I have a lot of mixed feelings towards the works of Rob Zombie, he’s a ‘unique’ director in the sense that his work, when focussed well, can be genuinely phenominal and leave a long lasting impression. When it isnt focussed all that well though and he’s left to ‘free reign’ a project?…well…the results could best be described as ‘Fan Wank’.

Sadly, Rob is impacted by a sickness, a sickness that effects me and anyone else who’s ever willingly participated in horror movie debates or spent more than an hour arguing about the logistics of Michael Myers with a video store clerk…Rob Zombie…is a fanboy.

And theres no shame in that, horror fans can be some of the most insightful and eloquent people in terms of being able to justify why films like ‘Bloodsucking Freaks’ or ‘I spit on your grave’ are far from the murder/rape torture porn that the ‘moral panic’ crowd make them out to be…But the problem with ‘Fan boys’ is, if they arnt moderated in a creative capacity by someone who ISNT fully immersed in the ‘fandom’. They run the risk of letting their fandom overrule the creative vision. The idea that, because someones SO bedded into the rules of the system, they either become slaves to wanting to insert the ‘cool’ bits of their favourite fandoms into their work (see: Tarantino) OR, they subconciously limit themselves within a creative work because ‘Thats just not how its done in the genre’…Zombie can (and has) been known to fall afowl of both of these, And ‘House of 1000 Corpses’ is kind of the blueprint for everything I love, and hate, about Zombie as a film maker.

The film is set in the late 1970s and follows a group of kids (2 couples) travelling across the highways and byways of rural America documenting sideshow attractions and the strange sights they see on their way. While stopped off for gas at ‘Captain Spaulding’s Museum of Monsters and Madmen’ a simultaineous gas station/chicken shack/museum showcasing the murderers and terrorisors of days gone by. The captain himself offers the teens an all access tour of the museum.

While on a ‘ghost ride’ through the killers of then, and now, Spaulding aludes to one ‘Dr. Satan’ an infamous local legend. The Doctor worked in an asylum and, behind the scenes, mutilated and operated on hundreds of asylum patients, as he believed that these specific kinds of people held the secret to creating an army of super soldiers. Satan was discovered and hung in the woods for his crimes…But the day after the hanging, his body mysteriously dissapeared without a trace.

Thoroughly curious, as the hanging spot is now apparently another local roadside attraction, the gents query Spaulding about the woods location, they get some very wishy-washy directions, but head out non the less. Its here, that the gang meet ‘Baby’ a mysterious good looking hitchiker who’s…just…weird…for lack of a better descriptive. She tells the gang that she knows where the hanging spot is, and that its not *too* far away from where she needs to go, so she leads them to her old family house, where their tyres are shot out, forcing the group to spend the night at the family home…a decision they’ll come to regret…

I think the biggest problem that ‘House’ has, is just simply that its a little bit of a dogs dinner of a production. Theres just so much going on, and non of it particularly original. What we essentially have here is some kind of unholy mash up of homages, call backs, references and even direct lifts of horror cinema 1930-1980, random cutaways to footage VERY heavily influenced by the styalisation of Rob Zombies music videos, and a strange kind of…kentucky fried ‘eurosleaze’ vibe that just kind of…hard to explain.

It essentially feels like Robs just sort of, made a melting pot of everything he’s loved about horror in the last 40-50 years and reformed all these random grabs into some kind of…bloodied meat obelisk. with an extra helping of blood, guts and gore for good measure.

References range far and wide, with nudges to ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, ‘The Phantom Creeps’, ‘Friday the 13th’. But even deeper cuts like ‘Inferno’, ‘Cemetary man’, ‘The Wicker Man’, ‘Forbidden Zone’ and ‘White Zombie’ are present. and…while its cool to see all these little influences get smudged together into one film. It does kind of open Robs feature length directing and writing career with the question ‘Well…What IS his voice?’

The script is reletively solid, its really trying hard to combine the slasher/hostage vibes of ‘Last house on dead end street’ with the tone of ‘Bloodsucking Freaks’ a kind of 70s stalker horror meets the more bloodied 80s stuff. I can dig it for what it is, at just shy of 90 minutes it does a ‘reverse home invasion’ narrative quite well, and a thing I personally did appreciate about this film is that anyone whos ‘into’ horror as a genre will NOT be surprised by ANYTHING in this movie, but the film almost acknowledges that to a point. There are several moments in fact where the tone seems to shift to a sly nudge and a wink to the audience where it says ‘We know that YOU know whats coming up…So YOU enjoy the gore, and for the folks who arnt into horror…enjoy their reactions too.’

While I kind of admire that level of swaggering confidence the film has in that regard, the problem with that gambit is, if your audience dont vibe with films making it painfully clear to you that IT KNOWS what your expecting. Its going to go down about as well as sand in an ice cream.

I, for the most part get on with this production, but I did struggle with just how much Zombie wants us to go watch something else. the pacing for sub 90 minutes is decent, but even at sub 90, the film still has padding, still doesnt really give us answers to some of the questions it itself raises, and while the tone is pretty consistent throughout (snarky, loud aggressive comedy underpinning graphic gory horror and psychological horror elements) I did find some moments to be a bit tonal whiplashy, particularly when there wasnt much of a transition piece between the two contrasting elements.

The act structuring is largely fine, I feel like the 2nd act does droop a little bit as the film gets bogged down trying to establish that the crazy family are indeed. ‘Crazy’. I personally always forget just how little Captain Spaulding is actually IN this film, I really enjoyed his scenes here and felt the film was at its best when he was just doing his thing…Making the fact he’s such a prominent character in the next movie, all the more fascinating honestly.

The characters feel a little undercooked, with most of the family getting a handful of lines only, and then being relegated to the background…Only Otis and Baby really getting ANY kind of development beyond their initial introduction, our teens quite literally DONT get ANY development and seem almost purposfully under developed…I assume becasue Zombie just thinks ‘Well, who cares about these guys, they’re probably all gonna die anyway’ which…I cant fault his honesty…But in order for me to care about them…there has to be more present than them just being avatars that spit exposition every so often.

Theres a subplot involving one of the teens fathers trying to locate them that dips in and out of the film, feels WAY undercooked and doesnt really ultimately add anything other than a gross out sequence in the middle of the 2nd act. I really wish they’d expanded on that, or at the very least let it burn out in the 3rd act, rather than being abruptly ended in the middle of the 2nd.

Direction is probably my favourite aspect of this production as we jump about between a VERY colourful, border german expressionist style for the ‘present’ scenes, that intercuts with strange experimental ‘roughed up’ negative footage (an homage to Zombies music video works) and ‘Video tape’ footage shot by the family during their various ‘altercations’ by some mysterious figure, which reminded me very much of the ‘home invasion’ scene from ‘Henry: Portrait of a serial killer’.

This hodge podge of styles, formats and colour creates a movie that feels more like someones ‘mood board’ than an actual coherent film. and had the script been even an iota more grounded, I feel like this would have massively impacted the films ability to storytell effectively. However, given that this films tone is largely jet black self aware horror mixed with grindhouse exploitation and excessive gore. It gives the film a distinct feeling that I havent really seen before from a mainstream production up to this point. I ultimately feel that it hinders the film more than helping it. Its very pretty to look at in places, but I feel like, because the visual styles change so frequently in this, it almost feels like its ‘stop/starting’ the film and story repeatedly…Just because Zombie thinks it looks cool. Its distracting at worst and putting style over substance at best.

Direction of the cast is fine enough, though it does feel like Zombie had clear favourites on the characters he wrote, and it feels like a lot of his energy here went into making sure that Bill, Sherry and Sid NAILED every single mannerism, delivery and physicality given to them…While the rest of the cast were kind of given minimum direction and just told to play it simple. As a result, our baddies, as characters, are tremendous…everyone else though? kind of bland.

The cine, like the direction is a little inconsistent. for the most part its fairly basic sequence structures, but those homages to 40s and 70s horror just will not go away and we get crash zooms, dolly zooms, atmospheric slow pans and not a whole lot of shallow depth of field shots. Its a shame really because the rigidity with which he’s stuck to scene structure here at times makes it feel a bit *too* sharp of a contrast when things suddenly all go a bit crazy, we go from pedestrian, by the numbers conversational scenes, to crazy ‘negative’ processed crash zoom sexy time…the tonal whiplash continues.

For the most part? I kind of like the vibe put across in the cine and direction, the edit isnt the tightest in the world, but it works 90% of the time…so thats good enough for me…It just feels at times like this is a film maker who isnt entirely sure how to craft a story…But noones guiding him or telling him no.

Performance wise, Sid Hague CLEARLY steals the show as Captain Spaulding, a role pretty much built for him. He nails every scene he’s in, is genuinely unsettling at times and again, im AMAZED at how underplayed he is here. he essentially IS a whole star on this review just by himself. One of the few times where I genuinely couldnt see anyone else playing this role.

