June Quick Picks and Pans

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Highway 61 (1991) Director/co-writer Bruce McDonald’s bizarre odyssey (his style could be described as David Lynch by way of Jim Jarmusch) is a road trip like no other. Pokey Jones (Don McKellar) is a socially inept barber living in a small town in Ontario, Canada. His humdrum life takes an interesting turn when he discovers a dead heavy metal musician in his backyard, and meets up with Jackie (Valerie Buhagiar), a roadie for the band. They head south to New Orleans, with coffin in tow, while pursued by a mysterious man who might be the devil (Earl Pastk). Like any good road trip, it’s full of weird surprises along the way, accompanied by an eclectic soundtrack. It also features a host of cool cameos, including Peter Breck and punk icon Jello Biafra. To describe the myriad twists and turns would spoil most of the fun. Highway 61 is best experienced with as little foreknowledge as possible. Note: Big thanks to Michael Denney (follow him on Twitter at @MichaelWDenney) for recommending this weird, wonderful little film.

Rating: ****. Available on DVD

Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978) This 1978 made-for-TV movies starts with a goofy premise, but has the conviction to follow through. The cast plays it straight throughout, without resorting to camp, which works to the movie’s advantage. Richard Crenna and Yvette Mimieux star as Mike and Betty Barry, an ordinary couple in an ordinary suburban family. After the family dog meets an untimely end, their grief-stricken kids adopt “Lucky,” a cute German shepherd puppy with an evil streak. Not long after Lucky enters their household, odd things begin to happen, with tragedy befalling anyone who gets in his way. Sure, it’s silly, but I dug it. Maybe you will too. Hammer enthusiasts take note: Martine Beswick appears in the prologue as the leader of a satanic cult.

Rating: ***. Available on DVD

The Angry Red Planet(1959) A rocket from an ill-fated Mars mission returns to Earth with half of the crew missing. The other half isn’t doing so well, either, with Dr. Iris Ryan (Nora Hayden) clinging to her sanity, and Col. Thomas O'Bannion (Gerald Mohr) teetering near death. You might think it was a progressive touch on the part of the filmmakers to include a female astronaut among the crew, but she’s mainly there to scream and endure sexist remarks from her fellow space travelers. Most of the story is told in flashback, as the intrepid explorers encounter hostile flora and fauna on the red planet. In an interesting touch, the scenes that take place outside the ship on the Martian landscape are tinted red (pro tip, taken from personal experience: don’t watch this when you have a headache), but the real highlight is a rat-bat-spider thing that terrorizes the crew. The basic concept (i.e., astronauts run into malevolent alien forces) has been recycled numerous times, sometimes to better effect, but it’s interesting to see one of the earlier examples. 

Rating: **½. Available on Blu-ray, DVD and Amazon Prime

Blood Freak (1972) A drug-addled drifter (Steve Hawkes) eats some experimental poultry and transforms into a bloodthirsty turkey man (only his head changes). He goes on a rampage, abducting young women and draining their blood. The best part of the movie is host Brad F. Grinter (who also directed and co-wrote the film), who pops in like a low-rent Rod Serling, to comment on what we’re seeing. Was it all a hallucination? Did anyone really die? Who knows. Blood Freak has some dubious entertainment value; just don’t expect body horror along the lines of Cronenberg. I’m not sure if this was meant to be taken seriously or it was intended as a joke (Attack of the Killer Tomatoes), but if you sit through the whole thing, the joke’s probably on you.

Rating: 2 stars. Available on DVD

EDGE OF ETERNITY (1959)

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The main selling point for Don Siegel's thriller was that  it was shot, in Cinemascope, on location at the Grand Canyon. This was probably not as impressive as it could have been had a Cinerama camera not already been flown through the canyon several years earlier. Still, many people probably hadn't seen any Cinerama by 1959, so there was no doubt some thrill and novelty to seeing planes fly through and stuntmen cavorting on a cable car above the abyss. These thrills aside, Edge of Eternity is a pretty basic mystery story. It opens with a failed attempt at vehicular homicide at the canyon's edge, the intended victim eliminating his attacker only to be done in a few scenes later. It's up to Deputy Les Martin (Cornell Wilde) to figure out whodunit despite the distraction of speed-demon heiress Janice Kendon (Victoria Shaw). After leading him on a merry, picturesque chase early on, Janice provides Les an entry into her wealthy gold-mining family, including her crabby dad and her drunken brother. People get on Les's case for failing to crack the murder case quickly, but Janice's eye for fashion finally provides a crucial clue tying the victim, if not his initial attacker, to the mining interests around the canyon, ranging from gold to guano.

