Uncategorized

The films of the 1960's and 1970's began an era of what have been called exploitation films. There are many examples of films that pushed the R to X boundaries and have been referred to as Sexploitation films. Today we might call them soft porn, and examples of those early films includes Daughter Of The Sun (1963) and The Twilight Girls (1961). There were also films that took advantage of a certain aspect of black culture in the 70's and made to appeal to the young, "hip" blacks of the decade but also became quite popular with the mainstream audiences. Films from that genre include iconic movies like the Shaft and Dolemite franchises. There's another of these kinds of films that hasn't gotten quite the attention and aren't as well remembered. That group of films from mainly the 60's were called Hicksploitation. These films provided heavy stereotyping like the Blacksploitation films did, but of the ways of the south. Common themes were incest and child brides, moonshining, and inbred hillbillies. While television picked up on the fad and made these stereotypes more charming and lovable with shows like The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres, the depictions in these films flaunted the Hayes Code and other censor attempts because of the setting. It sounds crazy, but it was acceptable to have these taboos presented in rural South locations that could not be gotten away with in any "civilized" Northern location. Now Film Masters has discovered two of these films and restored them for our personal libraries.

"She's cheated. Tried to steal my money. That's what I get for a wife."

"It's the things we love most, that destroy us."

It's actually a little hard to believe that it's been eight years since last we visited Suzanne Collins' future dystopian world of The Hunger Games. The last two films were shot and released as two parts of the final book in the saga, and I think most of us had laid the soul of Katniss Everdeen and her rebellion to rest. Of course, not without the franchise doing quite a bit of damage at the box office. Not counting home video releases, the franchise generated a total box office of about $1.4 billion. That's a lot of scratch, and if you understand the movie business at all, you know that finishing a franchise for good is like leaving money sitting on the table. So after a nearly decade rest from the high morality of The Hunger Games story, it's time to head back to the trough at least one more time. Collins was the first to understand this and had already set out to pen a prequel to it all. That prequel has now hit the megaplexes with The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes, and it certainly lives up to the name.

"What do you think evil is? I'll tell you what I think evil is..."

It's sequels/reboots made by filmmakers who haven't got one single clue what made the original such a classic. The Exorcist was a masterpiece of filmmaking and is truly one of the most compelling horror films even 50 years later. There are a lot of reasons for that. Unfortunately, David Gordon Green couldn't name a single one if you gave him a cheat sheet in one hand and William Friedkin's complete notes in the other. Blum House took a huge risk after they finished their Halloween trilogy. The films were hit and miss with some good moments. But most fans of the original never could completely bond with the films. So Blum House decided they liked this 3 film reboot/sequel idea and took a chance on committing $400 million for a trilogy of The Exorcist. Like the Halloween trilogy it would ignore all but the original film and take it's story directly from that moment onward. On paper it's a pretty solid plan. Both Halloween and The Exorcist have been followed by some pretty bad follow-up films and there's no reason to overcomplicate the mythology by bogging yourself down with all the bad that might have followed. The problem is that you must also avoid BEING the bad that follows. With The Exorcist: Believer David Gordon Green now rules the bad that follows The Exorcist. Believe it or not (pun intended), that's the good news. The bad news is no matter how bad this film is received we're going to get two more. It's part of the commitment and both Blum House and audiences everywhere are stuck with it. And while they have to make the films we don't have to pay our 20 bucks to see films. All I can say is Green should be grateful for streaming because it's the only thing he has left after a film that could use a good exorcism of its own.

“Most ghost stories have some basis in truth.”

Essentially an amalgamation of tropes from previous beloved horror films. Like if you took those films and put them into a blender. There are elements of Candyman; I don’t just mean because of Tony Todd’s involvement. Additionally, there were elements of Halloween, with an uncompromising killer wielding a shovel. Points for weapon originality. Of all the weapons that my mind could have conceived, a shovel wouldn’t have been at the top of my list. However, all things considered, it proved to be effective weapon. The film gets off to a bad start as it essentially drops us in the middle of situation with no understanding of what has supposedly occurred. Makes it quite difficult to become invested when things start off so disjointed. The Devilreaux is presented as a modern day boogeyman (another element of the film). However, prior to the mention of his name, we have no frame of reference of who or what he is. I suspect the goal was to build intrigue, but given that the killer strikes within the opening scenes, it would have been nice to have some context to the character. Bare minimum, we need a title card with some basic information, so we are stumbling around in the dark, which is how it felt for the initial fifteen minutes.

