TYTD Reviews

Watched on Friday December 20, 2024.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/agfas-special-christmas-special/1/

The second entry in the ‘AGFA Mixtape Vault’ and one I hadn’t seen before. This mixtape is a compilation of footage from the mid 80s New York public access show ‘Stairway to Stardom’ (think ‘Americas got talent’, but if it was shot in some skeezy laundrette owners basement one budget of $15 and a handshake)

Seemingly the vetting process consisted of ‘Can you make it to where we film in the next half hour? Okay, your gonna be on the show’ as the majority of the acts range from the utterly dreadful and tone deaf, to the genuinely bewildering and accidentally hilarious.

I found this compilation to be a little slow going in places, mainly just because, while there is a good range of acts in this cut, which DOES make it very versatile for the audience (there’s going to be something for everybody) I found it quite hit and miss with some acts leaving my jaw on the floor, and others just making me feel a bit bored while I waited for the next slice of weirdness to roll up.

Nonetheless! The editing is razor here and overall its a solid entry into the ‘mixtape’ series. Probably not as essential as some of the other mixtapes, but certainly a lot of fun to be had!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-stairway-to-stardom-mixtape/

So I wrote a review for this one yesterday on the ‘Agfa mystery mixtape vault’ page complaining that despite moaning to the movie database multiple times that all the mixtapes were incorrectly listed and wouldn’t show on letterboxd, they still hadn’t corrected it…well, now it appears they have! So I get to log probably my favourite mixtape of the entire boxset

‘The AGFA Special Christmas Special’ is a deliriously delightful mind melt of an hour or so. Featuring everything from public access clips and commercials to BBC Christmas tapes and MTV interstitials.

It’s manic, rampant and relentless and has been the centerpiece of my Christmas viewing for a number of years now. One that really has to be seen to be believed/appreciated. If you’ve never seen this one before and have a love for alternative comedy, youtube poops or a love for cheesy 80s nostalgia. You need to check this one out at soon as possible!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/agfas-special-christmas-special/

This review may contain spoilers.

Oh…this…this is gonna absolutely ruin my analytics…

So…for some reason (despite contacting the movie database people repeatedly). The team have refused to correct an issue with all the individual ‘AGFA mixtape’ listings, where they’ve been logged as ‘TV Specials’ rather than ‘Films’ and as such, have been filtered out of being featured on letterboxd. I don’t know WHY they won’t fix this clear issue. But as a result it means I’m going to have to log this (fantastic btw) release 8 times and review each mixtape separately under this one item…which sucks…a LOT…but eh…what can y’do?

So! Kicking things off, this is probably going to be my release of the year honestly, I’ve had SUCH a softspot for the AGFA mixtapes for years, so them finally getting an actual physical release is honestly a game changer…I don’t honestly know how they’ve managed to license so much televised footage. But basically this is ‘What if youtube poop was highly curated, about an hour long a piece and edited by professionals’ and I am HERE for that.

The first release on this set ‘The AGFA Special Christmas Special’ is probably the strongest one on the set, and is also the first up on disc one. A delirious compilation of UK, US and EU retro Christmas clips that’s equal parts hilarious, nostalgic and technically excellent. I’ve watched it every Christmas since it was first released. And find its perfect either as a mood setter OR as pleasant background fodder.

If you are a fan of alternative comedy, or just weird cookie public access stuff. This will absolutely be a must see.

4.5 out of 5.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-agfa-mystery-mixtape-vault/

‘Jirachi’ the wishmaker’ is the 2nd of the ‘Hoen’ era Pokemon films and this one really feels like its well and truely bedded in to the era after ‘Pokemon Heroes’ kind of half’n’half’d its way out of Johto.

The plot see’s Ash, Brock, May and Max pausing their adventures in Hoen to take in a once in a millenium astrological event. A mysterious Comet which can be seen passing by earth for 7 days every 1000 years is imminantly due, and the gang have decided they want to catch it.

Conveniently at the same time, a circus has pulled into town, and while taking in the sights and sounds, they end up in the company of Butler and Dianne. A travelling Magician and Assistant with a strange new addition to their team. a mysterious meterorite with otherworldly powers, that seemingly has a STRONG interest in Max.

After the show, the gang catch up with the magicians and its revealed that Meteor isnt in fact just a lump of rock. But is in fact a legendary Pokemon from outer space called ‘Jirachi’. Jirachi is rumoured to only appear when the comet thats planned to pass by earth appears. and for the 7 days the comet is around, Jirachi will befriend someone and grant their every hearts desire.

