.com/jonnyabomb

The Library.

Full disclosure time.  I think a person’s home movie collection says plenty about their interests as a moviegoer.  Since I talk about movies all the time, I imagine this would be relevant evidence.  Here’s what is on my shelf at home so far…

                                                                                                              

Feel free to judge!

Find me on Twitter: @jonnyabomb