TYTD Reviews

Watched on Sunday April 30, 2023.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/halloween-4-the-return-of-michael-myers/1/

Living in the UK, I dont feel like ‘The Wizard’ had quite the same impact over here as it did in the US. Speaking to my US pals, this is a VERY nostalgic experience for them. Almost all of them have memories of seeing this in the cinema, or at the very least, picking up the VHS. The gamers in amongst them talk about the sequences involving the (then unreleased) latest Nintendo game “Super Mario Bros 3” as something of a ‘core memory’ from the time.

So having gone into this film completely blind barring a group of Americans telling me that it was SO weird, but a key part of their childhood, I really didnt have much in the way of expectations for this thing. But i’ve got to be honest, I had quite a bit of fun with this thing.

Its a pretty standard roadtrip movie as brothers Cory and Jimmy flee their respective parents with the aim of going to California. Along the way they meet up with a young girl by the name of Haley who, ONE; finds out that Jimmy is INSANELY good at video games, and TWO; tells the pair that theres an upcoming competition called ‘Video Armageddon’ with a $50k cash prize and the prestige of being the ultimate gamer.

The boys are intreagued, and thus a journey of life, love and self discovery begins! with Cory and Jimmys dad and a hired private investigator hot on the gangs trail with orders to bring them home. Will they manage to make it to the competion or wind up getting a game over!?

The scripts a little slow to get started but around 3/4 of the way into its opening act it finds its feet and from their we get a fairly lightweight zippy script that isnt particularly challenging, is DRENCHED in early 90s stylisation and is *largely* tonally pleasent.

It does have its faults, that opening act is a little sluggish, they keep details about what exactly is going on with Jimmy deliberately vague, but that does hinder the plotting a bit as it makes him a harder character to connect with. and while the tone is largely alright, theres a LOT of weird and uncomfortable moments in this thing. Mild spoilers but a sequence in which two truckers try to hunt the kids down and steal there money, followed a little later in the movie with a scene where Haley accuses one of the investigators whos trying to grab Jimmy of touching her breasts (when he hadnt) made me do a double take frankly that the film would even go there.

It’s also strange in the fact that, bring blunt. This is a near hour and three quarter advert for Nintendo, and yet; Nintendo arnt really the key focus of the film until the 3rd act. Yes; Nintendo consoles pop up infreuently throughout, the ‘Powerglove’ gets an airing and Super Mario Bros 2 is briefly glimpsed. But the main focus of the film is always on the kids adventure over the games and consoles themselves which almost take a back seat for most of the runtime. Even when they do pop up, it’s mainly for 3rd party titles like ‘Double Dragon’, ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ and ‘Castlevania’ Honestly; this is more an advert for Konami than Nintendo.

Beyond that though, this is a somewhat wobbly, but charming movie that has memorable and quotable dialogue, well paced scenes and is absolutely every inch as cheesy and ‘of it’s time’ as it’s possible to be. I couldnt IMAGINE a kid born after 1998 watching this thing with anything other than utter bafflement and boredom. but for kids born between 1978 and 1998. I imagine it’ll give you a MORE than hearty nostalgia blast.

The direction and cine are more than of standard, it’s a studio picture and it feels every inch of it (On top of this being an advert for Nintendo and Konami, Universal Studios get MORE than a decent stint in this film to sell you a vacation) Everythings about as polished as it can be for a mid budget kids film, visually its drenched in kids culture 1988-1994 and the cine is rich. With largely solid compositional choices, decent use of B-roll and depth of field and lively camera that isnt afraid to get up to some panning or tracking action.

As for the performances, theres a wonderful energy between Fred Savage, Luke Edwards and Jenny Lewis. I try to avoid talking about child actors performances when writing these kinds of reviews. But I will say as a triptic? They brought a lot of energy to the picture, seemed to be having fun, and given a lot of the movie lives or dies by how they handled their scenes together they more than carry this thing.

Jackey Vinson as Lucas is a solid ‘baddie’. As is Will Seltzer as the private investigator Putnam. If anything the baddies in this film almost feel a bit out of place compared to usual kids film baddies. they go a little bit extra comparatively and I feel it only adds another strange layer to this wonderfully weird experiment of a movie.

