The premise is beyond simple. Judge Dredd and new trainee Judge Anderson enter into one of the sprawling tenements of Mega-City One to take down Ma-Ma,and her gang, who are distributing a new, and of course immensely addicting and lethal drug called Slo-Mo.
once on the call, Dredd and Anderson are trapped within the building, as ma-Ma's gang batten's down the hatches, and goes on the hunt for our uber violent law officer and his rookie side-kick.
Cue a fuckton of ammo, detailed shots of faces coming apart, right down to their chompers and mandibles coming atcha in slow motion, blood splattered (and 3D if you saw it in theaters or have the set-up at home), gorey glory. DREDD isn't plotless by any means, but it is, as I said, incredibly simple. It's all about the execution (pardon the pun), and execute DREDD does. Over and over and over.
Expertly shot, director Pete Travis (VANTAGE POINT) has a clear understanding of what the universe of Judges is all about, which is bullets, merciless justice dealt out to deserving villains, by a lone lawman on a bad ass motorcycle, armed to the nines with an more bad ass weaponry. Travis and screenwriter Alex Garland get right into the thick of things after a quick introduction to the Dystopian universe initially created in the pages of the UK comics magazine 2000 A.D. by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, where the entire continent has become a connected sprawl that thrives on crime...and punishment.
This move was so rocking, it's a total shame fans didn't flock to the theaters to make it a hit. It was virtually ignored, getting a bit more mileage when it hit home video, but still doesn't get the respect it deserves. The cast of Karl Urban (STAR TREK), Olivie Thirlby (NO STRINGS ATTACHED), and Leanna Headey (GAME OF THRONES) show that high, uber violent action films, don't have to be devoid of good performances. if I were a rich man, a sequel would already exist, and we'd have our Judge Death story (with creature actor extraordinaire Doug Jones playing the Eddie-like monstrous spectral, skeletal Judge whose "...sentence is Deathhhhhh". But alas, all we have is this installment, but here's hoping the fan community can keep the dream alive, and keep pushing for the movie geek miracle that would be DREDD 2.
~Sean Smithson
# 17 - UZUMAKI (2000)
The citizen of the sleepy little town Kurôzu-cho are slowly going insane, becoming increasibly obessesed by, of all things, the symbol of a spiral. Kirie Goshima's father begins exhibiting starnge behavior, so does the mother of her boyfriend, Shuichi Sato. Soon the odd behavior turns sinister, with people tucking themselves into washing machines to commit the oddest form of suicide, to trying to gouge out their own cochlea's, a spiral like tube in the inner ear. When Kirie and Shuichi finally decide to abandon the increasingly sinister town, they find there is no fleeing. they are trapped in a spiral of time if you will. When they wind up back in Kurôzu-cho, they find things have become even worse than they could have imagined.
UZUMAKI is almost impossible for me to describe. Part Lovecraftian terror, part Japanese high school drama, and invoking the works of artists like Tim Burton (at his best), Mario bava, and Kyoshi Kurasawa, director Akihiro Higuchi's adaptation of the classic horror manga by Junji Ito is a candy colored psychedelic mind-fuck. An odd choice as far as art direction goes, since the Ito manga is drawn in fine lined black and white, but it works beautifully. I'm incredibly surprised that Higuchi didn't rise to the top of Japanese horror directors back when UZUMAKI dropped, since the romance of the J-Horror sub-genre was hitting really hard at the time, when foreign audiences obsessed with getting their hands on every title they could find, from RINGU to THE GRUDGE to EVIL DEAD TRAP. UZUMAKI, both the film and the graphic novel collections belong on the top shelf of any genre fan, and have a strange, off putting quality that is all too rare in the been-there-done-that realm of scarey flicks and comic books. I've been trying to dig up more information on Higuchi, but there doesn't seem to be much out there. sadly, he seems to have come and gone. A terrible shame, as his visual sense is jaw dropping. At least we have UZUMAKI, which is highly recommended.