Siegel's writers try to keep things mysterious by having a later killing carried out POV camera = killer style, but it only looks awkward and evasive. Toward the end, the killer is revealed without anyone on the screen having deduced his identity from clues, though I suppose some in the audience may have guessed the culprit by process of elimination. His discovery sets up the big thrill climax on the guano car, but the thrill of actuality is undermined every time Siegel cuts from the long shot of the stuntmen to the studio close-ups of Wilde et al in front of rear projections. The location stuff is nice to look at, though, thanks to Burnett Guffey's cinematography, and seeing the juggernaut cars of the era in action is always fun. Even with the special attraction of the Canyon this is little more than a B picture, and as such its diverting enough without lasting long enough to waste your time.

It Stains the Sands Red (2016) - Zombie Horror Film Review

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I liked the idea behind It Stains the Sands Red but I admit I did go into this expecting it to fail, I was more intrigued how this would play out. Basically this is a movie about one solitary zombie, and it's unending pursuit of a woman across a desert. The fact that the undead never get tired, never sleep, can keep going forever means that even one of the slow shambling type can over time erode a persons will with their constant chasing.

Molly (Brittany Allen -  Jigsaw) is the girlfriend of a small time criminal who is en-route to a remote airfield near Las Vegas where he is to meet his boss and get on a plane out of America. A zombie virus has swept the continent and with no sign of aid it is everyone for themselves. The car getting a tyre stuck in a hole is the start of the worst few days of Molly's life. Her boyfriend is attacked and killed by a lone ghoul, she flees into the desert but is horrified to find this creature following her relentlessly. Now she is on a forced march to the airfield some 30 miles away, all the time the zombie hot on her heels...

Aside from nice quality camera footage and some nice little music video style sequences the best thing about It Stains the Sands Red is sadly the title itself. I figured I would be bored, that woman vs zombie would soon turn dull. There is always just about enough going on to keep things from getting boring, this would be a good thing were it not for the fact I just plain did not like Molly. I didn't understand her actions, I didn't pity her mistakes, and by the end of the second third I straight up found myself opposed to her silly ideals despite the efforts of the camera and the sound to try and put me on side with her.



It starts off well with a nice fast swoop over Las Vegas showing the utter devastation that has hit that city. After this we spend the majority of the 90 minute film out in the harsh desert where the blazing sun, lack of food and drink, and the persistent threat are a force for Molly to contend with. This was all good enough but then the decision is made for Molly to befriend her zombie pursuer and an attempt is made to get you to see her point of view and feel sorry for the walker. It's a brain dead zombie though, this is no Bub and so I never changed my opinion that she should just try and kill it, no matter how much director and co-writer Colin Minihan (Grave Encounters, Extraterrestial) tries to make this friendship of sorts seem genuine. I found myself actually getting annoyed with Molly. With her history of drug use, the company she was keeping at the films start, and flashbacks hinting at her child being taken away from her it is obvious she has had a dark past. The plot of this movie gives her a redemptive path of sorts with her coming to realisations that much like with the monster chasing her she needs to look back and face her demons, only then will she have the strength to go forward with new purpose and new hope.

So not much really happens here, her journey is clear from the outset and so it gives a destination for the adventure to get to. Along the way there are a few different scenarios she gets into to keep things going. A scorpion crawling over her face in a abandoned house she finds, two suspiciously friendly men she bumps into, a run in with some soldiers, these all add elements that just seemed there as something different to see other than her tireless chase. The budget comes back for the final third that sees the heroine with a new objective and it was fun to finally see the arrival of more undead, but by this point I had had a falling out with this that was too far gone to be repaired.

Allen is fine as Molly, Juan Riedinger (Grave Encounters) is fine as the zombie chasing her, side characters are all fine, as is the make-up effects and music. For me I just didn't think this was an amazing film, it was interesting to see how a film with one undead creature worked, it is just I did not get on with the protagonist and her stupid decisions which ultimately left me cold towards her and the film as a whole.

