Pacific Rim: Uprising

Title: Pacific Rim Uprising

Director: Steven S. DeKnight

Released: 2018

Starring: John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Jing Tian, Cailee Spaeny, Rinko Kikuchi, Burn Gorman, Adria Arjona, Zhang Jin, Charlie Day

Plot: Ten years after the events of the first film, society has begun to rebuild itself believing that the Kaiju threat has long been defeated. Jake (Boyega) the son of the now legendary Stacker Pentecost and now a disgraced former Jaeger pilot makes a living selling Jaeger parts on the black market only for a chance encounter with Jaeger enthusiast Amara (Spaeny) to see them both being drafted into the PPDC as the threat of the Precursors and their Kaiju creations threatens the world once more.

Review: Pacific Rim Uprising was unquestionably a film I was looking forward to, even if my general lack of desire to pay for overpriced cinema tickets has meant that it's taken me until now to actually watch it. Needless to say with Del Toro not returning for this sequel there was certainly an element of doubt if it could love up to his original love letter to the Kaiju genre and for the most part I feel that Steven S. DeKnight's follow up continues to build upon the world Del Toro had established. In the years which have passed the Pan Pacific Defence Corps have once more become recognised as the key defence and as such no longer the rag tag band of pilots scrabbling for resources through black market deals for Kaiju parts.

At the same time it should be noted that this is a much more busy and louder film as DeKnight revels in the chaos and destruction compared to the Del Toro pacifist approach which focused more on the battle between giant robot and monster than potential collateral damage. Now while both movies certainly provided the same buzz and excitement from these scenes I wanted as a life long Kaiju fan there is an unquestionable feeling that the DeKnight's is lacking something.

Plotwise there is a real mish-mash of ideas at play and while seeing the PPDC turned into a heavily funded war machine is a welcome evolution for the series even if one potentially set to be made obsolete by a new drone program. At the same time Jake the son of rousing speech maker and leader Stacker take on the hero duties this time as he finds himself drawn back into the fold as the Precursors launch their latest offensive which sees the film working more of the enemy within angle which ties it nicely to the original film aswell leading to a more meaty role for one of the few characters who make their return when their betrayal is inevitably revealed. The rest of the film though is this weird mix of Kaiju fun with an undeniable and unneeded and not mention unwanted Top Gun vibe as Jake and his former co-pilot Nate (Eastwood) play out a Maverick / Ice Man dick swinging contest which would have honestly worked better if they were rival pilots ultimately forced to team up than co-pilots from the start. Throw into the mix an unresolved love triangle and it just feels like it's padding out the run time.

One of my initial concerns regarded how both Jaegers and Kaiju were shown in the trailers, which honestly left things looking like a reskinned Transformers movie, here the camera work is just as impressive as the first film even if the action is alot more hectic than the lumbering intense battles of the first film. It's just a shame that the film suffers from some truly horrible sound design which only serves to cheapen and detract from the film as radio mics crackle and weapons would sound more impressive if you just made your won Pew Pew sounds. Thankfully the action sequences are still fun to look at with plenty of Jaeger tech being showcased here and sure while no one might be using a cargo ship as a makeshift bat the new set of Jaegers all come with their own fun toys to battle not only the Kaiju monsters this time but also the new drones which perhaps might feel alittle too close to the aforementioned transformers, but thankfully it’s given enough of a spin to work.

While Del Toro's absence is certainly noticeable here, it's still a fun (if flawed) experience that I enjoyed my time with, while DeKnight's own additions to the series like the mini Jaeger "Scrapper" and the rival Shao Corporation only help to make this a fuller and more exciting world which I hope that they continue to explore with further films.

Island Claws

Title: Island Claws

Director: Hernan Cardenas

Released: 1980

Starring: Robert Lansing, Steve Hanks, Nita Talbot, Jo McDonnell, Martina Deignan, Barry Nelson, Tony Rigo, Raymond Forchion, Dick Callinan, Dolores Sandoz, Frank Schuller, Mal Jones

Plot: When a leak at a Florida power plant dumps several thousand tons of toxic waste into the ocean it causes the local crab population to suddenly start growing to monsterious size and start moving in on the local population of a nearby fishing village.

Review: The sole film from director Hernan Cardenas while also written by Ricou Browning and Jack Cowden who also created “Flipper” making their move into writing a movie about killer giant crabs a perfectly logical one. This late entry in the animals run amok genre doesn’t exactly bring anything new to the genre outside of the fact that its about giant crabs which compared to the numerous shark movies out there is certainly one of the lesser seen creatures of terror. I mean even ants to my knowledge have clocked up more movies than our crustacean pals have but stumbling across this on Amazon Prime who recently have become almost shameless with the kind of movies they choose to stock their on demand library with I thought it was an interesting enough concept to check it out.

Opening to a research lab were they are conducting experiments in increasing the size of crabs using warm water and growth hormones as a warm to help increase the world’s food supplies, especially when they discover that the local crab population near the power plant have been growing bigger which of course is nothing to do with the fact that a few tons of toxic waste have been dumped in their part of the ocean which anyone up to speed on their movie logic will know already that movie radiation equals giant monsters compared to real life were it sadly this is never the case. It’s here though that we are introduced to journalist Jan (McDonnell) who is writing a story on the lab only to soon also get involved with scientist Pete (Hanks).

Elsewhere bar owner Moody attempts to keep the small town together by acting as their unofficial head as he keeps the peace amongst the locals usually by keeping them boozed up in his bar while he also acts as Pete’s adopted father after his parents were killed in a drink driving accident caused by Jan’s father who also runs the power station responsible for all the giant crabs. There is a small part which hints at bad blood between the two fathers but is as dropped as quickly as its introduced like so many of the sub-plots in the film which includes a group of Haitian refugees who wash up on the outskirts of town and hide out in the mangroves and whose sole reason for their inclusion seems to be so that Cardenas could work in an angry mob who thanks to some old school racist tendency believe that the Hiatians are to blame for all the strange happenings in town which they equate to voodoo reminding us once more that there are few things as dangerous as a group of drunks with an idea.

The crab attack are sadly pretty sparse here and for the most part involve actors working with a swarm of real crabs which are actually used pretty effectivly especially during one of the scenes highlights when they swarm the school bus which one of the locals Amos lives in with his attempts to battle the invading crabs showing us that the banjo is as little use as a weapon as it is an actual instrument.

The climax of the film though see’s the towns folk battling an 8 foot crab which somehow has managed to remain hidden until it suddenly destroys Moody’s house. Created by Glen Robinson who’d previously worked on effects for “King Kong” (1976) and “Flash Gordon which far exceeds the expectations of the films low budget especially when he built a complete crab and not just the front portion which you’d expect. While still an impressive looking design it sadly lacks any real movement meaning the actors are forced to run around a lot shooting at it with shotguns and generally trying to sell it as being more of a threat than it really is and perhaps Cardenas might have been better just sticking with his initial crab swarm.

The downside to the film other than the occasionally plodding plot threads certainly comes from the lack of lighting during the night sequences which really make it hard to see what exactly is supposed to be happening half the time, which one of the attack scenes is for the most part impossible to make out meaning that it lost much of its effect.

On the whole its not a bad film just not the sort of film that your likely to watch more than once and even then its throwaway entertainment at best especially if your a fan of the genre.

