Watched on Wednesday October 9, 2024.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-baby/2/

Full review available:
tytdreviews.bandcamp.com/album/tytd-reviews-presents-the-wild-world-of-ed-wood

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/bride-of-the-monster/2/

Watched on Monday October 7, 2024.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-tingler/4/

Im gonna keep this one brief because im pretty sure every man and his dog has seen the original Bela Lugosi ‘Dracula’, admittedly it’s been a few years since I last gave this one a spin, but the confession that I have about this one, is that I really just dont vibe with it. I was always much more of a ‘Frankenstein’ Universal guy honestly.

The reasons for my dislike are pretty simple, maybe a tad controversial, but understandable.

The film is marketed as ‘The beginning of the Universal Monster Movie series!’ but at the time this was sold as a romance film with horror elements more than anything else, and thats kind of what this is. I dont have a problem with Romance films when they’re done well, but the surprising thing I found with this film is that, even clocking in at only 84 minutes its PAINFULLY slow. 30s cinema was notorious for slow burn pacing and having to explain every single detail of the plot to the audience (presumably because subtext wasnt invented until the ‘atomic age’) but here, its particularly crawling. Its just scene after scene of people dumping exposition in rooms, atmostpheric rooms! but rooms non the less.

Honestly, I can ringfence the things I like about this film in a VERY succinct way, I love the ‘German Expressionist’ influence in the set design and lighting choices, but I wish they’d have gone a bit deeper into it, this is a sanitized take on the expressionist movement and as such very much feels a bit of a pale imitation than something really defining.

I ADORE Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye as Dracula and Renfield in this, Lugosi has a corpse like ambience that absolutely sells you on the ‘otherworldly’ role he’s trying to play, and for the early 30s Frye is astoundingly demented as Renfield and instantly watchable the moment things start getting a bit crazy.

I appreciate the lighting, I appreciate the score which I feel suits the film perfectly.

Had I seen this film in the 1930s, I could imagine i’d have been fairly impressed with the scale, depth and effects for the time, but this films pushing 100 years old at this point, and even when I first caught it 15 years ago I felt it was slowburn to the point of narcalepsy.

The first act for around the first 10 minutes or so is enjoyable enough and has some of the first twitches of the Universal charm, the final 20 minutes or so do ramp things up, but it made me wish that the energy of that last 20 minutes was the base line for the film, not the exception.

Its a film made up of a small smattering of interesting moments, lost in a gulf of overexplanation and restrictive censorship, on this rewatch, I actually failed to notice the film ended, because I checked a notification on my phone for 20 seconds and in that time they silently killed dracula and his henchmen, silently wrapped things up and ran the end titles silently before dumping me back into the menu, I actually had to wind back to see, what was effectively a kind of bland finale.

If you get a kick out of this film, good on you. Im honestly glad you see something here that I dont. But for me? this was a bit of an endurance test honestly, and if it wasnt for a couple superb performances, some striking lighting, set work and cine and a decent score behind it. I’d have fallen asleep by the 30 minute mark.

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

I widely consider the ‘Childs Play/Chucky’ franchise to be one of the strongest film series of the slasher genre. As a series they are some of the most consistently entertaining, engaging and interesting films out of the long running slasher characters. But that ISNT to say that the series hasnt had missteps along the way, and three entries in, we finally hit for me, the first entry that I just dont really ‘vibe’ with.

Childs play 3 picks up some years after the events of ‘Childs Play 2’ The Play Pals warehouse and manufacturing area has seemingly been left untouched since the night Kyle, Andy and Chucky fought to the death…But! they’re reopening! and they’re bringing the ‘good guy’ doll kicking and screaming into the 90s. While clearing away debris, they grab the huge mound of moulding plastic that WAS ‘Chucky’ and drag it over a stood pool of wet plastic, dripping an amount of chuckys blood into the vat in the process. They then use this LONG stood pool of blood to create a new line of ‘Good Guy’ dolls…and…well you can guess how Chucky ends up back in this movie.