~Sean Smithson
# 16 - THE FOG (1980)
The small seaside fishing community of Antonio Bay has to answer for a curse brought upon them by the towns forefathers 100 years earlier, when the founders conspired and killed a group of lepers who were coming to build a nearby colony. the modern day citizens of the coastal village must answer for the sins of those that came before them, when a fog rolls off the waters and onto their streets, carrying the spirits of those drawn into the rocks the century before. The cursed gold, hidden in the walls of the local rectory, must be reclaimed by the restless souls, and a night of mist shrouded terror must fall upon the town before debts can be settled.
For John Carpenter, following up the smash indy hit about the night a certain "He" came home was no easy task. The young director, trying to keep the momentum of his surprise success rolling forward, penned a story (along with his creative partner Debra Hill) that would prove a near disaster, from a technical and personal standpoint. THE FOG was a a bigger nightmare to shoot than the story itself, the crew finding out that a force of nature such as fog doesn't like to be directed and controlled. More unwieldy than any child actor or animal, re-shoots were needed to achieve the fx required for this fable-like scarey movie. factor in a personal break-up between carpenter and Hill, and the fact carpenter was starting a romance with his lead actress, Adrienne Barbeau, and yeah, there's not a lot of happy anecdotes surrounding the films production. but with Barbeau, and Carpenter's returning star from HALLOWEEN, Jamie Lee Curtis, along with Curtis' real life mother Janette leigh (PSYCHO), and characters actors and luminaries such as John Houseman, Tom Atkins, Charlie Cyphers, and Nancy Loomis, somehow a movie was delivered. Enough of a success to move Carpenter's career along, THE FOG harkened back to the more Gothic scares of 60's horrors, and classic terrors of the Universal days. It has a fable-like quality, and it's scares are generated by tension and atmosphere, rather than FX. In fact, the shot of the worm faced specter during the films climax, is something I still find a bit incongruent. but this is where Carpenter first hooked up with then-teenage FX wiz Rob Bottin, which led to their collaboration on the uber classic THE THING. Next month brings the 35th anniversary of the film, so now would be the perfect time to run out and grab it on bluray, and prepare yourself for the return of Captain Blake, and his vengeful crew of ghosts. Damn, I love this movie. Just remember, if you see it creeping over the hills outside, and through your streets, stay out of THE FOG!
~Sean Smithson
# 15 - THE BRIDE WORE BLACK (1968)
It's easy for the more casual movie goer to hear a term like "The French New Wave" and immediately jump to the conclusion that the term must mean a cold, impersonal, angular film with lofty aspirations of going over the heads of the average "Joe". This is not the case at all, instead the term refers to something quite the opposite. "Reel" people making engaging cinema for "real" people. One of the greatest purveyors of this was the legendary Francois Truffaut (better known to American audiences as the man who played LaCombe, the French scientist in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND). Truffaut, an ex-critic who wrote under the guidance of maybe the greatest film critic ever, Andre Bazin, went on to write and direct a number of classic films himself.
THE BRIDE WORE BLACK is one of my favorites from his cannon. The story is a familiar one now, but we'll get to that. To simply synopsize, a bride widowed on her wedding day, by the shooting of her husband by some unknown assailant, wants to commit suicide, but has her mind changed by her mother. Rather than doing away with herself after the loss of her lifelong love, she decides to track down the killer, or killers as it turns out, and enact her revenge in the memory of her fallen mate. Once discovering the identities of the men, she makes a list, and systematically begins hunting them down. With the aid of disguises, Julie changes her look and personality throughout the film, infiltrating the lives of the privileged ones who ruined her happiness, and offing them one by one.
Sound familiar? If you're thinking KILL BILL, then ding ding ding! THE BRIDE WORE BLACK bares so much in common with the heralded Tarantino film that I have to scream "rip off" at ole' QT. The influences he has cited for his revenge flick, which came 35 years later, never once include the uncannily similar THE BRIDE WORE BLACK. The obnoxious plagiarist even claims to not "get Truffaut" nor to have any great love for his work. CoughBULLSHITcough. Let's just say this isn't the first time I've brought it up, nor was it to be the first time this credit-taking tracing-paper "writer" (HA!) director was to pilfer from the brain trust of Truffaut's filmography (see tomorrows TRAILER OF THE DAY for another example).