Naturally, on the first night of the Comet, Jirachi appears and befriends Max, and after many shenanigans, they form a very strong bond. However, everything isnt quite as it seems and Butler may indeed have had alterior motives for the Star shaped pokemon…Alterior Motives that could lead to the ressurection of the ancient guardian of fire ‘Groudon!’

This one? I really actually quite enjoyed. I’ve been saying since the start of my journey through all of these Pokemon movies that the main thing I want to see when I watch a Pokemon film is an idea that was too grand for the TV show, being realised with a modest budget and given the time it needs to tell the story well. And I think this one actually achieves that brief pretty nicely.

The plot zips by at around 81 minutes long, the pacings pretty solid with just a couple of instances of padding that I noticed in the second act, the act structuring itself is decently paced out, with acts 1 and 3 being near perfectly balanced, with an ever so slightly extended middle act tying this all together.

The characters all seem to work quite well with each other and theres a decent contrast between our regular players, and the villains of the piece, with Team Rocket here getting their first meaty involvement in one of these films for the first time since ‘Pokemon 4ever’ Butler is incredibly campy, but I kind of live for the melodrama with his performance and felt like he had a really solid arc in this. and our main gang of Ash, Brock, May and Max are all largely likeable, and its nice to see the entire gang ACTUALLY get pretty decent utilization after so many of these films have just picked one or two of the gang to be main players and relegated the rest of the team to just cheering from the sidelines.

This script felt like a coherent and functioning production that ACTUALLY bothered to use its cast to as full a potential it could muster, the pacing was solid, the tone was nicely hammy with some genuinely compelling moments. In fact, there were only 3 things I didnt like in this:

1 – May repeatedly sings a lullaby in this, and Its awful. It seems WAY out of character, it sounds bad to me and it just felt a bit awkward and clunky…I wasnt a fan.

2 – Jirachi itself is just…a bit weird, it sounds like a baby and at times borders on SUPER annoying…I dunno, In the games and pokedex entries it seems a bit cooler…in this film, its a bit lame, even if it does enable some of the better aspects of this films plot.

and 3 – a GLARING plothole in the 3rd act (spoilers here so skip this paragraph to avoid) But IN the 3rd act, Butler successfully manages to ressurect Groudon, only to find that its some kind of Groudon/Kyogre/Deoxys/Space…hybrid thingie and it goes on the rampage. Jirachi is a pokemon that can grant ANY wish. Why didnt ANY of the gang there, just…wish that this abomination pokemon dissapear…or wish it to be teleported into space? Jirachi is shown that it can teleport basically anything pretty easily…After a while I thought that maybe there was limitations on Jirachis ability to teleport large objects…But the final scene LITERALLY has Jirachi LAUNCH this giant lizard pokemon into space to hit the comet. Which just left me wondering why on earth it let this thing destroy a TON of the landscape, absorb several pokemons energy and nearly kill all of its friends…I know its just a show and I should really just relax. But its plotholes like that that keep me awake at night.

On the art direction and cine front, its a bit of a trade off honestly…on the one hand, I dont think this films as pretty as ‘Pokemon Heroes’, the detailed pseudo ‘Ghibli’ level of details is massively rowed back on here to the point that, for the post part it just feels a bit like a widescreen version of the TV series at the time. BUT! in exchange for that intense lack of detail, we instead get some of the best intigration of CG that the series has had to date. its been toned down massively and blended much more seamlessly into the existing art style, which results in a really visually impressive film for this series so far, and a very pretty one at that! (seriously, the fairground sequences are quite lovely!)

Performance wise, I had no issues here The longtime players are still going strong here and the recent additions of Veronica Taylors ‘May’ and Amy Birnbaums ‘Max’ are welcome and a nice change of pace from the norm. But EASILY stealing the show is Wayne Grayson as ‘Butler’ he’s hammy, melodramatic, campy…All the good things a magician could want! I loved him in this and I had to chuckle every time he delivered an epic ‘DIANNNE!’ line.

And the score…well, its kinda sorta okay. the strange hybrid of more orchestral driven scoring thats in line with the TV anime, and the now INCREASINGLY dated late 90s/early 2000s J-pop dubbed into english is really starting to creak a bit at this point. they’ve been doing this since 1998 and this thing released in the UK in 2006, 3 YEARS after it came out in Japan…It does the job I guess, and I didnt expressly hate any of it. But, at this point it feels about 3 years past its prime, and im hoping they’ll begin to branch out into other sounds and styles in the next couple of movies.