Andy is now 16 meaning theres been a roughly 9 year jump between the events of ‘Childs Play 2’ and 3…meaning *technically* this film is taking place in the far FAR future of 1998! WOOOOO Spooky…*Ahem* It doesnt feel like 1998…

Anyway, Andy has been bouncing around various homes and found himself drafted into Military school where the teachers are sadistic and weird, the students are sadistic and weird and even the good ones feel a little flat…life isnt going great for Andy…but its about to get worse when Chucky kills the owner of the Playpals company, and using their file on Andy, manages to track him down to the academy…Only, theres a twist.

Chucky mails himself to the acadamy and lands in the mail room where a young cadet named Tyler is asked to take the parcel to Andys room. Tyler sees however that its a Good Guy doll, something he desperately wants…so instead he takes the doll to the armoury and hides the packaging. Chucky bursts out of the parcel and realises what Tylers done…before FURTHER realising that he’s in a new body, and using the rule of ‘He can transfer his soul into the first person he tells his secret to’ he decides to go after Tyler instead while ALSO trying to kill Andy for all the trouble he’s caused him over the years.

Thus, Andy and his new friends must traverse the awful standards of the academy AND the return of a killer doll to save Tyler and bring an end to Chucky once and for all.

Living in the UK, this film has almost always had a bit of a taint to it due to its (VERY loose) connections to the 1993 Jamie Bulger case. But even with the ties, I just never really got on with this film and…there are a few reasons for that.

The script is probably the biggest part of that, whereas the first childs play balanced horror and thriller elements quite successfully, and the 2nd entry mixed light humour, horror and a classic ‘Universal Monsters’ edge to help give it a distinct flavour, ‘Childs Play 3’ is a harsher viewing experience that seems to have a heavy emphasis on horror and a MUCH more aggressive tone across the board.

The tone is much nastier, much more violent and while this could have worked if it was a bit more spread out, its relentless for most of the runtime and felt quite oppressive to me. the tone of the humour is different here, much less broadly funny and much nastier in its punchlines, which didnt really do anything for me, the gore sequences are stronger and go on for WAY longer than previous entries…I found it really offputting for that.

The plot feels thinner too, Andy going to a military academy and Chucky hunting him down inside the academy feels like it could have a LOT of decent potential for story fodder…on paper…But the reality is most of the film feels quite repetative, they have one main event (a paintball capture the flag scenario) thats teased from the 2nd act right the way through to about 15 minutes off the end and other than that and the occasional moment of Andy trying to warn Tyler everything else just feels like blood soaked filler…and not good blood soaked filler.

The film wheezes to make its 90 minute runtime, it feels a good 20 minutes longer than it needed to be, and the act structuring feels a little bit wobbly, slowing down to a crawl in places before snapping off a half hours exposition in 5 minutes. it feels a bit inconsistent, like it maybe needed a further draft or two just to get it really nailed down.

The characters all feel very blunt, they’re either sadist assholes or charismatic archtypes, De Silver is a likeable character, but other than being a love interest for Andy and a sarcastic wise cracker, she doesnt really have much in the way of depth to her character. The same could be said for Whitehurst, who is basically the shy nerdy type who gets bold when the time comes to step up.

its all very predictable, and the lack of depth from the senior cadets or teachers beyond ‘They’re assholes’ is a shame as I feel like there was some real scope here to bring a more complex layer to the film.

The most unfortunate thing about this entry is that it seems to be trying to set up a handover to help carry the franchise into the future. Reframing the film to focus on Tyler, a cadet whos maybe a little bit older than Andy was in the first ‘Childs Play’ while also introducing Desilver to partner up with Andy in taking down Chucky seems to be setting up a 4th entry with Tyler leading and Andy and Desilver backing him up.

At the time, this probably felt like the sensible thing to do…But unfortunately, this would be the last ‘Childs Play’ film for almost 7 years…and when they pick back up with the franchise, they went in a TOTALLY different direction…meaning a lot of whats setup in this film, ultimately ends up not meaning all that much… which doesnt really help this film, not to mention that AS mentioned…this film takes place in 1998, and the next film ALSO takes place in 1998…or 1999 at the latest…soooooo I dont know how the timelines are supposed to work with this thing….but its weird.