That said, THE BRIDE WORE BLACK features the iconic Jeanne Moreau, one of France's greatest and well known actresses, in the lead. Not an action star by any stretch, she slips right into this role of julie, the woman who wears many faces masterfully. The men who round out the cast, Charles Denner, Alexandra Stewart, Michel Bouquet, Michael Lonsdale, Claude Rich and Jean-Claude Brialy, serve to support one of the single most intense roles ever played by a female. Strangely, it wasn't one of Truffaut's personal favorites among his work, but I think if he'd lived to have seen where action cinema has gone in the last 20 years, he'd at least understand he'd gotten there long before the more liberated roles for women, where femininity and gun play were not exclusive of each other. This was one of the early examples of what I call the "Ripley Role". Strong women, doing what needs to be done, matching the muscular brawn of men blow for blow, bullet for bullet.
This belongs on the shelf next to stuff like the gritty and brutal Abel Ferrera grinder MS. 45, and Jack Hill's bad ass blacktion flick COFFY.
The end of THE BRIDE WORE BLACK will leave you wide eyed and blown the hell away, guaranteed.
~Sean Smithson
# 14 - THE LORDS OF SALEM (2012)
I've always been pretty outspoken about my dislike for a lot of the directorial work of Rob Zombie. I thought his take on HALLOWEEN and the character of Michael Meyers was close to a war crime, and showed a complete lack of understanding of what made the supposed-to-be-mute Shape work in the first place.
To be fair, I have also always said "The dude has a good movie in him...somewhere" so i kept watching. I wasn't a huge fan of his firefly family sagas, HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES, nor THE DEVIL'S REJECTS (which while a noble attempt, for me suffered from a Tarrentino-ish cut and paste syndrome, and pacing problems).
being a massive fan of the 70's satanic panic stuff, which I grew up on, I was cautiously optimistic when I heard RZ was going to be playing around in that sandbox.
THE LORDS OF SALEM came along, and seemed like a novel idea. Heidi Hawthorne, a DJ in drug recovery, becomes enmeshed in something sinister when a mysterious experimental-noise album shows up at her station. When the album is played, hell literally begins to break loose. The kindly landlady downstairs from Heidi, and her two sisters, are a little too forthcoming. hedi begins having visions and flashbacks of witches Sabbaths, and it seems like something is indeed readying to return to her hometown of, yes, Salem, Massachusetts.
A lot of RZ's original cinematic fanbase balked at the films slow pace, and the fact that his wife was put center stage as it's star. Strangely, she's always been one of my favorite elements in his work, and she does a fine job here as the troubled heroine. fan favorite actors like Ken Foree, Dee Wallace, Bruce Davison (who nearly steals the film as a chronicler of the witch trials, and a cautious debunker of local myths) populate the supporting roles, but it never comes off as stunt casting. This time out, they don't distract the viewer into playing Six Degrees Of Sid Haig, but rather, enhance the proceedings.
In the end, I consider this to easily be RZ's most accomplished, unforced work, and the final arrival of his voice as a film director. Well worth catching if you like moody, atmospheric terror.
~Sean Smithson
# 13 - THE INCREDIBLES (2004)
Brad Bird (THE IRON GIANT, RATATOUILLE) knocks it out of the park with what I consider to be the first truly successful superhero movie, and in many ways still the one to live up to. Playing off tropes laid down by the FANTASTIC FOUR, this classic animated film plays as fresh today as it did upon first release.
Bob and Hellen are loving parents, raising their precocious son, angsty teenage daughter, and newborn, in suburbia. the catch is, Mom and dad were once the superheroes known as Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl. After politicians passed legislature banning superheroes from doing that thing they do, namely, fighting crime, our do-gooders are forced into retirement. But Bob, and his his pal Lucius, once known as Frozone, can't put the costumes away. Sneaking out to thwart evil when they're supposed to be bowling, the time comes when their activities are exposed. Soon THE INCREDIBLES are back in action, and this time it is a family affair.
