Month: Jun 2023

Ed Wood 1994 –

Arguably my favourite Tim Burton movie, theres VERY little to dislike about ‘Ed Wood’ in my opinion quite honestly. This somewhat fantastical recounting of a 5 year window in the life of the much maligned and often ridiculed ‘Worst director EVER!’ is witty, charismatic and ultimately incredibly charming, and quite often sends me back to my own days of low/no budget film making.

The film opens in 1952 with Ed working on a couple of theater productions before a chance encounter with a newspaper article finally sets him on his way to becoming one of the most infamous directors of our times ending in 1957 and probably his most talked about work ‘Plan 9 From Outer Space’

What I can say at the top of all this is, dont come to this film for historical accuracy. While MANY of the weird and wild events that are shown in this film actually DID happen. The film isnt beyond taking creative liberties in order to help better shape a coherent story. That means large chunks of Eds life are either somewhat tweaked, rewritten or dropped entirely. With the absence of anything to do with ‘Jailbait’, ‘The Violent Years’ or any of the work that went into the, ultimately collapsed feature ‘The Ghoul Goes West’ being totally absent barring the odd background reference.

Instead; We largely focus on Ed and his effects on the people around him across three of his better known feature ‘Glen or Glenda’, ‘Bride of the Monster’ and ‘Plan 9 from Outer Space’. Its regularly pointed out across the runtime that Ed had a certain magnatism for the strange, delusional or dejected from society and its quite comforting to see this BEYOND patient film maker group together these odd job crazies and throw them into his mix of B-movie horror, science fiction and campy fun.

On a scripting front, this things a delight, a wonderfully charming and charismatic piece thats got a perfectly balanced 3 act structure, plays the characters almost intentionally as 50s B-movie pastiches of themselves and keeps a zippy pace making a 126 minutes long feature feel like something closer to 80 with a sense of absolute effortlessness.

The characters obviously being corny 50’s interpretations of themselves doesnt dissuade the film however from giving all the characters depth, nuance, complexities that most ‘normal’ films would struggle to reach and most importantly the dialogues almost perfect, with endlessly quotable moments, genuinely solid humour that simultaineously feels fresh while keeping in line with the kind of humour that would have been around in the 50s and 60s. Its arguably one of the best scripts i’ve ever sat through quite honestly.

Same goes for the direction and cine, Burton here is in his element of ‘otherworldly’ but campy good fun and it’s clear he really understood the work he was getting into with this one as almost every scene screams 50’s hollywood honestly.

Equally direction of the cast is superb, with very clear instruction being given and, based on interviews, most of the cast took their performances very seriously and researched a LOT into their parts in order to perfectly nail the roles they were cast for. they work with set space effectively, they recreate scenes from Eds original movies near perfectly and most importantly, via the performances you yourself feel that your in the action with them as they ride the highs and lows of production woes.

Compositions are gorgeous, and its clear they got someone who specialises in shooting in black and white to work with them on this project as a lot of the lighting and colour cues are very much in line with 50s and older productions.

Theres some phenominal work with lighting here to create some fantastic visuals and scenes feel well thought out and much more importantly, made with care. This isnt a slapped together production at all, it feels very much like they wanted to keep the film as in line with the era it was being shot in as possible.

As for the performances, they’re pretty much flawless. Johnny Depp may not be playing Ed with high accuracy here, but he certainly captures Eds ‘can do’ attitude and his sincere opportunism with an animated reslish that I honestly loved.

Martin Landau is positively transformative as Bela Lugosi, there are moments where its easy to forget that landau is even PLAYING Lugosi and that he hasnt fully BECOME the man. its honestly spooky and I can easily understand how he won the academy award.

Sarah Jessica Parker, Bill Murray, Jeffery Jones, Lisa Marie and George Steele only further enhance this thing, bringing an A* game to an already winning cast. Had this thing JUST been Depp and Landau it would have been incredible. But this really does feel like the planets aligning near perfectly, to get so much talent that not only get it, but full embrace their respective roles in a single place…it’s honestly wonderful. Particularly George Steele as Tor Johnson. It was absolutely uncanny.