On the whole? This is probably the best Pokemon movie i’ve seen so far on my journey through all of them. While i’d stop short of saying its ‘brilliant’ it did pretty much everything I want a pokemon movie to do and even threw a few things in I didnt consider. That being said, it does still have some drawbacks. but I think i’d put it about on Par with ‘Pokemon 3: The Movie’ as being one of the more consistently and coherently produced Pokemon films. If your looking to cherrypick the best, this one would almost certainly be on my list.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/pokemon-jirachi-wish-maker/

A surprisingly charming entry in the ‘Pikachu Shorts’ series this time around, ‘Gotta Dance’ is a fairly simple premise, but I personally really enjoyed its execution.

So! the plot? Meowth and the Rocket pokemon FINALLY get an actual direct POINT in this one! and its a big one! Jessie and James have plumed a LOT of money and effort into a groundbreaking project for team rocket! an official ‘hideout’ from where they can hatch their elaborate Pikachu stealing schemes! and this could be make or break for the gang as non other than Giovanni himself is visiting the site to give it the official seal of approval!

Meowth (having a background in dance and dramatics) is given the task of coming up with the entertainment for the grand opening, and has settled on an extensive musical dance routine. Jessie and James have provided Meowth with three ‘Whismer’ and a ‘Pokebaton’ a mysterious baton that seems to be an offshoot of the ‘Pokeflute’ once opened it plays a variety of musical numbers that drive pokemon into a crazy dancing frenzy!

And wouldnt you know it! at the exact same time, Pikachu and the gang just happen to stumble on the new Rocket Lair RIGHT as they’re putting the finishing touches to the party! After accidentally crashing the dance rehersals, the Pokebaton ends up in several different pokemons hands and carnage commences as Pikachu and the gang, Meowth and HIS gang AND an army of wild pokemon tango, salsa and whattusie their way through the rocket hangout leaving destruction and devestation in their wake!

I really enjoyed this one, the script is simple, the fact the overnarration thats plagued the last few entries is missing, I thought was a really nice touch. Theres some genuinely funny dialogue here and some interesting scenarios, the use of CG is nicely handled and blends in quite well with the digital animation. and the dance numbers themselves are intricate and interesting.

Putting nostalgia aside for a moment, I actually think this is probably my favourite short so far. Its the first time i’ve felt like they’ve given all the characters a decent meaty role in the antics, that the plot hasnt felt overly reliant on people suspending their disbelief. the set pieces have just worked, the scoring was superb and it all ties together nicely into a little self contained short that doesnt feel too hand holdy.

It’s cute, creative and entertaining. and I think i’d happily watch this one again.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/pokemon-gotta-dance/

What happens when you take a Spanish company, ask them to attempt an Italian ‘Giallo’ movie, but seemingly the only films they’ve seen are ‘Friday the 13th’, ‘Black Christmas’ and ‘Bloody Moon’? Well! You get ‘Pieces’ a somewhat delirious mix of a movie that balances the slowburn vibe of a Giallo with early buddings of the ‘Slasher’ genre into something that, while ultimately flawed, is definitely moving in the right direction.

The film (set in America, but shot predominantly in and around Valencia Spain) opens in 1940’s Boston as a young child who, seemingly, has a porn addiction is piecing together a ‘nudie’ jigsaw puzzle. When his clearly ‘end of her teather’ mum catches him, she scolds him and his father for leaving that stuff about, beats the child and demands he go and get a trash liner so they can throw all the filth away.

On return however, the kid, rather than bringing a trash liner, has bought an axe! and promptly chops his mother into tiny pieces. When a neighbour drops in, but doesnt get an answer at the door, she calls the police who find the kid covered in blood, hiding in a closet crying.

We then flash forward 40 years into the far off future of 1982. and we’re on a college campus And students are ‘studenting studily’, when we’re introduced to Kendall, a mary sue if ever there was one. Kendall is a bookworm, who hangs around with pervy nerd friends. Who also happens to be an enigmatic and irrisistable lover AND class A Detective who’s banging any woman who happens to meet his gaze.

Indeed, in the opening of the film, Kendall is going somewhat steady with a blonde bombshell cheerleader who’s invited him that night to sneak into the colleges pool to do some skinny dipping and try ‘doing it’ underwater.

However; when our cheerleader arrives at the waterside. Its not Kendall there to meet her, but a mysterious man dressed all in black with a broad black hat, weilding a chainsaw, who promptly pulls her ashore while strangling her with a pool net, and once poolside again he promptly carves her up into tiny pieces with a chainsaw.