All in all? I cant kid myself that this thing is anything other than an extended attempt at selling kids on an NES, the Powerglove and the near 100 games (at the time) that were available. It fails at the first rule of advertising however, which is that the focus should always be a call to action for your ONE product. it should be ‘BUY THIS!’ not ‘Buy this! and this! and this!’ As such, the advertising has a weird relationship with this film in the sense that, the film wouldnt make sense without it, but because SO MANY corporations want a piece of the pie, the message the film ultimately wants to send gets lost in the mix.

That being said, despite the clear intention of the picture. I had fun with it. It reminded me heavily of movies like ‘Mac and Me’ in terms of tone and vibe, in fact the pair would probably make for a hell of a double bill.

Is this thing gonna hold the attention of the average 21st century kid these days? ABSOLUTELY NOT. this thing might as well be dubbed into a foreign language with no subtitles for all the relevence its going to have to todays children. But if your a glassy eye’d nostalgic X0-something and looking for an hour and 40 gateway back to a time when cerealboxes had toys in them, restaurants had ‘smoking sections’ and making your food or drink ‘green slime’ coloured/flavoured was about as appitising as it got. I can almost guarentee you’ll have a fond time with this thing.

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

Y’know, it’s times like this that I kind of wish we could ressurect Mary Whitehouse and take her to the movies.

Evil Dead Rise sees the return of the much beloved franchise 10 years after it’s last cinematic outing (itself a quasi reboot/remake of the original 1981 classic) and I would argue its something of a triumphant return after Warner bros damn near dumped the thing on HBO max.

The plot revolves around a family in a small collapsing apartment complex. The complex is set to be torn down in a months time, so single mum Ellie and her 3 kids are getting things ready for a move. That is until her estranged sister who’s work requires her to travel arrives at the complex with quite important news. Before too many words can be exchanged however an earthquake hits the apartment complex revealing a (previously undiscovered) bank vault, inside which sits several mysterious records and a book with teeth.

If you’ve seen an Evil Dead movie before, you know it doesnt take long for limbs to start flying, squishy bits to start being gauged and all manner of grim and unhiged oomska. With the big question hanging over the movie being: Will whats left of the family survive a night against the deadites?

Right off the bat I feel the need to clarify, if you havent seen this movie, it’s much more in line tonally with the original ‘Evil Dead’ and the 2013 remake than it is ‘Evil Dead 2’, ‘Army of Darkness’ and ‘Ash Vs The Evil Dead’ This is a movie that, while it doesnt take itself BITTERLY seriously, is not the goof around that the other ‘Evil Dead’ films can be at times.

I was quite thankful ultimately that someone told me the vibe was more in line with ‘Evil Dead’ (2013) than ‘Evil Dead 2’ because had I gone in prepared for the latter, i’d have been dissapointed. What we have here is a *slightly* uneven but ultimately VERY gory thrill ride of a movie that absolutely has its moments, but didnt quite hit the mark for me.

The script is a bit on the lumpy side, with a 1st act thats a little bit too slow for my taste in terms of setting up the characters, establishing the setting, introducing the necronimicon and the whole ‘deadite’ thing. Which then gives way to a near breakneck 2nd and 3rd act that if anything goes too far the other way, characters arnt even allowed to breath letalone develop and in the 2nd act particularly we do end up in a bit of a cycle of deadite attacks and rests.

Equally, while the more serious nature of this film is more than welcome and I do think it does a tremendous job in setting and maintaining an atmosphere of unease, I personally did kind of wish the film would have gotten at least a *little* bit more playful with its characters. For the most part everyone involved is playing it largely straight The Deadites here have some fantastic lines at times, but apart from one or two moments where they mess with the humans, they dont really do much. It would have been nice to see them play around with possessing inanimate objects, gaslighting the humans and…well…causing chaos. There are chaotic moments. But they’re just that…moments. I never really felt the film lost control, nothing surprised me and a lot of the more ‘horror’ oriented moments relied on jumpscares…Which is just cheap and really didnt do it for me.

The gore kind of fell a bit flat for me too, especially based on whats come before it. With most of the more violent sequences either being stuff we’ve seen before in previous entries or Over CGI’d gumpf that felt forced and looked poor. There were a couple of practical effects moments that did have me squirming, but they were very few and far between and the rest? well it just didnt quite have the mania of violence and carnage that previous Evil Dead movies had.