Throw in a score that feels like a modernisation of the old synthy 50s stocky scoring, which adds a wonderful tone and vibe to proceedings and ultimately completes the ‘look’ this film is going for and you have a film that really is one of my all time favourites to just dig out whenever. Its got a wonderful balance of light and dark, its pacy, with a rock solid script and casting married up to direction cine and scoring that understands whats needed and goes above and beyond to deliver on it.

You can say what you like about Ed’s movies…But ‘Ed Wood’ is absolutely one you dont want to miss out on.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/ed-wood/

by tytdreviews

Hairspray, 1988 – ★★★★

With ‘Hairsprays’ 35th Anniversairy upon us and its big return to cinema screens in celebration. How could I not get myself down to the local multiplex to check out what is likely to be the only John Waters movie im EVER going to see in an actual brick and mortar cinema.

Some people consider this film the ‘turning point’ for Waters as a film maker, his last ‘great hurrah’ as a film maker and the film that marked the end of his more raw and aggressive era of film making. While I feel it was a bit premature to mark THIS as his ‘last hurrah’ It must be said that ‘Hairspray’ is definitely something of a different beast to his earlier work.

A scathing commentary on segregation culture and a satirical and VERY tongue in cheek nostalgic look back to Waters own adolesence in the early 1960s. This films a total trip, but it doesnt stray *too* far away from the Waters format that won him a firm place in my heart as one of my all time favourite directors.

Following ‘Hair hopper’ turned champion of equality Tracy Turnblad, ‘Hairspray’ follows Tracy and her friend Penny as they pursue their love of dance via the Baltimore local dance TV programme ‘The Corny collins show’ Eventually winning over the hearts of the shows ‘Council’ and winning herself a place as a host on the show! But when mean girl Amber Von Tussle and her family start to feel like they’re being squeezed out of the limelight and a racist network owner Arvin Hodgepile enforces segregation at the hop. Its down to Tracy, Penny, her family and friends to turn Baltimore on its head and show the world the power of DANCE!

And while im really more of a fan of Waters ‘rogue’ years (His short films through to ‘Desperate Living’) this one, is probably the film I most enjoy from his post 70’s film making career. Theres a lot of Waters DNA in this thing from moments of apoplectic aggression, overly wordy insults and moments of pure shock and gross out. But rather than letting that run rampent, this film marries that up to some actually really solid lampooning of 60s culture, commentary on segregation, society and its all held together by a really well handled and sincerely funny little teen drama about following your dreams and standing up against injustice and meaness for the sake of meaness.

This is a very sincere film. Probably the most honest and sincere work Waters has ever produced. It has heart. The scripts genuinely funny, has a wonderfully acidic tone that gets in your face enough to give you the Water zeal, but not so much that its overbearing, its really solidly paced with easily some of Waters best (least sweary) written dialogue. It has a solid 3 act structure, it works through those act transitions seamlessly and very much strikes off in its own direction away from the ‘Grease’s and ‘Footlooses’ of the world.

If I was being a little bit picky. I know this is a dance centric production. I know its wrapped up in that early 60s scene. But I did find some of the dance scenes went on a little bit longer than I personally would have liked. I cant fault the choreography, but if ever there was a point I began to lull a little, it was the extended dance scenes.

Direction wise, its arguably some of Waters best. given Direction for Waters is more of a ‘Cast heavy’ affair, with actual visuals coming as an after thought of functionality. Its clear he’s learned a lot from his time in the studio system by this point, we have a film that OOZES early 60’s flare and looks DAMN good doing so. it’s hardly the most dynamic production in the world, but given that prior to the studio years, Waters was literally shooting on off cuts of 8 and 16mm film on whatever he could get his hands on…usually in the woods. and his previous studio efforts were solid, but a little on the flat side. This absolutley has a bit more life in it. Though still maybe falls a little bit short of well and truely embracing the audience.

