Fade To Black (1980)

4 / 5 Mar '10
Tagline: Meet Eric Binford, the ultimate movie buff. If you know someone like him... run!
Directed by: Vernon Zimmerman
Written by: Vernon Zimmerman
Actors include: Dennis Christopher, Tim Thomerson, Gwynne Gilford
Genre: Horror, Comedy, Action, Thriller, Drama
Length: 102 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Now this was one heck of an original treat cram packed with various Movie memorabilia and trivia for just about any movie lover. Many of the quotes and characters were things that I know nothing of (not being a Noir fan for the most part) but much of it was entertaining. The story is about movie obsessed geek (kinda like a demented film geek version of Napoleon Dynamite) Eric Binford (brilliantly played by Dennis Christopher) who is a bit socially inept to to his hobbies. He works at a film company but isn't respected, his home life is a crappy too as he has been raised by his nasty abusive Aunt. Life starts looking up when he meets a gorgeous look-alike who actually seems to like him. Being as how she's flighty she forgets their date and stands Eric up which sends him over the edge. Soon he's emulating characters in films and painting his face and he starts believing he is the characters. The main one he becomes is from the film White Heat but he also turns into Bela Lugosi (which is why the face paint on the cover) in Dracula and many more. It really is spot the cultural reference throughout the entire film which is a great deal of fun. This will appeal to a very select few, but those who love nerds getting revenge in violent ways should absolutely love this and the comedy bits are quite funny too. This is something I'll definitely have to watch again to try and soak up even more of it, very well done especially for a rather unknown low key movie. Highly entertaining and definitely recommended, a real treat even though it's maybe technically not the best movie.

Availability:  On DVD

Sonny Boy (1989)

3.5 / 5 Mar '10
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: Robert Martin Carroll
Written by: Graeme Whifler, Peter Desberg
Actors include: David Carradine, Paul L. Smith, Brad Dourif
Genre: Action, Drama, Thriller, Exploitation, Comedy
Length: 97 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
This could be one of the weirdest movies I've ever seen. It's not particularly well shot, it feels very straight to video and with every minute it seems to get increasingly more bizarre. It's kinda like a mix of Bad Boy Bubby, Raising Arizona and Mad Max 2 only much cheaper and more mean spirited I suppose. The story is about a fat man named Slue who is sort of a mob syndicate for a backwards town (the whole thing is quite surreal in a way) and his lovely wife (?) Pearl (David Carradine in a dress with bad make-up...he would never pass). When they send their crime henchman the irritating Weasle (Brad Dourif) to do bad things he kills a couple and accidentally kidnaps their baby in their stolen car. The baby Pearl wants to keep as his/her own and they call him Sonny Boy. From there they abuse the heck out of the kid in every possible way (it's pretty nasty, they even cut out his tongue for his 6th birthday) and lock him away and feed him raw chickens and stuff. From there they decide he's a really good weapon so they start unleashing him to commit crimes for him. It sort of goes on from there in an insanely exploitative manner, but unfortunately it did feel like it went on for a little too long and it did try a little too hard to be weird. Still if you like films that make you not believe your own eyes this is a must see. Something tells me David Carradine would want to be remembered this way...

Availability:  Never been on DVD

Mr. Vampire (1985) aka Geung si sin sang

4 / 5 Oct '10
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: Ricky Lau
Written by: Ricky Lau, Cheuk-Hon Szeto
Actors include: Ching-Ying Lam, Ricky Lau, Siu-hou Chin
Genre: Action, Comedy, Horror
Length: 97 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Although I'm not sure this made a lick of sense were you to pull it apart it's not meant to be. It's purely entertaining absurd comedy with some kung fu action and a touch of horror thrown in. So I don't understand the why on most of this stuff but let's see if I can kind of give a plot synopsis. There is a Master, and two bumbling trainees, also an army of zombies who hop like bunnies (my favorite part) but are kept docile by putting spells on them. In fact spells (made from voodoo paper, and chicken's blood and sticky rice) seem to tame most things when they are in danger. There are also vampires, on of the assistants is bitten by a zombie and tries to stave off zombie effects by dancing around like a fool, and by filing his teeth and nails. The other assistant is possessed by some attractive ghost who throws her own head around. The lessons I learned from this film are that people in Hong Kong are very superstitious, you can't mix sticky rice with other rice, and that more zombies should bounce like bunnies, it's hilarious! It's well paced, action packed and full of laughs, definitely a winner for those of us looking for something rather strange but also very fun.  Also it's worth noting that there are several other entries into the Mr. Vampire series, but this is the first.

Availability:  On DVD

Dead End (2003)

3.5 / 5 Oct '10
Tagline: Read the signs.
Directed by: Jean-Baptiste Andrea, Fabrice Canepa
Written by: Jean-Baptiste Andrea, Fabrice Canepa
Actors include: Ray Wise, Lin Shay, Alexandra Holden
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Length: 85 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Although I thought this was relatively enjoyable there were some extremely cheesy things that kept this from being great. The story is about a family driving out on Christmas Eve to go to a relative's house. The father decides to take a short cut which lands them in a world of trouble. They end up on a extremely long road, all signs of life have disappeared except for a ghost (badly acted by model Amber Smith) who appears every time they have to stop the car. It's kind of a hybrid of a Stephen King novel and Identity in a way, sort of the mystery of what the heck is going on (though it's obvious). It's definitely a situational horror thing and it's quite effective on that level, there is some gore and even a tiny bit of comedy (I love Mom's drawing) packed in there. It's not the most amazing film one is likely to come across, but the family is well acted and somewhat believable and the what if factor is what really makes it work.

Availability:  On DVD & Blu-Ray

Machete (2010)

4.5 / 5 Jan '11
Tagline: Robert De Niro as The Senator
Directed by: Ethan Maniquis, Robert Rodriguez
Written by: Robert Rodriguez
Actors include: Danny Trejo, Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba
Genre: Action, Comedy, Exploitation
Length: 105 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Sure this was created from a fake trailer from the Grindhouse release, and I remember at the time thinking that this would have made a cool movie. It did, it lived up to it's preview and then some...mind you abandon all ye who seek a major plot or some sort of well written script. This is immediately exciting splattery action at it's best featuring the mysterious Machete (Danny Trejo) who's wife is brutally killed in front of him, and his daughter taken. He then is forced to try to assassinate an evil Senator (Robert De Niro) who believes in killing Mexican immigrants and building an electric fence to keep them out. Things don't go as anticipated and soon Machete on the run and ends up finding his way to the rebel forces and so forth. It's as bloody as possible (which I love), and it's violent from the beginning to the end. I also liked the little homages to various classic exploitation films like Ms .45, and Thriller - en grym film [Thriller: They Call Her One Eye]. The one liners were priceless like "Machete Don't Text", I never realized how like Machete I was until that moment hehe. It got the spirit of the grindhouse down pat, it was very entertaining and I'm sure it will offend many, sure it went on a little longer than maybe necessary but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Availability:  On Blu-Ray & DVD