King Kong Escapes

Title: King Kong Escapes

Director: Ishiro Honda

Released: 1967

Starring: Rhodes Reason, Akira Takarada, Linda Miller, Eisei Amamoto, Mie Hama, Yoshiumi Tajima, Nadao Kirino, Shoichi Hirose, Haruo Najajima, Yu Sekida

Plot: Evil scientist Dr. Who (Amamoto) has created his own robot version of King Kong called Mechani-Kong which he plans to use to dig for “Element X” in the North pole only to find that the radiation emitted by Element X shuts down his creation. Meanwhile Commander Nelson (Reason) and his crew have discovered Kong living on Mondo Island who Dr.Who now plots to use to dig out the Element X by hypnotising the giant ape to do his bidding.

 

Review: One of the numerous overlooked King Kong titles / cash in titles with this one seeing Toho studios who’d previously obtained the King Kong licence for “King Kong Vs. Godzilla” and which despite being a box office success Toho hadn’t exactly rushed to follow it up until this film for which they teamed up bizarely with the American production company Rankin / Bass who are no doubt best known for their Christmas specials despite putting out several giant monster / dinosaur features such as “The Last Dinosaur” and “The Bermuda Depths”.

Drawing inspiration from the Rankin / Bass saturday morning cartoon “The King Kong Show” which saw the giant ape saving the world from various aliens, mad scientists and other monsters. This of course makes for the perfect source material for director Ishiro Honda especially as it puts Kong more in line with the likes of Godzilla who at this point was engaging in his own world saving antics. Working with the other three “Godzilla Fathers” producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, composer Akira Ifukube and most key special effects by the legendary Eiji Tsuburaya which is no doubt why this film appeals to my Kaiju fanboy side especially with Honda hardly deviating from his usual Godzilla format, Ifukube even recycles some of his Godzilla themes to great effect here.

If anything could be said about this film is that it really wastes no time in getting to the monster action as we are barely 20 mins into the film before we get to not only see Kong for the first time but also Gorosaurus who makes his Toho debut in this film and despite being killed by Kong would make a miraculous recovery for his more prominent appearance in “Destroy All Monsters”. We also get to see Kong battle a sea serpent who looks strangely similar to Manda.

Despite Tsuburaya handling the special effects, the Kong suit is still an awkward Kaiju reworking which is only slightly better than the one we saw in “King Kong Vs. Godzilla”. Of course that being said it is still miles ahead of some of the awful giant ape costumes we got in the Kong knock offs like “A.P.E.” and “Queen Kong”. Here Tsuburaya really appears to be trying to tap into the more human side of Kong as seen through the overly sympathetic eyes which serve to make him more humane than any kind of monstrous threat, though he just looks down right dopey when he gets hypnotised by “Dr. Who”. The Mechani-Kong on the other hand looks fantastic, even if its movements sound like a disco siren.

Of course the reason we are all here is to see Kong face off against his mechi-counterpart and while it might be kept for the finale its well worth the wait as the pair battle it out while hanging off the Tokyo tower. Interestingly despite being in Tokyo Kong actually chooses not to destroy anything….unlike Mechani-Kong who mere minutes of arriving in Tokyo is busy smashing building. Why Kong chooses to head to Tokyo from the North pole is unclear much like how he manages to get there so quick after escaping Dr. Who’s secret base which appears like the henchmen uniforms to have been recycled from “You Only Live Twice”

The plot itself is kind of nonsensical aswell as just downright sexist in places with Commander Nelson having an unexplained past with the villainous Dr. Who which causes the second half of the film to grind its gears in places as Dr. Who tries to win over Commander Nelson to his cause even employing the charms of Madame Piranha played here former Bond girl Mie Hama whose country of origin which she is supposed to be representing is kept a mystery as one of the more random running themes of the film as characters origins are frequently questioned. The film also borrows elements from the original “King Kong” with Susan (Miller) essentially playing the Fay Wray role as Kong falls for her meaning that she is able to control him, when not constantly being kidnapped by him or his Mechi counterpart meaning we get to see a lot of footage of a questionable looking doll standing in for her.

Considering when this film was made Ishiro Honda was Toho’s go to director for their Kaiju movies not only through his heavy involvement with the Showa era of the Godzilla movies, but also introducing the world to the likes of “Rodan” and “Mothra” with their stand alone films and to this extent this version of Kong perfectly fits in this unofficial Kaiju universe that Toho were making with these films and which Honda would essentially bring together with “Destroy All Monsters” the following year.

A fun Kaiju movie which brings a fun spin to King Kong mythos which is certainly a lot more enjoyable than some of the entries in the apesploitation genre. At the same time its quick passing and generally fun kaiju action makes this one worth giving a look if only for some throwaway fun viewing.

Razorback

Title:  Razorback

Director: Russell Mulcahy
Released: 1984
Starring: Gregory Harrison, Arkie Whiteley, Bill Kerr, Chris Haywood, David Argue, Judy Morris, John Howard, John Ewart, Don Smith, Mervyn Drake

Plot: Two years after his grandson was killed by a massive razorback boar Jake (Kerr) has dedicated his life to hunting the creature in the Australian outback and soon finds himself teaming up with Carl (Harrison) the husband of a wildlife reporter also killed by the same boar.

Review: A film which has certainly been on my radar for some time but for one reason of another its taken me until now to actually watch it. This of course is quite surprising seeing how it’s a movie about a giant killer pig, which of all the eco-horrors is probably one of the rarer creatures of terror with only the much overlooked “Pig Hunt” coming to mind when I tried to think of another of these movies.

Opening to a pretty haunting attack on Jake’s home in which the razorback essentially charges through his house and dragging away his grandson, the film then proceeds to skip forward two years after he is wrong accused of murdering the child and acquitted due to lack of evidence the years which have passed having left him a bitter shell of his former self as like Quint in “Jaws” he seemingly lives only for revenge, while happy to contend himself in the meantime hunting the smaller boar in the area as he snarls to Beth

“There’s something about blasting the shit out of a razorback that brightens up my whole day.”

I love the fact here that Beth is setup like she will be the female lead of the film only to soon find herself turned into Razorback chow, following a failed rape attempt by local brothers and general thugs Benny (Haywood) and Dicko (Argue) who don’t take to kindly to her filming their illegal pet food operation.  Her death of course soon leading to her husband Carl turning up in town to look for her as the film plays things surprisingly like some kind of mystery thriller which would have been great had we not seen her clearly being attacked by the giant razorback.

Surprisingly though this is far from your traditional eco-horror seeing how the titular Razorback is for the most part very much a background character who appears infrequently to stir things up when the film starts to slow down.  Still despite hardly appearing in the film the fully animatronic model which cost $250,000 is still impressive to look at, especially when it comes to the snarling face unlike when its required to move anywhere where it looks like the model is being pushed around on castors than being given any kind of realistic movement.

Instead of the expected rampaging Razorback we instead spend way too much time following what almost feels like the plot for a revenge movie, especially with such a focus on Benny and Dicko trying to cover for their part in Beth’s death with Carl in the final quarter dedicating all his focus to hunting down the two brothers, before finally having a slaughterhouse showdown with the Razorback who essentially just shows up rather than because of any attempt to attract the creature. It almost feels like director Russell Mulcahy set out with the intention of making something intentionally different than your run of the mill eco-horror, more so when he brings such interesting imagery to what is a very straightforward story aswell as focusing more his human cast than his monster pig.

Equally disappointing are the few attacks we get with Beth’s death being as graphic (while strangely akward) as things get as this remains a surprisingly dry film in terms of gore.  The film still however manages to produce several surprisingly tense moments such as Carl spending the night in the outback being chased and tormented by the Razorback which while being intresting shot help to keep your interest and even without the gore it never feels like we are somehow being cheated out of something the film promised.