For me, this film has a strong 15 minute or so opening, and a strong 15 minute or so finale…more or less everything in between it though I just found a bit dull and unpleasent.

The direction, to me? was also offputting. This is framed much more as a straight horror film and as such the direction is cold, heavy emphasis on showing all the nastiest bits, it emphisises gore over trying to make the rest of the film look interesting, meaning a lot of this movie winds up feeling a bit ‘TV Movie’-esq, a BIG downgrade from what was on offer with ‘Childs Play 2’, its all a bit bland, by the number and barring the opening and the finale, it feels a bit like the director didnt really know how to jazz up a military academy…

Also; I dont feel like they really knew how to work with ‘Chucky’. Its kind of a mix between them redesigning the chucky puppet again and a more limited scope on what they could do. But the puppet here looks noticably cheaper than the last entry, its much more obvious when Chucky is going to move, and when he isnt, the ‘angry’ chucky puppet (for lack of a better descriptor) appears a handful of times and looks rediculous…and I dont feel like they really knew how to make Chucky feel like a well rounded character in this, he’s always in ‘Super evil killer’ mode…which is a real shame because some of the best moments of the previous two entries were when Chucky was just kind of hanging about being funny or calmly talking about how much fun killing is…

Its a bland watching experience not helped by the editing either which is abrasive, full of fast cuts…its aggressive, in your face and makes it hard to really get into for me because it hits you with the fast cuts and overuse of B-roll almost right out of the gate. its all too much. While the cine probably could have had its time to shine in a slower pacing and stronger narrative…here it feels like its been butchered to within an inch of its life. its a grey, drab and flat experience throughout.

As for the performances?…say it with me, ‘Brad Dourif is the lifeblood of this series’ even when the film is generally poor, Dourif swoops in and saves it from total mediocrity. Here? he’s fantastic giving Chucky some of his better aggressive moments and his charisma still shines through…Though, im less happy about them DESPERATELY trying to cram in catchphrases to this entry to try and make them a ‘thing’ (‘Dont fuck with the chuck’ will NEVER be a thing…)

Justin Whalin as Andy is fine, he captures the vibe and feel of the original Andy, gives a decent performance of a traumatized kid once again trying to put to bed his traumas. He’s probably the second strongest performance in this film…Though I would argue if your being upstaged by an animatronic…somethings probably not gone quite right.

Barring Perrey Reeves and Dean Jacobson as Desilver and Whitehurst respectively who are *fine* giving a performance that isnt bad, but didnt really excel in my opinion, the rest of the cast could realistically have been in any late 80s B movie schlock of the time and just about got a pass…Unfortunately; this is a studio picture and AS such has certain expectations to meet…which means in this context, they’re not good. one dimensional, largely barking lines and nothing else, theres little range, little interest and little investment to have in theses characters…which really puts a dampner on proceedings…

Even the soundtrack is loud and aggressive…a cacophony of missed opportunities and synth pangs…To me? it doesnt feel like a ‘Childs Play’ score…it feels like a generic early 90s horror score turned up 20% louder and more obnoxious than it needs to be. I really didnt care for it.

Theres at least 40 good minutes in ‘Childs Play 3’, 15 at the beginning, 15 at the end and 10 dotted out across the middle…but the rest? really wasnt for me. Its just too harsh a movie on every front for what I come to a ‘Childs Play’ film for. If I want excessive gore or violence, I’ll watch ‘Saw’ or ‘Terrifier’. This was a drab and exhausting watching experience and thats a real shame…This isnt one I spin often, I’ve probably seen it about half a dozen times now and while I will say my thoughts on it do improve slightly with every rewatch, I cant ever imaging me getting to a point with this one where i’d positively compare it to the previous entries.

The finale of the ‘Childs Play’ trilogy ends with a bang make no mistake, its just a shame about the hour and 15 that preceeds it…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/childs-play-3/

After the cultural success of ‘Childs Play’ a sequel starring the pint sized plastic killer was all but inevitable, but the journey the film went on in order to make it back onto the big screen is ultimately the reason why ‘Childs Play 2’ is firmly cemented in my mind as one of the best slasher movies i’ve ever seen.

