Movie 43 (R) - Review
"That's a lot of nuts!"
2013 is on us, and so is the meta compilation comedy movie.titled Movie 43. Its a repugnant film starring resplindant film stars. It is hip and chic to go slumming, and slumming they do in this genetalia laced 1.5 hour scat joke. The humor is subbasement with the likes of Hugh Jackman, Dennis Quaid, Greg Kinnear, Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts, Richard Gere and Gerard Butler as a ball obsessed leprechaun. The cast is stellar but not comedy oriented, so they spice up some of the other roles with seasoned funnymen the likes of Johnny Knoxville, Anna Faris and Larry Sanders. Each piece is a small vinget created by its own director/writer (a Farrelly brother is involved) which are tied together with the narrative of the film being sold to a Hollywood producer. Some skits can be likened to dirty SNL episodes (Batman and Robin on a date, a kid whos home schooled till insane) others to late night informercials for direct to video releases. While it did illicit a few laughs and fed a fondness for cartoon cat mayhem, the unappatizing barrage of toilet/gential/and awkward humor left a bad taste in our mouth and a stain on the carpet.
4 Tea Bags out of 10 (BAD)
Showing posts with label Anthology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anthology. Show all posts
The ABCs of Death (2012)
The ABCs of Death (R) - Review
"W is for Wildly Uneven"
The movie starts with text proclaiming that 26 different directors from around the world created a short 5-6 minute film for each letter of the alphabet for a budget of $5,000 each. They were free to write, produce and edit their shorts as they pleased, resulting in a film sold by its Producers and trailers as an Horror anthology that mostly disappoints (and sometimes embarrasses). Only a few attempted something resembling horror, most were scatological, sexually deviant or had an absurdist humor slant. Those that excelled are few and far between: a man bare knuckle boxing a dog with great music and editing in mostly slo motion, a school janitor haunted by the children he's abused and the deer he's hunted, a claymation about a boy scared of the toilet, a sick sex-torture contest to the death, a man committing seppuku, a woman's blunt attack on her bed ridden husband. For every 1 hit there are 2 absolute misses, ranging from ignorantly shallow to pretentious (or dangerously lazy to overambitious). The rest are mediocre eye rollers (or in the case of the Japanese submissions, head scratchers), it feels as if most directors took the $5k and just made whatever pet project they wanted to and completely disregarded the Death theme or the horror genre. However if you've ever seen a Sick and Twisted film festival (Spike and Mike we miss you), you'll know better what to expect and perhaps enjoy the post-movie conversations about which ones you liked or not and why. The rest of you, expect a cycle of Snore, snore, shock, snore, gasp, repeat. YMMV.
4.5 Dog Fight Club Could be an Feature Length Film out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)
"W is for Wildly Uneven"
The movie starts with text proclaiming that 26 different directors from around the world created a short 5-6 minute film for each letter of the alphabet for a budget of $5,000 each. They were free to write, produce and edit their shorts as they pleased, resulting in a film sold by its Producers and trailers as an Horror anthology that mostly disappoints (and sometimes embarrasses). Only a few attempted something resembling horror, most were scatological, sexually deviant or had an absurdist humor slant. Those that excelled are few and far between: a man bare knuckle boxing a dog with great music and editing in mostly slo motion, a school janitor haunted by the children he's abused and the deer he's hunted, a claymation about a boy scared of the toilet, a sick sex-torture contest to the death, a man committing seppuku, a woman's blunt attack on her bed ridden husband. For every 1 hit there are 2 absolute misses, ranging from ignorantly shallow to pretentious (or dangerously lazy to overambitious). The rest are mediocre eye rollers (or in the case of the Japanese submissions, head scratchers), it feels as if most directors took the $5k and just made whatever pet project they wanted to and completely disregarded the Death theme or the horror genre. However if you've ever seen a Sick and Twisted film festival (Spike and Mike we miss you), you'll know better what to expect and perhaps enjoy the post-movie conversations about which ones you liked or not and why. The rest of you, expect a cycle of Snore, snore, shock, snore, gasp, repeat. YMMV.
4.5 Dog Fight Club Could be an Feature Length Film out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)
Trick 'R Treat (2008)
Trick 'R Treat (R)
"Smell our Feet"
Anthology of horror centering around a town's Halloween celebrations, with intertwining stories with a little sack headed trick 'r treater tying them all together, Trick 'R Treat was shelved by a studio and then pushed to the video market without a wide release, where horror hungry cult fans found it and began carrying it around from door to door.