An interesting feature film debut for Mulcahy whose only film before this one was the concert documentary “Derek and Clive Get the Horn” aswell as some of the most memorable music videos of the 80’s especially for “Duran Duran” and “Elton John” for who he was seemingly the music video director of choice. That being said though as a movie director Mulcahy’s resume is equally impressive as he followed this film with the first two film in the “Highlander” series before drifting into directing TV and DTV features.  Teaming up here though with Dean Semler  who takes on director of photography while at the same time bringing his same eye for the Australian outback that he brought to “Mad Max 2” as its shown here once more as beautiful hostile environment where if the wildlife doesn’t kill you then one of the grizzled backward locals might. We even get a pair of trucks which look like leftover stock from “Mad Max 2” while covering the requirement that any Ozploitation movie most feature a healthy dose of car porn and here it certainly delivers not only with the trucks aswell as a posse of hunters heading out on a half-assed attempt to hunt the creature, whose enthusiasm only seemingly stretches to dashing off in a convoy of trucks only to find they’ve been mislead by the tracker and at which point give up the hunt without a second thought of looking in the nearby area, especially when they can be boozing it up in the local bar instead.

A strange film to say the least and one which managed to enthral and disappointment me to with equal measure which I couldn’t place if it was down to my own high expectations of getting to see “Jaws on Trotters” or Mulcahy’s general directing style. As such it makes it a hard film to recommend especially when it fails in the sense of being a traditional eco-horror yet at the same time its characters and interesting visuals help to hold your attention for the questionably large amount of times you’re not getting to see the pig.

Lake Placid 2

Title: Lake Placid 2

Director: David Flores

Released: 2007

Starring: John Schneider, Sarah Lafleur, Sam McMurray, Chad Michael Collins, Alica Ziegler, Joe Holt, Cloris Leachman

Plot: Several years after the events of the first film a new spate of crocodile attacks begin happening leaving Sheriff James Riley (Schneider) to team up with Wildlife officer Emma Warner(Lafleur) to try and track down the killer croc before it devours its next victim

Review: Coming almost 10 years after the underrated original and seemingly only churned out because the Sony and the Sci-fi Channel (always a worrying sign to seem them involved in anything) were looking for a film they could easily turn into a franchise especially considering how quickly parts 3 + 4 followed it. Shot though on a paltry budget of $2 million compared to the original films budget of $27 million while also being shot in Bulgaria though honestly I couldn’t tell that it wasn’t the same location as the first film.

Despite the title there is hardly any kind of attempt to connect to the original film outside of a passing refrence to the killer crocodile attacks and the old coot Mrs Bickerman now being replaced by her sister Sadie (Leachman) who for some unknown reason is also fond of feeding these crocodiles which have once more grown to gigantic proportions thanks to be being fed meat heavy in growth hormones aswell as the occasional out of timer who it seems are equally game for her to feed to the crocs.

If anything though this plays like a more rural version of “Alligator” not only with the growth hormone enhanced Crocodile, but also for the introduction of the great white hunter Stuthers played here by Sam McMurray who also gives us one of the worst Irish accent ever, while almost constantly berating his assistant and much more proficient hunter Ahmad (Holt).  Like all the characters the relationship between Stuthers and Ahmad is irritatingly underused as we are forced instead to settle for the same half-baked character development that everyone else in the film gets if any with many of the more disposable cast members coming off more like cutouts than real characters. This is none the more true than with the local youths that Sheriff Riley’s son Scott (Collins) heads off into the wood with to party, after being invited by local girl Kerri (Ziegler) whose lughead of a boyfriend Thad (Kesler) pretty much spells out from their first meeting what is going to happen to them.

Unlike the original film which managed to balance comedy with some great jump scares and genuine tension, this film is much more of a confused mess as the tone largely remains jokey, despite many of the characters seemingly being played seriously. Schneider meanwhile once more drags out his good-ole-boy stique as he continues his run of low budget creature features like “Shark Swarm” which I couldn’t but wonder if it’s ever got him missing those “Smallville” paychecks that would save him from this kind of dreck.

One of my major issues with this film and so many of these cookie cutter creature features that the Sci-fi channel (or Syfi as its known these days) and the Asylum continue to churn out is with the actual crocodile effects. With the original we had both practical and CGI effects used to great effect but what we get here instead is just a bunch of badly rendered CGI crocs which end up coming off laughable whenever they are on the screen, with the extensive use of CGI for the gore effects aswell only adding to the issue which is only the more frustrating when you have great moments like arms being chomped off only for them to look flat and cheap because of these cost cutting measures. It of course only begs the question as to why these production houses continue to cut corners when it comes to their marquee monsters or is it just another sign of the lowering of standards as these studios intentionally seem to be aiming to make films which are this bad, perhaps hoping to cash in on the same trash cinema appeal of the b-movie forefathers like Ed Wood and Roger Corman without realising that they were actually trying to make good films with their productions.

While pretty samey for the most part the action scenes here do throw out the occasional surprise such as a plane being randomly harpooned or one of the teens falling out of a tree he’d been hiding in and landing on one of the crocodile which he bizarrely comments as being a soft landing, which considering the leathery skin of crocodiles I have to doubt this claim slightly, though it is one of the few comedic moments which actually hits its mark. Largely though when it comes to the action we seem to have this constant cycle of ambush crocodile, shoot at it for a bit and then loose a team member with no real attempts to ever change up this plan as they constantly seem to believe that this plan will work on the 4^th or 5^th attempt.  

Seeing how I still have another two sequels to go not counting the recent attempts to cross over the series with “Lake Placid Vs. Anaconda” this film does not bode well for what lies ahead, especially if this film is anything to go off the standard for these spin off’s. Ultimately this is not worth checking out as it’s devoid of even the base level charms that tend to drag you though these kinds of movies, while it really only further drives home the point when even the quick flash of gratuitous nudity can’t help to relieve the tedium I felt with this one. Just rewatch the original instead.

Pacific Rim

Title: Pacific Rim

Director: Guillermo del Toro
Released: 2013
Starring: Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Robert Kazinsky, Max Martini, Ron Perlman

Plot: When monstrous creatures known as Kaiju start to rise from the sea, the governments of the world come together to construct gigantic robots called Jaegers to combat the threat.

Review: It is no secret that I’m a big fan of Kaiju movies, so needless to say I was excited as always to hear that there was a new addition to the genre being made, while this excitement was only further cranked up to eleven when I found out it was being made by Guillermo del Toro. A highly visual director, time and time again Del Toro has managed to constantly raise the film making bar, both in terms of storytelling and visual effects even more so with his insistence on using old school effects were possible, something which made me especially curious going into this film to see if he could make a film heavily reliant on CGI without losing the same presence his previous films have had.

Born seemingly out of frustration over his adaption of H.P Lovecraft’s “At The Mountains of Madness” del Toro here falls back on his long term love of monsters, wrapped up in a blockbuster format, while at the same time opting to make a much lighter and breezier style of film, rather than following the current trend of aiming for ultra-realism which ultimately plays in the films favour, but then can you really make a sober movie about robots fighting monsters? Unquestionably though del Toro’s love for Kaiju movies is clear here while at the same time he is keen to not emulate the likes of Gamera or Godzilla, as not only seen in the designs of his Kaiju and Jaeger’s but also with his action scenes which fully embrace the freedom of movement and creativity which CGI allow compared to the man in suit limitations of the films which preceded it.  At the same time though interestingly the Kaiju designs still maintain elements of old school Kaiju designs which del Toro clearly loves so much.

