Zombie Lake (1980)
Viewed 9/18/2006 (first viewing)
Nazi zombies rise from a French lake and go after the locals in this (very) low budget affair co-directed by Jean Rollin and Spanish director Julian de Laserna. Dreamy atmosphere aside, there isn't much else to recommend it. The zombie makeup ranges from laughably bad to halfway decent and the zombies seem content to just bite people on the neck and suck their blood. Lame-o! Worth a look for Rollin fans.
out of
Dr. M (1990)
Viewed 9/18/2006 (first viewing)
Weird conspiracy thriller from Claude Chabrol pays homage to Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse films. A cop investigating a series of inexplicable suicides gradually realizes there's something - and someone - behind them. Doesn't succeed entirely, but well worth a look if you enjoy the Mabuse flicks.
out of
Lunacy (2005)
Viewed 9/18/2006 (first viewing)
The latest from Jan Svankmajer combines two Edgar Allan Poe stories,
The Premature Burial and
The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether (with a little Marquis de Sade thrown in), to create an allegorical horror tale illustrating the plight of man who is perpetually caught between ideological extremes. Something like that anyway. In any case this is great fun; a bit much at times, but one of Svankmajer's best. The action here is mostly live, with the director's trademark animation limited to shots of meat crawling around between scenes!
out of
Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950)
Viewed 9/19/2006 (first viewing)
James Cagney coasts on the success of
White Heat by once again playing a vicious killer (but one not as vicious as Cody Jarrett). An escaped convict starts his climb to the top by blackmailing a bad cop and romancing the daugher of a powerful millionaire! Lacks the energy of
White Heat, but enjoyable enough on its own terms.
out of
Hard Candy (2005)
Viewed 9/20/2006 (first viewing)
So-so thriller has a fourteen year old girl ensnaring a possible pedophilliac in a twisted game of revenge. Starts off well, and has its queasy moments, but stalls out about midway through.
out of
Feed (2005)
Viewed 9/20/2006 (first viewing)
Glaringly stupid serial killer movie about a nutjob who force feeds obese women until they die. He even has his own dedicated website! But don't worry, there's an Aussie cyberporn cop on his trail! Stylistically hackneyed in its use of filters and quick cuts, but really stands out in the stupidity department. I mean, what can you say about a cop who actually eats something offered to him by his prime suspect? Of course it was drugged, dumbass! And how about that scene where the badguy jumps off a two story balcony (a good fifteen foot drop), lands on his feet and takes off running? Adamantium ankles? And since when can a foreigner, freshly arrived in the States, walk into a gun store and walk out with a firearm? Not gonna happen. Maybe I should have used spoilers there, but this flick is so dumb it doesn't deserve 'em. Oh, and did I mention that neither of the leads has any presence? Stupid AND bland.
out of
The Legend of Lucy Keyes (2006)
Viewed 9/20/2006 (first viewing)
Forgettable, tv movie-ish ghost story starts off okay but sinks into blandness. Proof positive that Julie Delpy plus Brooke Adams is not necessarily a good thing.
out of
Nothing (2003)
Viewed 9/21/2006 (first viewing)
Strange comedy about two put-upon friends who wish the world away and find themselves trapped in a limitless white void. Not really all that funny, but bizarre enough to maintain interest.
out of
Dead Creatures (2000)
Viewed 9/21/2006 (first viewing)
Quasi-zombie flick from the UK, an unofficial companion piece to
I, Zombie. A strange disease has struck London, causing the bodies of its human victims to deteriorate while cursing them with an insatiable cannibalistic appetite. The film focuses on a group of infected women who've been forced to give up their old lives and live on the lam, moving from dingy apartment to dingy apartment, all the while on the prowl for fresh food. As if that weren't enough, they're being stalked by a mysterious vigilante! Takes a while to get going, but interesting - if Ken Loach did a zombie flick, it'd probably be something like this.
out of
The Hole (1998)
Viewed 9/22/2006 (first viewing)
This time it's Taiwan that's been hit with a nasty bug. It's 1999 and the disease has forced authorities to section off the more infected areas. In one of these a plumber has knocked a hole in the floor of an apartment, allowing its male tenant to spy on the female occupant below. Can they make a connection in these trying times or will they keep fantasizing about musical numbers? Typical Tsai Ming-Liang fare, slow but ultimately worthwhile.
out of
Night Key (1937)
Viewed 9/22/2006 (first viewing)
Boris Karloff is a genteel alarm system inventor ironically forced into a life of crime. Decent little programmer.
out of
Tower of London (1939)
Viewed 9/23/2006 (first viewing)
Just-okay historical melodrama about Richard III and his quest for power. Boris Karloff is his chief executioner, clomping around in Frankenstein boots.
out of
Water Drops on Burning Rocks (2000)
Viewed 9/24/2006 (first viewing)
Francois Ozon's adaptation of a play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The relationship between two bisexual men, one fifty, the other twenty, is complicated when both of their old girlfriends show up! Typical of Fassbinder, this is both hilarious and sad, with satirical undertones. And does Ludivine Sagnier have one hell of a body or what?
out of
Woman in the Window (1944)
Viewed 9/24/2006
Revisited Fritz Lang's classic noir cum melodrama.
out of
Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1956)
Viewed 9/24/2006
Revisited the American version of the Japanese
Gojira. This loses much of the original's anti-nuclear weapons sentiment, but stands on its own as acceptable giant monster fare (even if some of the inserts are painfully obvious).
out of