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Embarrassing in a “YOU haven’t reviewed Zombie Lake!?” kind of way, anyhow. I did have a second “real” embarrassment picked out, but after Jurassic Park turned into such a marathon, I thought I’d take things a little easier this time.
Still…mad science, goofy dialogue, giant killer spider… Yeah, I should have seen this one. So – mea culpa.
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Mati Suri (2009)
That’s Rizal Mantovani; and the “golden hits” are any number of other famous horror films that have been “orchestrated” into… ummm… oh, hell. This pun isn’t worth the effort. Let me start again.
After a suicide attempt, a young woman named Abel finds herself faced with some very mysterious events. Is she being haunted? Is somone trying to scare her to death? Or are the two or three or four possible twists in the narrative all in her mind, a result of her traumatic mati suri (apparent death)?
Yes, this is a Maxima Pictures production, but relax: this time it’s only the heroine that’s potentially brain-damaged… not the script. You’ve seen it all before, no doubt; but if you’re like me, you’ll have a lot of fun seeing it all again.
From Indonesia’s Maxima Pictures comes a lopsided mix of horror and bad comedy. This movie is so ill-proportioned that the entire last 20 minutes have nothing at all to do with the plot. In fact, the whole mess wouldn’t even be worth mentioning — if it weren’t for the necrophilia, which raises the tone of the flick for a few brief moments.
The spaghetti western Navajo Joe is an unusual entry in this genre. It isn’t because the lead actor is American – there were plenty of spaghetti westerns made with American actors. What’s unusual about it is that it’s one of the few spaghetti westerns that has a Native American character in it. That fact was enough to intrigue me enough to watch it, as well as the fact that Burt Reynolds has called this movie the worst of his career. Worse than the movies he’s made with Albert Pyun and Uwe Boll? Read the review and find out.
That’s right, George Lucas’ first feature film, an expansion of an experiment short from his film school days, has never before graced my eyes. That’s okay; it’s with a seasoned bearing that I can look at the output of the 24-year-old Lucas and harrumph at all the thinly-veiled adolescence present in THX 1138 (1970).
Bees, and the knees thereof.
Not just the first official American release of Mothra on DVD, but Battle in Outer Space and H-Man as bonuses, all for under $20 (at most vendors). Commentaries, etc.
The only complaint is that Sony seems to like that design now where they mount several discs on a single, elongated spindle. This makes getting one movie out a pain, and increases the likelihood of scratches and such. Still, a pretty fab deal nonetheless.
I think that means that pretty much all the classic Toho dai kaijus are now available here.
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In a fabulous piece of news, on 20th October Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will be releasing The William Castle Film Collection. The set will contain The Tingler, 13 Ghosts, Homicidal, Mr Sardonicus, Strait-Jacket, Zotz!, The Old Dark House and 13 Frightened Girls – as well as the documentary Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story. There will be mountains of bonus material, including two episodes of the Castle-produced TV series Ghost Story.
In more great news, the latest additions to the Warner Archive Collection (an infuriating way of doing it, but least they are doing it) include The Terminal Man (hello-oo-oo, Michael Crichton!), Razorback, the Hammer version of She, From Hell It Came (oh, yeah!), and – YES, YES, YES!!!! – Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark!!!! Quick, everyone! – run out and buy it now, before they release the remake and rape all our childhoods!!
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Aug 17
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Yes, it’s true: until now, I had never seen Jurassic Park. Somehow, the combination of later-career Spielberg with later-career Crichton was always a bit too much for me. Then, too, I was afraid that the film’s science might provoke me into one of my Dull Thudding Rants.
Yes. Well.
However, on the bright side…the dinosaurs are frickin’ awesome.
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Aug 12
While I was on vacation, one of y’all hit a baseball through the window of the Cabal clubhouse and broke something; on the front page, the sidebar loads beneath the main content instead of beside it. Better ‘fess up if you want your ball back.
Update: Fixed it. HTML, it’s so delicate at times…
In the meantime, you can thrill to the action as tough guy George Raft walks all over London in I’ll Get You (1952). No, that’s not all he does, silly. Sometimes he takes a cab.