When Kendall arrives, he sees some of the carnage and flees, but not before he’s spotted by the groundskeeper. Indeed, this isnt the first incident to date of a mysterious killer stalking the campus picking off women with a chainsaw, chopping them into small pieces and taking some of the parts with him.

The dean calls the police and his senior staff into his office alongside Kendall, as they try to figure out exactly whats going on, and the Dean (in private with the police) decides the best course of action ultimately will be to introduce some undercover female agents to his staff because the killer seemingly is only going after women, so it makes sense that if they put a trained cop on the beat indiscriminantly, eventually she may bump into the killer.

This undercover cop turns out to be non other than our OTHER Mary Sue for this movie Mary Riggs! a loved by all undercover cop who’s good looking, smart, sassy…oh and a world tennis champion to boot! She’s assigned as the schools new sports teacher and naturally Kendall and Mary end up running into each other with erotically charged…but ultimately professional results.

With the bodies piling ever higher and time running out, will Kendall and Mary manage to figure out the killer?! will the groundskeeper end up winning 1982’s “Mr. Don Delouise of the year” award for the 3rd year running?! and will the Dean FINALLY see the end of ‘chug-a-lug house?!’ well…all this and more WILL be answered if you check out ‘Pieces’.

And is this script coherent? absolutely not. But is it entertaining? for sure. Much like a jigsaw ‘Pieces’ doesnt give the audience the clues it needs to figure out the killer in any kind of order that would naturally slot together. you get breadcrumbs of ideas dotted across the runtime in such a way that, on first watch, you’ll think its nonsensical. But on a rewatch, you’ll realise the pieces were all there, the film was just being a git in giving them to you in an order that makes no sense.

And while that aspect can be somewhat frustrating, I actually kind of loved it for that. it takes the traditional slowburn ‘Giallo’ pacing and plotting and with that, spices it up somewhat, giving it an almost fever nightmare vibe thats kind of remeniscent of movies like ‘Tenebrae’

Now, you could argue that an incoherent Giallo is a bit like a bike with square wheels I.E Whats the point of a murder mystery where the mystery element is purposfully obscured to the audience to the point that i think very few people would ultimately guess the killer first time around. but thats kind of what draws me to this one a bit more than the others. Its the fact that it feels like your watching a ‘Giallio’ through the prism of a dream world. and that surreal vivid imagery will stay with you from start to conclusion and beyond ultimately.

The pacing is a little bit slower than i’d personally have liked, this films definitely a contender for ’10 minutes shorter probably would have significantly improved things’. But the tone mixes a deadly serious thriller with softer slightly more campy/jokey moments, which I feel works quite well.

The characters are all a bit odd, but they do a good job of giving them just enough backstory to keep them interesting, but not enough to make them feel overly planned out. the act structuring, I feel is a *little* bit lopsided with a shorter 1st and 3rd act and an overly bloated 2nd act that is the cause of a lot of the films slowdown.

Dialogue works on two different levels, the original dub is dramatic, sharp and works really quite well delivering a rawness. But the English dub has a slightly campy edge that helps excentuate the sillier moments of this film and tilt it just enough to make it feel like its working with contrasting styles. Which I quite enjoyed.

On the direction? well, its kind of sort of just okay for me. Juan Piquer Simón clearly knew how to command a film crew and the end results range from striking, to snoozeworthy. And thats kind of the biggest problem this film has, it feels like when Simón was engaged with a scene and switched on, he could deliver sequences that are the envy of most of the horror genre from that time…But when it came to more pedestrian (but necessary) sequences…he comes across (to me at least) very much as a ‘just get it shot and lets go home’ type of director…which isnt really the best way to play the game and very much drags down the good work he does with this film.

Same goes for direction of the cast really. when its a key scene, a big reveal or a murder…he’s in his element and really seems to get the absolute best out of the cast, making them go big, work with their set space and props and genuinely putting across the terror of the situation. But when he’s NOT doing that. it feels like the interview segments of an episode of ‘Dragnet’ slow, stuffy, overly cool, overly basic…really not my thing.

On the cine front, again its a bit of a game of two halves. on the one hand the sequences where they’re clearly playing for style REALLY scratch an itch with me, there are moments here that are just SO brilliantly put together with even subtle moments like a sequence near the 3rd act where one of our characters walks from a dark room into a light room (we can see them from the dark room through a glass panel in the door) when suddenly from the dark room the flicker of reflected light off a blade of a long knife informs the audience that that lady…is FAR from alone. Is just a wonderful touch. and there are loads of these little moments across the runtime that really show the passion and creativity that went into moments from this film.