Reportedly over one hundred different Kaiju and Jaeger’s were created and eliminated during pre-production, which no doubt would make for a great coffee table book should del Toro ever choose to release them. The chosen designs though are all suitably memorable especially in the case of the Jaeger’s which showcase an evolution of the design from the lumbering mark 1 Cherno Alpha though to the sleeker and more humanoid newer models like Striker Eureka and Raleigh’s own Jaeger Gipsy Danger.

Like the films it homages the plotting is much along the same simple plot lines, as following a disastrous confrontation with a Kaiju which killed his brother and co-pilot, hotshot Jaeger pilot Raleigh (Hunnam) quits the program only to soon find himself drawn back into the fight when Jaeger commander Stacker Pentecost (Elba) devises plan to finally end the war for good. This return of course means that he has to find a new co-pilot which he soon finds in the inexperienced Mako (Kikuchi).  True it is a tried and tested plot but here it is effectively used to tie together the main draw which is of course the monster sized smackdowns.

Needless to say those scenes are the real highlights of the film, with del Toro being free of the restraints that may have held by the old school Kaiju movies, here he gets to unleash some truly memorable brawls on the screen. These sequences are only further helped by the top notch CGI work which thankfully maintains the personality and charm of the old school film held, especially with the Jaegers really coming across like lumbering titans you’d expect them to be. By shooting in CGI del Toro really unleashes his creativity during these scenes, especially during a Hong Kong set brawl which memorably sees a tanker being used a makeshift bat. On the downside though these smackdowns are unfortunately more sporadic than some fans may like, considering how they form the start and latter end of the film, with a lengthy training section between, as Raleigh and Mako attempt to build the required bond required to pilot Jaeger’s, while also trying to work through Mako’s lack of experience which leaves her open to the mental effects the neural bridge can create, which in Mako’s case is flashbacks to a Kaiju attack she survived as a child, which is essentially just an excuse to cram in some more Kaiju action which I can’t say I had any problem with.

On the human side of things, it is a likeable group of characters which del Toro brings together, while at the same time it is very much a comic book style which he chooses to portray them in, hence we get the hyperactive triplets and the bulldog accompanied Australian father and son team of Herc (Martini) and Chuck (Kazinsky) whose canine companion I assumed to be a nod to the British tank commanders of WW2 who frequently were also accompanied by Bulldogs and whose bravado certainly matches that of some of the Jaeger pilots, many seeing themselves as invincible as she embrace the celebrity status that their Kaiju killing skills brings them. Elba meanwhile despite claiming to have studied various politicians such as Barak Obama for the inspiration for his scenery chewing role as Commander Pentecost, which has more in common with Sgt. Apone from “Aliens” than any of the politicians he cited as his inspiration which honestly is no bad thing. This style of characterisation perfectly suits the tone of the film and makes a refreshing change from the current need to ground every comic book or fantastical movie with a sense of reality. Such breaking of the rules only further continues with del Toro refusing to clumsily tack on a romantic sub-plot between Raleigh and Mako, with the two sharing more of a sibling bond than any kind of romantic collection, with a hug being as steamy as things gets between these two.  

A real homage to Kaiju movies for fans of the genre there is plenty to love here, while no doubt leaving you with an urge to revisit some of your favourites once the credits have rolled. I only hope that the rumours surrounding a sequel are true as I certainly wouldn't mind seeing were del Toro chooses to take the story next, even though this film works perfectly as a solo entry, it is one of those rare occasions were a confirmed sequel would be warmly welcomed.

Chillerama

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Chillerama

Director: Adam Green, Joe Lynch, Adam Rifkin, Tim Sullivan
Released: 2011
Starring: Adam Rifkin, Sarah Mutch, Owen Benjamin, Ray Wise, Eric Roberts, Miles Dougal, Lin Shaye, Sean Paul Lockhart, Anton Troy, Gabby West, Adam Robitel, Ron Jeremy, Tim Sullivan, Thomas C. Colby-Dog, Joel David Moore, Kristina Klebe, Kane Hodder, Jim Ward, Richard Riehle, Corey Jones, Kaili Thorne, Brendan McCreary, Ward Roberts

Plot: It’s the closing night of the last drive-in theatre in America and owner Cecil B. Kaufman has decided to go out with a bang by holding a marathon of cinematic trash for his faithful cinephile patrons. Unknown to them though is the fact that one of the staff has contracted a zombie virus through some ill-advised necrophilia, ensuring this is going to be nothing short of a memorable closing night.

Review: While many may have hailed Eli Roth as the saviour of the horror genre, a title which he has sadly failed to live up to, especially considering how he is more concerned with taking on producing duties these days than sitting in the directors chair, as only further highlighted by the gap between “Hostel 2” and the forthcoming “The Green Inferno”. Infact if anyone could be branded as a saviour for the genre, I would personally venture that it would have to be Adam Green, whom since unleashing “Hatchet” has only feverishly continued to add to the genre, as he followed it up with not only a sequel to this debut, but also the critically acclaimed “Frozen” which showed that he was more than another splatter director.More surprisingly though he has also givin us the horror version of “The Big Bang Theory” with “Holliston” which he also stars in with fellow horror director and best friend Joe Lynch, who unsurprisingly is also on hand to direct a segment here.

Now the unholy twosome join forces with Adam Rifkin and Tim Sullivan to create this horror comedy anthology, an idea originally devised by Rifkin and Sullivan as a weekly show for MTV, only for it to fall through due to the increased popularity in reality shows. Now recruiting Green and Lynch to their cause it finally makes it to the screen in movie form and I was eager to see how it stood up alongside the classic Anthologies which came before it like “Tales From The Darkside” and “Creepshow”, aswell as the knowing nods to B-movie culture much like we saw with the criminally separated “Grindhouse” whose double feature format failed to make it out of the States as it was released internationally as two separate films.

Comprised of four films with each director getting their own chance to craft their own vision, as they give us here

• Wadzilla (directed by Adam Rifkin) – A monster sized man eating sperm goes on a rampage through New York.

• I Was a Teenage Werebear (directed by Tim Sullivan) – The sole musical entry in the film, set in 1962 were Ricky (Lockheart) a closet gay discovers a mysterious gang, who also happen to turn into leather daddy werebears when aroused.

• The Diary of Anne Frankenstein (directed by Adam Green) – The secret attempt by Hitler (Moore) to create the perfect killing machine to help turn the tide of the war, while in turn giving the world his Jewish Frankenstein Meshugannah (Hodder) 

• Zom-B-Movie (directed by Joe Lynch) – The main meat of the film, which is intercut with the other films, as sex crazed zombies invade the drive through while ensuring the film end with a suitably splatter soaked finale

As you can see it is a real mixed bag on offer here in terms of style and ideas, yet all keep within the general theme the film shows….one that it would seem drenched in bodily fluids and gore, served up with a heavy dose of warped humour, which is not a bad thing and certainly gives the bad taste aficionados plenty to enjoy. The downside though is that like “Four Rooms” the level of talent on offer here is varying to say the least, resulting in a film which is frequently uneven in places as the standard shifts from piece to piece with Green and Lynch easily having the stronger segments, with their experience of working in the genre really coming into play, with Lynch’s “Zom-B-Movie” throwing out cheeky nods to the zombie genre left, right and centre while seemingly also attempting to top the splatter finale of Peter Jackson’s legendry “Braindead” while at the same giving it a sex comedy style twist which has to be seen to be believed. Meanwhile Green’s twist on Frankenstein is so over the top that despite the high potential to cause offence by poking fun at what could essentially be volatile subject matter, is quickly put to rest by the ever increasing levels of randomness, which has a real Mel Brooks feel to it as the film self acknowledges its own stupidity, even having cast step outside of the sets and actors suddenly being replaced by questionable looking dummies.

