Theatrical Releases
Sleep Dealer (2008) - The directorial debut of Alex Rivera, Sleep Dealer is an interesting little science fiction film from Mexico that owes a lot to classics of the genre. The title alludes to factories where laborers are hooked up to electrodes designed to simulate work that ships their energy, or "pure labor" where it is needed. Think of it like chatting online, e.g., draining. All borders are sealed off and Rivera's aim seems to point to how technology both connects and disconnects us. Centering around it's main character, Memo Cruz (Luis Fernando Pena), how he is forced to leave small-town life due to the death of his father (which he played an integral part in bringing about) and move to Tijuana to support his family, who, like everyone, is forced to buy their water at extraordinarily high prices in order to water their crops. On his journey, he meets and falls in love with Luz Martinez (Leonor Varela). However, Luz is a Class-A bitch, using her meetings with Memo to post her memories on the Internet so she can start paying back her student loans. Their romance is bit mottled and unbelievable. The film's "climax," if you can call it that, is more of the wet dream type---you were sleeping when it happened. Altogether, an interesting and clever sci-fi film, but one that I suppose I wouldn't be too sad about being remade. I do share the director's passion for dystopic cinema, and that, more often than not, European heterosexual males have been the heroes of post-apocalyptic narratives. It's nice to hear some other voices out there.
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009) -- Now, I could have hidden in shame and pretended that I hadn't seen this. I know that you cannot go into a film based on a video game and expect anything remotely great. I know this. I'm seasoned. However, I guess I was not fully prepared for the onslaught of stupidity that marched across the theater screen. I'm mostly amazed that this wasn't straight to DVD and hope that any more attempts at resurrecting a "franchise" will be pushed in that direction, for the sake of our children at least. However, looking at the director's (Andrzej Bartkowiak) luridly awful resume I'd suggest he team up with Uwe Boll---why have two talentless, awful directors working separately? At least it would cut down on their output. But yes, Bartkowiak's filmography includes Exit Wounds (2001), Cradle 2 the Grave (2003), and that magnificent opus, Doom (2005). Now, usually, voiceover narration is used (or required) when the images presented to us are unable to transcend themselves into words, such as when a character feels something we could never guess or when the audience may need to be made privy to information that other characters in the film cannot be, so on and so forth. However, Chun-Li herself narrates throughout, unimaginatively describing what is blatantly happening on screen. The opening moments of the film provide us with two different young actresses playing a young Chun-Li---the first little girl is the only one that seems to match her supposed ethnicity. The second girl looks like a Scandi-Russian mix and then there's Kristin Kreuk, a Canadian born actress playing Chun-Li. The ethnicity game continues with our main baddie, Bison (played by Neal McDonough-- the creepy blue-eyed German looking man that gets plopped as angry junior baddies in Hollywood fanfare like Minority Report - 2001, or Timeline - 2003). Bison is supposedly Irish, with a heavy brogue drifting lazily in and out. What really doesn't make sense is why he has an accent as the movie takes pains to explain that his Irish missionary parents came to Bangkok and died when he was infant, leaving him there. I failed to be impressed with the snarling tiger sound that was faintly emitted with every Bison scene as the snarl sometimes made me think someone was trying to turn a persnickety ignition. And then there's Gen (Robin Shou from Mortal Kombat - 1994) who looks like Geraldine Chaplin, teaching Chun-Li the art of something or other. It's all a little vague and bleary, like waking up and answering the phone while the NyQuil's still at work. I also took pity on actress Moon Bloodgood, not only for her nightmarishly awful pseudonym, but also because she had to share the most scenes with Chris Klein, playing an Interpol agent, in one of the absolute worst performances I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing from a once popular actor. With foppish hair and awful saunter, Klein does some god-awful scene chewing, uttering each line like someone held a gun to his head while he read from a teleprompter. I'm guessing Klein was going for a playful/intense Interpol portrayal, but instead he comes off as looking like he wasn't allowed a fix of something until he shot his scenes. Seriously, he looked like he was on something, and whatever it was, it wasn't helping him. Nash out. Let's just hope that any more ventures into resurrecting this storyline are interrupted by this one's lackluster performance at the box office.