Unfortunatley, the film also falls afoul of a big problem within the Giallo genre, which is it gets incredibly bogged down with exposition scenes (because the film needs the auidence to know all the pieces of the puzzle to try and crack the mystery) but rather than do anything intereresting with these scenes, the majority of them are either mid-wide two shots. or back and forthing talking head sequences. They’re flat, lifeless with next to no depth of field creativity. they drain the energy out of the production and left me on the verge of clock watching at times…Put it this way, if I can close my eyes while watching your film and not miss ANYTHING important to the plot…somethings gone wrong.

The dealbreaker for me (and probably the biggest thing that holds this back from being a truely great movie) is a kind of apathetic edit. you’ve got some tremendous shots, and a woozy script. which, even with the middle of the road direction could have led to something quite remarkable. and its just…kind of basic. It cuts where it needs to, it (for the most part) moves the sequences with a decent clip. But it just doesnt go extra. it doenst push the film just that little bit further into being something I was genuienly enthralled by. doing a good job IS enough in some cases. But this film needed just a little bit more energy behind the cuts to get it there…and it just doesnt quite meet the challenge for me ultimately.

As for the performances. I think the real stars of the show here are Lynda Day George as Mary, Ian Serra as Kendall and Paul L. Smith as the demented looking groundskeeper ‘Willard’ I single these folks out specifically because their performances here are the most ampliphied, they seem to get the meatiest moments in the film and they absolutely give their all throughout the film to really try and sell you on the horror of the situation. I think they all give tremendous physical performances (Particularly Smith, who constantly looks like he’s on the verge of an anurism) I very much enjoyed them.

The supporting cast do fine enough, but they just arnt quite as memorable or engaging. While I think it would be a compliment to say they reminded me of the supporting cast in ‘Friday the 13th’ the fact that I personally found them kind of just…there, and a bit dull. also didnt really help this films case.

BUT! tying this whole film together is an INCREDIBLY good soundtrack, largely all original compositions it only enhances the dreamy style of presentation with synthy plinky plonky moments combined with some quite nice minimal orchestral pieces. Its timed excellently to the events on screen, sounds amazing and I can understand why this films had multiple vinyl pressings and soundtrack releases in its time. I really liked it!

I absolutely understand why ‘Pieces’ is as well recieved as it is by wider horror audiences. It kind of has something for everyone, whether you after a more Giallo fueled time. Your up for some slasher-time gore, you want terrifying surrealism, or just a ultrea hardcore slice of 80s horror. Its a very versitile film that, while imperfect (in my opinion) does still manage to deliver a hell of a punch to the beans and rice. If you havent seen it before and you like the early proto-slasher era of horror cinema. You’ll probably feel more than at home with this one.

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

The first film and centerpiece of the ‘Game of Clones’ boxset from Severin films. I had read about ‘The Clones of Bruce Lee’ and how it was supposed to be a non stop, crazy, over the top action punch and mind melt fest for a good 15 years, and after finally getting into a bit more of a functional groove, I decided to finally crack the set open and give it a whirl…I was…underwhelmed.

The plots fairly straight forward, It opens with Bruce Lee dying. while undergoing emergency surgery, he dies. Enter Colin (from the FBI!) ((Hes…always referred to as ‘Colin…From the FBI.’ So I guess thats just his name…ANYWAY! Colins working for the FBI! and hes got an important mission to do! working closely with mad scientist and Egg/Human ‘Fly’ hybrid ‘Professor Lawrence’ the pair are on a mission…a mission…to CLONE BRUCE LEE!

With full hospital authorisation, Professor Lawrence enters the operating room, takes a syringe full of Bruce Lees blood and clones himself 3 Bruce Lees using fancy cloning machines. Shortly after maturing them to the correct age, he uses a brain washing machine to mind control all three Bruce lie to only obey his commands. At which point, he takes them into intensive training where they learn to become masters *ALMOST* as great as Bruce himself…Before they’re handed over to Colin from the FBI for their greater purpose.

See; Colins big picture plan was to create an army of Bruce Lee clones to act essentially as FBI Operatives and assassins, travelling the globe taking out dangerous targets without pushback.