Sheri Moon is fine enough as ‘Baby’ (whether thats an homage to ‘The Baby’ I…I really dont know at this point, but it wouldnt surprise me) I am firmly in the camp that wishes Zombie would make a movie WITHOUT his wife once in a while. But here, and more broadly as ‘Baby’ I think she really nails the brief. Shes got a fantastic ability to play ditzy and innocent, but to twist it into something truely horrendous on a dime. I think she was born to play that kind of character, and she plays it very well!

As for Bill? As Otis, his role is hardly a stretch, the guy played ‘Chop Top’ in texas chainsaw 2, and this is basically just asking him for an encore honestly. while he does have a little more ‘Manson family’ in his performance this time around over his Texas 2 appearence. I dont really feel he brings anything new to the role here. Dont get me wrong, im more than happy to watch Mr. Mosely just do the thing he does well…again…But I feel like the best of the character really comes out in the sequels…here? he’s just treading water really.

As for the supporting cast, as mentioned our main teens are MASSIVELY underwritten, and thats a real shame because it makes their performances kind of underwhelming. they’re basically just stereotypical late 70s, early 80s slasher kids…and I get that thats kind of the point…but Zombies dedication to the ‘Fandom’ really dilutes what could have been a good idea to take those 70s/80s teen archytypes and subvert the expectations on them…rather than just rigidly sticking to the usual formula. given this film came out at the end of the ‘subvert the expected’ era of 90s horror film making. I feel like ‘subverting the subversion’ just…doesnt really work.

Tying this film together is a fantastic soundtrack a mixture of older tracks, Zombies own music and some amazing incidental work, all perfectly well timed to punctuate the film at key moments, and a score i’d love to try and grab on vinyl at some point.

As a first stab at a feature? I kind of feel bad hitting this film as hard as I have here, Its absolutely a fun film, filled with plenty of great moments, it looks good for the most part and if the brief was ‘do a 70s/80s slasher/home invasion horror…but introduce modern horror sensibilities’ I think Zombie nailed that brief.

But the issue for me is simply how little of Zombies actual voice is present here. Like…having watched this film, It looks cool…But I have no idea really what Zombie as a film maker, as an artist to that end…really has to say other than ‘hey, old movies are pretty rad!’ While I feel we get a bit more out of him in later films. Its an issue that I feel does plague him, even to this day. and its ultimately what stops me rating ‘House’ higher than I have.

I’d say its definitely worth checking out if your a fan of 70s horror. Its not an essential watch, it wont really change your life. But its a fun 88 minute horror slasher that’ll give you what you need if your looking for blood, guts, gore and a dark laugh.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/house-of-1000-corpses/

Finishing off my little Rudy Ray Moore Binge (well…until someone properly re-releases ‘Shaoulin Dolemite’ and ‘The Dolemite Explosion’ I thought i’d revisit ‘Dolemite is my Name’ A dramatization retelling of Rudy’s early career covering his early days as an assistant manager of a record store, through to his work shaping up ‘Dolemite’ as a character, right the way through to the world premiere of the ‘Dolemite’ movie. With all the crazy and strange happenings that occured along the way.

It is, in essence like the Tim Burton movie ‘Ed Wood’, but instead of it being an aspiring film maker trying to make it big in the 50s, its a comedian trying to make it big in the 70s using records and the movies (neither of which he was particularly creatively refined for at the time)

And I think this ones going to be pretty short but sweet, I really quite enjoyed this one. The script is decently plotted out, with a clear 3 act structure with seamless transitions between the acts. The acts themselves are all nicely weighted, with no one act hogging TOO much of the limelight.

If I was nitpicking, i’d say the film does overrun a little bit (by about 15 minutes) and a lot of that sag is found in the 2nd act, the film kind of gets bogged down a little bit with trying to simultaineously cram in the logistics of how the events unfolded, explaining how some of the weirdness ended up happening, while also trying to portray Rudy as a well intentioned, somewhat timid character who pulls himself out of his shell when faced with adversity. Its essentially trying to juggle all this things AND maintain a healthy balance between comedy and pathos. Not an easy task…And while I Think it does a phenominal job of juggling all of those elements at the same time. it does start to get a little sloppy in the middle when it doesnt really know how to approach some of the subjects that are raised.

Other than some 2nd act pacing and consistency issues though, this is pretty rock solid, the opening takes its time to set up the table for whats about to go down, but once it gets rolling its got an unstoppable and VERY likeable momentum that carries it right the way up to the end.

I think tonally its pretty well tuned, much better than some other biopics of this ilk (im looking at you ‘The Disaster Artist’) and you get the feeling that a lot of research was put into trying to really nail the mannerisms of the characters, their history and motivations, it feels authentic and comes across as genuine, warm and sincere, which I think this movie really needed honestly.

Direction and cine are both rock solid, they recreate several scenes from both ‘Dolemite’ and ‘The Human Tornado’ (which…in itself is another minor nitpick. I love the ‘Dolemite’ recreations, but im the kind of anally retentive person who just cant let go that they showed scenes from ‘The Human Tornado’ during the ‘in film’ ‘Dolemite’ screenings…I’ll live…but im not happy) They do these recreations near enough 1:1, which is incredibly impressive, its a studio picture, so I didnt really have any concerns about this film on a technical level. It doesnt dissapoint really, draping the film in 70s chic, its got great colour choices, solid and creative cinematography, remarkable editing (seriously, I loved the edit on this) and the cast direction is next level. I really cant fault this film, it looks and feels great and has clearly had a lot of love and polish put to it.

as for the performances? Eddie Murphy I feel nails Rudy Ray Moore the person expertly, its a phenominal performance that really captures the more mild mannered aspects of Rudys personality…However; I do feel like Murphy struggles with the ‘Dolemite’ side of the performance, particularly the more anger driven sequences. he just…cant seem to help but slip into a bit more of a ‘comedic angry’ delivery on those scenes…when Rudy did basically just straight anger (which was why it was funny, and why it worked so well in ‘dolemite’) Its only a minor quibble because we spend WAY more of the movie with Rudy (the man) over Rudy (the performer) but it was noticeable enough to raise here.

As for the supporting cast? PERFECT. I honestly dont think i’ve seen a better cast movie than this in a LONG time. With Keegan Michael Key playing Jerry (A writing collaborator to Rudy) with conviction, he’s a great foil to Rudys more short term approach to doing things, and the two bounce off each other wonderfully. The same can absolutely be said of Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Lady Reed, Rudy’s long time partner in crime. they too have tremendous chemistry and her arc through this story is played with conviction thats both satisfying and emotional. Wesley Snipes as D’urville (the director of Dolemite) is near enough perfect, working a solid balance between someone who CLEARLY thinks they’re above the production, but real enough to acknowledge everyone has to start somewhere, he plays pompus, with a vulnerable streak…and he does it very well.

The rest of the supporting cast are equally superb. I dont really think theres a bad one in this entire production. its just a rock solid, entertaining and at times spookily accurate group of performances.

And the soundtrack…DAMN it sounds incredible. we have reworked tracks from ‘Dolemite’ given a bit of 2010s production polish, jukebox motown and funk tracks and a nice incidental suite that really bring the production to life and open the whole thing up to a new level.

I had an absolute blast with ‘Dolemite is my Name’ I enjoyed it the first time around, and I enjoyed it even more on the rewatch. HIGHLY recommended, particularly if you like these ‘lightning in a bottle’ type biopics about eccentric film makers (Like ‘Ed Wood’ or ‘The Disaster Artist’) or want a better idea of Rudy Ray Moore as a person and performer…I dont think you could go far wrong with checking this one out…It looks good, it feels great and it has fantastic story telling told by crazy and creative characters…definitely not one to sleep on.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dolemite-is-my-name/1/

As the 70’s drew to a close and the era of flared trousers, crushed velvet and funk was slowly echoed out of the room, Rudy Ray Moore would have one final big roll of the cinematic dice…and like Icarus, I fear he may have flown too close to the sun with this one.

‘Disco Godfather’ is in essence an extended PSA film about the dangers of Cocaine (euphamistically referred to throughout this film as ‘Angel Dust’) Moore plays ‘Tucker Williams’ one of the best DJ’s in town and headline act (and owner) of the ‘Blueberry hill’ the most happeningist nightclub in town! But theres a problem, pushers on the streets are getting kids scagged up on the devils marching powder, and when a near death experience happens RIGHT on the Blueberry hills doorstep, Tucker has to reconnect with his ex-cop roots to learn more about the deadly narcota, who’s supplying it, and to ultimatley put an end to the pushers, before the pushers put an end to him!