Thats absolutley not to say though that this wasnt a fun watch! quite the contrary! If you can push past the first act you’ll find a rip roarer for the most part thats entertaining, adds to the existing mythos of the franchise and most importantly, manages to survive without Sam Raimi or Bruce Campbell gripping tightly to the reigns. THAT, in and of itself HAS to be applauded. I wont get into spoilers here, but what I will say is, there were a few continuity issues that cropped up in the 3rd act that undercut the ending a bit for me. But if this thing gets a sequel (and I sincerely hope it does) it more than gives some scope for this thing to really break out and flourish.

The Directions more than decent, it’s nice to see fresh faces tackle the franchise and I feel here, Lee Cronin has done a fabulous job in taking what Raimi laid as a foundation and added to it. it carries its own distinct style, puts the occasional nod to Raimis work in there but it isnt restrained by it. it’s more than happy to go off and do its own thing. While that does garner mixed results (there were parts of this film where it started to feel a little like a generic mainstream zombie movie and less like an Evil Dead film) those moments were mercifully brief and when this thing punches, it punches HARD. A really solid attempt at re-establishing the franchise and a more than solid foundation for a sequel to build on. I thought it was great.

The cine too is punchy, creative and vile in all the best ways. While I dont quite think this entry hit the stylistic highs of ‘Evil Dead’ (2013) it certainly holds its own, and barring a few scenes in one of the hallways that were a little over-dark making it difficult to make out what was actually happening. We had rock solid compostion, decent use of colour and lighting to create a vibrantly moody atmosphere that didnt so much steal from the other films, more recycle and upcycle what was there into a more contemporary vision.

The cast were astounding Alyssa Sutherland is probably one of the greatest deadite performances the franchise has seen. Dancing the line between aggressive, quietly terrifying and unhinged. She works a tremendous range, gives her all to the performance and is EASILY worth the price of admission alone. Its a shame most film awards overlook horror as a category, because she really was a force in this thing.

Gabrielle Echols is also fantastic as Bridget (Ellies Daughter), its almost criminal just how underused she is really in this film because, while in the first act her performance is a little on the dry side, by the time the 2nd act revs up she really hits her stride, totally gets into the swing of things and then the film shifts focus away from her. I’d have genuinely loved to have seen more of her in this movie honestly.

Equally; It would be amiss of me not to mention Lily Sullivan, who does a more than serviceable job as ‘Beth’ she doesnt *quite* get the range that Alyssa does in this, and as a lead, shes maybe a tad on the dry side. but she brings her own voice to the production. I didnt dislike her and when the 3rd act opens up she really embraces the role and clearly is having fun with it.

What I will say is, a lot of these performances do teeter just a bit into a generic TV acting style, the kind of performances you’d see in a TV movie (which…again, is probably understandable given WB were going to put this on HBOs streaming) While it didnt exactly ruin the experience for me, there were a few moments in this where things felt a little too safe, and I never really felt like any of the characters (based on their performances) were ever in any *real* sense of danger. in a film where the cast should (rightfully) be panicking when their mum is turned into a deadite, instead for a lot of the scenes, the cast just came across as quiet. not concerned. and thats a bit of a problem.

And the soundtrack? it’s oppressive. Im not sure if it’s the theatre I saw this at or if this is how the films actually mixed. but it’s INSANELY loud. like…kudos to them for mixing the vocals high enough that I could actually hear what the cast were saying (a major problem with a lot of modern films) but there were points here where it very much felt like the ‘score’ was just a sound technician cramming as much noise as he could onto the timeline and peaking the crap out of it. I have ADHD and there were several points where the films score got so loud that I ended up dissassociating and I could only hear static. it was crazy. AND it didnt work if the idea was to make me feel scared or uneasy, because I was so preoccupied thinking ‘This is BLOODY loud!’ that I couldnt focus on the spooky stuff on screen.