Direction of the cast on the other hand? is PHENOMINAL. John’s always been good with people and here I feel he manages to not only pull out Divines best performance of her entire career, but gets an absolute show stopping set out of Ricki Lake, Ruth Brown, Debbie Harry, Jerry Stiller, Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick and Clayton Prince. The cast are positively supercharged as they bounce from scene to manic scene with sheer delight, and if the physical direction of the scenes were at times a little on the slow side. it absolutely CANNOT be said that the cast wernt raring to go the second they said action. High energy and simply wonderful. This really was a delight to sit through.

The cine is equally delightful, again I feel this is the perfect balance of John Waters work, taking high quality film making and basing the movie in the rougher parts of downtown Baltimore. It allows John to get a little nasty here and there, but it results in a film that takes what he’s been working on as a film maker for the prior 20 years and really get the absolute best out of it. A Balancing act he seemed to do a fair bit of soul searching to reclaim in the 90s.

But here, shots are set up nicely, theres plenty of b-roll to help keep scenes ticking over at a pace that can just about keep up with the actors. theres a wonderful use of garish and pastelle colours in REALLY trying to give this film that 60’s tint. For my money, it could have worked a little more with depth of field to help make the scenes feel a little more involved. A lot of this film looks VERY flat, whereas with just a little more consideration for the depth of the shot there probably could have been some truely wonderful takes in this thing.

Throw in an all 60s and late 50s all killer, no filler soundtrack AND arguably one of the best on screen cameos John Waters has ever done as a psychiatric doctor. And I’d be hard pressed to dislike this film, its just too well made, sincere and fun. One that often gets overlooked by myself honestly (shame on me) I really must watch ‘Hairspray’ more often. Its surprisingly refreshing even 35 years on.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hairspray/

by tytdreviews

Bad Channels, 1992 – ★★½

‘Bad Channels’ is the oft forgotten about title in ‘Full Moons’ early slate of releases. It has yet to make the jump to a HD scan, it hasnt had the sequel fortune of it’s peers and other than a tie in reference to it in ‘Doll Man Vs Demonic toys’ it appears that it was something of a blip on ‘Full Moons’ resume…and having sat through it now…I do think it’s been a bit mistreated over the years…But I CAN kind of see why.

The plot itself is ironically a bit one note. As we join a news team covering the launch of a new DJ slot on a radio station hosted by one DJ Dangerous Dan. A Shock Jock known for controversial and over the top radio stunts. After its revealed Dans rigged a station competition to secure the news interview. all hell breaks loose, that is until aliens land at the station, take it over, and begin using the broadcast signals to capture women for some kind of…unknown experiment.

And while the film has a rather unusual pitch, it’s plot execution is kind of the thing that lets it down. We have a slow open as we establish everything going on in this films world, that gives way to the aforementioned abductions…Which are kind of cool, but VERY repetative to the point that after the first one…You’ve pretty much seen them all. it repeatedly hits the same beats over and over again up to the final act when Dan realises that hes still broadcasting, and decides to try and warn people of the abduction…they obviously dont believe him though because he’s a shock jock.

The pacing on this things uneven, the tone and humour are kind of a mishmash that doesnt feel quite sure if it wants to be an out and out comedy, or something a bit more serious with comedy elements. The characters are horribly written in terms of depth or complexity. What you see in their first 30 seconds on screen is about as good as it gets really.

The dialogues hammy, awkward and stiff, they tell WAY more than show and while I love the idea of a ‘boy who cried wolf’ scenario being married up to these strange alien abductions. It feels like the wrong elements were focussed on within the script and theres this constant nagging feeling like the films holding back from really going out there and delivering something a little bit different from the norm. I liked the idea, I just wasnt much for the execution.

I cant really fault the direction and cine, its very heavily styalized, it fits in with a lot of what Full Moon was doing around this time. and technically its pretty sound, but I do rather feel that there isnt anything that particularly makes this stand out as its own unique work, it doesnt feel any different from say ‘Sorority babes in the slimeball bowl a rama’ or ‘Demonic Toys’ the aliens of the piece dont feel like they were made for this movie, they feel like they were just pulled out of cold storage from an earlier piece. Its passable, but it left a lot to be desired.

