"I've had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!"
I know I'm almost 20 years behind everyone else who's seen this already but I had so much better stuff to watch first. This might have been a bit better if every snake didn't look like a cartoon CGI thing but then again maybe not. I'm more of a horror film fan and this is more of a thriller/action movie with some slithering killer snakes thrown in for a few gross-out thrills. OK for a one-time watch but pretty mediocre overall.
Robert Conrad and The Six Million Dollar Man himself(Lee Majors) kidnap 3 nuns and hold them hostage for a ransom. Pretty decent made-for TV movie from back when those things were still good. I feel like if you threw in a few sleazier elements this could have been a classic exploitation flick for drive-ins and grindhouses.
Director Penelope Spheeris followed her 2 punk rock classics(SUBURBIA and THE DECLINE OF WESTENR CIVILIZATION) with this tale of 2 directionless losers(Charlie Sheen and Maxwell Caulfield) who graduate high school, take a trip to L.A. and become homicidal killers upon arrival. There is still a punk aesthetic here, with the soundtrack featuring Iggy Pop and The Cramps among others, but this is clearly Spheeris' first step into mainstream Hollywood which I don't personally find quite as interesting. The film makes a good attempt at portraying teen alienation and misdirected violence in a somewhat realistic manner though it seemed like these 2 knuckleheads should have been apprehended much sooner than they were since they made zero effort in covering their tracks at any point. Despite this still an interesting 80s thriller that falls somewhere between teen melodrama and chilling serial killer dramatization.
Frank Zappa's daughter Moon Unit shows up in a small part as a classmate.
Mia Farrow becomes blind after taking a fall off her horse. As she is learning to navigate this new world a murderer shows up with some very bad intentions. This film is really good at building tension and Mia is, as usual, really good at portraying a vulnerable victim of circumstance here. While there are some obvious comparisons to WAIT UNTIL DARK from a few years earlier the plot is different enough to give this it's own uniqueness. AKA BLIND TERROR
Shown in England, Australia and other places as BLIND TERROR:
I'll give this movie extra credit for being a modern production that was actually shot on film and for using the old TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE scrolling b.s. message about it being based on a true story at the beginning. I made the mistake of reading a "review" of this before watching which was just an excuse to spoil the big plot-twist for everyone. Thanks jackass! Unlike that retarded reviewer, and his attempt to dissuade my enjoyment, I actually did still enjoy this mix of serial-killer hi-jinks, drugs, sex-games and revenge and wouldn't think of being self-centered enough to ruin it for anyone else looking to check this rare example of something new(not based on something old) that doesn't completely suck out.
I have this movie on a DVD set of horror films but I think it fits more into the thriller category. It's hard to talk about this without spoiling it because they set it up to possibly be a supernatural film but that may or may not be true throughout. The title character is played by Turhan Bey who I recall from THE MUMMY'S TOMB and despite there being no classic Universal monster in this movie(you do get a trained pet Crow though so that's something) it is certainly a better overall film than that one. AKA THE SPIRITUALIST
While watching this I couldn't help but think about how the early 60s might be one of the worst times for cinema. I mean they're not as bad as today, or anything post the year 2000 with all the CGI nonsense, but given that they were preceded by the kitschiness of the 50s and then followed by the grittiness of the late 60s and 70s they were pretty awful in comparison for the most part and here's a prime example of that. Some fishermen find an abandoned boat and then get involved with some gangsters and that's pretty much the whole plot! Not exactly the most action packed film I've ever seen and what pisses me off the most about this is that they snuck it into a DVD set of biker movies which this is clearly not. Supposedly shot in 5 days which I can certainly believe. Roger Corman coulda done better!
Not a bad trailer for such a leisurely-paced movie:
The first movie in this Swedish series was a great combo of thriller/horror/action and drama while the 2nd film, THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE, leaned more heavily into the all-out crazy action-movie genre this one course corrects to more of an all-around action/thriller similar to the first film and is a great way to tie everything up. It's kind of crazy that all 3 of these films were made so quickly and were released within the same year in Sweden, especially since they're all so long. There are 2 versions of this one out there, the theatrical 2 and a half hour cut and TV version that clocks in at over 3 hours!
I've never seen the Americanized version of the original movie, released only 1 year after the Swedish one was released in America, and it seems really pointless but perhaps because it was done by David Fincher it won't be as disappointing as I suspect.
In 2018 there was another American film based on this book series, THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB, but that was based on something written after the original author Stieg Larsson had died and was a bit of a bomb so I'm in no hurry to check that out.