Sadly were the film hits a major bump is with “I Was A Teenage Werebear” which attempts to give us “Grease” via the way of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, which is a dangerous idea to begin with when you consider that even Richard O’Brian couldn’t create a sequel to beat his creation, so it is essentially destinted to fail from the start as any number of tepid stage versions trying to capture the magic of the film have only further proven. The main problem here is not so much with the plot, which embraces carefree gay love, aswell as the confusion for a young man still forced to live in the closet, all great themes to see being used and obviously ideas close to the heart of the segments director seeing how Sullivan himself is openly gay (and rather keen to drop this fact in for any promotional material for the film). What lets this segment down is instead the weak collection of forgettable songs being warbled by the cast. None of these song I have to confess would have me rushing to buy the soundtrack, which has been optimistically released alongside the film, while Sullivan has also hinted at a full length stage version, something else that I’m not exactly on tender hooks to see, especially as this segment is only just bearable, thanks to some over the top and frequently original splatter.

One thing which stuck with me about this film though is the continuous obsession with bodily fluids, as the film seems to take any opportunity to ensure that all feature in some form or another with “Wadzilla” with its giant sperm and tidal wave cum shots ensuring that it comes off like a more light hearted version of the body shocker “Bad Biology”. Still the bad taste aficionados amongst you will no doubt appreciate the sheer effort which has been put into this film to ensure that they are all covered for your viewing pleasure, which includes a scatological themed “Deathication”. Thankfully its not a theme which overshadows the whole film, but one which certainly crops up enough to be noticeable.

While the segments might vary greatly in quality and style, the strength of “The Diary of Anne Frankenstein” and “Zom-B-Movie” prove to be more than enough to cover for the weaker parts of the film. At the same time while watching this I couldn’t help but feel that I was missing the audience element which no doubt has made this such a popular film on the horror festival circuit and as such I would recommend watching this with a group of like-minded friends to get the full effect intended.

Jaws 2

Title: Jaws 2
Director: Jeannot Szwarc

Released: 1978

Staring: Roy Scheider, Mark Gruner, Marc Gilpin, Lorraine Gary

Plot: Four years after the events of "Jaws" Police chief Brody (Scheider) must protect the citizens of Amity once again when a second monstrous shark begins terrorizing the waters.

Review:  This week I found out something quite shocking while openly declaring my love for this sequel that I realised that there are some people out there who have actually never seen it! I know it’s hard to believe that a movie series which was so firmly part of most our childhood movie watching, let alone responsible for myself still not being overly keen on swimming in the sea all these years later. But as I looked at the glazed expression of my work colleague who clearly had no idea about this movie, I knew that it was time to revisit what is possibly one of the most overlooked and underrated sequels of all time.

True it was always going to be a hard act to follow a legendry movie such as “Jaws” which could easily be considered the definition of a perfect movie, not only in terms of storytelling and pacing, but also with how perfectly Spielberg tweaked each of the films shocks so that even a giant rubber shark could be turned into a creature of childhood scaring terror. Still with the studio having made so much money from the first film, which alongside “Star Wars” helped create the summer blockbuster phenomenon, it would only be a matter of time before they started demanding a sequel, despite the fact that the shark being clearly very much dead by the end of the first film, but such things are quickly glossed over for here is yet another giant shark to terrorise the residents of Amity Island, while the why, were and what the f**k of the situation are left to the audience to figure out themselves as Police Chief Martin Brody  finds himself once again having to deal with another oversized great white shark.

With Spielberg unable to be tempted back to direct the sequel due to a combination of the problems which plagued the production of the first film, which included amongst other things the fact that the shark keep sinking, aswell as the fact that he felt he had already made the “Definitive shark movie”. Spielberg’s decision would lead to a further 18 month period of pre-production, with the original idea for the film to be a prequel based around the sinking of the USS Indianapolis whose story had been so memorably relayed by Quint in the first film; however this would later be scrapped in favour of a more straightforward sequel with the inexperienced John D. Hancock being chosen to helm the film, but with his limited experience in the directors chair, having only helmed three film credits and small scale dramas, he soon found himself feeling the pressure of directing his first epic adventure film, while issues with the shark once again hampering production and with the producers unhappy with his material he was soon replaced by Jeannot Szwarc, who would later direct the equally cult “Supergirl” and “Santa Claus: The Movie”.

Set four years after the events of the first film with Brody having his suspicions that another shark has entered the waters of Amity Island once again dismissed, which is overwhelmingly bizarre seeing how much chaos the original shark caused, you would have expected the residents to be more open to the idea of a giant shark, but alas they’d rather dismiss his fears even major Vaughn who’d you think would have learned better after the events of the first film. Even Brody’s kids seem to have forgotten about the events previously, especially Mike who went into shock after seeing the shark in original, yet here they are more keen than ever to get back on the water, with Mike (Gruner) and Sean (Gilpin) heading out to sea with Mike’s friends and setting up the main meat of the story as they soon find themselves the target of the shark.
Realising that the audiences already knew what the shark looked like from the first film here director Szwarc instead doesn’t try like so many other directors to play on the element of surprise again and as such allows the audience to see a the shark a lot more than the previous film which only hinted at the size of the shark until around two thirds of the way through the film, when the shark was memorably fully revealed. Here he brings a much more brutal and thanks to an early attack sequence (which is also one of the most unintentionally funny scenes ever shot) a heavily scarred shark.

Cranking up the action from the first film, which kept it’s attacks sporadic as Spielberg played peek-a-boo with the shark in the build up to his climatic showdown, here Szwarc instead goes overboard with the shark attacks, while making anything potential game, as logic is pushed to the backseat especially when you consider that the film features the shark memorably attacking a helicopter. Such bizarre moments are rife throughout the film, as plausibility is largely nothing but a passing thought, while for some equally random reason Szwarc chooses to recreate scenes from the original film with a slight twist and hence why we get scenes like the discovery of an orca corpse almost mirroring the discovery of the girls corpse on the beach or the police boat being dragged backwards after it picks up a power cable being shot almost the same as the Quint’s boat being pulled by the shark at the climax of the original “Jaws”. What is most interesting about the scene were they find the body of the orca, that a year earlier the killer whale movie “Orca” was released which featured the orca head butting a shark in a subtle nod to “Jaws” that the orca was infact deadlier than a shark, with this dead orca clearly having been killed by a shark almost being like Szwarc’s fuck you right back! However despite a high body count, there is barely a drop of blood spilt here yet it makes zero difference as the tension is slowly cranked up by Szwarc who manages the near impossible of still managing to make the shark scary, even if the audience knows what to expect and even pulls out more than a few original shocks along the way.

One of the strengths here though is the amount of returning cast members we do get, especially with so many of the characters being so memorable it only makes it better that we get to see them again here, especially in terms of Lorraine Gary who once more returns as Ellen Brody and who shares such great onscreen chemistry with Roy Scheider, that it’s hard to not see them as a real couple and even though Scheider’s return here was only to get out of a contractual obligation he had with the studio, after he quit the role of Steven Pushkov in “The Deer Hunter” two weeks prior to the start of shooting. Still despite this he still brings back his grizzled charm to the role he made so memorable to begin with and despite his reasons for being involved in the film, he doesn’t let it show here, as his performance here is just as memorable as the first, even if it is more action orientated than before, with the scenes of him interacting with his family now nothing but an afterthought, for while the first film might have been as much about people as it was about the shark, this film instead prefers to keep the focus solely on the shark.