Despite a good cast and a great grasp of the holiday's bumps and scares, the film devolves quickly into horror tropes and is short on real originality (and good looking SFX). Structured kind of like a Tarratino narrative, with pieces hodge-podging and crossing paths, Trick 'R Treat unfortunately never obtains scary, and some moments are so eye rolling that you'll be reaching for the John Carpenter DVDs to get you back on track to creepy town. While the theme and inside jokes make the film re-watchable, this movie is more like those icky sweets your grandma still insists on handing out than the full size Snickers everyone wants. It's the Candy Corn of Halloween movies, and sure some people lap them up, but others can see their fructose flaws and would rather leave it at the bottom of the bag for their siblings with less discerning tastes.
4 That Guy From Happiness was the most convincing part out of 10 (BAD)
New York Stories (1989)
New York Stories (PG)
"Big Apple Stories"
It's a movie about NY in 3 parts by 3 different directors, so deserve to be reviewed seperately:
Life Lessons - Martin Scorsese directs one of his finest films as Nick Nolte growls and roars as Lionel Dolbey, a larger than life modern artist driving himself and his assistant crazy with his desires and need to express himself on large canvases and piles of oil paint. Look for early cameo work by Buscemi, but the camera is the real star here, zooming, irising, slowing down and isolating to the LOUD rock and roll soundtrack, its the best photography in any of Scorsese's work, and that's saying something. 5/5.
Life with Zoe - Get the fast forward button ready... Francis Coppola's piece is an indulgent look into a spoiled lifestyle seen through the eyes of an upperclass childhood (written unsurprisingly enough by his daughter, Sofia). Tries to be dream/fairytale like, instead comes across as bratty and privileged. Probably didn't mean to come across as snotty as it does, but its an unfortunate sour note and the main reason the film as a whole isn't as acclaimed as it could have been. 0/5
Oedipus Wrecks - Woody Allen at his best is a comedy scriptwriter, and the ideas here are very funny. He plays himself, a man under the constant scrutiny and humiliation of his overbearing Jewish mother who disapproves of his every decision. There are several humorous to laugh out loud moments, culminating in a great visual gag that is so absurd that it works, Woody was always a big idea man, and the paranoid fantasy of how far this mother will go to maternally bend him to her intended lifestyle really has a delightful Kafka-esque torture to it, cartoony as it is. 4/5
As a whole film? 7 Leave Zoe at home Francis' out of 10 (GOOD)
"Big Apple Stories"
It's a movie about NY in 3 parts by 3 different directors, so deserve to be reviewed seperately:
Life Lessons - Martin Scorsese directs one of his finest films as Nick Nolte growls and roars as Lionel Dolbey, a larger than life modern artist driving himself and his assistant crazy with his desires and need to express himself on large canvases and piles of oil paint. Look for early cameo work by Buscemi, but the camera is the real star here, zooming, irising, slowing down and isolating to the LOUD rock and roll soundtrack, its the best photography in any of Scorsese's work, and that's saying something. 5/5.
Life with Zoe - Get the fast forward button ready... Francis Coppola's piece is an indulgent look into a spoiled lifestyle seen through the eyes of an upperclass childhood (written unsurprisingly enough by his daughter, Sofia). Tries to be dream/fairytale like, instead comes across as bratty and privileged. Probably didn't mean to come across as snotty as it does, but its an unfortunate sour note and the main reason the film as a whole isn't as acclaimed as it could have been. 0/5
Oedipus Wrecks - Woody Allen at his best is a comedy scriptwriter, and the ideas here are very funny. He plays himself, a man under the constant scrutiny and humiliation of his overbearing Jewish mother who disapproves of his every decision. There are several humorous to laugh out loud moments, culminating in a great visual gag that is so absurd that it works, Woody was always a big idea man, and the paranoid fantasy of how far this mother will go to maternally bend him to her intended lifestyle really has a delightful Kafka-esque torture to it, cartoony as it is. 4/5
As a whole film? 7 Leave Zoe at home Francis' out of 10 (GOOD)
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
Twilight Zone: The Movie (PG)
"You want to see something that is sometimes scary?"
An anthology of suspense stories presented by some of the 80s best directors as an homage to the late great Rod Serling's television show is dragged down by an on set tragedy and subsequent bad press matched with several mediocre efforts that rewrote and shortened beloved TV versions of Twilight Zone episodes.
1st up is John Landis' (A Werewolf In London) piece that was untimely end of veteran actor Vic Morrow and child costars in a deadly onset helicopter accident and subsequently Landis' career as a director due to negligence. The segment isn't much anyway, especially with the pall of three deaths on its shoulders. An outdated man out of time story, a racist and anti-Semite somehow finds himself in Nazi occupied 1943 with the gestapo on his heels. Sad for all involved.
2nd is Steven Spielberg's (1942) retelling of a Zone episode that already didn't hold up very well by the 80s, Old people mysteriously grow young by kicking the can. Tedious and sappy nostalgia.