Taking cues from the aforementioned FANTASTIC FOUR, THE INCREDIBLES also borrows from a little known film called THE RETURN OF CAPTAIN INVINCIBLE ( a superhero is forced into hanging up his cape by bureaucracy, when he must make his return to fight villainy). That's not to say this Pixar film appropriates these ideas, it's to say it updates them, and makes them work for a broader audience, without dumbing anything down.
The climactic scenes, taking place on the island of the crazed Syndrome, the films main baddie, are as exciting as anything in a live action Marvel/DC movie, if not more so, even with it's highly characterized design and look. It's still all 100% believable.
The voice cast, including Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Lee, and Wallace Shawn are equally amazing, and help to bring everything to vibrant, four color life.
I was lucky enough, thanks to a friend, to actually see this prior to it's release at Pixar Studios, in their state of the art in-house theater, and man oh man, what a memory. talking with some of the staff, even the janitor was telling me waht a great place Pixar was to work, and how everyone was at one point or another included in the story editing process. the beta testers are the employees themselves, and they install a team and family atmosphere for everyone. Walking around upstairs, we also got to look at the maquettes used for the film, and get up close and personal to the many awards encased along the hallway. What a great time! When I die, please, bury me on Pixar grounds!
A sequel is apparently in the works, which is, well, incredibly exciting news. Given Pixar and Bird's track record for quality and putting story first, I can only imagine the commentary it will provide in this era of the now all-powerful superhero movie franchises.
~Sean Smithson
# 12 - FLIRTING WITH DISASTER (1996)
David O. Russel wrote and directed this brilliant, episodic comedy about Mel, a new father, and man who was adopted as a child, who decides to find his birth parents in hopes of knowing more about himself, and giving who he "is" some context, and being a better mentor to his baby. Employing a sexy social worker, Tina, and bringing along his reticent, young wife, Nancy, still recovering from recently having given birth (with all that entails emotionally and hormonally!), the trio embark on a cross country jaunt wrought with missteps and wrong turns. Mistaken identity after mistaken identity, they hit a series of constant dead ends, in the quest to find his roots.
Ben's adoptive parents, Pearl and Ed, don't know what to make of their sons new-found need to know his biological family history, but in the end are supportive, even if concerned for their own standing in the life of the child they love and raised.
FLIRTING WITH DISASTER is a road trip film, harkening back to the style of Billy Wilder's more farcical work, while also having a modern sketch comedy sensibility, moving between screwball humor and caustic satire with incredibly fluidity and ease . It all plays along at a brisk pace, laughs come hard and fast, with characters that weave in and out of the film, while not getting a lot of screen time, incredibly well rendered regardless of their short stay.
The cast is an Altman-esque whose who, especially in hindsight, with a still-green Ben Stiller in the lead, and Tea Leoni and Patricia Arquette rounding out the core ensemble. Add Mary Tyler Moore in a convention breaking role, George Segal, Alan Alda, Lily Tomlin, Richard Jenkins, James Brolin, and a ton of others you'll recognize, all contributing to make a gem of a comedy that is seriously not to be missed. One of my favorites from the 90's, at once viciously funny, and unendingly clever, all done with a kind heart at iot's narrative center. It's easily my favorite O. Russel and Stiller film to date. Simply put, FLIRTING WITH DISASTER is the shit!
~Sean Smithson
#1 - THE OMEGA MAN (1971)
Charleton Heston was a bona fide genre star at this time, with PLANET OF THE APES and SOYLENT GREEN making a kind of holy triumvirate of bad assness. Factor in Anthony Zerbe (KISS MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK, PAPPILON, and too many others to name check here!) as the mutated and insane Matthias, a crazy vampiric cult leader, and Rosalind Cash (KLUTE, UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT) with her bad ass attitude in a proto "Ripley" role, plus her even more bad ass afro, and you have what I will defend with a straight face as a major classic of 70's goodness. It also features one of the hardest hitting soundtracks ever, by Ron Grainer (DR. WHO).