In the 2010's(when this was released in America) this seemed to be a pretty big deal, it was based on a series of books and garnered a big fancy Hollywood remake in 2011, but since then it seems to have dropped off of everyone's radar and I never see it referenced at all. That's kind of a shame since this is a really well-done movie that mixes drama, thriller, horror and action. There's Nazis, rape, serial killing and our main character(Noomi Rapace) is a brooding goth/punk chick. The one downside is that this film, and each of the subsequent sequels, are over 2 hours long! They do move quickly enough that it's not a drag but it certainly makes me never want to rewatch any of these very often.
I caught this one last weekend down at the drive-in theater as part of a slasher-movie-themed event and while this was not really a slasher I still found it more entertaining than I had initially expected. I've never seen the horror flick THE STEPFATHER, which came out a few years later, but I imagine it was highly influenced by this. Director Michael Winner(know bets to me as the director of the original DEATH WISH and a bunch of other excellent Charles Bronson vehicles) delivers an effective tale of a girl who knows her new stepdad is trying to off her mom but nobody will believe her. There are a bunch of cheesy lines of dialogue which I found delightful. The musical cues, credited to Led Zeppelin bass guitarist John Paul Jones, seem way out of place and more fitting to a Lifetime movie but overall I found this dumb 80s thriller worth staying up late at the chilly drive-in to view.
So this newlywed couple get into a car crash before the title even pops up, from there our husband character(Ronald Lewis) develops an uncontrollable urge to kill his wife. In steps one weirdo psychiatrist(Claude Daphin, who you might recall as the president of Earth in BARBARELLA) and then there's a bunch of psychological mumbo-jumbo and maybe a love triangle developing? This one is pretty different from your usual Hammer studios horror film and plays out more like a thriller/drama. The main characters, besides Diane Cilento who is pretty easy to look at, come off as pretty unlikeable which makes for a long haul. The plot itself is interesting enough and does build suspense towards the end just try and disregard the ridiculous psychiatry on display. Also, at 109 minutes, this was Hammer's longest film up until this date and it sure feels it.
AKA THE FULL TREATMENT, which was also the name of the book this was based on:
There are quite a few characters in this Korean thriller concerning a lost and found bag of lots of cash to keep track of. Luckily they do a pretty good job of tying everything together by the end so it all makes some sort of sense even if the conclusion is a bit too happy for my liking. The closest thing you can compare this to is, of course, PULP FICTION, with the time-jumping narrative and multiple story-lines. It does manage to not seem like some trendy 90s retro-piece though like so many Tarantino-wanna-be's have done over the years. They also don't really skimp out on the violence with people being sawed into pieces and a character that apparently likes to eat all kind of intestines. Pretty impressive work for a first time director, Kim Yong-hoon.
IMDB lists this film, about a lonely movie nerd who ends up killing people, as a comedy/crime/horror. While it obviously does have some horror elements those other two seem way off and I think this one squarely fits into that "thriller" category. The main character we follow here is such an unlikable dweeb that it's hard to get too involved in this one. Mickey Rourke is pretty cool though but unfortunately only has a small role as a bully. Overall this one had an interesting premise but not the greatest execution of it.
Is the message of this movie that if I watch too many films I will turn into a raging homicidal maniac? Maybe if our boy Brinford(Dennis Christopher) only watched some Bower Boys instead of those depressing film noirs he woulda lightened up a little.
At least we got this classic Metallica tune which was clearly inspired from this film:
So the original title of this thing was THE BUTTERFLY REVOLUTION which is a lot more fitting and makes more sense. This being the 80s though they tried and fool people into thinking they were going to be getting another slasher flick since those things were making so much money. This is not a slasher movie, in fact it's not even really a horror movie. People do die but it's all done in more of a dramatic-thriller way. The great Chuck Connors is a religious nut who's in charge of a boys summer camp. He treats everyone like shit. Then the kids stage a revolution and tie up the adults in a cabin, then people start getting killed off. Oh and they knock over a butterfly display, hence the alternate title. Penelope Spheeris, known for DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION films, wrote the screenplay so Fear's "Beef Bologna" song is sung by a couple of weirdos.
Overall not the worst thing in the world but the title swerve is a bit of a downer. It does(poorly) attempt to show how power corrupts no matter who wields it which is a lesson that seems to have been forgotten in today's numb-skull-filled world.
This Hong Kong action/detective-drama/thriller starts right out with a brutal prison fight where 4 people get taken out. Things then settle into the more traditional police-procedural direction involving Simon Yam as a cop who's very insistent on solving a 20-year-old murder that the wrong person was arrested and served time for. It all ends up with some pretty shocking and moving revelations involving incest, abuse and of course murder. At almost 2 hours it is a bit long like most of these more current Asian flicks but very well-done if you can make it through to the end.