"I remember when I was 17, my father asked me what I wanted to be. Would I like to be a barber like him? I laughed in his face. I wanted to be a successful gangster. In retrospect I asked myself if what I chose was worth 25 years of my life. The answer is no, not 25 seconds. I married this life, and after keeping my mouth shut for all these years, I'm gonna see if it married me back." 

Sylvester Stallone plays mob guy Dwight "The General" Manfredi. It's his first television role, and he couldn't have chosen better than to appear in a Taylor Sheridan show on Paramount +. Sheridan pretty much owns the streaming service, all of it except maybe the Star Trek shows. He knows how to create characters and to then put the right actor in that role. I've seen it happen a thousand times now, from Yellowstone to Mayor of Kingstown and a couple of Yellowstone spin-offs. The part appears made just for Sly, and he makes it worth everything he has, all the while making it look effortless. That's Sheridan's magic, of course. Create and cast well, and no one has to really work at all. Yeah, that's a bit of an oversimplification, but it sure looks that way, doesn't it?

Yeah, this film didn’t really do it for me. Of late I’ve been on the prowl for a quality horror or suspense movie. Something with a compelling story, and while I didn’t initially believe that Ghost of Monday would live up to that desire, I left the door open to be surprised. As it turns out, I could have left that door closed with the lock latched. The Ghost of Monday is a slow-burning tale that I never really connected with. For one, the premise is a bit anti-climatic and has been addressed with box office films such as The Invitation and Ready Or Not, which I found to be the best. In this instance, a television director (Mark Huberman, Vikings Vahalla) travels to a supposed haunted hotel for the purpose of making a television pilot. Eventually, he and his crew find themselves wrapped up in a supernatural conspiracy that could have life or death consequences for them. Did you catch my use of the word “eventually”? Stay tuned, I’ll explain that in a bit. The biggest intended draw for the film was probably the inclusion of Julian Sands of Warlock fame, but his role is secondary in relation to the overall film. All in all, I’m still on the lookout for a quality horror or suspense film.

Now to address my use of “eventually.” That word was chosen carefully to emphasize how long it took for the film to get to interesting bits, i.e. the action. It took over forty minutes for this to occur. Now I can appreciate a slow burn and the need to build suspense, but that only works when your characters are interesting enough to carry the story until we can get to the meat and potatoes. This is not the case here. We initially follow Huberman’s character as he is basically attempting to put the pieces of his life back together. The long and short of it is that both his professional and personal lives have taken hits in recent years. A majority of the forty minutes are used to attempt to address his efforts to fix his situation in both areas. The problem is, Huberman’s character is not exactly loveable. He is quickly annoyed and short-tempered with the other members of the crew. Now a portion of that can be attributed to his desperation, and personal issues apparently have to do with a tragedy that resulted in the rift between him and his significant other. Even so, it still isn’t enough to balance the scales in my opinion. I will say towards the end he starts to have some redeeming moments, but again it feels too little too late.

One of my favorite things about being a critic is when I get to discover a film from the past that I’ve never heard of and it turns out to be a gem. The Asphyx is one of those films that I decided to give a shot, and afterwards I can’t believe I’ve never even heard of this film until recently. The film definitely dabbles in the horror genre as well as science fiction, and to be honest it is one of the more clever and original films that toys with the idea of immortality. The Kino release of the film came with two versions, one that is 86 minutes and the other a 99-minute cut.  The longer cut of the film  has its additional scenes cut in from a 35 mm print; the additional scenes are easy to pick out due to the poor quality (it is a very jarring  difference), but to be fair, it didn’t impact my experience.

The film opens up in modern times, at least for the time the film was first released in 1972. There has been a terrible car accident, and it seems only one person has managed to survive.  The film then jumps to the late 1800’s and to the English countryside where Sir Hugo Cunningham (Robert Stevens) is doing research on spiritual photography.  He’s created a special device that can add light and reveals the image of an Asphyx, an ancient Greek spirit of the dead.  Through Hugo’s experiments he believes that if you can capture and trap the Asphyx as someone is dying, you can prevent that persons death and they will become immortal, at least for as long as the Asphyx is trapped.