If you've seen it, watch it again sucka. if you 'aint seen it yet, get to it jive turkey!
#2 - THE HOT ROCK
Take a Donald E. Westlake novel, have legendary screenwriter William Goldman adapt it, then bring on Peter Yates to direct, and you have this, a bad ass comedy/action hybrid.
Gentleman burglar John Dortmunder has just been released from prison, and no sooner does he get through the gates than his brother-in-law Andy is pulling him into another heist. The Brooklyn Museum is housing a precious gem that was stolen by Colonials from it's home in Africa, and Dr. Amusa wants it back. Soon, John and Andy are putting together a crew of eccentric but loveable thieves, and carefully planning the "retrieval" of the coveted "hot rock".
In a comedy of errors, things go wrong, and gaining possession of the jewel becomes a personl obsession with the affable, yet persistent, John. Hilarity ensues, along with the escalating action.
Yates had previously directed BULLIT, and was on his way to making films like THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE, THE DEEP, and the bizarro sci-fi flick KRULL. Here he is joined by one of the greatest ensemble casts ever put together, with Robert Redford, George Segal, Zero Mostel, Moses Gunn Paul Sand, and Ron Liebman all turning in incredibly deft, fun performances. The New York locations are wonderful, and funky, and will make you lament the Disney-fied sterilization the metropolis has gone through over the last couple of decades. But it's here in all it's glory in THE HOT ROCK. To add, the Quincy Jones composed soundtrack serves to give everything a nice, jazzy urban sheen
Made in what many film lovers consider the greatest year for 70's American cinema (1972 y'all!) this is one that deserves to be on everybody's top shelf at home. A genre-mashing underrated masterpiece.
Watch the trailer, the order the dvd HERE!
#3 - SCROOGED
After much deliberation, this 1988 updating of the classic A CHRISTMAS CAROL won out as the Xmas trailer of the day. SNL alumni came together with producer/director Richard Donner, and pulled off quite the hat trick in creating a "new" (then, at least) holiday film that would indeed endure.
This time our Scrooge is an asshole TV executive who is putting on a live television version of the story this film is based on (yes, A Christmas Carol) and in doing so is making his underlings work on Christmas Eve, It's a simple set up, with the parallels to the original tale of course running through the entire film.
One of the things that makes it so darned enjoyable is the amazing casting. Bill Murray in the lead, still hot as all get out from GHOSTBUSTERS (which SCROOGED referenced in it's ad campaign with the tagline "Bill Murray is back among the ghosts, only this time, it's three against one."), Karen Allen, and Bobcat Goldthwait, Alfre Woodard, John Forsythe, Carol Kane, John Houseman, and Robert Mitchum in supporting roles. Even Murray's three brothers, Brian, John, and Joel, all pop up to share in the festivities.
Factor in a screenplay co-written by the acerbic pair of Mitch Glazer and Michael O'Donoghue, channeling Frank Capra to no small degree, and which is somehow all at once scathing, raucous, celebratory, and loving, and SCROOGED wins out as a major wintertime classic.
So que this baby up, gather the friends and family around, and give it a watch today while you unwrap presente and get schnockered on "Uncle Sean's Special Egg Nog". while remembering to have a very Merry Christmas. Cheers, from all of us here at THE BONUS MATERIAL!
#4 - WHITE LINE FEVER
All American boy and war hero Carol Jo Hummer returns home to Arizona, and becomes a trucker, like his dead daddy. Living the dream, he marries his sweetheart Jerri, take a loan, and buys a rig he names "The Blue Mule". He starts hauling for the Red River Co. only to find out these crooks are running non-taxed cigarettes and slot machines! When he raises Hell, Hell calls back in the form of a vengeful company owner, Buck, who turns Carol Jo's life onto a shit storm of violence and retribution. As the people Carol Jo loves and associates with begin dying around him, the hero becomes the subversive, and takes action to set things right...with a big rig and a shotgun!