And…you’d think on paper ‘Rudy Ray Moore does an extended PSA against drug use’ Featuring crazy hallucination sequences, poor kung-fu and disco bopping hits would be a perfect combination for me…But honestly? I really just didnt gel with it.

For a starters the script takes all the WORST excesses from the first couple of dolemite films and drags them to the forefront of this production kicking and screaming. Its essentially just endless nightclub scenes, intercut with VERY serious dramatic numbers and the thinnest THINNEST skim of comedy i’ve seen in a long time.

As such, we’re RIGHT back into the tonal issues that plagued the first two Dolemite pictures as a result…With the production trying to both be INCREDIBLY serious and dower about a very serious issue LITERALLY killing people in real life…but not wanting to be SO dark that they kill, what is ultimately a comedians vibe vehical. It just cant balance the two tones for me, and winds up being weirdly lumpy and simultaineously too depressing to be entertaining and too unfunny to really keep me hanging on. The endless nightclub scenes only worsen things for me, and after seeing ‘Petey Wheatstraw’ I honestly cant believe we’re back to quality like this after it felt like so much progress had been made.

The act structuring is to the wall, we have a VERY brief first act which then just…basically gives way to sludge. the vast VAST majority of the runtime is stuck in the 2nd act with Tucker basically going site to site, doing a bit of awkward kung-fu…which…we’re 4 films in now, it was funny in the first film, titter worthy in the second and kind of ‘Done’ by the 3rd…here its positively grating. which is then followed up by either PSA style drama scenes showing Angel dust victims…or jive-esq nightclub scenes that did nothing for me.

The characters are all back to being one notw, with only Tucker getting any kind of further complexities…but those complexities dont ACTUALLY get picked up on until 10 minutes off the end…Oh! and thats also conveniently where the 3rd act just about starts.

The pacings SO slow, with only a half garbled finale offering anything in the way of ACTUAL interesting content. But the film ends pretty open ended and abruptly…which was a dissapointment and ultimately I just really struggled with the writing ont his one, the dialogues less memorable, the deliveries arnt great. theres a couple of solid hallucination sequences…but thats about it.

The vast majority of my rating here is going into technical ability on the part of the direction and cine. This looks like a relatively solid small studio picture. and is a nice further upgrade from ‘Petey’ and a whole different planet from ‘Dolemite’ we have creative direction utilising solid and creative lighting choices, track and dolly shots for the first time, creative composition, actual planned for the camera choreography on the nightclub scenes (not just filming an act that happened to be performing that night) the cast direction is equally solid offering decent use of the set space, character markers and solid prop usage.

I do feel b-roll is a little lacking in this one, but to compensate we get some interesting coloured lighting usage and, a bit of a first some basic attempts at rotoscoping and practical post production effects. Which definitely only enhances the viewing experience. Compositions alright, but a little uninspiring for sequence construction. I dont feel like the edit itself is as strong as ‘Petey’ either…But on the whole I’d say its probably the most cinematic looking Rudy Ray Moore film, and certainly the one that showcases the strongest technical proficiency.

Unfortunately its downhill again from there, the performances from all cast members (Moore included) feel forced, flat and fairly lifeless. This for me is really the first time where its felt like Rudy wanted in on an idea until it was actually time to do it, because he looks so tired and uninterested for most of this films runtime. The supporting cast are doing their best ‘Am-Dram’ presentations, but its just not enough, the whole thing feels like an exercise and a chore, rather than something im actively supposed to be enjoying.

Add to that a fairly mediocre soundtrack that really doesnt lift the film at all AND the obvious fact that, by 1979; Disco *was technically* still going, but was creatively basically dying. and you have a film that feels ill timed, unwanted and largely is pretty uninspiring.

I didnt really have a great time with ‘Disco Godfather’ I just kind of found it a bit boring and repetative, playing on the worst tropes of Rudys other movies and offering very little ‘new’ material from what had come before it. Its a bit of a whimper to end this 4 film/4 year journey unfortunately…If this was your first exposure to Rudy Ray Moores work, i’d heartily recommend ‘Petey Wheatstraw’ and ‘The Human Tornado’ as two examples of some of his greater works…As for this? It’ll be a while before im back to this one again…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/disco-godfather/1/

Well, it took two movies for Rudy Ray Moore and his team to go from ‘Never held a camera before’ to producing not only what I consider to be the best film these guys ever made, but arguably a STRONG contender for one of the best ‘weird’ movies ever made. and given just HOW strange that list is. That’s saying something!

This film marks the start of Rudy experimenting with new characters on film. After two outings with Dolemite, despite how popular the character was…I do feel like Rudy had kind of mined the character to death by this point. And so, the world is introduced to ‘Petey’ who is essentially just ‘Dolemite’ again, but much MUCH less visibly angry and leaning much more into humour and comedy scares.

‘Petey’ is an oddity. Born during a storm, he arrives as a full size 10 year old boy and just…keeps growing from there, as a kid he gets bullied for his strange circumstances, until he meets a strange old man who, over several years, teaches him fluent kung-fu.

Petey grows up to become an entertainer, and a VERY successful one at that. TOO successful quite honestly…Because; when news that Petey is planning to return to his local city to play the clubs. He catches the attention of Leroy & Skillet. a couple of bumbling night club owners who are in MASSIVE debt to a financier, and were banking on a quiet weekend in the city to hold a huge launch party for their new nightclub, in order to pay off their debts.

With Petey back on the scene, and more importantly, with Petey NOT playing their club on their opening night. Leroy and Skillet are feeling the squeeze and staring down the barrel of potential legal action…So they start to plan on how they could get Petey out of the picture, even if its just for the one night. After several attempts to delay/shut down Peteys shows. The pair essentially hit the ‘nuclear’ option, and ask their door staff to intimidate some Peteys friends to try and get him to stop.

This backfires MASSIVELY however when the first person they go to intimidate DOESNT back down and in fact tries to attack the doorstaff, resulting in the kid brother of one of Peteys gang getting gunned down. This action seemingly lifts some kind of taboo, because a few days later at the kids funeral, the doormen turn up again and waste the entire congregation of mourners, including the priest and Petey.

and its here really that the film ACTUALLY starts. as, while dead, Petey is visited cosmically by the Devil (here going by the name Lou Cifer) who offers Petey a proposition. He will ressurect all the mourners (including Petey) and rewind time back to just before the doormen killed everyone, ensure that the doormen arnt there AND give Petey a magical pimp caine with unrelenting power to do whatever Petey wishes…But in exchange, Petey has to marry Lou’s daughter and give her a son.

Petey was hesitent…then he sees a picture of her and its a flat no because she’s absolutely hideous. But the opportunity to try and restore some justice to the situation is just too much for Petey to resist, so he reluctantly accepts, and the rest of the film is just a playground, with Petey simultaineously getting justice for the killings while also slowly trying to figure out how he can double cross Lou to not end up married to an ugly bugly…thats…literally this whole movie.

And here? we really do have the best of all worlds. We have the vibe and tone of the more ‘off the cuff’ moments of ‘Dolemite’ combined with an even further improved technical level from ‘The Human Tornado’ AND they manage to tone down or finally nail the elements that i felt didnt work from those last two movies.

The films an hours and 39 minutes long, but it really doesnt feel it. The script isnt particularly doing anything new broadly speaking, but its all the smaller details that seem to have had a massive overhaul. the shift from blacksploitation action comedy to blacksploitation horror comedy I think works incredibly well. the pacing feels like its finally been nailed, with each act getting *about* 30 minutes to do its thing, and non of it ever really feels like it drags because everyone here is just so animate and always up to something strange. Do I wish Petey got the magic pimp caine 20 minutes earlier than he does? absolutely. But I also appreciate that the build up to that moment is what only makes the back half of the film all the more surreal and enjoyable.

They seem to have finally managed to nail the tone of the production, ‘Dolemite’ seemed a bit all over the place, ‘The Human Tornado’ picked a lane (comedy) but was still a bit inconsistent. This films clearly an out and out comedy horror, and it absolutely KNOWS its identity, and more importantly, it isnt trying to be something its not capable of duel weilding.

The moment I knew this film was onto a good thing was probably when I realised that they were going to redo the ‘Nightclub’ scenario from the last two movies again…But rather than it just being awkwardly crammed into a film with NO business doing that…here it was specifically woven into the story, with an actual reason to be there, and MOST importantly, its significantly toned down, we arnt made to sit and watch a 10 minute bad comedy routine in order to see Dolemite smash a guy with a chair…Here the routines are kept to a minimum, and the actual PLOT of the film IS centered around the running of the nightclub, rather than the acts involved in it.

The characters all have a LOT more depth and complexity compared to the last two films, they basically actually HAVE range to work with here, rather than just having one drive and 3 moods. most importantly, the script gives all the characters at least 2-3 genuinely fun moments. So it doesnt feel like Rudy Ray is carrying the entire production.