Despite having the imposing task of following up on Spielberg’s classic original, I would argue that blow for blow that this film is just as good as the original, while perhaps lacking some of Spielberg’s finesse it still holds its own when compared to the original and even with it’s more bonkers moments it still remains an overlooked classic, overshadowed by the god awful sequels which followed and as a result dragged this film down with them and leaving most people with the misconception that the original was the only film in the series of note and when compared to the shark films which followed in its wake this is a gold star standard shark movie.

Jaws: The Revenge

Title: Jaws: The Revenge
Director: Joseph Sargent
Released: 1987
Staring: Lorraine Gary, Lance Guest. Mario Van Peebles, Michael Caine, Karen Young, Judith Barsi, Mitchell Anderson, Roy Scheider

Plot: Ellen Brody (Gary) is still living on Amity, despite her husband Martin (Scheider) being killed from a heart attack brought on by the two sharks he had battled previously. Now living with her son Sean (Anderson) who has since become a deputy sheriff, she is once again forced to face the horror when Sean is killed by a Giant shark. Wanting to take her away from Amity, Michael (Guest) returns from the Bahamas’s, were he has been working as a marine biologist, especially worried that Ellen is now convinced that her family are being targeted by another giant shark. To help her recover from Sean’s death he invites Ellen to come back with him to stay with his wife Carla (Young) and their young daughter Thea (Barsi). However the shark is following them closely behind intent on having its revenge.





Review: Frequently named as being one of the “worst movies of all time”, which is kind of an exaggeration. I mean have these people never seen any of Noel Clarke’s films? Or even “Wrecking Crew” which if I was still rating films here on the blog, it would still be one of the lowest rated films I have reviewed so far, next to “The Human Centipede”. Still it retains it’s 0% rating on rotten tomatoes the complete opposite of the 100% rating held by the classic original.

The plot from the start is completely insane, especially as last time I checked, sharks don’t usually take the death of other sharks that personally, so for one to suddenly develop an understandable grudge against the Brody’s is certainly an interesting take on the term “Creative freedom” as you generally get the idea that director Sargent doesn’t watch a lot of shark documentaries, especially as the shark even roars and while the first three films were hardly factually accurate either, they at least didn’t push things to the same levels of randomness we get here.

Despite being offered a cameo in the film Scheider declined to reprise the sheriff brody, perhaps being down to the fact it would have seen him being eaten by the shark in the opening, a fate which now falls to his son Sean and leaving Ellen to pick up the shark killing mantle, which is an interesting decision, especially seeing how she was more the provider of emotional support, with the shark killing being previous left to her husband and son’s, not that their success in “Jaws 3D” is noted atoll, especially with the film supposedly set in a timeline were those events never even happened, which really is such a minor problem compared to some of the films flaws it’s almost unnoticeable.

Still Gary makes for a surprisingly strong and believable lead for what would be her final role to date and it really sells her paranoia, without feeling the need to overact and it’s a funny turn of events which see her working with Sargent again after they first worked together on the TV movie “The Marcus-Nelson Murders” which Spielberg citing it as the motivation for him casting her originally for the role of Ellen, which of course also had nothing to do with the fact that she was also the wife of the studio’s chief executive at the time.

The main meat of the plot, outside of the crazy shark stalker, it's essentially just a rerun of the plots of the first three films, with the shark showing up and killing off a few disposable cast members, while our leads try to convince the rest of the cast about the shark being there, before the inevitable final showdown and once again the only thing which has changed is the setting as we now get the warmer setting of the Bahamas, which despite Michael stating that Great Whites don’t like the warmer waters, it would certainly seem that this shark doesn’t have too much of a qualm in the change of location either.

What has changed here though is the violence of the Shark Attacks which had always been largely gore free, outside of the occasional detached limb. Here the shark attacks are bloody and visceral, with Sean getting his arm torn off in the first 10 mins, while the few attacks we get are frequently shot in slow motion as the victims writhe in the sharks’ mouth, spraying crimson like a burst water pipe. The strangest thing though is the despatch method for the shark, which depending on which version you are watching differs greatly with the US release having the shark explode, while the European release has the shark impaled on the bow of the boat (something I questioned further in one of my “Random Film Moments” posts) which lack either of the impact of the previous films finale, though the European release does atleast get to show off the sheer size of the shark, while seeming slightly more plausible than the sloppy editing job used for the US death scene.

The Shark effects vary greatly throughout, with the pole moving the shark being clearly visible on more than one occasion and while it’s clearly just a giant rubbery looking shark, it still has more presence than any of the cheap CGI monstrosities currently showing up in creature features, though Sargent never seems to manage to make it as scary as Spielberg did, with the best shocks he can achieve usually being from the jump scares rather than any of the prolonged attacks.

Frustratingly this film also has the lowest body count of the series and while the original “Jaws” might have also have had a low body count, the action between attacks was enough to keep the audience interested, were as here we get a lot of boring interaction as Sargent seems to struggle to find anything interesting for the cast to be doing, leading to him ripping off the dinner table imitation scene between Brody and his son from the original film, while also tacking on a questionable romantic angle between Ellen and the carefree airplane pilot Hoagie (Caine) who would have been a much more clumsy and irritating character had it played by anyone other than Caine, who manages to charm his way through the film, machine gunning off tall tales and bizarre life philosophies, meanwhile the most irritating character award goes to Jake (Van Peebles) who I can’t help but believe that they originally expected to be a much more humorous character than he is, but here Van Peebles is one of the few established actors and as such manages to do a decent job on damage limitation caused by this character, while his father the legendry blaxploitation Melvin Van Peebles puts in a cameo appearance as the local mayor and proving that there really is no limit for what some people will appear in to get a free holiday.

While it might be light years from perfect, there is still something likable about this last official entry in the series which effectively killed the franchise, even though rumours still circulate regarding a prequel “Jaws: Deadly Seas” telling the story of Quinn on the USS Indianapolis and we also still have “Jaws 5: Cruel Jaws” courtesy of the Italian Maestro of the cash in Bruno Mattei (the same man who also gave the world his own take on “Terminator 2”) aswell as more recently “Jaws In Japan”. Still the meantime we still can get our giant shark fix with Steve Alten’s “Meg” series the first book of which still remains stuck in development hell, despite frequent positive articles regarding the production moving forward, but currently outside of the barmy giant creature antics of the “The Asylum” it could still help bring the creature feature back to the mainstream were it is still sorely missed.

G Is For Godzilla

Title: Godzilla
Director: Ishirô Honda
Released: 1954
Staring: Akira Takarada, Momoko Kôchi, Akihiko Hirata, Takashi Shimura, Fuyuki Murakami, Haruo Nakajima

Plot: After several ships sink mysteriously, the authorities first believe this to have been caused by underwater volcanoes or unexploded mines. Soon however it is noticed that the attacks are all close to Oda Island whose inhabitants believe the attacks to have been caused by a mythical creature known to them as “Godzilla” (Nakajima). After the creature comes ashore a team consisting of palaeontologist Professor Yemani (Shimura), his daughter Emiko (Kôchi), the brilliant scientist Doctor Serizawa (Hirata) and Navy diver Hideto (Takarada) who is also involved with Emiko despite her being betrothed to Doctor Serizawa. Soon however the team discover the monster has set a course for Japan and must be stopped at all costs.



