Black Christmas – 1974 – aka Silent Night, Evil Night / Stranger in the House
Man, you know that a movie’s got something going on when it features a cast like this: John Saxon, Art Hindle, Olivia Hussey, Andre Martin, and Margot Kidder. AND it’s directed by Bob Clark (the man who gave us Porky’s and Popcorn).
This movie was really groundbreaking in its day. Done before Halloween, you can see that that this really was the proto-slasher. And it has a lot of style. Like the fish-eye for the POV of the killer. And strumming the inside of a piano as part of the score. Both are standard now, but were novel in 1974.
And, of course, the really unique thing about this movie is that the killer is never revealed. So, equally of course, the stupid people who made the remake this winter throw this away. Yeah, that’s it. Get rid of one of the aspects that make this movie unique.
I truly enjoyed this movie. And there were lots of nice extras. A 12 minute documentary about the movie, an interesting feature of “uncovered” sound scenes, Midnight Q&A with Bob Clark, Johns Saxon, and Carl Zittrer (music guy), and dedicated interviews with Olivia Hussey, Margot Kidder (what a nut!), and Art Hindle.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Santa Claws – 1996
Debbie Rochon! Bill Hinzman (Zombie #1). And that, my friends, is the best thing you can say about this movie. Ohh, and there’s plenty of boobage. But more on THAT later. What made it so bad? Was it the inane plot? The terrible editing? The not-so-special special effects? The acting that a third grade pageant would be ashamed of? NO! It’s the horrible transfer. Seriously, this is the worst transfer EVER. No, really. I’ve seen better looking third generation VHS tapes. It’s not color corrected (check out the lipstick), it’s grainy and dim. Absolutely abysmal. It ruins the whole movie, at least for me. No subs, no commentary, the only extra is an outtake reel.
It is a pity that this disc is so poor, since there’s tons of boobage that would at least elevate the movie to tolerable. I mean, it’s a movie about making a soft-core Christmas video. And my disc even INCLUDES the soft-core Christmas video (Naked Christmas!). Still, it’s too hard to watch. Stay away. Save your money for ANY other Debbie Rochon movie.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Rest Stop – 2006
Once again, I’m going to hell for watching a movie like this on Christmas Day. Oh well, Christmas is for kids away. I was warned that this movie sucked rocks. I was surprised, as it was not nearly as bad as Sean & Tracey indicated. It’s a pretty standard “unstoppable killer” movie, well done & well acted, with an interesting twist at the end.
There were subtitles (YEAH!), but the only other extra is a pair of alternate endings. That’s pretty cool. A pleasant surprise.
The Last Sect – 2006
David Carradine!
OMG this is slow. The glaciers had warp drive next to this movie. Finally, after an hour, it’s more interesting, but could the music PLEASE be a little softer and the dialogue be a little louder. Overall, I rate this movie as more pain than it’s worth.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Pulse – 2006
This movie was something I thought I’d never see, a decent PG-13 horror movie. It has funky colors (everything’s blue). Good use of 5.1 at times to add to the creepy. It even features Brad Dourif, in a tiny, tiny part, but it was PERFECT for him. Overall, this may be the first time where a remake of a Japanese horror movie was good!
Subtitled, and two commentaries. The first was with the director (Jim Sonzero) and the Make Up FX guy. Here we learn that it was shot in Romania (duh!). It was not very good, actually.
Second commentary was with cast & crew. A little better, at least not dull. Lots of other extras as well. Deleted/alternate scenes, Creating the Fear: The Making of Pulse, The Visual Effects of Pulse, and a stupid ultra short documentary “Pulse & the Supernatural”.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
I Was A Teenage Movie Maker – 2006
This is a two disc set that is a documentary about Don Glut’s amateur films. Fascinating & hysterical! Then, after the documentary there are all the films with music & later, dialogue. And commentaries! This is a short class in film making. Everything except lighting.
Broken up into the following categories:
1- Dinosaurs
2- Classic Monsters
Thursday, December 28, 2006
3- Teenage Monsters
4- Super heros
5- Miscellaneous
Plus, trailers, tests, and a Count De Vol interview. This was a lot a fun, but probably only for folks who enjoy commentaries for the educational purposes.
Friday, December 28, 2006
Jerkbeast – 2005
A $5K comedy, which grew out of a Public Access TV show. It’s creative, foul, and funny. Only true connoisseurs of crap need to watch. Those easily offended, who don’t appreciate the creative use of profanity and derogatory comments (the main character never insults anyone the same way twice!).
Two commentaries. The first was by Brady Hall, Calvin Reeder, and Brian Wendorf. It’s pretty stupid. No details about how it was made or why or much of anything. The second commentary is labeled as “Comedy”, and is full of people I’ve never heard of. It was not nearly as funny as the movie itself. Both are easily skipped.
Other extras include: “What is Jerkbeast” making of featurette, a weird cartoon featuring the band. Finally, the best part; The Best of Jerkbeast Show, seasons One and Two. Wild and wacky!
2 comments:
Black Christmas! I was just thinking how great it would be to see someone who's opinion I value re-reviewed this. Guess great minds think alike (and are affected by marketing...). Thanks for it! Can I just send you my dvd list and you review them? :) Hope you had a good holiday!
LOL! Since I presently have 261 movies in my Netflix queue, it might be awhile before I got to them. However, I think it would be interesting and fun to know what we all want to watch. So, if you're a Netflix subscriber, we can become "friends", and then we can see each other's queues. Here's the link to join for me.
http://www.netflix.com/BeMyFriend/P7iPp76CXWMFAgn3lk6l
This should be an interesting experiment. And yes, my holidays were excellent. I got the special Collections Edition of Forbidden Planet, with the Robby the Robot figure!
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