I suppose for me, the thing that really ultimately won me over is this seems to balance the sincerity of a film maker wanting to make a solid end product with the charm of seeing a slightly ramshackled production ACTUALLY trying to be the best it can be AND the comedy IS actually funny…CONSISTENTLY.

There are HUGE leaps in the quality of the direction and cine. scenes seem considerably better planned out, theres more B-roll being filmed, they play around with special effects and sound effects here. Cliff Roquemore seems to have had a strong eye for visuals and has taken this strange vision and manifested something truely distinct. his work with the cast as well is next level, really bringing the best out of all involved.

Yes, some of the make up effects are a bit hokey, yes, some of the practical set effects are a bit naff…But again, the sincerity of this production, the genuine unflinching drive to ensure that this is a movie people can go to to have a good time WHILST ALSO being able to just enjoy the film for being fairly competent. totally neutralises anything bad I could really say about them.

The shots are all decently composed with only a few minor wobbles along the way, the film isnt afraid to experiment with shot composition, editing styles and probably the most significant jump in quality for me, they really seem to have nailed the lighting kits, as several scenes have really nice moody lighting, and the use of coloured lighting gels only adds to the surreal and strange environment.

The edit isnt the *tightest* in the world, but they seem to have got most of the continuity errors under control. they have an effective use of consistent colour choices throughout which helps create a bit of a uniform end product

Performance wise, Rudy here is joined by ‘Wildman’ Steve, and honestly its a perfect match, they play a straight man/foil pairing perfectly and the fact that theres a surface level screwball comedy performance masking a deep dark bubbling malevolence on BOTH sides, only further enhances the viewing experience. they’re both amazing her and by the end, I think I honestly preferred the exploits of ‘Petey & Leroy’ over any of Rudys previous solo efforts.

The soundtracks kickass too! a definite improvement over ‘Human Tornado’ for me, this one has a slightly choral element to it, but is true funk combined with just a smidge of the motown/disco scene. its on a par with the ‘Dolemite’ score for me as being really quite memorable, with the title track posing a definite earworm.

After 3-4 years of developing skills, Petey Wheatstraw to me feels a bit like a lightning in a bottle moment. a film where all involved are aware enough to what to make a quality end product, but still limited enough IN their ability to realise it fully. The result is a slightly ramshackled, but very charming end product that has genuine laughs, a solid soundtrack, dedication (for better or worse) on the direction and cine front, BIZARRE performances and a script that starts strange and keeps getting stranger. not the ‘deepest cut’ in the world, but i’d definitely say its a hidden gem, if you havent seen ‘Petey Wheatstraw’, your missing out!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/petey-wheatstraw/1/

Hot on the heels of ‘Dolemite’ Rudy Ray Moore had developed a taste for cinema, and by GOD he wanted more. Taking his now ‘screen’ famous character ‘Dolemite’ back out on the road for a sequel that clearly shows growth and development from the budding film maker…But also a little more work to go.

The plot follows Dolemite getting caught up in a heap of trouble, a young white womans paying him to do stuff to her and Dolemites just the kind of cool cat who’ll do that sort of thing AND attend a happening party…or charity fundraiser…or…something?…its not clear. What IS clear shortly thereafter though is that the gathering is in danger.

When two local bumpkin racists flag to the equally racist townie cops that a load of black people are having a party up in the hills, they grab their guns and head up there looking to have the WORST kind of fun. and what does the sheriff find? his wife, in bed, with DOLEMITE. Naturally the Sheriff kills his wife…

Well, as you can imagine it all hits the fan quite quickly and Dolemite and his posse are forced to flee to California to try and lie low while the heats up. But on arriving in Cali and reuniting with the old gang, its revealed that one of Dolemites nightclubs has been taken over by a rival gang and that 2 of his ‘girls’ have been kidnapped and are being tortured ‘bloodsucking freaks’ style in someones ‘fungeon’.

Complicating matters further, the sheriff from the opening wont let it lie that his wife slept with a black man, and he and his deputies make it their personal mission to try and put Dolemite in the ground one way or another.

And, this reviews going to be a LOT more straightforward than my review of ‘Dolemite’. Because the big change here between that film and this, is that competency and coherency have had a VAST improvement…and thats ultimately good and bad for the movie in about equal measures.

For a starters, the script is much more coherent, structured and organised. Theres less random sequences of hamburger pimps and random cuts to Dolemite performing on the street, and the main emphasis is back predominantly on the main storyline. Which is good! its essentially a bit of a rehash of elements of the first movie, but I dont mind that so much as long as its made compelling enough for me to want to stick with the damn thing.

The first act opens strong with some solid fight scenes, a decent set up and its clear they’ve finally managed to nail the tone that they wanted to go for with this one. ‘Dolemite’ was all over the place being silly, aggressive, serious, sad, depressing, and erotic all in spikes and troughs.

‘The Human Tornado’ is a clean cut comedy. they have one or two serious moments, but nothings taken too heavy handedly, everythings nice and light and a bit manic. Which is good! im glad the films picked a lane and is working to its strengths. They even better intigrate the ‘lounge act’ sequences, which unfortunately do return for this film, but they all take place in a club dolemite owns, and a lot of the plot centers around the club, so when it starts to lean more into that kind of stuff through the second act, it doesnt feel as jarring or out of place.

In fact, its only the 3rd act really where it starts to come unstuck a bit. they have all these nice plot elements bubbling along across the runtime, and the finale is essentially supposed to be a free for all raid on the bad guys mansion with cops, dolemite and his gang, and the baddies all jostling to come out on top. The problem is, thats a lot of plates to keep spinning and even a more seasoned director would struggle to keep all of that afloat. and, as such, the last 15 minutes is minor chaos, random sped up fight sequences, torture, chase scenes,total incoherency on the screen, I imagine the last 3 pages of the script for this thing was essentially written like a novel rather than a script.

That being said it is, overall, improvements all around, with characters getting a bit more screen time, and with the tone being firmly picked it means that the complexities dont have to be quite so deep given its an outright comedy now, they give us ‘enough’ from each of the key characters here to make it feel like I know them relatively well. And even though Dolemites character has changed a bit here…he’s gone from shouting and angry in literally every scene, and kung-fu’ing in every other scene to now actually having a bit of a joke and a laugh in some scenes, and only letting the anger out every so often. He’s still overall some of the best parts of this movie and very enjoyable.

Same goes for the direction really, this feels much more technically proficient, scenes feel much more crafted, theres consideration for camera placement, prop usage, set design. They actually bother to try and utilize creative coloured lighting for scenes throughout the movie and it really makes a difference. The characters markers are more considered, there arnt nearly as many ‘booms’ in shot or random characters blocking the camera. this, for the most part looks like an ‘up market’ blacksploitation picture. Which is a pretty impressive feat honestly.

Same goes for the cine, composition is *mostly* better (there are still a lot of shots framed randomly or with a weird cropping put in place) sequences flow a lot smoother, the edit feels tighter, the whole thing feels like it builds on ‘Dolemite’ and you really get the sense that both the cast and crew have ACTUALLY started believing in this as a viable franchise production.

But! for the good, theres also the bad…and its a weird thing to mark a film down for, but a lot of the charm from ‘Dolemite’ came from the ‘thrown together’ nature of the picture, it came from Rudy randomly deciding to insert randome Dolemite improve scenes into the film, random line deliveries that just came across as weird, the rough nature of the fight choreography and Rudy basically just throwing crap at the screen and seeing what stuck. By polishing this production up, I cant deny that its overall a much more pleasent and better viewing experience, but losing that rough edge means losing some of the moments that genuinely made me bust a gut laughing in the last film. As such, It feels at times like its trying *too* hard to try and make people laugh, and while there ARE some unbelievable moments in this one. nothing quite hits as hard as ‘Dolemite’ for that weird and funny feeling.

Performance wise, its a similar problem, I wished characters had a bit more to go on in ‘Dolemite’, but here? they give those characters a bit more to go on, but its at the cost of losing their eccentricities. I miss the likes of ‘Hamburger pimp’ and ‘Willie Green’, the baddies in this are just kind of generic and other than some blatent homophobia here and there, NON of the characters really stand out. Even Dolemites been toned back a bit and doesnt seem to get as many BIG moments…well…barring the opening act where, thanks to freeze frame technology you can see Rudys Stunt mans ‘BIG moment’…

The performances are fine, but I dont think they reach the surreal and dizzying highs of ‘Dolemite’.

The soundtracks equally as funky as ‘Dolemite’, but lacks those big hitter tracks, the ones that’ll have you humming them out the door of your theater…which is a shame, but again the trade up is bigger, higher quality full sounding compositions, that are well edited and suit the film, even if they wont suit my CD player.