All in all? ‘Evil Dead Rise’ is a more than fine entry into the franchise. I enjoyed it, I could easily see this being a film that improves with rewatches, I could absolutely recommend it, is it the best Evil Dead movie? No. Absolutely not. it’s probably not even in the top 3. But it’s still an entertaining piece to experience, and I really hope (based on its current success in the box office) that they do decide to build on this, because theres a LOT of potential bubbling under the surface of this thing.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/evil-dead-rise/

I didnt quite know what I was getting into when I checked out Stuart Gordons take on ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’ I figured maybe a slightly more graphic take on the Roger Corman effort from the 60’s. This was not the case.

Instead Gordon HAS gone the route of Corman, in essence taking the original Poe story and wrapping it around a completley fresh take, largely focussed on the inquisition and it’s cruelty towards anyone they deemed to be ‘of sin’ and in particular of a young woman who begs mercy on behalf of a woman during a witch trial, only to find herself charged with witchcraft too.

It’s not bad all things being said, It could best be summed up as ‘What if someone made an exploitation adaptation of a Poe film?’ with gratuitous gore, people being set on fire, full frontal nudity and at least a couple of scenes of dry humping. it cant be said that this film isnt at least TRYING to be entertaining.

The scripts fine enough, the dialogues a little odd as they blend ‘ye olde’ type dialogue with zingers and more modernist language, which did kind of pull me out of the film a bit (I wish it had picked a lane) The bulk of the film is largely centered around the relationship between the bakers wife and the head of the inquisition who’s openly corrupt. Theres absolutely a sense of drama here and the tone and pace, especially for a ‘Full Moon’ production I thought was actually really quite solid.

Theres a clean 3 act structure that transitions nicely between the acts with a real smoothness, characters that are noteworthy all seem to get a decent bit of establishing and development (though, a couple of characters who arnt in the film very long, but DO steer a lot of the plot did come out a little underdeveloped I fear).

The only thing script wise I didnt much care for honestly was just the fact that it in places can be rather unpleasent. I know the whole point of the movie is that these are unpleasent people, doing unpleasent things at an unpleasent time. But that kind of thing usually works best with a bit of nuance, some light to contrast the dark. Here, it’s all dark, and as such I found it quite an oppressive watch. I cant deny it isnt entertaining and reletively well made. But BECAUSE its so oppressive it kind of stopped me out and out loving it. I think there needed to be a bit more there than ‘We establish half a dozen characters in act one and then slowly torture them to varying states of death for acts 2 and 3’

The directions rock solid, I wouldnt have doubted Gordon for a minute and here he delivers a piece that really feels professional, cinematic and heavily styalised. Theres a couple of nice homages to the Corman version of ‘Pit’ dribbed and drabbed throughout which I thought was a nice touch. But Gordon here has largely managed to bring a distinct and clear take on the story to the surface and i’d arguably rank it amongst some of his best quite honestly.

The cine too is relatively sharp, its a well paced edit with plenty of experimentation and B-roll to work with, shots are well composed. the colour pallet is a little bit too muted for my taste, but the style they’ve gone for is a muted piece punctuated with sharp contrasting colours to help offset it. It works in places, but i’d have personally been happier to see more colour in the offing honeslty. This is a bit above standard professional film work, and I was generally impressed for most of the runtime.

As for the performances? it’s a mixed bag. The bulk of the cast are good to wobbly honestly, delivering performances that seem uncertain. Some go with melodrama and that I feel is where the film shines best, others seem to think this is some kind of serious adaptation and they’re the ones who I feel suffer the most. That being said all the cast are at least animate and work with their set spaces to some degree and it’s clear Stuart Gordon worked closely with them to get the best out of them that he could.

The absolute showstealers here though have to be Lance Hendrickson and Rona De Ricci as the bakers wife and the leader of the inquisition. they BOTH seem to PERFECTLY get the tone this thing is searching for. Which is very fortunate as they’re the people we spend most of the time with on screen. they’re both super memorable, give melodramatic and over the top performances that are entertaining and genuinely fascinating to see. I loved them both in this, and they were easily the biggest reason to check this thing out.

Oh…and the soundtracks fine. nothing mind blowing, but it does the job. I know some people absolutley love this things score, im just happy to settle for “At least it doesnt sound like every other Full Moon film”. It punctuates the film at just the right moments and helps add emphasis. It’s not lifechanging. but it gets things done.