SCORE:

The Disaster Artist (2017)

Retro Review: Demolition Man (1993)

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Demolition Man
1993
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, Nigel Hawthorne, Benjamin Bratt, Denis Leary
Genre: Science Fiction Action Comedy
Worldwide Box Office Gross: over $159 million 

Plot: A police officer is brought out of suspended animation in prison to pursue an old ultra-violent nemesis who is set loose in a non-violent future society 

'Do Not Demolish This'

Sylvester Stallone's Demolition Man and Cliffhanger spearheaded the Italian Stallion's turnaround in 1993 and after lukewarm reception towards Rocky V and notable stabs at comedy that was met with little success in Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot and Oscar the previous year, Sly went back to his action roles, but also realising that he may not have a good grasp of comedy, he had to relax, settle down and figure out what to do next. Surprisingly, he went down the comedy route again in Demolition Man - only interestingly and to my intrigue, this time, it worked out much better. 

Demolition Man depicts a California of the future where morality, political correctness have taken over society and in affecting its community and residents in many ways: alcohol, smoking, chocolate, swearing, abortion, sex and kiss to name but a couple are all banned. In John Spartan and Simon Phoenix, they operate on opposite sides of the law with John as the law enforcer and Simon unleashing his anarchy, wherever he goes. At first, Sparton goes after Phoenix and manages to kill his henchmen. Yet, he comes across some dead hostages and is held and convicted of their deaths and for manslaughter. He, along with archenemy, Phoenix are sentenced for the next 60 years in a cryogenic prison. 36 years later, Los Angeles has now become a more totalitarian place, as it has traded freedom for safety. Officer Lenina Huxley is bored with her role and of the fact that nothing remotely interesting takes place. She is eager to get stuck in and is interested in the world of the violent 1990s and wants a piece of the action. Then Phoenix escapes and breaks out, the police un-thaw Sparton, who finds out his wife died and that they have no idea what happened to his daughter. There is also a subplot involving Raymond Cocteau, who is hailed as a saviour for resurrecting LA and turning it into a utopian city, - & yet who also something planned up his sleeve, which isn't for the good. 

With that in mind, Stallone delivered a performance that was entertaining, and one that made use of his brand of wit that he previously had in Tango and Cash, another action comedy romp wherein he and co-star, Kurt Russell made for a kick ass buddy cop partnership. & here with Demolition Man, he once again relies on charm and wit without diminishing in being an action star and he and Bullock radiate a sparkling glow as the film's male/female pairing. Their partnership and the way it unravels is key to how well they work together. Beyond the action set pieces, explosions, martial arts, futuristic set designs and police cars, in Sparton and more especially Hexley, she provides that human, emotional-though not too emotional-element & it anchors the film, giving it some meaning, as well as a heart to it. Whilst Wesley Snipes never overacts in his role as the villain and bonus points to the casting director and Joel Silver for opting for an actor who is dissimilar to Sly Stallone in the fight stakes, with Snipes's martial arts vs Stallone's brutish, no-holds-barred style. 

In a film of what is almost entirely made of male actors, Sandra Bullock almost steals the show from headliner Stallone, with a performance that was not only quite out of this world but it also shows how adept she can be in an action flick. Demolition Man is also noted as being Bullock's breakthrough role; whilst Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan each got their feet off the ground in successive rom-coms, Sandra Bullock turned heads in a sci-fi comedy actioner, & for the right reasons. Filling in for Lori Petty who dropped out after one day's worth of shooting, eventually, it didn't work out & in her place was Bullock, who at the time, was still relatively unknown and before the dizzy heights of her rom-com success, delivering an individual performance that is warm, sweet, amusing & engaging. Dropping subtle hints of her charm and likeability that has made her one of the numbers of bankable actresses of the 1990s and 2000s, she did really good, well, make that too good. Oh, did I mention the part where she beats the hell out of one of the bad guys using martial arts? That was really good. It makes me wish she had more hero roles where she did that. She followed this up in Speed, a year after this movie was released, although having seen both Demolition Man and Speed, to me, I prefer her performance in this film than the one with Keanu Reeves, even though that movie was great also. The other performances were okay with Denis Leary, a small appearance by comic actor, Rob Schneider, but Benjamin Bratt's was nothing much to speak of.  

In something that I hadn't noticed until I watched it in full, the writers manage to send up and poke fun at political correctness in a future where violence is outlawed, as well as sex and red meat is banned. & it's all done sufficiently well. 

