Week of Saturday February 10 thru Friday 16, 2007

Saturday, February 10, 2007
A Dead Calling - 2006

Sid Haig and Bill Moseley! Both in "good guy" roles. How weird is that? Unfortunately, the joy of seeing these two actually act is greatly dimmed by the fact that this movie is utterly predictable. In fact, it gives cookie cutter/formula-based movies a bad name. According to IMDB, this movie cost $1.5M to make. I sure hope that Sid and Bill got like $500K apiece. Otherwise that was money just flushed down a toilet.

There is a commentary by director Michael Feifer alone, before the release of the movie. It starts out promising, sounding like it's going to be a technical commentary. Alas, you will be driven insane if you listen to it. If you drink just a drop of beer every time this guy says "ahhhh", you'll die of alcohol poisoning before the commentary is over.

And that's a shame, as there's a lot of good technical details, low budget film making help. He should have spent more on a decent script.

Sunday, February 11 through Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Broken Saints - 2001

Here we have a 12 hour epic! Four DVDs, 24 episodes. Originally done in Flash for the web, it has be significantly "polished" for this DVD presentation. The animation style is refreshingly different, and the plot is engaging (which is good, considering how long it is!). For the first entire you, you keep wondering "what does it all mean, and how do these 4 utterly different characters tie together?

Then, on the second disc (episodes 9-15) episode 10 starts off with a homage to The Prisoner. This always scares the crap out of me. Anytime anyone makes a Prisoner reference, I get that same creepy feeling you get when you first see THAT series, and are afraid that there are parts that might be real.

But by this time, you're really hooked. It's so bizarre, yet enthralling. By disc 3 on Tuesday, I'm having as much fun spotting references and homages as I am just watching the thing. Let's see, besides the Prisoner, there was Brazil, Fight Club, Dr. Who, and those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head.

And then, after 4 discs, and the whole thing is wrapped up nice and neat, I realize that there are commentaries on all episodes. Gods! Well, there's a first time for everything. I usually ALWAYS listen to the commentaries, no matter how dull. But I don't have the time to listen to TWELVE HOURS of commentary. I listened to the first 3 on disc 1, only to discover that they are way too self congratulating and gushy. Not nearly technical enough to get me to listen to many more. So I jump all the way to disc 4, and he's STILL gushing "it looks so good". Good grief man, get over yourself. I realize that you spent your own money, and years of your life on this. But you've had 12 hours to talk about how pleased you are with it. Move on!

Anywho, I really did enjoy this. It's a big investment in time, but I think most people will really enjoy it.

Thursday, February 15, 2007
Mondo Macabro's Bollywood Horror Collection, Vol. 1
Bandh Darwaza - 1990 aka The Closed Door

A text screen warning of bad film elements is usually a bad sign. Didn't seem so bad to me, especially considering its a Bollywood flick (not known for their High tech storage).

I like the electric Bat Altar. Anywho, this is a Hindi Vampire movie (although they talk about Satan, which I thought odd). I also wonder why the Hindi gods are blue? Does this signify something? Anyone know? I'm too lazy to look it up in Google. And of course, it wouldn't be Bollywood without some inappropriate singing and dancing.

You'll see other things you wouldn't expect, however. Like vampires being hurt by a dagger. A second beginning/opening 20 minutes into the movie. They stole the "Jasssssss, Jasssss" sound from the Friday the 13th movies. In fact, there are a ton of stolen sounds. And you'll be surprised at the length. Two and a half hours! Yikes!

Disc 2 contains several documentaries on Bollywood horror, which were pretty interesting.

Friday, February 16, 2007
Bollywood Horror, Con't.
Purana Mandir - 1984

An earlier movie, that all the documentaries claim was sort of a rite of passage for young people in India in the 80's. Funny, I didn't think it was so very good. Still, what do I know. I think all the musical numbers all sound alike.

And I still want to see one of the "mythologicals" that they talk about in the documentaries, where the Hindi gods come alive via computer generation and kick butt. Now THAT I could get into. I wanna see Shiva fry some bad guys.