All in all, I thought this was okay, definitely recommended if your getting into ‘Full Moon’ and want to see some of their best offerings. While I personally probably wont catch it all too often due to just HOW opressive the film is in terms of themes and scripting. I thought it was a perfectly competent entertaining little watch.

Though it did get me thinking about similar match ups of exploitation film makers and classic literature. Im sure we’d all be down for Russ Meyer’s “Sense and Sensibilities”, Tinto Brass’s “Great Expectations” or David F. Friedmans “Jane Eyre”…hmm…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-pit-and-the-pendulum/

While not *technically* a ‘Full Moon’ production (This is an Empire pictures offering and Full Moon wouldnt be established till 5 years after this film came out) ‘Trancers’ is about as ‘Full Moon’ as its possible to get really, and given that this film has now been ‘rebadged’ to carry the ‘Full Moon’ logo at the beginning of the film AND that all the sequels to this film were produced and released by ‘Full Moon’…AND that this was directed by Charles Band AND it contains a lot of cast and crew who would go on to work more or less full time for ‘Full Moon’, Im just gonna go ahead and give this thing a free pass into my current and ongoing ‘Full Moon’ marathon.

The plots actually kind of original all things considered for the time. The films set in the 23rd century and follows rogue cop ‘Jack Deth’ who’s obsessed with taking down the remnents of the ‘Trancers’ almost zombie like remnents of people who are being controlled like human puppets by a psychically powerful criminal called ‘Whistler’, when the film opens Jacks on the trail of the last of the Trancers, but it quickly becomes apparent that Whistler is FAR from deceased. and has instead escaped back in time to 1985 where he’s inhabited the body of one of his decendents with the intent to kill the descendents of the legal teams who put him away, thus not only erasing them from the timeline, but all their reletives leading up to that point.

In the opening moments of the film Jack hands his badge in as the chief of police isnt too happy with Jack going off brief to try and take out the Trancers, but they manage to convince him back when Whistlers plan is revealed and it’s here the main plot of the film kicks in. Jack is to travel back to 1985 with some spy gadgets and bring Whistler back to future alive in order to stand trial. Jacks initially hesitent because he wants Whistler dead, but agrees and heads back into the body of one of his decendents, where he’s immediately met by said decendents punk girlfriend ‘Lena’

Between them Jack must find his bearings in 80s Los Angeles, locate whistler and prevent anyones bloodlines being wiped out. in a fairly firey and action packed production!

While I cant say I was absolutely smitten with this one, I did have a fun enough time with it. The plot is really quite original for the time given the likes of ‘Highlander’ were still 2 years away, I enjoyed the Neo noir aesthetic of the 23rd century and when the action shifted to the 80s that wonderful grimeyness reminded me a little bit of a lower budgeted ‘cheap and cheerful’ version of ‘Big Trouble in Little China Town’

The pacing is a little stop/start for my taste, it would have been nice to have things gradually ramp up and down depending on act needs. But i’ve seen films handle this kind of thing way worse, tonally it’s solid, it knows the kind of world it wants to build and how it wants the characters within that world to behave, theres maybe a few wobbly bits on the scientific accuracy of some of the stuff touted here, but if I came to Empire pictures for scientific accuracy, I might as well go to my plumber for tap dancing lessons.

Theres a more than clean 3 act structure that DOES transition between those acts fairly well. Its a short film, clocking in at a measly 76 minutes, which I for one am VERY grateful for. and while the pacing is bit inconsistent, I was also grateful that there wasnt too much in the way of padding. All in? this is just a fairly original, decently written low-mid budget script that gets in, does what it needs to do, and gets out. If I was being nitpicky i’d have maybe finessed a little more off the running time, another 5 minutes could have been lost with no major issues and it probably would have worked as a tighter piece all round, but hey. These guys were making all sorts of rubbish around this time. This is decent.

Directions rock solid too, again its inescapable that budget was clearly an issue as some of the set designs do look a little rough around the edges (putting drainpipes down the sides of an early 80s hatchback does not a future car make) But Band works with what he has as best he can and I was genuinely kind of impressed with what he and the team managed to pull off. especially in the 80s parts of the movie where they really help drive that griminess home in places.