Review: I knew right from the start when I set down to compile the list of the films, which would make up this alphabetical jaunt through Asian cinema, that Godzilla would certainly appear at some point and not only were the Godzilla films, responsible for sparking my love affair with Asian cinema, but also as I now sit down to write this latest entry “The Big G” is currently celebrating his 56th birthday, with his popularity having never seemingly waned over the years since he took his first stroll through Tokyo, with Director Ryûhei Kitamura (Versus [2000]), who directed the final Godzilla film “Godzilla: Final Wars” (2004) describing the honour of directing a Godzilla film, to be equal to a British director being asked to direct a James Bond movie, which might seem surprising especially when the general opinion of the Godzilla films, is that they are camp cheesy fun in which giant creatures engage in monster sized smack downs while destroying most of Tokyo in the process, something which certainly became the norm for the majority of the film in the series and certainly a far cry from the sober and occasionally harrowing view of Japan reacting to an attack by a giant monster, which this first film essentially is though if I was going to feature any film from the saga in this list, I knew that the original film would definitely be the one which would be making the list.

It almost seems accidental that “Godzilla” was even made, especially seeing how Producer and "Godzilla Father" Tomoyuki Tanaka, had originally planned a film based on the true life story of a Japanese fishing boat that had become contaminated after sailing into American Nuclear testing waters and only making this film after he was forced to cancel that project. Still this film still contains several ideas, which were carried across and which can be seen mainly in the opening scenes in which we see a fishing boat catch on fire and sink, while a white light glows below. meanwhile the design for Godzilla drew heavily inspiration from “The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), even though before the final iconic design was chosen, he was also envisioned as being both a giant octopus aswell as a cross between a whale and a gorilla, ideas which were thankfully scrapped, even though special effects artist and fellow “Godzilla Father” (the other two Godzilla fathers being Director Honda and composer Akira Ifukube) Eiji Tsuburaya would get to use his giant octopus design in later Toho productions, which was affectionately named Oodako and who can be seen in both “King Kong Vs. Godzilla” (1962) and “Baragon Vs. Frankenstein” (1965), while also narrowly missing out on being featured in “Godzilla: Final Wars” (2004) alongside numerous memorable monsters, which had populated the series including bizarrely enough the American Godzilla.

Opening with the raw first attempt of a roar for Godzilla, it is truly a goosebumps moment especially when it is followed quickly by the opening strains of Ifukube’s now legendary “Godzilla March”, before throwing us head first into the action, as we are barely into the film before ships are mysteriously sinking and chaos is erupting the screen, while being denied even a glimpse of the monster, which surprisingly Honda doesn’t keep hidden till the end, showing us the monster pretty early on, but saving all his full length shots till the rampage sequence, which is an interesting move and all the more surprisingly pays off. Still director Honda really proves to be the man responsible for Godzilla spawning such a legacy, as he shoots the film with a serious tone, rather than just creating another fun camp monster film, carefully planning his shots as he keeps the shoots the footage of Godzilla to low shots to help emphasis Godzilla’s size, while showing also showing the Tokyo rampage as being full of confusion and chaos as Tokyo burns, with these scenes also including a particularly harrowing scene of a widow holding her children close to her, while rubble rains down around them and only driving home the sense of destruction further with footage of mass choral chanting from schoolchild praying for the souls of the city residents and field hospitals attending to the masses of injured which is something which would certainly not be seen in later films and which unlike the Collateral Damage loving “Gamera” movies, would even go as far as to show footage of the Tokyo citizens escaping to special monster proof underground bunkers. Honda would continue this respectful way of introducing the Toho monsters, when it came to the debuts of “Mothra” (1961) and “Rodan” (1956), which certainly not as dark in tone as this film, still managed to capture the sheer size of these creations, being famously quoted as saying

"Monsters are born too tall, too strong, too heavy, that is their tragedy,"

These words alone would fully justify Honda's passion for giving each of the creation a personality, rather than letting them become just another monster on the rampage kinds of movie, even if like Godzilla, their later appearances would be on a much lighter note, it's also clear that Honda was not opposed to the films taking on a lighter tone, seeing how he would go on to direct a further eight entries in the series, with his final film as a director being "Terror of Mechagodzilla" (1975) which would also be the final film in the Showa era of films, which amount to over half of the total Godzilla movies made.

Despite “Godzilla” having the titular role, he really is pushed to the background for the majority of the film, much like the shark in "Jaws" (1975) as Honda like Spielberg instead chooses to create a more character driven film, as the authorities argue between themselves as they attempt to find the best way of protecting Tokyo from this new dangerous threat, with the most interesting of these characters being the tormented eye patch wearing scientist Serizawa, who having created the oxygen destroyer is now racked with guilt over it’s creation, knowing how easily it could be used as a weapon of mass destruction, refusing to revel it’s existence even though it is the one weapon that could stop Godzilla. Surprisingly the lack of city stomping action does not take away from the film and although the roles would be reversed in later films, as the stories became more far fetched and the focus shifted from the cast, who would usually be caught up in some increasingly random situation, usually involving aliens of some description, while audiences turned out to see the latest monster smack down, with the films generally taking on a lighter tone.

“Godzilla” is still without a doubt still an important film, for not only the sequels it spawned, or the imitators which followed in it’s wake, but for proving that you could infact make a giant monster movie and keep a serious tone and although I love the more campy entries, this film still stands as a fantastic piece of cinema, which far exceeds the expectations of what a giant monster movie could be.

Pig Hunt

Title: Pig Hunt
Director: James Isaac
Released: 2008
Staring: Travis Aaton Wade, Tina Huang, Howard Johnson Jr. Trevor Bullock, Rajiv Shah, Jason Foster, Nick Tagas, Phillip K. Torretto, Cimi Ahluwalia

Rating: 3.5 / 5

Plot: John (Wade) and his friends head up to his dead uncles ranch for a weekend of hunting, with the prospect of hunting a legendry three thousand pound boar known as “The Ripper”.



Review: While it is not my obvious intension to keep breaking from my ongoing A-Z of Asian cinema, I did however feel the urge to write about this movie while it was still fresh, especially with being off on vacation for the next week, I knew that I had to write about this film, while the memory is still fresh for “Pig Hunt” is certainly a strange little movie to say the least, which is thanks largely to it seemingly never being quite sure, as to what kind of movie it really wants to be, as it starts off as a giant killer pig movie in the same spirit of “Razorback” (1984), only to suddenly change to the psycho redneck movie, as it suddenly develops undertones of “Southern Comfort” (1981) when the group also manage to piss off the local rednecks, before deciding that a killer pig movie, with added crazed rednecks still might not be exciting enough and also throws in a pig worshiping cult and a healthy dose of naked hippy chicks for good measure, yet somehow Director Isaac has not only made this all blend together into one crazy ass ride, but also in a weird way manages to convince the audience to an extent that these are not just random plot threads thrown together because writers Robert Mailer Anderson and Zack Anderson couldn’t decide on what sort of movie they wanted write, but that it’s all part of the same movie and not just a bunch of cool ideas clumsily stuck together, but then Isaac is no stranger to random plotting especially seeing how he also directed one of my favourite entries in the Friday the 13th saga “Jason X” (2001) which not only seemed like something fresh for the long running series, but still remains one of the few sequels that is set in space which actually works and doesn’t feel like the writers just plain ran out of ideas.

