TYTD Reviews

I have no idea realistically what I just sat through…90 minutes of a time sink hole is about as good as I’ve got when it comes to describing ‘Munchies’ a ‘family’ movie that broadly falls into the ‘Hard PG’ catagory of 80’s film making.

In essence, it feels like the film makers saw the success of ‘Gremlins’ and ‘Ghoulies’ and went ‘We’ll have some of that!…But we dont wanna really do too much!’ Because thats all this is. The opening act introduces us to a father and son who are exploring some old Incan ruins when they stumble across (what is presumably) the last of an alien civilisation. The father, delighted by this, shoves the little alien in a canvas bag and takes it back to the US to be investigated more, as he believes its proof that Machu Picchu was the central hub of operations for a radio beacon for Alien life.

The creatures gain the nickname ‘Munchies’ from the fact they love eating junk food, and later find a taste for beer and cigarettes. Theres some shenanigans around the house, and then its revealed that the ‘Munchies’ can multiply.

At the same time, a neighbour from across the street spots one of the lil guys, catches it and takes it back to his house for his son to keep an eye on…only, it escapes, meets up with the other alien and…basically from that point onwards the rest of the film is just a road trip/chase sequence for 80 something minutes.

Occasionally broken up with awful comedy set pieces, bad puns or poor physical comedy.

Its so hard not to look at this thing and just…IMMEDIATELY see how hollow it is as a venture…how easy it is to spot out as a cash in attempt on that particular subgenre of the times. the script basically has about 15 minutes of actual plot, which it spreads SO thinly…its unreal.

I dont even really know who this film would be for these days. its targeted as a family film, but it has sex, smoking and booze in it alongside a few curse words, adults wont watch it because its tryinfg too hard to be a kids film. I only watched it because Im ill and couldnt handle anything more complex than a base level childrens comedy movie…and even I wasnt happy with how this turned out.

The direction is basic, functional and nothing else, the cine is drab and fairly lifeless…the set design is about as good as it gets, with crazy colourful ‘peewee’s playhouse’ inspired costumes and set designs…the performances are all over the top manic and aggressively unpleasent to sit through.

Everyones trying to play it cool, but in a really goofy way that gets offputting VERY quickly. its all WAY too much honestly. The design for the ‘Munchies’ is ugly, unpleasent and they look bizarrely stiff in a way that really struggles to bring ANY kind of life into them.

And thats not to mention the soundtrack which is GRATINGLY comedic. its really trying all it can to scream ‘THIS IS A FAMILY COMEDY!’ while forgetting that being a family comedy means more than just slapstick and pulling funny faces…there has to be a REASON this is all happening…

I didnt care for this one. The nicest thing I can say about it, is that it’d probably be right at home as the B-feature to ‘Hobgoblins’…and THAT is not a compliment.

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

I’ve been ill for the past few days, and todays my first day off work, so what better way to cope with drowning in your own bodily fluids than with a rowsing rewatch of ‘Flesh For Frankenstein’ (Also known as; ‘Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein’.

And what a deligtfully campy, over the top and strange viewing experience this is, perfect for someone in a flu-ish state to just be consumed by.

The plot is a bit of a twist on the Mary Shelly Classic, its as much a family drama as it is a horror film, In this iteration Baron Frankenstein is already well underway in his experiments to create life, but this time, his plans are all the more grand. Rather than just trying to bring to life his own man made being, instead, in this iteration, he intends to create a man AND a woman at the same time, and corral them into procreating, birthing a race of supermen who’ll take over the world and repopulate it with genetically enhanced undead models.

As the film opens his female subject is nearing completion and his male iteration is just missing a head. A problem thats fixed shortly therafter when a couple of working class travellers stop by the castle looking for work. One of them ends up joining the castles staff…the other ends up in a rather incapacitated condition.

The subplot while all of these shenanigans are going on is more family drama oriented. as Frankensteins wife (who is also his sister…) is deeply unhappy with her current life arrangement of essentially being left almost entirely alone in the castle all day, and having to deal with her offspring inbetween periods of solitude…So she begins an affair with the new member of staff.