‘The Human Tornado’ is technically a HUGE step forward for the works of Rudy Ray Moore. its got a tighter, better composed script, decent direction and cine, consistent performances and a high quality original soundtrack. But the trade off is it loses a little bit of its heart and soul that really makes ‘Dolemite’ the over the top exploitation piece it is.

This film? I think i’d prefer to watch it over ‘Dolemite’ *JUST*…like, by a hairs Breadth. But ‘The Human Tornado’ does manage to just lose a little bit of that edge in the process of tidying itself up. And thats a bit of a shame. Non the less, if you’ve watched ‘Dolemite’ I compel you to watch the sequel. Its a good time and a solid follow up.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-human-tornado/

When it comes to blacksploitation films, I feel no list of ‘key’ titles is complete without a Rudy Ray Moore film in there somewhere, Whether its the power packed punches of ‘Dolemite’ and ‘The Human Tornado’, the surreal horror of ‘Petey Wheatstraw’ or the downright campy funkadelica of ‘Disco Godfather’ Rudy worked a wide breadth of styles across his movies while maintaining a consistent badassery.

Honestly I have only the highest of respects towards the guy, he was a somewhat quiet, but to the point gent who decided to put himself out there, creating a larger than life standup persoanlity called ‘Dolemite’ who was basically the broad opposite of Rudy in real life. small gigs led to larger gigs, larger gigs led to a comedy record deal, which led to multi album deals and in 1975, Rudy took Dolemite to the next level in his own power punching, lady loving, gun toting movie. and man…its a trip and a half to be sure.

The film opens with ‘Dolemite’ in jail serving 20 years after getting framed up by cops for trafficking illegal furs and half a million dollars of narcotics. we’re 2 years into his sentence when the jail owner summons Dolemite to his office. There, he’s reunited with his ‘eyes on the street’ and business partner ‘Queen Bee’ who’s been speaking to the warden and has managed to convince him that Dolemite WAS framed, and that the bad mother behind it is non other than the notorious ‘Willie Green’ the baddest gangster the streets have EVER seen…well, unless you count DOLEMITE.

It turns out, since Dolemites been away, things have gotten much MUCH worse. Willie has taken over Dolemites old club, he’s kicked Dolemites ladies onto the streets, and he’s pushing drugs and guns into schools harder and faster than ever before. The wardens offer is simple. If Dolemite can stop the pushers, and find evidence that ties it to Willie, he’ll be a free man.

So! Dolemite accepts, he’s let out of jail and the next hour and 15 minutes could AT BEST be described as a thrown together comedy action romp. Seriously, this things all over tha place. with Dolemite kung fu fighting gang members, doing extended comedy sets in clubs and making 50 shades of love to every fine woman with a pulse. ‘Dolemite’ is blacksploitation taken to its silliest and most extreme conclusions this side of ‘Black Dynamite’.

I have a real love/hate relationship with this movie. Its ‘highs’ are largely unrivalled, there are moments in ‘Dolemite’ that will leave your jaw on the floor and keep your eyes firmly locked to the screen. But the ‘Lows’ for me are many and frequent. Which is a real shame, because had it had just a *bit* more consistency, this could have easily become one of my favourite blacksploitation movies of all time.

I think the thing that trips it up, is also the thing that kind of saves it, and thats the thrown together nature of it all. It feels like a script was written, and then Rudy just kept adding bits to the film, whether it made sense or not, whether it ACTUALLY would fit into the movie or not. If Rudy wanted it in there, you better damn well believe it went in there. For better or worse.

It means you’ll have sequences like Dolemite getting out of prison, mouthing off to the guards at the gate while half a dozen of his ‘ladies’ come to greet him with fresh clothes, he strips off AT the gates into his civvies, only to get into a limo and taken them all off again so he can make love to 2-3 women in the back of the cab.

You’ll get sequences like him walking into his old club, while the new gang keep cussing him out (but not doing anything) while he casually rips a hole in the floor and pulls out huge rolls of money, but rather than mention it, or start fighting him, the rival gang just continue walking/talking at him until Dolemite decides he’s had enough and destroys 4-6 gang members in one fluid motion…Moore was 47/48 years OLD when this film was SHOT. he’s wearing a gurdle through most of this for gods sake.

And…all that stuffs magnificent, its the character manifest, and its funny, bizarre, original and entertaining in equal measures. Which makes it unfortunate that the thing that hits this film like a train hitting a cow at a crossroads…is Rudys ACTUAL live standup material.

Yes, the film periodically stops and cuts to Rudy doing a live show in the character of ‘Dolemite’ each one is just him doing a comedic monologue, usually scewed on black stereotypes. and they are SO so slow going, not helped by the fact the camera movements are all so stripped back, over basic, fixed or pivoting camera shots with next to no b-roll. and it hits this film HARD, it slows everything to a halt for 3-5 minutes and THEN the film has the uphill battle of trying to reignite itself when…it’s DOLEMITE. How the hell do you reignite the enjoyment of a film where Rudy takes out 3 gangsters while wearing a full arm sling, when the previous scene was a 5 minute unbroken not particularly funny monologue?! Well, somehow Rudy just about manages it…but its a strain.

The script itself is scattershot, as mentioned the pacings all over the place in the best and worst ways, but the tone is kind of messy too. I know its *trying* to be funny. But the issue is HOW funny is it trying to be. It gets pretty serious in places and touches on issues facing black people at the time and to this day. Indeed the film has several moments where it gets unusually serious, before snapping back into Dolemite making a someone dance by shooting a machine gun at their feet.

And the problem with that, is that it makes it hard for me to know when they’re playing on a stereotypical issue for fun…and when they’re ACTUALLY saying ‘this is a problem.’

Add to that that the act structuring is basically non existent, the first act establishes itself pretty well, but then we get to about 20 minutes in, and the film kind of locks itself into a loop of Dolemite dishing out the pain, right up to the last 20 minutes when they haphazardly throw together a resolution while CONTINUING to have Dolemite dish out the pain. Its an unusual approach that I dont know if it fully works for me. But I cant say I was particularly won over by it.

The characters are all one note parodies. Dolemite himself probably gets the lions share of emotional range and complexity, but its never elaborated on. They just have scenes where Dolemite will get angry, or sad, or horny…and once he’s done the ‘Sad’ scene or the ‘Horny’ scene, its just…done. Never revisited, not used for character building. One and done, on to the next one. and thats your lot. The supporting cast LITERALLY only exist to give dolemite exposition. which is hilarious in its own right…Its like when Homer Simpson tries to advise the makers of Itchy and Scatchy how they could improve his character (Poochie) by suggesting that when Poochie isnt around, everyone should be asking ‘Wheres Poochie?’. Only in this instance, its ‘Wheres Dolemite?’

The direction is a shambles, boom mics, crew members, Cast members who arnt even SUPPOSED to be in the scene, somehow make it onto the camera, the direciton of the cast is even poorer with people literally ALWAYS starting a scene by walking into a room. floor markers are in full effect and noone DARES move off them in case they ruin the shot, items jump around the room regularly, because noones keeping tabs on continuity…and DESPITE the inconsistencies, this film produces at least 2-5 of THE defining cinematic images of the Blacksploitation movement. Which…is BLOODY impressive.

The cine fares the same as the direciton, you have folks who’ve barely if ever made a movie, learning in real time how its done, its ‘Ed Wood’ level bad in terms of framing, compositional choices and the aforementioned continuity/bad directional choices. It hangs together loosely with little to no B-roll, but…and I cannot stress this enough, its FUN. Everyone seems to be confused, or HAVING fun. and that manic energy of a load of people making their first film and feeling that the worlds about to open up to them and their world is frankly palpable.

As for the casting…does it really matter? the two to watch out for are Rudy Ray and D’Urville Martin as Willie Green. Moore is a stone powerhouse frankly. The man cannot act. he has one emotion. ‘Still.’ and thats. it. he locks himself down to the spot, unless its pivotal to the scene, and delivers cold, stoney lines with all the aggression of a wasp in a turbine. He IS this movie. and everytime he’s on screen is a moment you wonder ‘Where the hell is this going?!’ with a GENUINE concern for the safety of people on set.

Martin by contrast plays over the top, nervous and aggressive wonderfully and acts a strong contrast to Moore. But given the film sets him up as Moores nemesis. He’s barely even in the film. Which I feel is a shame, as i’d have loved to have seen him grow more into the role.

And what powerhouse flick would be complete without one of THE funkiest scores around. And arguably of the best parts of this film! The scores perfect tonally for the production, and edited in place incredibly well. With the titular ‘Dolemite’ theme being a personal favourite.