I usually don’t go in for mockumentary series. I missed the boat when it comes to series like The Office and Parks and Rec. However, there was something about Abbott Elementary that captured my interest. So much so that upon completing the first season, I immediately binged the available episodes for the second season. It would appear I’m not the only who has become captivated by the series, as it cleaned up on the award circuit, to include a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Sheryl Lee Ralph), and more impressively, a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series (for show creator, writer, executive producer, lead actress Quinta Brunson). And after watching the show in its entirety, all I can say is those awards were well deserved. Abbott Elementary is a breath of fresh air that has become my new Wednesday night pleasure.

In true fashion for a mockumentary series, a documentary crew records the lives of teachers working at Abbott Elementary, an underfunded, mismanaged Philadelphia-based school. A predominantly black Philadelphia public school, conditions at the school are harsh and most teachers do not last more than two years. Second grade teacher Janine Teagues (Brunson) and history teacher Jacob Hill (In The Dark’s Chris Perfetti) are two of three teachers in a group of twenty to make it past one year. They work with experienced kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard (Ralph), second grade teacher Melissa Schemmenti (Lisa Ann Walter), self-absorbed school principal Ava Coleman, and recent substitute hire Gregory Eddie (Everybody Hates Chris’ Tyler James Williams).

This film gives you two separate options for your viewing pleasure. Firstly, you can view the watch the 98-minute international cut (originally known as (Maciste alla corte del Gran Khan) or the -minute U.S. cut, which is more formally known as Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World. It’s nice to have options. If I were you, I’d opt for the shorter version, because if I’m being honest, even with a shorter run time, the film seemed to drag on. On the other hand, with an additional 22 minutes to play, it is difficult to imagine that greater context was not provided. I will say the international cut has the original score, for which a significant portion was retained for the U.S. version. I think fans of the original film will be better with how the film was originally intended.

I went into the film expecting it to be an adventure with the titular character either witnessing 7 miracles or achieving 7 miracles; something like a Hercules and his 12 labors, or maybe like Val Kilmer with the three miracles he had to achieve in The Saint. Instead, I got a story about a strong man who finds himself embroiled in a war between a horde of sadistic Mongol invaders and Chinese natives that the Mongols are attempting to enslave. Samson is an outsider who intervenes to help protect the indigenous population from the invaders, turning the tide in the conflict with his tremendous strength. It is not a bad premise, and at moments, usually when he displaying his strength, I am even intrigued. However, the story felt too long and too slow paced to hold my attention beyond those moments of adventure.

I don’t think Hollywood is ready to stop shooting movies centered around World War 2 any time soon, even if it seems they’ve filmed just about every story under the sun that you can tell about that that war.  I get it, Nazis are simply put some of the greatest villains you can have in a film, because they took part in some of the most wicked atrocities towards men and women, so you really don’t have to do much in the way of character development to get your audience to hate them. I don’t think anyone is interested in a story about a sympathetic Nazi, but is it so hard to ask for a character that comes off the screen that seems to at least have a personality? I mean, Tarantino did it with Col. Hans Landa in Inglorious Basterds (2009) with a terrific performance from Christoph Waltz, but since then the movies have been afraid to do this, and that’s the kind of thing that is so desperately missing from Wolf Hound. It’s not just the Nazis who are lacking in personality, but the entire cast of characters that reek of cliché and lazy writing that it mystifies me how this ever got made.

The film opens up with some excellent aerial photography of some authentic war planes being used for these sequences. Director Michael B. Chait was smart to utilize these planes and use them at the start of the film, because it was a good way to hook the audience into thinking that perhaps the whole film just may be as authentic. Sadly after that 20-minute mark this becomes a whole different film when pilot David Holden (James Maslow) has to parachute from his plane. Unfortunately for Holden, Major Erich Roth (Trevor Donovan), a German pilot, has crashed in the same area and is looking for vengeance for his brother’s death. If the filmmakers had kept it simple and this became a story about two men hunting one another in the woods while avoiding capture from the enemy, this could have been a stronger film, could have had some actual suspense, but instead these filmmakers decided to go big and go strong with the clichés, which means just about every scene in this film is obvious because it’s been done to death in every other war film to come before it. Down to the convoy of enemy soldiers that just happens to stop where our hero is and to go further with the cliché a soldier happens to relieve their bladder right next to our hero who is just out of the enemies sight-line because they don’t look down. That’s right, you’ve all seen this done before, and the movie plays out like a bad piece of déjà vu, but in surround sound.