And from here? the film basically turns into a bit of an anthology, where we get a story of Bruce #1 taking down gold smugglers in Hong Kong, and Bruces 2 and 3 heading to Bangkok to fight the evil Professor Neigh whos developing a super serum capable of turning men into flexible, unbreakable BRONZE! But as with all Frankenstein tales, the creatures inevitably rebel, and here? that means a final act with three pissed off Bruce Lee clones all beating each other senseless before turning inevitably on their creator.

And…when I put it as above, I think you’d come away thinking that was a fairly insane 90 minutes…its not. its a fairly insane 20 minutes with about 70 minutes of extended kind of dull fight scenes, gratuitous and TOTALLY pointless nudity, and padding. The best way to sum this one up is that, had the padding been taken out, and the fight scenes trimmed down just a little bit more. This would have been a passibly fun 70-80 minute movie. But at 90 and change…it just tips it against my favour and below average.

The film itself has a great first act that is bonkers, fairly quick to set up the premise and really does deliver on the tagline. But around the 2nd act (when the Bruces start to get missions to run) it all comes a bit unstuck for me. As mentioned the pacing goes to the wall a bit with excessive padding. The producers seemed to think that a quick way to win crowd back when things REALLY got drearey was to just shove a load of totally naked women cavorting on a beach into the film…which, just…really didnt work. and Honestly? it brings the entire 2nd act RIGHT down to a drudge, right up until Dr. Neigh begins injecting folks with the syrum that turns them into flexible ‘Bronze’ fighters…then it just gets weird and semi interesting again.

But even THAT isnt enough to fully pull the film back, and after about 10 minutes with the bronze fighters, it all hurtles back to a crawl as extended fight scenes just eat the runtime completely. Leading to a 3rd act that had scope to be an explosive finale, as the Bruces turn on each other and everyone at Professor Lawrences compound…and they spaff it right up the wall by doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with the premise. You could have had the Bruces realising they’re illegal clones of the original and turning on the creator and his compound so that it can never happen again. You could have had the implies romantic moments between Lawrences female assistant and Bruce 2 ACTUALLY lead to something. You could have even just had a hudge explosive finale with the lab getting destroyed…

But no. theres 2-3 open air fights, some running around lab corridors, a laser murder scene thats literally blink and you’ll miss it, and then an abrupt ending with half the plot lines unresolved and no real sense of closure…It was dissapointing.

Adding that it really doesnt seem to know what to do with the tone, the fact they show ACTUAL footage from Bruce Lees ACTUAL open casket funeral, the fact that the Bruce clones get NO character development whatsoever across the runtime, the dialogue being ULTRA basic and not particularly interesting and the act sturcturing being messy and lopsided…and you’re basically left with a script thats just a handful of fun/weird ideas. Stapled to the most basic of martial arts pictures.

Same goes for the direction and cine, which both are fairly flat and lifeless. This is a film that considers multi coloured ‘disco lights’ to be the height of mise en scene. Theres very few instances of good depth of field, most of the film is just locked off tripod shots in mid wide and mid close. its the most basic of sequence building with an edit thats a little rough around the edges. The bluray remaster really has done wonders to bring this film back to life and it looks really nice…But that doesnt get away from the fact its overly basic and fairly drab to me.

Performances are…surprisingly kind of dull as well, which is all the more upsetting given the calibre of the cast. With the likes of Bollo Yeung, Dragon Lee, Bruce Le and Bruce Li. You’d think this would be a star studded tribute to the master…But its yawnworthy. With most of the cast really feeling like they’re phoning it in for the most part, and a big departure from their own seperate Brucesploitation successes.

The fight scenes are ultra basic in terms of choreography, they dont mask fake contact well. Scequences go on and on and on without any kind of shake up to the formula. the fights themselves arnt particularly intricate. and theres one…maybe two at a push, instances of weapon play in this one…If done well, even simple fight sequences can look impressive. But these were SO souless, and go on for SO long…You could basically go and grab a drink and a sandwhich while they were going on and you wouldnt miss a thing.