I saw this one multiple times in theaters as a kid, read the novelization, and poured over every TV Guide for years, waiting for it to show on my local station.
Jan Michael Vincent, Kay Lenz, L.Q. Jones, Slim Pickens, and R.G. Armstrong head up one of the greatest drive-in style casts ever known, and the climax would do Peckinpah proud, with it's hail of bullets and tornado of shattered glass. This flag waiving, country music loving action flick from 1975 deserves a proper dvd/bluray release, complete with little Blue Mule die cast car in a special edition. It's also the best way to remember jan Michael Vincent, who, to put it nicely, has seen better days.
Directed by Johnathan Kaplan, who also did the ass kicking flicks TRUCK TURNER (which is how he got this gig) MR. BILLION, and the teen rebellion classic OVER THE EDGE. Seek this out y'all, and have a Coors and a shot of jack to go along with it.
#5 - BLUE COLLAR (1978)
Fresh off his screenwriting success with TAXI DRIVER, Paul Schrader made his directorial debut with this one, which he also co-wrote with his brother Leonard. Part crime caper flick, part satire, and part stick-it-to-the-man flick, BLUE COLLAR is about 3 Rust Belt factory worker friends, Zeke, Jerry, and Smokey,slaving in an auto factory, who decide to rip off the company they work for. They don't find much money, but they do find a ledger that reveals the books are being cooked, and that their union has some solid ties to organized crime. So the multicultural homeboys decide to, well, stick-it-to-the-man. When Smokey dies under suspicious circumstances, shit gets real. Soon the feds are on Zeke, the groups defacto leader, to testify against the union, and the union is on him to give up the goods, causing a rift between him and the remaining Jerry.
Filming BLUE COLLAR was apparently even more drama ridden than the film itself. The lead actors, Richard Pryor, Harvey Kietel, and Yaphet Kotto, were said to have hated each other. factor in Pryor being coked out of his mind, and if stories are true, at one point actually threatened writer/director Schrader with a gun, proclaiming that he "aint gonna do more than three takes!" it's a wonder this film was completed, much less came out as amazing as it did. That can likely be chalked up to Schrader being on fire at the time, his talent bringing the project together, be damned the distractions and detractions. Schrader wound up suffering a nervous breakdown over it all, but he brought a film to screens that should be much more heralded than it is. Considered an unsung classic among film geeks, this is one great piece of American film making through and through. Out of pressure, diamonds are formed, and BLUE COLLAR is one of the crown jewels of releases from 1978.
TRAILER OF THE DAY # 6 - Maniac (1980)
William Lustig's incredibly grim tale of a psychopathic loner, Frank Zito, whose main purpose in life is to go around NYC killing people. He scalps his female victims, and adorns the mannequins strewn around his seedy efficiency apartment with their farmed follicles. Frank, cleaned up and pimpin' in his double breasted polyester suit and extra-large shaded aviators, eventually meets, and begins courting a fashion photographer named Anna. But his darker side won't allow a healthy relationship to develop, and soon she is also falling prey to the MANIAC.
Super simple, but incredibly effective, MANIAC is one of the great examples of so-called "Grindhouse cinema". Lurid, disgusting, and better than it should be, this was the litmus test every gorehound (which I was as a pre-teen in 1980) subjected themselves to. This was a dangerous movie, raising the bar on cruelty about 30 levels above the other slashers of the day.
Starring, and co-written by, character actor extraordinaire Joe Spinell (THE GODFATHER pt II, CRUISING, TAXI DRIVER, and pretty much every other movie shot in NYC), who was also quite eccentric himself, and genre quees Caroline Munro STARCRASH, THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD). keep an eye peeled for Golden era porn queen Sharon Mitchell as well. You know you've seen some of her movies, don't lie!
Factor in FX (and a cameo) by the Picasso of latex, Tom Savini, and you have a prime slab of meat for horror fanatics. An unflinchingly brutal classic.
WARNING! This trailer is graphic, obscene, sick, and perverse...which means RUN. DON'T WALK and WATCH NOW! Order the bluray HERE. And look out behind you, there's a MANIC coming your way!