‘Dolemite’ Was Rudys first proper foray into film making, and…its kind of obvious honestly, this is a fun, but VERY flawed production that, even after my 4th watch now, I STILL cant say I know exactly how I feel about it. on the one hand the unintentional comedy, Rudy himself and the surreal moments he put into this film make me really love it. But on the other hand, the chronic technical faults, the ‘Live standup’ segments and the total lumpiness of the script, tone and lack of depth to the cast really puts me off this one…

His next film ‘The Human Tornado’ irons out a LOT of issues I have with this film. But as it stands? I’d absolutely say its worth checking out. But your milage may vary by the time the credits roll, In either case, i’d stay stick with Rudy, because his best films are yet to come…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dolemite/1/

When they announced back in 2019 that there was BIG news in the world of ‘Caligula’ (and believe me…there is RARELY. ‘BIG NEWS’. in the world of ‘Caligula’) I dont think many were expecting the announcement that was given. That after years of fearing it destroyed (and even an ‘on and off’ attempt by Tinto Brass and his archivist to refilm large chunks of it.) that over 90 hours of original rushes from the labourious shoot that was this movie BEFORE Guccione got his dirty porny hands on it. Had not only been recovered, but that enough footage had been found to successfully restore the film to a *roughly* 99% approximated version of the original cut BEFORE penthouse messed with it.

Needless to say, I was excited…Then the pandemic happened.

And, everything went quiet for quite a while, then in 2023 completely out of left field and with no build up, ‘Caligula: The Ultimate Cut’ was dropped into Cannes unceremoniously, THEN it VERY quickly did a VERY limited theater run (that didnt include ANY screens in the UK even REMOTELY close to me) and then it vanished again.

And even NOW, its STILL not readily available in the UK or Europe, with only ‘Umbrella Entertainment’ (an australian company) releasing the film for ALL of europe (its bloody expensive for what it is)…And ‘Drafthouse Films’ releasing it in the US, with controversy swirling around it because the ‘Theatrical cut’ which was billed as ‘uncut’ was in fact missing 6 minutes of footage.

So faced with bankruptcy, or an inferior release, I chose the inferior release. MAINLY because, I already own the uncut ‘theatrical’ version on bluray from Arrow, and I didnt need a box the size of a loaf of bread taking up shelf space on my film shelf…letalone having to pay between $30 and $50 for the privilage. And…well…was it worth the 4-5 year slow build wait for this to see the light of day? Well…I know a lot of folks wernt particularly ‘impressed’ But y’know what? I had an actually pretty good time.

This new cut of the film essentially removes all the hardcore sequences, leaving only softcore erotica and a few genitle shots, but no penetration or ‘spooge’. There are neumerous new scenes inserted, some extend sequences from the theatrical cut, some hadnt been seen in 40 years.

They rejig the sequence running order, reframing the narrative and allowing for a much MUCH slower burn (the theatrical cut is about 2 hours and 40 minutes, whereas the ‘Ultimate cut’ is basically 3 hours long). They COMPLETELY redid the sountrack to something more ‘earthy’, orchestral and period appropriate. and they’ve added some very light cg elements here and there in the form of artificial smoke, slickers of hot ashes, light digital pans or zooms on shots.

Essentially, the aim was to reimagine the film, moving it away from its seedy, campy and exploitational roots, and instead presenting the work as a more serious ‘flawed character’ period piece that doesnt shy away from the full decadence of the ‘peaks’ of rome. and…with that brief, I feel that really kind of succeed what they’re trying to do here.

I’ll get my biggest gripes out of the way up front, I feel like this re-edit is HORRENDOUSLY over long. I know they’re striving for the feeling of an ‘epic’ and I will say that it doesnt ‘feel’ 3 hours long to me, but it still DOES feel overlong, and with it almost pushing 3 hours, I almost certainly wont be able to rewatch this one again in a hurry…purely from a logistical standpoint.

The pacing is a bit patchy here and there, I feel like the re-edit has added a lot more pathos and complexity to the characters all involved. But it still feels a little rushed on the ‘Caligula is fine/Caligula is now doing boat orgys with the senators wives’ piece. It would have been nice to have that madness more gradually creep in, because here, it feels like a switch goes off just over halfway into the 2nd act and we dont really come back from it.

I feel like the reordering of the sequences however DOES improve the overall flow of the film as a serious work. But I’d be lying if I said I didnt miss the slightly more thrown together, campy, overt horniness of the theatrical cut. The tone is much less scattershot when compared to the theatrical cut, which is nice…But at the same time kind of left me wishing things would just lighten up a bit more.

As for the new footage itself? Its amazing to see it honestly, and the alternative takes, alternate angles and extended sequences I think have been VERY masterfully curated to help enhance the narrative without stealing the show.

Its just lots of little things (mild spoilers for this paragraph so scip to the next break to avoid) like how they use an alternate angle of the murder of Caligulas daughter. I always howl in the theatrical cut, as they clearly just smash a jam smeared mannaquin onto the steps, but here, they use an alternate angle from further away which is much more effective. the boat orgy sequence is dragged from seedy ‘porn’ flick to ‘tasteful erotica’ terratory. the murder of caligula himself is done in a much more toned down, but effective way.

Honestly? I really quite like how they’ve managed to take these rushes and, using modern editing tools combined with ‘period authentic’ editing techniques, they’ve managed to create something that feels like it was just waiting to be scanned from a 1980’s film print. in fact barring the new titles and credits, which feel VERY out of place for a film shot in the 70s. I can say that on a technical level, given this was strictly a ‘reconstruction’ job, they’ve been pretty excellent honestly.

The new footage doesnt really change my opinion of the performances, I think McDowell and Helen Mirran here are astoundingly good, and while the theatrical cut focussed more on the campy and bizarre, this cut gives them much more time to breath and we get some really nice pieces that do showcase not just how good Vidals original script was at giving these characters a bit more complexity…But just how talented these performers were in their prime. The lack of grotty grotty porn here too allows our supporting cast more time to really shine and define themselves. Which added a whole new layer to my feelings about there characters and performance choice.

Which…leads me to my only other gripe here, the score. Now…in the context of it scoring the film itself, its pretty solid. I actually think it suits the tone of the film moreso than what was used to score the ‘Theatrical’ cut. The issue? it sounds SO dull on its own. the drafthouse release contains the new soundtrack in its entirity, and, to me? it was basically unlistenable. Im smitten to the theatrical soundtrack, I think it works with the film, as much as it works blasting out of my car stereo as I head to the supermarket. The ‘ultimate’ score is too cool for its own good and, for me, is a flat experience outside of this production.

It would also be amiss of me not to mention that Tinto Brass has sworn off this film, claiming its a compromised vision due to his lack of involvement in the restoration. Information about his EXACT involvement with this production is scarce, with Tinto claiming noone contacted him until the edit was basically complete, and that they were basically looking for a ‘signature’ to put his name on someone elses work. While the production argue they reached out multiple times to him to ask him to help advise (but not have final cut) on the production, which he refused to do.

Having watched this cut now, it DOES feel a LOT more like Tintos work in the early 80s (‘The key’ specifically springs to mind) than Tinto would probably like to admit. But I feel its a real shame that he had limited/no involvement in this restoration. As it was one of his (self proclaimed) greatest achiements…Its one thing to be cut out of the editing process once…but to have it happen twice is unforgivable frankly.

In the end, I think I like the ‘Ultimate’ cut about the same as the ‘Theatrical’ cut. But they both have VERY different tones and vibes and i’d need to be in a specific mindset to watch this version again.

The work they’ve done here is very impressive, they’ve managed to really blow the cobwebs off this production and presented a crisp, technically delightful production that feels WAY more on brief than what the original production spat out. and I really REALLY like it for that.

However, that 3 hour runtime, the lack of tinto and the scoring issues hold this back from really *truely* being something I could love. If you’ve seen the ‘Theatrical cut’ or you’ve been put off by how ‘porny’ this film has sounded, the ‘Ultimate’ cut offers a viewing experience that I feel is much more palettable to contemporary audiences.

However, if you only like Caligula for the graphic boat orgys, mutant sex scenes and mannaquin Jam smashing…you likely WILL be quite dissapointed.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/caligula-the-ultimate-cut/

15 Years after their first cinematic outing, The Aqua teen gang are back again, this time in TV/Streaming movie form for a 2nd feature length outing. and its kind of just ‘Business as usual’ honestly.

The plot is set in between the latest 2 seasons of the show and the Aqua team have disbanded after frylock (once again) has pushed Shake too far. As such, Master Shake is currently homeless and sleeping in a box fort on Carls lawn, Meatwad is working at a dog sanctuary, Carl is purposfully trying to flatten the Aquas old house so he can raise the price of his property, and Frylock is now working for a 4 foot tall tech bro called ‘Neil’ who owns ‘Amazin’ (Essentially, this is a mashup of Amazon and Elon Musks various ventures)

When Frylock gets sent on an errand to work for Neil, the pair hit it off and eventually grow a friendship, especially when the Fry man mentions he can splice Neils DNA with taller DNA to help him grow to a non hilarious height.