Same with the cine which is pretty compitent for the most part, it looks the part, has decent composition and B-roll for sequence building, the editings maybe a *little* bit loose, but its not the worst i’ve seen by a long shot, it just…lacks any kind of punch. Any kind of ‘WOW’ factor that would take it from being just okay to something a bit more memorable.

As for the performances…they’re bordering on Troma levels of over the top campiness…and that isnt strictly a good thing. While it works in places, it does somewhat feell a bit relentless at times, and that did annoy me a fair bit. Sometimes its good for a film to slow down a little bit to help give the plot a bit of a chance to breath and the audience time to process. No such luck here as a constant manic energy is just kind of…pelted at the audience from start to credits…

Oh and at least 10 minutes of this films titles and credits.

Add in a rocky soundtrack thats alright, but again nothing *too* out there and you have a film that, to me at least? DESPERATELY seems to want to be quirky, but ABSOLUTELY has NO idea how to really even begin to do that. It does what it THINKS will win people over, but it just kind of left me impatiently clockwatching.

I think it’d be a fine time killer flick. Something to pop on if you wanna pass 80 minutes easy enough, but there are SO many better ‘Full Moon’ movies out there to catch over this one. and even MORE NON ‘Full Moon’ movies too!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/bad-channels/

by tytdreviews

The Creeps, 1997 – ★★★

A strange beast to be certain, ‘The Creeps’ is a ‘Full Moon’ feature that bucks the trend of the time. While the company was in a bit of a decline period around this time turning out half baked scripts and flat out stealing from other movies to save a buck making their own. ‘The Creeps’ stands out as a bit of a novel idea that…While not executed particularly well, is at least somewhat entertaining in places.

The plot is…prety odd, I think it’s fair to say. Mainly centered around a young woman who works as a receptionist for a private library and archive holding some of the oldest copies of classic literature known to exist. Enter our ‘Mad Scientist™’ for the film, who enquires about the oldest known copies of ‘Dracula’ amongst other works.

After clearing security he’s shown the texts and a short time after leaving the facility it becomes quite clear that the scientist has stolen the texts. Turning to a private detective who…operates out of and works in a VHS rental store. the pair discover that the scientist is performing one HELL of a bizarre experiement, using these original unaltered texts, he’s able to perfectly recreate the characters from the books in real life!

Naturally as you can imagine, our protagonists go snooping at his lab, get captured, and inevitably during the first attempt at running the experiment something goes quite wrong, rendering our great literary monsters to a fraction of their former selves.

And…probably the main thing that drew me to this film is also one of its more problematic aspects. in essence this film only really exists for it’s gimmick, which is that all of our classic monsters (Dracula, The Mumm, Wolfman and Frankensteins Monster) are played by an all dwarf cast.

They do a remarkable job and are genuinely endearing. Unfortunately the script does make a habit of making a lot of the humour about the fact they’re short…I’ve seen way too much exploitation in my time to be able to know for sure if this was made with sincerity or not, and the fact the alternate title for this is ‘Deformed Monsters’ only makes me more conflicted in what this thing is trying to do. But even if I did think I knew, I wouldnt be the person to make a call on that. Thats down to the Little people community ultimately. I can only go on what I see and I felt uneasy around this thing truthfully.

Outside of that though we have a reletively tight script that runs to a nippy 74 minutes, has decently spread out act structuring, an unusual and decent enough plot and despite the fact it is a bit bloated in the 2nd act and a bit one note across the whole runtime, I think theres enough here to enjoy that I didnt end up clock watching or *too* bored.

The dialogues a little flat, it’s not the sharpest or most charismatic script in the world. But you do get the feeling that it IS at least trying to make an engaging and interesting work. It may not fully succeed on that front, but I appreciate the attempt.