TRAILER OF THE DAY # 7 - American Pop (1981)
Animation maverick Ralph Bakshi leaves pornofied cats and wizards behind, to tell this tale of American music, from the early days of blues, into the psychedelic sixties, and through the caustic disenchanted beginnings of punk in the 70's, and into the early 80's new wave movement, tied together by the lineage of a musical family of Russian Jewish immigrants.
Episodic, moving, and enlightening. This is easily the most emotional and human of Bakshi's work, in the opinion of yours truly, and stands as a dramatic masterpiece, animated or not. Written by Ronni Kern, who went on to write an episode of, er, Baywatch (!?!) and a lot of television movie fare, which is a bit mind boggling given the depth and epic scope of AMERICAN POP. One has to wonder about a potential giant of a screenwriter turning that way, but no matter, this collaboration between Kern and Bakshi, remains to this day one of the most important contributions to "music based cinema". Right up there with the classic THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY, and the recent James Brown biopic GET ON UP, AMERICAN POP is a must see/must have for any fan of the jazz, blues, or rock and roll movie sub genres.
~Sean Smithson
TRAILER OF THE DAY # 8 - the Howling (1980)
News caster Karen White heads to a new age-y mental health retreat in the aftermath of having a close run in with serial killer Eddie Quist. After witnessing him gunned down, after he nearly kills her, she and her husband Bill head to the resort, called "The Colony", which is run by ground breaking psychotherapist Dr. George Waggner, who had been working as a consultant on the case of Eddie Quist, a past patient of Dr. Waggner's, helping to profile him for the police.
Populated by eccentrics and townies, soon Karen is ulocking blocked memories of the attack, and her husband, who has been targeted by the local near-feral nymphomaniac Marcia Quist (yup, Eddie's sister) is taking a few too many late night walks. When Bill returns one night after having been bitten by "a dog", things start to get, well, hairy!
With a screenplay from the legendary screenwriter/director John Sayles (MATEWAN, LONE STAR) who was still doing genre work at the time, and directed by Joe Dante, this is in my top 3 werewolf films. the cast is rock solid as well, with Dee Wallace, her real life husband Chris Stone, Patrick Macnee, Slim Pickens, John Carradine, Dennis Dugan, Belinda Balaski, and cameos from Dick Miller and FAMOUS MONSTERS ediitor "Uncle" Forry J. Ackerman, THE HOWLING is a bona fide classic of high quality 80's terror. And with FX from a still teenaged Rob Bottin (John carpenter's THE THING) the transformation scene remains a jaw dropper to this very day. You already knew this though, didn't you?
Damn, we love this movie here at THE BONUS MATERIAL!
Roy Ward Baker (QUATERMASS AND THE PIT, THE SCARS OF DRACULA, ASYLUM) didn't just bang out many of the old school British sci-fi/horror films many of us love and cherish. he also helmed this amazing film, my favorite overall of any, chronicling the sinking of the great ship that was destined not to be, The Titanic. Even survivors of that disaster who have seen the film name it to be the most accurate of all. part character drama, to draw the viewer in, the intensity ratchets up fairly quickly, and the turmoil portrayed on the command deck, and in the engine room, is palpable enough to give you a dry mouth. The best and worst of humanity surfaces, as the ship begins to sink. And the shots of the band, who play on as the tragedy unfolds, is enough to make the most steely of men weep. nautical travel may have lost it's crown jewel on the morning of April 15, 1912 as the sun crept up over the icy waters of the north Atlantic, but on the night of July 1'st, 1958, cinema gained on of it's finest examples of docu-dramatic film making. An achievement. See it as soon as you can.
~Sean Smithson
TRAILER OF THE DAY #10 - King Kong (1933)
The story is a basic one. A starving starlet is discovered by an old time-y Hollywood director who needs a hit and is setting out to make a jungle action adventure. Things get crazy when they find Skull Island, inhabited by natives who worship the 8th wonder of the world...the titular KING KONG!