The original ‘Childs Play’ was produced by MGM, but the company who was hired WITHIN MGM to produce the sequel had their production halted midway through preproduction as another studio was set to acquire them in a merger and was going to move strongly in a different direction away from Horror. A bidding war ensued in which Touchstone Pictures were VERY keen to get their grubby little meathooks on this IP…only for them to lose out at the last moment to ‘Universal’ a move that I think saved both the franchise AND this sequel.

Because this film has the spirit of the old Universal monster movies running through its core like a lovable form of tar you just cant shake. Elements of ‘Frankenstein’, ‘The Invisible Man’, ‘The Mummy’ (both universal and Hammer) and many more are present here and I found it utterly refereshing to see a film embrace elements of the studios foundations and almost ‘refresh’ them into something MUCH more modern, appealing and relevent.

The transition also allowed for a slight tonal shift on the scripting, whereas the original was a largely serious horror thriller with some light comedy sprinkled in, ‘Childs Play 2’ is allowed to lean into comedy much more, which it takes on with relish. Its keen to REALLY get into dark humour and comedy, but not to the point that it becomes annoying or grating. this slight pivot really helps give the franchise a life of its own.

You’ve got to imagine this is 6 years before ‘Freddys Dead’. We’re still *technically* in the era of horror comedies being things like ‘Return of the living dead’ and ‘Transylvania 6-5000’. and I adored that it strived to put horror front and center, never bending to comedic peer pressure.

The basic plot picks up a few weeks/months after the events of the first film (Wikipedia says it takes place 2 years after…Im calling bull on that though because the film LITERALLY opens with them saying the mothers JUST been put unders psyciatric evaluation, and the police have largely clammed up about the events of the first movie meaning no trials could run…If the first childs play took place around Autumn/Winter time, this films taking place in spring/summer the following year at the latest)

Andy has now been placed in foster care and is settled in with a new family. He’s still deeply traumatized by the events of the first film, but is open to beginning to move past it. Meanwhile ‘Play Pals Corporation’ the company that made the ‘Good Guy’ dolls is DESPERATELY trying to assure shareholders that the ‘Killer doll’ stories in the press are an overreaction and to PROVE it, they SOMEHOW manage to find and recover the remaining burned out carcuss of the ‘Chucky’ doll. they full refurbish the doll and it almost immediately springs back to life, takes out two technicians in the process and once again, Charles Lee Ray walks the earth.

Only, now he’s on borrowed time, because he only has a finite amount of time to re-locate Andy and swap his soul into Andys body, otherwise his doll body will turn fully human and he’ll be trapped in the shell forever.

Across the board theres significant improvements over the first film. The script feels tighter, punchier faster paced, it feels like it gets to the point faster, we dont need to spend a HUGE chunk of the runtime wondering if it REALLY IS the doll thats the killer, the film gets that out of the way in the first 10-15 minutes or so, and the rest of the film is just a solid cat and mouse runaround featuring some decently gory kill scenes, some genuinely nice character pieces and a finale that, as mentioned has ‘Universal Monster movies’ written ALL over it.

I will say though, that while I do feel like almost every aspect of this script is an improvement and enhancement over the original, it isnt ‘perfect’ I do think things slow down a little in the 2nd act, and because this film picks up shortly after the first film and is really more a continuation of that movie, it does mean that it doesnt quite feel like a ‘whole’ product. It feels like someones just stopped the movie for a bathroom break, and hit play mid flow…Its fantastic if your doing a ‘Childs Play’ marathon because it really does flow nicely between the pictures…but because it feels so much like an addition rather than its own work, it does make it difficult to just ‘jump in’ to this one randomly.

The tonal shift between the two films also cant go unnoticed, the softening of the serious tone between the first film and this is noticable, and while pretty much all the films after this one will continue to develop and grow that new tone. it doesnt feel smooth to jump from the first film to this.

That being said, the characters are all really well developed, Andy as a character gets a bit of growth and development which is nice. The new characters are well developed and feel just complex enough to feel well rounded, but not enough to really fully flesh them out. The dialogue here is inspired with Chucky getting the lions share of the quotable moments (‘Eat Dirt Tommy’ will always be a personal favourite.)