Of course, the tech backfires and before you know it, plant people are running rampant in downtown New Jersey…Same old Same old.

And…to be honest? I didnt dislike this one, but I do wonder why THIS plot got a feature runtime. This could have easily just been a 2 parter of the normal series, and probably WAY more consistent for it.

The actual plot itself groans a little bit under the stress of trying to break that 70 minute runtime, and while the actual content of the film is fine enough, it doesnt really push the envelope in a way that I’d have found satisfying. Compare this to their first film (which DID get a theatrical release) and its relatively low stakes. The first film at leasst TRIED to put a bit of new ‘lore’ in there, it felt like a bit more of an event. It went the way of the 1966 ‘Batman’ movie by just making an episode of the TV show, but with bigger plot points, celebrity names and a few more interesting twists and turns.

This? well, like I say, it just feels like an extended TV episode. If it were the last thing ATHF related to come out, it wouldnt be going out on a high by any means…it would just be ‘an end.’

Because its plot is kind of fragmented up until the last 15-20 minutes or so when everyones re-connected, it also means the amount of characters who can appear is limited. Essentailly we get the 3 Aqua Teen mains, Carl, the landlord (who is only very fleetingly in this) and the Mooninites. Who have one random cameo in the 3rd act, but are forced into the film via 4th wall breaks all the way throughout, they have very little to do with the rest of the movie however.

But the other characters? Mothman, M.C Pee Pants, Handbanana? all abscent…and notably so. Im not sure if this was an attempt to go back to the shows basic roots, but it leaves the project feeling distinctly stripped back in a way that had me wondering hwere everyone was.

As for the script itself? well…as mentioned its a bit overlong, the 1st and 3rd acts are fine, but the 2nd act goes on a bit longer than i’d have liked, and it starts to get a bit confusing towards the end of it as a load of ‘Mad Max’ references get dropped in out of nowhere. The tone is *pretty much* in line with the TV show at this point, but you do get the feeling the cast are a *little* out of practice.

The direction, cine, all that stuff? its basically the same as the TV show, basic…a little more fluid here than usual (im assuming an inflated budget helped that) but unremarkable is the honest answer.

The performances were fun, but not particularly memorable or quotable. The character of Neil was (while watching) fun enough, but the ‘tech bro billionair’ trope thing has LITERALLY been done to death (it was dead pre-pandemic…letalone in 2022)

All in all? eh…I like Aqua Teen, even the later seasons are at least consistent. And this is basically just that…Consistent, but not really trying to push any boundaries, develop any new ideas or really do much of anything other than bring the characters back one more time.

Its fine…But I just wish given the feature running time it was a bit more of a grand affair, rather than a shrug and a ‘see y’er next time.’

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/aqua-teen-forever-plantasm/

Watched as part of an upcoming podcast (no clues) I hadnt heard of ‘Colony Mutation’ prior to watching this, and I chose to go in as blind as possible…Im not 100% certain what I just watched, but I like to think in a spiritual (and erotic!) way…I know EXACTLY what the director was going through when he made this.

The plot follows Jim, a…fairly nasty piece of work, and thats the kind way to put it! Jim is a scientist working at a facility experimenting with RNA and DNA mutations. his wife meredith is specifically working on mutating RNA into a parasite that has the ability to regenerate the hosts lost tissues and even drive the host when its no longer concious. Its a promising piece of work into regenerating lost limbs, but has a way to go.

Anyway; Jims cheating on Meredith with his secretary? Lab assistant? junior researcher? Who knows, the film doesnt make it clear. But what it DOES make clear is that Jim is basically being a bit parasitic himself, going with his secretary just long enough to dump Meredith and go with her…and then move on from her when he gets bored.

Well, Meredith cottons onto this when she finds out Jim has been charging the couples account for ‘Holiday inn’ rooms that have no explanation OTHER than Jims an Ass hat. Meredtih confronts Jim, only for him to blatently lie to her. When he pushes her one too many times, she grabs a vial of mysterious fluid and throws it in Jims face…Only, that wasnt just ANY mysterious fluid! it was a live culture of the parasite!

And within 20 minutes Jims wolfing down raw packs of bacon, raping and murdering women and has seemingly developed a parasitic killer penis. and…thats kind of the rest of the movie. Jim meeting up with strangers and then letting the parasite murder them and feast on their flesh, while the secretary becomes increasingly frustrated that Jim wont commit to her and is being way more evasive.

At first I thought this film was trying to be an imitation of elements of J.R Bookwalters ‘Ozone’, then around the 2nd act I began to wonder if this was some kind of exploitation comment on the AIDs epidemic or on the proliferation of STDs as a form of control. and by the final act I was convinced this was heavily influenced by the works of Frank Hennenlotter…But as the credits rolled, I had to admit, I had NO idea what the intention of this movie was actually.

With it being shot on 8mm with no synch sound, the entire film had to be redubbed from the ground up, sometimes the actors can be bothered to move their mouths, but sometimes the dub that runs over the footage isnt even close to whats happening on screen. Complicating matters further, the version I watched (via Tubi) appears to be a ‘star wars special edition’ type affair from Visual Vengence.

It appears they’ve cropped the film into ‘widescreen’ added a load of ‘bad film’ filters, colour corrected everything into murkey brown or barely visible dark blue. They’ve remade the opening and closing credits with CG and they’ve created some new CG effects for the final act, and all of this looks and feels AWFUL. It makes the movie even HARDER to watch coherently because some of its been so drastically colour corrected that is basially just a block colour screen with occasional eye balls. I dont know whether my enjoyment of this film would be heightened had it been presented in its original aspect ratio, and with all the colour grading and CG reverted back…But I KNOW it didnt help it here.

The script is quite slow and plodding, there are sparks of good moments here and there across the runtime, but the film has a really bad habit of making our characters go for extended walks, have dream seqeunces that dont really go anywhere or do anything. And in the 2nd act in particular, the film gets locked into a bit of a loop of Jim hunting down women and homeless people on dates to murder and feed to the parasite, but then it doesnt really even show you the murders or parasite stuff…So we (as the audience) basically spend 40 minutes watching a guy go on a load of first dates with women, he offers to take them home, he’ll release a parasite, the woman will scream, and then it’ll hard cut to Jim on the phone the next day to his secretary, trying to arrange a dinner date between them and her sister.

The act structuring is a little melty too, the first act is SUPER short, but the transition between the 1st and 2nd acts is painfully long and padded with all sorts of random conversations. Then, as mentioned, the 2nd act locks into the ‘first date/kill/call secretary’ loop…before finally about 20 minutes off the end we crash into a 3rd act that feels like a poor mans ‘Brain Damage’ where things get a little more humerous? But that quickly gives way to an extended final fight that ends abruptly and felt dissatisfying.

Oh also; the film has about 8 minutes of titles and credits…which, given the films barely an hour and 15 to begin with…is a bit much.

I think this film struggles to find the right tone to attack with. I feel like it wants to be seen as an outright horror, it has moments where it wants to explore comedy, but seems reluctant to do that, theres a sci-fi element that isnt really explored much. and the drama element is probably the only thing thats genuinely stuck to across the whole runtime, and it falls flat by the half way point.

The characters arnt particularly interesting, Jim is the only character that really GETS a character and it takes 2 acts to really start to get going…So again thats a bit of a busted flush.

I do have to give some credit to the direction, while it may not be a pretty film, theres absolutely a layer of creativity running throughout this thing. Its not quite a professional end product. But I will say this is a film that DOES seem to be TRYING. especially in the final act as the parasite becomes a more ‘physical’ being, I think the effects work, and the way they mask the parasite are effective and do offset the budget limitations somewhat. Is it perfect? absolutely not. But again; I’d rather a film maker that tries and fails, than one that just shoves slop out the door every 12-15 months.

That being said, other than the creative techniques put out by the director, the cine itself is mixed to poor. shots barely have a focal point, 90% of the shots feel like it was just a case of ‘pop the camera down, check its vaguely in focus, Go!’ which…is not the best way to make a movie, the colour correction does the film absolutely no favours, crushing all the colour out rendering half the film sepia and the other half looking like 1920s ‘tinted’ film. theres a significant lack of B-roll here, noticable by its sheer absence. Alongside at least a few moments of janky editing, where footage slows down, tears or reverses briefly before cutting to the next scene…I have to assume this is done by accident because it only impact 2-3 points in the film for no longer than a second and a half each time.

But the whole thing really could have benefitted from a couple more pass throughs on the edit. I think at sub an hour it would have felt smoother, 45 minutes would probably be its optimum run time. But I get it. You cant sell a short, but you can sell a feature…I do wonder sometimes though if hurting your film to get it out to audiences does any kind of favours to both the film or its creator.