Though, one upshot was the soundtrack which was basically almost entirely stolen from sound libraries and hit films of the 70s such as ‘Rocky’, ‘Enter the Dragon’ and ‘The Warriors’. Which was something that definitely perked me up during this. They may not be particularly well used, sound like crap and be VERY badly edited in. But its nice to hear the greats again…

Throw in some mid to poor vocal performances on the english dub and ‘The Clones of Bruce Lee’ was kind of a letdown to me honestly. Promised a lot and delivered a fraction of what it could have. I really wish it had been a more solid offering. I’ll probably revisit this one in time just to check im sure my feelings above are correct. But this was no ‘The Dragon Lives Again’ for sure…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-clones-of-bruce-lee/

Enjoyed it so much on the first go around, I had to check out the ‘Rifftrax’ version over pizza with a friend. While I dont necessarily think the riffs made it any more interesting/better. It definitely brought its own flavour to proceedings and there were some genuinely funny riffs to be had. its kind of like having hard shell or soft shell tacos. Theres really no wrong answer here on which version you choose to watch…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/suburban-sasquatch/1/

When it comes to entertainingly bad movies of the 21st century, ‘Suburban Sasquatch’ is almost certainly going to make the list of ‘essential’ watches to show your friends, alongside the likes of ‘The Room’, ‘Birdemic’ and the UK cut of ‘Nutbag’ A film that, within 10 minutes of the opening credits, will give you everything you need to know (and more!) about this movie in terms of what your getting into.

The best way to describe this film is to say its essentially ‘What if a Bigfoot Horror movie had been directed by Godfrey Ho?’ Because what we essentially have here are two to three COMPLETELY different plotlines that have seemingly just been cut to and from, with about 5 minutes of additional footage overlapping these plotlines so that the film makers can say that its one big film. Only…the difference here is that the film makers DIDNT film 2-3 incomplete bigfoot movies and slam them together…the film just came out that way.

Plot 1 – The main plot, follows Rick, who is a struggling journalist in a rural town who wants to break into the big leagues and become a professional writer in the city. However, his local paper boss has had enough of that ‘big city’ dream, and wants Rick to just report on things that get sales, not on every random mystery that happens to pop up in town.

Ricks obsessed with a current local mystery in which multiple people are turning up dead with no explanation, and the mystery here is that the cops are seemingly trying to cover up just how many people have died and refusing journalists entry to the sights to report on whats happening. Luckily, Rick has a cop friend on the inside of the force who calls him ahead of visits to these crime scenes to give him time to get down there and report what he can find before the cops get too bedded in. But this in turn will lead to a revelation! Theres a Sasquatch in the woods! and he’s picking off the local residents like I pick off sweet and sour pork at an all you can eat!

Plot 2 follows the cops in the local town, chiefly John, who has taken on this Sasquatch case personally, due to the fact that some time ago, him and his wife had a first hand encounter with Bigfoot that led to tragic consiquences. As such, John has found himself seemingly bearing the full weight of bigfoot on his heart. And he’s decided that not only does he want revenge, he wants to make sure that he’s the one to ensure bigfoot never sets foot on their turf ever again. leading to…well, im not entirely sure what this all builds to, the cops plot seemingly fizzles out early on in the 3rd act…but im sure its exciting non the less!

And finally! Plot 3 which follows Talia, a young woman in a nondescript (though implied native american) tribe, that is about to begin her trial into being a peacekeeper for the tribe. Her grandfather teachers her everything she’ll need to know before going on her journey, and her trial begins at the start of the film when she awakens her spirit animal, a CGI hawk that gives strong ‘Birdemic’ vibes. Her trial? to hunt and kill bigfoot. Its revealed that Sasquatch are mythical beasts that feed on ‘soul energy’ basically killing and eating the flesh/drinking the blood of people gives them power and mystic abilities, such as the power to teleport, regenerative healing and; if enough power is consumed, essentially immortality and indestructability.

Talias tribes are guardians who kill Sasquatch before they get to the kind of power level where they’d be a problem, but unfortunatly for Talia THIS bigfoot has some kind of ‘never before seen’ mythic curse on it, that allows it to become much MUCH stronger than any other Sasquatch ever seen before. Once defeated, she will take her place in the guardians, travelling the world defeating Sasquatch and other creatures…But when Rick falls into her life while bumbling around looking for Bigfoot proof, she begins to question if her faith and planned journey, is really the correct one.

All these plotlines vaguely overlap, with Rick and Talia getting the biggest match up, but otherwise? they’re basically 3 self contained plots that partially touch across the 3 acts.

And, I dont know if im giving the film makers too much credit here, but I get the distinct feeling that ‘Suburban Sasquatch’ isnt so much a ‘so bad its good’ movie, and more a product where the film makers were aware of their limitations, and decided to simultaineously lean into it for their own amusement, while making the audience aware of this with some rather self aware dialogue choices.