DVD
I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK (2006) Chan-wook Park's followup to his much celebrated Vengeance trilogy is a simple, creative, and whimsical love story about a girl who thinks she's a cyborg and ends up in a mental hospital, slowly starving herself because she believes food will mess up her mechanical entrails. Luckily for her, a handsome young patient at the hospital who believes he can steals people's souls, pays more attention to the young cyborg than the doctors. Realizing she will die if she doesn't eat, he ingeniously convinces her that just because she's a cyborg doesn't mean she can't be OK. A cute, gorgeously shot little love story starts out high and tends to fizzle out towards the end as if not knowing which direction to go. Overall, not a bad film from the South Korean master.
Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) -- For some reason, I had neglected to see this until now. And I have to say, overall I was a little disappointed. I recently attended a screening of My Name Is Bruce (2008), where Bruce Campbell showed up to discuss his new directorial effort. Questions were asked about a sequel to Bubba Ho-Tep, and apparently, due to creative differences with director Don Coscarelli, Ron Perlman will be filling Campbell's shoes. What I don't understand is why exactly there is such a cult following surrounding this particular film. Campbell plays an Elvis impersonator wallowing away in a nursing home, claiming he's the real King himself, while his buddy, Jack (played hilariously by Ossie Davis), claims to be JFK (the bastards dyed his skin black). A few ingenious moments don't make up for lack of everything else in this dark, not terribly funny comedy. I suppose I was disappointed because I felt all the elements were there, but something was lacking and I wasn't very engaged with the otherwise intriguing story about a black JFK and an old Elvis trying to stop a soul-sucking red-neck Egyptian mummy in Texas.
The Last House on the Left (1972) --- So, I had to blow the dust off my old VHS copy of this original video nasty, the directorial debut of horror helmer Wes Craven, due to the re-make opening next week. (By the way, the term "video nasty" is from the UK, stemming from an 80's Christian movement of moral values that concerned itself with keeping violent films away from children as it was much easier to get a hold of tapes than seeing films in theater). Now, I am not one to champion remakes, but even when he has an actual budget to work with, I don't think Wes Craven is the best person to execute his own ideas. He's just not a good filmmaker. I am one of the few horror buffs that probably doesn't like A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and I despise the Scream films. (I do however LOVE The People Under the Stairs - 1992). Needless to say, I loved the remake of Craven's early 80's low budget horror, The Hills Have Eyes. Having just watched House, I'm actually pleased to see this revamped. Throughout most of the original film, I kept expecting it to veer off into Pink Flamingos (1972) territory as the acting is so overwrought and the music glaringly inappropriate. The acting also leaves much to be desired. Back in the day, sexploitation filmmakers did what was natural---they used actors that were already part of the genre or the sex film industry. The father, Dr. Collingwood is played by Richard Towers, who pops up as a john in shock doc Let Me Die a Woman (1978). And Mari, the murdered daughter of the Collingwoods is Sandra Cassel, a woman who may or may not have starred in several porn films under various pseudonyms. The most interesting cast members are Jeramie Rain, playing the murderous Sadie, looking like she just stuck her finger in a socket while posing as Pink's stunt-double. Ms. Rain was married to Richard Dreyfuss until 1995 and had three kids with him. And then the main baddie is played by David Hess, who just happened to write quite a few songs for Elvis Presley, English screenplays for Fassbinder, and also starred in similarly themed video nasty, The House on the Edge of the Park (1980), from director Ruggero Deodato (Cannibal Holocaust - 1980). While The Last House on the Left hasn't aged well, some of the violent sequences are a bit sadistic and shocking. I vividly remembered the fellatio scene and was still a little creeped out by it this time around. However, I was extremely annoyed by the two young women that get murdered---they really don't do very much to help themselves. And the fight sequences are, well, just poorly choreographed and awful. Apparently, Craven based his debut on Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring (1960) and the resemblances are pretty apparent. I did enjoy that Craven, to avoid an X rating from the MPAA (he would have had to cut more than 20 minutes of footage) had a friend of his obtain an "R" rating seal of approval and distribute it as is. That's ingenious. Truly one of those films where reputation surpasses the quality, the making of, and cultural reaction to the film are most interesting aspects of all. And nice touch with the creepy "Sweet Child Of Mine" cover in the preview for the remake. Let's see if Dennis Iliadis' effort is any good---his first film as director, Hardcore (2004), is also on my list of things to see, concerning two young women in a Greek brothel that fall in love and hit the road toting guns and drugs.
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