And this creates a strange but deligtful textured work, as we flip flop between the baron conducting BIZARRE gory and graphic experiments (filled with lashings of blood, nudity and gall bladder fucking) and the Other plot line thats actually a pretty standard pressure cooker family piece about peoples needs and desires…of course, the two films themes overlap eventually leading to a particularly grand and campy finale. This really is pretty much a good time for all!

And I mean that! the script is light, zippy and really doesnt overstay its 90(ish) minute welcome. its got rock solid pacing, it dances the line between campy comedy and genuinely bizarre horror really well. It sticks the landing. The characters are all fairly well rounded, have depth and subtleties that are ABSOLUTELY blown out of proportions by the deliveries. I can honestly say you wont see another film quite like this one…Well…not till ‘Blood for Dracula’ at least…

The direction is rich, creative and gorgeous with some delightfully demented sequences realised quite wonderfully. The cast have seemingly all been very clearly briefed on what tone to work with and had the parameters of the films needs explained to them. Which is excellent as they seem to have been given fairly free control to work within those frameworks and deliver on it ten fold.

The cine is a delight as well, Vinegar Syndromes (semi) recent 4k release of this film scrapes off 50 years of mould revealing rich texture and colour to the picture image and JUST the right amount of film grain to allow the film to breath with its own personality, without feeling *too* seedy. Shots are excellently composed and the sequences all flow very naturalistically.

I think I spotted maybe a couple of slight issues on the editing front (shots cutting too early basically) But…when the rest of the film is like THIS!? Im willing to kind of overlook that a little bit.

The main selling point for this is the performances, with Udo Kier REVELLING in the role of the incestuous melodramatic Baron Frankenstein. Its an awful position to be in as a fan of cult cinema, because whenever he performs he brings SUCH a hammy bombasticism to proceedings. I keep being reminded of the fact that this is what Tommy Weisau would be like if he was good.

Udo is sublime here, EASILY the most watchable member of the cast and almost worth the price of admission alone, not to be outdone however, the other cast members too really bring a good balance of camp and melodrama to proceedings. leaving a film thats eccentric with out being aggressively in your face about it.

And the scoring! my god! its gorgeous! a wonderful arrangement, it suits the films tone perfectly and is used to great effect. I loved it.

‘Flesh for Frankenstein’ is a genuine delight to watch, but one that I feel you may have to be in a specific mindset to really truely appreciate. Next time I catch this (when im not dying on my arse) I’ll be sure to try the 3D version…as I can only BEGIN to imagine how THAT shapes up.

Definitely recommended. This was one of my favourite ‘First time watches’ of 2022…and I still think its amazing. Dont sleep on this one.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/flesh-for-frankenstein/1/

Watched on Friday January 26, 2024.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/barbie/2/

The final episode of the final season of ‘The Comic Strip’ to be shown on Channel 4 is messy to say the least. Chiefly because it seems to be brimming with utter contempt, so much so that it doesn’t know exactly who to turn it on.

It’s essentially a 50 minute multi thread story following a group of holiday makers on a club 18-30 called ‘The funseekers’ and predominantly its a lambasting of the way British people behave abroad, particularly on these cheap package holidays to Spain and the canary Isles.

The British are notorious for binge drinking, disorderly conduct and being yobbish when abroad, and this film shows that side of things in absolute unflinching detail…only it also seems to continue the trend of punching down on the working class, foreigners…basically anyone who’s put in front of the lens is shown to be pathetic and awful.

But the issue is, it isn’t PORTRAYING the lifestyle as awful. It shows the ups and downs, but it makes it out to be some kind of great big fun game that people can relate to fondly.

EVERYONE in this thing is awful, there’s not ONE salvageable character here. And the ending. To modern or progressive eyes is frankly just depressing.

A real downer to end ‘the channel 4 years’ on…if you ever wondered why Europe treat the UK with contempt. This film will show you why…

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

An Alexi Sayle penned and led story of two brothers sperated by greed and socialism. Previously both criminals (the story seems to be a ribbing on the Kray twins) it follows one half of the duo as they take on a VERY restrictive educational role in a local school, where he introduces socialist ideas to a despondent classroom.