Its also clear the cast were worked with closely (presumably because they couldnt afford for too many mistakes/redos) as they all give fairly professional clear and clean performances they work with the set space and are animate and precise with what they’re doing within the scene. Which I think saves this film in more than a few places, as it would have been so easy for this thing to devolve into head and shoulder shots of people firing exposition at each other for over an hour.

The cines solid too we have sequences where the camera isnt afraid to move around the set/location with a decent mix of shot types ,pans and tracking shots, it adds a real veneer of professionalism that does help smooth out the rougher aspects of the set design. Theres a nice use of colour with plenty of neon getting a showing and the sequences themselves are tightly packaged, with good amounts of B-roll.

I absolutely think this thing could have gone further with experimentation. But for whats there? we have a rock blood SOLID piece that does go above the average on delivery and even though it could have gone further, its trying, and I have a lot of appreciation for that.

Performances are all solid as well though for my money Tim Thomerson is easily the show stealer as Jack. he really works with those noir elements to help bring out a character thats 1 part ‘Maltese Falcon’ to 1 part ‘Blade Runner’. He works a more than decent range across the runtime of this thing, hes animate, lively and bang on on the delivery front throughout and I thought he was easily worth checking this thing out for alone.

All in all? This was a DAMN fine work, probably Charles Bands best work as a director (in my opinion, nothings topped this as of the time of writing at least!) While imperfect, if your looking for a decent original piece of Sci-fi that, may not necessarily WOW, but is satisfying, confident in its own ability, entertaining and able to hold your attention for the full runtime. Then ‘Trancers’ is almost certainly worth checking out.

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

If your hankering for a big daft horror movie with very mild sci-fi elements. Well; in 1971, Al Adamson delivered in spades when he released ‘Brain of Blood’ to an unsuspecting public. a film that…well, it’s not great, but it’s at least vaguely trying something.

The plots a bit odd for this one I think it’s fair to say, it largely revolves around a doctor and his assistants who are working on an experimental procedure to transfer the brains of dying patients into healthy, but deceased bodies, with the aim of extending their lives. Natrually, the film focusses on the leader of a rich and powerful country who managed to pull his land up from the fringes of poverty into a powerhouse of economic growth. He also has terminal cancer and has arranged to be the doctors first *proper* experiment in doing a bit of the old ‘body swapping’

Things dont quite go to plan, stuff gets a bit crazy. it’s a bit of a monster movie, but not really and honestly? I kind of felt a bit ‘meh’ about this one in terms of Adamsons works that i’ve seen.

The plot isnt particularly well defined and it is, in effect just a bit of a runaround. It takes the first act and a bit of the Universal ‘Frankenstein’ adaptation, and bolts on literally half an hour of running around in the woods and a dungeon sequence, then calls it a day. As such its unevenly paced, doenst really set anything in the way of a distinct tone, has middling dialogue and largely coasts on gore, weirdness and the absurd to get it by.

Its easily 20 minutes longer than it needed to be, whether thats due to budget limitations meaning they didnt have scope to do anything other than running around in the woods and maybe a car chase, I cant honeslty say. But the end result is a cheap feeling film that just never really seems to hit it’s stride. it just idles for 86 minutes and then closes. In fact, if it wasnt for the weirdness, it’d just have been a very dry affair truthfully.

The directions a bit lifeless as well, Adamson usually has a quite distinct way of shooting movies like this, but it really feels like a film in autopilot for most of the runtime. it’s working to get the job done, but non of the elements on screen work particularly well together and even the cast seem a bit aimless in knowing exactly what to exepect.

The same can be said for the cine which is also fairly flat, they have some colour usage here to help at least make the beige hell seem a bit more vibrant but all the lighting is floodlit or flat profile, shots have almost no depth of field or experimentation to them and barring literally a handful of scenes that do feel a little bit more considered. This whole thing basically feels ultra slow, plodding and pretty muted on any kind of distinction.

Non of the performances are particularly memorable and the scores pretty much non existent. I just…I didnt really get on with this thing. Like, I didnt actively hate it, if it was on in the background I wouldnt take umbridge with it. But Its just very generic and not really worth going out of your way for. Not one I can recommend, if you want a film with a similar vibe that, in my opinion is better made. I’d say check out ‘Freakmaker’

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/brain-of-blood/