Direction wise, its superb, from the homage to ‘Psycho’ in the opening moments of the film, it sets a tone that this is going to be a sleek and carefully crafted production, and honestly? it really doesnt dissapoint. its a GORGEOUS film to relax into for the most part with some really interesting choices and I think this is probably one of the few films in the franchise where they both consistently manage to get the look of Chucky down pat without it looking like they’re clearly chopping and changing between anamatronics, people in costumes and puppets. But also this is one of the few films that BOTHERS to make the logistics of Chucky play out on screen, you see him digging shallow graves, full bodied walking, diving out of harms way wrestling people. later entries cut away or dont rise to the challenge…but THIS film…this one REALLY decided to go for it. and I love love LOVED it for that.

The cine too is just GORGEOUS a rich and deep range of interesting shots, sequences are carefully crafted with keen attention to shot height, depth of field, the amount of B-roll required to help the sequences flow. I own the bluray release for this and the colours are rich and pop wonderfully, its a film that isnt afraid to experiment and they end up not only nailing the assignment, but sailing clean past it. No notes, this thing looks great to me.

Performance wise its pretty solid too Alex Vincent returns as ‘Andy’ and again, I dont really talk about child actors where I can (as a rule) but he gets to develop his character from the first movie nicely and I think he absolutely nailed the brief. OBVIOUSLY Brad Dourif is phenominal as Chucky, and again, i’d say this is probably one of his all time best performances in the role, he just…he just gets it, he knows how this character works…I rarely like to gatekeep on actors playing roles, but anyone else playing ‘Chucky’ other than Dourif is just NOT gonna sail in my book. Chucky is Dourif, Dourif is Chucky…Nuff Said.

The newcomers are fab too, Christine Elise is standout as troubled teen and fellow adoptee ‘Kyle’ the script to begin with is kind of working against her, but the character is slowly allowed to open up to the point that Elise REALLY gets some decent meaty moments to make her character shine, and she absolutely grabs the opportunity here.

Only enhancing things further, the score is delightful a kind of demented childish carnival organ mixed in with some wonderfully moody synth and orchestral arrangements really helps give this thing a BIG boost, its utilised really well across the runtime and really is the secret sauce that makes all the resst of this production go off with a bang.

I first caught ‘Childs Play 2’ probably about 15-20 years ago and I loved it as much on the first run through as I did today on the umpteenth rewatch. Chucky and Universal at this moment in time were a match made in heaven and across the board this film tries not only to build on what was established in the first entry, but to then try and trump the first entry on a technical and artistic level…and I think it largely succeeds at that. ABSOLUTELY reccommended. its fun, its well made. I love ‘Childs Play 2’

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/childs-play-2/

Watched on Thursday October 3, 2024.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-gingerdead-man/2/

Watched on Wednesday October 2, 2024.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/witchs-night-out/2/

When it comes to icons of the ‘Slasher’ genre, there are your immediate ‘Go to’s’, your ‘Freddy’s’, Your ‘Jasons’, your ‘Michaels’…and then theres the edge of that limelight, a place occupied by franchises like ‘Hellraiser’, ‘The Exorcist’ or to a lesser extent the ‘Leprachaun’ franchise. But probably the strongest contender to make the jump from the edge of the limelight to a full blown A-grade icon, is non other than Charles Lee Ray, better known as ‘Chucky’.

The ‘Childs Play’/’Chucky’ franchise is a bit of an oddity of the genre, with 7 films and 3 tv series almost entirely masterminded by one man, Don Mancini. and here, in the first entry in the franchise, he does a pretty decent job of dressing the table for what was to come.

The plot is centered around a notorious mass killer ‘Charles Lee Ray’ who ends up caught up in a botched heist that ends in a showdown at a toy store where he’s taken out by a detective hot on his trail. Moments before he dies however, Charles appears to use some kind of dark magic on a doll, ending his life and blowing up the toy store in the process.