3rd up is the cartoonishly freakout retelling of a child with amazing powers done by Joe Dante (Gremlins). The child can make anything happen with a thought, and a child being raised on Looney Tunes and PBJ sammiches leads to a lethal combination. When a new visitor is brought into his influence, will her maternal instincts free the world of this menace or lock us all in his house of childish horrors. Genuinely creepy.
Lastly, remaking one of the TZs most famous episodes, George Miller (Mad Max) directs the story of a man with a fear of flying strapping in for the flight of his life as something out on the wing is sabotaging the plane and NO ONE WILL LISTEN TO HIM. John Lithgow has big shoes to fill as William "Jim T Kirk" Shatner played the role for television, but then John apparently has huge feet. Stupendous tension that does the original justice, and only segment that truly lives up to the film's title and love of the Zone. Great.
There is also a cameo in the Prologue and Epilogue with Dan Aykroyd as a driver obsessed with scares and Creedance music, but in the end is it worth all the effort? The movie is a sad reminder to leave well enough alone, and if it comes close to justifying its existence its overall failure and tragedy prove its downfall.
Overall Review: 5.5 Just how Sweaty can Lithgow get out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)
"You want to see something that is sometimes scary?"
An anthology of suspense stories presented by some of the 80s best directors as an homage to the late great Rod Serling's television show is dragged down by an on set tragedy and subsequent bad press matched with several mediocre efforts that rewrote and shortened beloved TV versions of Twilight Zone episodes.
1st up is John Landis' (A Werewolf In London) piece that was untimely end of veteran actor Vic Morrow and child costars in a deadly onset helicopter accident and subsequently Landis' career as a director due to negligence. The segment isn't much anyway, especially with the pall of three deaths on its shoulders. An outdated man out of time story, a racist and anti-Semite somehow finds himself in Nazi occupied 1943 with the gestapo on his heels. Sad for all involved.
2nd is Steven Spielberg's (1942) retelling of a Zone episode that already didn't hold up very well by the 80s, Old people mysteriously grow young by kicking the can. Tedious and sappy nostalgia.
3rd up is the cartoonishly freakout retelling of a child with amazing powers done by Joe Dante (Gremlins). The child can make anything happen with a thought, and a child being raised on Looney Tunes and PBJ sammiches leads to a lethal combination. When a new visitor is brought into his influence, will her maternal instincts free the world of this menace or lock us all in his house of childish horrors. Genuinely creepy.
Lastly, remaking one of the TZs most famous episodes, George Miller (Mad Max) directs the story of a man with a fear of flying strapping in for the flight of his life as something out on the wing is sabotaging the plane and NO ONE WILL LISTEN TO HIM. John Lithgow has big shoes to fill as William "Jim T Kirk" Shatner played the role for television, but then John apparently has huge feet. Stupendous tension that does the original justice, and only segment that truly lives up to the film's title and love of the Zone. Great.
There is also a cameo in the Prologue and Epilogue with Dan Aykroyd as a driver obsessed with scares and Creedance music, but in the end is it worth all the effort? The movie is a sad reminder to leave well enough alone, and if it comes close to justifying its existence its overall failure and tragedy prove its downfall.
Overall Review: 5.5 Just how Sweaty can Lithgow get out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)
Trilogy of Terror (1975)
Trilogy of Terror (NR)
"Troika of Her-or"
A trifecta of mid70s television horror, the ToT is most famous for its weirdly racist third story where a girl is terrorized in her lavish apartment by a reanimated voodoo fetish doll with razor sharp teeth and spear. The "horror" fun with puppets is entertaining, but the sub par popculture boogiemen of the first two stories (split personalities and inappropriate student/teacher relationships) sinks this far into the after-adult-school specials muck. Directed with expert camp by Dark Shawdows alum and all stories starring the wide eyes Karen Black (even as twins!), 3 of Terror is a cult classic for fans of camp and 70s TV with the third act providing the only WTFs to stand the test of time.
4.5 Establishing Sitcom Shots out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)
"Troika of Her-or"
A trifecta of mid70s television horror, the ToT is most famous for its weirdly racist third story where a girl is terrorized in her lavish apartment by a reanimated voodoo fetish doll with razor sharp teeth and spear. The "horror" fun with puppets is entertaining, but the sub par popculture boogiemen of the first two stories (split personalities and inappropriate student/teacher relationships) sinks this far into the after-adult-school specials muck. Directed with expert camp by Dark Shawdows alum and all stories starring the wide eyes Karen Black (even as twins!), 3 of Terror is a cult classic for fans of camp and 70s TV with the third act providing the only WTFs to stand the test of time.
4.5 Establishing Sitcom Shots out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)
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About Me
- Kevin Gasaway via HardDrawn
- Turlock, California, United States
- Media and Reviews by Kevin Gasaway