Disc Reviews

When it comes to exploitation films you really are rolling the dice when you find a title you’ve never heard of and you decide to watch it. Through the 60’s and 70’s there were countless exploitation films that covered many genres, many of which were sold to audiences by a cool-looking poster and catchy title.  Sex and violence were the major exploits with these films, and at this time there was also the birth of black cinema, or simply blacksploitation films.  Many have heard of Foxy Brown, The Mack, and Truck Turner, but for all these hits there were many more misses, and it’s the lost gems of the era that film geeks get excited over.  Just because a film wasn’t a hit at the time didn’t mean the film was no good; many just fell between the cracks, and Joe Bullet just happens to be one of those titles.

Joe Bullet is about as exploitation as it comes.  If you are looking for something on par with the quality of the recent Jason Bourne film, well, you better keep on looking.  This is one of the examples of low-budget filmmaking at its finest, where having a car explode most likely was a big chunk of the budget.  I know some people can’t appreciate the camp of these films and quickly dismiss them, but for me I feel there is a bit of charm that comes through because you can see that everyone involved is actually trying to make the best film they can within their financial means.

Resistance was first released in the UK in 2011, and it saw its first DVD release two years ago in Finland. Now in 2017, the US is finally getting DVD distribution. However, like most distribution marketing strategies, the cover, DVD home screen, and advertised star power are an inaccurate depiction of what the film actually offers. While the film has many strengths, all the imagery that you get prior to actually watching the film (the cover and home screen), prepare you for what you think is going to be an interesting WWII-themed thriller with possible action sequences. Instead, Resistance is an interesting, yet severely slow-paced character study that doesn’t necessarily follow its own plot description.

The film claims to be about a small community of wives in a Welsh valley whose husbands mysteriously disappear one morning. The film implies that they have left to join the allied resistance against Germany, but realistically, that is a huge MacGuffin. There is also an interesting subplot involving an inexperienced Allied assassin that also is rather underwhelming, but realistically, that is the point. The film is actually about the internal and external struggles faced by Captain Albrecht (Tom Wlaschiha) as he must balance the morale of his men, the superiority over the women in the community, and his own personal philosophies regarding the war.

Star Trek Voyager was the third spinoff from the original Star Trek, following the superior Next Generation and the inferior Deep Space Nine. While the idea was quite an original premise, the cast never seemed to gel. The obvious attempt at political correctness gives us the most diverse cast yet on Star Trek, including the first female captain. Kate Mulgrew is the weakest captain to date on Star Trek. (I know I’ll catch heat for this.) The reason is not her gender, but such a lack of strength. She never walks, but seems to glide across the bridge when she moves. The strongest characters come in Tom Paris, the Federation inmate, and Torres, the half-Klingon, half-human hybrid. There is real passion in those characters that keeps the cast interesting enough. The combination of Federation and Maquis (a rebel Federation group) members was a great setup that too quickly gets tossed aside in later years. There’s plenty of Star Trek eye candy and a whole new quadrant of aliens to meet here. It had been quite some time for me since I had seen Voyager. 

Star Trek Voyager came into its own during the second season. This was the first full season of the Star Trek spin-off. Voyager once again brought the concept of exploration to the Star Trek universe. The season was very uneven. There is the absolutely terrible and contrived episode The 37’s, which starts off with an old pickup truck floating in space. For the first time a starship lands, and I think that was an unwise development. This is the episode where the crew finds Amelia Earhart. The season does contain one of the best episodes of the series with Tuvix. Remember Tuvok and Neelix getting genetically entwined with an orchid? The combined character was far more interesting than either was individually. I recall wishing they stayed combined. It wasn’t always great stuff, but it was Star Trek at a time when The Next Generation was ending. This was a solid season for Voyager. The show had not yet settled into its too-comfortable environment. The season ended on the usual Trek cliffhanger. It must be noted that since the series began the previous January instead of the customary fall, production of episodes for the first three years does not follow the seasons. If you check out any of the Voyager companions available, you will find discrepancies as to which episodes came from which season. More episodes were produced in years 1 and 2 than were aired. These unaired episodes would begin the following season.

Contemporary horror films are in a really strange position. Gone are the days of the formulaic slasher flick or creature feature. Today we have filmmakers who only seem interested in breaking genre conventions in order to try something new and be deemed “relevant.” As  a result, we are treated to an intellectually-driven horror renaissance with films such as It Follows or The Babadook, or we must sit through the onslaught of torture-porn-infused sequels to 70’s and 80’s classics such as Evil Dead (2013), I Spit on Your Grave (2010), or The Last House on the Left (2009). If the filmmaker is trying to break genre conventions, it is important to note that they do not always succeed, as is the case with Slasher.com.

Opening the film with what seems to be a great social commentary regarding modern dating apps such as Tinder, Slasher.com offers a reasonable plot: some deviant is prowling the net, preying on the helpless women of St. Louis, Missouri. Then that concept just sort of changes. After about five minutes of news stories, the film clumsily takes you away from that concept via a blossoming relationship between a young couple who just met. In an effort to make it a “first date to remember,” they rent a cabin somewhere in the backwoods of Missouri. Their experience becomes more and more disturbing as you learn more about their creepy hosts. But what of the online dating killer? He comes back, but in a way that fails to surprise.

Before there was South Park, in 1993 MTV released the coolest cartoon that was out there when they began to air Beavis and Butt-Head.  When it came to animated shows, there really wasn’t much out there that appealed to the average teenage boy, but MTV understood their audience and took a chance on creator Mike Judge’s little series that was virtually an overnight sensation.  The blend of having a short animated series mixed in with music videos that the show’s characters would deliver their commentary from the torn up sofa was the perfect blend for what would be an unexpected pop-culture movement.  Looking back at the series with older eyes, I can understand why my parents rolled their eyes about my urgency to get home to watch the new episode of Beavis and Butt-Head.  They were crass, they were stupid, and their only goals in life were to get laid and eat nachos; basically they were not so different from my friends in high school, only an exaggerated version.  Now it’s 2017, and MTV has put out a massive 12-disc set that contains all the episodes, a variety of music videos, behind-the-scenes features, and even the feature-length film.  After taking my trip down memory lane and feeling as though my brain has melted into a pile of nacho cheese, I’m here to deliver the verdict.

For those who somehow have never heard of the show, Beavis (blond Metalica t-shirt-wearing teen) and Butt-Head (brown-haired AC/DC t-shirt-wearing teen), are a pair of teens who lack intelligence and ambition but manage to plod along through life and get into some crazy situations.  Despite the many faults of the duo, for the most part they are your typical teenagers who just want to have a good time.  In a strange way I almost could say the two and their attitude on life is something so basic that perhaps their key to happiness is simply not thinking about their actions and just doing.  We see them get bullied by the town trouble maker Todd; they are rejected by their peers, they live in terrible conditions with no parents in sight, but together the two seem to manage to get through any situation.