From there we’re introduced to Karen and her son Andy. Karen is a single parent desperately making ends meet at a convenience store in a tough working environment. Andy is OBSESSED with the hot toy trend of 1988 the ‘Good Guy’ doll, think ‘My Buddy’ and your not a million miles off.

The toy is a scarce commodity, but when one of Karens friends gets a tip that a hobo in the back ally behind the store has a good guy doll for sale at a discount, Karen leaps to the chance to secure the doll as a birthday gift for Andy, making up for a somewhat tepid birthday present opening session earlier.

Little do the pair know that the doll in question is quite possibly more than it seems, and when bodies start turning up, the question becomes, is Andy a killer, or could a doll REALLY be comitting murders? Well…unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 36 years, you’ll probably figure this one out before the titles even end.

But in a way, thats part of the charm of the first ‘Childs Play’ its not ‘Who’s the killer?’ it’s ‘How long is it until Karen and the crew realise Chucky is a killer doll?’ and the film REALLY goes to great lengths in relishing the fact that we as the audience KNOW whats happening, but the cast dont. it takes great pleasure in playing out scenes in such a way that we KNOW whats going to happen, and the enjoyment doesnt come from the gore or excessive swearing (though that does certainly help things), It comes from how intense and atmospheric Tom Hollands direction work is, and how suspensful Mancini’s writing compliments proceedings.

While later entries in this franchise would soften Chucky into a border horror comedy figure, this film is really more a horror thriller with a sprinkle of dark comedy added in for spice. the pacing is semi slow burn, with quick rushes of action liberally applied throughout and I think that really was the best way to do this, it really helps amp up the tensions and when the reveal that Chucky IS in fact a ‘real boy’ actually happens, it feels like a very satisfying payoff rather than something cheap and undercut.

The tone is quite different too from latter entries, being the only film in the series produced by MGM (almost all the later entries would be handled by Universal) this one has a significantly grittier, darker tone. it contrasts lighter drama and comedy elements with some genuinely unpleasent moments, and while some of the script is quite farfetched…this is a film about a killer doll, if you can suspend your disbelief on that, you can believe a single mother can afford a nice semi-luxury 6th floor apartment.

Its amazing really also just how well fleshed out most of the cast are here, key figures from this film will continue to reappear across the entirity of the film and TV franchise, but even this early on, so many elements of their personalities, mannerisms and tones are essentially hard baked in…and while I will say that some of the plot and continuity elements in this entry dont *100%* line up with the rest of the franchise, theres enough going into this that you *could* forgive it for maybe getting a bit ahead of itself on its intentions and where it wants to be.

Overall? I think this is a fun introductory story, not exactly an ‘origianl’ plot at this point in film and media history, but then? what is. its a tight, witty, clever and well made script that really hits the ground running and delivers on every punch right up until the end credits.

as for the direction? Gorgeous. This is probably the 2nd nicest looking film in the ‘Childs Play’ series. a grungey and grim picture that gave me strong ‘Candy Man’ vibes at times. theres a real keen creative eye for this picture and between the stunt doubles dressed as chucky, the animatronics and the props. Holland becomes probably the first director to really, truely ‘nail’ the killer doll genre. which…given before this most killer doll movies either had the doll not move at all, or it was just a dwarf in a costume…It wasnt exactly a *high* bar…but he smashed it out of the park all the same.

DIrection of the cast too is pretty much faultless, they all hit there marks perfectly, they work exceptionally well with the set space, there physical perforamances and line deliveries feel very solidly crafted. Its about as well as it could have gone for a production like this…there are maybe a couple of deliveries that I felt could have maybe gone in a different direction, but otherwise. they nailed it.

The cine too is fabulous, largely soft and colourful, composition is great, they really work with the locations to get the maximum return on what they’re working with. Id argue this again is probably the 2nd prettiest looking entry in the franchise and a strong ‘top 5’ contender for nicest shot mainstream ‘slasher’ period. its a rock solid production that really looks great.

Perforamance wise, cue the broken record, but Brad Douriff is an unstoppable force. This is his role, he owns it so entirely that I dont feel like it can be handed off to anyone other than him. He IS Chucky. his live action scenes at the beginning are superbly handled and his line delivery as the killer doll are equally superlative.