I actually quite liked this one, I thought it balanced reasonable drama, with some thought provoking sequences and wasn’t afraid to be a bit silly as well.

Tonally solid and decently paced. Sayles duel performance as both of the brothers is excellent and the story has a rather satisfying (if not open) ending that I really quite enjoyed.

Not the absolute best of ‘The Comic Strip’ but one I could easily see myself revisiting.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/didnt-you-kill-my-brother/

Hey, did you know the remake of ‘The Fly’ came out in 1986? Well, if you didn’t, ‘The Comic Strip’ sure as hell is going to remind you of it…TWO YEARS after the fact.

Landing with a wet limp squelch onto television screens in 1988, ‘The Yob’ has one joke and that is to parody ‘The Fly’ but instead of a scientist and a Fly getting mixed up, it’s a yuppie and a yob.

That’s it. That’s the whole hour long episode. And it’s unappealing in almost every sense of the word. Nauseating direction, irritating scoring, bad performances. Jokes that fail consistently and border on the homophobic and full on tip into the sexist and classist.

Someone turns up dressed as a nazi in black face at one point…its boring. A waste of an hour and arguably the worst of the comic strip…if it wasn’t for a literal handful of interesting cine choices. This would be down at a half star.

I’m not a fan of Keith Allen, and I’m not a fan of punching down. This does both.

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

I picked up ‘Video Diary of a Lost Girl’ as a near enough blind buy, quite literally I saw the poster art, watched the trailer that AGFA had cut for this and figured that it must have been an art house Lomography piece combining the 80s ‘Dr. Caligari’ with the work of ‘Tom Rubnitz’ This proved not to be the case, but was a quite interesting journey non the less.

The plot follows Louise, a (possible) offspring of Lilith (Adams first wife) after banishment, god cursed Liliths children to bleed uncontrolably to death. Only, they found a way to circumvent that, if they ‘feed’ (see here: Have sex) with a spawn of adam once every 28 days, they’ll stave off the curse and live for another month, if they fail, then their period will start and they’ll bleed to death.

Louise has been getting by for the last few hundred years by basically going out to get raped, thinking if she kills a rapist by their own actions. its justified. She’s friendless, hates her sisters (who are all quite uppity and see themselves as ‘above’ humans, even though they need them to live) and she’s fairly miserable working in some kind of german expressionist nightmare video store called ‘Sinima video’.

That is until Charlie walks through the door, an awkward and egotistical ass of a man, who Louise almost immediately recognises, as back in the 1920’s he was the first man she fell in love with and accidentally killed. but now! he’s been reincarnated, and the pair slowly begin to fall for each other yet again. But this time Louise is determined to prevent his death…by ANY means necessary.

And…I enjoyed what was here. But its a VERY messy film. While I get that the script is trying for a bit of a woozy vibe, and theres themes and messaging around finding your place in the world, healing from trauma, how love is imperfect and true love can heal. Its a bit all over the place in terms of its execution and how it wants to present those themes.

The pacings quite jumpy, going from slow rolling tension to border jump cutting at times to crash through the ‘lore’ of this universe as quickly as possible.

The dialogue isnt particularly naturalistic and is at times a bit cringey. But it does have heart behind it which is to be admired. I’d rather a film have some life behind the eyes than just be another roll into the melancholic.

It cant seem to settle on a tone either. For the most part, it’s bleak. But then a lot of the scenes in the video store have a kind of acidic snarky 90s sarcasm to them, Charlie as a character is very dry and sarcastic too. But it all feels out of place agains the ‘End of Evangelion’ style visuals and morose acting of the rest of the cast.

Part of its framed like a kitchen sink drama, part of it is framed as farse…and im not sure which one I should be holding onto as the dominant form here. It means I dont know whether I should be embracing its themes and shades of style, or viewing this with a bit of distance as some kind of ‘multi layered’ parody of sorts…

Theres a bit of a disconnect on the visuals as well which caused some confusion. Realistically, this story could have been told in the real world…it didnt necessarily *need* the ‘Dr. Caligari by way of Eurotrash’ Aesthetic to sell me on it. To be completely honest, this whole thing could have been grounded in reality, with the more ‘supernatural’ moments utilising the Analogue ‘video art aesthetic’ and it would have worked just as well in my opinion.