This is one of those VHS boxes I recall seeing a bunch in the video store as a kid but never felt the need to actually watch it until just recently. It's definitely not a necessity but has a few interesting twists to it. It starts out pretty straight-forward with some criminal-types who mistakenly kill a little girl making their getaway from an armored car robbery. It then becomes revenge city but not in the way you would expect. Our sympathies throughout the film are with the head criminal, played by Peter Coyote(who I'm not too familiar with but I love his name), because the assassin that is hired to track him down seems like a way worse person. The film ultimately seems a bit far-fetched in spots but there are a few cool set-pieces here and there. Fairly middle-of-the-road stuff.
I can't help but think this film was influenced greatly by the famous Kitty Genovese murder that occurred only a few years earlier where a lady was stabbed to death in Queens, New York while neighbors listened to her scream but didn't want to get involved enough to even call the police. While nothing quite that horrific happens here it is a similar idea of a whole trainload of people that never seem to be able to come together to stop a couple of knife-brandishing drunken hooligans terrorizing them and prefer to mind their own business even though they easily could do something. While this movie might be more relatable to city dwellers where one is conditioned to not get involved I think anyone can understand the self-preservation tendency overwhelming the desire for justice. This is a very thought-provoking film that's probably too good to be lumped in with the usual dreck I post on this blog but I think it deserves any attention it can get and sadly it's little talked-about. It's also quite a frustrating watch as you want someone to show a little backbone and put an end to the proceedings long before that happens. I'm not sure I would want to sit through this one again but I'm glad I got to experience it.
The cast here is pretty remarkable including a young Martin Sheen, Beau Bridges, Donna Mils and even Ed McMahon but the highlight for me is Tony Musante(who is best known to me as the main guy from Argento's BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE) as our main thug who kinda reminds me of David Hess but not quite as sadistic and perverted.
Not being a very big fan of the 90s this one is a bit rough for me. It basically reminds me of every industrial music video from that decade complete with the drab black and white camerawork, the shaky cam and of course the atonal music. The saving grace is that director Darren Aronofsky at least packs some interesting ideas in this intentionally nihilistic exercise about chaos vs. order in the natural world and the thin line between brilliance and insane nutiness. So that's probably why I've seen it twice now in 20 years. In all that time I forgot about the unpleasantness of it all. Speaking of which most of the characters in this are pretty unlikable and tough to relate to or want to spend time around but I'm sure that's intentional and mirrors society in some ways. All in all an interesting if not very enjoyable independent film experiment that math nerds and/or artsy-fartsy film snobs may appreciate a bit more than me.
I really love Bruce Dern in all those old biker flicks from the 60s and 70s that he did but in this one he plays one of the biggest unlikeable douchebag cop characters I've seen in awhile. I guess that's why they call it acting and this is a great film to see a lot of top-notch acting by everyone involved, including Ryan O'Neal as the titular getaway driver. As you would expect the chase scenes are incredible, equal to those in the way more famous FRENCH CONNECTION. Director Walter Hill's very next movie was the highly regarded THE WARRIORS but that seems very cartoonish in comparison to the gritty realism on display here, not that that is necessarily a bad thing, but if you wanna check out something a little more based in reality this might be the ticket. Too bad, for some reason, it's not more well known these days.
There have been a few recent films which this was purportedly the inspiration for, including DRIVE and BABY DRIVER, but since these are probably full of cgi car stunts I have very little interest in ever watching them.
Got a chance to see this early Umberto Lenzi-directed thriller at a drive-in a few days ago. Not to be confused with Lenzi's other PARANOIA from the next year(which also starred Carroll Baker and is allegedly the last part of a trilogy which includes this film and SO SWEET...SO PERVERSE) this one is a psychological thriller about a widowed woman who runs afoul of a couple of young hipsters who at first befriend her and then ultimately attempt to drive her to suicide to obtain her cash. While it's an awesomely-shot film I couldn't help but think it would have made a good giallo if they only threw a couple of murders in there or something. As it is with it's twists, s & m trappings and all it's fine but probably not one I need to revisit anytime soon. Still a cool drive-in experience following Lenzi's amazing zombie epic CITY OF THE WALKING DEAD!
Apparently there are 2 different endings to this depending upon which version you're watching. The ORGASMO version(it's original title) has a longer and better ending which actually explains a whole bunch more and the American release gives us a bit of a happier outcome by excluding some details. Also some versions trim the bare nipples out like stupid prudes.