Catherine Hicks is also great as Karen, giving a well rounded performance that lets her work a decent range, she hits every cue and lands almost every line. as was Alex Vincent as ‘Andy’, I dont really like to talk about child actors, but I will make an exception here somewhat in saying that even at this stage in his career, he nailed what was needed for this and really knocked it out of the park, with the best still to come!

In fact, one of the only things that kind of let this down was the score…or rather, the lack of it…there are some incidental pieces…but they’re all kind of unremarkable to me…the more contemporary music is treated as incidental and equally didnt really do much, it all feels too buried in the sound mix for me to leave a lasting impact. I feel like this needed something a little more ‘defining’ for it to really truely win me over.

All in all? the first ‘Childs Play’ film really hit the ground running, while it hadnt quite nailed the tone it was going to end up working with for the next 35+ years, whats presented here is a bit remarkable honestly, a fully formed world and idea, ready to go right out of the gate. while im still on the fence about its rewatch value in terms of how frequently i’ll revisit this one, I cant deny that I had a lot of fun with this one, its a solid production delivering something a little bit different for a franchise that from here on in, is going to go on quite the strange and exotic odyssy. Reccommended.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/childs-play/

Look, Im sure you’ve read many MANY think pieces on the racial under and overtones of ‘Blazing Saddles’. On a moral level, im sure there are as many folks who enjoy the ‘humour’ in this for the wrong reasons as much as their are people who enjoy this film for the actual INTENDED humour of the work.

To clarify, my stance on this film is that ‘Blazing Saddles’ depicts white people (Wilder excluded) as big dumb idiot racists, and the black cast as self aware, charismatic and ‘knowing’, but not above, being silly. The humour ISNT in the fact that the majority of the cast get to use the hard ‘R’ word, its not in the racial profiling. its a lampooning of the time, what folks were generally like, and the absurdity of that time in history.

We as the audience are expected to relate and view the film from Bart and/or Jim ‘The Waco Kids’ perspective…In short, if you dont think this film has a clear leading character you can relate to, or if your finding yourself siding with Hedley Lamaar or Taggart…You’ve watched the film wrong. Its not that they couldnt make ‘Blazing Saddles’ these days because of ‘Woke’. Its that they dont NEED to make ‘Blazing Saddles’ because ‘Blazing Saddles’ already exists, and that time has been and gone.

The story of a former slave turned railway track layer, Bart is one step ahead of the men who beat him and his fellow workers, to the point that eventually through the dumb cowboys stupidity (and as part of a bigger plan by the devious Hedley Lamarr) he ends up unwittingly being assigned the title of ‘Sheriff of Rock Ridge’ a small town set up directly in the path of Lamarrs aforementioned railway line.

Rejected by a backwards and racist, god fearing town. Sheriff Bart lays low in the town jail, where he meets Jim (Wilder) a town drunk sobering up after a night in the cells. The pair strike up a friendship and its revealed that Jim is in fact ‘The Waco Kid’ the fastest hand in the west…with the shakes.

The pairs friendship ultimately results in a broader acceptance from the town, and after Hedley sends in several attempts to destroy the town that Bart disrupts and halts. The town slowly begins to warm to the pair. Leading to ever increasing chaotic moves from Hedley, his right hand man ‘Taggart’ and his lugnut henchman ‘Mungo’. Comedy ensues.

Cards on the table, ‘Blazing Saddles’ isnt my favourite Mel Brookes film, Its likely top 3…But I personally prefer ‘Young Frankenstein’ and ‘The Producers’ a little bit more. The script is a little on the saggy side for my taste. Its crammed to the gills with humour, but it throws so MUCH at the screen that, to me? it feels less like a carefully crafted and curated multi layer comedy, and more like a wet cake of every flavour thats slowly sliding off the cake board onto the floor. It has a VERY high hit rate on gags…but a lot of the gags, by modern standards are kind of lame, and some of the jokes left me with crickets.