The direction is really rather nice given this was the start of ‘Full Moons’ lower budgeted/lower caring era. I caught the (fairly) recent HD remaster of this film and it looks very filmic, has a clear style and mode of execution in mind, its vivid, colourful and clean planned. I actually really kind of liked how this thing felt. It reminded me of the old 90’s Goosebumps TV series…and in essence if it wasnt for the liberal nudity and occasional swear it COULD realistically be a Goosebumps episode!

direciton of the cast too is clear, concise and animated. they utilise their set spaces well, they animate as best they can. While the performances are a little on the wobbly side (more on that shortly) it’s clear they’re actually trying to do something decent here. Which I really respect.

As for the cine? Well, for the most part it’s clean, well composed shot wise and sequences just about have the balance right of key shots and B-roll usage. this has a pretty tight edit behind it, that gives the film room to breath, but doesnt feel like it’s struggling to hit feature run time. It gets in, revs up, gives you what you paid to see, and gets out. Nothing more. nothing less.

The performances are, for the most part okay, our monsters really are the stars of the show, and while they dont really get to do all that much (which is a real shame given how decent their costumes are given the scope and budget) they absolutely bring a presence with them and they seem to be really having a ball with their roles.

Our protagonists for the film however, arnt quite so lucky. they’re a little bit on the dry and awkward side. they’re nowhere NEAR as bad as the majority of ‘Full Moons’ output from this time or later. In fact; by ‘Full Moon’ standards they’re some of the best performances the studios produced. But in terms of the medium of film? they’re a bit dry, a bit flat. they move around, but could move more and whereas I was hoping that getting them to animate more might curb their more stilted deliveries…if anything it made them worse because now they were vibrant and stilted. eesh.

The score was done by Carl Dante, and I for one am DELIGHTED that they finally gave Richard Band a holiday after his work in scoring literally everything full moon did from 1989 to the present day. Dantes work isnt THAT different from Richards. But it was diffent ENOUGH that I actually really appreciate the varience. Dante’s work suits the tone of the film, is synthy but not *too* cheap sounding and punctutes the scenes wonderfully. its solid.

The first time I caught this film I thought it was garbage, on a rewatch? it’s still not perfect, but it is a lot better than I remembered it being and I could actually see myself checking this one out again in future. its a tad problematic and a bit awkward in places. But I really think this is probably one of Bands best directed films…and given the quality of some of the stuff he’s put his name to, I think thats something to be appreciated. In either case, i’d absolutely recommend checking this thing out at LEAST once.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-creeps/

by tytdreviews

Unlucky Charms, 2013 – ★★

Another Day, another latter day offering from ‘Full Moon’ that has the germ of an actually pretty decent idea at its core myred down by the usual issues of underfunding, cost cutting on things that shouldnt really be cost cut on and a fundamental failure to understand the potential behind the pitch leading to a sloppy production that at BEST has a couple of decent moments peppered throughout.

What this film pitches – After several hundred years of not really interfering in human ‘ways’ a group of mythical Celtish beings decide to visit earth for some fun, with a loose mission to locate and put an end to an evil force. They arrive in the midst of a beauty contest where the winner will be a signed spokesperson for a luxury product. Inevitably the girls insecurities cause friction and backstabbing and when these mischevious demigods arrive on the scene and start claiming souls…Well…noones safe.

What this film delivers – 70 minutes of women being increasingly catty with each other occasionally punctuated by THE shallowest attempt at heartstring tugging i’ve ever seen (REPEATEDLY) while 3-4 actors in VERY poor makeup with AWFUL Irish accents try to force their way into the movies plot (unsuccessfully) by randomly killing some of the girls for little to no reason. With the last 15 or so minutes actually bothering to approach something of a coherent tied up narrative.

The scripts not the worst i’ve ever seen, but its BEYOND repetative, is bland, lacks any kind of distinction or character. Its badly structured with an opening and closing act that lasts about 5-10 minutes a piece and a 2nd act that eats up the rest as it sets up the scenario then idles for 50 minutes.

it’s tonally all over the place as we cut from totally random scene to scene with no real solid structure in place, it has a VERY underwhelming ending, and it fails really to set any kind of high stakes for us to get invested in. Dont get me wrong; it DOES put stakes on the table. But we dont learn what those actually are till about 15-20 minutes off the end. So for the bulk of the film, it really does just feel like a chugger.