Performance wise, its a game of two halves…LITERALLY, the 8mm visuals showcase poor performances, a lot of neutral faces, even in extreme situations. noone really emotes properly and physicality on screen is through the floor. its a very drab set of scenes on display.

The dub makes the whole thing feel more quirky, but it never quite reaches the delirious nature of ‘Things’ settling instead for deliveries that are WAY too mild mannered, to the point that they feel out of place with the physical actions on screen, only to then occasionally deliver one of the weirdest line deliveries i’ve seen in a good while, out of the blue, with no reasoning for it seemingly. I will say this, it may not be the most vivid script in the world, but my GOD this is weirdly put together…Fascinating from an editing perspective honestly.

And the soundtrack? at times it sounds like early 90s lofi midi, at times it sounds like a 1:1 rip of the ‘Things’ Soundtrack. THAT is the kind of area we’re in ladies and gentlemen. its clunky, ill fitting, it synchs with whats happening on screen maybe 25% of the time.

Colony Mutation is an underwhelming, but surreal at times piece that I feel a bit conflicted on. I dont think its particularly well made, but there are moments here that just scream ‘bad movie’ gold. I didnt come away hating this one. But I dont think i’d actively choose to watch it again. If your a fan, gods speed. But I dont think this one was for me.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/colony-mutation/

‘Grown Ups’ isnt really my usual rodeo. I dont dislike Adam Sandler, but I find as a creative, he dances a VERY very fine line between being ‘sincerely watchable’ and being absolutely and totally unbearable in any capacity. So when I went to visit family this weekend and they put ‘Grown Ups’ on…I was ready to basically spend 100 or so minutes on my phone waiting for it to finish. But what I actually watched astounded me.

Obviously; Red Letter Media have discussed at length how they have a ‘conspiracy theory’ that Sandler makes films that basically do the double whammy of being a tax break, while allowing him and his friends to go do some crazy fun weird stuff that normal people just dont go and do. While passing it off as them making an actual movie. They used ‘Jack & Jill’ as their example. But ‘Grown Ups’ is MUCH more glaring of that in action…

…Because, if you didnt know any better, you’d assume that Adam Sandler basically asked a dozen or so of his friends if they fancied 2 months of hanging around in serine log cabin/woodland locations, getting free food and entertainment most nights and free passes to water parks for most of the summer season. Because thats basically all this film is. Sandler and his friends hanging out and doing crazy stuff on a studios budget for 112 minutes with a SUPER thin veil of ‘plotting’ going on about it.

So; the whole plot of the movie is that a group of friends find out that their childhood basketball coach has died, and this prompts them to all reconnect at his funeral, and in turn, agree to dispose of his ashes in a place he wants it being disposed of. Which means they all head out to the wilderness to reconnect with their inner childs, whilst ALSO trying to break their ACTUAL children OUT of being addicted to social media, ‘posh’ water and games consoles.

Cue a runtime that mainly consists of fart jokes, slapstick, innuendos, gratuitous perving and gentle snarking. But its mainly a vacation video.

The best way I can describe how this entire movie feels is to say that it feels VERY much like the scene in ‘Planes Trains and Automobiles’ where Del and Neil are sat in a motel room driking the mini bar dry and talking rubbish, only, while ‘Grown ups’ manages (at times) to capture a degree of sincerity. Its missing almost ALL the weight and emotional development needed to make me actively care about these people and this situation…That, and dragging something that was a 5 minute ‘bit’ in ‘Planes Trains’ into a 112 minute slog here doesnt really help anyone.

My biggest issue with the script is its really just way too ‘soft touch’. The point of a movie (generally speaking) is to introduce some characters, give them a problem to solve, make the problem *seem* like it has the upper hand, and then let our characters resolve it AND ideally grow from the experience, ending the film with them being better people for it.

This film has NON of that! its a modern miracle in that sense. All the characters start off a little run down from their jobs, they drag the whole family out to the woods to ‘reconnect’ and all that happens is they goof about a bit, and then feel a bit brighter at the end. That *isnt* how thats supposed to work!

The film is INCREDIBLY avoident of ANY kind of conflict or issue that last more than one scene. Im not kidding when I say the entire movie is literally just our characters encountering a problem, and then IMMEDIATELY resolving it. OR! Our characters encountering a problem, it getting put on the back burner for a scene while they set something else up, and THEN them solving it almost immediately with no effort.

Probably the best example of this is with Chris Rocks character, who, probably has the ‘rockiest’ (no pun intended) relationship with his spouse. in the 2nd act they show a scene where his wife sees him talking to Adam Sandlers Nanny, and they basically try on EVERY level to establish that, because Chris Rock is talking to another woman, he MUST be being unfaithful. Fast forward not TWO scenes later, and the wife confronts him about what she saw, only for Chris Rocks character to basically say ‘Talking is talking, your my wife’ and then that plot line is just…resolved. gone…and I should point out, theres no maturing that issue, its not like in the scenes in between his wife goes to speak to the other wives about the issue, or that we get to SEE that Chris Rocks character isnt really chatting up ther Nanny…its just created, and then solved as soon as its made. And thats like…90% of the tension in this film. Made to fill time, and solved as quickly as its created.

The tones a bit all over the place, its really trying to create that quasi nostalgic feeling of old friends reconnecting and ‘remembering the good times’. But they dont even really do THAT particularly…they just sort of, talk about stuff that happened after the friendships drifted apart. and they dont really even focus on HOW that happened in the first place. While its doing that, its also trying to be a comedy, but the humours SO all over the place and has SUCH a strong emphasis on gross out (Breastfeeding gags, ugly feet and dry heaving) and slapstick (people in full body casts getting pushed around, people smashing into trees) that it really kind of mutes out the comedy that ACTUALLY HAD heart and feeling behind it. the more subtle moments just get lost to conversations about ‘botch toe.’

Add to that that the pacing seems all out of whack to, to the point that it seems like the film gets more and more improvised as it goes on. We have a very tightly scripted first act, but then the second feels a lot like they just left cameras rolling inbetween takes and told folks to stay in character. The film fully trails off by the third act, and by that point I really was sitting there wondering what the hell the films message actually even was? I mean they loosely try to put a point in there about how the parents realise that spending time with their family has to come above any work or travel commitment. and at the very VERY end theres an incredibly half hearted attempt at trying to sell the idea that ‘everyone deserves a win sometimes’…But its so undercooked that it just comes across as sloppy and thought up in the moment.

The direction and cine are both studio grade for the time. I have next to nothing to say about them honestly, the film looks fine for what it is. The fact it isnt intensely into CGI for the time it came out was a nice addition. It looks fine. It isnt pushing any boundaries, but I wasnt expecting it to, they use colour relatively well, but nothing standout. The cast direction largely seems improvised, but these are (largely) comedians, so the ‘off the cuff’ stuff is a little hit and miss (but for my money) *is* more hit than miss.

The edit is solid enough, I do wonder why they broke 90 minutes for this, it could have easily been 80-90 and probably a little better than what there actually is.

Performance wise, everyones pretty much fine. I feel Sandler and Kevin James have some good chemestry and most of the scenes where they’re together feel the most sincere and humerous. Chris Rock I feel gets downplayed here really, he has a few good moments to shine, but I feel giving him a bit of a ‘down’ personality because of his home life, kind of undercuts the potential he had to really get on top of this casting. Because, when he does shine here, he delivers some of the best moments of the film.

David Spade and Rob Schnider?…ugh. But! a Steve Buschemi cameo WAS very nicely recieved.

On the whole, everyone on screen in this thing seems to have a good personal relationship with each other, and it felt more like watching old friends catch up and LARP a scenario where they all grew up together, than them actually turning in a performance. It means that while I believe these people were having a nice time, I dont believe the characters, I dont believe the scenario. and thats a bit of a problem.

And, the soundtrack was so good, I literally cant remember anything about it (womp womp)

Grown ups is a bit of a rare thing these days, a family oriented movie about a group of adults reconnecting with not only each other, but with their own childhoods and the warmth that can come from remembering where you came from. It evokes series like ‘The Wonder Years’ and most of John Hughes filmography…And yet it really fails to fully understand WHY we so fondly remember those tv shows and films…it ISNT just because the cast talk about what they got up to as kids, its because the cast WERE ultimately well fleshed out, complex characters who the audience got to spend a lot of time with, and the nostalgia factor was a brief window into their souls at some point in the movie/series, rather than the whole point of the movie/series.

Because we dont really KNOW anything about these characters beyond a bullet pointed ‘what they do now’ and a couple of flashbacks to the late 70s, we dont feel the same kind of connection, and that makes a lot of this film feel a bit hollow ultimately. I dont really regret catching this one, as it does have moments. But all I can say is, I hope I get to be friends with Adam Sandler and go on vacation on the studios money some time sooner, rather than later.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/grown-ups/