The act structuring is pretty decent for the most part, it opens a little slower than i’d like, but once it works up a head of steam and really gets going, it delivers the kind of comedy gut punch you really want in a movie like this…Unfortunately Brookes cant help himself with the 3rd act and things get strangely meta as the plot leaves the highway, crashes through the barrier and heads to space. in scenes HIGHLY remeniscent of ‘Casino Royale’ from not some 7 years prior. I imagine people not familiar with ‘Royale’ would see the ending of this film as wonderfully ‘out of left field’, but to me I found it feeling a little creaky and ‘done’.

That isnt to fault the characters here who are all zany, wonderfully daffy and deleriously delightful. Its that same flavour of ‘Brookes’ magic that you know and love, with a little bit of help from Richard Pryor to really help get it over the line.

Direction is razor, imitating a lot of the classic western shot types and creative designs. If you wernt aware of the cast and went into this EXPECTING a western, you’d almost certainly really believe this was one for the first 10 minutes or so at least. GORGEOUS scene structuring and a clear creative direction in vision is pretty obvious here. It doesnt really bring anything ‘new’ to the genre…But what it does, it does very well and I appreciate it.

Same goes for the cast direction which is just STELLER. some of the best line deliveries, physical comedy and camera/set placements in Brooks career are present here and my god he is RELENTLESS. I Love Young Frankenstein and The Producers…but I do believe this may be Brooks best film for cast direction.

The cine too is lovely, if not a little simplistic at times. the wides and ultra wides really pop in HD and have a gorgeous depth to them. set based sequences however are a little simplistic, which is a shame, things settle into a bit of a drab brown and beige funk until we get to go on location again…which is a real shame because of how beautiful those location shots are.

The edit is a masterclass in comic timing, cuts are PERFECTLY timed with exactly the perfect amount of beats between the feed lines and the punch lines. a wonderful work, the only thing im a bit confused by really is more on a technical level. the transitions in this film seem to have an ultra long lead, meaning the footage degrades slightly for AGES both before and after a cross transition happens…In most films, its usually a few seconds either side…but here, almost entire sequences will have this degredation…I found it unusual…and a little distracting… ho hum.

Performance wise, everyones in their element. Cleavon Little is the star of the show as Sheriff Bart, charismatic, charming, perfect on line delivery. He has a wonderful screen presence and the film almost certainly would have been a poorer fare without him. Gene Wilder is surprisingly mute in this production, he doesnt really do a whole lot, but the handful of scenes where he does get a decent roll of the dice he unloads both barrels quite wonderfully and he gets the tone of the picture and his delivery near enoug perfect.

Harvey Korman as Hedley is a wonderfully cartoonish villain and an excellent foil to Littles performance. he’s much more up tight and subdued. But has a great physical performance that really helps carry the picture from first scene to last. The rest of the cast dont dissapoint either. Though a problem I have with this film (and a few of Brooks works) is it feels like the characters outside of the main core cast seem to only exist for one liners and dressing. and im not talking about extras…basically if your B-tier cast in a Mel Brooks production. Be prepared to have one really good joke handed to you, and then to basically just be relegated to either rumbling around in the background or doing that joke again in the background. Its a bit of a shame and I feel it would have been nice to give, what is a pretty stellar cast. a bit more depth or range to work with.

And finally; the soundtrack! its a PERFECT parody of the classic western genre, with just enough modernisation to help keep it feeling fresh. It cues the film perfectly, though does feel a little bit repetative by the end credits. maybe a bit more variety or range within the style they’re working with would have just helped seal the deal for me on this one.

‘Blazing Saddles’ is…pretty much fine. its fun, I enjoyed it, it absolutely has its moments and deserves the title of ‘A classic’, but I totally understand the arguement that even if its lampooning dumb racist culture…by using the language of racists, its culpable to racist enablement even if its just to a small degree. I personally dont go THAT far…but I understand that arguement more than the ‘you cant say/do these things anymore!’ arguement that right wingers seem to trott out every few years.

I think if you are offended even by just the words of racism, you probably wont be able to settle into this one. and I get that. if you can take this though for what it is (a sincere attempt to kick a load of racist wet wipes and their ancestors up the arse) I think you’ll quickly settle into, and enjoy this one.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/blazing-saddles/1/