The characters are largely interchangable, play on stereotypes, are 2d, very artificial (basically they become whatever the scriptwriter wants them to become on a moments notice) with no real bite or charm to edeare you to them. The villains of the piece (or rather the neutral parties of this piece) are the aforementioned Celtic creatures. and they’re equally as bland and uninteresting as the main cast. Our main monster, a Leprachaun gets arguably the most rounded out character, but theres nothing really to bump him above any of the other cast really and he could best be described as ‘Normal man with a magic stick’, the other monsters LITERALLY are one note. Theres one that grunts and is horny, theres one that grunts and screams, and theres one who says totally basic lines that do nothing for the production.

The directions not the worst i’ve ever seen, it meets the barest of ‘pass’ rates in terms of how it looks and in terms of style, but it’s again a VERY bland affair. This period of ‘Full Moons’ in house work was VERY cookie cutter in style, they managed to create a look that is simultaineously acceptable technically, while vaccuous to the point of near contempt.

In business, its the ultimate goal of corporations to find that sweet spot where they can sell you things with horrible technicalities and flaws, but they’re tolerated by the consumer because ‘it’s not THAT bad’. Thats what ‘Full Moon’ perfected in this era of their productions. Films that absolutely arnt GOOD. but they’re not SO bad that NOONE wants them.

Its a bland film on that front, kind of dead behind the eyes, only really existing to put Bands name on another movie and get more products into the ‘Full Moon’ storefront.

Direction of the casts a mixed bag too, Im not sure if there just wasnt a clear communication line between the director and the cast, but theres a LOT of scenes of people just standing in rooms, not moving or interacting with anything in the set, shot as a mid close up two shot. the deliveries are kind of on the dry side, dryer than i’d have expected for ‘Full Moon’ (And THAT’S saying something.) It just…feels like a movie with no soul. I mean, yeh…they’re saying their lines and yeh, they do move a *little* bit in the set. But theres nothing here that helps draw distinction, nothing that communicates to me that these are people REALLY experiencing these events. It just screams ‘Paycheck gig’ in all the worst ways.

Same goes for the cine, it’s not BAD…but it aint great. Shots are reasonably composed, the edits a little looser than i’d have liked, but its better than it could have been, they use colour acceptably to help create tone and vibe and sequences, if anything, are a little OVER heavy on B-roll…which is a novel complaint from someone used to people having NO B-roll.

Thats not to mention the practical effects which are just REDICULOUS. The image on the poster of our Leprachaun villain looking like he’s been possessed by Pzuzu? He literally never looks like that in this whole film. Throughout, he looks like a man dressed in a $20 rental costume from Party City with a clearly fake beard and wig, and jam smeared all over his face (im not kidding, it looks like raspberry jam.)

All the other creatures are either a mix of puppets, or not particularly great looking latex masks, theres a minor bit of CG work with one of the creatures to make his eye look like its moving…but it doesnt work as an effect and only makes the mask look cheaper.

Most of the visual effects are basic filters from the editing package and they REALLY seem to like the ‘Warp’ and ‘Bubble’ effects in that package because they use them a lot here…

Performance wise, The cast feel flat, uninterested actresses halfhearting their way through lines they arnt really interested in, with only a couple of times (where they were clearly having a good day) where they get to showcase some actual interest and volition. otherwise. they’re dry as tindersticks and the whole thing feels like it could tip into just straight out porn at any minute.

And the soundtrack? Richard Band…Again. doing the same Richard Band Score he’s been doing for 20+ years at this point in time. You’ve heard one of them, you’ve heard his whole catalogue. Dull, stocky, not my vibe.

All in all? this is ‘oatmeal’ of ‘Full Moon’ movies. a bland and somewhat flavourless sludge of…matter, that had the potential to actually be kind of fun or interesting. But instead went all in on nudity and aimlessly wandering about not really achieving much. Not my thing, I probably wont watch it again.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/unlucky-charms/

by tytdreviews