Visually, it looks like something that could have been directed by Paul Verhoeven or James Cameron; that Robocop, Total Recall and Terminator 2-esque aesthetic look, right down from the uniforms, the cars to the characters appearances themselves, as well as nailing that satirical angle of the Verhoeven efforts. It's all very sleek, stylish but also very 'out there' in a snazzy kind of way. And it looks amazing, along with the great action sequences.

Demolition Man is one of those action sci-fi movies that is just more than action and sci-fi elements all blended into one package; it's also a satirical social commentary on the law, what it entails, how we ought to go about it and in our daily lives and how the police force in the future may deal with it. Additionally, it's well structured and it took a while for me to really get into the movie until John is unthawed and he and Hexley go about business in a not-so-destructive way, but still taking matters into their own hands against Simon Phoenix. It works on a different level that is almost far less conventional than your typical gung-ho action movie, which is a big plus. The humour is well worked into the movie, yet in the ITV4 UK edit on TV, Taco Bell is replaced by Pizza Hut, for some odd and unexplained reason. 

Final Verdict:

This is one of Stallone's better movies that even to this day, some people choose to sleep on and it ranks amongst as one of the best sci-fi actioners of all-time. Along with a fun and great turn by Sandra Bullock, showing her chops, Demolition Man is an action comedy that is strong in the action and is equally strong in the comedy also. Which is a surprise, but it was really good to see.

There are very few of these types of big-budget action movies that rely on wit and good writing, not just action set pieces galore, if more of them were of the quality of Demolition Man and 1994's True Lies, that in terms of style and tone treads on similar territory as this effort, the action genre would flourish even more. 


Overall:

Hot Toys Ant-Man and the Wasp 1/6th scale Evangeline Lilly as The Wasp Collectible Figure

Watch Movies TV -“Thanks to you, we had to run. We're still running.”

The Third Marvel Cinematic Universe entry this year Ant-Man and the Wasp is arriving at the theatre in just a few days! In this upcoming sequel, a newly debuted character with special ability to fly at great speeds, Wasp is teaming up with Ant-Man for an urgent new mission from Dr. Hank Pym! Whether big or small, Wasp’s strength grows to superhuman levels when she uses her powers. Making a grand entrance in Ant-Man and the Wasp, Hot Toys is delighted to present to you today the Wasp in 1/6th scale Collectible Figure!

Beautifully crafted based on the appearance of Evangeline Lilly as Hope Van Dyne in the movie, the Wasp figure includes two interchangeable heads featuring a newly developed head sculpt with detailed pony tail and a completely new helmeted head sculpt with LED light-up function that bears a high resemblance of a closed helmet showing part of Wasp’s face, two pairs of interchangeable Wasp’s wings including a pair of stand by wings and a pair of articulated wings for varies flying poses, a striking brand new Wasp suit, a Wasp miniature figure, two disc equipment, an opened helmet accessory attachable to the back of figure, and a specially designed dynamic figure stand with character backdrop.

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Hot Toys Ant-Man and the Wasp 1/6th scale Paul Rudd as Ant-Man 12-inch Collectible Figure

Watch Movies TV -“You know, I’m an Avengers now.”

Real heroes. Not actual size.

In a week's time, the highly anticipated Marvel blockbuster Ant-Man and the Wasp is about to hit the big screen! Being a super hero and a full-time father, Scott is struggling to balance both sides in his daily life yet confronted by Dr. Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne with an urgent new mission. This time he has to put on the Ant-Man suit which allows him to grow or shrink and learn to fight alongside with The Wasp as team works together to uncover secrets from their hidden past.

In anticipation of the opening of this new sequel, Hot Toys is excited to present today the 1/6th scale Ant-Man Collectible Figure! The movie-accurate collectible figure is specially crafted based on the image of Paul Rudd as Scott Lang / Ant-Man in the movie. It includes two interchangeable heads featuring a newly developed head sculpt with stunning likeness and a newly developed interchangeable helmeted head sculpt with LED light-up function that bears a high resemblance of a closed helmet showing part of Ant-Man’s face, a skilfully tailored Ant-Man suit to enhance articulations, a standing Ant-Man miniature figure, a shrunken lab, two disc equipment, an opened helmet accessory attachable to the back of figure, a specially designed figure stand with character backdrop.

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