Isaac shows some real skill here, now he's free from the medling of studio bosses and carefully ramps up the tension for the first half of the film, as the group hunt down the boar along with John’s former redneck buddies Jake (Foster) and Nick (Ricky) who are not only crude in their methods, but bring a greasy charm to the group, while also proving the setup for the crazed rednecks, who are introduced when the focus is suddenly shifted away from the hunt for “The Ripper”. Still Isaac plays the threat of the pig in a similar way to “Jaws” (1975) keeping his killer pig off screen until the finale, yet still giving us the occasional burst of gore rather than keeping everything from the audience which so many other films attempt to pull off, usually failing miserably as they leave the audience feeling cheated out on what they were hoping to see. Still it’s when the tension is ramped up to the max that Isaac for some reason then decides to switch the focus from the pig to the crazed rednecks, which to his credit Isaac still manages to keep the action flowing well, as the film suddenly becomes like a forest set version of Mad Max, as the rednecks pull out some of the randomness collection of vehicles I have seen since “Fair Game” (1986), with the ultimate being the crazed preachers dirt buggy complete with mounted crucifix! What follows is essentially a sequence of Mad Max style action, as the rural and urban worlds clash while serving to add an additional, if slightly unneeded threat to the group, as well as some fun vehicular action, rather than anything too important to the actual plot, with this random change in plotting leading to the even more random inclusion of the pig worshiping cult, who also have setup a home for themselves in these same woods.

Looking past the random plotting I did however find myself asking why a group of soldiers, couldn’t still manage to hit the broadside of barn door, with the exception of John who is given a hint of a darker back story, which is soon forgotten soon after it’s mentioned with the best shot of the whole group being his girlfriend Brooks (Huang). Now I don’t want to start making assumptions of their military training, but why even include the idea of them being soldiers on leave? Is the war that much of a draw for cinema goers that we feel the need to reference it in this way? I can’t be sure, but it’s certainly a clumsy piece of characterisation with only Quincy (Bullock), their civvie street friend coming of the most realistic, even if his role of the group punch line, soon steps over the line to the point, were you also feel sorry for the constant torment he is forced to endure throughout, especially when he receives no form of retribution here.

Gore wise there is certainly enough to keep your interest here, even bringing some original pieces to the field including a nasty boar induced kneecapping, with the bonus being that the majority of it is being created using old school effects, which is certainly welcome, especially with so much modern horror now being so CGI heavy and with such a limited budget being used here, it makes all the more satisfying not having to endure bargain basement CGI effects, which seem to constantly dog the majority of indie horror films. Still if you’re a pig lover, you might want to watch something else, as the pigs do find themselves on the receiving end of a large amount of this violence, the majority of which is plain shock value rather than anything to drive the plot along, with one of these scenes including a pig having it’s head sawn off, shortly after being shot.

It might be a random bag of ideas, but it still makes for a fun midnight movie and certainly attempts to bring something new to the table, even if it’s not quite sure which of it’s numerous plots it wants to follow more, as it blends various genres and styles, to create a pretty fun ride, with the gore and gratuitous nudity really only adding to the fun times. It might not be the greatest killer pig movie, an honour still reserved for “Razorback”, but it’s certainly a strong contender.

C Is For The Calamari Wrestler

Title: The Calamari Wrestler
Director: Minoru Kawasaki
Released: 2004
Staring: Kana Ishida, Osamu Nishimura, Miho Shiraishi, Yoshihiro Takayama

Plot: After winning the championship title in hard fought match Koji Taguchi (Akira) is shocked to suddenly have the belt snatched from him, by a giant squid who it turns out is the reincarnated former wrestling legend Kanichi Iwata (Nishimura), who was also formerly dating Koji’s fiancé Miyako (Ishida). Kanichi now in his squid form is now faced with the battle to regain the respect he earned in the ring, while facing a series of increasingly bizarre opponents.



Review: Originally I had planned to look at Ringo Lam’s “City on Fire” for my “C” entry in this alphabetical romp through Asian cinema and as though it is still undeniably a great film and I'm sure it would definatly have been fun to go over the whole “Reservoir Dogs” ripped it off argument, but instead I decided to go for something alittle more obscure and fun for this entry, as this film not only combines my love of Wrestling and Kaiju (men in giant monster suits) style brawls, but it is pretty much one of the most random movies I have ever seen, baring all the trademarks of director Kawasaki who for some reason loves to have his main characters portrayed by giant creatures, with this film being his first big hit, while also helping to lay the foundations for the equally insane “Kabuto-O Beetle” (2005) and “Crab Goalkeeper” (2006). Due to this highly unique style of film making, it’s almost impossible to look at this film in any logical terms, seeing how it defies any kind of normal logic and is the kind of film, that could truly only have been made in Japan, especially as under any other studio system it would have been churned out as a high camp romp, while Kawasaki instead chooses to play it almost straight-faced, almost as if it is no big deal to have a giant squid wrestler, let alone the giant Octopus and stag beetle fighters he introduces later and somehow he has managed to make it work, even though he never bothers to explain properly how Kanichi ended up becoming a squid in the first place, especially when Koji shows up to their showdown having turned into a red Octopus, adding to the undertones of Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” which runs throughout, though saying that certainly don’t expect anything too deep from this movie, especially with it’s cheesy effects and Godzilla style brawls, it is only all the more surprising that links “Kaiju Big Battel” haven’t been made, as essentially this is just their antics put on film, which for those of you not familiar with their Kaiju style wrestling shows, here is a quick taster.

Once you get past the fact that your watching a film about a giant wrestling squid, there is still a lot to enjoy here, as Kawasaki makes it more about wacky brawls and even works the love triangle between the Kanichi and his former girlfriend Miyako and her fiancé and Kanichi’s rival Koji, which not only seems plausible (somehow, though still not sure how) but also says all kinds of things about Miyako, who apparently has no problem with her former lover now being a giant squid, but instead seems more about how he will support her financially, especially when combined with the numerous flashes of a naked Miyako frolicking with the Squid form of Kanichi, but hey whatever works for you right?
Still it’s not all random brawls and questionable romances, as Kawasaki includes many simple and effective sequences, such as Calamari meditating, going shopping and generally being a hero of the local towns folk, as his popularity only continues to grow, with these scenes only adding to the human element of the film and despite the fact that he’s a giant squid you still can’t help but feel for his plight, which certainly isn’t the easiest thing to portray, when the costume only allows the minimum amount of movement and an expressionless face, but certainly something that Kawasaki is no stranger to, having started out directing episodes of “Ultraman Tiga” and it’s these early years of his career which really come into play here, as he uses all the tricks he learned there to great effect here, as he sets out to create his own set of equally memorable characters.

Despite some solid strong style wrestling sequences which open the film, Kawasaki soon trades these for wacky oversized creature smack downs, heavily reminisant of the Godzilla movies only on a slightly less city destroying scale and despite having the hindrance of some extremely rubbery costumes, he still manages to make these fight sequences highly entertaining if at the same time an acquired taste, as those of you who are not fans of the brawls seen in the Godzilla films, will no doubt find yourselves more irritated than amused, but then you will no have no have tuned out by the time, the first of these truly random scenes appears. Still despite this you can still feel the love which Kawasaki has for wrestling, while giving nods to the frequently ludicrous and exaggerated nature of the sport.

This film is really a reminder of how fun and imaginative Asian cinema can be, especially when you start looking outside of the main releases and instead look at the ones which fall outside of the popular genres and directors. So if your looking for something truly random, then this film certainly fits the bill, while providing more than a few laughs without overstaying it's welcome with a tight running time, while for those of you still wanting more, I'd highly recommend "Kabuto-O Beetle" for even more wrestling madness.