Instead, im left in a situation where I found the visuals *largely* appealing. there was some wonderful experimentation on show, some genuinely inspired work that really got me thinking. But then in the same breath. the flip flopping between clean digital footage and analogue video was distracting to me. the aesthetics (outside of the dream sequences or kill scenes which I thought was well utilized) didnt really add anything to the actual plot…Which is a shame as had the visuals had a PURPOSE in relation to the story, I think i’d have gotten on better with it. And the overreliance on clips from public domain movies and references to many MANY other (better in my opinion) movies, was also distracting and, I feel didnt add anything of value to the production.

The cast were a little stiff and awkward, they didnt really seem to know how to hold themselves, or play in front of the camera, there seemed to be an overeliance on nudity (I appreciate its code for vulnerability and ‘release’…I just feel it’s quite heavy handed) and I wasnt ultimately won over by the portrayals. they lacked depth, complexity or any charictaristics that would really invest me in these characters world.

The score is good! but repetative. Honestly; at this point im still not sure if they just kept looping tracks or if they were variations on a theme. But it all started to sound a bit samey by about half way in which did bring it down a bit for me. What I heard was good! but it would have been nice to have had just a little bit more…

Ultimately; while I did enjoy ‘Video Diary of a Lost Girl’ I found it to be a flawed production. Heavy handed on it’s themes, it seemed to use ‘wacky’ sets as a contrast to an otherwise dark plotline…and I dont think that was enough really. It felt like I was watching the plot of one film genre play out in the style of another. Like ‘What if Scarface was shot like a kids movie…’ or something like that…

Its a bit heavy handed, incoherent at times and a bit awkward in places…I didnt like that it traded on ‘Analogue’ but predominantly the film is ‘digital’ with heavy analogue filters applied…But contrasting that is some very nice cine and crew direction, a few nicely played out scenes and a half decent soundtrack. Its imperfect. But I could see myself watching this one again…I dont think I could recommend it though.

For a laugh; Double feature this film with ‘Penetration Angst’ as a ‘forbidden fruit’ double header. Im sure you’ll have a great night…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/video-diary-of-a-lost-girl/

Easily the best of ‘The Comic strip’ this I’d essentially a proto hybrid of ‘Filthy Rich and Catflap’, ‘Bottom’ and ‘Withnail & I’ following two drunken escorts (Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson) accidentally ending on a mission to murder Nicholas Bloody Parsons!

First off, this is shot on film. It looks GORGEOUS on the recent severin Bluray. Near faultless direction throughout. The pacing is breakneck, the humour crude and violent. The scripts FULL of PROPER gut laugh moments. Rik, Ade, Nicholas and Peter Cook are all absolutely in their elements.

If you only watch one ‘Comic Strip’ short, make it this one.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/mr-jolly-lives-next-door/

A follow up 5 years on from the original ‘Bad News’ finds the lads being reunited after an unceremonious break up to perform at a rock festival and release a new album.

I think this arguably has a bigger hit rate on jokes than the original. Getting actual rock royalty in the form of Motorhead, def leopard and Ozzy to cameo was lovely. Its more varied and the ‘aging rockers acting like teens’ trope will never not be funny to me. Loved it.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/more-bad-news/

A socialist writes a dramatic account of the miners strikes of the 70s, but when a US exploitation film studio picks it up for more money than the writers ever seen before. He’s forced into a situation where his vision of a faithful recounting of terrible events is twisted into an exploitation film with Al Pachino starring as Arthur Skagill.

Fantastic fun, especially if you know the history of the miners strike. Having lifelong communist/socialist Alexi Sayle play the writer in this adds a whole other layer to proceedings. Dancing a wonderful line of slow burn comedy and pathos. I thought this one was really well handled. The disillusionment is palpable.

I’d read up on the miners strike before going into this one, if you wernt aware of what happened previously…just to get the absolute most out of it…but yeh, this one’s a riot.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-strike-1988/