The surprising thing is, how many modern fans of the fantastic, freaks for fantasy and sci fi and horror have actually never seen the original version, directed by Merien C Cooper and starring the lovely Fay Wray.
Director Cooper had been into gorillas as a boy, discovering the wonder of the primates when he read Paul Du Chaillu's "Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa". During the great depression, he conceived what we now know as KING KONG, but reluctant studio executives didnt want to spend the money to send him top exotic locals, and it was only when mogul David O Selznick made Cooper his executive assistant that the project moved forward. The first project focused on was THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, with KONG stars Robert Armstrong and Fay Wray, with a second project, called CREATION looming, about a bunch of people shipwrecked on an island of dinosaurs. That was shelved, but he'd found his ground breaking fx man, Willis O Brien...and work started on KONG in earnest, which (supposedly), prolific crime novelist Edgar Wallace, had written qa first draft for.
On Jan 1, 1932 that (again, supposed) draft was started, and on Jan 5th 1932 a script titled THE BEAST was delivered, depending on your source of information. Wallace ended up dying on Jan 10th, and Cooper claimed that Wallace, at that point, had quote "Not written one damned word".
In came screenwriter James Creelman, also concurrently writing THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME. Changes were made, big changes, but Cooper still wasnt happy. He then brought in Ruth Rose to polish and punch things up. The title was changed to KONG, and when the film rolled Cooper directed the FX scenes, while co-director Ernest Schoedsack...aka Mr. Ruth Rose...helmed the live action stuff.
My personal history with KONG is why i chose to make this my very first watch of 2015 (thanks to a suggestion by BONUS MATERIAL cohort Langley J. West!)
I was about 3 and a half, and I can still remember this all very clearly. I was running around the porch area of the apartment my mom and I lived in in Baltimore MD. I thought I saw a guy playing with a toy in his kitchen, and when I investigated, he invited me in, with my moms approval. It turned out he was recreating the empire state building scene from the end of KING KONG for his film making class. Stop motion model, miniature skyscraper, and an 8mm camera, all set up right there. His name was Woody, and that day he explained to me the concept of stop motion animation. Woody was a bit of a proto geek and an outcast. We quickly became friends and he took on the role of my “godfather”, Soon Woody and his pals were exposing me to stuff like Ray Harryhausen films, the classic Universal Monsters stuff, Corman's Poe cycle. Kaiju flicks, and pretty much everything that is now in my cinematic DNA.
It's an obvious testament to the staying power of O'Brien's 1933 original, that KING KONG has remained in my memory banks as the first recollection I have as a living human being. here's to hoping it stays in the hearts and minds of generations to come!
~Sean Smithson
TRAILER OF THE DAY #11 - Nashville (1978)
Robert Altman crafts a pointed, kaleidoscopic pastiche with this sprawling overview of the country music industry. NASHVILLE may be the finest example of the directors style, famous and revered for using ensemble casts, and weaving intricately connected story-lines featuring multiple characters, and using lots of naturalistic cross-talk in the dialogs.
The central plot, the thread that brings it all together, is an upcoming concert for a populist Presidential hopeful.
It's really impossible to nutshell the magnitude and greatness of NASHVILLE, a film that won multiple awards, and, in proof of said greatness, was chosen for preservation by the hallowed National Film Registry.
And the cast. Oh it is to marvel at the cornucopia of amazing character actors! Ned Beatty, Ronee Blakley, Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Robert DoQui, Shelley Duvall, Allen Garfield, Henry Gibson, Scott Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, Barbara Harris, David Hayward, Michael Murphy, Allan F. Nicholls, Cristina Raines, Bert Remsen, Lily Tomlin, Gwen Welles, Keenan Wynn, and the always amazing Karen Black (who did all her own singing/songwriting).
They seriously do not make them like this anymore. The closest pieces of work in recent memory would be from Paul Thomas Anderson's BOOGIE NIGHTS, and his follow up, MAGNOLIA. Other than that, you'll need to go pick up the works of Altman to get a fix of the class and level of American cinema.
~Sean Smithson
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