An American animated comedy crime adventure by Ralph Bakshi.
A shady looking man speaks with a woman on a city street at night. He shows her a piece of a leather jacket and tells the story of the jacket's owner. The owner was the leader of a gang called "The Stompers" in 1950s New York City. The gang leader has a goofy friend, falls in love with a young woman and gets his gang into a fight with a hostile black gang from a nearby area. We are then returned to the shady looking guy and the woman and find out their real identities.
As previously stated, "Ralph Bakshi can do no wrong". I have been looking for this film forever and just recently found it. I had seen like 75% of it on youtube, with a missing middle section somewhere, but watching the whole thing is way better. The animation style is classic Bakshi and it makes use of many of his sexual and racial jokes. Apparently, it was toned down before release because of how extreme Coonskin was. The plot and characters were good, but there was some jumping around between scenes and non-linear plot. A good example is Crazy's hallucination that just pops in and leads into the climax scene. Pacing was pretty fast to fit all of this plot into an hour and seventeen minutes. Music and soundtrack fit the setting pretty well, but I would have liked a more instrumental approach than the '50s pop with vocals that seemed to be re-worked '70s style. Overall, it's Bakshi and his shit is infallible, but his other stuff is better. I rate this good. Watch it because of who made it.
A Chilean French adventure by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
A communist tries to raise his weak son to be a strong man. The father then leaves to assassinate a government official or military leader, but fails. On the way back, he learns the true nature of kindness, compassion and his own identity.
As with all Jodorowsky films, I love this because it's weird and what I call a "Psychedelic Spiritual Journey". The advantage that this one has over Alejandro's other films is the use of modern camera equipment and compositing effects. Don't get me wrong, the old editing and physical effects used in his '70s films were great, but this looks more real when he wants to do something weird visually. There were some scenes in which the current A.J. appeared behind the character playing young him. I don't know if there was compositing used here, but the effect was irreplaceable. The plot was epic, but the pacing seemed to slow down at times. The main characters were the family (father, mother and son) and very well acted and developed. There were also many, MANY smaller roles that worked well. The style was classic Jodorowsky and was obviously his work. There was plenty of nudity (male and female) with the female earning anatomy points for the mother's breasts and the male including genital torture. With good camera-work and an awesome musical score that included a beautiful opera singer, there is not much else to say. I rate this best. Watch it if you like this director's other work.
An American fantasy directed by Bert I. Gordon, starring Basil Rathbone.
The adopted son of a sorceress falls in love with a princess whom he sees in a magic pool. The princess is kidnapped by an evil sorcerer and the young man seeks to save her. However, he has a rival also seeking the princess who accompanies him on his quest.
This was actually pretty good. I like it because it was lo-fi and cheesy. The special effects were antiquated and mostly based on film editing and forced perspective. These included a fight against a giant and little people like in Darby O'Gill and the Little People. The plot was straightforward, with few developed characters and lots of extras. The style was very much of the time and the video featured extremely bright and saturated colors. The princess gets very high female anatomy points, even through her dress. Overall, it's good if you want a fun, cheesy flick. Don't expect miracles though. I rate it adequate.
An American war horror directed by David Twohy, starring Bruce Greenwood, Olivia Williams, Holt McCallany, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Flemyng and Dexter Fletcher.
An American U-boat in WWII picks up some British sailors from a sunken ship. Strange things begin to happen and a back-story of conflict between commanding officers on the U-boat develops.
This definitely failed to hold my attention. On my 3rd try, I got through watching the whole thing with only minimal breaks. The under-developed characters and murky plot were not aided by whispered dialogue so quiet as to be inaudible. The visual style was very dark, but correct camera exposure maintained clear definition. I guess the only good thing was camera-work. Quick cuts, natural movement that made sense and many wet scenes necessitating waterproof gear are something worth mentioning. Overall, I think the pacing was just too slow. I rate it poor. Watch something else.
A Canadian horror slasher directed by Ryan Nicholson.
A pair of bowling teams get in a fight at a bowling alley and decide to have a competition the following night. A femal bowler is raped by the men on the other team when she goes back in to get her purse. The night of the competition comes and people begin to disappear.
All of the actors in this film seemed to have Tourette's syndrome. The production quality was quite low, but fit the classic slasher style. There was some nudity including female anatomy points, but I am unable to award male anatomy points for the cock-shots with genital mutilation. With a simple plot that only twists quickly at the end and extremely shallow characters, this is not what I would call a good movie. My favorite part was the ball waxing machine insulting people. I'm rating it o.k. You might want to check this out if you're into low budget horror flicks.
An American documentary directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky.
One of four elderly brother farmers is accused of his brother's murder. The local community rallies around him to prove his innocence.
This was pretty good. The 3 living brothers were all timid country farmers who wouldn't hurt a fly and the authorities obviously tried to frame them. There were some revealing scenes involving interviews with the brothers and their community in which they were clearly identified as simple country folk. My thinking was that even if it was actually a murder, it was a mercy killing to put the sick brother out of his misery. Going by my previous documentary standards, there was lots of talk and no techno music. I think that the filmmakers did a good job of accurately portraying their subjects and subject matter. The only fault that I found was some of the interview audio being so low in volume as to be unintelligible. Overall, it was a heart-warming piece about simple farmers who were falsely accused of murder and proved their innocence. I rate it adequate because it wasn't quite eventful enough to get my good rating. Definitely worth watching though.
A Walt Disney fantasy directed by Robert Stevenson, starring Sean Connery.
The village idiot in an Irish town has adventures with characters from Irish folklore. The king of the little people ends up owing him wishes that he always ends up wasting.
This was suggested by my professor at college as an example of forced perspective. After learning a little about this technique, I was unable to figure out how some of the shots in the film were made. They involved depicting the main character normal size, with other full size actors depicted as being very small in comparison. I figured out a few of the instances of this, but the dancing scene at the bottom of the well (picture) blew my mind. The plot and characters held my interest and the production value was pretty decent for the date. I think that it being a Disney film led to good equipment and use of it to make clear audio and video recordings. The style was very much of the time, with that Disney fantasy element included. Pacing was pretty regular and kept at a decent clip throughout the duration. I'm rating this good because of the special effects techniques involved in making it. Knowing about video production helps when watching this.