Indeed, the films that came after this from the team were a bit higher quality and equally self aware. I dont feel like this is the same kind of camp as the ‘Polonia’ brothers or the films of ‘Dustin Ferguson’ where there is a level of incompitence, which inadvertently leads to humour. To me? this thing screams ‘Adult Swim, low budget but highly aware comedy horror’

For a starters, the script purposfully hits every single ‘bad movie’ trope its possible to get, from an awkward and distant to the point of alien romance piece, to the sasquatch making the same growl on a loop for the entire run of the film, to the purposfully dollar tree clearence bin halloween costumes, to the purposfully bizarre CG effects that I know are purposfully made worse by the film makers, because they show at multiple points that they can do SOME half decent motion tracking.

They’re repetative, but its a planned repetativeness that seems to give the ‘Stuart Lee’ effect, the biggest joke being how basically, if the police WERE covering up the Sasquatch murders, there wouldnt be anyone to cover up TO because Bigfoot basically murders half the town in this movie.

The act structuring is clunky and awkward, but it seems so more by design and less by incompitence. The dialogue was a bit of a tell for me, because there are quite a few passing lines that make you aware that the writers are a bit cleverer than your average low/no budget dudes with a camera shooting an 80 minute gore flick. Just little sarcastic one liners, small attempts at 4th wall breakings, moments where the characters basically say ‘I sure hope this doesnt happen!’ followed immediately by a hard cut to EXACTLY that happening, in the goofiest most over the top way possible.

And to be honest? its a joke that didnt get that old for me. the opening of the film with the Sasquatches first on screen attack hooked me in, and from there I spent most of the runtime grinning like an idiot at the DIY carnage unfolding on my TV, or trying to figure out if these film makers were actually compitent and doing it for the ‘Adult Swim’ factor, or if they just somehow managed to write funny, self aware and semi smart stuff accidentally…But for me? I think theres too many ‘accidents’ here to really say this whole film wasnt intentionally made this way.

Usually im against ‘intentionally bad’ movies. But thats generally because the attitude those films try to take is ‘it doesnt matter if its crap, people are paying us to be crap!’ which, im a firm subscriber of ‘Crap in, crap out’ and have yet to see someone make a film without caring what the end product looks like that appealed.

This film by contrast feels like organized chaos, there may have been some skill issues here and there, but I get the impression that a lot of this is much more curated than the average Asylum or Sterling offering.

Direction is chaotic, but distinct. It feels like friends messing about in the woods, because, thats basically what it is really. But as someone who messed around with a camera and friends in the woods multiple times in my teens and 20s, I felt an absolute sense of nostalgia for those days with this film. Dave Wascavage was writer AND director on this, which im sure helped cement the vision he wanted to put across here. Is it a pretty film? no. But could I easily identify Daves style here from stills alone? absolutely, its DIY design is clear and considered for the most part. It wont win any awards, but I really enjoyed seeing someone tackle the ‘rough and ready’ style in a way that was just shoving a camera on a tripod at midwide and letting the actors figure out the space.

Cast directions maybe a little lacklustre, if im going to knock it any points, there isnt consistency on the tone or style of the casts characters. Some of them basically are reading their lines off of cheat sheets just out of shot, others give the impression they’re in some kind of loony tunes cartoon. Again, im not 100% sure this wasnt by design, but it creates an unusually textured film that always sprung surprises on me and definitely left an impression.

The cine, as mentioned has a rough and ready quality to it that I really quite enjoyed, composition is a mess, the rules of filming are left at the door and we basically just get visually assaulted for 97 minutes. this film is the cinematic equivilent of ‘Nachos Grande’ messy, inconsistent, quick, cheap…but a DAMN delicious time non the less…Only enhanced by some BIZARRE editing which is a lesson in mistiming edits as an art. Shots linger for JUST too long or just too short, CONSTANTLY. Which was another thing that makes me believe it was by design. because the comedic timing of the cuts is too exemplary to have consistently been by accident.

Rounding it off we have a score that, surprisingly fits the tone perfectly, its horror synth strikes and action music. Perfect. its timed in consistently well, and used effectively. tying the entire film together into a oozing parcel of joy.

Somewhere between the live action footage from ‘Aqua Teen Hunger Force’, ‘Tim and Eric’ and ‘Garth Marenghis Darkplace’ lies ‘Suburban Sasquatch’ a salute to incompitence and an enjoyable one at that. One that I can absolutely understand why it has its cult audience and why professional riffers ‘Rifftrax’ picked it up not too long ago.

I had a really fun time with this one, i’d almost certainly recommend it, the ending may be a little underwhelming, but the journey is more than worth your time.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/suburban-sasquatch/